Amid a growing U.S. military presence in the Middle East, President Donald Trump announced that nuclear talks are set for Friday with Iran. Steve Witkoff will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Istanbul to set the parameters for an Iranian nuclear deal. The Sekulow team discusses the pending meeting with Iran, U.S. foreign policy, the ACLJ’s legal work – and much more.
SPEAKER 10 :
On today’s show, President Trump responds to the Iranians’ threat of war. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekulow. It’s Monday. We are here live in our studios in Nashville, Tennessee. We are going to be broadcasting a little bit, joining Jordan in Washington, D.C., as he is there for a very important reason. We’ll get into that a little bit later. But, of course, President Trump couldn’t give us a Monday without something news to break, some big moments. We’ll discuss that as well as still the fallout coming from Minnesota, including, like I told you what happened, the celebrity-ization thing. of don lemon as we saw in the grammy awards walk on the red carpet getting standing ovations you know what somewhat this was predictable i knew this was going to happen i told you what happened this was the moment he had been waiting for to finally become a celebrity we had rid him of the news world but now we’ve decided to make don lemon once again relevant phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110 again as president trump says he doesn’t agree with the iranians and is pushing forward with what it could look like as iran threatens what they’re calling what a regional war a area war um if a deal isn’t sparked and we know that we’re talking about days away that’s right so what’s going on now is we saw that there was a an armada of
SPEAKER 11 :
u.s navy that was sent over to the region very close to where the iranians live and that this armada was there specifically as a deterrence and also trying to get them to stop going after the protesters that were in the streets of iran the ayatollah made a statement over the weekend that said if If the U.S. were to attack Iran, it would cause a regional war. And what we’re also seeing is that the administration, with Steve Witkoff, is planning on meeting in Istanbul this Friday. with the Iranian foreign minister to discuss a possible nuclear deal. This is as we’ve heard the administration say that the Iranians wanted to talk because of all the pressure the United States was putting on the regime in relation to all these protests that have been going on in Iran. But now it’s getting back to the nuclear issue. And the armada of the U.S. Navy that is there, some of the most powerful warships, as President Trump said, in the region, on the doorstep of the Iranians, are there as a deterrent to, one, continue going after these protesters, but as well as a backstop if these negotiations were to fail. President Trump was asked about the comment from the Supreme Leader from the Ayatollah yesterday at a press gaggle. And let’s go ahead and play that for people and hear how President Trump responded by one.
SPEAKER 02 :
So we will have our ships there. We have a meeting in a couple of days.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hopefully we’ll make a deal.
SPEAKER 11 :
But then if we don’t make a deal, we’ll find out whether the Ayatollah was right or not about a U.S. attack sparking a regional war. The threat obviously there from the president that if the Iranians aren’t able to make a deal, that a U.S. attack could be imminent.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and look, I want to know what you think about this. This is, you know, again, kind of gives everyone a bit of a reminder of what could have happened in previous years and what happened during the war on terror. Does it make you feel good about this? Do you think we need to get involved in Iran? Do you think we need to sit this one out? Do you want there to be a deal with Iran also that could keep… The current administration in power, I think that is a big concern. As we are finally, it felt like, on the verge of a revolution once again in Iran. And now, does that look like a few steps backwards? Again, we’ll discuss that coming up in the next segment. But I want to hear from you, the American people. 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air today. 1-800-684-3110. The dangers in Iran is that tipping point. And we know that Christians often tend to be punished disproportionately during these uprisings. And we want you to get involved. So we’re taking some urgent legal action. Today, we have filed a vital submission at the UN Human Rights Council on Iran. We’ll get into that coming up. And also, Jordan was featured this morning at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. You’re going to see some of that. Jordan’s going to join us a little bit later. Be right back. Phone lines lighten up to 1-800-684-3110. Definitely going to restate what we’re discussing today, which is, of course, President Trump saying, look, a war with Iran or attacks on Iran? aren’t impossible, aren’t off the table. As we know, negotiations look like they may happen this coming week. Maybe as soon as Friday, we’ll actually sit down and have some discussions with Iran. That does continue a really interesting conversation of where do you do when you decide to make a deal with these kind of regimes, what are the consequences of the fallout beyond just protection of your own people, which I believe we need, protection of the United States, What about the people in Iran who are on the verge of a revolution? Now they’re seeing a potential step back. What does that mean? We do have a lot of calls coming in on it as well, but well, maybe we just need to restate it, maybe play President Trump one more time so people can understand the situation. Let’s actually start with that with President Trump, which you saw in the last segment. This again, discussing the fact that the Supreme Leader of Iran essentially said, if nothing is reached, if a deal isn’t reached, a regional war could be sparked. Take a listen.
SPEAKER 02 :
later today said that U.S. attacks could spark a regional war.
