Let's celebrate Columbus for defending the West against Islam:
More videos, articles and books by Raymond Ibrahim here.
An Orthodox Christian Confronts the Religion of Muhammad
Let's celebrate Columbus for defending the West against Islam:
More videos, articles and books by Raymond Ibrahim here.
In a witty and dynamic 5-minute intro, Islam scholar and critic, and respected political analyst, philosopher and raconteur, Raymond Ibrahim today announced the (re)launch of his YouTube channel.
Even while underscoring his background in writing about Islam, Raymond makes it clear that he will be covering a much wider range of topics than he is typically known for, including "philosophical, theological, and secular" ones, historically and in the here and now. He also hints at his new book which he is working on, which viewers will get to hear more about over time.
In my estimation, Raymond is one of the most solid Islam commentators out there. With this energetic announcement, he presents a compelling invitation for us to join him for conversations about some of the most important topics of our time.
Akathist to Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev -
Fr Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.org, a charity helping persecuted Christians, makes a powerful appeal for Christian Armenia, at risk of being wiped off the map by the Islamic nation of Azerbaijan, which is waging a brazen cultural genocide to complete the physical Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1917.
Pleading for Permanence
The Turkic Azerbaijanis seek to eradicate all signs of the ancient Christian history of Armenia
Fr Benedict Kiely, The European Conservative, Sept 8, 2024
When the forces of the Islamic State (ISIS) swept through Syria and Iraq, beginning in 2014, they immediately began destroying both churches and the Christian symbols within them. Visiting both Syria and Iraq many times, I have seen every Cross in a church defaced, statues broken, and icons scratched and damaged. There was a reason, for example, that ISIS used churches in Mosul as torture centres, prisons, and often places for target practice. It was not only to blaspheme and insult their true purpose, to gloat over the defeated Christian populace, but also to deny the building ever had a sacred use. There was far worse to see. In many places, ISIS destroyed Christian graveyards, something I saw with my own eyes. They not only destroyed the graveyards; they dug up the bodies of the Christian ancestors and threw them away. If there are no graveyards, it means the people were never there. The policy was not merely cultural vandalism; it was deliberate and planned.
Scruton wrote that “sacred spaces are steeped in the hope and sufferings of those who have fought for them. And they belong to others who are yet to be.” To eradicate hallowed ground not only denies the reality of an historical presence but also attempts to ensure that those who are “yet to be” will never return.
This policy is happening in another part of the world at this very moment. This time, not the work of a revolutionary force, but the work of a nation feted across the globe, especially because it has seemingly unlimited amounts of oil and gas. The oldest Christian nation on earth, Armenia, is suffering an historical and cultural genocide to accompany not only the physical genocide of 1915 to 1917 but the forced expulsion of all the Armenian citizens from the territory of Artsakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, in 2023. In every area that the Islamic nation of Azerbaijan takes from Armenia, churches, monasteries, and religious signs and symbols have been destroyed. Graveyards are desecrated. The famous Armenian khachkar’s, the decorated stone Cross so typical of Armenian culture, some from at least the 9th century, have been broken, moved, or vandalised. Following the example of their Turkish overlords, who accompanied the Armenian genocide of the last century with a similar policy of the destruction of memory and presence, the Turkic Azerbaijanis are seeking to eradicate all signs of the ancient Christian history of Armenia, present since the 4th century. It is, in fact, the prevailing policy and the absurd fantasy of the government of Azerbaijan that the very state of Armenia has never existed, which is precisely why all historical signs must be eliminated. Meanwhile, the world watches and fills the oil tanks and pays the petrodollars...
Across the West, there is a destruction of memory, a denial of the past, exemplified by the refusal to acknowledge the foundational role of Christianity in the European Constitution; there is a reason why the European Commission is probably the most secular institution in Europe. Although churches, as they rapidly empty, are not being bulldozed, or at least not many, they are being used for other purposes, increasingly as mosques in Britain.
For those of us who care, this increased denial of people and place, their history and culture, as a weapon of war, must be fought vigorously. The defence of Christian Armenia is an imperative for all who claim the name of Christian. As in the Middle East, they belong where they have always been, where they deserve to be. As Roger Scruton noted, “By bearing the imprint of former generations, a corner of the earth pleads for permanence.”
Read the full article here.
Support Fr Benedict Kiely and Nazarean.org here...
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A priest who has been serving the Church since Soviet times received a martyric end in a terrorist attack against churches in Russia’s southern Dagestan Republic yesterday.
