"Let’s Support All The People of Syria: Minority Rights Key To Swift Regime Change"
By John Eibner - April 11, 2012
American calls for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are becoming increasingly shrill and tinged with exasperation. Washington’s huffing and puffing has so far failed to blow the House of Assad down.
In the absence of UN Security Council backing, Washington has engineered a bewildering coalition of the willing to depose Assad. It is institutionalized in the so-called “Friends of Syria” contact group. The partners include western allies like Britain and France, and the Muslim regional powers Turkey and Saudi Arabia – both Sunni states with deep democracy deficits.
Sunni terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida and Hamas, are also working for the demise of the Assad regime. Even Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has joined the chorus, saying the overthrow of Assad would be a “positive thing.”
"Goat: The gift that keeps giving"
By Ellen Ratner - April 1, 2012
"A Seder Among Former Slaves"
By Rabbi Joseph Polak - March 28, 2012
A few days before Passover last year, a student found me, a rabbi, doing some last-minute packing.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To the Sudan,” I replied.
A little silence followed, and then she said, “Oh, that’s that new bar in Cambridge, right?”
The destination for my wife and me was a medical compound — dark but for four standing low-lit lamps — very far from the opulence and innocence of America. There were grass huts, no running water, no refrigeration, only a small generator for powering a few light bulbs. A hut with a dividing wall served as toilet and “shower.” “Shower” means one can take the basin on the floor to a well in another courtyard, pump the water, carry it back to the shower hut, and pour it over one’s head.
We went to fulfill the call of the 117th Psalm: Hallelu et haShem kol Goyim: Let all nations praise the Lord, let all peoples celebrate Him…
"Daniel Pipes: Religious Persecution in Islamic Middle East "Acquiring Genocidal Characteristics"
By Daniel Pipes - March 9, 2012
Historian Daniel Pipes, the President of the Middle East Forum, warned yesterday at a CSI seminar in Bern, Switzerland, that the persecution of minorities in the Islamic Middle East is "acquiring genocidal characteristics."
The video of Pipes' 25-minute address on "Religious Minorities in an Increasingly Intolerant Middle East" can be viewed here.
Pipes stated that in medieval times, Islam was, "in relative terms, quite tolerant of religious minorities," despite occasional persecution and permanent second-class "dhimmi" status for conquered non-Muslims. However, during the past hundred years, he said, persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in the Islamic Middle East has become "more systematic," eventually leading to the destruction of the region's Jewish communities. Christians and other non-Muslim minorities are now also in danger of eradication.
"PIPES: South Sudan, Israel’s new ally"
Five decades of solidarity cement relations
By Daniel Pipes - January 3, 2012
It’s not every day that the leader of a brand-new country makes his maiden foreign voyage to Jerusalem, capital of the most besieged country in the world, but Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan, accompanied by his foreign and defense ministers, did just that in late December. Israeli President Shimon Peres hailed his visit as a “moving and historic moment.” The visit spurred talk of South Sudan locating its embassy in Jerusalem, which would make it the only government anywhere in the world to do so. This unusual development results from an unusual story.
Today’s Sudan took shape in the 19th century, when the Ottoman Empire controlled its northern regions and tried to conquer the southern ones. The British, ruling out of Cairo, established the outlines of the modern state in 1898 and for the next 50 years separately ruled the Muslim north and Christian-animist south. In 1948, however, succumbing to northern pressure, the British merged the two administrations in Khartoum under northern control, making Muslims dominant in Sudan and Arabic the official language. Accordingly, independence in 1956 brought civil war as southerners battled to fend off Muslim hegemony. Fortunately for them, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s “periphery strategy” translated into Israeli support for non-Arabs in the Middle East, including the southern Sudanese. The government of Israel served through the first Sudanese civil war, lasting until 1972, as the primary source of moral backing, diplomatic help and armaments for the southern Sudanese.
"After Arab Spring, danger arises for Christians"
By Jeff Jacoby - December 7, 2011
IN THE first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, the hard-line Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party won 36.6 percent of the vote and the even harder-line Salafist party, Al-Nour, won 24.4 percent.The Egyptian Bloc — a coalition of liberal, social-democratic, and secular parties — drew only 13.4 percent. So now we know what the “Spirit of Tahrir Square’’ looks like when it’s put to a vote: In the world’s largest Arab nation, the forces of sharia and jihad are winning in a landslide.
