Catholics and evangelical Christians are now lumped in with “religious extremists” such as the Ku Klux Klan, al-Qaeda, and Hamas on a Department of Defense (DOD) training manual slide, according to a Marine Corps officer.
“First Liberty also obtained a screenshot of an unclassified slide from a U.S. Army training manual. The slide is entitled ‘Religious Extremism’ and it purports to identify religious extremists,” Michael Berry told the House Armed Services Committee, during a hearing on March 24 titled “Extremism in the Military.”
Berry is general counsel to the First Liberty Institute (FLI), a Plano, Texas-based public interest law firm that specializes in First Amendment and religious freedom cases. Berry is also an officer in the Marine Corps Reserves, although he presented his testimony in his capacity as a civilian.
“Included among those listed are al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Ku Klux Klan as groups that use or advocate violence to accomplish their objectives and are therefore rightly classified as extremists,” Berry told the committee.
“But also included are Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism, who most assuredly do not advocate violence. Surely, the fact that Evangelical Christians and Catholics hold fast to millennia-old views on marriage and human sexuality does not make them extremists who are unfit to serve.
“At a time of turmoil and instability, during which our nation faces many external threats, [this] message is inappropriate and offensive to our service members and those they defend.”
With Democrats using Jan. 6 to push many radical policies, Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas pointed out that “there are 18 million U.S. military veterans. Thirty-four were rioters. This means that 17,999,966 of us were not. That’s one out of 529,000,” while Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the panel’s top Republican, told the hearing at the outset that “it is important to point out that we lack any concrete evidence that violent extremism is as rife in the military as some commentators claim.”
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GOP Rep: Those on Terror Watch List Have Been Apprehended at U.S.-Mexico Border
The top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee has warned that some of those arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border in the last week are part of a terrorist watch list and pose a national security threat to the country.
Yesterday, after a trip to the Southern border near El Paso, Texas, Rep. John Katko (R-NY) said, “People who they’ve got in the last few days… have been on the terror watchlist.”
“Individuals that they have on the watch list for terrorism are now starting to exploit the Southern border. We need to wake up, we need to understand. Listen Mr. President Biden, you’re an OK guy. Why don’t you just admit you made a mistake with this policy and go back to the way it was and keep America safe for all of us? And use that money that we’re wasting down here on American citizens,” he added.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who was also on the trip to the border, said that individuals from Iran, Yemen and Sri Lanka were among those mixed in with the illegal immigrants attempting to enter the U.S.
Katko joined Fox News last night where he explained more about his trip and what he learned.
“We went up to what they call ‘monument 3,’ which is the intersection of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico,” he said. “When I was standing there, looking out, I was talking to one of the agents, and he said the night before, 100 people came across and he said some of them are on the list. I said what list? He said, the terror watch list, and that really sent my antenna up.”
“It’s not just people coming from Honduras, they’re people coming from all over the world and starting to exploit this gap in our system and doesn’t have to be,” he continued.
Mexico’s President Blames Border Crisis on Biden
Despite Democrats’ desperate and irrational push to blame the southern border crisis on former President Donald Trump, Mexico’s own President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador isn’t buying it.
During a daily press conference yesterday, Lopez Obrador said the Biden Administration created “expectations” that illegal immigrants would receive a certain level of treatment if they attempted to cross the border.
“Expectations were created that with the government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants,” said the Mexican president. “And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so.”
The comments are not the first critiques López Obrador has offered of Biden’s handling of the border, saying early this month, “They see [Biden] as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States.
“We need to work together to regulate the flow, because this business can’t be tackled from one day to the next.”
The White House has blamed the Trump Administration for the chaos at the border.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently called the situation at the border “a big problem” and said, “The last administration left us a dismantled and unworkable system and, like any other problem, we are going to do all we can to solve it.”
Earlier this week, a “Biden for President 2020” flag was seen flying in a migrant camp in Tijuana, Mexico.
Fox News’ Griff Jenkins reported live from the scene on Monday and said, It is every bit Biden’s migrant camp. They are flying the Biden flag. They are wearing the Biden T-shirts. There’s 500 to 1,000 individuals staying here that believe wholeheartedly that President Joe Biden wants them here and will help them get across.”