SPEAKER 12 :
Give me a response to that. Why wouldn’t he say that? Of course he would say that. But we have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there. Very close. A couple of days. And hopefully we’ll make a deal. If we don’t make a deal, then we’ll find out whether or not he was right.
SPEAKER 11 :
So where does this come from? All of this, obviously, you need to give some background, some history of where we’re at. Remember, the Trump administration, through Steve Witkoff and through Jared Kushner and many of these other individuals, were negotiating with the Iranians over their nuclear program last summer. And then we remember the 12 day war between Israel and Iran, which kind of culminated with the United States bombing the nuclear sites of Iran. That was when we knew that the the talks were not progressing. They were just a stall tactic by the Iranians, as is expected. But the Trump administration was giving them the benefit of the doubt. And when they gave him the Iranians a deadline, like, listen, we have a hard out at this point. We are going to say no more. And what did the United States do? They made good on their promise to do something about it and bombed the nuclear sites. Now, this is a little different, but it has gotten the Iranians to kind of come back to the table because this all sparked with those protests that began in late December. We’re now in February. They dominated the news. At first, we’re not talked about at all. Then they kind of rose into the news, and now we’re not hearing about it as much because of domestic issues. That’s the news cycle. But what we were hopeful for was that the Iranian people themselves could overthrow the tyrannical death cult that has been in leadership since the 70s there. And what we’re now seeing, and this is kind of a concern, and I want to also get people’s thoughts on this, is that now that the Iranians are saying, hey, let’s have a nuclear deal talk again on Friday. President Trump is still being very strong with them. He sent an armada of ships, a large group of some of the most powerful Navy ships off into the region, not far from Iran, where strikes could be made against the Iranians if the president decides to make that call. The president said he was going to stand up for the protesters. Now the Iranians are dangling this nuclear issue again, hopefully not taking the administration, the Secretary of State and the President, their eye off the ball here. Because the nuclear issue, the Iranians had already balked at and not gotten to an amenable place with the administration last summer. But now they’re wanting to have this talk in Istanbul on Friday. I don’t want this to derail what the people of Iran have started there. If this, because one of the biggest criticisms we had of the Obama administration was their nuclear deal, which was awful. It wasn’t a good deal. I do trust that anything the president would put forward would be a lot stronger than what the Obama administration did. However, what did that deal do? It in a way legitimized the Iranian regime for a lot longer than it should have. in the wake of the Green Revolution, which was something that was the other time in history we were closest to seeing the people overthrow the government.
SPEAKER 07 :
We have a call basically on that exactly. Let’s go to Tom in West Virginia. Tom, go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, thank you for taking my call. Obviously, in 2009, Hussein Obama just pretty much gave lip service to a popular revolt that went on with the Persian people of Iran. And I have no ill will to the people of Iran. I have ill will to the Islamists that run that country that have since 1979 have said death to Israel, death to America. And as the great poet laureate Maya Angelou once said, when somebody tells you who they are, believe them. And I would like to give one other just quick notation here. the billy eilish said we live on stolen land so you know something for all those highly affluent white liberals that feel that we live on stolen land give your land your little piece of property back to the nearest native american tribe and put the money where your mouth is i’m fed up with these people and thank you for taking my call tom thanks for calling obviously tom referring back to the grammy awards last night where essentially
SPEAKER 07 :
The topic of immigration and ICE was on the front of just about everyone’s acceptance speech. Maybe not for Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll, but other than that, it feels like it was kind of what people would say. I mean, not saying everybody, because I have to go through everyone, but it certainly was the conversation piece, not unexpectedly. It was a standing ovation moment for a lot of people when they were looking for their moment of celebration. Not everyone went political. A lot did with that. And look, I think there’s a lot to be said right now in terms of how people are responding to all of that. But you are right. That was one that was maybe a bit aggressive in terms of that whole concept. That’s true. Then we’re all kind of dealing with a whole different situation. And look, we’ve actually been… have been worked with a lot of the Native American tribes and their land and the reservations here in the United States. And maybe Tom’s got some points. Give me a call though, 1-800-684-3110 if you want to continue this conversation. In the next segment also, we’re going to hear from Jordan. He has a video that we’re going to play and then he’s going to be joining us a little bit later because he was at… a featured panelist at the International Religious Freedom Summit that was today in Washington, D.C. So we’re going to discuss that coming up. Again, a big moment. A lot of you are calling in. I do want to kind of hear from you as we kind of continue this conversation. So 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. It is interesting to see. You got to be always careful with this, the news cycle and how it shifts and how it moves. Of course, we’re going to also discuss other topics. We said it was very nice to not have another day talking about Minnesota, another day talking about Don Lemon necessarily. However, we’ve seen sort of the news cycle now move back to Iran. But the problem is when the news cycle moves off of Iran, I feel like the American people do as well. They forget about what’s going on around the world. It feels like the American people, according to the news, according to the mainstream media, have the attention span for one story and one story only at a time. I don’t believe that to be the case. You know how we do this show. Each and every day is different. And often the show has multiple topics in one day. I think that you all can chew bubblegum at the same time. You can actually