On 21 February, we reported on disturbing comments from the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Our focus was that Huckabee wants the world to pay Israel reparations for the genocide it inflicted upon Gaza. It’s another comment from Huckabee which has caused international controversy, however, especially in the Middle East:

🚨 BREAKING: Mike Huckabee just triggered a full-blown diplomatic backlash.

After saying it would be “fine” for Israel to take over the Middle East, 14 countries + major regional blocs publicly condemned him.

Jordan. UAE. Saudi Arabia. Egypt. Türkiye. Indonesia. Qatar. Lebanon.… pic.twitter.com/KuCsIh6TMz

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 21, 2026

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The Middle East United

As we reported yesterday, Huckabee is an American evangelist:

Many American evangelicals support Israel, but not because they like Israelis. In actuality, they think the creation of Israel is a signifier that the end times are approaching, and that Israel will trigger the Rapture.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, the ‘Rapture’ is the time when God calls his faithful back to heaven. Said ‘faithful’ will not include the Jewish men and women who live in Israel, even if they do play an instrumental role in jump starting the Armageddon.

While it’s perfectly possible for faithful people to serve in government, it’s a different story for zealots. The response to Huckabee’s comments demonstrate why that is.

The following is what Huckabee said:

mike huckabee cares more about the greater israel project than he does about americans. he cares more about israel than the majority of american jews. totally insane person. https://t.co/BjbooXPuXI

— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) February 21, 2026

In the clip, Carlson makes it clear that Huckabee’s vision of an expanded Israel would mean the overthrow of every sovereign country in the Middle East. Huckabee says he would be “fine if they took it all”.

You know your interview with Tucker Carlson could have gone better when you united the entire Muslim world (probably for the first time ever) in condemnation. https://t.co/pZeZUAKbO4

— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) February 21, 2026

Just imagine the response if a Chinese ambassador said he would be fine with Mexico taking over all 50 US states.

The problem for Donald Trump is that he’s sought to have good relations with the wealthier Middle Eastern countries. Now, Saudi Arabia and others have made it clear they’re furious with the Trump regime’s messaging:

The worst US diplomatic blunder in recent memory. Huckabee just set our relations in the M.E. back decades and destroyed any trust they may have in the US.
This is what happens when you hire maniacal religious zealots to represent you overseas.
Huckabee must go immediately before… https://t.co/p1jw5K3Pmm

— Daniel McAdams (@DanielLMcAdams) February 21, 2026

Alliances

Obviously it’s a problem that the West is most comfortable with the wealthy Middle Eastern countries which use literal slaves. At the same time, Huckabee’s comments have just made it more difficult for the US to wage another devastating war in the Middle East:

I guess we owe Huckabee a “thank you.” https://t.co/egbtBaWcZq

— Daniel McAdams (@DanielLMcAdams) February 21, 2026

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Much like in Europe, Middle Eastern countries may be realising that the US only looks out for itself.

Featured image via Trade Mark Room

A new poll conducted by Opinium has wrecked the far-right myth that Muslims in the UK and US are determined to impose Sharia law on everyone else. Opinium shared the results with Zeteo, who report:

The survey of 1,000 American Muslims and 500 British Muslims, conducted by Opinium for the Concordia Forum, a transatlantic thinktank and networking group, in October 2025, measured views on democracy, equality, and the intersection of religion and country.

85% of Muslims across Britain and the North of Ireland voted for democracy when asked:

Do you believe democracy is the best system of government for the country you live in or do you think another system would be better?

This compares to 71% of the general population giving the same answer to the question. In the United States, the figures were 81% for Muslims and 67% for the general population. Opinium asked a range of other questions too, including querying Muslims as to whether they had:

…changed [their] routine or avoided certain places due to concerns of anti-Muslim hate or violence.

Survey also finds Muslims are changing lifestyle to avoid threat of violence

Alarmingly, only 15% said they never change their routine. 32% of UK respondents said they “often or “always” make adjustments due to concerns of violence. This fear is rational given the huge rise in Islamophobia in recent years. Tell Mama, a group that measures anti-Muslim prejudice, said in February 2025 that cases of hatred towards practitioners of the faith were at an all-time high. They reported:

…a large rise in the categorisation of ‘threatening behaviour’ in street based cases. This amounts to a 715% increase in such cases between 2023 and 2024.

They also describe a:

…surge in rhetoric that falsely portrays Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers.

This has accelerated during the Gaza genocide, amidst rhetoric from so-called ‘Israel’ and its supporters that cast the Zionist entity as being at the forefront of a battle between a supposedly civilised ‘Judeo-Christian’ axis and a regressive Muslim world. The whole concept of a single Judeo-Christian ideology is a myth, just as much as the ‘clash of civilisations’ narrative.

US political scientist Samuel Huntington concocted the latter concept as a cynical ploy to unite the US against an external enemy. This too was driven by his bigoted fears that a diverse US population would end up internally divided. Huntingdon said:

There can be no true friends without true enemies. Unless we hate what we are not, we cannot love what we are.

Our current ruling class are intent on ensuring we have someone to hate, to distract from the fact they continue to rob us blind. Muslims are still the main fall guy for this tactic. US president Donald Trump attempted to maintain the pretence that Muslims are subverting democracy when he said:

I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.

This sort of shite seems to be having an effect. A 2024 Hope Not Hate survey of Conservative Party members:

…found that 52% believed parts of European cities were under sharia law and were no-go areas for non-Muslims.

Billionaires are the true haters of democracy

In reality, the people who have the greatest disdain for democracy are authoritarian politicians like Trump and the billionaire class they serve. Trump famously goaded his supporters into an insurrection in 2021, and has ranted to his military about the need to purge an “enemy within”. The brownshirts of his personal paramilitary force ICE have been murdering dissenters around the US.

Billionaires like Peter Thiel loathe the notion that his ilk ought to be constrained by the popular will. He has talked about a desire:

…to find an escape from politics in all its forms.

He also declared:

I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.

This, of course, is a conception of liberty in which ‘freedom for the pike is death for the minnows‘. Ultra-rich paedo Jeffrey Epstein viewed most people with total disdain, pondering that:

Maybe climate change is a good way of dealing with overpopulation.

His eugenicist fantasies included vile breeding programs to populate the world with his own supposedly superior genetic material. Elon Musk also has a similar disdain for democracy, illustrated by the fact he is a literal Nazi. He likewise shares Epstein’s belief in diluting the world’s gene pool with clones of his deeply flawed self.

Through their overt belief that they are uniquely qualified to rule, these people show us who are the true opponents of democracy. In the case of billionaires, despite never being elected, they reckon they have the right to determine the future of the species. If we want democracy to survive, it’s not Muslims we need worry about — it’s concentrations of extreme wealth and the economic system that makes it possible.

Featured image via MiddleEastEye

“I want a fairer system for students and graduates”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says the government will “look at” how it can improve the student loan system but does not commit to reforms called for by opposition parties #BBCLauraK

pic.twitter.com/A3jwJ9M0A9

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) February 22, 2026

Reform UK treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick tells @TrevorPTweets it ‘wasn’t an easy decision’ to leave the Conservatives, but refuses to respond to Kemi Badenoch’s comments about his defection.

pic.twitter.com/WCYJN7qZ4D

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 22, 2026

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