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Thursday, March 12, 2026
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Does Labour EVER Get Things Right and Fair?
Christians lament government's new Islamophobia definition.
(Photo: Getty/iStock)Christian commentators have reacted with dismay to the government’s newly announced definition of “anti-Muslim hostility”, formerly known as “Islamophobia”.
Representatives of various faith groups, including Islam, have previously urged the government to drop its plans, saying the definition would be used to stifle free speech.
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Tim Dieppe, of Christian Concern, has argued that the new definition could itself represent a breach of equality law, in that it provides special protection to Islam and Muslims not afforded to other religions.
Meanwhile, writing for Christian Today, evangelical leader David Robertson warned the definition might even be used one day to silence those attempting to preach the Gospel to Muslims.
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“I can see a day coming in the not-too-distant future when … writers like me will be prosecuted under the Islamophobia blasphemy law for spreading hate against Muslims. But preaching Christ and his word is not hatred, nor is it any kind of phobia. It is Christian love," he said.
The final version of the new definition is as follows:
"Anti-Muslim hostility is intentionally engaging in, assisting or encouraging criminal acts – including acts of violence, vandalism, harassment, or intimidation, whether physical, verbal, written or electronically communicated – that are directed at Muslims because of their religion or at those who are perceived to be Muslim, including where that perception is based on assumptions about ethnicity, race or appearance."
"It is also the prejudicial stereotyping of Muslims, or people perceived to be Muslim including because of their ethnic or racial backgrounds or their appearance, and treating them as a collective group defined by fixed and negative characteristics, with the intention of encouraging hatred against them, irrespective of their actual opinions, beliefs or actions as individuals."
"It is engaging in unlawful discrimination where the relevant conduct – including the creation or use of practices and biases within institutions – is intended to disadvantage Muslims in public and economic life."
The government has sought to give assurances that this definition, which is non-statutory, will not threaten freedom speech, saying: “A definition must not and will not prohibit free speech nor stop issues being raised in the public interest.”
Others disagree. Christian commentator Adrian Hilton said on X, “The saving grace of this definition of anti-Muslim hostility is that it is non-statutory. But as public institutions (including universities and schools) adopt it, I think the application will have a detrimental effect on the freedom of expression, especially if policed by those with a mission.
“To warn of the dangers of Muslim bloc voting and creeping sharia may constitute negative characteristics observed of a collective.
"To write or say that Mohammed is a false prophet is easily perceived as harassment or intimidation directed at Muslims because of their religion. It doesn't augur well at all for any examination of the socio-cultural and religious dimensions of rape gangs.”
Dieppe has stood by his earlier concerns, stating on X, “The positives are relative to how bad it could have been. Tough words on blasphemy are meaningless when accompanied with a proposed definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ which effectively introduces a blasphemy code to appease the Muslim activists.”
The government’s own anti-terrorism tsar, Jonathan Hall KC, has also raised concerns, telling the BBC, “The worry will be with loose language, people will feel inhibited about talking about things that they do think which are genuinely important today.”
A number of MPs have spoken out. Nick Timothy, Conservative MP for West Suffolk and shadow justice secretary, called it a "very predictable betrayal" by Labour.
"Labour said they would protect free speech. But the whole point of this definition is to attack our freedom to criticise, satirise and scrutinise ideas," he said.
He added that he will "ignore" the definition and "advise the whole country to do the same".
Shadow equalities minister, Claire Coutinho MP, said, "The Government's Islamophobia definition has had a rebrand, but the underlying challenges remain the same. Its loose wording will shut down public services trying to combat grooming gangs, FGM and terrorism, and yet it will do nothing to change the law on harassment and abuse.
"With ethnonationalism and sectarianism on the rise, it is important that we hold on to the principle that we are all equal before the law. Anything else will just breed more resentment and division." CT.
Romans 8.
Life Through the Spirit.
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1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. NIV.
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
NOT Good Enough!
Nigeria's govt didn't end Christian school kidnappings.
