Chairman’s Report October 14, 2014

Congressional Post Card Program Expands

Senator John McCain

Senator McCain’s office “surprised”: Senate staff said they were “surprised” by the number of cards and letters received from Americans protesting against arming “moderate” Islamists in Syria. There should be no surprise in any office, Democrat or Republican, since an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that any arms given to any Sunni fighters will wind up in the hands of the Islamic State, or ISIL. Why do most Americans believe that? Because so far that is what has happened. Too many Americans know the truth and are willing to stand up to Barack Obama and his arming of Sunni fighters. These are the facts:

As recently as 2012 the CIA was in Jordan training ISIL fighters, who are Sunni, because Barack Obama thought they were more “moderate” than the al Nusra Front, which is also Sunni, in Syria. Now it is reversed, and the Obama Administration believes that al-Nusra is more moderate than ISIL.  Now we are being assured that only properly “vetted” Muslim fighters will receive arms from the U.S.

In September of 2012 the American Consulate and CIA headquarters in Benghazi, Libya was attacked and four Americans including Ambassador Stevens were killed. The consulate guards were “moderate” Islamists “vetted” by the State Department. The consulate was overrun while the “moderate” guards stood by and watched. Why was it so important for our Ambassador to be in Benghazi instead of at the better guarded Embassy in Tripoli?  He was there arranging covert arms shipments to “moderate” Syrian rebels. He was killed by Islamists while in Benghazi to arrange sending heavy weapons from former dictator Muammar Kaddafi’s stash to other Islamists. This is just one part of the history of the fiasco of Barack Obama arming “moderate” Islamist groups whom he claims want “democracy.” Sure — as long as it’s under Sharia law!

Let’s get real. The revolt against Bashar Assad of Syria has been financed by the Sunni royal families of Saudi Arabia and Qatar from day one. The Saudi intelligence services recruited and armed Sunni mercenaries before the first “demonstration” against the Assad government. Does anyone believe that the goal of the Saudi and Qatar royal families is to establish a democracy in Syria? Of course not. The goal of the two Sunni kings was to topple one of the last two Shiite governments in the world. Their goal is for all of Islam to be Sunni.

Senator John McCain’s love of Saudi Arabian oil makes him blind to the truth and a supporter of the Sunni rebels. But President Barack Obama is not blind to what is happening. He understands completely, because he was raised in Indonesia as a Sunni. He has only turned against this one group of Sunni fighters – the ISIL – because the Saudi royals have lost control of them. Obama made a deep bow to the Saudi king the first time they met. Obama will not allow King Abdullah to be threatened, regardless of how many Americans must die defending him.

Each day more and more post cards arrive, telling Congress not to send any more money or arms to the newest crop of “moderate” Sunni fighters in Syria. Congressmen have heard your message because so far they have only authorized money that was supplied by the Saudi government.

Obama bows to Saudi King and looks the other way as Saudi Arabia supports Islamic State terrorism.

The $500 million Congress “authorized” was donated by Saudi Arabia: If the post card program is so successful, then why, you may ask, did Congress still authorize $500 million of our tax dollars to be sent to these Sunni fighters in September?  Believe it or not the $500 million Congress authorized for Obama’s Sunni fighters in Syria was NOT our tax money. Hold on to your seats, it is hard to believe our Congress would do this but they did.

This is the deal Barack Obama cut with the Saudi’s. The Saudi king wanted Obama to attack ISIL, which had become a threat to the King’s mercenaries, known as the Free Syrian Army. As part of the deal the Saudi king agreed to give the United States $500 million to arm and train the mercenaries that work for him in Syria. To sweeten the deal further, King Abdullah offered to use a couple of the fighter/bombers we sold him in some symbolic raids against the ISIL – raids that would not be dangerous to his pilots. What does King Abdullah get out of this? The ouster of the Shiite government of Syria by Barack Obama, and at the same time downgrading the ISIL’s ability to eventually come after him.

Wow … what a deal! And according to President Obama and his buddy in this, Senator John McCain, it all ends well … except for the secular leaning Alawite Shiites and the Christians of Syria. The Christian men get beheaded for not converting. The Christian women and girls get forced into Islamic marriages or outright sexual slavery, and the male children get forced to convert and fight jihad for Islam. And those Christians who do manage to escape the slaughter and flee to Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey are ignored by American and European aid agencies, who are afraid to offend the Muslim majorities by helping the despised “Nazarenes.” What a wonderful deal you have made, Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain!