pay attention to what’s happening. But it’s very easy. Take your eye off the ball. get outraged over one issue, get in a bot argument online, and forget that there’s a verge of revolution happening not that far away. I mean, remember, we live in a pretty small earth to begin with. However, when you’re talking about the Middle East, you could get there today if you really wanted to. You could be there in a dozen hours, no problem. Let’s remember that when we’re talking about what’s happening. And when there’s a threat of a regional war, of course, there are shades of a war on terror on this. And there are some people who get concerned. They got concerned with it over Israel and Gaza. You get concerned over it when you start having these moments where America starts to get a little more involved. Then maybe President Trump ran on. I’m not saying it’s the wrong thing. I actually am very much in favor for a new Iran. I think Iran can be a wonderful place under new leadership. So when a deal starts getting struck and people start talking about that, sure, I am all for protecting American lives, protecting troops, protecting… But when it starts to go at the potential…
SPEAKER 11 :
shelving of a revolution that could lead to enormous amount of human lives saved in long run it is a little concerning well but to that point as well what the trump administration has long said their demands are of iran iran will never agree to right so i i really don’t think that i don’t think a deal we get into war with iran is possible right well and once again that’s where president trump is saying we’ll see if it sparks a regional war Because it didn’t spark a regional war when we bombed your nuclear sites. Is it empty threats? Right. And I think that what you’ve also seen is how diminished Hezbollah is, how diminished the Houthis are, how diminished Hamas are. The regional war would be from those proxy groups. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and the IRGC. At this point, is that an empty threat from the Ayatollah? Yes, they may try to spark a regional war, but have they lost one control of the command of those terror groups? Are those terror groups even willing to die for Iran at this point? And so I think that is where the calculus of the president being strong, sending the Navy there, And putting that threat right on the doorstep of Iran, is that something they even have the capacity at this point to respond to? I am curious what comes out of any sort of meeting on Friday, but I am also cautious that I don’t want it to be another decades plus mistake of propping up that regime.
SPEAKER 07 :
And with that, we are mobilizing our ACLJ team to make sure that we are there and available for Christians in Iran who need their help around the globe even. So take action with us. I want you to sign our petition. We just launched ACLJ.org slash sign. Do it today. And if you’re able, become an ACLJ champion while you’re there. A recurring monthly donor. Go to ACLJ.org, make your donation, and select to become a champion. We really would appreciate it. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your phone calls. We’ve got a lot coming in. We still have one line open at 1-800-684-3110. I want to thank all of you who during the break visited ACLJ.org, looked at all the great, incredible free resources we provide. And maybe you considered, maybe you signed the petition. Maybe you considered becoming an ACLJ champion and get to spend a lot of time talking about it in the last segment. That’s people. who decide, I’m not only just going to support the ACLJ, give a one-time donation. Nothing wrong with that. That’s the mass majority of people that support the work of the ACLJ. But those that say, you know what, click that little box and say, every month, I want to become a recurring champion, a member of the ACLJ, essentially. It goes a huge way in creating a great baseline for our organization. So we know where we’re working from. We know what to budget for future months. And look, when you have teams like our teams, this is not a two-person show by any means. You see me and Will on here. If you could turn the camera around, you’d see a dozen people working on this show. If you roam the halls of this media center, you’d see 30, 40 people who are actively working not only on this show, on the content that will be created later on. Of course, our legal team. who are in court each and every day or filing or part of, you know, getting involved in the local level, the state level, federal level of what is happening and making sure we’re there for you. All of that happens. because you support the work financially of the ACLJ at aclj.org. And if you become a champion, we’d really appreciate it. On days like today also, my brother Jordan, executive director here at the ACLJ, he’s in Washington, D.C. That’s where he is a lot right now. So if you don’t see him on here, you know he’s been traveling. This morning, he was a featured panelist at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., urging the nations to promote religious freedom globally. And this is something, Will, the ACLJ is involved in in many different ways, but now we are seeing some main stage work here from our team.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, that’s right. And I think it’s also important to reiterate why we do all this work. One, because we believe deeply in our hearts to fight for the persecuted when no one else will in many cases, but also because if you don’t fight persecution wherever it is, then you see it come closer and closer to our shores. And unfortunately, we have seen where people are disrespecting and disregarding the First Amendment, the freedom of religion in our own country now. When you look at what happened in Minneapolis, where the protesters stormed the church and disrupted worship. Now, that is not in any way close to what we are seeing around the world yet. But we know that persecution will find its way wherever it can. And so we have to fight it, not just here in the United States, but everywhere. And even this morning, we filed at the UN Human Rights Council a document on Iran talking about specifically the persecution of Christians, even among what is going on with the protests there in site specific cases and call out Iran to the U.N., how they have an obligation under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure that its citizens have a freedom of religion. And I think it’s that’s why it’s so important is that our ECLJ team filing this today on Iran at the U.N., At the same time, Jordan is on a panel with the Religious Freedom Summit. And I think we should go to that right now and hear some from Jordan before we talk to him in a couple of segments from our DC studio. But just from that panel, let’s go ahead and roll that.
