{"id":21055,"date":"2013-01-16T02:56:32","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T05:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=21055"},"modified":"2016-11-26T01:59:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T04:59:01","slug":"mali-militants-fight-off-crusaders-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/16\/mali-militants-fight-off-crusaders-religious-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali Militants Fight Off Crusaders, Religious Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The French are reportedly entering what could be one of their most significant military operations in some years.\u00a0 They are assisting their former colony, the African country of Mali, in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/01\/12\/world\/africa\/mali-france\/index.html?\">fight against &#8220;Islamist militants.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Mali is being joined by France&#8230;as it tries to beat back advances by forces linked to al Qaeda&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every means was used in fighting the Islamists, <!--more-->including two attack helicopters. They sent the Islamists fleeing,&#8221; Kone told CNN. &#8220;This shows that the Malian army is capable to fight.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/africaandindianocean\/mali\/9797377\/French-hostage-believed-killed-in-Somalia-raid-as-military-operation-continues-in-Mali.html\">Elsewhere<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sanda Abou Moahmed, a spokesman for the main rebel Ansar Dine group, mocked the Malian president for calling French troops into their former colony.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While Dioncounda Traore asked for help from France, we ask for guidance from Allah and from other Muslims in our sub-region because this war has become a war against the crusaders,&#8221; he said by telephone from Timbuktu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With indications the US military might be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/2013\/01\/13\/french-military-arrives-to-help-mali-government-as-radical-islamists-advance\/\">aiding the French &#8220;crusaders,&#8221;<\/a> this potential conflict may soon raise the ire of religious freedom critic Michael Weinstein, whose MRFF routinely claims\u00a0Christians are trying to take over the world by way of becoming &#8220;crusaders&#8221; in the US military.<\/p>\n<p>Weinstein has previously taken positions that indicate he believes the offense of the extremists is the standard by which peoples&#8217; liberties should be governed.\u00a0 For example, Weinstein <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/13\/freedom-group-seeks-ban-on-religious-exercise-in-the-us-military\/\">berated US Marines who were baptized<\/a> on a beach because it might hurt the bad men&#8217;s feelings.<\/p>\n<p>By Weinstein&#8217;s logic, and that of his &#8220;charitable&#8221; MRFF, the Mali <em>nationalists <\/em>must have done something wrong if the extremists think they&#8217;re &#8220;crusaders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>That <\/em>is Michael Weinstein&#8217;s view of &#8220;religious freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The French are reportedly entering what could be one of their most significant military operations in some years.\u00a0 They are assisting their former colony, the African country of Mali, in a fight against &#8220;Islamist militants.&#8221; Mali is being joined by France&#8230;as it tries to beat back advances by forces linked to al Qaeda&#8230; &#8220;Every means was used in fighting the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2038,894,3814,250,3816,3811,44,3813,3812,85,2,5218,7,10,171,3815,3817],"class_list":["post-21055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-africa","tag-al-qaeda","tag-ansar-dine","tag-crusader","tag-dioncounda-traore","tag-france","tag-islam","tag-kone","tag-mali","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-sanda-abou-moahmed","tag-timbuktu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}