Beyond Islam: Pausing to Reflect

Dear Readers,

Effective this week I will be taking an extended sabbatical from writing, blogging and addressing the heresy and threat of Islam.  I hope this blog will thrive during my absence as an online resource for many, and perhaps the pause in regular postings will provide an opportunity for many of you to explore the various resources contained here. 

There are indeed many resources here. In spite of its shortcomings, my book, Facing Islam, strives to present an Orthodox Christian Approach to Islam. There are also several other essential titles listed on the right hand column which are very helpful. Read and share widely!

Use the search feature also, and if you find an article which helps, explore others similar by clicking on the topical labels. 

There are also the separate, stand-alone pages listed in the horizontal bars at the top. Much good info here if you haven't had a chance to explore. Highly recommended is the page on New Martyr Fr. Daniil Sysoev, the anniversary of whose repose is coming up on November 19.

On the left hand column are links to resources on many Orthodox Christian saints, martyrs and confessors, including an important article on St Gregory Palamas as Confessor and Defender of Orthodoxy against Islam. The Church celebrates the memory of St Gregory on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, and on November 14, so very timely reading just now.

Also on the left hand column are direct links to other counter-jihad blogs and websites which often have extremely insightful articles and news on the global threat of Islam.

For those with "eyes to see and ears to hear," the true nature of Islam is becoming increasingly obvious. At the same time, those who wish to deny the obvious are often in positions of authority, even within the Orthodox Church. This requires us all to be informed and vigilant, and to be faithful.

At the risk of sounding alarmist or apocalyptic I wish to encourage us all to "hold fast to the faith," to labor tirelessly, to stand for the truth, and to not accept the lie. At the same time, we must do so with a warm, loving heart which refuses to be poisoned by the toxic atmosphere which surrounds us. We live in dire times, when "the love of many has grown cold," and we should tremble when we remember the Lord's words, "When the Son of Man comes, will He even find faith upon the earth?"  

Some have warned that a time of crisis, or rather of multiple, multi-layered crises, such as ours, has been coming for some time. It is here now, and we are forced to confront its effects, but in ourselves first, and then in those around us. Let us therefore "encourage one another daily, and all the more as we see the Day approaching," for "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."  This is "Christ in you, the hope of glory."  

"THIS is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3)

If we persevere in faith, then we will reap the harvest, and we will be ready to make the good confession of faith in Jesus Christ when we are called to do so. 

Having this awareness alive within us is to live in Christ here and now, and this is to be truly beyond Islam or any heresy, evil or threat, to live beyond the assaults of the enemy of mankind.

I can think of no better words to close with than these from Righteous Hieromonk Seraphim Rose:

Christian compromise in thought and word and negligence in deed have opened the way to the triumph of the forces of the absurd, of Satan, of Antichrist. The present age of absurdity is the just reward of Christians who have failed to be Christians...

Now one cannot be a half-hearted Christian, but only entirely or not at all.

God's blessings on you...

Supreme Mufti of Syria: 'Islamic caliphate more dangerous than World War III'

This odd message from Syria's Supreme Mufti lacks Quranic authority, and flagrantly violates the hundreds of suras and hadiths commanding jihad and the establishing of a worldwide caliphate. He is not to be trusted. My comments interspersed and at end. Read and share widely.

Moscow, October 31, Interfax via Pravmir

Supreme mufti of Syria Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun sees the danger in establishing a "caliphate," as it has happened with the "Islamic state."

“Calls to set up an Islamic state are more dangerous that calls to unleash World War III,” the mufti said at his Moscow press conference.

He stressed that “religion is relations between God and a person,” and it does not have anything in common with a political regimen.

“When they wonder what will be with the state of “Islamic caliphate,” I ask, what state it is. I ask who of prophets commanded to establish it,” the Islamic leader noted.

[Actually, the prophet and founder of Islam, Muhammad, is the one who "commanded to establish" the Islamic caliphate, as seen in these hadiths:

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... so if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me.” (Sahih Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, 1:10:29-35)

Allah's Messenger said, “the earth belongs to Allah and his Apostle.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of Jihad, 3:17:4363; also Bukhari, Book of al-Jizya, 4:58:3167)  

Islam is demonstrably both religion and political ideology. Its purpose is forever linked by its founder to the conquering of the entire globe for Allah. The mufti's protestations don't ring true and are not to be trusted. See my comments at bottom for more...]