Now Obama wants more money for Islamic fighters – and we must continue to oppose this. We can’t stop the post card program to Congress now. There is too much at stake because it has already been leaked that Obama will seek more money from the “lame duck” Congress when it returns to Washington after the election in November. The Obama Administration will provide “evidence” that the non-war we are currently fighting against ISIL will take years, and that a larger and better armed force is required to stop them.

But the Free Syrian Army that Obama says will fight ISIL has already signed a treaty deal with them. Most of the weapons we have given the Free Syrian Army so far have gone to  ISIL and in turn been used to attack Christian towns and villages. And the Free Syrian Army itself has targeted Christian schools and churches in Damascus and in Jaramana, the largest majority Christian city in Syria. The reality is that all groups concerned are Islamist and all want to destroy the church. There are no good “moderate” Islamists who will protect the Christians.

Where is the post card campaign today?: Thanks to the generous supporters of the Religious Freedom Coalition, more than 200,000 post cards have been furnished to conservative Christians we have been able to identify. It is my prayer that we can distribute one million of these cards. About 85% are being signed and mailed to congressmen and Senators. This is absolutely a rebuke of Barack Obama’s pro-Islamist, pro-Sunni, pro-Saudi king agenda in the Middle East. If we can keep up these numbers and have 850,000 cards mailed to Congress this year, there is no way that any further funds will be allotted to help Islamist fighters — not even if the money is once again going to be reimbursed by the Saudi royal family.

We must keep up the pressure on Congress!

Working the Hill: There was a hard fought attempt to stop the funding of the so called Free Syrian Army in both the House and the Senate. On the House side, my good friend Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas delivered two floor speeches against sending further funds to any of the Sunni fighters in Syria, including those whom King Abdullah and President Barack Obama support. He had this to say about Obama’s request for funds:

“Though President Obama says the Islamic State is not religious, their radical Islamist leaders are apparently unaware of that. The leadership of the Free Syrian Army says that they are willing to fight and kill alongside the Islamic State, who they say shares their religious beliefs. The Islamists that President Obama wants to keep arming have also worked with al Qaeda affiliates in the past and will in the future.

Even if someone is naive as this administration’s officials, they should have become alarmed long before now that weapons this President has been sending to the “vetted moderate Free Syrian Army” for over a year continue to end up in the hands of our sworn enemies. America should have no part in arming and training these radical armies.  Since the Islamist State says they are at war with us, we should eliminate them without giving our enemies more weapons with which to murder us.”

I have known Congressman Gohmert for many years and have actually had dinner with him more than once. He is a man of God who truly understands the threat the spreading jihad has against Israel, Christians everywhere and the United States mainland.

Senator Rand Paul and RFC Chairman William J. Murray.

On the Senate side, Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were the most outspoken against the aid to “vetted moderate” Islamists in Syria. In the past and in this instance the RFC has  furnished materials to Senator Paul’s office about the situation in Syria that he verified and used. Many call Senator Paul a libertarian, but I have spoken privately to this man and know he and his wife are committed Christians who love the Lord and that he is deeply ashamed of how Christians have suffered in Iraq and Syria because of the actions of our nation. In an effort to derail Obama’s request for more money, Senator Paul said:

“Bashar Assad is clearly not an American ally. But does his ouster encourage stability in the Middle East, or would his ouster actually encourage instability? Are any of the Islamic rebels our allies? Will they defend American interests? Will they acknowledge Israel’s right to exist? Will they impose Shari’ah law? Will they tolerate Christians, or will they pillage and destroy ancient Christian churches and people? The President and his Administration have not provided good answers to any of these questions.”

He then pointed to Obama’s record on dealing with Syria:

“Regarding whether we go to war at all, or under what circumstance, remember that the President last year wanted to intervene on the OTHER side of this war. Let me reiterate that: This administration and its allies on both sides of the aisle in seeking perpetual war, last year wanted the United States to join this war on the side of ISIS, against the Assad regime.”

