Are we prepared to be Modern Martyrs?
Are we prepared to testify in word & deed?
Are we prepared to bear witness to the truths of our faith?
2471 Before Pilate, Christ proclaims that he “has come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.”266 The Christian is not to “be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord.”267
In situations that require witness to the faith, the Christian must
profess it without equivocation, after the example of St. Paul before
his judges. We must keep “a clear conscience toward God and toward men.”268 (1816)
2472 The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them to act as witnesses of the Gospel
and of the obligations that flow from it. This witness is a
transmission of the faith in words and deeds. Witness is an act of
justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.269 (863, 905, 1807)
All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they have put on in Baptism and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation.270
2473 Martyrdom
is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means
bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who
died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the
truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through
an act of fortitude. “Let me become the food of the beasts, through whom
it will be given me to reach God.”271 (852, 1808, 1258)
2474 The
Church has painstakingly collected the records of those who persevered
to the end in witnessing to their faith. These are the acts of the
Martyrs. They form the archives of truth written in letters of blood: (1011)
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm#Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be of any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died for us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching.... 272I bless you for having judged me worthy from this day and this hour to be counted among your martyrs.... You have kept your promise, God of faithfulness and truth. For this reason and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, who is with you and the Holy Spirit, may glory be given to you, now and in the ages to come. Amen.273
Catechism of the Catholic Church
It is time to prepare. There is no time to waste.
Jihad in the Modern Era
Following its defeat at the walls of Vienna in 1683, Islam entered a period of strategic decline in which it was increasingly dominated by the rising European colonial powers. Due to its material weakness vis-à-vis the West, dar al-Islam was unable to prosecute large-scale military campaigns into infidel territory. The Islamic Empire, then ruled by the Ottoman Turks, was reduced to fending of the increasingly predatory European powers.
In 1856, Western pressure compelled the Ottoman government to suspend the dhimma under which the Empire's non-Muslim subjects labored. This provided hitherto unknown opportunities for social and personal improvement by the former dhimmis, but it also fomented resentment by orthodox Muslims who saw this as a violation of the Sharia and their Allah-given superiority over unbelievers.
By the late 19th century, tensions among the European subjects of the Empire broke out into the open when the Ottoman government massacred 30,000 Bulgarians in 1876 for allegedly rebelling against Ottoman rule. Following Western intervention that resulted in Bulgarian independence, the Ottoman government and its Muslim subjects were increasingly nervous about other non-Muslim groups seeking independence.
It was in this atmosphere that the first stage of the Armenian genocide took place in 1896 with the slaughter of some 250,000 Armenians. Both civilians and military personnel took place in the massacres. Peter Balakian, in his book, The Burning Tigris, documents the whole horrific story. But the massacres of the 1890s were only the prelude to the much larger holocaust of 1915, which claimed some 1.5 million lives. While various factors contributed to the slaughter, there is no mistaking that the massacres were nothing other than a jihad waged against the Armenians, no longer protected as they were by the dhimma. In 1914, as the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the central powers, an official anti-Christian jihad was proclaimed.
To promote the idea of jihad, the sheikh-ul-Islam's {the most senior religious leader in the Ottoman Empire} published proclamation summoned the Muslim world to arise and massacre its Christian oppressors. "Oh Moslems," the document read, "Ye who are smitten with happiness and are on the verge of sacrificing your life and your good for the cause of right, and of braving perils, gather now around the Imperial throne." In the Ikdam, the Turkish newspaper that had just passed into German ownership, the idea of jihad was underscored: "The deeds of our enemies have brought down the wrath of God. A gleam of hope has appeared. All Mohammedans, young and old, men, women, and children must fulfill their duty. ... If we do it, the deliverance of the subjected Mohammedan kingdoms is assured." ... "He who kills even one unbeliever," one pamphlet read, "of those who rule over us, whether he does it secretly or openly, shall be rewarded by God." (quoted in Balakian, The Burning Tigris, 169-70.)The anti-Christian jihad culminated in 1922 at Smyrna, on the Mediterranean coast, where 150,000 Greek Christians were massacred by the Turkish army under the indifferent eye of Allied warships. All in, from 1896-1923, some 2.5 million Christians were killed, the first modern genocide, which to this day is denied by the Turkish government.
Since the breakup of the Islamic Empire following World War I, various jihads have been fought around the globe by the independent Muslim nations and sub-state jihadist groups. The most sustained effort has been directed against Israel, which has committed the unpardonable sin of rebuilding dar al-harb on land formerly a part of dar al-Islam. Other prominent jihads include that fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Muslim Bosnians against the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, the Muslim Albanians against the Serbs in Kosovo, and the Chechens against the Russians in the Caucasus. Jihads have also been waged throughout northern Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, Kashmir, and a host of other places throughout the world. In addition, the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks around the world have been committed by Muslims, including, of course, the spectacular attacks of 9/11/01 (USA), 3/11/04 (Spain), and 7/7/05 (UK). (For a more comprehensive list of Muslim attacks, visit www.thereligionofpeace.com.)
