Chairman’s Report August 31, 2014

Religious Freedom Coalition Newsletter

Jihad against America – Flight 93

A heroic battle to stop the terror – I rarely write about the various speaking engagements to which I am invited each year. During the 1980’s and 1990’s I traveled to speak at church services and other events up to 50 times a year. After the Jihad attack against the American mainland in September, 2001 and our invasion of Iraq, I began to spend much more time in the Middle East and advocating for oppressed Christians on Capitol Hill. However, I still accept several speaking engagements per year related to the continuing attacks on Christians and religious freedom both worldwide and in the United States.

William J Murray at Flight 93 National Memorial

This August I was invited to speak at a very large Tea Party group at the Somerset Alliance Church in Somerset, Pennsylvania which is just a few miles from the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown. Most of my talk to the three hundred or so people present was centered on the plight of Christians in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq and Syria. Because it was within 30 days of the 12^th anniversary of the jihad attack on 9-11, I also spoke of my personal experiences on that day including being on the 14^th Street bridge leading into Washington from Arlington, Virginia when flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon.

No matter where I go to speak, if I am going to mention the jihad attack on 9-11 then I carry a seat map with me of flight 77. On that day Barbara Olson, a conservative journalist whom I knew and had appeared with on Fox News, was seated in seat 3E on flight 77. Her husband Ted, whom I have also met, was the lead attorney in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit. The couple were friends of President and Mrs. George W. Bush.

Virtually everywhere I go to speak, I meet a “Truther.” That is the nickname for people who have bought into a story paid for by the Saudis, that the U.S. government blew up the Trade Center buildings in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington. Truthers do not believe that any aircraft struck the Pentagon, and refuse to believe that flight 93 actually crashed in Pennsylvania. That is why I carry the seat map.

I normally listen respectfully to a “Truther” and then get the seat map out of my pocket, show it to them and say, “If flight 77 never crashed into the Pentagon, can you please tell me where my friend Barbara Olson is, who was seated in seat 3E on that flight?” That normally ends the conversation, but unbelievably some go on insisting that all the passengers are being held somewhere by our government. The refusal to accept the fact that there was an Islamic jihad attack against America astounds me.

I also spoke at a meeting in Uniontown, Pennsylvania during the same trip. In all, about $1,000 was raised for our missions to Iraqi and Syrian Christians and several people became supporters of the Religious Freedom Coalition.

Remember Me Rose Garden –While in the area of the Flight 93 Memorial I spoke to several people who were there the day of the jihad attack by four Muslims, three of whom were well educated citizens of Saudi Arabia. The fourth, pilot Ziad Jarrah, was from a wealthy Lebanese family. He was the only Lebanese of all the hijackers, fifteen of whom were Saudi. Those I talked with at the Memorial site spoke of the parts of the plane going up in a plume of smoke and debris when it exploded with tens of thousands of pounds of fuel on board. Parts blew in the wind and landed miles away from the crash site. There was little left of the plane.

The Beaner Family

One man who had been a volunteer tour guide for many years at the site escorted my wife Nancy and me through the Memorial. After the U.S. Park Service took over the site, no Christian symbols or talk about faith and prayer was allowed, so most of the volunteers quit. In particular the park Service did not want mention of the Christian prayer offered just before the passengers – led by a Christian home schooler named Todd Beamer – tried to take over the plane.

Beamer tried to reach his wife, Lisa, by Airfone – a communications system for passengers that was on aircraft at the time. When the call was not connected, he reached an Airfone customer service representative who says that Beamer calmly provided critical information about events on the plane and relayed messages for his pregnant wife and two sons, David and Drew. At Beamer’s request, the representative joined him in praying the Lord’s Prayer. At the end of his call, she says she heard him say to others on the plane, “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.” That began the passenger revolt on Flight 93 that saved the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

As a result of the Park Service refusal to have any religious symbols, including a wooden Cross that had been erected at the site just days after the crash, a non-profit organization began planning a “Remember Me Rose Garden” near the site that would emphasize the role played by Christian faith on that horrible day. The garden is not yet completed, but Nancy and I stayed in an old “mansion” that is in the process of being restored as a Bed and Breakfast by the organization.

William and Nancy Murray at the Remember Me Rose Garden “mansion” near the Flight 93 Memorial

The home, built about 1908, requires much more work prior to being opened. It is my hope and prayer that this and other organizations who have not been “cleansed” of faith by our politically correct government agencies can keep alive the legacy of faith of those who died, and remind the world of the dogmatic religion of those who led the jihad attack against us.

In the strange world of the secularists who run this nation – both conservative and liberal – the religion of the hijackers and even the religion of the current Islamic State terrorists in Iraq must never be mentioned. In the minds of those such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, people who kill innocents in the “name of Islam” have “hijacked a religion of peace.” Their refusal to admit the source of the problem – the teachings of the Koran – allow the threat to grow. The Islamic State now has between 50,000 and 80,000 fighters, many of whom are Americans and Europeans recruited in mosques and schools funded by Saudi Arabia, according to Pentagon sources.

Container cleared in Jordan and supplies delivered –The Religious Freedom Coalition is not primarily an aid organization, but whatever aid we do deliver in the Middle East goes only to Christians. Despite our size we are able to deliver thousands of tons a year of food, clothing and medicines to the suffering Christians from Iraq and Syria. Primarily we accomplish this by working with other ministries that are also not big name aid groups.