Others spoke out against the United States sending aid to the Christian killers in Syria, but the majority in Congress were more interested in leaving town than doing what was right.

The final vote: In the end the majority voted to add the Saudi money to the budget, but with broad resistance. There was no willingness to shut down the government and stay in town and away from campaigning for reelection. Both Republican Speaker John Boehner and Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid had added the funds into a continuing resolution. Once the funds were approved as an amendment, the only way to stop the funding was to shut down the government. No one was going to do that, just a month before the election.

In all, 156 congressmen and 22 Senators voted against the President’s request to accept King Abdullah’s $500 million and use it to arm and train “moderate” rebels. Half of those voting against President Obama’s request were Democrats, which shows the wide disapproval in the country. Had this been real taxpayer dollars, the amendment to the spending bill to keep the government open until next year may not have passed.

Our aid projects – The need is so great that there is no amount of private aid that can provide for the needs of the suffering Christians of Syria. We have been doing what we can and have helped to deliver several sea going containers of food and clothing this year. That is a drop in the bucket, as there are hundreds of thousands of Christian refugees.

Most Americans don’t know that Syria was not a third world nation. In fact, Damascus had better roads than Washington, DC. The nation was 100% literate with a larger percentage of college graduates than the United States. The vast majority of Christians had a middle class lifestyle with good jobs, or they owned their own businesses. Most owned their own homes, had a car and their kids were in private Christian schools.

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

Barack Obama’s attempt to bring “democracy” to Syria has left most Christians homeless, their businesses in ruins and their lives destroyed. Thousands of Christian men have been beheaded or crucified for refusing to convert to Islam, while their wives and daughters have been taken as sex slaves. Young Christian boys are used as slave labor. A wealthy oil producing nation with a wide range of high tech and pharmaceutical factories lies in ruins, simply because the King of Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States, tried to knock out the Shiite president.

Still, in the middle of this the Religious Freedom Coalition does have aid programs and tries to help some, particularly the children. In the big picture perhaps we can’t do that much, but 100% of the aid we provide goes to Christians, unlike the USAID program that provides aid almost exclusively to Muslim Syrian refugees.

The Christmas for Refugees program that was so successful last year is being expanded. As of now, the plans are for 1,000 Christmas dinners to be served to Christian refugee children in Jordan and 1,000 more to children in Lebanon. Each child will take home to their family a box of staple foods valued at about $30 to $35. The ministry we coordinate with in Lebanon says they can easily expand the program to 1,500 or even 2,000 children — if we can raise the funds. Please pray that we can reach as many children as possible.

Christmas for Refugees Exhibit: The Values Voter Summit is the largest gathering of social conservatives in the nation and it is held here in Washington, DC each year. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is the main organizer of the event, but there are dozens of sponsors including American Values, Liberty Counsel, American Family Radio and the Religious Freedom Coalition. As part of our participation in bringing thousands of social conservative activists to the Values Voter Summit, we maintain an exhibit in the main hall of the hotel where the annual event is held. The photo above shows the large posters explaining our Christmas program, and the literature that was made available. This short video shows the Christmas for Refugee booth at the Values Voter Summit.

The Christmas for Refugee program is important because it brings hope. You can learn more about the program at www.Christmas4Refugees.org.

Getting out the truth: On October 5^th a large Rally for Israel was held on Capitol Hill here in Washington, DC at which Mike Huckabee was the keynote speaker. I was also privileged to be one of the speakers at the event, although of course, I had a lot less time to speak than did Governor Mike Huckabee. I took the few minutes I had to explain the plight of Christians in the Middle East and to point out that the only Middle Eastern nation in which Christians are still safe is in Israel. In fact the Christian population in Israel is growing among the Arab Israelis. The Religious Freedom Coalition for more than fifteen years has assisted missionaries in Israel who take the Gospel to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in Samaria (often called the West Bank).

Just the day before the event with Mike Huckabee I drove to Richmond, Virginia to a reception with Dr. Ben Carson, who is considering running for President. I met with him prior to a dinner at which he was scheduled to speak. Dr. Carson is becoming increasingly influential among social conservatives. He is one of the new leaders whom we must urge to speak out about the plight of Christians facing persecution and death in the Middle East and Africa.

William J. Murray,
Chairman

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