The fact is, the percentage of conflicts in the world today that do not include Islam is pretty small. Islam is making a comeback.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/islam-101.html
Islam 101 by Gregory M. Davis
author, Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World
producer/director, Islam: What the West Needs to Know -- An Examination of Islam, Violence, and the Fate of the Non-Muslim World
Islam 101 is meant to help people become better educated about the fundamentals of Islam and to help the more knowledgeable better convey the facts to others. Similarly, my book and documentary are meant to serve as concise explanations of the major moving parts of Islam and their implications for Western society. Islam 101 is a condensation of the book and documentary with the aim of lending clarity to the public understanding of Islam and of exposing the inadequacy of prevailing views. All should feel free to distribute and/or reproduce it.
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A Better Understanding of Islam
Islamic sources make clear that engaging in violence against non-Muslims is a central and indispensable principle to Islam.
"Terrorism," it should be obvious, is a tactic or stratagem used to advance a goal; it is the goal of Islamic terrorism that we must come to understand, and this logically requires an understanding of Islam.
As we have seen, contrary to the widespread insistence that true Islam is pacific even if a handful of its adherents are violent, the Islamic sources make clear that engaging in violence against non-Muslims is a central and indispensable principle to Islam. Islam is less a personal faith than a political ideology that exists in a fundamental and permanent state of war with non-Islamic civilizations, cultures, and individuals. The Islamic holy texts outline a social, governmental, and economic system for all mankind. Those cultures and individuals who do not submit to Islamic governance exist in an ipso facto state of rebellion with Allah and must be forcibly brought into submission. The misbegotten term "Islamo-fascism" is wholly redundant: Islam itself is a kind of fascism that achieves its full and proper form only when it assumes the powers of the state.
The spectacular acts of Islamic terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are but the most recent manifestation of a global war of conquest that Islam has been waging since the days of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th Century AD and that continues apace today. This is the simple, glaring truth that is staring the world today in the face -- and which has stared it in the face numerous times in the past -- but which it seems few today are willing to contemplate.
It is important to realize that we have been talking about Islam -- not Islamic "fundamentalism," "extremism," "fanaticism," "Islamo-fascism," or "Islamism," but Islam proper, Islam in its orthodox form as it has been understood and practiced by right-believing Muslims from the time of Muhammad to the present. The mounting episodes of Islamic terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are due largely to the geostrategic changes following the end of the Cold War and the growing technical options available to terrorists.
With the collapse of Soviet hegemony over much of the Muslim world, coupled with the burgeoning wealth of the Muslim oil-producing countries, the Muslim world increasingly possesses the freedom and means to support jihad around the globe. In short, the reason that Muslims are once again waging war against the non-Muslim world is because they can.
It is paramount to note, however, that, even if no major terrorist attack ever occurs on Western soil again, Islam still poses a mortal danger to the West. A halt to terrorism would simply mean a change in Islam's tactics -- perhaps indicating a longer-term approach that would allow Muslim immigration and higher birth rates to bring Islam closer to victory before the next round of violence. It cannot be overemphasized that Muslim terrorism is a symptom of Islam that may increase or decrease in intensity while Islam proper remains permanently hostile.
Muhammad Taqi Partovi Samzevari, in his "Future of the Islamic Movement" (1986), sums up the Islamic worldview.
Our own Prophet ... was a general, a statesman, an administrator, an economist, a jurist and a first-class manager all in one. ... In the Qur'an's historic vision Allah's support and the revolutionary struggle of the people must come together, so that Satanic rulers are brought down and put to death. A people that is not prepared to kill and to die in order to create a just society cannot expect any support from Allah. The Almighty has promised us that the day will come when the whole of mankind will live united under the banner of Islam, when the sign of the Crescent, the symbol of Muhammad, will be supreme everywhere. ... But that day must be hastened through our Jihad, through our readiness to offer our lives and to shed the unclean blood of those who do not see the light brought from the Heavens by Muhammad in his mi'raj {"nocturnal voyages to the 'court' of Allah"}. ... It is Allah who puts the gun in our hand. But we cannot expect Him to pull the trigger as well simply because we are faint-hearted.It must be emphasized that all of the analysis provided here derives from the Islamic sources themselves and is not the product of critical Western scholarship. (Indeed, most modern Western scholarship of Islam is hardly "critical" in any meaningful sense.) It is Islam's self-interpretation that necessitates and glorifies violence, not any foreign interpretation of it.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/islam-101.html
Islam 101 by Gregory M. Davis
author, Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World
producer/director, Islam: What the West Needs to Know -- An Examination of Islam, Violence, and the Fate of the Non-Muslim World
Islam 101 is meant to help people become better educated about the fundamentals of Islam and to help the more knowledgeable better convey the facts to others. Similarly, my book and documentary are meant to serve as concise explanations of the major moving parts of Islam and their implications for Western society. Islam 101 is a condensation of the book and documentary with the aim of lending clarity to the public understanding of Islam and of exposing the inadequacy of prevailing views. All should feel free to distribute and/or reproduce it.
