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Post by Franciscan Media Saint Berard and Companions Saint of the Day for January 16 (d. January 16, 1220) Audio Player Saint Berard and Companions’ Story Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom caps all the other sacrifices. In 1219, with the blessing of Saint Francis, Berard left Italy with Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain, Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him. They tried preaching in Seville, then...

In 1479, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragón were united under the joint rule of the ‘Christian Monarchs’, Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabella of Castile. The inter-Christian rivalry that had crippled the Christian kingdoms’ war against the Muslims for the last hundred years was, supposedly, over. A shrinking economy within the Emirate of Granada and the erosion of their territory in the first half of the 15th century had fostered increased xenophobia amongst the Muslim population and a consequent lack of tolerance towards the few Christians that remained or visited the Emirate. This provided the Christian Monarchs with a religious...

Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed “criminal neglect” on the part of President Trump for her father tragically passing away due to the coronavirus. Omar (D-MN) made the harsh accusations during a conversation with MSNBC. “My father and over 300,000 people have lost their lives to Covid because of dangerous criminal neglect by Trump and his administration,” she said. Nur Omar Mohamed passed away in June due to “complications from Covid-19.” ... Omar also seemed to suggest the President and/or members of his administration should be “prosecuted” for those deaths, citing a memo released earlier in the week by House Majority Whip...

TUNIS (REUTERS) -Islamist militants kidnapped and beheaded a young shepherd in mountains in Tunisia near the border with Algeria on Sunday, security sources and residents said. Troops found the body of Okba Dhouibi after he had been seized by militants, the sources said. Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said that act would not go unpunished.

Last week, the long-awaited [UK] Home Office report into child grooming was finally published. Commissioned by former Home Secretary Sajid Javid, it was supposed to put the official spotlight on to one of the greatest scandals in British history – the systemic abuse of white working-class girls by Asian men. Instead, it was a whitewash. Literally. The sole definitive conclusion, cast amid a jumble of Civil Service sophistry, was that 'research has found that group-based CSE [child sexual exploitation] offenders are most commonly white'.

In October, Indonesian diplomats and Muslim clerics stepped off a plane in China. While the diplomats were there to finalize deals to ensure millions of doses reached Indonesian citizens, the clerics had a much different concern: Whether the COVID-19 vaccine was permissible for use under Islamic law. As companies race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and countries scramble to secure doses, questions about the use of pork products - banned by some religious groups - has raised concerns about the possibility of disrupted immunization campaigns. Pork-derived gelatin has been widely used as a stabilizer to ensure vaccines remain safe and...

Radical Islamists have killed at least 30 Christians, raped 10 young women and girls, and kidnapped fifteen others in a spate of recent attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Christian Post reported Wednesday. Between November 20 and December 3, jihadis carried out violent raids on five villages in North Kivu province, northeastern DRC. Armed with guns, machetes, clubs, swords, and axes, the Islamists surrounded churches in each of the five villages and proceeded to assault the Christians inside. “There was a throng of Christians flooding the streets in a helpless situation, as well as radical Muslim extremists...

My latest in PJ Media: https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-spencer/2020/11/28/california-isis-jihadi-stabs-four-in-university-classroom-university-blames-toxic-masculinity-n1179840 The FBI last Wednesday released new details about the case of Faisal Mohammad, who in November 2015, while he was a freshman at the University of California, Merced, entered a classroom and stabbed four people. It was already known back at the time of the attack that young Mohammad was a jihadi: The College Fix reported that he “was found to have an image of the ISIS flag, a handwritten manifesto with instructions on how to behead someone, and reminders to pray to Allah.” The new information that has just been released about the...

Indonesian security forces on Monday warned of further militant attacks, as they hunted for the remnants of a pro-Islamic State (Isis) group that killed four Christians in Central Sulawesi over the weekend, including one victim who was beheaded in an effort by the group to “sow terror” in society. The grisly deaths of the Salvation Army members in the western Sigi regency was carried out on Saturday by the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), a terrorist group based in the mountains of the neighbouring Poso regency. MIT leader Ali Kalora decapitated one of the victims as an act of vengeance against...

New Zealand Police have introduced a hijab into their official uniform to encourage more Muslim women to join. New recruit Constable Zeena Ali will become the first officer to wear the official hijab. A spokesperson said they aimed to create an "inclusive" service reflecting the country's "diverse community". Other forces such as the Metropolitan Police in London and Police Scotland offer the option of a uniform hijab. In the UK, the Metropolitan Police in London approved a uniform hijab in 2006 with Police Scotland following in 2016. In Australia, Maha Sukkar of Victoria Police wore a hijab in 2004.

Jerusalem (AFP) - - The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, hammered by US cuts, said Monday it lacks the funds to pay full November salaries but is confident President-elect Joe Biden's administration will restore support. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) "never recovered" from the total funding cut imposed by President Donald Trump in 2018, agency spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told AFP. Before Trump's cuts the US had been providing UNRWA $300 a year, roughly a third of its core annual budget. Alrifai said 2019 shortfalls were filled by additional support from...

LE PECQ, France - Police in France questioned four 10-year-olds who voiced support for the beheading of a schoolteacher and who said they would kill their own teacher if he lampooned Islam’s prophet, the government reported as the prime minister warned Saturday that Islamic extremists are recruiting in France with “ignorance and hate.” The children and their parents were detained and questioned for several hours Thursday by police in the Alpine town of Albertville, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize said. On Monday, when French schools held a nationwide minute of silence to honor the slain teacher, Samuel Paty, the children...

Kabul (AFP) - A former Afghan television presenter and two other civilians were killed in a Kabul bombing on Saturday, in an attack officials blamed on a group linked to the Taliban. Yama Siawash was killed when a bomb attached to his vehicle exploded near his home in the Afghan capital, police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz told journalists. Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the country's overall peace and reconciliation process, also said Siawash's murder targeted freedom of expression in Afghanistan. "This is an unforgivable and unforgettable crime," he said in a statement. "I am shocked at the killing of former Tolo News...

Another telling story about the Decline of the West that we briefly noted here: the French ambassador to Sweden, who bears an ancient French title of nobility, has declared that “France is a Muslim country” during an interview on Swedish television. The French Ambassador to Sweden, Etienne De Gonneville, was interviewed on the public channel SVT in the Agenda program. There, he was asked if there was a risk of conflict between France and the Muslim world following the beheading of Professor Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on October 16. “First of all: France is a Muslim country. Islam is...

Beatrice Stockli was kidnapped by Islamist extremists in Timbuktu, Mali, in January 2016. A Swiss missionary Beatrice Stöckli—kidnapped from Timbuktu, Mali in January 2016—was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists, in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali. ... The Swiss Foreign Ministry expressed its sorrow that Stöckli, a single woman in her late 40s, was “apparently killed by kidnappers of the Islamist terrorist organization Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslim (JNIM) about a month ago.”... .... the missionary settled in Timbuktu in 2000, working for a Swiss church,... The...

Latest video from Paul Joseph Watson on the knife attacks in Nice, France.

Boko Haram jihadists on Sunday killed 12 people and abducted seven others in a raid on a village near the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok, local sources said. Chibok is the scene of the mass kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in 2014 by Boko Haram which drew global outrage and international attention to the group. Fighters in six pickup trucks drove into Takulashi village on Sunday, 18 kilometres (12 miles) from Chibok, shooting residents and setting homes ablaze. “The terrorists killed 12 people, including two of our members who engaged them in a gunfight,” Abwaku Kabu, the leader of a local...

Russian police shot dead a 16-year-old boy as he attacked police with a knifeCredit: social media Vitaly Antipov threw petrol bombs at a police station in Kukmor in Eastern RussiaCredit: social media According to investigators, Vitaly Antipov had tried to set fire the police station in the town of Kukmor in Eastern Russia on Friday. The 16-year-old threw two Molotov cocktails at the station before stabbing an officer three times in the hip and arm. Another police officer fired warning shots into the air before being forced to open fire. Antipov was hit with six bullets after a dozen shots...

DUBAI - Thousands of Muslims, from Pakistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian territories, poured out of prayer services to join anti-France protests on Friday, as the French president’s vow to protect the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad continues to roil the Muslim world. Demonstrations in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad turned violent as some 2,000 people who tried to march toward the French Embassy were pushed back by police firing tear gas and beating protesters with batons. Crowds of Islamist activists hanged an effigy of French President Emmanuel Macron from a highway overpass after pounding it furiously with their shoes. Several...

Boko Haram fighters have killed a pregnant woman and five others in an attack in Damboa, Borno State. According to the civilian joint task force who confirmed the attack, 22 insurgents were killed while five soldiers died. The attack which reportedly took place on Sunday left seven others injured. The fighters stormed the town in seven gun trucks and 12 motorbikes and headed straight for the army base, residents said. Several Boko Haram fighters were also killed by Nigerian soldiers. “The army engaged the insurgents for hours after which the Boko Haram fighters ran away. The people that were killed...