SPEAKER 06 :
ACLJ is a nationwide organization, grassroots. You hear from the grassroots every day. Give us some advice on how you translated that energy outside the Beltway to move the needle here in Washington.
SPEAKER 08 :
So I think what’s important is, I think through our entire time at the ACLJ, and we started domestically and then we grew internationally pretty quickly, in very diverse kind of places, whether it’s Strasbourg, which is our European headquarters, but we’re in India, Pakistan, we were in Russia, and we might be again, you know, if the sanctions are lifted, and they were able to survive through their legal process there, but we’re also in Israel, but our first client, after we opened our Israeli office, was a Palestinian Christian family whose husband was killed by Hamas. He was the head of the Bible Society in Gaza, And she just needed to get to the West Bank to be reunited with her family. And this was a day before Operation Cast Lead began. We didn’t know that at the time. We got the call, though, because Israel knew she was our client. And we had worked at the U.N. We had worked to kind of expose to the point where Hamas, they went to the gate and they took her there and they said, no, no one’s opening this gate today. And Israel, I was like talking to them on the phone, and they said, and these are stories that work because it brings people in. So for one fan, I’m talking to the Israelis. Other, I’ve got her, and then she hands the phone to the mosque. I’m like, listen, you can’t follow her. When she gets to the halfway point, the gate will open, and you need to close your gate immediately. And so I kind of confirmed that with Israel, and it happened. And so you can do that a day before a country goes to war if you push hard enough. That kind of story for years drove supporters of the ACLJ because they realized, wow, this is not just about an issue that you can resolve in the U.S. civilly or even at the U.S. Supreme Court. This is about saving people’s lives. And most of our faiths call us to do that if we can, to save the innocent. Almost every faith calls for that. So if we’re truly practicing our own faith, that’s how we talk to our family. If you’re truly practicing your own faith, you can’t ignore the issues in your own country. You want to handle those first. Like Melissa said, we have to, if you’re going to come doing this from the United States, The U.S. has to be protecting religious liberty here at a very robust level, too. And while I think we are the greatest country in the world when it comes to doing that, we see how quickly things start slipping, even with our Western allies, when the speech, religious speech, also kind of intertwines with political. Like I got back to initially, we do understand that robust religious liberty can change a country. Not just its people, but its entire way it’s perceived around the world. And so, again, those stories, people understanding how it can make them safer, but also the dictate of their faith. It calls them to do something.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that was just a small clip of what Jordan was sharing there again at the International Religious Freedom Summit today in Washington, D.C. He’s going to be joining us in about two segments, so you make sure you stay tuned to hear from him more about what he was doing up there. Well, maybe give us a brief background on what this was and the reason our team was there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. And this is such an important summit. This is one that the International Religious Freedom Summit that the ACLJ has had connections with and worked with on many different issues. And it comes with a bunch of groups that are from different backgrounds. There are people that represent different faiths there. And going forward and being able to speak the message of what the ACLJ fights for to a group of individuals that may not have the same political or philosophical background. be able to hear that powerful message from Jordan about why it’s important that even groups like the ACLJ exist and can fight. One, to remind we have to keep protecting it here at home, but also even the story about us helping get that Christian family out of Gaza. It’s not something that even people that may disagree with us politically are used to hearing from what they think of just the Christian constituents.
SPEAKER 07 :
conservative group and they certainly shouldn’t realize you know we’ve been doing that that story is getting close to 20 years ago now right now that’s a story that you know we’ve been working on those cases for a long time well before it was popular to talk about these issues the ACLJ was there and will be there long after it’s popular because these issues are what matters to us the most And with that, we only have about 58 seconds left in this segment of the show. We have a second half hour coming up. So if some of you don’t get us in your local markets, if you’re listening on terrestrial radio, find us broadcasting on Sirius XM, on ACLJ.org, YouTube, Rumble, however you get your podcasts. We’re going to be there live, but we’ll also be there archived later on. If you’re listening to this later on, second half hour is available on ACLJ.org or again, however you get your podcasts. But I’m going to encourage you right now. We have 30 seconds left for this segment. Stay on hold if you’re on hold. We’re going to get to some of your calls coming up in the next segment. If you’re able to become an ACLJ champion, do it today. That’s someone that gives on a monthly basis. Also sign that petition. Signing the petition is free. Get on our email list. Start getting updated from the ACLJ if you’re brand new. I know a lot of you are. If you’re just watching on YouTube for the first time, hello, welcome. I encourage you to hit subscribe. Get involved in the way that the ACLJ can help you. Again, that’s at ACLJ.org. We’ll be back with the second half hour of the broadcast coming up in just a moment. Don’t go anywhere. This is our shortest break. Less than a minute.