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Egyptian Christian Martyrs
Christians in Egypt today are experiencing increased attacks against them in conjunction with the government’s attempt to disperse two pro-President Morsi camps calling for his re-instatement. At least 250 people have been killed and 1,000 wounded during the raid. Egypt has declared a month-long state of emergency after scores of people were killed and more wounded during the protests and raid earlier today.
Forty church buildings have been attacked and set on fire today. Three of the churches were in Minya, two in Fayoum and one in Sohag. On the same day, Christian-owned businesses in Sohag and Assuit were targeted by radical Muslims. A convent called Al Raai Al Saleh in Suez was also set on fire.
In the midst of the chaos, Egyptian Christians have still seen the hand of God at work. According to a VOM worker, the Good Shepherd Monastery in Suiz city was surrounded by a mob of radical Muslim Brotherhood members earlier today. The monastery was full of women and children. Miraculously, everyone was able to flee to safety as the monastery was attacked and burned down.
Sources report that Mohammed El Beltagy, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said “operations against Christians will start now.” The Muslim Brotherhood routinely threatens Christians, chanting and protesting against them. A VOM worker said that the Muslim Brotherhood leaders are seeking to disrupt the national unity by creating sedition between Muslims and Christians.
These recent attacks against Christians are not the only ones that have occurred in the past weeks. In another church on Aug. 3, hundreds of Morsi supporters surrounded a church in Sohag and fixed al-Qaeda’s flag on the church. In Menia city the same day, over 50 shops and homes owned by Coptic Christians were burned and looted by radical Muslims. Over 20 people were injured in those attacks.
In July, two Christians were killed in northern areas of the Sinai Peninsula. On July 18, two churches were attacked during the funeral procession for two Muslim Brotherhood members. In the Luxor province, the newly appointed head of police is suspected of intentionally failing to respond to an incident on July 5 in which four Christians were killed.
In response to the declared emergency, the government is enforcing a curfew in eleven different cities from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Christians hope that the worst of the violence has passed.
Our Egyptian brothers and sisters request prayer that an effective rule of law and order will be established to benefit all citizens and that those affected by the violence will know the healing touch of Jesus. The Voice of the Martyrs is continuing to actively monitor the situation in Egypt and will provide assistance as needed.
Source: VOM Sources (The Voice of the Martyrs)
Posted: August 15, 2013
Updated: August 22, 2013
Updated: August 22, 2013
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http://www.fides.org/en/news/34165-ASIA_MALAYSIA_Use_of_the_word_Allah_for_Christians_on_September_10_the_hearing_for_the_government_s_appeal#.UhzW1KzNlP0
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Report: Nigeria violence is sectarian
Boko Haram is the foremost perpetrator of religiously motivated violence in Nigeria, claims a new report issued by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The report, issued Aug. 19 as an update to a July 2012 report, documents dozens of Boko Haram attacks on churches and individual Christians since January 2012 that have killed at least 532 people. Attacks on critical Muslim leaders and other "un-Islamic" groups have killed a further 134 people. The actual numbers likely are larger, the report notes, because only those incidents for which the militant Islamist group claimed responsibility are documented.
Earlier in August, the International Criminal Court said a “reasonable basis” exists to conclude Boko Haram has committed crimes against humanity in Nigeria.
The USCIRF update claims Boko Haram's "misuse" of faith is increasingly putting religion at the center of Nigerian violence, and that government toleration has created environment of impunity. The commission, an an advisory body to the U.S. Congress, urges an American policy that acknowledges the centrality of religion to Nigeria's unrest, in order to more effectively support Abuja and Nigeria's religious leaders.
http://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/oureye/
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Use of the word "Allah" for Christians: on September 10 the hearing for the government’s appeal
Kuala Lumpur (Agenzia Fides) - The legal dispute on the use of
the word "Allah" in Christian publications will be examined in the
appeal hearing on September 10. As reported to Fides, this is the result
of the decision of the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya, which validated
the appeal filed by the Malaysian government. The appeal is against a
judgment of 31 December 2009, which authorized Christians to use the
word "Allah" in their publications in Malay language. About three years
after that judgment, the question remained open and suspended. The
Catholic Church, in the person of its representative, His Exc. Mgr.