The credo of the Muslim Brotherhood is explicitly illiberal and theocratic: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.’’ Abdel Moneim el-Shahat, a Salafist sheik and Nour Party candidate, demands a society in which “sharia is obligatory’’— an Egypt, as he explained in a public debate, with “citizenship restricted by Islamic sharia, freedom restricted by Islamic sharia, equality restricted by Islamic sharia.’’
"Fox News covers Ellen Ratner and the 'Goats for the Old Goat"
By Fox News - November 22, 2011
Fox News covers the 'Goats for the Old Goat' campaign, which gives goats to freed slaves and impoverished families in South Sudan. Christian Solidarity International is implementing this program for our friends at GFTOG.
"CSI Urges President Obama: Help Free Blind Boy's Mother and Eradicate Slavery in Sudan"
CSI PRESS RELEASE - November 1, 2011
Today, Christian Solidarity International (CSI) urged President Obama to address the persistence of slavery in Northern Sudan. The appeal – conveyed in a letter from CSI-USA's CEO, Dr.John Eibner – follows testimony given to Congress by a former Southern Sudanese slave, Ker Aleu Deng, on October 4.
Ker was captured as an infant, and was taken, together with his mother, into slavery in Northern Sudan. Ker was liberated and repatriated to South Sudan through the efforts of CSI and Arab slave retrievers, but only after his master deliberately blinded him. Ker is receiving eye treatments in the U.S. His mother remains in captivity.
"RATNER: Ending Arab slavery"
By Ellen Ratner
Published on October 7, 2011
My life has been profoundly changed by a blind teenage boy. His name is Ker Deng. He belongs to the Dinka tribe in southern Sudan.
Arab raiders from northern Sudan enslaved Ker in his infancy. His mother later told him how they were captured and forced to leave their home in southern Sudan. Many of their relatives and neighbors, especially men, were killed. Homes were burned. Cows and goats were stolen. Ker and his mother were tied to a camel and taken to the north as booty of war.
"Freed Sudanese Slave Testifies to US Congressional Panel"
By Cindy Saine
Published on October 4, 2011
A U.S. congressional panel is highlighting the plight of an untold number of Southern Sudanese people still being held as slaves in northern Sudan after being kidnapped in their southern villages by Arab militiamen. 18-year-old Ker Deng, who was blinded by his slavemaster while in bondage in Sudan, is now free and told his powerful story on Capitol Hill.
Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey introduced a very special guest at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
"Ker Deng has suffered unspeakable treatment at the hands of people from the Republic of Sudan who kidnapped him and his mother and held them in slavery until very recently," said Smith.
"CSI Facilitates Liberation of 412 Sudanese Slaves"
CSI PRESS RELEASE - October 4, 2011
Christian Solidarity International Board Member Michele Clark testified on Capitol Hill today about the continued abuse of Coptic females in Egypt, a nation struggling to come together in the aftermath of this Spring's Arab revolution.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission, more formally known as The U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held today's hearing to examine the recent escalation of violence toward Coptic Christians in Egypt, as well as reports of disappearances, forced conversions and forced marriages of Coptic women and girls.
Clark, who also serves as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, told the Commission that there is no denying these reports.
"CSI Sheds Light on Abuse of Coptic Christian Women In Egypt"
CSI PRESS RELEASE - July 22, 2011
Ker Aleu Deng, a blind former slave liberated by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and its partners, testified today before Congress on the persistence of slavery in Sudan.
Addressing the members of the House Subcommittee for Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, Ker said, "From a time I can't remember until very recently, I slept with cattle and goats. ... Like them, I was property. But the animals weren't beaten every day. I was." Ker was frequently tortured and eventually blinded by his master. Ker, now a teenager, was released from slavery last year, but his mother, a victim of extreme violence, remained behind.
Ker begged the American people and government to find a way to free his mother and the other Southern Sudanese who remain in captivity in the north. "You are powerful men and women," he said. "Please, find some way to help."
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