Muslim leader in Israel: “Entire earth” will be “subordinate” to caliphate

Joins numerous Muslim world leaders and clerics in predicting Islam's ultimate victory over the entire world.  

via Robert Spencer,  Jihad Watch — October 26, 2014

Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself once said: “Have no doubt… Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all the mountain tops of the world.” 

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008: “We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once…” 

Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV, on April 11, 2008: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.”

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most prominent and renowned imam in the world, in writing about “signs of the victory of Islam,” referred to a hadith: 

“The Prophet Muhammad was asked: ‘What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?’ He answered: ‘The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first’ – that is, Constantinople”¦ Romiyya is the city called today ‘Rome,’ the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens.”

_____

Israeli Islamist Leader Kamal Khatib: Jerusalem Will Be Caliphate Capital; PA TV Cuts Interview Off 

MEMRI, October 17, 2014:

In an interview with the official PA TV channel, Sheik Kamal Khatib, deputy leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said: “Jerusalem will not be only the capital of the Palestinian state, but also the capital of the coming righteous Islamic caliphate.” After he repeated his views several times and said that “the entire Earth” would “become subordinate to the Islamic caliphate one day”, PA TV cut the interview short.

Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on October 17, 2014.

Interviewer: Let us first watch what you said at the Al-Aqsa Mosque this week.

Kamal Khatib: I have said it before, and I say it again: Allah willing, Jerusalem will not be only the capital of the Palestinian state, but also the capital of the coming righteous Islamic caliphate…

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Russia has experienced a Spiritual Resurrection

"In Russia during the last 26 years, 26,000 churches have either been restored or opened, as well as 800 monasteries, filled with young monks and nuns... All this has taken place in the very same era which in the West some call post-Christian."

by Francis Phillips, Catholic Herald
via Pravoslavie — October 24, 2014

I have been reading a book about Russia: Dying Unneeded by Michelle Parsons. It is about the wartime and post-war generation of former Soviet citizens whose lives came to a halt when the USSR collapsed in 1991. The meaning and purpose of their lives had come from the state, from work, from surviving with stoical humour and resignation the problems that arose in daily life from the command economy. The author examines the dramatic mortality rate during the years 1990-1994, when state socialism suddenly ended, to be followed by, as Parsons puts it, “upheaval, disorder, decay, wildness and thievery”.

Overnight, a whole generation of Russians lost their jobs, their pensions and their security. Too old to retrain for new careers they started to experience the poverty and scarcity that they had known during the war and which they had thought was over for good. Men particularly, who had defined themselves through their work, started to drink heaving (not helped by often being paid in vodka rather than in money) and to suffer stress-related heart attacks. Suicides also increased. Women survived better because they simply continued to struggle, as they always, had, with providing for their family’s needs.

Parsons paints a grim picture of a society that had been led along by their secular faith in the Communist ideology, which then failed them spectacularly. Without inner spiritual resources and living for years under the official atheism of the Soviet system, their lives became meaningless. Although she briefly mentions the notion of the “Russian soul” she defines it in a patriotic and community sense – a people held together by suffering and sacrifice, especially in the wartime years when Russia lost 27 million people.

St. Barsanuphius of Optina: On Attacks Against the Church

I have to listen to complaints about the fact that we are now going through difficult times, that now free rein is given to all kinds of heretical and godless teachings, that the Church is being subjected to the attacks of enemies from all sides and that it will become terrible for Her, that these murky waves of unbelief and heresy are overcoming Her. 

I always answer, “Don’t worry! Don’t be afraid for the Church! She will not perish: the gates of hell will not prevail against Her, right to the Dread Judgment itself. Do not fear for Her but for yourself—that’s what you have to fear for, and it’s true that our times are very difficult. Why? Because now it is especially easy to fall away from Christ, and then—perish.” 

— St Barsanuphius of Optina (†1913)

via Pravoslavie

Metropolitan Amvrosios of Greece: 'We are losing Christian Greece'

Western political and monetary forces "are in every way supporting the development of Islam as a religion [in Greece]; more than that, at the same time they are promoting immigration of Muslims to Greece in great numbers in order to neutralize the Christian orientation of our motherland.”