Murphy Pakiam, Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, had asked the cancellation of
the appeal submitted by the government (see Fides 18/07/2013). The
validation by the Court now opens the path for a judgment on the issue
that, according to the Catholic Church in Malaysia, touches the sphere
of human rights and religious freedom. The trial will see the Archbishop
of Kuala Lumpur on one side, as head of the Catholic weekly diocesan
"Herald," and the Malaysian government on the other side.
Fr. Lawrence Andrew, director of the Herald, said that "the Church has never wanted to make a political case or a religious reason for conflict". But activists in "Perkasa" a Muslim nationalist organization, have tried to influence the judges and the case could easily be exploited. The Secretary-General of Perkasa, Syed Hassan Syed Ali, has called for "the unity of all Muslims in Malaysia for the cause of Allah". This has "fueled religious tensions by creating fear and confusion among the faithful Muslims, saying that the Church threatens the sanctity of Islam", notes Fr. Andrew, stressing that the Church "calls on the authorities to take action toward those who create instability and unrest, exploiting the issue regarding the use of the word Allah".
Prime Minister Najib Razak in past days tried to reassure public opinion, saying that "Malaysia has not become an Islamic Orthodox state", the matter is that "it is important to understand the religious sensibilities of all".
The case broke out in 2008 when the Ministry of the Interior threatened to revoke the diocesan weekly in Kuala Lumpur, "Herald", the permission to use the term "Allah" in its publication, the only one that says "God" in the local Malay language.
This prompted the Catholic Church to initiate judicial proceedings. In 2009, the verdict of the Court gave reason to the Church, and the government presented the application for appeal which has so far remained suspended.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 24/08/2013)
Fr. Lawrence Andrew, director of the Herald, said that "the Church has never wanted to make a political case or a religious reason for conflict". But activists in "Perkasa" a Muslim nationalist organization, have tried to influence the judges and the case could easily be exploited. The Secretary-General of Perkasa, Syed Hassan Syed Ali, has called for "the unity of all Muslims in Malaysia for the cause of Allah". This has "fueled religious tensions by creating fear and confusion among the faithful Muslims, saying that the Church threatens the sanctity of Islam", notes Fr. Andrew, stressing that the Church "calls on the authorities to take action toward those who create instability and unrest, exploiting the issue regarding the use of the word Allah".
Prime Minister Najib Razak in past days tried to reassure public opinion, saying that "Malaysia has not become an Islamic Orthodox state", the matter is that "it is important to understand the religious sensibilities of all".
The case broke out in 2008 when the Ministry of the Interior threatened to revoke the diocesan weekly in Kuala Lumpur, "Herald", the permission to use the term "Allah" in its publication, the only one that says "God" in the local Malay language.
This prompted the Catholic Church to initiate judicial proceedings. In 2009, the verdict of the Court gave reason to the Church, and the government presented the application for appeal which has so far remained suspended.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 24/08/2013)
http://www.fides.org/en/news/34165-ASIA_MALAYSIA_Use_of_the_word_Allah_for_Christians_on_September_10_the_hearing_for_the_government_s_appeal#.UhzW1KzNlP0
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Report: Nigeria violence is sectarian
Boko Haram is the foremost perpetrator of religiously motivated violence in Nigeria, claims a new report issued by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The report, issued Aug. 19 as an update to a July 2012 report, documents dozens of Boko Haram attacks on churches and individual Christians since January 2012 that have killed at least 532 people. Attacks on critical Muslim leaders and other "un-Islamic" groups have killed a further 134 people. The actual numbers likely are larger, the report notes, because only those incidents for which the militant Islamist group claimed responsibility are documented.
Earlier in August, the International Criminal Court said a “reasonable basis” exists to conclude Boko Haram has committed crimes against humanity in Nigeria.
The USCIRF update claims Boko Haram's "misuse" of faith is increasingly putting religion at the center of Nigerian violence, and that government toleration has created environment of impunity. The commission, an an advisory body to the U.S. Congress, urges an American policy that acknowledges the centrality of religion to Nigeria's unrest, in order to more effectively support Abuja and Nigeria's religious leaders.
http://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/oureye/
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Egypt:
"The Islamists burnt and destroyed everything. Their goal was to erase all the traces of a Christian presence."
Remember: in today's
Orwellian public square, this is not an act of hate. The only act of
hate is when non-Muslims point out that this happened, and that it
shouldn't have. "Minya: schools, churches and orphanages burnt to erase
all traces of a Christian presence," from Asia News, August 28 (thanks to C. Cantoni):
Minya (AsiaNews) - With at least 20 attacks against churches, Christian schools and orphanages, Minya Governorate is the part of Egypt where Islamists struck with greatest violence and brutality. "The Islamists", one resident said, "burnt and destroyed everything. Their goal was to erase all the traces of a Christian presence; even the orphanages were looted and destroyed."
After storming the Prince Tadros el-Shatbi Church, the armed Islamic extremists turned their attention to two homes for disadvantaged children located near the parish church, residents said.
They stole church offerings, clothes, and children's games before torching the entire building. The fire lasted over 5 hours.
"Fortunately," the source said, "the children were taken to safety before the arrival of the Islamists."
Like other Christians sites, the two homes that housed hundreds of orphans are now a pile of rubble.
The criminals did not only destroy the two orphanages but also the homes of some families working for the orphanages as well as a nearby art gallery that sold objects and artefacts made by orphans to raise money.
Shurkri Huzayn, 40, is the orphanage guard. He, too, grew up as an orphan at the facility. He witnessed the Salafist attack.
"What kind of people are they? Even unbelievers would not attack an orphanage," he said.
Islamists raged particularly against anything that symbolised the Christianity and modernity, including computers.
After they left the building, the terrorists burnt nearby shops and schools, such as the St Joseph Coptic School, which is run by nuns, a pharmacy and a restaurant. Anti-Christian graffiti were sprayed on the walls along a road.
A few days after the massacre, the guard said that Copts wrote a message on the wall of the orphanage in response to the militants' insults that read, "Despite of what you did, we ask God to forgive you," and "God exists."
According to a teacher at St Joseph, the attack will have a major impact on Christians' daily life.
"The teachers," she noted, "do not know when the school year will start. The school is open to Christians and Muslims and has taught hundreds of children from rural areas, many of whom were housed in the two orphanages."
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Melkite
Catholic Patriarch Gregory III: Syrian intervention "would be a
tragedy, a tragedy, a tragedy -- for the whole country and the whole
Middle East"
"Surely, it will spread like a world war," he said.
"Syrian-born patriarch: 'Enough with the intervention,'" by Doreen Abi Raad for the Catholic News Service, August 28 (thanks to Paul):
BEIRUIT [sic] (CNS) -- Syrian-born Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham warned against armed intervention in his country, saying, "It has brought us to the tragedy we are now living in Syria." Speaking to Catholic News Service by phone Aug. 27 from the patriarchal summer residence in Ain Traz, Lebanon, the patriarch said such a step "would be a tragedy, a tragedy, a tragedy -- for the whole country and the whole Middle East."Those are jihadis, answering the call of jihad from all over the world.
"Enough with the intervention," he said.
"It is fueling hatred, fueling criminality, fueling inhumanity, fueling fundamentalism, terrorism -- all these things are the fruit of intervention. Enough!"
"Surely, it will spread like a world war," he said.
The patriarch lamented the U.S. decision to postpone again a meeting with Russia aimed at preparing for a peace conference on Syria.
"The Holy Father was very clear on Aug. 25," the patriarch said, referring to Pope Francis' call for peace in Syria during the Sunday Angelus, when the pontiff said, "It is not clashes, but an ability to meet and to dialogue that offers prospects for a hope of resolving the problems."
"This is the real voice to be heard, and not the voice of weapons and interventions and of warships," Patriarch Laham said.
"Instead of trying to change the (Syrian) government, help the government to change. We are all for change. We are all for reforms. But not in this way, with blood."
The patriarch said external intervention "is destroying the whole sense of community, of friendship of love between peoples, of conviviality, of living together, Christians and Muslims."
"Why send weapons? Why send criminals?" the patriarch asked, noting that Syria is "now a place for every criminal in the world," referring to fighters coming into Syria from other countries.
"Why send people to fight? Why bring people from abroad? It is fueling hatred among the people." The patriarch said the Syrian opposition had the right to "speak to the government and ask what they have to ask."He then goes on to relate intervention in Syria to the Palestinian jihad against Israel, which he apparently favors, although it is unclear how he sees the Syrian conflict as relating to the Palestinian jihad:
"But criminals coming from outside, why?"
Patriarch Laham, who divides his time between Syria and the patriarchate in Lebanon, said he was happy to be among the people in Syria, but he stressed they are "living in fear, in a very uncertain situation."
"Every place in Damascus and in Syria is unsafe. There is chaos and insecurity in all places," he said.
On Aug. 26, the patriarch said, a mortar shell hit between the Melkite and the neighboring Armenian Orthodox patriarchates in Damascus. On the same day, another mortar shell destroyed the entrance of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in the same neighborhood.
"This is very harsh and very tragic," he said.
"We pray, we pray, because clearly the key to peace in the Middle East is related to a political and peaceful solution of the crisis in Syria. Thus, the key to the solution of the Palestinian conflict is now related to peace in Syria. "Peace in Syria and in Palestine is the key for peace in the Middle East and the whole world," he said.
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"Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians"
by Raymond Ibrahim (April 2013), 322 pages.
