On Monday, President Donald Trump nominated former congressional candidate Joe Kent of Washington to serve as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Trump pointed to Kent's extensive experience, noting his service in the military as well as his career in intelligence. Kent also ran for Congress in Washington's 3rd District in 2022 and in 2024, although he was narrowly defeated by Democratic incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
'Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard.'
"As a Soldier, Green Beret, and CIA Officer, Joe has hunted down terrorists and criminals his entire adult life," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "Above all, Joe knows the terrible cost of terrorism, losing his wonderful wife, Shannon, a Great American Hero, who was killed in the fight against ISIS. Joe continues to honor her legacy by staying in the fight. Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard."
"Thank you President Trump!" Kent replied in an X post. "It’s an honor to serve our nation again, time to keep our nation safe & strong!"
Like many of Trump's nominees, Kent will be subject to Senate confirmation. If confirmed, Kent would lead the NCTC, which was founded in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In his role, he would answer to the director of national intelligence. Trump has nominated Tulsi Gabbard for DNI.
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Syrians across Europe rejoiced at the news of Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in December. Crowds filled the streets of Paris, celebrating the downfall of a dictator who ruled Syria with an iron fist and killed thousands of opponents. In Germany, migrants — many with faces painted in their host country’s colors — sang in support of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist rebels who ended the Assad family’s five-decade rule. Car horns in Berlin, home to Europe’s largest Syrian diaspora, drowned out chants of “free at last.”
In Damascus, a similar scene unfolded. Residents tied a fallen statue of former President Hafez al-Assad to a truck and dragged it through the streets. Yet this collective euphoria remains an illusion. Behind carefully crafted media spectacles of controlled spontaneity, thousands of Syrian Christians live in fear, weighing whether to flee the country to save their lives.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad marks the end of a brutal era. But the jihadist rebels who toppled him warrant extreme caution.
Syria has one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, dating to the first century. According to tradition, the apostle Paul converted on the road to Damascus, and Christians in the remote mountain village of Ma’lula still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Before the Muslim conquest of the Levant and the establishment of Islam in the seventh century, Christians made up roughly 80% of Syria’s population.
Determining the exact number of Christians in Syria is difficult. The country has not conducted a census in more than 60 years. Before the civil war, estimates suggested Christians made up about 10% of Syria’s 22 million people. That number has dropped significantly due to Islamic terrorism, violence, persecution, and forced expulsions. Only a few hundred thousand Christians are believed to remain.
Since taking control on Dec. 8, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham spokesmen have claimed they will protect Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities. Their statement came just weeks before Christmas, the most significant holiday in the Christian calendar. On Christmas Eve, footage posted to social media showed masked individuals setting fire to a large Christmas tree in the main square of Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in central Syria.
When Syria's civil war began, Christians were not initially targeted. In April 2013, however, armed militants kidnapped and murdered two prominent Christian leaders — Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syrian Orthodox Church and Bishop Boulos Yaziji of the Greek Orthodox Church. While the exact motives remain unknown, reports suggest the al-Nusra Front was responsible.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad marks the end of a brutal era. The “Butcher of Damascus” ruled with bloodshed, and few will mourn his downfall. But the jihadist rebels who toppled him warrant extreme caution.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s current leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, previously served as an emir of the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate. The group openly declared its goal of transforming Syria into an Islamic state governed by Sharia law. When Islamist forces take control of a region, Christians typically face three choices: convert to Islam, accept dhimmitude — a subordinate status that, if violated, can result in death — or face execution. In some cases, rulers allow exile as an alternative.
In 2013, the U.S. State Department designated Julani as a “specially designated global terrorist” with a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. Nevertheless, Western foreign policy often operates under the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Many Western elites, eager to celebrate Bashar al-Assad’s downfall, have tacitly approved of HTS. Former British intelligence chief Sir John Sawers even referred to HTS as “a liberation movement.”
Since seizing power, Julani has undergone a media rebrand. Now known as Ahmed al-Sharaa, he appears in blazers instead of combat fatigues. CNN and other outlets present him as a transformed figure, as if trading a militant’s uniform for a suit instantly converts a radical Islamic terrorist into a peaceful revolutionary. The BBC refers to this shift as “moderate jihad.” As long as HTS pledges to form an “inclusive” government, the United Nations is considering removing it from its list of banned terrorist organizations.