[button link=”http://christmas4refugees.org” text=”Make Christmas possible for a Christian child refugee” size=”small” alt=”off”]

In July a full size sea going container was loaded with nearly 40,000 pounds of all new materials, including food, in Virginia. A second ministry organization paid for the container to be shipped from Newport News, Virginia to the port of Aqaba in Jordan. The Religious Freedom Coalition then paid the fees to unload the container from the ship, process it though Jordanian customs and transport it to the warehouse in a Christian town somewhat north of Amman.

This particular container held:

Container of aid for Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria unloaded in Jordan

Food: vegetable oil, oatmeal, cornflakes, lentils, barley, tomato sauce, rice, sugar, salt. Clothes: T-shirts, skirts, pants, blankets, sandals, shoes Cosmetics and Hygiene: toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, sunblock, lotions and creams. Miscellaneous: Two sizes of zip lock bags, toilet paper, school bags for kids, crayons, and small towels.

This kind of cooperation and delivery of materials to Christian ministries in the Middle East to assist Christian refugees is done many times each year. It is such a normal process that I have failed to report on it often enough. When supporters of the Religious Freedom Coalition contribute to our missions fund, this is just one of the type of projects the funds are used for.

During July and August funds were also sent to Sister Hatune Dogan’s ministry to assist in the evacuation of Christian children who have been left parentless by the Islamic State, or ISIL (which was once supported by the United States, until sometime in 2012). Now, according to Barack Obama, ISIL has suddenly gone from being the “junior varsity team” to America’s worst enemy in just six months. A Wall Street Journal article on August 23th stated that ISIL having become so powerful is the fault of Syrian President Assad because he failed to fight them properly (while fighting the FSA, a mercenary army paid to overthrow him by Saudi Arabia and the USA). Yes, it is a REAL stretch, but I think Barack Obama even believes this nonsense.

And in Lebanon – The evangelical ministry organization we are working with in Lebanon is headquartered in the Bekaa Valley, one of the most dangerous places in Lebanon and a major hang out for Hezbollah. It is also adjacent to Syria, and contains most of the refugees from Syria. It is estimated that there are ten times as many Syrian families in the valley than aid agencies can handle. Just like in Jordan, most of the refugees are Sunni Muslims and the Christians, who are seen as allies of President Assad, are fearful of staying in the UN camps.

The ministry we work with there runs a full time Christian school that has THREE SHIFTS of Syrian Christian children coming through it per day! The teachers, mostly volunteers, are there 12 to 14 hours a day. We send funds to assist this ministry in its work.

It is this ministry in Lebanon that is organizing our Christmas for Refugees project there. The children served will be primarily in the Bekaa Valley area. The Religious Freedom Coalition will hire one part time employee in Lebanon in November and December to assist.

The Islamic State (ISIL) –As I mentioned above, the new line from the Obama Administration is that the slaughter of Christians and Shia Muslims in Iraq is the fault of President Assad of Syria. The fact that the United States, Europe, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have spent over $50 billion so far to topple the secular government of Syria according the Obama Administration does not enter into the equation at all.

[button link=”http://christmas4refugees.org” text=”Make Christmas possible for a Christian child refugee” size=”small” alt=”off”]

The conservative media such as Fox News and the Wall Street Journal will jump onto any band wagon that is moving in the direction of sending American troops to die in battle regardless of who our President is or what the cause is. In just one week the Wall Street Journal has gone from blaming President Obama for the rise of the ISIL to blaming President Assad. In a featured front page article on August 23^rd the headline read: Assad Policies Aided Rise of Islamic State Militant Group. The subheading was: Islamic State, or ISIS, Gained Momentum Early on from Calculated Decision by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Go Easy on It.

“Calculated decision?” Before the first demonstration by Sunni tribesmen against President Assad in 2011, Saudi Arabia had pre-positioned over $2 billion of arms in Sunni areas of Syria adjacent to Turkey. As soon as the actual fighting began, the CIA began planning the “Operation Damascus Volcano” which was a coordinated attack by mercenaries on Damascus from three sides. I guess it was while mortar rounds were hitting President Assad’s home that he made the “calculated decision” not to fight jihadists hundreds of miles to the northeast of Damascus. The logic of this article and those who promote its line of thinking is appalling.

As a prelude to the Damascus Volcano in 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured the Middle East declaring several times a day, “Assad’s days are numbered.”

The Wall Street Journal can find no fault in President Barack Obama for destabilizing the region with his “Arab Spring.” Thanks to Obama supporting jihadists in Syria and Libya, the destabilization has spread to Iraq. In essence the nations of Syria, Libya and Iraq no longer exist as single political entities, thanks to the policies of Barack Obama.

Oddly, the pundits at Fox News such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly claim that if Obama had just bombed Damascus in 2013, that the 80,000 man strong ISIL would not exist today. Forget the fact that the ISIL has been active in Iraq under a different name for several years. Then there is the odd running argument that if Obama would have reached an agreement so that 5,000 members of our armed services could stay in Iraq, then ISIL would not have been able to gain territory. Reality: with such a small force, about all we would have by now is even more dead and wounded Americans.

President Barack Obama destabilized this area by promoting an “Arab Spring” to bring about “democracy” when it was already very clear that the attempt by President George W. Bush to plant democracy in Iraq had failed, just as President Jimmy Carter’s attempt to plant democracy in Iran failed. The slaughter in the Middle East is the result of inept interference in the government affairs of that region by American administrations dating back to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Had the secular leaning governments of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria been allowed to put down Islamist revolts without American interference, there would be no Islamic State (ISIL) today and the Christians of the Middle East would still be living in peace.

Please continue to pray for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW #900, Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990