Mediaboss Marketing

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

We have lost the Christian presence in Libya, said Professor Mariz Tadros during a Christian persecution conference on Thursday at the National Press Club.

Religious pluralism as it existed [in Libya] is over, she added.

Before the 2011 revolution that resulted in the overthrow and execution of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, as many as 100,000 Christians, mainly members of the Coptic Church, resided in Libya,reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

As of 2013, before the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) appeared in the North African nation, a few thousand Christians remained, added AFP, citing church officials.

At one point, Libyas coastal city of Sirte, where Gaddafi was killed, was ISISs largest stronghold outside of its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS jihadists targeted members of the Christian minority in Libya as it did in other countries.

In February 2015, the terrorist group decapitated 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach, prompting worldwide condemnation.

These beheadings accounted for a mere twenty-one of the 7,100 Christians whom Open Doors estimates died for their faith in 2015, points out a report released by the University of Notre Dames Under Caesars Sword project on global Christian communities during the conference Thursday.

The report, titled In Response to Persecution, assessed Libya to host a high level of Christian persecution.

Christians face violence at the hands of Muslim militants. Especially in Egypt and Libya, this violence has increased as a result of the Arab Uprisings of 2011, it notes adding:

While Christians generally enjoyed freedom from heavy discrimination and a decent level of liberty to worship and practice under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, Christians security disappeared when this dictator fell and Libya was beset with lawlessness. Militias and tribal groups were empowered, including Muslim groups like Ansar al Shariah, al-Nusra, the Islamic State, and the Muslim Brotherhood. At their hands, Christians suffered assaults on churches, violence against clergy, abductions, and numerous other forms of violence.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since the fall of Gaddafi, providing fertile grounds for jihadists to flourish.

While the persecution report mentions that Christians still make up between 3 percent and 5 percent of the population and are mostly migrant workers from outside the country, the Open Doors USA organization estimates that less than one percent (20,000) of the Muslim-majority countrys 6.4 million people are Christians.

As anarchy took hold in Libya, many Copts and other Christians at first tried to avoid abductions while remain-ing in the country, often living like fugitives, notes the report released Thursday. Eventually, a mass exodus ensued, with more than 200,000 Christians leaving Libya between 2011 and 2015, it is estimated.

Read the original here:
Expert: 'We Have Lost the Christian Presence in Libya' - Breitbart - Breitbart News

Libya's Liquidity Crunch and the Dinar's Demise: Psychological and Macroeconomic Dimensions of the current crisis Libya Herald Libya faces an ever-worsening currency and liquidity crisis which cannot be surmounted without a stable political solution that definitively concludes the struggle for power and legitimacy ongoing since 2014. Yet, the root of the crisis lies not in ...

See more here:
Libya's Liquidity Crunch and the Dinar's Demise: Psychological and Macroeconomic Dimensions of the current crisis - Libya Herald

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Trump Joins Criticism of Iran; Questions US Role in Libya Wall Street Journal (subscription) WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump, adding to strong criticism of the Iran nuclear deal voiced by his administration, said on Thursday that Tehran is not living up to the spirit of the agreement. His comments, in a joint press conference with Italy's ...

Visit link:
Trump Joins Criticism of Iran; Questions US Role in Libya - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Keith Ellison recently aired his grievances with former President Barack Obama.

At an event at the University of Minnesota, the prominent Democrat said Obama shares some of the blame for Democratic losses across the country.

"Look I'm a great fan of President Obama," Ellison said. "I totally voted for many of the things he supported. Barack Obama could have been a better party leader, and I think the fact that he wasn't put his legacy in jeopardy."

Rep. Keith Ellison

7 PHOTOS

Rep. Keith Ellison announces DNC chairman candidacy

See Gallery

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) speaks during the first session at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 25, 2016.

(REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich)

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (C) stands on stage with his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders (R), and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-MN) before speaking to supporters during a campaign rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, January 26, 2016.

(REUTERS/Eric Miller)

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is arrested by U.S. Capitol Police after blocking First Street NW in front of the U.S. Capitol with fellow supporters of immigration reform, on October 8, 2013 in Washington, DC. Last week, House Democrats introduced their own immigration reform bill.

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., attends a rally with low wage federal contract workers on the steps the Department of Labor to call for the minimum wage be raised to $15 per hour, April 14, 2016.

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Keith Ellison, D-Minn., leaves a meeting with House Democrats in the Capitol Visitor Center, June 22, 2016. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at the meeting.

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Congressman Keith Ellison speaks on stage during 'A More Perfect Union: Obama and The Racial Divide,' featuring Congressman Keith Ellison, Alicia Garza, Margo Jefferson, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad in conversation wiith Jelani Cobb during The New Yorker Festival 2016 at Acura at SIR Stage37 on October 9, 2016 in New York City.

(Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for The New Yorker)

HIDE CAPTION

SHOW CAPTION

Ellison added that the former president was great at getting himself elected but not the party as a whole.

The congressman was an early backer of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Ellison ran for the DNC Chairmanship but lost to Tom Perez, the former Labor Secretary under Obama.

In an effort to bring the party together, Perez named Ellison his number two.

More from AOL.com: Will Michelle Obama run for office? Former Obama White House insider speaks out Georgia special election heads for runoff between Ossoff, Handel Trump begins attacking 'super Liberal Democrat' in crucial special election

Read the original here:
Prominent Democrat takes aim at former President Obama for election loss - AOL

Jon Ossoff, a Democratic candidate in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, will face Republican Karen Handel in a June 20 runoff, after winning the most votes in the April 18 special election but failing to reach the 50 percent threshold. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Democrat Jon Ossoff didn't win a special election for a Georgia congressional seat on Tuesday night. But he'll live to fight another day specifically in a June runoff against former GOP secretary of state Karen Handel.

It's not the Cloud Nine scenario that some Democrats had hoped for in this uber-hyped special election. But that a Democrat made it this far in Republican territory he was the top vote-getter out of 18 mostly GOP candidates is an impressive political feat.

And as much as we can extrapolate from one single Atlanta suburb, Ossoff's near-win portends Democratic strength going into the 2018 congressional midterms. If the stars align for them even close to how they did in this district, Democrats could take back the House of Representatives. They'll need the help of traditional Republicans and a liberal base not thrilled with President Trump, but those were both factors in this Georgia congressional race.

Democrats don't even really need to win this June runoff, held to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, to take back the House. In 2018, Republicans will be defending 23 seats that Clinton won. If Democrats can net 24 seats, they would recapture the majority.

Depending on what data you use, there are some 70 to 90 congressional districts considered more competitive for Democrats. Tuesday's special election didn't even make a list of 60 that the House Democrats' campaign arm said earlier this year it wanted to target.

But it jumped on the map in a big way thanks to a fired-up liberal base. Ossoff was practically carried by anti-Trump, grass-roots momentum both inside the district and outside it. When he entered the race in January, he was an unknown, 30-year-old Democrat with no legislative experience. By the end of the race, he was a much better-known 30-year-old with no legislative experience who had raised an insane $8.3 million.

The fact he was even competitive is mind-blowing to Washington Democrats. Republicans have held this seat for 37 years. Price won it by 24 points just a few months ago.

Even in our wildest dreams in August of last year, I don't think anyone thought that Tom Price's House district was up for grabs, Neil Sroka, spokesman for the progressive Democracy for America, said earlier this week.

Democrats scrambled to provide the infrastructure to help Ossoff to his near-win, an early test for their party unity and organization. The proof will be in how many voters they turned outwho didn't show up in November. But early signs are good: Ossoff exceeded their off-the-record expectations of capturing 40 to 45 percent of the vote. He got 48 percent of the vote, almost exactly the share of four of the top GOP candidates combined.

Speaking of Republicans, let's talk about a potentially disenchanted minority that this race may have pulled back the curtain on. We definitely learned that Republican voters in this suburban, educated, wealthy district are very wary of Trump. Or rather, this race underscored that.

The district went for Mitt Romney in 2012 by more than 20 points, but for Trump by a little more than a percentage point. With regard to Tuesday's special election, most voters in a special congressional election are thinking big picture rather than granular, so an average vote could be considered a repudiation on the direction of the country so far as much as for a candidate.

I think it's pretty clear, nonpartisan elections analyst Stuart Rothenberg said earlier this month, Republicans in this kind of district are uncomfortable with Donald Trump.

It could be that this district is naturally trending away from a Trump-era Republican Party. Butit seemed to be aperfect test ground to witness what afired-up minority and a disenchanted majority can do against the backdrop of an unpopular first-term president. If that comes together for Democrats elsewhere in the country, well, that'sthe stuff wave elections are made of.

Here comes the giant, hulking caveat to every word above: There are still more unknowns than knowns in the battle for the House. The 2018 election is 567 days away, which might as well be a century in politics. Trump is historically unpopular, but that could change. Republicans can't get their act together to repeal Obamacare like many voters in this district conceivably want, but that could change.

There are also race-specific factors that make Democrats' performance less sterling than they might make it out to be. The Republican field might as well have been a field of a million there were 11 candidates, some of whom had their own high-profile supporters back in Washington. When voters in this district are faced with just one Democrat and just one Republican, will they really choose the Democrat?

Maybe, say Democrats. And they're not out of place to hope. As we learned in a special election in Kansas last week, and again on Tuesday, anything's possible for Democrats, even/especially the inconceivable. And Democrats capturing the House majority is much more conceivable than being competitive in this race was just a few months ago.

Read more:
Democrats didn't win outright in Georgia. But here's why they're still celebrating. - Washington Post