A student pulls her suitcase as she walks out of the Federal Government Girls College in Bwari, on the outskirts of Abuja, on Nov. 22, 2025. The national education ministry has ordered 47 boarding secondary schools across the country be shut after gunmen have kidnapped more than 300 students and teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria, a Christian group said on Nov. 22, as security fears mounted in Africa's most populous nation. The early Nov. 21 raid on St Mary's co-education school in Niger state in western Nigeria came after gunmen on Nov. 17 stormed a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls. | John OKUNYOMIH / AFP via Getty ImagesIn the middle of the night, while most families slept peacefully, darkness came for a school in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Armed men crashed into the Hassan family’s home at 3:30 a.m., killing a husband and dragging terrified girls into the bush. Twenty-five daughters — each with dreams, innocence, and God-given worth — were stolen in moments.
Amina Hassan’s testimony is almost unbearable:
“I thought it was animals outside. Then I heard the bang. By the time we got up, they were already inside with guns. They told her to lie down so they could shoot her. She begged to go and ease herself, and when they opened the door they saw other girls and left her.”[1]
Her daughter survived only because she begged to step outside and, in that sliver of distraction, fled into the bush. She hid until morning, shaken but alive.
Many others were not so fortunate. And Nigeria’s leadership cannot hide behind press conferences anymore.
Just months ago, the Minister of Education stood on national television claiming that Nigeria had gone “12 months without a school abduction.” He praised “focused policies,” “historic spending,” and a triumphant Safe School Initiative.
But the bodies of innocent Nigerians now testify to the truth: the government did not end school kidnappings — children were still being taken, but officials were too busy taking victory laps.
Civil rights groups have rightly called these boasts propaganda. Western officials — from the Pope to U.S. lawmakers — have issued warnings. And Christian communities, already hammered by targeted genocide, understand what is really happening on the ground.
This is not random chaos. This is a pattern. A predictable, preventable, and devastating pattern.
It is a pattern of armed Fulani ethnic militias targeting Christian-majority regions. A pattern of porous security despite billions spent on defense. A pattern of government declarations that collapse the moment reality intrudes.
The Hassan family’s grief is not isolated. Their suffering is not unique. And the trauma inflicted on these girls is not an accident — it is the result of apathy toward Christian victims and a security architecture that has failed its most basic duty: to protect the innocent and punish the wicked.
The first step toward healing is refusing to pretend. The first step toward justice is naming evil. The first step toward protecting the next school is acknowledging that the last school was not protected.
So let us say this plainly: If a nation spending billions on security cannot stop armed men from walking into a school at 3:30 a.m., the issue is not funding — it is integrity. It is competence. It is accountability.
How many more schools must fall? How many fathers must die? How many daughters must be buried in lies before Abuja stops boasting and starts protecting?
Families in Nigeria are not asking for sympathy — they are asking for help. They are asking for someone to do what their own government has failed to do: protect their children and tell the truth about the danger they live in.
This is the moment for action. Not tomorrow. Not after the next attack. Now
Support the work on the ground. Strengthen the communities under threat. Make sure these families are not abandoned a second time.
Nigeria may pretend the crisis is over. We know it isn’t. And this is where we take our stand.
Will you stand with us at “Equipping the Persecuted”?
[1] Nigeria’s ‘12 Months Without School Abductions’ Claim Shattered by Predawn Kidnap of 25 Girls
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Nigeria Government Is Wretched.
Pastor Sam Jones serves Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Humboldt, IA as Senior Pastor. He married the love of his life, Sarah, in 2013; they have two sons, Thomas and Henry. He is most known for his teachings on the 4 spheres of delegated government and for being a voice for the pre-born.
In addition to his Pastoral schedule, Pastor Sam is an avid podcaster and has been known to dabble in radio as well. His political commentary has appeared in dozens of news outlets across the country including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and The Iowa Standard.
Pastor Sam is the author of 5 Steps to Kill a Nation. He is also a co-author of Social Injustice, Church and State, and Enemies Within the Church Bible Study. CP.