This narrative is absurd. Julani is nothing if not a media-savvy jihadist. His past is well documented — he was a member of al-Qaeda and ISIS, mentored by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of ISIS. He founded the al-Nusra Front, pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, swore an oath to Osama bin Laden, and was radicalized by the events of 9/11.
Yet his makeover appears to be working. Western leaders and media figures suggest that swapping battlefield fatigues for tailored suits and parroting liberal talking points absolve him of his past. By courting sympathetic Western governments, HTS aims to gain ideological influence and establish itself as a legitimate force in Syria’s political landscape.
When al-Julani promises to protect the “rights” of minorities based on law, he is referring to the “rights” granted to dhimmis under Sharia law. This is what happened in 2015 when ISIS forced Syrian Christians to convert to Islam or sign a dhimmi contract.
Under HTS, Syrian Christians face a bleak future.
Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard continues to face an uphill battle to secure her confirmation as America's top intelligence chief. Although there are apparently a handful of antagonists in the GOP looking to spike her candidacy, Democrats are doing all the heavy lifting, especially when it comes to characterizing Gabbard as a toady for subversive and adversarial forces.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) tried to do his part Thursday, accusing Gabbard of repeating "Russian talking points" about the Obama administration's material support for Islamic terrorists in Syria. Gabbard made Kelly regret his line of attack with a short history lesson, revealing why her previous statements were as factual as they were damning.
"When Russia was denying [former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's] use of chemical weapons, they accused the U.S. of supporting terrorists," said Kelly. "This is a line Putin used frequently during the Syrian civil war as he supported Assad."
Following in the footsteps of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who previously painted Gabbard as a Kremlin sympathizer, Kelly noted further, "In 2016, you said, 'The U.S. is providing direct and indirect support to terrorist groups in order to overthrow the Syrian government.'"
At the time, Gabbard also noted, "The U.S. government has been violating this law for years by quietly supporting allies, partners, individuals, and groups who are working directly with Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham [an offshoot of the Al-Qaeda group Al-Nusrah Front], and other terrorist groups by providing them with money, weapons, and intelligence support in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government."
— (@)
"I am interested to hear, what was your goal in saying these things?" continued Kelly. "Did you consider, before saying them, that Iran and Russia, what their motives may have been making these claims?"
Gabbard noted that she joined the military "specifically because of Al-Qaeda's terrorist attack on 9/11" and committed her life to defeating the terrorist organization, only to later learn as a member of Congress that former President Barack Obama, in an effort to overthrow Assad, "was working with, arming, and equipping Al-Qaeda in an effort to overthrow that regime, starting yet another regime change war in the Middle East."
President Donald Trump's pick for director of national intelligence referenced the CIA's Timber Sycamore program as well as the Pentagon's covert Syrian Train and Equip Program, which were both launched by the Obama administration in hopes of facilitating the fall of the Assad regime.
Under the code name Timber Sycamore, the Obama CIA began directly arming Islamic terrorists in early 2013. CIA paramilitary operatives reportedly also trained the so-called rebels to use automatic rifles, mortars, antitank guided missiles, and other weapons. The program had a price tag of over $1 billion and resembled in some ways the agency's training of the mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
According to the New York Times, some of the weapons shipped to Jordan intended for so-called rebels made their way to the black market and were ultimately used to kill Americans. Weapons supplied under the Timber Sycamore program also made their way into the hands of Al-Nusrah Front terrorists, who fought alongside the CIA-backed militants.
'Every American deserves to know that people in our own government were providing support to our sworn enemy Al-Qaeda.'
The National Counterterrorism Center noted that the Al-Nusrah Front announced its intention to overthrow Assad in 2012, then "mounted hundreds of insurgent-style and suicide attacks against regime and security service targets across the country. The group is committed not only to ousting the regime, but also seeks to expand its reach regionally and globally." The group that Obama indirectly armed was accused of various atrocities, including the massacre of Druze villagers.
Trump ended Timber Sycamore in 2017, calling the payments to so-called rebels "massive, dangerous, and wasteful," and noting that many of the CIA-supplied weapons ended up in the hands of Al-Qaeda.
