LONDON’S DIRTY SECRET: HOW STOLEN REGIME FUNDS FLOW THROUGH THE UK

Britain cannot claim to confront the Iranian regime while simultaneously serving as a repository for its money.

By Emily Schrader

The United Kingdom likes to pretend it is still a defender of democracy and a leader in confronting authoritarian regimes. Yet when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Britain’s policies reveal a far more uncomfortable reality.

Despite years of warnings from security officials and lawmakers, the UK government has still failed to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, even after the European Union has done so. There are a litany of excuses offered as to why, but one possible factor is increasingly difficult to ignore: Islamic regime-linked wealth has become deeply embedded inside the British financial and property system.

Recent reporting illustrates just how extensive these connections may be. Investigations into the financial network surrounding the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have linked him to a series of luxury properties in London. Property records indicate that two high-end apartments in Kensington were purchased in 2014 and 2016 for roughly £50 million. The apartments are located just meters from the Israeli Embassy. The properties were reportedly registered through companies tied to Iranian businessman Ali Ansari, a longtime associate of regime elites who has since been sanctioned by the British government for his alleged role in helping finance activities linked to the IRGC.

**Too Close for Comfort**. Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei (left) reportedly owns two London apartments on same street as the Israeli embassy (right). Only 50 yards away, it enables easy surveillance, constituting a ‘serious security breach’.

Further reporting suggests these apartments may represent only a fraction of the assets connected to that network. Investigations have identified a broader web of London properties linked through intermediaries and shell companies, including homes on Hampstead’s Bishops Avenue, often called Billionaires’ Row. The combined value of these properties has been estimated in the hundreds of millions.

At the center of this network is Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and businessman who built a vast property empire across some of London’s most expensive neighborhoods. Yet by the time sanctions were imposed, many of the assets connected to his business network had already been absorbed into the British property market through offshore companies and complex ownership structures – something which works to the benefit of nefarious actors like the Supreme Leader.

The financial power surrounding the Supreme Leader’s office is enormous. A 2013 Reuters investigation estimated that Setad, the conglomerate controlled by the Supreme Leader and formally known as the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, oversees assets worth roughly $95 billion across industries including telecommunications, banking, pharmaceuticals, real estate, and energy holdings. Setad was originally created after the 1979 revolution to manage properties confiscated from Iranians who fled the country, including businesses and land seized from political opponents and religious minorities. Over time it evolved into a vast corporate empire operating largely outside public oversight and answering directly to the Supreme Leader’s office.

**Tentacles of Terror**. Iran’s new Supreme Leader’s London properties were reportedly registered through companies tied to Iranian businessman Ali Ansari (above) who has been sanctioned by the British government for his alleged role in helping finance activities linked to the IRGC.

Setad is only one component of the broader economic structure controlled by Iran’s ruling elite. Religious foundations known as bonyads, which also report directly to the Supreme Leader, control an estimated 10 to 20 percent of Iran’s economy. These organizations operate with minimal transparency and enjoy sweeping tax exemptions while managing massive portfolios of real estate, industrial assets, and financial investments.

Analysts have long viewed Mojtaba Khamenei as a key figure inside this financial and political network. For years he has been widely described by Iran experts as a power broker within the Supreme Leader’s office who maintains close ties with senior commanders of the IRGC. Together, the economic empires of Setad, the Bonyads, and IRGC-linked business networks control significant portions of Iran’s economy, creating a system where political authority and economic wealth are tightly intertwined.

The IRGC itself operates one of the largest economic empires in the Middle East. Analysts estimate that companies connected to the IRGC control between 20 and 40 percent of Iran’s economy, with holdings in construction, telecommunications, banking, energy, transportation, and shipping. The Guard’s massive engineering conglomerate, Khatam al Anbiya, has secured billions of dollars in infrastructure and energy contracts across the country. Because many of these businesses operate through private companies, front organizations, and intermediaries, the financial networks tied to the regime frequently extend far beyond Iran’s borders.

This financial ecosystem intersects with another vulnerability inside the British system. London’s real estate market has become one of the world’s most attractive destinations for opaque foreign capital. Transparency advocates have warned for years that Britain’s property sector functions as a global laundromat for politically exposed wealth. According to Transparency International, more than £5.6 billion in suspicious funds has been invested in UK property linked to corruption or politically exposed individuals.

A major reason for this vulnerability is the widespread use of offshore ownership structures. Prior to recent transparency reforms, roughly 90 percent of foreign-owned property in London was held through offshore shell companies registered in secrecy jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands or Panama. Even today, more than 90,000 properties across the United Kingdom remain owned through offshore entities, often making it extremely difficult to identify the ultimate beneficial owner. These structures have allowed politically connected elites from around the world, including figures linked to sanctioned regimes, to quietly park wealth in Britain’s property market.

Members of the Islamic Republic’s ruling families have also established personal and professional footholds in the United Kingdom. Hadi Larijani, the son of senior Iranian regime official Mohammad Javad Larijani, works as a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. Another Larijani family member, Zeinab Ardeshir Larijani, is listed in UK corporate filings as a director of British companies. The Larijani family is one of the most powerful political dynasties in the Islamic Republic. Several brothers have held top positions in the regime including speaker of parliament, head of the judiciary, and senior adviser roles to the Supreme Leader.

The contradiction is striking. While the Iranian regime arrests protesters, suppresses women’s rights, and funds militant proxies across the Middle East, relatives of senior officials appear able to live, work, and conduct business in Western countries including Britain.

This reality raises an uncomfortable question. If the UK government were to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization and aggressively dismantle the financial networks tied to the regime, what else, and who else, might be exposed inside Britain’s own economy?

For years, London has benefited from its role as a global financial hub. But that openness has also created vulnerabilities. The same system that attracts legitimate international investment has also provided opportunities for authoritarian elites to shield their wealth abroad.

Britain cannot claim to confront the Iranian regime while simultaneously serving as a repository for its money. If the UK is serious about countering Tehran’s destabilizing activities, it must begin by addressing the regime-linked financial networks operating within its own borders.

Until that happens, the message from London will remain painfully clear:

The Islamic Republic may be condemned in speeches and sanctions lists… but its money is still welcome.

About the writer:

Emily Schrader is an American-Israeli journalist, human rights activist, and the founder of the Iran Israel Alliance. She is an an anchor at ILTV News, and the host of Axis of Truth on JNS. Emily also is a cofounder of the Cyrus Strategic Fund, and she sits on the executive board of the Institute for Voices of Liberty, a think tank focused on European and American Iran policy, and has advised lawmakers across North America and Europe on Iran policy. In 2025, she released her first book, 10 Things Every Jew Should Know Before They Go To College and has lectured all over the world on the topic of rising antisemitism. Emily is the winner of the 2023 Nefesh b’Nefesh Bonei Zion award for outstanding immigrants to Israel, and in 2025, she was given the Women of Iron award by Chochmat Nashim for her dedication to women’s rights.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

IRANIAN WOMEN’S COURAGE MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Being a woman in Iran means enduring barbaric inhuman behavior in every facet of life.

By Marziyeh Amirizadeh

While we celebrated the International Women day on March 8^th, we must remember the many brave Iranian women who have endured decades of hardships under the harsh rules of Islam, imposed on them by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today we are seeing the fruits of their struggles and suffering, praying that by the time you read this the Islamic Republic will have fallen – but the job is not done, and their suffering has not ended.

Under Islamic rules, Iranian women have been subjugated and suppressed for more than 47 years since the satanic Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran. Iranian women lost all their rights after the revolution in 1979. The regime started suppressing women systematically and publicly through many misogynist laws making women and women’s rights only half of that of men. The humiliation of women under the Islamic Republic runs deep in the regime’s DNA:

– Women are forced to wear a hijab from the age of seven.

– Iranian women cannot sing or dance in public, or have custody of their children after getting divorced.

– Women cannot travel or obtain a passport without the permission of their fathers or their husbands.

– Women cannot get government jobs or hold other important positions.

Under rulings of the Islamic regime, women are treated like property of men. Their testimony in court is equal half of that of men because under Islam, a woman’s brain is considered half of that of men. Women’s inheritance is half of men. However, under these same Islamic rules, girls as young as nine are mature enough to be married to old men because their prophet Mohammed married his wife, Aishia, at the age of seven.