SPEAKER 10 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekulow, second half hour of the broadcast coming up. My brother Jordan Sekulow is joining us in just a moment to talk about his panel speech that he did today at the, I want to make sure I get it right, the International Religious Freedom Summit, Washington, D.C. So he’s going to be joining us a little bit later. If you didn’t see a clip from that, it was played in the last segment. You can go back and watch it on your own time. I want to take some calls because we have a few lines open. I want to actually open up some more. So hopefully you get inspired to call in as well at 1-800-684-3110. Start off with Christos, who’s calling on line one in Massachusetts. Go ahead. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you for taking my call. The United States has to be the defender of freedom around the world. We’ve got countries like China. We’ve got Russia, Somalia, the problems in the Gaza, Sudan. and Hezbollah being supported by Iran. This has got to come to an end. In Ukraine, we see many lives being lost, innocent lives. The war didn’t start mostly politically. It happened as a result of the desire of the Ukraine to join NATO. Russia was told them If they had joined NATO, there would be a problem. And then, unknown to many of the public, that the Ukraine was bombing Russian citizens inside the Ukraine.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Christos, I think there’s a lot of concern overall. You know, you kind of called for the U.S. to be the world protector of human rights. I don’t necessarily disagree with you. But I am curious where our people are and where our audience is on that kind of concept. That is a very, Christos, to probably date you and to date me, that feels like a very 2001 conservative point of view. Trump kind of changed a lot of that. He came in and said not only America first, but a little bit more isolationist, a little bit more protector. Even when he’s talking about Greenland, he’s talking about doing that to create essentially the Iron Dome of America, having a way to shoot down rockets and to not get involved in these wars in different levels. So I am curious if the people who voted Republican the last few times are with you, Christos, on your belief of America being this sort of human rights protector of the world. The heart of the matter of me certainly doesn’t disagree with you. I think that there’s, sure, there’s a level we need to be getting involved or not getting involved, but I don’t know if that’s just because of our age and because of our upbringing. You have a whole new generation who come through. I’m looking at the chat to see if anyone responds. Let me know what you think of the chat.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I also think there’s a different way to look at that as well, is that what historically that meant was military engagement to compel human rights, staying within human rights issues and freedom. The way that President Trump and the administration does it differently. They have the strong military as the big stick, as Teddy Roosevelt would have said. However, that’s not always the first move. They don’t lead with, we’re going to go attack you. Or they may threaten that, but say, but here’s how you can do this first. But you’ve seen the… novel ways that this administration has used things like economic strength economic warfare so to speak on many different countries when it comes to tariffs was it comes to stopping trade with certain countries due to their either their human rights record uh or the way that they’re treating their own people that i think has been very effective in many areas and you are starting to see things uh change in different ways so it may not be that people disagree with christos or even that Christos is saying that he disagrees with that as well. It’s just that we think of it being as the U.S. leading with military first, and it doesn’t have to be that way to try and get positive outcomes around the world.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, my brother Jordan Sekulow is going to be joining us in the next segment. We’re going to continue to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Call us, be a part of the show today. Again, that’s at 1-800-684-3110. Jordan just stepped off the stage at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. So it’s going to be great to hear from him and hear all the updates that’s coming out of our legal headquarters. You know, we’re here broadcasting out of our media center, the frozen tundra of Nashville, Tennessee, which is finally starting to thaw today. We’re going to be joining with Jordan up in Washington, D.C. when we get back. So stay on hold if you’re on hold. If you want to call in, good time to do it. 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Sekulow. My brother Jordan Sekulow, executive director, is joining us from Washington, D.C. right now, just stepping off the stage at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. We saw some of that during the break. We also saw a clip from it a little bit earlier. Jordan, why don’t you give us an update of why you were there, what this was, why it was important to be there, and just get through it.
