Arab Christians come out strongly against US strike in Syria

By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / September 6, 2013

Activists hold banners, Lebanese flags and pictures of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad during a sit-in near the US embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, against potential US strikes on Syria September 6, 2013. As President Barack Obama tries to rally the world around a proposed attack on Syria, Christians and Muslim leaders who met at a conference in Amman this week have come out as strongly opposed.

As President Barack Obama tries to rally the world around a proposed attack on Syria, Arab Christian leaders have come out as strongly opposed, worried an attack could create a backlash against their communities.

At a conference of more than 50 regional Christian leaders and a handful of global Christians and Muslim scholars in Amman this week, the dangers of Western intervention to the region’s Christian minorities emerged as one of the strongest themes. With political Islam on the rise after the Arab uprisings of 2011, the region’s ancient Christian communities are already feeling under threat and have the recent example of the devastation of Iraq’s Christian community following the US-led invasion of 2003 to make them worry about the consequences of action.

“We stress that we reject foreign interference in Syria,” said Ignatius Joseph III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch for the Syrian Catholic Church, in a statement read before the conference, which was sponsored by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan. (more…)

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Tehran during Ramadan: ‘nobody is really in the spirit’

http://www.theguardian.com/world/series/tehran-bureau  – 15th August 2013

Iran has been referred to as a post-Islamist society – one in which conservative religious discourse and practices are losing their hold after decades of state promulgation. Iranians’ perspectives on the holy month of Ramadan, observed in Iran this year from 10 July to 8 August, appear to underline that view.

During Ramadan, in addition to taking special care to avoid certain sins mentioned in the Qur’an, Muslims must abstain from food or drink of any kind during daylight hours, a long stretch in the middle of the summer. The first call to prayer arrives shortly after 4am and the final call just after 8pm. The rules must be abided by throughout, and the summer heat – this year regularly nearing 40C – doesn’t make the job any easier.

Tehran’s Vanak Square bustles with hyperkinetic foot traffic at six in the evening. Maliheh, a 56-year-old employee at an car company who has come to pick up prescription medicine, shares her thoughts on Ramadan. “You know, I just love the atmosphere,” she says.

Asked what she loves most about it, she sneers. “Seriously? Who could find anything to like about this? Seventeen hours of fasting in 40-degree weather? It’s a living hell! We all sneak bites here and there at work, save for a few people who are scared about not getting promotions and whatnot,” she says with a laugh.

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The real War on Women is being waged in the Islamic world

By: Raymond Ibrahim  7/24/2013 

One of the few positive developments following the rise of the Islamists during the “Arab Spring” is that today many average and/or nominal Muslims are seeing the true face of Islam and its teachings. And many—as evinced by the June 30 Revolution of Egypt, which saw the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood—don’t want to deal with it.

For example, during a recent episode of “With Dr. Islam Buhira” on Al Qahira Wa Al Nass TV station, Buhira explained how he had attended “a conference in Morocco on the status of women in society post Arab Spring,” and how at the conference, the following interpretation of the Koran by renowned Islamic exegete, al-Qurtubi (d.1273), was read: “Women are like cows, horses, and camels, for all are ridden.”

After quoting al-Qurtubi’s words, Dr. Buhira continued, in a disappointed tone: “This is how al-Qurtubi speaks about women, who include his mother, his daughters—basically all Muslim women. He says they are ‘all ridden.’ This is what makes them similar to animals.”

Hard to believe or not, the idea that “Women are like cows, horses, and camels, for all are ridden,” is in fact recorded in Tafsir al-Qurtubi (see vol. 17, p. 172), one of the Islamic world’s most authoritative exegesis, or commentary on the teachings of the Koran.

In fact, comparing women to beasts is not uncommon in Islam and traces back to Prophet Muhammad himself, who is recorded saying, “Women, dogs, and donkeys annul a man’s prayer (Musnad Ibn Hanbal, vol. 2, p. 2992).

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Sharia Committee Issues Fatwa Against … Croissants

Al Arabiya ^ | Tuesday, 30 July 2013 |

A sharia committee in a rebel-held area of Aleppo issued a fatwa deeming croissants ‘haram’ (forbidden in Islamic law) because of their “colonial” significance, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Tuesday.

Croissants’ crescent shape celebrates European victory over Muslims, according to the fatwa (religious ruling).

Rebel-controlled areas of the Syrian city have experienced several strict fatwas recently from Islamic sharia committees.

Such edicts are uncommon in Aleppo’s society, which usually adheres to moderate Islamic teachings, Asharq al-Awsat reported.

A sharia committee in the city issued a fatwa on Facebook prohibiting “Muslim women wearing makeup and tight clothes that reveal physical features from going out.”

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World Council of Churches attacks Israel to no gain

Dexter Van Zile – 3 June 2013

No matter how much the World Council of Churches dumps on Israel, Christians living in the Middle East are still being attacked.

Late last month, 150 Christian leaders met in Lebanon under the auspices of the World Council of Churches(WCC) to talk about the status of Christians living in the Middle East, where, as most people know, followers of Christ are suffering from terrible acts of oppression at the hands of Muslim extremists.

Some Muslims, particularly in Egypt, have stood in solidarity with their Christian compatriots after these attacks, but for the most part, attacks against Christians continue without much organized opposition from Muslim activists or governments in the Middle East. Egyptian police, for example, have stood by and even assisted in attacks against Christians and their churches.

Sometimes the anti-Christian violence manifests itself as poorly organized (but terrifying) mob attacks against churches and their members. These mob attacks often take place after an imam has incited anti-Christian hostility in his Friday sermon. Other attacks are well-planned jihad bombings perpetrated on Christian holidays (such as Christmas or Easter) that result in deaths of dozens of Christians at once.

Such attacks have a cumulative impact. Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Vatican’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, recently announced that more than 100,000 Christians are killed as a result of their faith each year. Tomasi didn’t mention exactly who was responsible for these deaths, but he didn’t have to.

We know who is responsible – radical Muslims intent on sending a very clear and simple message that Christians are not welcome or safe in Muslim countries.

Muslim violence against Christians is not a new phenomenon. It dates back to Islam’s founding according to Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, 2013). “Under Muslim rule, from the seventh century to the present, tens if not hundreds of thousands of churches once spread across thousands of miles of formerly Christian lands have been attacked, plundered, ransacked, and destroyed or converted into mosques,” he writes.

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Has Egypt’s experiment with Islamism failed?

By Dan Murphy JewishWorldReview.com |

The Muslim Brotherhood’s dominance may be over but its members may yet rejoice.

Making sense of the rough and tumble of politics in the shadow of the pyramids

CAIRO — (TCSM) When mass protests broke out against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Jan. 25, 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood was on the cusp of a historic opportunity.

The Brothers didn’t start or organize the protests. That honor belonged to a loose coalition of leftists, democratic reformers, and Internet activists who used the murder of a young businessman by Egypt’s thuggish police, and the example of Tunisia’s own revolt, as the springboard for a history-altering uprising. The Brotherhood, fearful of a government crackdown as always, didn’t even join the protests until the handwriting was on the wall.

But the Brothers knew they were Egypt’s most popular and best-organized grass-roots movement and were perfectly poised to take advantage of a political opening. They grabbed the opportunity.

Now, 2-1/2 years later Mohamed Morsi, the man the Brothers propelled to Egypt’s presidency, is under house arrest, and his allies swept from political office and influence by the military. Brotherhood news media have been shuttered and arrest warrants issued for the group’s leaders. The same military that gave them their chance at power when it deposed Mr. Mubarak booted them from office in a second coup after protests that dwarfed those of 2011.

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Saudi Arabia sentences men to lashes for converting woman to Christianity

Reuters | 13 May, 2013 10:22

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced two men to lashes and prison terms for converting a woman to Christianity and helping her flee the conservative Islamic kingdom, the Saudi Gazette reported on Monday.

A Lebanese man was sentenced to six years in prison and 300 lashes for converting the woman, while a Saudi man was sentenced to two years and 200 lashes for aiding her escape abroad, the English-language daily said. It added that the pair had challenged the verdict and would appeal.

A spokesman at the justice ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.

In Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, it is against the law for Muslims to abandon their faith, a practice known as apostasy. Proselytising for other religions or practising them openly is also illegal.

Judges have considerable leeway in how to interpret the kingdom’s Sharia code of Islamic law and are not bound by sentencing guidelines or a system of precedent. Both capital and corporal punishment are legal. (more…)

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Christian Persecution is Motivating Muslims ‘To Know Christ’

By Janet Parshall – Special to CP – May 13, 2013

With all of the unrest being reported in countries like Egypt, Syria and Libya, perhaps the real untold story is the record number of Christians leaving the Muslim world.

According to Open Doors USA, at least 100 million Christians in 65 countries suffer persecution. For example, as the situation in Syria continues to intensify, it is very easy to forget the plight of Syrian Christians who are fleeing the country.

In his new book, Crucified Again, Raymond Ibrahim writes that Christians in that country are being targeted for kidnapping, plundering and beheadings. He reports that regions and towns that were once populated with Christians are now emptied.

Ibrahim was raised by Egyptian Coptic Christians and has detailed how, in October of 2012, the last Christian was murder in Homs, a vibrant Christian community that was once home to 80,000 believers. Tom Doyle, of e3 Partners, has said the Syrian situation is one of the “largest humanitarian disasters in the Middle East in probably the last ten years.”

But the crisis for Christians goes beyond Syria. Nigeria is now the country with the highest number of slaughtered Christians. Last year, more than 900 Christ-followers were victims of the Boko Haram group and other Islamic militants.

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Netanyahu Warns: Let’s Not ‘Delude Ourselves’ About the ‘Moderate’ New Iranian Leader

Jun. 16, 2013 Sharona Schwartz – The Blaze

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that world leaders should neither be fooled by the results of Friday’s election in Iran nor be encouraged to let up pressure regarding the country’s nuclear program.

Iranian President-elect Hasan Rowhani is being widely described as a “moderate,” a description Netanyahu took issue with in his first public reaction to the election.

 Netanyahu said the world should keep up pressure on Iran to rein in its nuclear programme and avoid thinking the election of a moderate president will bring change.

At the beginning of the weekly meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Regarding the results of the elections in Iran, let us not delude ourselves. The international community must not become caught up in wishes and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program,” according to an official transcript.

“It must be remembered that the Iranian ruler, at the outset, disqualified candidates who did not fit his extremist outlook and from among those whose candidacies he allowed was elected the candidate who was seen as less identified with the regime, who still defines the state of Israel as ‘the great Zionist Satan,’” Netanyahu said.

Questioning just how much influence the position of president holds in the Islamic Republic, Netanyahu said, “In any case, the ruler of Iran is the supreme leader, not the president, and it is he who determines nuclear policy. The more the pressure on Iran increases, the greater is the chance of stopping the Iranian nuclear program, which remains the greatest threat to world peace.”

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The Australian Defence Force protects Islam

Blog Posted by: Bernard Gaynor

You simply cannot be surprised at what a government body, so rotten at the top that it supports public displays of sexual indecency in front of children, will get up to.

In the case of the Australian Defence Force, its leadership are now protecting Islam. The organisation charged with defending this country is assisting in the spread of the enemy’s doctrine and ideology. It reeks of treachery and treason.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not having a go at the Diggers. They are fine soldiers who have done brave things on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

But their efforts have been in vain. The war is a massive failure. Soldiers have shed their blood trying to defeat an enemy that is being welcomed into our very borders.

Everyone knows that Australia and the rest of the Western World are hightailing it out of Afghanistan as fast as they can. And just like Iraq, which is sliding back into civil war, Afghanistan will be left in a worse situation than when we arrived. Its future is as a breeding ground for more murderous Islamic brutality, strengthened by the knowledge that the might of Western civilisation is defeated.

Now soldiers are not even allowed to speak the truth about the enemy’s belief system. While they are muzzled, the hierarchy sprouts off that there is nothing wrong with Islam; that a growing Islamic community is a good thing for this country. Indeed, it must be respected.

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Messianic Jews: ‘The Most Hated People on Earth’

Charisma News – 5/3/2013 Chaim Goldberg/Maoz Israel

A few years ago, I was asked to produce a short-film for the Negev Tourism Office. Specifically, they wanted me to help them make a video advertisement promoting all the sites and attractions in the Israeli desert.

Why did they come to me? Because I’m a Messianic Jew, and they wanted the video to target Christian tourists around the world. They needed someone who spoke “Christianese,” who would know how to market what they were selling to a specific audience.

I remember arriving at the bus station in Beersheva to meet the crew I’d be working with on the film. Someone from the tourism office was there to pick me up, and I was a bit surprised to see they sent an orthodox woman. I could tell by the way she was dressed that she was religious.

She couldn’t have been more welcoming, and she was so excited to take me around to all of the historical sites that would be featured in the video.

After a couple hours in the car together, visiting everything from Abraham’s well to various war memorials, we had become chatty and seemed to be enjoying one another’s company.

I got up the courage to ask her how she felt about this project we were working on, and specifically how she felt about working with a Jew who believed in Yeshua.

Her answer rings in my ear to this day.

“Chaim,” she said, “some Israelis hate the religious. Some hate the secular. But everyone hates you.”