Gabbard noted that "the Department of Defense's Train and Equip program, also under President Obama, has been widely known, looked at, and studied, and resulted in over half a billion dollars being used to train what they called 'moderate rebels.' But in reality, they were fighters working with and aligned with Al-Qaeda's affiliate on the ground in Syria all to move forward with their regime change."
Gabbard, doubling down on remarks Kelly apparently found troubling, suggested that the Obama administration ignored "the obvious and now proven reality: much like in Iraq, the toppling of Gaddafi in Libya, and Mubarak in Egypt, a regime change war in Syria would likely result in the rise of Islamist extremists like Al-Qaeda taking power."
Stressing that she "shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime," Trump's nominee stressed that "today we have an Islamist extremist in charge of Syria — someone who danced in the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attack; who ruled over Idlib with an Islamist extremist governance; and who has already begun to persecute, kill, and arrest religious minorities, including Christians in Syria."
The current interim president of Syria, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, is a terrorist who up until recently had a $10 million State Department bounty on his head and used to lead the Al-Nusrah Front, which benefited from Timber Sycamore.
"Why that should be acceptable to anyone is beyond me," added Gabbard.
After his question blew up in his face, Kelly tried once more to suggest that Gabbard has a "tendency to repeat Russian and Syrian — and, in some cases, even Iranian — information," prompting Trump's nominee to answer back with a showstopper: "Every American deserves to know that people in our own government were providing support to our sworn enemy Al-Qaeda."
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Donald Trump is aggressively enforcing America’s border and immigration laws after four years of chaos under Joe Biden. As part of his push to secure our country, the president has designated criminal Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
This classification is long overdue. Drug overdoses killed more than 80,000 Americans in 2024 alone, many caused by synthetic opioids manufactured and smuggled through our southern border by Mexican cartels. That’s more American deaths than through the course of the entire Vietnam War.
There is nothing old-fashioned about using asymmetric warfare to dispatch terrorist cells — and there is no concern greater than protecting our citizens.
The cartels are responsible for murder and crime in cities across America, as well as untold human suffering by the illegal immigrants they help traffic into our country, with women and children often enduring horrendous sexual assault and abuse along the way. These criminal syndicates deserve utter destruction.
To assist in this mission, Congress should consider hiring a few pirates. Or, more precisely, privateers. Let me explain.
Letters of marque and reprisal are government-issued commissions that authorize private citizens (privateers) to perform acts that would otherwise be considered piracy, like attacking and looting ships, as long as they belong to a certain enemy. Privateers are typically rewarded with a cut of the loot they “bring home.”
The U.S. Constitution authorizes these commissions in Article I, Section 8, giving Congress the power “to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” This was especially useful when the United States was newly born and lacked a large standing army and navy. In fact, the Continental Congress authorized privateering against British ships during our War of Independence.
While Congress hasn’t issued a letter of marque in a very long time, it retains the authority to do so. While tall ships no longer exchange broadsides, deputizing private entities to destroy criminal organizations and seize their assets remains a viable strategy in certain scenarios.
Indeed, certain high-profile patriots have already volunteered for the task.
Using letters of marque could be a novel but effective response to unique threats posed by drug cartels — especially if cartels continue to shoot at Border Patrol agents, shoot and rob hikers on American soil, or otherwise interfere with border security and the repatriation of illegal immigrants.
Congress could issue letters of marque and reprisal authorizing private security firms or specially trained civilians to intercept cartel operations, particularly those involving drug shipments or human trafficking across borders. They could focus on disrupting supply lines, capturing high-value targets, or seizing assets like boats, vehicles, cash, gold, or equipment used in criminal activities.
There are some advantages to this course of action. Private entities operate with more agility than the government, adapting quickly to the tactics of cartels. It would also reduce the financial burden on taxpayers and indeed could add to the public coffers, as privateers receive only a cut of the resources that they recover and return the rest to the United States.
Using private security firms to wipe up non-state actors like the cartels — something we did to great effect against terrorist groups in the Middle East, including ISIS — also avoids putting the U.S. military in direct conflict with the Mexican government. If we can eliminate this violent criminal scourge upon the continent without invading our neighbor, so much the better.
There will be naysayers, of course, who dismiss using letters of marque because it sounds old-fashioned or because they defer more to “international law” than to the best interests of America and her people. But there is nothing old-fashioned about using asymmetric warfare to dispatch terrorist cells — and there is no concern greater than protecting our citizens, especially from deadly threats that Mexico has been unwilling or unable to contain.