Militants attacked two churches, a synagogue, and a traffic police post in the Dagestani cities of Derbent and Makhachkala, reports RIA-Novosti.
Early on Sunday, a group of armed men opened fire on a church and synagogue in Derbent, while others attacked another church in Makhachkala. According to preliminary data, one priest, Archpriest Nikolai Kotelnikov, 66, a church guard, and six police officers were killed. Another 12 officers were injured.
According to the Dagestan branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, six militants were killed.
Fr. Nikolai served as a priest for 40 years, beginning in Soviet times. They slit Fr. Nikolai’s throat at Holy Protection Church in Derbent, then set it on fire.
Fr. Nikolai is survived by his wife, three children, and grandchildren.
The terrorists also killed the guard at the Holy Dormition Cathedral in Makhachkala. The guard, named Mikhail, sacrificed his own life, attempting to stop the terrorists. Though he died, he gave the worshipers enough time to barricade themselves safely inside.
A terrorist attack also took place in Dagestan on Forgiveness Sunday in 2018, in which five women were killed.
More false teaching from the Heresiarch of Rome.
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Weeping Icon of the Theotokos, the 'Mother of God', Our Lady of Cicero |
Why Pope Francis’s Claim that the Virgin Mary ‘Unites’ Christians and Muslims Is Wrong
by Raymond Ibrahim, June 12, 2024
Originally published at LifeSiteNews on May 31, 2024
Catholics may be surprised to learn that the Vatican is exaggerating the similarities between the Virgin Mary and the figure of Mary, Mother of Jesus, as she appears in the Koran and Muslim hadiths (traditions about Muhammad, the founder of Islam).
On May 18 this year, Pope Francis paid a visit to detainees at Verona’s Montorio Prison, and upon bestowing an icon of the Madonna and Child upon the apparently multi-faith jail, he stated to applause that “the figure of Mary is a figure common to both Christianity and Islam. She is a common figure; she unites us all.”
If this seems innocuous, it also falls in line with the Vatican’s many attempts to convince Catholics that Islam is somehow a “sister faith,” when, in fact, Islam appropriates the names and sacred auras of biblical figures, but then recasts them with completely different, anti-biblical attributes.
In early 2021, for example, the Marian academy in Rome launched a 10-week webinar series titled “Mary, a model for faith and life for Christianity and Islam” in collaboration with the Grand Mosque of Rome and the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy.
You have probably seen the news reports of the shocking knife attack against Assyrian Christian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney, Australia on Monday, April 15. Thanks be to God, His Eminence survived with non-life-threatening injuries, and is doing well.
Bishop Mar Mari — a powerful preacher and now a confessor for Christ — has openly forgiven his attacker, and another report states, “It is the Bishop’s and Father’s wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator."
Here are a few additional links to get up to speed:
But why would a Muslim attack and try to kill Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel? Perhaps because he powerfully preaches against the false religion of Islam and the false prophet Muhammad, and invites Muslims to convert to Jesus Christ. The fearless David Wood goes point by point for us in this analysis:
Here is a talk by Bishop Mar Mari in which he explains his interpretation of a passage of Revelation, and how Islam is prophetically revealed to be a false religion:
So, it is easy to see why Muslims would be angered by Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, but why would they want to kill him?
Perhaps because it is commanded in the Koran:
Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [i.e. Islam] among the people of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (9:29)
I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved, so strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes. (8:12)
Perhaps also because that's what Muhammad would do, as related in this foundational Islamic hadith:
Allah’s Messenger said: “I have been ordered [by Allah] to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah...” (Sahih Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, 1:10:29-35)
Such is zeal according to the false religion of Islam.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (JN 15:13)
Jerusalem Catholic Patriarch offers to be exchanged for Gaza hostages
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa made his comment in response to a question during a video conference with journalists in Italy.
By The Jerusalem Post via REUTERS | OCTOBER 16, 2023
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, made his comment in response to a question during a video conference with journalists in Italy.
"I am ready for an exchange, anything, if this can lead to freedom, to bring the children home. No problem. There is total willingness on my part," he said.
"The first thing to do is to try to win the release of the hostages, otherwise there will be no way of stopping (an escalation). We are willing to help, even me personally," he said.
He stressed, however, that he and his office had not yet had any direct contact with Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,300 people.
"You can't talk to Hamas. It is very difficult," he said.
About 200 people were taken hostage and about a dozen of them are believed to be children.
Pizzaballa oversees Roman Catholic activities in Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as Jordan and Cyprus, a region which is home to an estimated 300,000 Roman Catholics.
PHOTO CREDIT: