Christianophobia – A Faith Under Attack

Colorado Springs, December 21 2012 (World Watch Monitor) — By Steve Rabey

Jesus warned his followers that they would experience persecution, a prediction that was already coming true before the books of the New Testament were completed. Today, Shortt argues, “the greatest curbs on religious freedoms take place in Muslim majority countries.”

Take Egypt, where Christianity grew deep roots in the centuries before Mohammed. Today, there are more than 10 million Christians among a population of more than 80 million. But Christians have faced increasing pressures in recent decades, and the overthrow of a dictator and a historic election that promoted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi have complicated matters even more.

The book documents how attacks and bombings of churches have increased since the election; forced emigration is shrinking the Christian population; Coptic Christians (the largest group of Egyptian Christians) face systematic obstacles to promotion in the army, police and legal professions; Coptic women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam; and Muslims who convert to Christianity may be shunned, harassed, physically harmed and even killed.

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Why Christian Persecution Is Islam’s Achilles’ Heel

November 30, 2012 By Raymond Ibrahim Comments 

Which of the following three headlines is most difficult for the media—including the usual array of liberal pundits, apologists, academics, and politicians—to whitewash or rationalize away?  Which most exposes Islam’s inherent intolerance?

A)   “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims fire rockets into Israel

B)   “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims riot and commit acts of violence in Europe

C)   “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims torch a Christian church in a Muslim country

The answer is C—Christian persecution.

Why?

Because in both scenarios A and B, Muslims will always be portrayed and seen as the “underdogs”—and hence always exonerated for their behavior.  No matter how violent or ugly, no matter how many Islamic slogans are shrieked—thus placing their behavior in a purely Islamic context—Muslim violence against the West and Israel will always be dismissed as a product of the weak and outnumbered status of Muslims—their status as underdogs, which the West tends to romanticize.  And so they will always get a free pass, without further ado.

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Israel has a right to exist and defend itself Dublin rally told

By PATRICK COUNIHAN – Irish Central Staff Writer   Monday, November 26, 2012

People turned out to express their views supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against the rocket attacks on its citizens launched by Hamas in Gaza.  Labour Party Councilor for the Stillorgan Ward Richard Humphreys said there needs to be a wider recognition of the right of Israel to exist.  “This is a day when we stand in solidarity, friendship and dialogue with Israel.  Israel’s right to exist must be acknowledged, as the only Jewish state in the world and the only liberal secular democracy in the Middle East,” Mr Humphreys said.

Israel has a fundamental right to exist and defend itself, a speaker at a pro-Israeli demonstration in Dublin has proclaimed.  Cllr Richard Humphreys, the Labour Party Councillor for the Stillorgan Ward, has said that there needs to be a wider recognition of the right of Israel to exist, and its consequential right to defend itself against the rocket attacks on its citizens launched by Hamas’s terrorist regime in Gaza.

Humphreys was speaking at the historic first major rally in solidarity with Israel, held at the GPO on Sunday 25 November.  “This is a day when we stand in solidarity, friendship and dialogue with Israel. Israel’s right to exist must be acknowledged, as the only Jewish state in the world and the only liberal secular democracy in the Middle East.” Humphreys said.

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Newham “mega mosque” plans rejected by councillors

Else Kvist Wednesday, December 5, 2012 

Plans for a “mega mosque” in Newham have been turned down by councillors.

Thousands of supporters of the mosque had gathered outside Stratford Old Town Hall ahead of the meeting of Newham Council’s Strategic Development Committee this evening.

A small counter protest against the mosque had also gathered.

The plans to erect the Riverine Centre, also known as Abbey Mills Mosque, were put forward by trustees following the Tabilighi Jamaat movement.

Councilors voted unanimously to turn the plans down, siding with the recommendations of council officers who said the plans should be rejected.

At 29,227sq m the proposed complex was more than three times the floorspace of St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Gay Marriage Push Should Be Abandoned, Say 71 Percent of Britain’s Tory Party Grassroots Members

By Daniel Blake , Christian Post Contributor October 8, 2012

British Prime Minister David Cameron should drop his proposals to redefine marriage, according to a poll of his grassroots Conservative Party members.

The ComRes poll was commissioned by the Coalition for Marriage and found that a massive 71 percent of Conservative constituency chairmen believe Cameron should abandon his aggressive push to amend the definition of marriage of between one man and one woman.