Letters of marque and reprisal remain a valuable tool at our disposal to destroy America’s enemies. The cartels are enemies that need to be destroyed. Congress shouldn’t rule out hoisting the Jolly Roger.
Nigeria is a youthful, fast-growing country with an estimated population of over 235 million. According to the CIA Worldbook's 2018 estimate, roughly 53.5% of the Nigerian population is Muslim and roughly 45.9% of the population is Christian — 10.6% of which is Roman Catholic.
While Nigeria is now home to around 100 million Christians — the sixth-largest Christian population in the world as of 2019 — numbers have proven no guarantee of protection for the faithful against intense persecution, especially not from the jihadist groups hell-bent on totally transforming Nigeria into an Islamist nation. This persecution takes various forms, one of which is kidnapping.
Although the former British colony sees millions of kidnappings every year, it is clear that many are religiously and/or ideologically motivated, especially when it comes to the persistent abductions of priests.
Nigeria is plagued by Islamic terrorists and gangs, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated outfit Ansaru, Islamic State of West African Province, and the terrorist group Boko Haram, which has reportedly killed over an estimated 36,000 people over the past two decades.
Some academics have warned against similarly recognizing elements of the deadlier, mass-killing Fulani herder-militant groups as religiously motivated terrorists, and others have suggested their attacks are instead economically or climate-driven. However, Nigerian Christians such as Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi recognize that the Fulani herders' apparent systematic killing of Christians also has "a motive of religion behind it."
Bishop Anagbe said in 2021, "The Fulani killers are Muslims, and the conquering of territory is paramount to large Muslim populations in Nigeria."
'I classify them as terrorists now.'
Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern and a leading expert on religious persecution, told Blaze News that like Boko Haram, the Fulani militants, a group of traditionally nomadic cattle herders seeking greater grazing lands for their livestock, "are also driven by Islam's practice of using violence to subjugate territories to Islam. In fact, the Fulanis are the driving force behind radical Islam's massive land-grab of a huge swath of Africa known as the Sahel. They are motivated by a desire to rebuild a caliphate they had built in the 1700s and 1800s."
Christians in the region have long suffered the savagery of these Muslim groups.
For instance, on July 19, 2024, Islamic Fulani militants reportedly dragged Christians out of their homes in Benue State and shot them, leaving 18 dead and many more wounded, reported ICN.
"I no longer call them bandits because I'm seeing elements of terrorism in their activities," Justine Shaku, the chairman of the local Katsina Ala government, said in a statement. "I classify them as terrorists now."
'Gaza and Ukraine are deadly, but if you're a Christian, the most likely place in the world to be hunted and killed is Nigeria.'
Muslim Fulani militants also massacred hundreds of Christians in over 160 villages on Christmas 2023, burning down eight churches in the process.
On June 5, 2022, terrorists later identified by the Nigerian government as members of ISIS-West Africa stormed into St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the southwestern city of Owo, where parishioners were celebrating Pentecost Sunday. The terrorists slaughtered at least 41 parishioners, including children — some reports indicated more than 80 victims killed in the church — and brutally injured scores of others.
Mark Hill, a visiting professor of law and distinguished fellow at the University of Notre Dame, and Thomas Hellenbrand of the Society of Jesus noted in a 2022 paper that violence between Nigeria's religious and ethnic groups has worsened over the past two decades "due in part to the enlargement of the jurisdiction of Sharia Courts of Appeal in twelve Nigerian states after 1999, which have allowed the courts to handle Islamic criminal law, and are generally considered better run than their civil equivalents."
"Islamic jihadists in the north have attempted to use Sharia law to mobilize Muslims against minority Christian communities, notwithstanding the long-standing peaceful coexistence of indigenous Christian minorities in states such as Kano, Jihawa, Katsina, Zamfara, and Kebbi."
The Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors now ranks Nigeria as the sixth-worst place for Christians in the world:
More believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria each year than everywhere else in the world combined. The attacks are often brutal in nature and can involve destruction of properties, abductions for ransom, sexual violence and death. Believers are stripped of their livelihoods and driven from their homes, leaving a trail of grief and trauma. Violence by Islamic extremist groups such as Fulani militants, Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State in West African Province) increased during the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari, putting Nigeria at the epicenter of targeted violence against the church. The government's failure to protect Christians and punish perpetrators has only strengthened the militants' influence.