**Murdered by the State**. Demonstrators protest in September 2024 in New York outside United Nations headquarters against the Iranian government behind placards featuring the faces of women who have been executed in Iran. (Photo: AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Many Iranian girls and women have been murdered by their fathers, brothers, or husbands in what they call “honor killings” for which the men face no severe consequences because under Islamic rules there is no capital punishment against a male who kills their female relative for the purpose of their honor. One of my personal examples is most telling. After I talked to my brother about my conversion to Christianity, he talked to a mullah about his confusion between Islam and Christianity and mentioned my conversion to Christianity. The mullah told my brother to kill me, and he promised him there will be no punishment for him under the law of “honor killing.” There are countless other examples.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranian women have been arrested in the streets, beaten up in public by “morality police”, and humiliated only because of not having a proper Islamic hijab. One prominent example is Mahsa Amini who was murdered in 2022 for allowing her hair to show. She was beaten mercilessly after her arrest, went into a coma, and died at the hands of her torturers.

**Fighting Back**. An Iranian woman protests the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the morality police in Tehran in September 2022 for improperly wearing a hijab. Her death ignited protests that exposed the regime’s use of sexual violence as a weapon of repression. (Photo: obtained by AP)

The Islamic regime also deliberately disfigures the face of many Iranian women by throwing acid at them, or shooting them, for disobeying the Islamic rules and not following the “proper” Islamic dress code. We have seen that abundantly during the recent protests across Iran.

Many Iranian women were raped in prison and were subject of sexual abuse by prison authorities. I personally witnessed this kind of abuse during my imprisonment at Evin prison in 2009 where I was sentenced to death by hanging just for being a Christian. One of my cellmates who got a job at the prison clinic, found the real job was to go there every day and to give sexual pleasure to prison authorities and government officials. They threatened her if she refused, they would kill her. I went through many psychological pressures and hardships to deny my faith in Jesus. I witnessed the execution of my best friend, Shirin Alamhooli, and many of my cellmates. I heard many stories of rape and sexual abuse from my cellmates who did not have any voices. I witnessed the torture and humiliation of women regularly.

**Beauties and the Beasts**. Former Iranian prisoners, the writer, (left), and Maryam Rostampour (right) were sentenced to death in 2009 for spreading the message of Christianity but were finally released following intense international pressure. Many of their friends and cellmates were executed.

One of the most obscene ways in which women are subjugated, there is a perversion under the Islamic rules it is not legitimate to execute a virgin. So according to a fatwa (religious command) by Ayatollah Khomeini, virgins must be raped before their execution. Under the Islamic rules, raping virgins before their execution prevents them from entering heaven. This law is just an excuse and a reward to prison authorities for having sexual pleasure with innocent women before executing them. Under Islamic rules women have zero value.

**Behind Bars for Beliefs**. Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison where peaceful activists, journalists, intellectuals, human rights lawyers and Christians like the writer were imprisoned, tortured, sexually abused and many executed.

When I think about International Women’s Day, it reminds me of the suffering of millions of Iranian women like me. It makes me sad because it reminds me how much I was disrespected and humiliated in my birth country. It reminds me how much Iranian women are insulted, disrespected, and have suffered. It reminds me many horrible memories of being insulted and punished in school, and even at home by my brothers who were brainwashed by the Islamic regime to see me and all women as inferior. It reminds me of the gross harassment by men who would look at me as a whore and the challenges I faced because I lived independently without being under a control of a man. It reminds me that I lived 30 years in Iran, but I never had a chance to travel around my beautiful country because hotels would not permit women to book a room alone.

**War on Women**. Iranian women prisoners sit at their cell in Tehran’s Evin prison. While allegations of sexual abuse and rape against Iran prison officials have been made by former female political prisoners, information about the alleged number of rapes committed by IRGC officials in Iran’s prisons remains unclear.

It reminds me of the terrible stories of my students who must accept the sick sexual advances and extortion by judges to be able to receive a divorce from their abusive husbands. I experienced that too. Under Islam, if women are abused or beaten by their husbands, there are no laws to defend them. There is a verse in the Koran (Al Nisa surah) that actually gives permission for men to beat their wives.

Despite all these misogynist Islamic laws, millions of Iranian women bravely fought against these harsh rules and did not submit. Many of them never gave up and tried to stand for their rights at any cost, even losing their lives.

This year alone, the Islamic regime killed over 32,000 protesters in just two days in January. The regime intentionally targeted young women and men who were beautiful and athletic to punish the families. They believe if you target the children, you have killed the parents as well – ensuring they will not stand up against the regime in the future.

We should not forget that the brave mothers of all these young children who were killed by the regime who have turned their mourning to another form of defiance against the regime. Instead of crying, many mothers displayed their defiance by dancing in the funeral of their children. It is unbelievable where they found the courage to turn their sorrow and mourning to dance, to tell the Islamic regime that even the death of their children cannot stop them fighting for their rights and freedom.

Brave Iranian Women Who Turned Their Mourning to Defiance (Dance) Against the Islamic Regime, 2026!
Under Islamic rules, women are not allowed to sing and dance in public, but brave Iranian women are singing and dancing for their loved ones who were massacred in the nationwide uprising in January 2026. There are no more Islamic rituals or citation of Koran verses. This is another form of revolution against 47 years of indoctrination with Islamic laws

While dancing and singing in public is forbidden for Iranian women, the mothers and sisters of those who were murdered by the regime held back their tears and began to dance and sing loudly in public to show defiance. They stand as a symbol of courage for all women around the world.

Being a woman in Iran means enduring barbaric inhuman behavior in every facet of life. It means having remarkable strength, being made of steel, to survive all those brutalities one faces daily.

It is a shame that instead of making the Islamic regime accountable for what they do to Iranian women, the United Nations rewards them by giving them a seat to monitor women’s rights around the world. This is an obscene joke, and another type of insult against Iranian women by the clowns and buffoons at the UN to close their eyes to the misogyny and brutalities against Iranian women.

**Defiance**. Despite the threat of arrest and execution, an Iranian woman without a mandatory Islamic headscarf flashes a victory sign as two veiled women walk by at a market in Tehran in June 2024. (Photo: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

On International Women’s Day, we must remember brave Iranian women who have no rights and have been targets of discrimination and abuse for so many years. We must remember the high price that they are paying every day just to survive. We must remember many Iranian women who have no voice and their lives have been ruined by the Islamic regime. We must remember hundreds of thousands of mothers who are mourning for their children in hiding, while dancing in public to undermine and humiliate all the Islamic laws against them and say “No” to five decades of indoctrination.

My heart pains me this International Women’s Day when I think about all the atrocities Iranian women have suffered and are suffering still. My heart pains me when I remember, like millions of Iranian women, how much I was insulted, disrespected, and ignored just because of being born as a woman in Iran under the Islamic Republic government. I cannot hold back my tears for Iranian women who are still living under this tyranny and suppressions and are paying the price with their lives.

**Reign of Terror**. Activists in red ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ robes hold placards with portraits of women who were killed in Iran during an International Women’s Day demonstration in London in March 2023. (Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

I salute Iranian women on this day for being the true symbol of courageous resistance and dignity under the most barbaric Islamic rules imposed on them every day. I pray that they will have their relief, their rights, and freedom soon. It cannot come soon enough.

This International Woman’s Day we must not forget. We must be the voices of and bear witness for Iranian women. We must pray that by this time next year, Iran, and Iranian women, will be free.

About the writer:

Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.

WHY THE WAR AGAINST IRAN IS NOT ONLY RIGHT BUT ESSENTIAL

Since its inception, the Islamic Republic has been deceiving and lying to the West as its centrifuges churned away enriching uranium to a level only required for a weapons program.

By Marziyeh Amirizadeh

Just a few months after I was born in Iran, the Islamic (Demonic) Revolution took place, hijacking the country of my birth and, today 90 million Iranians, giving birth to the Islamic Republic. Make no mistake, the Islamic Republic was conceived by evil, born in sin, and against the United States to the core of its DNA. Anyone who thinks that a war against the Islamic Republic and the ayatollahs is wrong, does not know the history and does not understand the dangerous threats that it poses to all Americans.

At its inception, the Islamic Republic never provoked people to chant “All for Allah” or “Sharia Now”. The chants that three generations of Iranians have been brainwashed by are “Death to America”. It’s not just a catchy slogan but the game plan of the Islamists. They mean it. They have demonstrated it in many ways for nearly five decades.

Americans must never forget the hijacking US embassy on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, 52 of whom were held for more than 400 days until January 20, 1981.