An absolute must read By William Muehlenberg VINE VOICE on May 10, 2013
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1621570258&linkCode=as2&tag=uhurnetw-20
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"Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians"
by Raymond Ibrahim (April 2013), 322 pages.
Sadly the history of how the West deals with expansionist tyrannical
ideologies remains constant. We tend to not believe them when they say
they want to kill us. Remember Khrushchev? "We will bury you." Today the
Islamists are saying the same thing, yet hardly anyone believes them.
During the communist menace, Lenin famously spoke of the "useful idiots" in the West who do their work and become their apologists. We have plenty of those today when it comes to Islam. But fortunately we have had those who sounded the alarm about the ideology of bloodshed and death communism was.
Solzhenitsyn of course produced his famous Gulag Archipelago, documenting the hellhole of life in the Soviet Union for dissenters, non-conformists and political prisoners. And there was Armando Valladares' Against All Hope, the horrific account of his 22 years in Cuban prisons for standing up for freedom.
Fortunately we have the modern-day equivalent describing life under totalitarian Islam, and how Christians are being horribly persecuted by this political ideology. It should be a wakeup call to anyone under the illusion that Islam is a religion of peace, and that there are just a few bad eggs spoiling an otherwise nice religion.
Of course the useful idiots said the same thing about communism. They had their heads in the sand and refused to believe that communism was an evil ideology that can only be sustained by violence and murder. Islam is no different: it is a religion of the sword. It spread by military conquest and it exists by terror and oppression.
While there is plenty of ugly persecution going on in the world, it is Islam which leads the way. Says Ibrahim, "The ratio of Muslims to Christians in any given country is the primary factor explaining which countries see the most and the least Christian persecution."
And in this important book we find a blow by blow description of all the incessant and diabolical persecution of Christians taking place around the Islamic world. Although Christians have always felt the wrath of the followers of Islam, it seems that things have really hotted up in recent times.
Whether it is the Sudan, or Egypt, or Syria, or Nigeria, or Turkey, or Morocco, or Indonesia, the amount of suffering, persecution, torture and death is simply overwhelming. As such, this is not a pleasant book to read, but it is a most necessary book to read.
In 300 pages we find it all: the rapes, the beatings, the burnings, the bombings, the acid attacks, the honour killings, the lootings, the churches destroyed, the homes razed, the villages decimated, and countless lives lost. And what is so important about this book is the fact that most of this you will never hear about from the mainstream media in the West.
Not only do most media elites in the West share the same hatred of America, Israel and the West as do so many Muslims, but even if they did want to actually cover these stories, and report fairly, most of it is hidden from them. But Ibrahim, who is fluent in Arabic, is able to carefully and daily monitor the Arabic media to find out firsthand what is taking place.
He simply translates the stories from Arabic media outlets, and presents them on his website - and here - since most of the MSM refuses to cover this persecution. And of course Hollywood and academia are just as guilty of the deliberate whitewashing of Islam and its sustained assault on Christians and Christianity.
That is why you will hardly ever hear of imams calling for the death of Christians, the destruction of all churches, and the total take-over of the free West. These calls are being made all the time in Arabic, but our media is either unaware of them or chooses to ignore them.
So both the big picture (Islam's openly declared war against the West and Christianity) and the smaller picture (stories of individual persecution and terror) are routinely missed by the MSM. But ignorance of Arabic is no excuse here. There are getting to be almost as many atrocities committed in the West by Muslims as in Muslim lands.
As Ibrahim remarks, this manifests itself "wherever significant numbers of Muslims live side by side with non-Muslims". Thus he has plenty of horror stories from within the West as well. Consider the Muslim child-rape gang in the UK.
Islam views non-Muslim women and children as objects of sexual gratification, and so it should not be surprising that "pillars of their community" were recently found guilty of horrific child sex abuse. In Liverpool five victims (the youngest just thirteen) were plied with alcohol and drugs and "passed around" a group of men aged 24 to 59 for sex in apartments, taxis, and kebab shops.
But the bulk of this book deals with the mind-numbing violence and slaughter of believers in Muslim-majority countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is certainly a major site of jihad on churches, and Nigeria is especially a tragic place. In September 2011 for example, Muslims hacked to death thousands of Christians, including many children and pregnant women. A 79-year-old Christian woman had her throat slit in her home.
In April 2012 Muslim attackers set upon a church service, throwing explosives and opening fire as worshipers attempted to flee. In December of that year four more churches were torched and ten Christians murdered. Twenty houses were burned and other churches assaulted, all to the cries of "Allahu Akbar!"
I can recount such horror stories for hours on end here. But why should I, when it is all found in this book. You must get this book. You must read it. You must let it wake you to the tragic truth that there is a war going on, and your faith makes you the enemy of Islam.