Ryan Brown, the CEO of Open Doors US, said in a statement to Blaze News, "More believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world."
Mindy Belz, an American journalist who has covered wars in Africa and the Middle East, emphasized the gravity of the situation last year in the Wall Street Journal, writing, "Gaza and Ukraine are deadly, but if you're a Christian, the most likely place in the world to be hunted and killed is Nigeria — a diverse country with a constitutional federal government and one of Africa's largest economies."
Despite their apparent bloodthirst, some Islamic terrorists and gangs have realized that victims are more valuable alive.
While groups like Boko Haram may still partially fund their operations through illegal mining, holding priests and seminarians captive now serves as an additional revenue stream as well a strategic means of disrupting Christian communities.
The Catholic Church, a popular target for extremists in the region, does not officially pay ransoms as a matter of policy; however, parishioners and others in the church routinely front the cash to spring the abducted church personnel, saving lives on the one hand but risking perpetuating the cycle of victimization on the other.
Maria Lozano, press director at the pastoral Catholic aid organization Aid to the Church in Need International, told Blaze News that "if ransoms are paid, it is usually because the parishioners, some financially well off faithful, and the families have collectively gathered the requested funds."
BishopMatthew Hassan Kukah of Nigeria's Sokota Diocese admitted in 2023 to shelling out roughly $37,200 to rescue church personnel from kidnappers.
"Many things have happened to us in Sokoto. We have had our churches burned down, the killing of Deborah Emmanuel [a Nigerian Christian student who was stoned to death by a Muslim mob], our cathedral was almost burned down, and my priests were almost killed," Kukah told ACI Africa. "I have lost a seminarian, I've lost a priest; we have spent over 30 million naira which we don't have to rescue our pastoral agents from kidnappers."
In the past several months alone, there have been numerous abductions, including:
The radicals who target priests and seminarians sometimes butcher their victims. For instance, Fr. Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo, a 38-year-old priest and pharmacist, was reportedly murdered on Dec. 26, 2024.
The previous year, Fr. Isaac Achi was burned alive by Islamic terrorists.
Crux reported that two years after jihadists bombed his church in Madalla on Christmas Day, killing 44 parishioners, Achi was kidnapped by militants. Although he survived, years later, Islamic gunmen would once again storm into his church, this time Saints Peter and Paul Church in Niger State, yelling, "Allahu Akbar." The gunmen in the deadly January 2023 attack held Achi and another priest, Fr. Collins Omeh, at gunpoint. After Achi urged his fellow priest to escape, both priests were shot, but Omeh still managed to get away. Angered by the turn of events and Achi's heroism, the gunmen set fire to the rectory, leaving the wounded priest to die in the inferno.
"It's got to a point where out of ten [priests] in Nigeria, four are at risk of being kidnapped," Nigerian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi told the Tablet in June. "Out of that four, one or two are at high risk of being killed in captivity."
Blaze News reached out to various Nigerian Catholic dioceses impacted by the kidnappings for comment, including the Archdioceses of Abuja and Lagos and the Dioceses of Auchi, Awka, Minna, and Wukari, but did not receive responses by deadline.
King told Blaze News that "these abductions are often used to spread fear, fund further terror activity, or force conversions, targeting Christian communities to undermine their stability and presence."
"There is substantial evidence that clergymen and seminarians in Nigeria are specifically targeted due to their Christian faith and their potential deep pockets," continued King. "This targeting is part of a broader strategy by groups like Boko Haram and Fulani Islamist militants to eliminate Christian influence, as noted by the systematic attacks on churches and church leaders."
Lozano noted that priests and religious sisters are also prime targets because they "don't hesitate to be present in places that many people avoid working on."
"Priests are frequently abducted in areas affected by conflict, extremism, or political instability, where they may be seen as representatives of a specific faith or because they are considered easy targets," added Lozano.
Just as with the broader persecution of Christians in the region, religion appears to be a major factor when it comes to the abductions, though Lozano noted there are other factors at play.