The Islamic Republic is the head of the octopus of a global axis of terror that has been responsible for indoctrinating, funding, and arming countless Islamic terrorists who have the blood of thousands of Americans on their hands.

Extremist Islam is not compatible with American and western Judeo-Christian values and Democracy. They seek not just to live by Sharia law, which is non-Western and anti-democratic, they seek to impose it on others. Islam subjugates women and minorities through intolerant and even evil misogyny that affords women rights with half those of men. As a woman and a Christian, I experienced this in countless ways before and during my arrest and imprisonment because of my faith. Anyone who cherishes democratic values and gives Islamic regimes like Iran a pass, is undermining the very spirit of democratic values.

From the beginning, the Islamic regime has strived for nuclear weapons, deceiving and lying to the West as its centrifuges churned away to enrich uranium at a level that can only be used in a weapons program. A nuclear Iran under the ayatollahs is an existential threat to the US and the world because they will use it.

**Neutralizing Nuclear**. The war waged against Iran today is preventing the far more dangerous war with a nuclear Iran of tomorrow.

A nuclear Iran will also trigger a nuclear arms race in the Arab/Islamic world, none of which can be trusted to have this most dangerous weapon, and each of which would feel the need to have them to defend themselves from Iran. The global nuclear threat to human life, and the world’s environment, would be radical and irreversible.

Indeed, America’s first, second, and third priority should be protecting American lives and interests. Americans need to understand a decisive war on the ayatollahs and IRGC is not optional but essential. Yes, Iranians would be free which is also a good enough reason. But Americans would also be free of this threat that, if they achieve, they will use.

The Islamic regime has not only openly declared its hostility toward the United States and spent years attempting to expand its influence, funding networks and seeking to infiltrate systems that safeguard our democracy. Its reach has extended beyond its borders, even exploiting criminal channels through agents in the US and around the world who have infiltrated themselves into positions of influence in politics, civic roles, media, and more. Eliminating the Islamic regime influence will force its agents out of business. That cannot happen soon enough.

**Buying Time**. Ready to once again lie and deceive, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi smiles while on his way to the first round of talks with the USA in Geneva. Within days, the US called his bluff as war broke out. (Photo:Bild: -/Iranian Foreign Ministry/dpa/sda)

This is not just a geopolitical challenge — it is an ideological one. The danger lies not only in weapons, but in ideas designed to erode values from within. History shows that destructive ideologies, when ignored, spread quietly until they become far more dangerous than any conventional threat, more than missiles or bombs.

If we care about the world our children will inherit, we must take this threat seriously. America is facing an adversary that openly calls for its destruction, and works to influence minds against the very principles that define our nation. To have ignored such a threat would not have made it disappear; it would have allowed it – like a cancer – to grow stronger.

Americans and the West must understand that removing the Islamic regime is not only about saving the Iranian people, but also about protecting the world and the future of their children from a serious threat that is spreading rapidly globally.

The Islamic Republic constantly worked to undermine US National Security interests. They have the blood of thousands of Americans on their hands. They have penetrated the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. They have never stopped trying to achieve nuclear weapons, destabilizing the Middle East and the West. They sell cheap oil to China and drones and weapons to Russia, strengthening American adversaries.

**Death on Display**. May the nightmare soon come to an end like public executions in a bid to intimidate the Iranian people.

This is a historic opportunity to destroy them, and history and our children will not forgive us if we close our eyes to the threats that if not eliminated, future generations will inherit, or become victim to.

We cannot make a deal with an Islamic enemy that seek our destruction. They will lie, employing the Islamic principle of taqiyya, and hide their intentions at every turn, and wait to pounce until a leader of less fortitude is on the other side of the table. Defeating the Islamic Republic today is essential to defend humanity, preserve democracy and freedom for the future.

**Brutal Crackdown**. Iranian authorities responded to anti-government protests with an unprecedented deadly crackdown resulting in mass killings and serious injuries.

About the writer:

COULD WE GO FROM GAZA’S LAST HOSTAGE TO COEXISTENCE?

Tensions between Muslims and Jews has not always defined their relationship. Can shared roots and cultural commonalities provide a favorable way forward?

By Steven Gruzd

(First published in the SAJR)

Now that the body of the last hostage in Gaza has been returned to Israel, there is a deep hope that the Jewish state can move on.
Jewish and Muslim communities around the world estranged because of the Middle East conflict, and especially after the 7 October 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza, also need to heal.

Now 14.5 million Israelis and Palestinians must figure out how to live together in the tiny sliver of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The communities in the diaspora must also seek common ground. This is not going to be easy in the current climate of hate and we shouldn’t be naïve, but understanding the long, complex relationship between Judaism and Islam, which began in the 7th century, offers important insights.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are dubbed “Abrahamic” religions, because of the centrality of the biblical ancestor Avraham/Abraham/Ibrahim.

While Jews believe that it was Avraham’s son, Isaac or Yitzchak, that his father was going to sacrifice, the Muslims believe it was his other son, Ishmael (Ismāʿīl). Both fathered great religions. The Tanach – the collection of Jewish texts including the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings – forms an integral part of all three faiths. Many biblical figures, including Noah (Nuh); Moses (Musa); David (Dāwūd); and Jesus (Isa) from the Christian tradition are considered prophets in Islam, superseded in importance by Mohammed, whom Muslims believe received G-d’s final revelation.

Mohammed had many encounters with Jews in his life in the 600s CE – and not always negative ones. From the teachings of the Qu’ran – Islam’s holiest text – and the Hadith, later interpretations of the Qu’ran, emerged the concept of Jews as dhimmi, literally meaning “protected people”. These are non-Muslims living in an Islamic country. They are granted some rights, legal protection, and the ability to practice their religion in exchange for paying a tax called the Jizya. While Jews underwent verbal and physical humiliations when paying the Jizya in Muslim lands, and were certainly second-class citizens, they generally fared better than under oppressive, murderous Christian rule over the centuries.

In the early Middle Ages, Arabic writings and society had marked influence on rabbinic culture, literature, and learning, especially on Jewish poetry and philosophy.

The Convicencia (“coexistence”) refers to the positive relationships between Jews, Christians, and Muslims that emerged after the latter conquered southern Spain in 711 CE from the Christian Visigoths. Life improved considerably for Jews in the area. Jewish figures like Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and Samuel Ibn Nagrela rose to become royal advisers as well as community leaders in Muslim Spain. But life got worse again for Jews when more extremist Muslims from North Africa invaded the Iberian Peninsula, as seen in the writings of the Rambam and Yehuda Halevi.

**Golden Age of Spain**. Hasdai Ibn Shaprut marks the beginning of the florescence of Andalusian Jewish culture and the rise of poetry and of the study of Hebrew grammar among the Spanish Jews. His illustrious carreer included his appointment as physician to the calif ‘ governed by Abd al-Raḥman III.

Jewish life again flourished under the tolerance prevalent in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Jews and Muslims had lived side by side for hundreds of years. They spoke the same language, dressed the same, and exhibited similar social and political values. But as European influences and colonialism accelerated, bringing new and radical ideas, this distanced Jews and Muslims in the Ottoman Empire. The rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism widened the rift between the two communities. By the 1920s, after the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the growth of Jewish emigration to the British Mandate of Palestine, Arab intellectuals increasingly characterised Zionism as a form of European imperialism. Tensions over competing claims for the Holy Land have infused Muslim-Jewish relations ever since. The communities have nevertheless lived and worked together, often by skirting issues related to politics and the Middle East. The practice of “Don’t mention the war” prevails.

There are many similarities between Judaism and Islam. Both are monotheistic religions believing a single, indivisible G-d. They believe the divine plan was revealed to human beings. Halacha and shari’a govern religious law and practice. Both encourage daily prayer, and follow the lunar calendar. There are fasts and feasts in the annual cycle. The words and concepts of charity – tzedakah and zakat – are similar.

**Jewish Vizier**. Samuel ibn Naghrela, known as Samuel HaNagid, was a remarkable figure in medieval Spain, transcending the constraints of his Jewish heritage to become a prominent statesman and military leader, notably the vizier and military commander under the Berber Zirid dynasty.

And there are concrete examples that offer hope. The common ancestor, Avraham/Ibrahim, has inspired agreements between Israel and Muslim states and an enormous interfaith compound in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Abraham Accords, signed in September 2020, normalised relations between Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE. They later incorporated Morocco, but civil war in Sudan derailed the improvement of its ties with Israel. It is hoped that Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world will eventually join the Abraham Accords.