The poll has also found that 47 percent of those polled believed that Cameron’s liberal stance on gay marriage had come at a cost to the party.

Furthermore, more than 70 percent believed that Cameron’s push for same sex marriage regardless of what others felt had damaged the prime minister’s standing in the party. Only 11 percent believed that his liberal agenda had enhanced his reputation within the party.

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Romney Rising, Europe Panicking

Posted by Frank Crimi Bio ? on Oct 5th, 2012 

The European hope for an Obama second term is now flagging after Barack Obama’s disastrous debate performance Wednesday night against Mitt Romney.

As in the United States, Obama’s debate performance is being ruthlessly panned by European leaders, diplomats and media, many of whom were not only hopeful, but confident that Obama would easily win re-election.

Instead, that certainty has now been replaced by heightened angst, best expressed by the French paper, Le Monde, which wrote on its front page, “Where did the favorite go?: Obama fails his first televised debate against an incisive Romney.”

That Obama failure, according to European media accounts, is rooted in the President’s shocking lack of style, substance and commanding presence, a critique shared across both sides of the European media’s political spectrum.

In Britain, for example, the conservative Daily Telegraph wrote that Romney was “stunningly on top of his argument with a faultless command of detail and a confident fluency that made Barack Obama seem hesitant, defensive and occasionally evasive.”

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Largest Faith Gathering Albania Has Ever Seen

Randal Burtis (Oct 4, 2012)

“I think it’s historic. For the first time, we have had the elites of Albanian society—the business community, the political community—being addressed in such a genuine way with the Good News of salvation.” -Toni Gogu

(Tirana, Albania)—Just over two decades after the fall of Communism and state-imposed atheism in Albania, local churches and Luis Palau collaborated to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to more than 20,000 people at Tirana’s Mother Teresa Square.

TiranaFest with Luis Palau, a massive evangelistic campaign, took Albania’s capital city by storm September 22-23. The square resounded with live music; an extraordinary stunt show by skate, BMX, and motocross athletes; a program just for kids; and clear presentations of the Good News by Luis Palau and partner evangelists.

“This was totally different . . . something that has never happened in Tirana,” Pastor Paulin Vilajeti of Albania Christian Center said. “Because people were attracted by different events. I believe and I hope that God touched different generations—from children to the old people.”

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ROMNEY TOUR TO EMPHASIZE UNITY WITH ISRAEL AND EUROPEAN ALLIES

By Maeve Reston / Tribune Washington Bureau – July 23, 2012 

BOSTON — Mitt Romney’s seven-day foreign tour this week promises to be an elaborate show of statesmanship — from his meetings with more than a dozen leaders from Britain, Israel and Poland to his attendance at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London.

But his advisers said voters should not expect any major policy pronouncements. The presumptive Republican nominee for president, they said, is traveling abroad mainly to “learn and listen.”

In a campaign dominated by the economy, the international trip offers the former Massachusetts governor a rare chance to show voters that he would be a capable leader on the world stage. He will he have the chance to brush up his foreign policy credentials — a weak spot in his resume — and his presence at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Friday also will allow him to highlight his experience turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when the organization faced scandal and financial crisis.

Mindful that it would be considered bad form for a presidential candidate to criticize of the nation’s commander in chief on foreign soil, Romney’s aides said that he would not make direct policy contrasts with President Barack Obama while abroad.  But he plans to frame his foreign policy goals and the purpose of his trip in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday in Nevada.

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HOSTILITY TO CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE

Dr. Peter Hammond  – July 2012 edition of JOY! Magazine.

The secularisation and paganisation of large sections of Europe is tragic. There are surprisingly dynamic pockets of spiritual vitality and life amidst the general atheism and heathenism, but the general picture in Europe is of spiritual decline.

Missionary Power House

In 1900, Evangelicals in Europe constituted 45% of the world’s Evangelicals. Now less than 4% of all Evangelicals in the world are in Europe. The 19th century was the greatest century of Missionary advance. It was a century of astounding inventions and of spectacular advances in technology. Many countries in Europe experienced dynamic Spiritual Revivals. Christian missionaries from Europe won whole tribes and nations to Christ, in the remotest regions of the globe. For over a thousand years, Europe had been Christendom, the heartland and stronghold of Christian civilisation. The 19th century has seen such staggering growth in numbers, productivity, power and wealth, that most would have imagined that Europe would have continued to dominate the globe for centuries to come. The optimism which had prevailed in the 19th century gave way to profound pessimism after the First World War.