Catholic priests and seminarians are often targeted because of their faith, particularly by Islamic extremists. However, it's important to understand the broader dynamics in Nigeria. We must differentiate between regions such as the Middle Belt, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Benin, and Lagos, as the motivations behind these attacks can vary. In some cases, priests are targeted directly because of their faith, while in others, the primary motive may be linked to the general lawlessness and insecurity in the region. There are economic kidnappings perpetrated by criminals who are only looking for quick money. Kidnapping has become a business in many cases. However, priests and seminarians are vulnerable in all cases due to their commitment to serve.
Archbishop Kaigama of Abuja similarly suggested to ACN in 2021 — after Bishop Moses Chikwe of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri was kidnapped by armed bandits — that while there were criminals undertaking abductions for "quick money," there were also Islamists seeking to "conquer those they consider infidels, and Christians are number one on their list."
Umeagbalasi noted that priest kidnappings in the north of the country are usually conducted by jihadists "in furtherance of their quest to Islamize Nigeria. Those who kidnap priests in the eastern part of the country are out for ransom payments."
'The Islamist deep state in Nigeria is aiding and abetting a stealth jihad.'
Archbishop Kaigama noted that the kidnapping situation is "a disease that is spreading without any significant effort being made to stop it." While the kidnapping of religious leaders amounted to an escalation and "big news," Kaigama noted that multitudes of other Nigerians are suffering the same fates: "They are what I would call silent victims, and there are many of them."
According to the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey released by Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics in December, over 2.2 million Nigerians were kidnapped between May 2023 and April 2024. Among the households that suffered kidnapping incidents, 65% reportedly paid a ransom. The survey indicated that Nigerians paid over $1.42 billion at the current exchange rate as ransom during that time period.
While the Catholic Church reportedly invests heavily in prevention measures as well as in training priests and nuns on how to deal with these frequently occurring hostilities, Lozano indicated that "governments must invest in improving law enforcement capabilities, especially in regions where abductions are most prevalent."
Extra to training police, improving resources for intelligence gathering, reinforcing border patrol to curb human trafficking across state lines, and promoting religious dialogue, Lozano suggested that the influence of extremist groups and criminal organizations can be reduced by “tackling poverty, fighting corruption, and promoting economic development."
When asked whether Nigeria's federal government and law enforcement have done enough to help victims and to protect Catholics in the country, Lozano noted that the response has "been criticized for being insufficient. Catholics and Nigerians, in general, do not feel that they are being well protected."
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom indicated in its 2024 annual report that the government not only failed to prevent attacks against Christians and churches but has faced accusations of actually fomenting certain attacks.
King told Blaze News, "The Nigerian government has done nothing for two decades despite the approximately 100,000 Christians killed and 3.5 million Christian farmers and families displaced. Perpetrators are very rarely engaged or chased down by the military. In fact, many report that the military has cordoned off Christian areas for attackers to enter. In the very rare instances where we see a quick military response [it] is when Christians have responded to attackers with gunfire."
"To be very frank and impolitic, the simple and obvious truth is that the Islamist deep state in Nigeria is aiding and abetting a stealth jihad and slow-moving genocide against Christians in Nigeria," said King. "Until the international community (especially the U.S.) cries foul and says 'no more,' it will continue. President Trump will hopefully lead the way."
Trump stated in an October post on Truth Social, "When I am President, I will protect persecuted Christians."
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) echoed Trump on Oct. 23, writing, "The United States should fight against the persecution of Christians all over the world, and it will when President Trump is back in the White House."
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended in its latest report that the the U.S. government "designate Nigeria as a 'country of particular concern,' or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom." The Biden State Department previously dropped the country's CPC designation.
The USCIRF also recommended that Congress ask the Government Accountability Office to investigate the effectiveness of American aid to Nigeria in achieving religious freedom objectives in the country.
When asked about what the faithful at home can do, King and Lozano both emphasized the importance of prayer, advocacy, and financial support.
"Nigeria needs our prayers, but it also requires our support, both financial and advocacy," said Lozano. "People can raise awareness about the situation in Nigeria. Sharing information about the persecution of Catholics and other religious minorities helps to bring global attention to the crisis, which can, in turn, lead to greater support from international communities. It is good to advocate for Nigeria by urging governments, international organizations, and institutions to take a stronger stance against religious persecution. This includes urging for diplomatic pressure, greater law enforcement, and the protection of religious freedoms in Nigeria."