**The Future is Ours to See and Ensure** – The signing of the Abrahams Accords at the White House in 2020 between Israel and several Arab nations — namely the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – aims to foster regional peace, stability, and prosperity by promoting trade, technological cooperation, and interfaith dialogue.

The Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi in the UAE incorporates a mosque, a church, and a synagogue side by side. Opened in February 2023, this magnificent complex aims to promote unity and interfaith dialogue among Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The design reflects architectural elements of each religion, making it a unique symbol of tolerance and coexistence.

**Building Bridges**. Inaugurated in 2023, the **Abrahamic Family House** in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates which houses a mosque, church and a synagogue seeks to represent interfaith co-existence, preserves the unique character of the religions represented and build bridges between human civilization and the Abrahamic messages.

Like human beings sharing 98.8% of their DNA with chimpanzees, there is more that ultimately unites Jews and Muslims. The communities need to recapture the coexistence and tolerance that characterised large swathes of their common history.

And there is no more important time than now.

About the writer:

Steven Gruzd is teaching a 10-week online course titled “The Star and the Crescent: The Long Relationship of Judaism and Islam”.
To register or for more info: lauren@snitcher.org or www.meltoncapetown.org or viv@vivanstey.org (Director).
Also, to learn more, watch this brief video clip about the course: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n6wi80icc26mv6pytpfh7/Star-Crescent-Steve-Gruzd-Video-Clip-2025.mp4?rlkey=uka6w637d3gkhmskvr7k4cmif&dl=0

WORD OUT ON THE STREET

From a street in Minneapolis to the streets of Teheran, what does media focus reveal about global morality and hypocrisy?

By David E. Kaplan

Yes, the fatal shooting of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis was a tragedy. It was the second killing in less than three weeks of a US citizen in Minnesota by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and it should not have happened. However, there was something skewered and revealing about what followed.

**ICE R’Age**. A yellow “GO HOME NAZI” placard is in evidence at a demonstration against **ICE** at the site where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, on Jan. 24, 2026. No such enthusiasm in support of the brutal crackdown of protestors in Iran. (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein—Reuters)

For days on end, US TV new networks, notably CNN, were covering this solitary killing as their Number 1 news item as if nothing else was newsworthy. Well not quite; there was stiff competition from a mega-snowstorm gripping much of the country but as the big freeze began to thaw, the ‘hot’ news returned exclusively to the street scene in Minneapolis. Different angles of film footages of the scuffle and the shooting were constantly and repeatedly screened as were the endless opinions from law enforcement experts and politicians. The divergent visuals were competing with divergent verbiage and still, five days later, it was still monopolizing the news.

In no way am I belittling the tragic event in Minneapolis either of the victim and his family nor the traumatic impact on the psyche of the American people and its political ramifications. However, contrast this for news relevance with the wholesale state sponsored slaughter unfolding simultaneously in the Islamic Republic of Iran:

A solitary death on a street in Minneapolis by a Federal law enforcement agent against a mass murder by the thousands on the streets of Teheran and across much of Iran.

**Shoveling Snow**. Competing with the news on the killing in Minnesota was the mega winter storm that ‘shoveled’ the slaughter in Iran lower down the order of national interest. (Photo: Charles Krupa)

Teheran makes Minneapolis look like a day at Disneyland but what is making the news?

By some accounts, 36,500 Iranians were slaughtered over a period of 48 hours and yet, one did not need a political Richter Scale to discern that there was little to zilch interest in the US of Iran’s mega-massacre – not in the written press, not on the TV news networks, certainly not among students at colleges who one should have expected since they did not hesitate to protest against Israel during the last two years and not on major city streets nor outside embassies. The killing in a US street of a single protestor in confusing circumstances solicited far more interest than the transparent slaughter of thousands of protesters on multitude streets across Iran!

The silence was staggering. Why? What was the missing ingredient that failed to ‘trigger’ moral outrage and newsworthiness?

Conjuring up images of the Holocaust, Stephen F. Lynch, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts 8th congressional district describes the death in Minneapolis as a “brutal execution…..by ICE agents”, more specifically, “…Gestapo-like conduct,” looking like “a firing squad – taking a human life for no reason. Every American should be ashamed to watch this happening.”

Maybe they should, once the dust settles and the facts are clear. But in Lynch’s words, should not every Americanalso “be ashamed,” to be ignoring the news out of Iran from eyewitnesses and cell phone footage that millions of protestors in the streets are being targets for state rooftop snipers and trucks mounted with heavy machine guns? On Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, an official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on state television to anyone venturing into the streets:

“If … a bullet hits you, don’t complain.”

Can you imagine an American Federal Agent saying that?

Despite the disinterest of the major TV news networks, TIME magazine thought it about time and reported that “As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone.” Apparently two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME that:

“So many people were slaughtered by Iranian security services on that Thursday and Friday, it overwhelmed the state’s capacity to dispose of the dead. Stocks of body bags were exhausted, the officials said, and eighteen-wheel semi-trailers replaced ambulances.”

The extraordinary high death rate over 48 hours led to speculation among experts groping for comparisons with other mass killings.

Les Roberts, a professor at Columbia University who specializes in the epidemiology of violent death, contrasted what was happening in Iran with Aleppo(Syria) and in Fallujah (Iraq),explaining that “when spasms of death this high have occurred over a few days, it involved mostly explosives with some shooting.” The only parallel offered by online databases occurred in the Holocaust when on the outskirts of Kyiv on Sept. 29 and 30, 1941, Nazi death squads executed 33,000 Ukrainian Jews by gunshot in a ravine known as Babyn Yar.

**Black Days**. Protesting in Iran leads to ending up in black body bags. Men stand amid rows of corpses in a morgue in Tehran following mass killings of protestors by security forces in this undated image obtained by Iran International.

So, while the US news obsessed over Minneapolis, it mostly bypassed the news out of Iran that was exposing bloodshed on a scale so horrifying it was beyond comprehension.

In a brief message sent via Starlink from Tehran to Iran International, one resident said the situation in the capital and other cities was so dire that “every person is reporting the death of a family member, relative, neighbor, or friend,” stressing that “this is not an exaggeration.”

“The air was filled with the smell of blood in Tajrish and Narmak,” an Iranian user outside the country quoted a contact as saying in a post on X, referring to neighborhoods in north and east Tehran.

“They were washing the blood from the streets with the municipal irrigation tankers they use to water roadside plants.”

Thousands more have reportedly been detained nationwide. Iranian authorities have labeled anyone present on the streets after January 8 a mohareb—“one who wages war against God”—a charge that carries the death penalty.

The whereabouts of most detainees remain unknown.

There have been reports suggesting that families being asked to pay the equivalent of €5,000 to recover the bodies of their loved ones and others asked to pay for the bullets used to kill their relatives.

Why aren’t US students, notably those at the Ivy League campuses screaming “genocide”?

What is the missing ingredient failing to ignite their passion to protest?

On Sunday, two short videos surfaced showing families inside a hangar belonging to Tehran’s forensic medicine organization in the Kahrizak area. Dozens of bodies wrapped in black bags were visible, some on gurneys and others laid directly on the floor. There is footage brought out of Iran by someone who had recently escaped the country of “… bringing in the bodies in pick-up trucks and telling people to search them themselves,” and later footage showing bodies being unloaded from trailers. “Outside the building, hundreds of people moved among rows of corpses laid directly on the ground, wailing and screaming.”

**Bags of Bodies**. Where are the global protests in response to photographs like these of family members searching for their loved ones among bodies placed in body bags outside the Kahrizak forensic center in the suburbs of Tehran, Iran, January 13, 2026.

In one clip, a woman’s voice can be heard crying out to her child: “Get up my love, get up for God’s sake,” as families wander among the bodies searching in shock.

The footage appeared to capture only a fraction of what was taking place.

Sadly – and tellingly – all this frightening footage and revolting revelations have also only captured “a fraction” of global news attention.

The geographic gap between Gaza and Iran is not too far apart but there is one difference. If you can’t blame Jews it is not news.

There lies the missing ingredient.

As the world this week on the 27 January observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day one would have hoped for a news media and those plethora of ‘people’s power’ movements more receptive to mass murder taking place and more responsive to the appeals for support.

It was not to be.

Holocaust comparisons as misappropriately expounded by Congressman Lynch found more resonance to what was happening in Minnesota than what was happening in Iran.

“Never Again” is typically “Once Again”.

