Twelve Things That Caught My Eye Today: A Brutal Uyghurs Testimony, Last Wednesday & More

1. Gulbahar Haitiwaji: ‘Our souls are dead’: how I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uighurs

“One day, one of my classmates, a woman in her 60s, shut her eyes, surely from exhaustion or fear. The teacher gave her a brutal slap. “Think I don’t see you praying? You’ll be punished!” The guards dragged her violently from the room.”

2.  As Boko Haram strikes on Christmas, “No evil will take away our faith”

Speaking after the Christmas Eve attack in which a priest was abducted, Bishop Doeme said: “One thing that Boko Haram will never take from us is our faith.

“We will never allow our faith to be taken away by any evil. Our faith is becoming stronger and stronger. 100 people were baptized in one parish on Christmas Eve. People are so committed.”

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4. Russell Moore: The Roman Road from Insurrection

This is not about politics. This is about our country, about the rule of law, and about the sanctity of human life. The President invited mobs to Washington—promising a “wild” time—and told them to march to the Capitol. Despite the fact that there was not one thing that Vice President Pence could have lawfully done, the President called him a coward, and whipped up crowds against him who, many of them, then chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” while constructing gallows on the Capitol grounds. An American flag was thrown down and replaced with a Trump flag, while another insurrectionist paraded a Confederate flag through the Capitol. Police officers were attacked. Congressional leaders hid while the doors buckled from mobs seeking to attack them. People are dead. The Capitol is ransacked. Administration officials are resigning in protest.

If you read nothing else, read this: If you can defend this, you can defend anything.

5. Harvey Mansfield: Final Days

It was when Trump lost the election that he and at least some his supporters showed fangs. Who was worse, one can ask: Was it Trump himself, or his supporters, who actually charged the Capitol while he took to the safety of the White House? The ancient critics of democracy believed that it was the supporters, the demos, who were responsible; Trump was doing their bidding. We moderns are invested in democracy and want to blame the demagogue almost entirely. Trump is surely less honest than his troops, but that is perhaps a greater indictment of the quality of their honesty for such eager willingness that they showed to violate the law. His followers at the Capitol seemed to be as joyful as they were angry.

6. Bill McGurn: All Donald Trump’s Deplorables

for anyone who cares about unity and healing, the president’s fate is no longer the primary concern. More important is the future for the half of America that supported him. Because there is an effort to lump the 74 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump with those who rampaged through the Capitol — thus rendering them unfit for polite society going forward.

There’s no denying the reality of the thugs. But let me tell you about the people I know who attended that rally. To a person, they are decent, ordinary Americans who didn’t enter the Capitol and wouldn’t dream of disobeying a police officer.

7. Why Purging Social Media of Extremist Speech Might Not Make Us Safer

8. Steven Howard: Joe Biden Must Push Saudi Arabia on Human Rights

If President-elect Biden is serious in his sentiment to reevaluate the relationship, he should work with Congress to go back to basics. To lay the strongest possible foundation in these reform efforts, religious freedom promotion must lie at the heart of this reevaluation.

9. A brother’s grief, a father’s joy and learning to live with both at Christmas

Bethany’s death and Luke’s birth forever will be linked. His first birthday will mean one year without her, and on and on. The six days between those two life-changing events, the worst and best days of my life, were a balancing act, trying to mourn and await an arrival at the same time. I was completely overwhelmed — by grief, by joy, by generosity. Bethany’s story traveled on social media, and complete strangers donated to the memorial scholarship in her name.

For me, though, more connects them than just timing.

10. An exorcist teaches 4 steps to forgive

11. Carrie Gress: A Shining Light in Dark Days

12. Conservative Mental Health Up 300% After They All Get Banned From Twitter