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The Jan. 1 atrocity in New Orleans, carried out by an ISIS sympathizer who plowed a vehicle into a Bourbon Street crowd, killed at least 14 pedestrians and wounded dozens more. The attack reminded me of a recent post on the Chronicles website, where regular columnist Tom Piatak explained why “Americans voted against suicide” by re-electing Donald Trump.
Piatak argued that if Trump had not won, the country would have leaped from the frying pan into the fire, trading the so-called “senile tool of the woke left” still in the Oval Office for an even more leftist Kamala Harris. Both President Joe Biden and Harris appeared comfortable with their party’s open-borders policy, aimed at creating a permanent Democratic majority by allowing waves of illegal immigrants to cross the border. Piatak questioned why a newly elected Democratic president would abandon that policy. Harris not only embraced the estimated 10 million to 12 million unidentified and unvetted illegal aliens who entered the country, she celebrated them.
It is impossible to dissociate this terrorist act from the Democrats’ policy on illegal immigration and the accompanying cultural radicalism unleashed by the American left.
Kamala Harris and her party believe we should stop calling illegal aliens what they plainly are, provide them with homes and money, and even offer “sex reassignment” for those undocumented residents who request it. The fact that this immense population includes in its ranks drug hustlers, violent gangs, and Islamist terrorists should matter less to us than their enriching presence as we work to overcome our “systemic racist” past.
When asked about the New Orleans attack, FBI officials waited hours before using the word “terrorist” to describe what happened. After all, the Biden-Harris administration has applied that term to “truly evil people” such as anti-abortion demonstrators and parents in Northern Virginia who objected to trans-themed instruction in public schools. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has complained that whenever he raises terrorism with the White House, he is lectured on “racially motivated extremism.”
Allow me to adapt my colleague’s argument: Not all Americans voted against suicide — more than 75 million supported it, in fact. Donald Trump won this pivotal election by fewer than 2 million votes, which means almost half of the electorate was willing to grant another mandate to a leadership that opened our borders to more terrorism, along with countless murders and rapes.
Some may object that the New Orleans attacker was, as Biden emphasized, “an American citizen.” Legacy media outlets note that he was “American-born,” implying that this detail outweighs his Islamist fervor or the copy of the Quran in his Houston home, opened to a page calling for the slaying of Allah’s enemies. They want us to believe he represents an indigenous problem, unrelated to the broader cultural shifts accelerated by Biden’s immigration policy. The Washington Post berated Trump for even hinting at a connection between the crime and immigration.
Yet it is impossible to dissociate this terrorist act from the Democratic Party’s policy on illegal immigration and the accompanying cultural radicalism unleashed by the American left. The Islamic fundamentalism that the New Orleans mass murderer absorbed has become increasingly common in this country with both the importation of Muslim extremists and the anti-Western indoctrination in our institutions of learning. As mass rallies for Hamas terrorists become alarmingly commonplace in our cities, we might note that what influenced the terrorist’s mindset is becoming more and more acceptable in our transformed country.
Stressing the killer’s “mother-and-apple-pie” American identity bolsters one leftist claim: that those crossing the southern border illegally are somehow superior to the citizens who have lived here for generations. These newcomers are deemed free of the “Christian, white racist” baggage critics assign to earlier arrivals, so we should therefore value their salvific arrival.
In 2024, New York City’s government published a report it called “factual,” asserting that undocumented immigrants provided an enormous benefit — particularly when they supposedly saved “our largest asylum city” after COVID-19 struck, rescuing it from a looming financial crisis. That seems dubious, considering the federal aid poured into food, shelter, and living expenses for these unwelcome intruders. It also excludes the government-funded travel to whichever destination they preferred, as well as the social and financial toll of crimes they committed.
But if it’s true, as our cultural elites tell us, that the newcomers are even more beneficial than older residents, then the New Orleans terrorist may be the living proof of that. Consistent with the leftist narrative, it took someone born in this racist, morally defective country to have acted as badly as he did.
The College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl was originally scheduled to take place in New Orleans on New Year's Day; however, the city was rocked in the early hours by an apparent Islamic terrorist attack.