TIME FOR IRAN’S NUREMBERG TRIALS

Nazi Germany existed for less than a generation. Islamic republic for nearly half a century. The list of crimes and people to be tried will be endless. That alone makes this urgent.

By Marziyeh Amirizadeh

The elimination of the Islamic Republic cannot come too soon. After 47 years since the Demonic Revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power, and Iranians to their knees, subjugated by the mullah’s extremist Islam, Iranians need to be free. Iranians will celebrate the fall of the terrorist regime with glee, but to be complete there also needs to be justice for the perpetrators. What’s needed is an Iranian version of the Nuremberg Trials.

While the ayatollahs seat of power physically is in Tehran, the spiritual seat of power is in their “holy city,” Qom. The Qom Trials will turn the city from which the Islamic Republic derived its theological “authority” abusing Iranians for decades into a capital of justice.

Members of the Iranian parliament chant slogans in support of Hamas on Oct. 7. (IRNA)

Following WWII and the Holocaust (with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz commemorated this week), the allied powers needed to come up with a framework to bring justice to the perpetrators of the genocide of the Jewish people and other crimes against humanity. Facing the challenge of how to deal with Nazi war criminals, rather than summary executions or purely national trials, they instituted an international legal process to establish individual accountability and deter future such crimes.

The charges against the Nazis included: conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. A total of 199 defendants were tried, 161 convicted, 37 of whom were sentenced to death. While this was groundbreaking and critical, it’s worth remembering that the Nazi’s crimes spanned less than 15 years. After 47 years of the Islamic regime in control, it seems that these numbers will only scratch the surface in Iran.

What’s needed now is to establish a new framework to try and bring to justice leaders and agents of the Islamic Republic. There is a body of international law and precedent for the world to hold foreign terrorists to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nazi Germany existed for less than a generation. Islamic republic for nearly half a century. The list of crimes and people to be tried will be endless. That alone makes this urgent.

While I was subject to the misogyny and cruelty of the Islamic Republic since I was a young girl, many of these experiences I recounted in my books, it’s hard to imagine anyone in Iran who doesn’t have a list of people who are responsible for unspeakable crimes. I have mine.

Ali Akbar HeydariFar who played an important role in repressing, torturing, and killing protesters in 2009, is one of the judges who sentenced the writer to death

Abolqasem Salavati is an infamous execution judge who ordered the execution of my best friend Shirin;
Ali Akbar HeydariFar is one of the judges who sentenced me to death;
Judge Heydari was my second judge;
Saeed Mortazavi was the judge who told me he will make sure I will be executed;
Yahya Pirabbasi, another of my judges;
Mohammad Moghiseh is the judge who ordered the execution of many of my friends in prison;
Sadegh Larijani, the head of all judges;
Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi, the Tehran prosecutor who visited me in prison before my release, enraged by Pope Benedict’s letter advocating for me and my friend Mariyam, and threatening not to talk to anyone about what happened to us in prison and our trial.

Infamously known in Iran as the “Hanging Judge”along with Mohammad Moghiseh and Yahya Pirabbasi, Abolqasem Salavati, presided over the case of Mohsen Amiraslani, executed for heresy for describing Jonah and the Whale as an allegory and who ordered the execution of the writer’s best friend Shirin.

Many of the most terrible people have no online presence and go by fake names. In order never to forget them, and pray that they will be used to be brought to justice – something that seemed unimaginable in 2009 – my friend Maryam and I came up with sketches of two of the criminals. One of our interrogators went by “Rasti”. He was the one who lied and got me to the police station where the interrogations began. Another, “Haghighat” threatened to beat us until we vomited blood.

In order not to forget the faces of their tormentors in prison so that they could be brough one day to justice, the writer and her friend Maryam sketched “Rasti” and “Haghighat”.

Two more people who must be brought to justice are:

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’I, the Chief Justice of Iran who has blood of countless Iranians on his hands;
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While no Iranian presidents should escape justice, when I was in prison I witnessed how many people were arrested, tortured, and killed because of his direct order and fraudulent election that sparked the Green Movement which he repressed with unspeakable brutality.

It is important that the leaders of the regime are not able to flee, and that there is an immediate means to arrest them all, and hold them until charges can be brought. It’s also urgent that agents of the regime abroad are arrested and extradited to free Iran, and brought to justice. That’s necessary for Iranians who know who they are, but also for the Western and other countries where they live and in which they infiltrate with their evil extremist Islamic values at the behest of the ayatollahs. Left alone, they will be a national security threat to the countries that harbor them. Any country that takes and shelters leaders and agents of the regime to be protected in their borders should face unrelenting sanctions.

Saeed Mortazavi was the judge who told the writer he “will make sure I will be executed”, has been linked to the closure of 120 publications, the murder of Iranian Canadian journalist in July 2003 Zahra Kazemi and the murder of protesters in the Kahrizak detention center in 2009.

Part of the justice that’s needed in order for Iranians to feel as if they are truly liberated is that the trials must be held, and justice served, in Iran. Doing so will create an example to the world and to the Iranian people. International trials will not do the same.

The crimes of the Islamic regime and its leaders has not been limited to the horrific scenes we have seen coming out or Iran these past weeks, but the wholesale brutalization of millions of Iranians for nearly half a century. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. Maybe millions. The Islamic Republic and its leaders are guilty or widespread crimes directly, and through its terrorist tentacle proxies, around the globe, where millions more have suffered. There needs to be justice for them, and there needs to be a trial of the ayatollahs, mullahs, judges, IRGC, basij, jailers, interrogators, police and others who are guilty of these crimes.

**Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi** – responsible for the arrest and torture of many journalists, young bloggers, human rights advocates, political activists and reformist leaders – visited the writer before her release and threatened her not to talk to anyone about her experiences in prison.

Following President Trump’s post to encourage Iranians in early January:

“KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY! MIGA!!!,” Iranians took to the streets and have continued to protest. Tens of thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands injured.

Like those found guilty in Nuremberg, the bodies of those who are sentenced to death should be cremated, their ashes dumped into the Persian Gulf in order to prevent ever setting up a shrine to them. The tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini should be burned to the ground, and its remains and his also dumped into the Gulf.

Doing this will serve as an additional form of justice for the hundreds of thousands or more victims of the Islamic Republic, many of whom were simply disappeared and have no resting place, and no closure for their loved ones. While their crimes cannot be erased, every physical presence of their lives can be.

In a dream once, I asked God why He allowed the suffering to take place in Iran. He said that He was giving the leaders the opportunity to repent and, if not, He would bring His justice. I am praying that President Trump will follow his words with swift action, that the senseless and criminal murder of tens of thousands of Iranians will stop, and that everyone involved from the “Supreme Leader” down to the lowest policeman will be arrested and see justice.

About the writer:

WHY WE ARE “PROTESTANT” ZIONISTS

Israel’s last major allies are several hundred million Protestant Zionists but the Islamist world – with compliant local church support – is desperate to break this alliance.

By John Enarson

On January 17, the Roman Catholic Church and its allied denominations in Jerusalem released a statement condemning Christian support for Israel as a “damaging ideology” that misleads the public and harms church unity. This might look like a unified Christian front turning against the Jewish State – but for hundreds of millions of Evangelical supporters of Israel, this statement clarifies exactly why we are not just Zionists—we are “Protestant” Zionists.

**Sad Statement of Affairs**. The Catholic Church and its allied denominations in Jerusalem “declared war on Christian Zionism” in a statement released January 17 (see above) , where the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land — led by the Roman Catholic hierarchy along with Eastern Catholic, Orthodox, and other traditional church leaders — condemned Christian support for Israel as a “damaging ideology” that misleads the public and harms Christian unity.

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem claim to be bothered by some “Christian” ideology, but the real issue is that these Christians are helping the Jewish people retain national sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. Under traditional Catholic or Eastern Orthodox theology, Jews might be tolerated as stateless minorities in Christian lands. However, the idea that the Jewish nation has a biblical right to sovereignty violates centuries of supersessionist theology—the belief that the Church has replaced Israel.

As Evangelical supporters of Israel, we are “Protestant” for a reason. We “protest” against the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox traditions that preceded it. While modern apologists suggest the Protestant Reformation is over, the protest remains vital, whether against the worship of Mary, or images, or unbiblical soteriology. Chief among our objections is the betrayal of the Bible in favor of church tradition. The foremost meaning of “Evangelical” is to believe in the primacy of Scripture (the euangelion in old parlance).