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Islam’s Collective Punishment of Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim, Investigative Project on Terrorism, April 18, 2013

As many of Israel’s critics portray it as collectively punishing the Palestinians, overlooked and unsaid is the greater frequency with which Muslims collectively punish the religious minorities living under their authority, often in atrocious ways.

Consider Egypt alone. The most recent attacks on Egypt’s Copts, culminating in the unprecedented besiegement of the St. Mark Cathedral, the holiest site of Coptic Orthodoxy, is the latest large-scale “collective punishment” of the nation’s indigenous Christian minority. Indeed, almost all of the major attacks on Copts are carried out in the context of collective punishment, based on the idea that, if just one Christian upsets Muslims, all Christians—and their churches and their women and their children—become fair game.

Collectively punishing “upstart” religious minorities who refuse to know their place in the Islamic order actually has doctrinal backing. According to Mark Durie, author of The Third Choice: “Even a breach by a single individual dhimmi [non-Muslim living under Muslim authority] could result in jihad being enacted against the whole community. Muslim jurists have made this principle explicit, for example, the Yemeni jurist al-Murtada wrote that ‘The agreement will be canceled if all or some of them break it…’ and the Moroccan al-Maghili taught ‘The fact that one individual (or one group) among them has broken the statute is enough to invalidate it for all of them.'”

The latest collective punishment visited upon the Copts began in Khosous, near Cairo, on April 5, when a longstanding feud between a Christian family and a Muslim family—based on male Muslims sexually harassing Christian girls—culminated in the violent deaths of six Christians, including one set on fire, and one Muslim. In retribution, Muslims went on yet another “Friday-rampage”—Friday being the day Muslims meet and pray and hate and call for jihads on Christians—resulting in the injury of at least 20 other Copts, an attack on a Coptic church, and an Evangelical church set on fire.

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Channel 7 Today Tonight 6:30pm, Sydney Daily Telegraph & BBC Media Coverage of Daniel Nalliah RUAP National President Campaign in Sydney, Newcastle & Wollongong, NSW from Friday 31 May – Sunday 2 June

Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) RUAP National President Daniel Nalliah will be interviewed from Sydney on Channel Seven’s Today Tonight Broadcast at 6:30pm today Friday 31st May in…

Continue ReadingChannel 7 Today Tonight 6:30pm, Sydney Daily Telegraph & BBC Media Coverage of Daniel Nalliah RUAP National President Campaign in Sydney, Newcastle & Wollongong, NSW from Friday 31 May – Sunday 2 June

How to think about Islam

May 24, 2013 - Bill Muehlenberg of CultureWatch Dear friends, One. OK, so I wrote four articles on the London terror attack in 24 hours . It is because all…

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Media Release: RUA Party President Daniel Nalliah at RSL Blacktown Club in Sydney 31/05 to speak on Ethnic Enclaves – No Go Zones in Australia / Channel 7 Today Tonight / Is Islam the failure of Multiculturalism?

General Immediate Media Release 29th May 2013

Rise Up Australia Party National President Daniel Nalliah will address a gathering of Party supporters at the Blacktown RSL Club on Second Ave in Blacktown, Sydney this Friday night 31st  May at 7pm.

He will be addressing the issue of Ethnic Enclaves and No Go Zones in Australia.

This morning from his office in Melbourne, Daniel Nalliah responded to yesterday’s Channel 7 Today Tonight broadcast on the above topic.  

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/lifestyle/article/-/17360450/suburban-enclaves/

He stated, “Muslims are the greatest violators of Multiculturalism.”

In his speech in Blacktown, he will call on gutless politicians to stop pussy-footing around the issue and to deal with it head on. He stated, “Do not surrender to the fear and intimidation by some Muslims who hate our way of life and want to spread the horror & terror of Islam.

If we continue to side step the real issue, and that is that ‘Islam is a violent religion’ and moreover a few Muslims have not highjacked Islam, but Islam has highjacked millions of Muslim people. We will not win this battle, if we don’t confront it right now. Otherwise, it will be too late, resulting in our children and grandchildren having to pay the price.”

Mr Nalliah, in his speech at the Blacktown RSL Club, will address the issue of how we should deal with the problem of Muslims taking over whole suburbs and turning them into NO GO ZONES for others.

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Continue ReadingMedia Release: RUA Party President Daniel Nalliah at RSL Blacktown Club in Sydney 31/05 to speak on Ethnic Enclaves – No Go Zones in Australia / Channel 7 Today Tonight / Is Islam the failure of Multiculturalism?