Muslim activists have vowed to kill you and destroy your faith. It is simply not good enough to just sit by and pretend it is not happening. The truth is out there. It is clearly found in this vital book. And knowledge of this means you can no longer say, "I never knew".
During the communist menace, Lenin famously spoke of the "useful idiots" in the West who do their work and become their apologists. We have plenty of those today when it comes to Islam. But fortunately we have had those who sounded the alarm about the ideology of bloodshed and death communism was.
Solzhenitsyn of course produced his famous Gulag Archipelago, documenting the hellhole of life in the Soviet Union for dissenters, non-conformists and political prisoners. And there was Armando Valladares' Against All Hope, the horrific account of his 22 years in Cuban prisons for standing up for freedom.
Fortunately we have the modern-day equivalent describing life under totalitarian Islam, and how Christians are being horribly persecuted by this political ideology. It should be a wakeup call to anyone under the illusion that Islam is a religion of peace, and that there are just a few bad eggs spoiling an otherwise nice religion.
Of course the useful idiots said the same thing about communism. They had their heads in the sand and refused to believe that communism was an evil ideology that can only be sustained by violence and murder. Islam is no different: it is a religion of the sword. It spread by military conquest and it exists by terror and oppression.
While there is plenty of ugly persecution going on in the world, it is Islam which leads the way. Says Ibrahim, "The ratio of Muslims to Christians in any given country is the primary factor explaining which countries see the most and the least Christian persecution."
And in this important book we find a blow by blow description of all the incessant and diabolical persecution of Christians taking place around the Islamic world. Although Christians have always felt the wrath of the followers of Islam, it seems that things have really hotted up in recent times.
Whether it is the Sudan, or Egypt, or Syria, or Nigeria, or Turkey, or Morocco, or Indonesia, the amount of suffering, persecution, torture and death is simply overwhelming. As such, this is not a pleasant book to read, but it is a most necessary book to read.
In 300 pages we find it all: the rapes, the beatings, the burnings, the bombings, the acid attacks, the honour killings, the lootings, the churches destroyed, the homes razed, the villages decimated, and countless lives lost. And what is so important about this book is the fact that most of this you will never hear about from the mainstream media in the West.
Not only do most media elites in the West share the same hatred of America, Israel and the West as do so many Muslims, but even if they did want to actually cover these stories, and report fairly, most of it is hidden from them. But Ibrahim, who is fluent in Arabic, is able to carefully and daily monitor the Arabic media to find out firsthand what is taking place.
He simply translates the stories from Arabic media outlets, and presents them on his website - and here - since most of the MSM refuses to cover this persecution. And of course Hollywood and academia are just as guilty of the deliberate whitewashing of Islam and its sustained assault on Christians and Christianity.
That is why you will hardly ever hear of imams calling for the death of Christians, the destruction of all churches, and the total take-over of the free West. These calls are being made all the time in Arabic, but our media is either unaware of them or chooses to ignore them.
So both the big picture (Islam's openly declared war against the West and Christianity) and the smaller picture (stories of individual persecution and terror) are routinely missed by the MSM. But ignorance of Arabic is no excuse here. There are getting to be almost as many atrocities committed in the West by Muslims as in Muslim lands.
As Ibrahim remarks, this manifests itself "wherever significant numbers of Muslims live side by side with non-Muslims". Thus he has plenty of horror stories from within the West as well. Consider the Muslim child-rape gang in the UK.
Islam views non-Muslim women and children as objects of sexual gratification, and so it should not be surprising that "pillars of their community" were recently found guilty of horrific child sex abuse. In Liverpool five victims (the youngest just thirteen) were plied with alcohol and drugs and "passed around" a group of men aged 24 to 59 for sex in apartments, taxis, and kebab shops.
But the bulk of this book deals with the mind-numbing violence and slaughter of believers in Muslim-majority countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is certainly a major site of jihad on churches, and Nigeria is especially a tragic place. In September 2011 for example, Muslims hacked to death thousands of Christians, including many children and pregnant women. A 79-year-old Christian woman had her throat slit in her home.
In April 2012 Muslim attackers set upon a church service, throwing explosives and opening fire as worshipers attempted to flee. In December of that year four more churches were torched and ten Christians murdered. Twenty houses were burned and other churches assaulted, all to the cries of "Allahu Akbar!"
I can recount such horror stories for hours on end here. But why should I, when it is all found in this book. You must get this book. You must read it. You must let it wake you to the tragic truth that there is a war going on, and your faith makes you the enemy of Islam.
Muslim activists have vowed to kill you and destroy your faith. It is simply not good enough to just sit by and pretend it is not happening. The truth is out there. It is clearly found in this vital book. And knowledge of this means you can no longer say, "I never knew".