The Jerusalem churches’ statement does not even attempt a Scriptural argument. They rely on the old accusation that defying their theology is the “sin of disunity.” They ignore that we have compelling biblical grounds for our stance. As offensive as it may sound to the secular West or the old ecclesiastical hierarchies, we maintain that God’s Word is firmly on the side of Jewish restoration. As Romans 3:4 reminds us, God will be found true, though every man a liar.

**Exposing Intent**. The writer strolling outside the Old City in Jerusalem asserts that the Vatican has been one of the strongest anti-Zionist actors in the West, ever since Jewish independence.

This leads to the second fundamental reason for our divergence: the definition of a Christian.

For Evangelicals, one is not a Christian by being born into a church as if it were an ethnicity. The Protestant Reformation revived the biblical truth that Christianity springs from personal faith, being “born again” (John 3:3–7) to follow Jesus and submit to Scripture. As Evangelical singer Keith Green famously quipped:

“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.”

This stands in stark contrast to the Middle East, where for centuries — surrounded by dominant Islam — to be “Christian” is effectively an ethnic minority status. Under Islamic dominance, these communities survived by behaving as subservient dhimmis. In this context, the faith often becomes a cultural collective rather than a personal conviction.

Evangelicals understand that there are many individual true believers in the nominal churches, irrespective of cultural tradition. Moreover, we recognize that there is real persecution of nominal Christians in the Middle East. Jihadists who burn churches and behead Christians do not care if they have been born again or not. To them, even secular, hedonistic Europe is “Christian”. The jihadists exemplify sheer hatred against the cross and the Bible, and care not for any nuance. This garners Evangelical sympathy around the world. We mourn and protest this persecution.

However, the Catholic and Orthodox hierarchies in the Holy Land attempt to weaponize this sympathy to marshal the church, including Evangelicals, against the Jewish State. They tell the world, “Israel is oppressing us.” But the reality is far more complex. The “Christians of the Holy Land” are a complex collective primarily under Jihadist — not a Jewish — threat.

Consider the anecdotal observations of Eastern Orthodox Christian Ridvan Aydemir, an online phenomenon and expressly not a Christian Zionist. He recently came to the Holy Land to investigate the conflict for social commentary and found problems on all sides, including among traditional Christians. Ridvan was then attacked for betraying the Christians of the Holy Land. He responded bluntly:

“What Christians are you talking about? You mean those who are embroiled in gang violence over there? Who are actually active in gang violence? Who are running shady businesses in the Holy Land? Or those who are submissive to the Muslims, accepting their role as dhimmis and doing whatever the Muslims tell them because their lives are too precious to them and they just want to live in peace? … Or do you mean those who actively work for the Islamic Iranian regime and with Hamas and other terrorist organizations? Which Christians are you talking about? Or do you mean those who, for the sake of keeping the peace, do whatever Hamas tells them to do, or say whatever Hamas tells them to say, while behind the scenes telling Israel, ‘Hey, we know you’re right, we’re on your side, but we can’t just publicly [say so]?’ Do you mean those cowards? Or do you mean the good ones who actually stand up for themselves over there? Which Christians are you talking about? You have to be more specific” (ApostateProphet, YouTube, Nov 6, 2025).

This is the blunt mechanism of the conflict:

Jihadists fight the “blasphemy” of Jewish independence in the Middle East. The international community pressure Israel to give these Jihadists self-governing control in places like Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Gaza. Here, the Jihadists mercilessly begin to persecute Christians and any moderate Muslims under their control. Meanwhile, Christian communities that remain under Israeli control go on to flourish. Using cities like Bethlehem as their base, the Jihadists continue their attacks on Jews (the Second Intifada). Israel responds by installing security measures, which cut down the suicide bombings dramatically. However, it means everyone (including Christians) from Bethlehem must go through long security checkpoints. Muslims then use Christian dhimmis under their oppression as pawns. These churches largely do not believe what the Bible says about the Jews and Israel anyway. Thus, the historic churches of the Holy Land tell the world:

Israel is oppressing us. How can Christian Zionists support the Israeli aggression against fellow Christians in the Holy Land? And if Israel does not surrender to the Jihadists, it will enrage Muslims against other Christian dhimmis throughout the Middle East. Stop the Zionists!

History is ironic. The Church once claimed to replace the Jews, reenforcing their stateless misery. Then, Islam arose with its own supersessionist claim, forcing Middle Eastern Christians into second-class dhimmi status, denying them any sovereignty over Muslims. Now, after 2,000 years, God has kept His biblical promise and restored Jewish sovereignty, putting the lie to both theologies.

The last major allies Israel has, are the several hundred million Protestant Zionists. The Islamist world, with the help of compliant local churches, is desperate to break this alliance. Thus, Muslim and Christian statements issue forth, labeling “Zionism” a “damaging ideology”, blaming it for everything from racism and colonialism to world wars and the common cold. But actual Zionism is simply “the belief that, like other nations, the Jewish people have the legitimate right to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland.” Christian Zionism ties this belief to solid, Biblical support. Some are dispensationalist, while others are not. Thus, Christian Zionists (like many Jews), not only hold this view to be the just, legal, and historically correct position, but also a modern miracle of biblical significance.

We can only speculate, but the nervous tone of the ecclesiastical statement, which protests that the “Patriarchs and Heads of Churches” themselves are the only legitimate authority on these matters, suggests that there could be a movement of traditional Christians — even ecclesiastical leaders meeting with officials — who are tired of playing the dhimmi to Islamist oppression in the Holy Land. These voices may see an alliance with Israel, even a deeper theological reevaluation of their relationship with Israel, as the way of the future, and rightly so.

Interestingly, by expressly blaming Christian Zionism as a “damaging ideology”. the statement is also attacking Jews and Judaism which holds the same biblical conviction. Even non-Zionist Orthodox Jews recognize that the Bible clearly gives the Land to the Jewish people eternally. To call this biblical view theologically unsound is not only to mock biblical logic, but to de-facto attack pious Jews as well — a position the Catholic Church has attempted to be more careful about after its failures in the Holocaust. After Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church officially recognizes the biblical significance of Jews and Judaism. But it stopped short of acknowledging their right to the Land. This promise — which is the most oft-repeated promise in the entire Bible — is thus far denied to the Jews in Catholic theology.

Only on the rarest occasions have Catholic leaders been willing to express any openness to the biblical position on the Land. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn came close in a 2005 address at the Hebrew University where he emphasized that Christians should recognize the Jewish connection to the Holy Land and rejoice in the return of Jews to it as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. He also referenced Pope John Paul II‘s view that the biblical commandment for Jews to live in Israel represents an everlasting covenant that remains valid today. A local Christian priest immediately protested, but to his credit, Cardinal Schönborn did not yield (Catholics for Israel, Mar 31, 2005; citing Jerusalem Post and Washington Post). However, this has never been acknowledged as any official position of the Roman Catholic Church.

**A Cardinal Clash**. When visiting Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (above) expressed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2005 that Jews living in Israel represented an “everlasting covenant”, a local Christian priest immediately protested signifying the opposition of Catholic orthodoxy to recognising and biblical Jewish connection to the Holy Land.

By and large, while often expressing solidarity with the Jewish diaspora, the Vatican has been one of the strongest anti-Zionist actors in the West, ever since Jewish independence. This is evident in everything from papal audiences helping rebrand arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat as a statesman, to Pope Francis holding Mass in Bethlehem in front of a massive mural of Jesus and Joseph sporting keffiyehs, helping launder the lie the “Jesus was a Palestinian”. It remains a lie. Jesus is a Jew.

**Laundering Lies**. In December 2024, Pope Francis inaugurated a nativity scene in the Vatican showing baby Jesus on keffiyeh to promote and help popularize a relatively new and false narrative that “Jesus was a Palestinian”.

In sum, we are Protestants. We are Biblical Zionists. And we stand for justice in the Holy Land. We protest the unbiblical interpretations of the Roman Catholic Church and its allies. We hold their biblical theology of Israel and the Jews to be thoroughly lacking. We also protest the suffering of historic Christian communities under Islamist oppression. But we see through ecclesiastical statements trying to blame such hardships on the Jewish State and mislead the Evangelical world.

About the writer:

John Enarson is an author and Christian theology student from Sweden. He has lived in the Middle East for over 25 years and currently serves as the Christian Relations Director at Cry For Zion (cryforzion.com). He is happy to receive input or questions about his articles.
j.enarson @gmail.com

IS HALTING EXECUTIONS IN IRAN GOOD ENOUGH?