SPEAKER 08 :
So it’s an event that’s put together every year near the National Prayer Breakfast that brings in people from all over the world to hear from really mostly Americans about how we can work on spreading religious liberty internationally. And my panel was actually on. It was the opening panel of the day in the main room. It was on how do we get people to care about this? in the Western world. And I think the first point that almost every panelist made was that we have to take religious liberty serious at home. And that was point one. Point two, and to be a good example to the world. Point three is something that I think we’ve learned from being at the ACLJ is that you have to be able to tie it to actual stories. It’s very difficult when you just say 500 people got killed in some place yesterday because people, it’s just something in their head. They hear horrible things in the news every day. But if you can tell the story of an actual client, whether you bring the husband, the wife, the children, that pulls at people’s heartstrings regardless of what faith background they may be. And so that then engages them in the process. So our whole panel was, you know, when all these other things are going on in the world. And I think number two to that is that if you look to countries that have actual religious liberty, which I define as you can believe in whatever faith you want. You can believe in no faith at all. You should be able to declare it. The government should protect your speech, protect you from those who might want to harm you because of your speech. And you can even create your own faith. I mean, so it’s a pretty wide, I mean, it’s very American kind of Western idea that that would be acceptable to the rest of the world. But in countries that do have that flexibility to some extent, those are likely allies with the United States. Now, every ally doesn’t have religious liberty. We know that. But our best allies do. And so the more countries we can get to adopt actual religious liberty, which means protections for all religious people and people who aren’t religious at all, The safer the United States is, the less peacekeeping we have to do, Logan, around the world.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think it’s always important for the ACLJ team to be there and to be making a statement. I’m glad that you were able to be there. A lot of people are calling in with their points of view. Of course, today we are talking about Iran, and Iran sort of ties into all of this.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and Jordan, I think it’s important to point out to people as well that today, while you were speaking as a part of this panel, we also were filing at the UN Human Rights Council on Iran and all these issues tie together. But even how you mentioned the Western style protection of religious liberty. We also know that we have to continue, and that’s what makes the ACLJ so unique, is we fight for religious liberty abroad as well as at home. We’ve seen the attacks on religious liberty over the past weeks, even here at home. And I think to that audience, being able to reiterate these values that we have in America, even when we know they’re under attack constantly, to showcase that this should be the model for the world. How do you think that was received and even how you were able to explain that to that audience today?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think, you know, with former Ambassador, Senator and Governor Sam Brownback, who runs this event with Katrina Lantos Sweat, whose father was a Holocaust survivor, and there’s a Lantos Commission on Religious Freedom inside Congress. And so she’s very involved in these issues, too. There were people from all different faith backgrounds that approached us after I spoke because we talked about our international work that we do as well. It’s not just based in America. You went through the offices that we have around the world. And I really did that for the audience so that if they saw us walking out, they’d know that we don’t just do work here and talk about other places. So I had, though, on stage with me, and I think this is what is important for people to kind of take away. So to my left was Ahmed Shahid. He was the U.N. rapporteur for religious liberty when Yusef Nardakhani was in prison and facing death by hanging. So he is who we are working with on that case. To the right of me was Melissa Rogers. She was the Obama administration’s head of the faith-based office and someone who was actually very key in making sure the contraception mandate that a lot of the Catholic churches and hospitals and organizations were opposed to, and even the abortion pill mandate, that that wasn’t only going to be exempt for churches. She was the one that got the administration to compromise to say that all Any religious group that objects to this, whether or not they’re a church or an organization or a hospital, they can do that and they’re not out of compliance with Obamacare. So, of course, we don’t agree on all policies, but it’s pretty easy as Americans to agree on religious liberty, that we should be able to believe or not believe what we want and change our views when we want to without fear of death, without fear of imprisonment. Obviously, we see discrimination against Christians in the United States. We take care of those cases every single day. What we never want it to become is persecution. We can’t allow our country to be a leader on religious liberty and actually persecuting to the point of not just putting people in prison for a day for a pro-life protest, but not doing anything about a church being stormed, which I believe if the Biden administration was in charge right now or the Kamala Harris administration— people would not be arrested for storming that church. Those police stood by and let it happen. And that is a story that we want to be, uh, you know, one and done in the United States, because if those stories get out around the world, they just say that they don’t really believe that either.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, exactly. And I think that you have to take all of that seriously. And, and look, I think when you saw that really very coordinated, not just protest, but, um, it’s a disruption and ending of that church service. I think it woke a lot of people up. I think it woke a lot of church leaders up to how they’re going to be able to do security. Cause we have a few hunt different when you have one bad actor that shows up at your church, you can quickly remove them or figuring it out. But when you have these groups of a hundred plus, what are you going to do in that situation? And a lot of people look are calling in and talking about, what’s going on in the world stage and ACLJ as you said Jordan has been working in Europe and working all over the world some places we can work some places we can’t work anymore but we are always getting involved wherever we can because you know some people have called in and said we need to make sure that sort of the western philosophies of American religious values are upheld wherever they can be and you’ve places like Europe which we’ve worked in for many years decades now finally kind of coming around to some of the views that the ECLJ, the European arm of the ACLJ, has held as something very important to us for a long time. And finally, took a couple decades, you are seeing Europe start to respond.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, but you’re also seeing the pushback. And so for those leaders like in France, Marine Le Pen, a great example, someone who was going to win, she was going, by all poll accounts, was going to win the next presidential election. So what did they do? They charged her with a 15-year-old crime that wasn’t a crime, so a retroactive law that changed, and that means she can’t be on the ballot. So you’ve got to then run someone much younger who wasn’t as well-known. So we see there, that is persecution. To me, that’s persecution. If you’re imprisoning someone because you know they may have a political victory that you oppose. So the French state doesn’t want to be, I guess, the make France great again kind of movement. So they push back to the point where they will imprison you and house arrest and make it impossible. And if that happens to you. You can’t run for office in France, even while the case is pending. The appeals take years. And so effectively, she’s now frozen out of political office. That is that’s, again, the kind of fight we’re engaged in in Europe to make sure it doesn’t go the way of an anti-religious, almost kind of Soviet feeling country where it’s embarrassing to even admit that you’re religious or you have to be underground, like in so many countries in the Middle East, because if you come above ground, you’ll be killed.