Devastation

However, World War I shattered Europe. An entire generation of young men died in brutal trench warfare. 1914 marked the end of the greatest century of Christian advance and the beginning of what proved to be the worst century of persecution. The consequences of the First World War, continues to have far-reaching repercussions to this present day. Of the 60 million European soldiers who were mobilised from 1914 to 1918, over 9 million were killed, 7 million permanently disabled and 15 million seriously injured.

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Freedom fails – Majority Vote 85-24 force Danish chuches to perform same sex marriage

Bill Muehlenberg - 11th June 2012 Here is how one report covers this ominous development: “The nation of Denmark has voted to force churches in the established Evangelical Lutheran Church…

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UK Teenagers Having Up to 7 Abortions, Shocking Figures Show

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter – May 28, 2012

A new study showing that 38,269 teenagers in Britain had an abortion in 2010 has revealed the alarming statistic that at least three had undergone the procedure at least seven times each, while another four teenagers have terminated pregnancies six times each.

The National Health Service (NHS) figures, which will be released under the Freedom of Information Act this week, are showing that young women were being “let down in an appalling way,” pro-life campaigners in the U.K. have stated.

“There is something seriously wrong with a country where teenagers are having even one abortion, let alone repeat abortions to this extent,” said Rebecca Mallinson, of the Pro Life Alliance, as quoted by The Daily Telegraph.

“We are failing these young people in an appalling way, and storing up serious sexual health problems for the future, whether the direct issue of sexually transmitted diseases, but also the effects that multiple abortions can have on future fertility. (more…)

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Ditch plans for same-sex marriage, voters tell MPs

By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor – 26 May 2012

Plans to legalise same-sex marriage are the number one issue in MPs’ postbags – with an overwhelming majority of voters opposed to the move – according to a new poll.

The survey of MPs from across the political spectrum by ComRes also shows that only one in 25 parliamentarians believes that allowing gay unions is a main priority for voters.

The poll comes in the wake of a growing number of Conservative heavyweights declaring that they do not support moves to allow same-sex marriage by law by the time of the next election, May 2015.

Last week Downing Street backed down by signalling that there would a “free vote” on the issue in parliament – as is traditional with matters of conscience – in what has become a divisive issue for the coalition. (more…)

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EU Court Rules Gay Marriage Not a Right; Prohibiting Gay Adoption not Discrimination

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman : Mar 22, 2012 : LifeSite News The European Court of Human Rights exists to rule on cases that fall under the European Convention on Human Rights,…

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The Historical Reality of the Muslim Conquests

Catholic Lane ^ | March 3, 2012 | Raymond Ibrahim

Because it is now almost axiomatic for American school textbooks to whitewash all things Islamic (see here for example), it may be useful to examine one of those aspects that are regularly distorted: the Muslim conquests.

Few events of history are so well documented and attested to as are these conquests, which commenced soon after the death of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (632) and tapered off circa 750. Large swathes of the Old World—from the India in the east, to Spain in the west—were conquered and consolidated by the sword of Islam during this time.

By the standards of history, the reality of these conquests is unassailable, for history proper concerns itself with primary sources; and the Islamic conquests are thoroughly documented. More importantly, the overwhelming majority of primary source materials we rely on do not come from non-Muslims, who might be accused of bias. Rather, the foremost historians bequeathing to posterity thousands of pages of source materials documenting the Islamic conquests were not only Muslims themselves; they were—and still are—regarded by today’s Muslims as pious and trustworthy scholars (generically, the ulema).

Among the most authoritative books devoted to recounting the conquests are: Ibn Ishaq’s (d. 767) Sira (“Life of Muhammad”), the oldest biography of Muhammad; Waqidi’s (d. circa. 820) Maghazi (“Military Campaigns [of the Prophet]“); Baladhuri’s (d. 892) Futuh al-Buldan (“Conquests of the Nations”); and Tabari’s (d.923) multi-volume Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, (“History of Prophets and Kings”), which is 40 volumes in the English translation. (more…)

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