Pulling back from military intervention following bellicose threats, is Trump failing – like Carter, Obama and Biden preceding him – the long-suffering people of Iran?

By Jonathan Feldstein

On January 16, 1979, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was forced to flee Iran along with his family due to the US and European countries withdrawing their support. This ushered in what’s called the Islamic Revolution, the return of exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, and the hijacking of a country that had been prosperous and a source of peace and stability in the Middle East. In the 47 years since then, chaos, death, terror have reigned.

Since then, Iran has devolved into a failed state with the Islamist leaders not even able to provide water and electricity, and its currency devalued to record lows, more than one million rials per dollar.

Since then, the Islamic Republic of Iran has become the world’s biggest funder of terrorism, with terrorist proxies literally all over the world. Tens of thousands or more have been killed at the hands of the Islamic regime and its proxies. Millions have been impacted, threatened, and havesuffered.

As we mark this anniversary of the West failing to support a stable ally, ushering in the evil terrorist regime, reports indicate that President Trump may have balked and failed the Iranian people as Carter did in 1979, as Obama did in 2009, and as Biden did in 2022. But if Trump has truly backed down from his harsh rhetoric to take action, and now may be seeking a “diplomatic solution,” the outcome of his actions will be worse than Obama and Biden. His harsh rhetoric emboldened the Iranian people who took to the streets in more than 100 cities in record numbers to protest the regime. They believed that Trump had their back, and were prepared to risk their lives to take back their country after almost half a century. And they were slaughtered by the Islamic regime and its agents in record numbers, at least thousands, if not tens of thousands.

On the verge of striking Iran, the US held off following reports of halting executions. What happens next is up to Trump who is seen here being interviewed in the Oval Office on Wednesday. (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Here’s the thing however. Trump’s threats were based on a false premise. He calculated whether the US would take action based on the number of Iranians being killed. As horrific as tens of thousands being killed by forces of their own government is, the massacre of people in their own country is not sufficient pretext for the United States to take military action.

Therefore, if it’s correct that Trump walked back his battle plans based solely on reports that the Iranians “halted executions” of some 800 people who were arrested amid the ongoing recent protests, this would make little sense. “Halting” is a temporary action. No doubt these 800, along with thousands more who have been arrested, still remain in Iranian prison and can be executed at any moment. If not all at once, the regime could execute a few a week and stay below Trump’s radar of “too many” people being killed.

Let’s also recognize the fact that the protests have taken place for less than three weeks. It is a remarkable injustice that anyone can be arrested and sentenced to death in such a short period.

So much for due process!

**Left in the Lurch?** Nationwide protests across Iran from 289 Dec 2025 to 11 Jan 2026.

But all this – as horrible, evil and unjust as it is – is not a pretext for military action. The reasons for military action are the threats that the Islamic Republic has made and continues to make, as the single greatest source of instability and terror in the world. The Iranian President recently openly declared that Iran is at war with the United States, with Israel, and with Europe. These are threats, not to be taken lightly. They include military threats, but they also include terror, and infiltration of the West to carry out its nefarious goals of spreading radical Islam globally.

**From Calling to Prayer to Calling for Executions**. Tehran’s Friday prayer leader, hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami called for the execution of detained protesters and the arrest of anyone who supported the protests. He accused the protesters of acting on behalf of foreign powers, calling them “servants” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “soldiers of Trump.”

While Trump was correct to offer support for the Iranian citizens who are protesting for their own freedom, the basis for that support should never have been the number of people killed. It’s a perverse inversion of the Biblical story of Abraham negotiating with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. How many people are too many? 10? 100? 500? 1000? 10,000? And in any event, if that was the measure, reports of at least 12,000 to more than 20,000 civilians being slaughtered in the streets is, and should have been, enough for the US to take action. “Halting” 800 extra-judicial executions on top of the many thousands who were slaughtered in the streets is also not grounds for not taking action.

**Flowers for the Fallen**. Impressing upon the US President, flowers are placed next to a display with photos of Iranian protestors killed by Iranian Americans outside the White House in Washington, January 16, 2026. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP)

I fear that Trump has not only failed the Iranian people, but the West, and the world. His rhetoric put a wind in the sails of Iranian citizens who took to the streets, risking their lives only to see them shot down in cold blood. This has been the single greatest opportunity since 1979 to eliminate the Islamic Republic once and for all. THAT should have been the stated goal of any US action, and it should not have been qualified based on the number of Iranians that their government massacred.

**Bodies Piling Up**. Distressing new videos have emerged from a mortuary in Tehran showing rows of bodies, blood-soaked floors and crowds of people searching for loved ones following a deadly government crackdown on protesters in Iran.

An additional failure is that China, Russia, and numerous Arab and Islamic nations are watching and measuring what they can get away with. They saw Trump sweep in to arrest Maduro in Venezuela next door, but are seeing the US now inept at doing anything about the ayatollahs on the other side of the world. That gives American adversaries around the world license to invade other countries, support terror, engage in direct and indirect threats to the United States and the world, and even slaughter their own citizens and others with impunity.

I’m not saying that making an example of the Islamic regime is a suitable goal of military action, but threatening military action and not pulling the trigger risks losing on a global scale in ways that will not only keep the ayatollah in power for another generation, but also embolden terrorists around the world.

It’s horrific if hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands have been executed in the streets of Iran with impunity. To the extent that they protested and lost their lives because of a threat that Trump made and was never prepared to carry out, their blood is on his hands. If that’s the case, he has let down the Iranian people even more radically than his predecessors by setting them up and not following through.

**Fired-Up**. Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. (Photo: MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Let’s be clear, if we ever want to see peace in the Middle East, the only way is the elimination of the Islamic Republic and the reasoning to reach this decision does not require counting how many more people have been slaughtered. On this 47th anniversary of the US withdrawing support for the Shah causing him and his family to flee, it seems that Iran and its people may have been let down once again. They and the world will continue to suffer.

If I am wrong, and I hope I am, I will publicly apologize – but if I’m right, then President Trump should apologize to the Iranian people, to Americans, and to the world. Even Obama recognized in retrospect his inaction in 2009 was a miscalculation. The negative consequences of Trump’s action – or rather inaction – will be felt for years to come.

About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Journal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.

PROTESTS IN TEHRAN TODAY BRING HOPES FOR IRANIANS TOMORROW

If President Trump likes to speak of “making deals“, the best deals are to be made after the Islamic regime falls.

By Marziyeh Amirizadeh

(First published in The Times of Israel)

Unprecedented protests are taking place across Iran, both in terms of the number of people participating, and number of cities in which the protests are taking place. Countless videos have documented Iranians protesting. And it’s growing. The reason is the compounded suffering to which Iranians have been subject under the Islamic republic, and which hopefully are at the breaking point.

**Irate Iranians**. Protestors march over a bridge in Teheran 29 December 2025 (Photo: Fars News Agency via ATP/file)

The Iranian rial is at lowest point in history. Today, one million rials are worth less than $1. The economic impact is widespread, punishing, and impacting every single Iranian.

This is the impact of the ayatollahs stealing billions from Iranians to fund its jihadi goals including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others, around the world. Yet the policy of funding the world’s largest terror network has come home to roost.

For months, Iranians have also suffered an unprecedented water and energy crisis, leading to power outages across the country, and reservoirs so low that there has been talk of evacuating millions from Tehran due to the inability to provide water.

Even if they were not living under a brutal, evil Islamic regime for nearly five decades, Iranians collectively are suffering the most they have since then, the cumulative impact of the evil regime focusing on spreading extremist Islam, fighting the West, and mismanagement and corruption of every basic need.

Iranians are not just living under widespread mismanagement, they are living under the cumulative national disaster of millions having been arrested, beaten, tortured, murdered, and disappeared. My knowledge is firsthand growing up and spending most of my life there, but also being arrested and sentenced to death, held in the notorious Evin prison for nine months, all because of my Christian faith.

The drought has not only exposed incompetence and mass mismanagement of basic needs. As reservoirs have dried up, 74 bodies have been found just in one location, bound, at the bottom of the once life-giving bodies of water that are all but gone, and which became their victims graves. Being bound shows an extra level of evil that they were thrown in alive rather than executed elsewhere and thrown into the water to hide the Islamic regimes crimes.