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Sorry To Be Late With This.
The Story of a Christian American GI Who Saved 200 Jewish Soldiers from Certain Death in WW2 – and Never Told Anyone about It.
During the Holocaust, one American GI's quiet courage and unwavering faith led him to defy Nazi orders and save 200 Jewish-American soldiers from certain death. Discover the remarkable story of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a man whose...
Updated Jan 26, 2026
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Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a date chosen to align with the fateful day back in 1945 when Allied troops liberated the worst of the Nazi deathcamps: Aushwitz-Birkenau. Approximately 960,000 Jews were murdered there, and nearly 1.1 million lives were cut short in all. But amidst the tragedy and horror associated with the Nazi genocide, there were stories of hope and courage, too. One involved an American GI who helped save 200 Jewish-American GI’s from near certain death. His name was Master Sergeant Roderick "Roddie" Edmonds, and the most remarkable part of his story wasn't his courage or the lives he saved. It was his humility. And the source of his humility and his courage: his faith in God.
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Edmonds never told anyone about what he did, not even his son Chris, a pastor in Tennessee and co-author of a book about his father’s exploits, No Surrender. "I asked him several times about his WW2 experience and he would say, 'Son, there are some things that are just too difficult to share,'" Chris Edmonds told “Our American Stories.”
His father died and took his secrets to his grave. It would take 20-plus years for his son to unearth his father's WW2 story. Poking around on Google, he stumbled upon his dad's name in a New York Times story about a home President Richard Nixon purchased in the 1970s from a man named Lester Tanner. In the piece, Tanner briefly noted he'd been saved from certain death at a POW camp during World War II by a soldier named Roddie Edmonds.
Chris was startled. Could that be his dad Tanner was talking about? So Edmunds did what any son would do—he tracked Tanner down like a detective, and pieced together the rest of his father’s remarkable story."My dad was a part of the Battle of the Bulge," Edmunds explained. "They were sent to replace the men on the front lines and on December 17, 1944, the German forces overwhelmed his unit. Edmonds and the 1,200-plus soldiers eventually ended up in a camp called Stalag IX-A in western Germany.
When they got to the camp, Edmunds became the senior commander of the American GI’s. And that's when the story got interesting. “One day, they got an announcement over the loudspeaker that asked for the Jewish POWs to fall out for the morning roll call,” Edmunds said. “Lester Tanner told me my dad immediately said, ‘We are not going to do that’ and sent orders throughout the barracks to have all the men fall out the next morning.”
What would they do? Would they risk their lives to protect their Jewish brothers in arms? Edmunds continued with one of the most harrowing accounts of mass bravery on or off the battlefield in WW2.
So the next morning, all the soldiers and POWs fell out. There were approximately 1,275 men, and they were all standing there before the barracks and Lester says the commandant came over to my dad and was furious and said, ‘All of you can't be Jews.’ Then Paul Stern, who was standing close by, said that my dad responded, ‘We are all Jews here.’
Needless to say, the commanding German officer of the camp was not pleased. Edmunds’ son continued.
The commandant was angry that this American had the audacity to disobey an order. He said, ‘I am asking you to command your Jewish men to step forward.’ My dad's response was simply this, ‘According to the Geneva Convention all that is required is name, rank and serial number.’ That again infuriated the commandant, who was a Major. He pulled his gun out of his holster and pressed it to my dad's forehead and said, ‘You will have your Jewish men step forward immediately or I will shoot you on the spot.’ Lester Tanner said that my dad said, ‘Major, if you shoot me, you will have to shoot us all.’ And then my dad added some more, ‘We know who you are and when we win this war you will have to stand for war crimes.’ Tanner said that the major blanched and turned blood red and for what seemed like a very long time (but wasn't)and stuck his gun in his holster and turned and walked away. They all went back into the barracks and cheered my father.’
Proverbs 1:1-6.
1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,
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knowledge and discretion to the young—
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,and let the discerning get guidance—
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
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