An absolute must read By William Muehlenberg VINE VOICE on May 10, 2013
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"Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians"
by Raymond
Ibrahim (April 2013), 322 pages.
The author knows well of the sufferings of Christians at the hands of Muslim tormentors: he learned Arabic from his Egyptian Coptic Christian parents, has traveled throughout the Middle East, and his website maintains a blog of Islamic assaults against Christians, Jews and other mulhid, jahil, gird, and generic kafirun.
On Amazon, the "view inside" feature should be available, however, at the time of this posting, it is just of the e-book Kindle version. This book is not a cut-and-paste posting of his various internet columns; this isn't just a collection of newspaper clippings regarding tormented Christians. Instead, it is a remarkably detailed and scholarly study [52 pages of notes alone!], of Christian persecution (and at times near genocidal assault) throughout the Islamic world (as well as in countries where Muslims have a strong presence).
In Part 1: "Lost History": the author noted how that within the first couple hundred years of Muhammad's jihad the Muslim umma islamiya had conquered half of the Christian world. The author purveys Muhammad's holy book, the Qur'an, for ayat that justify the superiority of Muslims to conquer non-Muslim al-dhimma.
Part 2: "Islam's War On Christian Worship": Here the author discusses the Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) for justifying Islamist curtailment of non-Muslim houses of worship, as well as the chastisement of their congregation. Today's attacks against Christian churches can be traced back 1,400 years ago to the Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem `The Conditions of Omar' (p. 33), and as expounded upon by other 14th Century Islamist theologians (p. 35).
Part 3: "Islam's War On Christian Freedom": the author reviews the history of Muhammad (al-insan al-kamil) ordering the killing of those who mocked him (p. 101), and how this developed the notion of blasphemy (tashif), whereby those who publicly question Islamic beliefs can be killed, as well as Christian proselytizers (dai'ya). The author recounts many accounts of Islamist attacks against Christians throughout the world [Caution: not for the fain-of-heart: there are 14 pages of full-color photographs of burned churches and many brutally butchered Christians, pp. 130+].
Part 4: "Climate of Hate": Herein the author details how Muslim governments "plant and nourish the seeds of hate" against non-Muslims.
Part 5: "See No Evil, Hear No Evil": The author explains why liberal academia and media "whitewash Islam and blame the West" for Islamic attacks against non-Muslims. Not a book with a happy ending. [Also see an important companion book: "Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians" by P. Marshall, et. al. (March 2013)].
The author knows well of the sufferings of Christians at the hands of Muslim tormentors: he learned Arabic from his Egyptian Coptic Christian parents, has traveled throughout the Middle East, and his website maintains a blog of Islamic assaults against Christians, Jews and other mulhid, jahil, gird, and generic kafirun.
On Amazon, the "view inside" feature should be available, however, at the time of this posting, it is just of the e-book Kindle version. This book is not a cut-and-paste posting of his various internet columns; this isn't just a collection of newspaper clippings regarding tormented Christians. Instead, it is a remarkably detailed and scholarly study [52 pages of notes alone!], of Christian persecution (and at times near genocidal assault) throughout the Islamic world (as well as in countries where Muslims have a strong presence).
In Part 1: "Lost History": the author noted how that within the first couple hundred years of Muhammad's jihad the Muslim umma islamiya had conquered half of the Christian world. The author purveys Muhammad's holy book, the Qur'an, for ayat that justify the superiority of Muslims to conquer non-Muslim al-dhimma.
Part 2: "Islam's War On Christian Worship": Here the author discusses the Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) for justifying Islamist curtailment of non-Muslim houses of worship, as well as the chastisement of their congregation. Today's attacks against Christian churches can be traced back 1,400 years ago to the Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem `The Conditions of Omar' (p. 33), and as expounded upon by other 14th Century Islamist theologians (p. 35).
Part 3: "Islam's War On Christian Freedom": the author reviews the history of Muhammad (al-insan al-kamil) ordering the killing of those who mocked him (p. 101), and how this developed the notion of blasphemy (tashif), whereby those who publicly question Islamic beliefs can be killed, as well as Christian proselytizers (dai'ya). The author recounts many accounts of Islamist attacks against Christians throughout the world [Caution: not for the fain-of-heart: there are 14 pages of full-color photographs of burned churches and many brutally butchered Christians, pp. 130+].
Part 4: "Climate of Hate": Herein the author details how Muslim governments "plant and nourish the seeds of hate" against non-Muslims.
Part 5: "See No Evil, Hear No Evil": The author explains why liberal academia and media "whitewash Islam and blame the West" for Islamic attacks against non-Muslims. Not a book with a happy ending. [Also see an important companion book: "Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians" by P. Marshall, et. al. (March 2013)].
Islamic Muslim jihad against the Kafirun
By
William Garrison Jr.
VINE VOICE on May 2, 2013
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