There have been protests in the past over the murder of Mahsa Amini in 2022, and more recently truckers going on strike in 160 cities due to massive increased in prices. For a variety of reasons these protests did not cause the regime change for which most Iranians are praying.

Iranians are having it no more. The current protests are because all Iranians are hurting economically, and without the basic needs to live. The current crisis has exposed new depths of the evil of the Islamic regime. More than ever, and more publicly than ever, Iranians are chanting for the restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty, and in favor of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and death of the ayatollahs.

**Currency** **Collapse**. Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Dec. 29, 2025 following the collapse of the rial with prices up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table. The nation has been struggling with an annual inflation rate of some 40%. (Photo: Fars News Agency via AP, File)

It’s a formula that will hopefully bring the pressure needed for the regime to fall and Iran to be free.

Pressure is also needed from the world because the threats are directed at the world. We even heard it from the “moderate” Iranian president this week, that Iran is at full scale war with the US, Israel, and Europe.

At the same time Iranians are risking their lives just to protest, it was encouraging to hear President Trump speak out in favor of renewed military action against the regime and particularly the brutal IRGC. In the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic in June, standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump stated that he supports renewed military action against Iran if they try to rebuild their ballistic missile or nuclear program.

Rather than pretending that the Islamic regime will ever negotiate for anything in good faith to make a deal, other than to keep itself alive and in control of Iran for another day, Iranians know that what’s needed from outside is unrelenting destruction of the regime, its leaders, military, and if necessary, its ability to fund itself through oil exports and more. Iranians are prepared to suffer more if it means their eventual freedom.

The United States needs to lead the charge, along with Israel and the EU, and even the Saudis, Emiratis, and other Arab states, to bring down the regime. Iranians pray for that. Iranians were frustrated, even feeling abandoned, that the 12-day war in June did not go on and end with the destruction of the regime, or at least giving Iranians cover to do what’s needed on the ground to do so themselves.

The Islamic Republic has created unprecedented suffering for all Iranians, and for millions of people all around the world. Not just by targeting Israel and the Jewish people, but by infiltrating the West, in developing nations, and across the Arab and Islamic world. In fact, it’s hard to think of a place in the world that has not suffered as a result of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

**Regime Rickety**. Displaying a leadership’s anxiety as much as an anti-US and anti-Israel message on this billboard that reads ‘watch out for your soldiers’ in Tehran on January 4, 2026 (Photo: Atta Kenare/ AFP)

Accordingly, it’s necessary that people and nations across the world unite with a singular purpose, to end the Islamic regime and to bring Crown Prince Pahlavi to power and restore the once thriving nation that Iranians yearn for. No one singular act -certainly since the end of World War II – has the potential to eliminate suffering of millions and bring peace.

President Trump likes to speak of making deals. The truth is the best deals to be made are after the Islamic regime falls, and Iran begins necessary reconstruction. The US can play a huge role in that, bringing prosperity to Iran, and peace to the world. Israel can also play an important role by rescuing Iran with its world-leading water reclamation and desalination abilities, filling up the reservoirs and bringing Iranians hope, and life.

About the writer:

Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.

APPEASEMENT IS BACK

How Australian government policies led to the disaster on Bondi Beach.

By Neville Berman

Year after year governments around the world are passing deficit budgets that include massive increases in defense spending. They are arming themselves in the hope of being able to better defend themselves against external enemies. At the same time, in the name of multiculturalism, diversity, and equality, they have opened their borders to millions of immigrants who do not share their culture, language, religious practices or heritage. The threat to many countries is now internal rather than external.

What is happening is that incredibly rich Muslim oil exporting countries are promoting the subjugation of the west to Islamic doctrine. One of the ways that they are using to undermine the west is to finance the building of large mosques in major Western cities across the world. The Imams in these mosques are handpicked by the people providing the finance. They are spreading their opposition to Western culture, and are radicalizing their followers to incite and create anarchy. They are well organized and financed and face almost zero opposition from local governments. They are using the western concept of free speech in order to promote hatred.

**Iman Influence**. Twenty-four-year-old Bondi Beach shooting gunman Naveed Akram, was a follower of pro-Islamic State preacher Wisam Haddad (above) who has been closely watched by ASIO for most of his adult life but has never been charged with a terrorism offence. (Photo: Four Corners/Sissy Reyes).

The latest attack at Bondi Beach in Australia is the direct result of the total lack of any attempt by the Australian government to take action against hate speech. What is really amazing is to see the current TV briefing by Australian officials. Initially the New South Wales police announced that they were treating the incident as a terrorist attack. It must have taken a person of exceptional bravery or stupidity to use the word “terrorist” in this day of political correctness. The word “terrorist” has become offensive to millions of people around the world who cheered the attack against America by al-Qaeda on 9/11, 2001. It is also offensive to millions of people who celebrated the attack on Israel by Hamas on the morning of October 7, 2023. These are the people that are now setting the standards that society needs to adhere to. The word terrorist conjures up visions of hundreds of actual Muslim terrorist acts across the world, that have killed and maimed thousands of innocent people. The West has simply bowed to the demands of those who want to destroy western culture and civilization and has decided that the word terrorist is now a derogatory term that needs to be removed from the lexicon of the English language. Words like ‘apartheid’, ‘genocide’ and expressions such as ‘rape their daughters’ are now completely acceptable. Terrorists have become ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘militants’, and the Australians have now found a plethora of new words to lower the bar even further.

Videos show Naveed Akram preaching on the streets of Sydney as a 17-year-old.

The Australian Prime Minister immediately called the incident an act of antisemitism. Considering the fact that that the attack was against thousands of Australian Jews celebrating the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, one can assume that the detective acumen of neither a Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot were needed to conclude that it was indeed an antisemitic act. The fact that the same Prime Minister has failed to take any serious action against hundreds of demonstrations that have taken place on Australian soil, against Jews and Israel, speaks volumes about his political bias and his concerns to appease the growing Muslim immigrant population in Australia. History has shown over and over again that appeasement leads to calamity. What happened on Bondi Beach did not happen in a vacuum. Ever since the Australian government opened its borders to large scale immigration from Muslim countries, the government has allowed hate speech to go unpunished. Hate speech and Jihad should have no place in Australia or anywhere else for that matter.

In a TV broadcast soon after the attack, the head of New South Wales governing body described the terrorists who carried out the attack as “shooters.” The next speaker used the word “gunmen.” The spokesman for the New South Wales Police stated that “The offenders have been identified as a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son.” This is hardly the language that one would expect the spokesman of the police department to use about mass killers of innocent people celebrating on a beach!

**Targeting Jews**. This is where global antisemitism leads. As if playing an arcade video game, killer Naveed Akram takes aim and shoots to kill, defenseless Jews on Bondi Beach.

So, there you have it, the two radicalized Islamic terrorists that killed 15 innocent civilians and wounded 40 others on Bondi Beach are described as antisemites, then shooters, then gunmen, and finally offenders. Not a single one of the spokespersons used the words Muslim Terrorists or Militant Islamists to describe what happened on Bondi Beach. Not once have the victims of this terrorist attack been described as innocent civilians. The double standards are obvious. Welcome to Australia today.

The one person that stands out in the whole affair is Ahmed al-Ahmed who risked his life and single handedly disarmed one of the terrorists who was shooting at the people on Bondi Beach. The fact that he is a Muslim is a credit to the millions of Muslims who abhor terrorism. He is a shining light that shows that despite all the hatred that is now spreading across the world, there are still people of character and courage. Ahmed al-Ahmed deserves a medal.

**Stepping Up Too Late**. A report that has sat on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s desk for months is being raised by critics as key evidence that the federal government has done too little, too late to respond to the rising tide of antisemitism since the 7 October terror attack in Israel.

The tragedy on Bondi Beach needs to be the catalyst that unites Australia and the Western world against the falsehoods and hatred that has arisen in the world. Hatred is not a policy. It is a one-way street to anarchy. It is time to wake up to the fact that countries are abandoning their own culture and heritage by bowing to the demands of those immigrants that wish to subjugate the lifestyle and beliefs of the countries that have welcomed them and provided them with enormous assistance and financial aid. The past cannot be changed. The future definitely needs to be changed. The writing so to speak is on the wall. What a pity that the only action of the present Australian government is to announce that they will be tightening up on gun control. What a pathetic attempt to find an excuse for their own disastrous policies and appeasement of hatred.

*Feature picture: People paying tribute to the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Sydney, Australia, where 15 people were killed and 38 others hospitalized. (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images).

About the writer:

Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.

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