SPEAKER 11 :
jordan and once again as we talk about all these and we remind people that the work not only here in the united states but at the eclj never stops uh i just wonder if you have any more one final message to people that what you took away from that religious freedom summit being able to be on a panel once again showcasing that the aclj not just a partisan group that being on a panel with Individuals that come from very different philosophies, mindsets, religious traditions that religious freedom doesn’t have to be partisan. And there are people that even worked within the Obama administrations and other administrations that agree with groups like the ACLJ on this importance of religious freedom.
SPEAKER 08 :
Because it’s that first freedom in our Bill of Rights, and it’s our first freedom because if you actually have religious liberty, and you tie that to there’s no religious tests for political office in Article 6 of the Constitution, that doesn’t mean you as a voter don’t get to decide and judge candidates based off maybe their faith. That’s up to you. But the government can’t put in a test, and the government can’t get involved in your religious faith. If you truly have that, you have a very free society. And isn’t that what we want for most of the world, to experience the freedom that we have? But to have that freedom means you’ll hear things you don’t like, there’ll be people with faith you disagree with, and you have to learn how to live together in harmony as best you can. And that is the American experience and experiment that we’re still living in our 250th anniversary.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. Look, thank you for joining us, Jordan, from Washington, D.C. Always great to hear from you and always great to hear all the work that your team is doing up there. When you see Jordan making these statements, being on a panel, like Will said, a nonpartisan situation here, you’ve got to remember where the ACLJ team, the strength of the ACLJ team on a national and international basis. I want you to be involved as well. Easy way to become a supporter of the ACLJ. If you’re brand new, you’ve never seen us before, you may be watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. That really helps us out. But if you’ve been here a while and you want to know more how to get engaged, you can sign a petition. Of course, you can donate today at ACLJ.org. I’m going to encourage you to do so. As we head into our final segment, we’re going to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Stay on hold. If you’re on hold, we’ll get to some new calls as well. Welcome back to Secula. We’ve got to get right to it. We’ve got three lines open, though. If you want to call in, good time to do it. Maybe you’ll make it on the air today. 1-800-684-3110. But everyone’s been on hold over half an hour, and I appreciate it. So let’s start off with Alex, who’s been on hold way more than a half hour. Alex, line three, you are on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi, guys. Hey, just want to appreciate the good job that you do. Just had a brief question for you. I stumbled across this article over the weekend where they were talking about Saudi Arabia… in denying Trump using the airspace because, you know, in relation to a military war. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So I’m a little concerned about that because I know it seems like lately we’ve really made a big effort to really be good friends with them and show them respect in different levels. And I understand today you’re talking about Iran has proclaimed that they’ll do a regional war. And maybe this is just their effort to try to send a signal to Iran that, look, you know, We’re going to try to do our best to stay out of it. What really is that position?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, Alex, I think that, one, it’s not something that’s surprising that the Saudis would say, you know, a minister within their government anonymously told reporters that it would be something that if the U.S. were to, they can’t use our airspace. One, that is not abnormal because they try to remain… understandably you don’t want bombers flying over your country as well right but here’s at the end of the day first of all if there was a need I think the Saudis would actually capitulate and let the administration do whatever is needed and I think the administration, one, does not need to go over Saudi airspace to get to Iran. Plenty of other ways that they can either fly bombers or launch missiles that will not infringe on the sovereign airspace of the Saudis. Two, if they did need it, I think the Saudis would come to the table. They may have a statement like, we object to this. However, that is mainly within their own population. You have to remember, Saudi Arabia, a different country than the United States. A lot of Iran sympathizers would be within that country. But here’s the other thing as well. The U.S. just approved a $9 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia a few days ago. I don’t think that the Saudis would do anything to put that in jeopardy either. So I get it. It’s a headline. It’s a posturing headline. It’s not really something to be concerned about.