Connect with us

World

Trump’s plan to favour Christian refugees denounced

Published

on

Trump's plan to favour Christian refugees denounced

Washington:  Clergy members have denounced US President Donald Trump’s plan to favour Christian refugees over others, as discriminatory, misguided and inhumane, the media reported. In an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday, Trump said his administration will give priority to Christian refugees because they had suffered “more so” than others, “so we are going to help them”. The President’s remarks came after he signed an executive order on the same day to temporarily bar US entry to refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations — Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Besides the clergy members, Trump’s remarks about the Christian refugees were also slammed by some of the evangelical, Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders who represent the churches most active in trying to aid persecuted Christians. “We believe in assisting all, regardless of their religious beliefs,” said Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, the chairman of the committee on migration for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Jen Smyers, the director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee programme of Church World Service, a ministry affiliated with dozens of Christian denominations, called Friday a “shameful day” in US history.

In interviews on Sunday, churchgoers in several cities were sharply divided on the issue, the New York Times said. “You look at a city like Mosul, which is one of the oldest Christian populations in the world,” said Mark Tanner, 52, a worshipper at Buckhead Church, an evangelical church in Atlanta, referring to the besieged Iraqi city.  “There’s a remnant there that want to stay there to be a Christian witness.” “So yes…We should reach out to everyone, but we have to be real about it and as far as who you let come into the country.”

Nmachi Abengowe, 62, a native of Nigeria who attends Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, cited Muslim-on-Christian violence in Africa in defending Trump’s preference for Christian refugees. “They believe in jihad,” he said of Muslims. “They don’t have peace. Peace comes from Jesus Christ.” Jim Jacobson, the president of Christian Freedom International, which advocates for persecuted Christians, applauded the executive order and said: “The Trump administration has given hope to persecuted Christians that their cases will finally be considered.” In 2016, the US admitted almost as many Christian refugees (37,521) as Muslim refugees (38,901), according to the Pew Research Centre.

 

World

Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online

Published

on

By

Anyip Mobile Proxies

Shanghai’s rich middle class is leading a wave of online dissent over the strict and prolonged lockdowns imposed in various parts of the country. Chinese internet censorship is struggling as patience is wearing thin in many urban centers, coming up with creative forms of online protests.

Social Media Posts Revealing Lockdown Tension in Shanghai

Drawn-out lockdowns are nothing new in China as authorities insist with the nation’s zero-Covid policy since the start of the pandemic. Currently over This time around, however, metropolitan areas like Shanghai are increasingly difficult to keep quiet, given that its more than 25 million residents have seen weeks of total isolation along with food shortages and many other service interruptions.

Dozens of towns and reportedly over 300 million Chinese citizens have been affected by lockdowns of different severity. As expected, urban netizens have been most outspoken over their difficulties by finding creative ways to get around state censorship and bans placed on topics, news comments and spontaneous campaigns.

Shanghai residents have been using mobile proxies and hijacking seemingly unrelated hashtags to talk about healthcare issues, delivery failures and the overall severity of their situation. The “positive energy” that the Chinese government wants to transmit during the recent prolonged series of lockdowns does not come naturally to those counting food supplies and online censors are working hard to filter words, trending topics and undesired social media sharing.

WeChat groups and message threads are under constant monitoring. Posts questioning the zero-Covid approach have been quickly deleted, including by leading Chinese health experts like Dr. Zhong Nanshan. Video footage is soon censored and protests and investigations are quickly made to disappear.

Where this has not worked, officials have exposed banners with warnings and outright threats like “watch your own mouth or face punishment”, while drones have been patrolling the city skies. Yet, if anything, this has led to further tensions and unspoken confrontation with Shanghai’s educated and affluent middle class.

Creative Online Solutions Harnessing Civic Energy

Announcements by Chinese social media that they would be publishing the IP addresses of users who “spread rumors” have not helped either. Tech industry research has shown that much of Asia’s tech-savvy population has a habit of using mobile proxies and other privacy tools, quickly finding workarounds to browse the internet freely and talk to the world about the hottest topics.

The sheer volume of forbidden posts is already a challenge for the very censorship system, experts explain. Unable to track all trending hashtags, state workers overlook topics that speak about the US, Ukraine or other popular news. Linking human rights elsewhere to their situation, Chinese online dissidents establish their informal channels and “hijack” the conversation to share personal or publicly relevant information about the Covid suppression in their town.

Sarcastic and satirical posts still dominate. Others hope to evade the censors by replacing words from famous poems or the national anthem. One thing is certain – social media, when harnessed with the right creativity, has proven its ability to mount pressure on the government in even some of the most strictly controlled tech environments like China.

Continue Reading

Trending