(The is the Introduction to a five-part “Deductive Reasoning” series that will follow over the coming days.)

God sends us the leaders we need when we need them. But it is up to us to heed them.

Harken back to the 1930s.  Winston Churchill recognized the emerging threat of Adolph Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party and discerned the general outlines of its evil designs.

He tried to warn his countrymen of the “gathering storm” – yet was shunned and ridiculed by those both in his political party (Conservative) and political body (Parliament) – most either preferred to bury their heads in the sand, or to just swim with the prevailing current and hope that things would work out of their own accord.

Churchill was an iconoclast – one with a spine.  His fealty was to his country, and to pursuing what was right, notwithstanding unpopularity and ridicule.  Often such leaders are not vindicated until after they have left this earth. Churchill didn’t have to wait that long.

After appeasement with evil succeeded only in bringing the war that Churchill tried to warn about while there was still time to prevent it – when the storm was no longer gathering, but enveloping – Churchill was vindicated.  Before long he was named Prime Minister, and led his country – he inspired his people – to prevail in WWII.

It is generally acknowledged “but for” Churchill’s leadership, Great Britain – and with it, all of Europe – would have permanently succumbed to the National Socialist evil.  Without Churchill, there could not have been a D-Day, and the mass-murder concentration camps would have been able to operate until … even now?

The threat then was more secular, more “kinetic” – conventional armies conquering and occupying territory.  Today, the threats are more intangible – making them far more dangerous.

We have become accustomed to – conditioned to? – assessing the world and its goings-on as solely secular matters; dealings by and among human beings in politics, media, entertainment, education, and so on.  But we must now reorient; we must adjust our frame of reference.

Satan can only work his schemes through human actors; therefore, we must then be open to the possibility that what we observe occurring about us is actually his doing.  (Perhaps this is the beginning of discernment?)  Once we examine our world through that lens, we inevitably come to conclude that, for some things at least, no other explanation seems possible but that Satanic evil is at its root.

National Socialism was, at root, a Satanic evil (can one look at Hitler and his henchmen and not conclude “minions of Satan?”).

All forms of Collectivism – Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Progressivism, and today, Globalism – are, at root, Satanic evils.

In our times, the minions of the Great Deceiver are not only attacking us with readily identifiable “kinetic” military or police forces – which good people readily recognize and can organize against – but also through forces that we have been conditioned to trust, such as public health authorities, and even institutions of faith (see, e.g., the recent documentary Enemies Within the Church.

In Egypt, Islamic religious differences always remain internal and out of the public eye. That is why the recent mainstream news coverage of Habiba Tarik’s religious “bullying” is so astounding. A university student, she is furious after suffering a public humiliation over a personal, religious decision. Her complaint is receiving a lot of attention across the country. She is irate, which is not kindly regarded. Submission is her proper role. So why is she now allowed to tell her story on national TV?

Egypt is a country ruled silently by Muslim religious decrees. Islamic religious traditions serve to pressure individuals in ways that often turn one believer against another. Habiba wore a modern but modest dress during her final exams at the university, but officials did not approve. Apparently, their personal religious preferences and defense of Islam took priority over their administrative duties – an ordinary ordeal in Egypt. So why the publicity?

Discrimination and coercion are egregious violations of democratic, constitutional principles

In the West, discrimination and coercion are egregious violations of democratic, constitutional principles and condemned as unacceptable.

That is why over the past year we have witnessed horrified citizen journalists around the world pointing out scenes of informal Covid enforcement consisting of misguided citizens (motivated by “virtue,” fear, and misinformation) turning against neighbors for not complying.

However, in a nation where Islamic legalism governs society – dictates public and private affairs – there is no need to call it out. Clashes over levels of religious service and obedience to Sharia are a regular part of life and go on without regard for public institutions or their taxpayers. It is routine and perfectly acceptable.

The conflict involves individuals favoring a more comprehensive and stricter form of worship, others for a more liberal life. Disagreements normally stay between the two. For Habiba to take her plea for fairness to the public through the national state-controlled broadcasts was inconceivable until now. Will her story ultimately be marginalized as a sensational rant and Habiba discredited, and, if so, is it an intentional sacrifice on her part in order to achieve westernization and an end to conformity to Islamic legalism?

On June 22, Habiba Tarik, a student at the public university campus, was harassed by faculty about her attire. Habiba was in her second year-end exams of the Faculty of Arts of Tanta University (93 KM north of Cairo) when observers from the committee of the faculty for the end-year exams “bullied” and “ridiculed” her because her dress was inappropriate for a Muslim woman.