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re right though, Alex. I mean, Saudi Arabia has made huge moves in terms of trying to… Kind of market to the West, market to America. I watched the WWE Royal Rumble live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They built a stadium for professional wrestling in the middle of their country. This is what they are doing. There’s a lot of, I’d say, quote unquote, propaganda involved in it when you watch. to say, look how much we’ve changed. Look what we’ve done here. I’ve never seen more promotion to try to get me to travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or anywhere, really. I’d say anywhere in the Middle East as much as maybe Dubai and now Saudi Arabia. So you are right. They are certainly trying to get Americans on board. So we’ll see where that goes. Let’s go to Ryan in California. Ryan, line two, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, Logan, you talked about Iran. I think that we should do as much as we can to get Iran to get the Shahs out because Iran wanted to go west and become more western. I think it comes at a critical time right now where the Davidson window is only about 300 days away. And that’s when Philip Davidson, retired admiral for Indo-PACOM, said that January 1st, 2027 is kind of the window when China will be ready to take us on to take Taiwan. And President Xi Jinping has said that his whole presidency is around the reunification of Taiwan. So Sarah Payne of the Naval College, you can see her on YouTube, has said that he has said he’s going to do it. And so weakening the axis of evil, Russia is weakened right now because of the war. And if we remove the Iranian Islamic threat to the axis of evil, now we’ve China’s kind of alone and isolated. And this provides us more time to build up our fleet again, reposition ourselves. And I think that that could be a great deterrent over
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and Ryan, to that point, yes, I agree. And I think it’s another piece of the puzzle that people miss when you talk about Venezuela. The amount of people are always like, why? How does Venezuela in Iran? Iran has oil. Why do they need Venezuela? It’s not so much the oil, but it is the shipping fleet. Really? The way that their craft are flagged under different Caribbean nations and things that are able to avoid U.S. sanctions so Iran themselves can sell their own oil on this Venezuelan ghost fleet that isn’t as suspicious as the Iranian ships doing it themselves. That being kind of… put a major dampers on that from taking out nicholas maduro that takes another revenue source out of not just iran but also an energy supplier to russia and china yes all of these things are a big picture of stability in the world that may at some time seem like It’s about specifically the drug trafficking in Venezuela. It’s specifically about the protest or the nuclear program in Iran. It is specifically about Taiwan or sanctions or dollar destabilization with China. They’re all tied together because those that are enemies of the United States are working together to destabilize the United States. So when you take strong, decisive action against one, it does weaken all the others. So it’s a great call, Ryan.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, great call. Don is calling. It’s a little off topic, but we’ll take you to my home for a while. Don, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh man. Great job. Great, great show. Uh, I came across this right in your wheelhouse. There’s a Bishop. I read this in the associated press. An Episcopal Bishop in New Hampshire is telling his clergy to, um, get their last will and Testament in order, get their affairs in order and prepare for a new era of martyrdom. And they’re having this vigil for, uh, like Renee good. And, uh, They’re not defending civil rights. They’re defending civil wrongs. Ray Goode tried to run over an ICE officer. He shot her to save his own life. I mean, if you’re defending that and if you’re defending, you know, illegal alien criminals that have been released into the community because of sanctuary laws, they are dead wrong on this. And, you know, Lord Jesus told us himself. render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, render unto God that which is God. And we’re just enforcing laws that are on the books, the legal laws. And so they’re all wet on this issue. I’m being polite, but that’s not right.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, Don, I… I know this story. This is an Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire that said, get your wills ready, be prepared.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’re not known to be dramatic.
SPEAKER 11 :
Here’s the one thing. They have religious freedom. If that is the church you want to go to, that that is the type of sermon that you are wanting to hear, and that is the type of leadership, which I think is a reckless leadership, then you have that freedom to do so. That’s what we talked about with Jordan, If you want to start your own religion, go at it. Right. Which gives me ideas. Which is true. But at the same time, Don, I think it’s a reckless statement from clergy. Yeah, of course. But at the same time, you have to also think. Biblically, there is a time where the government will be coming against Christians and those of us that have faith in Christ that at what point does the… You can’t just offhandedly say any pastor saying stand up for your belief is somehow wrong or illegal. I think it’s reckless here. I don’t think it’s the right thing. But at the same time, the government is not always going to protect you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. With that… Wrapping up this show. We’ll be back tomorrow. I hope you join us. If you can, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org, whether financially or just go read some stuff, share some stuff. Be a part of it. If you’re on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. Until next time, we’ll see you tomorrow, back live, noon Eastern.