Now-deceased terror suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, allegedly drove a rented truck through a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, claiming the lives of at least 15 victims. Police were ultimately able to neutralize the driver, who was reportedly found with a "remote detonator" for explosives discovered in the French Quarter.
The Sugar Bowl was finally held on Thursday and attended by roughly 57,000 defiant football fans. While the day's big winners were the American spirit, which jihadists have repeatedly proven unable to dampen, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who crushed the Georgia Bulldogs with the help of a 98-yard kick return, the big loser appears to have been the game's title sponsor, Allstate.
During the game, Allstate ran a promotional video wherein the company's president and CEO Tom Wilson used the New Orleans massacre as an opportunity to lecture Americans — including those who just lost loved ones as the result of an imported ideology — about "divisiveness." The video, which was swiftly met with widespread contempt and ridicule, prompted some critics to take a closer look at the kind of corporate culture that would have informed the decision to make such a statement at such a time.
"Welcome to the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Wednesday, tragedy struck the New Orleans community. Our prayers are with the victims and the families," said Wilson. "We also need to be stronger together by overcoming an addiction to divisiveness and negativity."
Wilson invited football fans to help his company "amplify the positive, increase trust, and accept people's imperfections and differences. Together, we win."
'To normal people this sounds like Allstate giving cover to an ISIS terrorist.'
BlazeTV host Steve Deace tweeted, "Still can't believe a venerable American company like Allstate sent its CEO on national television to lecture victims of terrorism about divisiveness. It's like a @TheBabylonBee parody of woke corporatism comes to life."
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote, "This is crazy by Allstate. Maybe — and hear me out here — we should all agree that terrorism will not be tolerated in the United States."
"Wtf is wrong with this guy," wrote Elon Musk.
Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist, noted, "Time to cancel Allstate. Do you really want an insurance company that talks about murder and terrorism this way?"
Numerous commentators online shared a 2016 tweet from the late comedian Norm Macdonald where he wrote, "What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?"
Robby Starbuck, a normalcy advocate who has campaigned against the corporate embrace of DEI, wrote, "Only major companies somehow get this out of touch with society. To normal people this sounds like Allstate giving cover to an ISIS terrorist as if he wouldn't have killed those people if we all accepted his backwards ideology. This is the definition of suicidal empathy."
Libs of TikTok and other critics highlighted the company's woke policies in an apparent effort to figure out whether Wilson's statement was an aberration or par for the course, demonstrating it to have clearly been the latter.
The company notes on its website that DEI "is a core value at Allstate."
Wilson is a signatory of the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge — the aim of which is to "rally the business community to advance diversity & inclusion within the workplace by working collectively across organizations and sectors." Extra to maximizing "diversity," Wilson and other signatories pledged to "address honestly and head-on the concerns and needs of our diverse employees and increase equity for all, including Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, LGBTQ, disabled, veterans and women."
In its 2023 annual report, Allstate boasted about employing fewer white men on its management team, stating, "Inclusive Diversity and Equity is core to success and while more progress is needed, Allstate continues to lead. In the U.S., 56% of the management team and 48% of the company's officers identify as female or BIPOC, both of which increased from the prior year."
Allstate's racial obsession is manifest also in its voting roadmap concerning directors, where the presence of white men is the measure against which progress is apparently marked. Under the section in the annual report on board governance, Allstate notes, "Diversity, including race, gender, ethnicity and culture, are also important factors in consideration of Board composition."
The company has also secured a perfect score in recent years with the radical LGBT activist group Human Rights Campaign, in part by providing multiple LGBT training elements, including an "intersectionality training"; providing sex-change guidelines and at least one inclusion policy for cross-dressing employees; having either an LGBT employee resource group or non-straight diversity council; and engaging in LGBT activism.
Facing incredible backlash, the company told Fox News Digital, "To be clear, Allstate CEO Tom Wilson unequivocally condemns this heinous act of terrorism and violence in all forms. We stand with the families of the victims, their loved ones and the community of New Orleans. The reference to overcoming divisiveness and negativity reflects a broader commitment to fostering trust and positivity in communities across the nation."
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Senators are obviously trying to figure out how to sink Gabbard's nomination before her scheduled hearing on Jan. 30.
America’s enemies know the dynamic changes on Jan. 20 when Donald Trump walks back into the Oval Office.
thefederalist.com