🧵Introducing IDI. The most trusted source of information on the Middle East, Islam and the Ideological threats facing the West. Subject-matter experts, former Muslims, Arab Christians, and Western thought leaders, coming together to equip policymakers to prevent destructive foreign ideas from being translated into law, restore confidence in the biblical principles that built the West by empowering the Church to reengage the public square, and provide the public with solid analysis to combat the confusion that is making the West vulnerable.

A Lebanese military court has sentenced journalist Maria Maalouf, in absentia, to 15 years in prison and stripped her of her civil rights. The charge is not assassination, not corruption, not the financial collapse that gutted the country. It is an interview. Maalouf, a longtime Hezbollah critic now living in exile in the United States, appeared on Israeli television and said that Hezbollah and Iran have taken Lebanon hostage. For saying it, she gets 15 years. Days earlier, that same military justice handed identical 15-year sentences, in absentia, to two more Lebanese living abroad: Ahmad Yassine, a Paris-based professor with a large YouTube following, and Joumana Gebara. Their crime was also speech, Gebara for praising Israel's Arabic-language military spokesman and calling for normalization, Yassine for his commentary against Hezbollah. Arab peace with Israel comes in two models. The Egyptian-Jordanian model is a treaty between governments, frozen at the state level, where popular contact stays forbidden and prosecuted. The Emirati-Moroccan model runs between societies, where citizens actually meet. Even before any peace exists, Hezbollah is working to predetermine its shape, a party that has captured the courts, the security apparatus, and the boycott laws, and uses them to guarantee that no Lebanese can move toward Israel independently of it. The Lebanese who want peace are hostages of the institutions Hezbollah controls. @M_S_khairallah

Iranian authorities have sentenced Ghazal Marzban, a Christian convert, to nine years in prison for possessing a personal Bible and other Christian literature. The Revolutionary Court in Tehran convicted her of "propaganda against the state" and "acting against national security," charges frequently used against religious minorities in the country. Marzban and her husband converted to Catholicism about seven years ago. Since then, she has faced repeated harassment, including expulsion from law school and pressure to leave Iran. She was arrested in January at her home in Tehran, where security forces seized her Bible and Christian booklets. During interrogation, she was denied access to a lawyer and pressured to confess to proselytizing and distributing religious materials, accusations she firmly denied, insisting the items were for personal devotional use only. Adding to the hardship, Marzban had been the primary caregiver for her husband, who suffers from Parkinson's disease. Her imprisonment has left him without support, raising serious concerns about his health. This is not her first brush with the regime. In 2024, she spent two months in prison on similar charges related to "propaganda against the regiem." Source: @coptstoday

No, Pope Leo, you are wrong. Al-Andalus wasn't an interfaith utopia, it was 800 years of jizya, beheaded monks, forced conversions, and Maimonides fleeing for his life. You're peddling a fairy tale that gets Christians killed. idicenter.org/article/the-vi…

Why Islamic countries are more efficient at combating Islamic terrorism than Western democracies?

The topic of women in Islam confuses the West as much as the topic of jihad does. In this guide, IDI has put together everything you need to know about the real status of women under sharia, backed by 100 references from the most authentic Islamic sources. idicenter.org/article/the-st…

Freeing Four Generations of Inherited Slavery Reveals the Depth of Pakistan’s Human Rights Emergency open.substack.com/pub/idicen…

Jew-Hatred Rising in Europe: How to Combat it as a Moral Duty open.substack.com/pub/idicen…

Why Muhammad turned against the Jews, and how that reason explains the chants we still hear from Muslims today? Get early access to this article by Elaine Jones open.substack.com/pub/idicen…

Four of the five ancient sees of Christendom lay under Islam. Only one mountain church in the Levant still holds an unbroken line to the apostles, and it's still standing today. The Last See in the East by @mariodayba idicenter.org/article/the-la…

What makes Islamic violence different from violence among other groups?

Get early access to IDI's articles via Substack. In today's article, @Khaledhzakariah explains why it's beneficial to us to blame the victim. open.substack.com/pub/idicen…

📰Our Weekly Suggested Reading 📚 1⃣ At @jerusalemcenter, Dr Jacques Neriah asks Is Hizbullah Preparing a Takeover in Lebanon? 2⃣ @AlmaIsrael2 reports on The Penetration of the Pro-Iranian Axis into Lebanese Institutions. 3⃣ At @HooverInst, @makramrabah discusses Hezbollah, the War That Made It, and the Stages of Its Unraveling. 4⃣ At @FDD, Bonnie Glick argues that The Humanitarian Aid Machine Cannot Be Bamboozled by Gaza. 5⃣ At @idicenter, Mohamed Saad Khiralla discusses The Duality of the Egyptian Regime. 6⃣ At @INSSIsrael, Batsheva Neuer asks Are We Asking the Wrong Questions about Antisemitism?

In Pakistan, Christians face systemic discrimination that forces them into hazardous labor with minimal safety protections. They are allowed to only occupy lower-status jobs such as cleaning and sanitation work, or as bonded laborers in brick kilns. Many Christians are trapped in debt. Workers are forced to descend into deep sewers without protective gear (like masks or gloves), exposing them to toxic gases. This exploitation continues to take lives. The Hidden Reality of Enslaved Christians in Pakistan by @bulutuzay_ idicenter.org/commentary/for…