Pravoslavie — October 20, 2014

“Our country has been unconditionally surrendered to foreign invaders. It is now not so important that the monuments of culture are falling into disrepair—we are losing Christian Greece!” reads the statement of Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta, cited by the Romfea portal.

“The external forces (namely Angela Merkel, the International Monetary Fund, freemasonry, the Bilderberg group, Zionism) are explicitly (Merkel) or implicitly (through so-called “globalization”) ruling our unfortunate country,” stated Metropolitan Amvrosios.

“Unfortunately, they are in every way supporting the development of Islam as a religion; more than that, at the same time they are promoting immigration of Muslims to Greece in great numbers in order to neutralize the Christian orientation of our motherland,” said the Metropolitan.

The hierarch then described the crimes committed by the jihadists (militant islamists):

Timothy Furnish: The Islamic State and 'Signs of the Last Hour'

"Islamic State is honing its eschatological-apocalyptic message to a fine point, by making its jihad against the 'Crusade', as well as the reimposing of slavery over non-dhimmis, Signs of the Last Hour." 

Illinois Obama and the Last Crusade — Against ISIS

The Islamic State’s latest Dabiq magazine (#4)  was issued several weeks ago, entitled “The Failed Crusade.”

by Timothy R. Furnish, Mahdi Watch — October 21, 2014

Where to now, St. Peter?

To take over your square, obviously! 

As with the previous three issues, Dabiq—which, again, refers to a major apocalyptic battle in Syria between Muslims and “Romans” predicted in hadiths—opens with the same quote from IS’s founder, the late Abu Mus`ab al-Zarqawi:  that the spark lit in Iraq will eventually “burn…the crusader armies in Dabiq.”  

Overall, this magazine cites the Qur’an 20 times, adduces 36 different hadiths, and quotes historical Islamic scholars (such as the 14th century Ibn Taymiyah) as well as modern ideologues (al-Awlaki, Bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi)—thus making the claim that ISIS is “ not Islamic”  fatuous at best.  Its main topics are the alleged “Crusade” and its relationship to the looming apocalyptic struggle between “Romans/Crusaders” and Muslims, and the rationalization for (re)imposing Muslim slavery of non-Muslims.  

The “failing crusade” and its connection to Islamic eschatological prognostication takes up over 1/3 of this 56-page document.   Modern US forays into the Middle East, particularly Iraq (and now Syria) are linked—of course!—to the Crusades of 900 years ago.  American soldiers, who are shown loading coffins containing their dead comrades into C-5s, are equated with “cross-worshipping Romans” (Byzantines, that is) and not the 11th century Crusaders.  This is almost certainly because the relevant hadiths refer to events from the 7th and 8th centuries, when the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Christian Empire was fighting off hordes of belligerent Muslims—and not to the actual Crusades, over three centuries later.

'JERUSALEM' Omnimax Film: Observations from an Orthodox Christian Priest

"We rarely hear of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem. The Muslims did not inhabit Jerusalem peacefully or by way of invitation in the 7th century.  If the Crusades are always criticized for that very reason, we need to restore a sense of historical balance..."


'JERUSALEM' - The Omnimax Film

Observations by an Orthodox Christian Priest, followed by my comments.

October 20, 2014

(Source confidential and shall remain anonymous)

Visit the website for the film to view the trailer and find showtimes in your area.

...The commentary [of the film] was clearly made to be as non-controversial as possible. In fact, although paying a bit of "lip service" to the endless historical conflicts that have been so much a part of Jerusalem's history, the text of the commentary was committed to convincing us that Jews, Christians, and Muslims can live openly and peacefully in such close proximity.

Fair enough. In today's fractured and conflict-torn world, we should realize by now that profound differences of faith and practice need not undermine the essential qualities of mutual respect and tolerance. And one does not have to be a relativist to embrace such a perspective. 

The more that a believer is secure in his/her own faith, the more this could become a reality underlying human relationships. After all, we are not talking about winning a religious debate, but simply about living together peacefully. Fanaticism and aggressive non-tolerance of the "other" could serve as cover-up for a deeper insecurity, in which the "enemy" is anyone with a world-view challenging and/or shaking that of the intolerant believer. And enemies must be destroyed before they tempt "our people" into deviating from the group's beliefs. Again, I am simply raising this issue on the religious level - and not on a political level and the use or non-use of force...

And to abandon all political correctness, I must point out that we rarely hear of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem. The Muslims did not inhabit Jerusalem peacefully or by way of invitation in the 7th c. If the Crusades are always criticized for that very reason, we need to restore a sense of historical balance...

Breaking News: Ottawa Gunman a Recent Convert to Islam

Terrorist shooting attack is the second fatal Muslim Jihad Attack this week in Canada. See here for more.

Alleged Ottawa Gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, recent convert to Islam

And it seems that these Muslims were acting in direct response to calls from the Islamic State Caliphate for Muslims to attack sites in North America (see here and here).  These are not "lone wolf" attacks. They are a direct result of an increasingly emboldened Islam, and the ideology which commands such attacks comes directly from the Quran and the example of Muhammad (see my post on the 'Jerusalem' Omnimax film here.)

With 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, if only 1% are motivated to obey the Quran's commands to wage jihad against non-Muslims, that means there are 16 million radicalized Muslim jihadists out there. If the ratio is 10%, the Muslim jihad army jumps to 160 million.

As I wrote in an article in May 2013 (Message to Muslims: Time for Some Serious Questions) after the broad daylight murder and near beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby by a Muslim:

This is gravely concerning, and should prompt us to pose the following questions to all Muslims everywhere: 

1. Do you subscribe to this same "theologically determined logic" which spawns acts of violence and terrorism by Muslims in every country of the world, and drives an Islamic supremacism which seeks to establish a global caliphate to bring Islam to world dominance? In other words, do you feel in your heart, as a Muslim, that you are at war with non-Muslims?

2. If you say you do not subscribe to this worldview, how do you support your position from Islam's sacred texts? Because — as you should know — all Islamic supremacists and jihadists fully support their actions using the Quran and the example of Muhammad and the consistent teaching of Islamic jurisprudence, and they say your religion commands you to support them in the global jihad.

3. In your heart of hearts, when you continue to see such horrific acts being perpetrated in the name of Islam by men and women who claim to be devout Muslims and use your own sacred texts to back up their actions, do you question the validity of your Islamic faith, your Muslim identity? In other words, "Are you finally reaching a crisis point in your faith?"

In short, it's time to ask Muslims everywhere, "Why do you remain a Muslim?"

It's time for Muslims to ask themselves, "Why do I remain a Muslim?"

UK: Christian school 'downgraded for failing to invite an imam to lead assembly'

The collapse of formerly Christian Britain accelerates as forced Islamization of private, independent Christian schools is aggressively promoted by the UK government.

See also this report by Breitbart News.

UK: Christian school 'downgraded for failing to invite an imam to lead assembly'
Jihad Watch — October 19, 2014

Are any Islamic schools being downgraded for failing to invite Christian priests or ministers to lead assemblies? Doubtful in the extreme. In the wake of the Trojan Horse takeover plot of British state schools (see here, here, here, here and here), British authorities appear to have decided that the remedy is to further the Islamization of schools. They appear intent on rushing their nation toward civil strife and disintegration. 

“Christian school ‘downgraded for failing to invite an imam to lead assembly,'” by John Bingham, the Telegraph, October 19, 2014:

A successful Christian school has been warned it is to be downgraded by inspectors and could even face closure after failing to invite a leader from another religion, such as an imam, to lead assemblies, it is claimed.

The small independent school in the Home Counties was told it is in breach of new rules intended to promote “British values” such as individual liberty and tolerance in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal, involving infiltration by hard-line Muslim groups in Birmingham.

Details of the case are disclosed in a letter to the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, from the Christian Institute, which is providing legal support to the school.

The group warned that the new rules intended to combat extremism are already having “disturbing consequences” for religious schools and forcing Ofsted inspectors to act in a way which undermines their ethos.

It follows complaints from orthodox Jewish schools about recent inspections in which girls from strict traditional backgrounds were allegedly asked whether they were being taught enough about lesbianism, whether they had boyfriends and if they knew where babies came from.

Raymond Ibrahim: Islam More ‘Like the Mafia’ than Bill Maher Knows

The following is Part One of a three-part series examining the many parallels between Islam and the mafia.

by Raymond Ibrahim, Front Page Mag — October 17, 2014

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). 

During a recent debate on HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher declared that Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”

[See also this article discussing Maher's follow-up show in which he uses Pakistan's death penalty for blasphemy to prove his point.]

Maher was apparently referring to Islam’s “blasphemy” laws, which ban on pain of death any “insult”—as found in a statement, a picture, a book, etc.—to Islam and especially its prophet, Muhammad.

While Maher has been criticized for his “Islamophobic” assertion, he and others may be surprised to learn that the similarities between Islam and the mafia far exceed punishing those who say, draw, or write “the wrong thing.”

In the following three part article, we will examine a number of these similarities.

In this article, Part One, we will look at the relationship between Allah, his messenger Muhammad, and the Muslims, and note several parallels with the relationship between the godfather, his underboss, and the mafia.

In Part Two (forthcoming), we will examine the clannish nature of the mafia and compare it to Islam’s concept of “Loyalty and Enmity”—including how in both Islam and the mafia, those members who wish to break away, to “apostatize,” are killed.

In Part Three (forthcoming), we will examine how both the mafia and Islam have historically both profited from the “protection” racket.

Allah as Godfather; Muhammad as Underboss

The padrino of larger mafia organizations and families—literally, the godfather or “boss of bosses”—has absolute control over his subordinates and is often greatly feared by them for his ruthlessness.  He has an “underboss,” a right-hand man who issues his orders and enforces his will.  The godfather himself is often inaccessible; mafia members need to go through the underboss or other high ranking associates.

Compare this with the relationship between Allah and his “messenger” Muhammad (in Arabic, Muhammad is most commonly referred to as al-rasul, “the messenger”). Unlike the Judeo-Christian God—a personal God, a Father, that according to Christ is to be communed with directly (Matt 6:9)—Islam’s god, Allah, is unreachable, unknowable, untouchable.  Like the godfather, he is inaccessible.   His will is enforced by his messenger, Muhammad.

If the Judeo-Christian God calls on the faithful to “come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18), Allah says “Do not ask questions about things that, if made known to you, would only pain you” (Koran 5:101).  Just follow orders.

Muslims raid, demand jizya from ancient St. Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai

Yet another example of Muslims applying the Quran's commands literally:

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. (Sura 9:29)

via
BEDOUINS ATTACK AND LEVY A TAX ON ST. CATHERINE'S MONASTERY ON SINAI
Pravoslavie — October 14, 2014

The most ancient St. Catherine’s (Katherine’s) Orthodox Monastery situated on the Biblical land of Sinai peninsula has been once again persecuted by Muslim extremists and local authorities, reports the Linga news portal with the reference to Copts Today.

For today Arab islamists, who lead a seminomadic way of life in the Sinai desert, pose the main threat to lives of the monks and condition of the monument of the world architecture.

Specifically, Dr. Iyhab Ramzy, a prominent lawyer, related the following details of the crimes committed by the extremists against the monastery and its monks, to the journalists:

“Recently some residents of Tala district attempted to take the monastery by storm—and eventually they managed to demolish the gate and took two monks hostage. The monks had to submit to the raiders and agreed to pay them a tax in exchange for end to the attacks. Nevertheless, the islamists are still threatening all the clergymen and monks with violence, this time because of the monastery territory that they claim had been illegally occupied”.

The lawyer stresses that in spite of the numerous complaints and appeals the law-enforcement agencies did not react to the existing situation at all, remaining outsiders and, in fact, accomplices of the above-mentioned offences. “The only pseudo-juridical instance in the desert is the Arab tribes’ court that has levied a tax of 150,000 Egyptian pounds (about 21,000 USD) on the monks,” notes the expert.

Raymond Ibrahim: The Islamic State and Islam

Using traditional Islamic criteria to determine if the Islamic State is truly Islamic.

by Raymond Ibrahim — October 17, 2014

What relationship does the Islamic State have to Islam?

“Absolutely nothing” is the answer almost every Western politician gives.   For example, U.S. President Obama adamantly stated in a televised speech that the Islamic State “is not Islamic.”

This begs the question: How does one determine what is—and is not—Islamic?

The traditional answer, the Islamic answer, has been as follows:

What do the core texts and scriptures of Islam say about the thing in question, call it “X”?  Does the Koran, believed by Muslims to contain the literal commands of Allah, call for or justify X?  Do the hadith and sira texts—which purport to record the sayings and deeds of Allah’s prophet, whom the Koran (e.g., 33:21) exhorts Muslims to emulate in all ways—call for or justify X?

If any ambiguity still remains concerning X, the next question becomes: what is the consensus (ijma‘) of the Islamic world’s leading authorities concerning X?   Here one must often turn to the tafsirs, or exegeses of Islam’s most learned men—the ulema—and consider their conclusions.   Muhammad himself reportedly said that “My umma [Islamic nation] will never be in agreement over an error.”

For example, the Koran commands believers to uphold prayers; accordingly, all are agreed that Muslims need to pray.  Yet the Koran does not specify how many times.  In the hadith and sira, however, Muhammad makes clear believers should pray five times.  And the ulema, having considered all these texts, are agreed that Muslims are to pray five times a day.

Thus, it is most certainly Islamic for Muslims to pray five times a day.

But while both Western politicians and Islamic apologists readily accept such methodology to determining what is Islamic—prayer is in the Koran, Muhammad clarified its implementation in the hadith, and the ulema are agreed to it—whenever the thing in question deals with anything that makes Islam “look bad,” then the aforementioned standard approach to ascertaining what is Islamic is wholly ignored.

Let us consider some of the most extreme acts committed by the Islamic State—beheadings, crucifixions, enslavements, sexual predations, massacres, and the persecution of religious minorities—and put them to the test, see if they fill the same criteria, see if they are Islamic or not, especially in the context of jihad, which has its own set of rules.

Does the Islamic State Really Have 'Nothing to Do with Islam'?

The below article presents a thorough refutation of the position taken by Islamic apologists in the West, as well as by government leaders and media outlets, that the actions of the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, the Taliban (which has now pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State/ISIS) and other jihadist groups are a distortion of Islam or "have nothing to do with Islam."

Sadly, there are many voices in the Christian world, including Orthodox Christian priests, educators, bishops and even patriarchs, who make the same absurd claim, confusing the faithful and abusing the truth in the process. I cite some examples in my book, Facing Islam, but here are some more recent instances:

“The religious feelings of people, in particular, Muslims, are now exploited to cause these people to commit radical actions. Many people indeed genuinely take the horrible path of terrorism, thinking that by doing so they serve God.” However, Islam does not teach anything of the sort and this interpretation is caused by “a complete lack of religious awareness.” — Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (Source) 

"The roots of historical conflicts between Christians and Muslims are normally in politics and not in religion." — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Source) 

"It’s high time for Muslim scholars and religious leader to prove to the world that these groups do not represent true Muslim teachings." — Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (Source)

Alas, "these groups" — ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hizbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, etc, etc. — most assuredly do represent "true Muslim teachings." However, in spite of the well-intentioned but erroneous statements cited above and others like them, thank God, there are some brave Orthodox Christian voices willing to speak the truth:

"Islam is at its core anti-human... Reading the Quran, you will see that all of this [extremism] lies at the foundation of Islam. One must look truth in the eye: this is all anti-human, it is directed against humanity... Yes, there were times when Muslims tried to live in peace with their neighbors, they even acknowledged that we Christians are people, too. But for many, those times have passed, and now they reveal who they really are."  — Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin (Source)

"We are against the presence of Islam in Thessaloniki. We have already lost so much… When the Turkish minister entered the Church of Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki in our city, he announced at once: 'Here is a suitable mosque for Turks'. Another Turkish official came to the historical Greek province of Thrace and called this region ‘a severed hand of Turkey’.” — Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki (Source)

"Your children will surely be slaves of Muslims. Greece is disappearing, faith is disappearing… Keep the flame of the motherland and faith. Globalization is not knocking at our doors any more – it has already entered our home.” — Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta and Aigialeia (Source)

"Among those who call themselves Orthodox, I have met such strange people who say that Fr. Daniel should not preach to Muslims, that one must respect their religion, and that there is no benefit from his preaching. But Fr. Daniel thought, as did the Lord, the Apostles, and all the saints, that one must respect mistaken people but not their mistakes. Truth is one, that which contradicts and negates truth is a lie, and respect for a lie is contempt for the truth." — Deacon Georgi Maximov, co-laborer of Holy New Martyr Fr Daniil Sysoev of Moscow (†2009). (Source)

That is all I have ever tried to do with my book and this little blog: to side with the Orthodox saints and martyrs, to keep the flame of Christian faith alive, and to share the truth, warning about the heresy and danger of Islam. I hope some have profited in some small way from this effort.

_______

Analysis: Does the Islamic State Really Have 'Nothing to Do with Islam'?

by Jeffrey M. Bale, Special to IPT News — October 10, 2014

Islamic Project on Terrorism

Note: This analysis has been excerpted [and published by IPT], with the approval of the author, from a much longer scholarly article that will be published in an academic journal.

"Which will come first, flying cars and vacations to Mars, or a simple acknowledgement that beliefs guide behavior and that certain religious ideas – jihad, martyrdom, blasphemy, apostasy – reliably lead to oppression and murder?"
Sam Harris, Sleepwalking Toward Armageddon

The Islamic State: Beheading in the name of Islam

As is invariably the case these days in the wake of the terrorist violence, brutality, and atrocities carried out explicitly in the name of Islam, a host of dissimulating Islamist activists, other Muslims in a state of psychological denial, and apologetic Western pundits insist that the actions of the terrorist group calling itself al-Dawla al-Islamiyya (IS: the Islamic State) have little or nothing to do with Islam.

Not long ago, many such commentators also argued that the horrendous actions committed by the Nigerian jihadist group Jama'at Ahl al-Sunna li al-Da'wa wa al-Jihad, better known as Boko Haram (Western Influence is Sinful), had nothing to do with its members' interpretations of Islam.

"The perpetrators of these violent actions not only proudly insist that their actions are inspired by the Qur'an and the exemplary words and deeds of Muhammad, but explicitly cite relevant Qur'anic passages and the reported actions of their prophet to justify those actions."

In all such cases, however, the perpetrators of these violent actions not only proudly insist that their actions are inspired by the Qur'an and the exemplary words and deeds of Muhammad himself (as recorded in the canonical hadith collections), but explicitly cite relevant Qur'anic passages and the reported actions of their prophet to justify those actions. Therefore, to argue that jihadist terrorists are not directly inspired and primarily motivated by their interpretations of Islamic doctrines and by clear precedents from early Islamic history, one must stubbornly ignore what the actual protagonists keep telling the entire world.

But why ignore the claims of the perpetrators and instead rely on Islamist activists, who are often peddling outright disinformation, or on Western commentators, most of whom know little or nothing about Islam or Islamism, for explanations of this behavior? These pundits are prone to minimize the central role played by Islamist ideology and erroneously ascribe the actions of jihadist terrorists to assorted subsidiary causal factors, such as garden-variety political grievances, poverty, lack of democracy, psychopathology, greed, or simple hunger for power.

Needless to say, most of the commentators who keep insisting, against all evidence to the contrary, that the actions of jihadist terrorists cannot be attributed to their interpretations of Islam do not also argue that the violent actions of other types of extremists cannot be attributed to their ideological beliefs. On the contrary, whenever other types of terrorists carry out gruesome attacks, many of those same commentators are quick to ascribe their actions primarily to their proclaimed theological and ideological beliefs – and justifiably so.

Ground Blessing for St Nicholas National Shrine at WTC today (Sat. 10/18)

To be broadcast live via satellite feed, antenna satellite TV network, and Internet simulcast on the special internet page at www.stnicholaswtc.org. 

Video invitation from Archbishop Demetrios, with additional videos documenting the St Nicholas National Shrine at the official site.

The broadcasts will begin at 11:45 a.m. and conclude at 1:15 p.m.

Four Islamic State jihad terrorists arrested in Texas last week

And their motivation is?  Islam, Allah, Muhammad, and their feverish apocalyptic expectations.

JW Confirms: 4 ISIS Terrorists Arrested in Texas in Last 36 Hours

Judicial Watch, October 8, 2014 (h/t Jihad Watch)

Islamic terrorists have entered the United States through the Mexican border and Homeland Security sources tell Judicial Watch that four have been apprehended in the last 36 hours by federal authorities and the Texas Department of Public Safety in McAllen and Pharr.

JW confirmed this after California Congressman Duncan Hunter, a former Marine Corp Major and member of the House Armed Services Committee, disclosed on national television that at least ten Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) fighters have been caught crossing the Mexican border in Texas. The veteran lawmaker got the astounding intel straight from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Homeland Security agency responsible for guarding the 1,933-mile southern border.

Islamic State’s magazine shows its flag flying over the Vatican

via Jihad Watch — October 13, 2014

The Islamic State — extremists! No other Muslims think this way, right?

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008: “We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once…” 

Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV, on April 11, 2008: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.”

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most prominent and renowned imam in the world, in writing about “signs of the victory of Islam,” referred to a hadith: “The Prophet Muhammad was asked: ‘What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?’ He answered: ‘The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first’ – that is, Constantinople”¦ Romiyya is the city called today ‘Rome,’ the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens.” And last May a Kosovar Muslim in Iraq said: “We shall conquer Jerusalem from you, oh Jews! We shall conquer Rome and Andalusia, Allah willing.”

ISIS magazine shows its flag flying over Vatican 

ANSA, October 13, 2014:

(ANSA) – Vatican City, October 13 – The black flag of Islamic militant group ISIS is shown flying above St. Peter’s Square on the cover of the group’s magazine Dabiq, which called in its latest issue for a war against the Catholic Church.

Today in History: The Battle of Tours

October 10, 732 — Western Europe was still Orthodox, part of the "One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church," and it was clearly targeted by the very first Muslim jihadis to be conquered  and subjugated by Islam. The parallels with today's Muslim warriors are shocking — and revealing.

by Raymond Ibrahim — October 10, 2014

The Battle of Poitiers, by Steuben

Precisely 100 years after the death of Islam’s prophet Muhammad in 632, his Arab followers, after having conquered thousands of miles of lands from Arabia to Spain, found themselves in Gaul, modern day France, facing a hitherto little known people, the Christian Franks.

There, around October 10-11, in the year 732, one of history’s most decisive battles took place, demarcating the extent of Islam’s western conquests and ensuring the survival of the West.

Prior to this, the Islamic conquerors had for one century been subjugating all peoples and territories standing in their western march—including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In 711, the Muslims made their fateful crossing of the straits of Gibraltar, landing on European soil. Upon disembarkation, the leader of the Muslims, Tariq bin Zayid, ordered the Islamic fleet burned, explaining that “We have not come here to return. Either we conquer and establish ourselves here, or we perish.”

'A plague of Saracens wrought wretched devastation and slaughter upon Gaul.' — Venerable Bede

This famous Tariq anecdote—often reminisced by modern day jihadis—highlights the jihadi nature of the Umayyad caliphate (661-750), the superpower of its day. Indeed, as most historians have acknowledged, the Umayyad caliphate was the “Jihadi-State” par excellence. Its very existence was coterminous with its conquests.  Its legitimacy as “viceroy” of Allah was based on subjugating lands in the name of Allah.

Once on European ground, the depredations continued unabated. Writes one Arab chronicler regarding the Muslim northern advance past the Pyrenees: “Full of wrath and pride” the Muslims “went through all places like a desolating storm. Prosperity made those warriors insatiable… everything gave way to their scimitars, the robbers of lives.” Even far off English anchorite, the contemporary, the venerable, Bede, wrote, “A plague of Saracens wrought wretched devastation and slaughter upon Gaul.”

Strange anecdotes also find their way in the chroniclers’ accounts during this time. Muslim historian Abd al-Hakem reports that, after landing on an island off Iberia, one of Tariq’s squadrons discovered that the only inhabitants were vinedressers. “They made them prisoners. After that, they took one of the vinedressers, slaughtered him, cut him into pieces, and boiled him, while the rest of the companions looked on.”  This incident resulted in a rumor that Muslims feast on human flesh.  (Nearly 1300 years later, in the year 2013, a Muslim jihadi ate the organs of his slain enemy to surrounding cries of “Allahu Akbar”.)

Turkish Textbooks: 'Christians are Instruments of Hostile Forces'

Rapidly Re-Islamizing Turkey applies Quranic teachings in its supposedly 'secular' schools:

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. (Sura 9:29) 

Let believers [Muslims] not take for friends and allies infidels [non-Muslims] instead of believers. Whoever does this shall have no relationship left with Allah — unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions. (Sura 3:28)

Turkish Textbooks: 'Christians are Instruments of Hostile Forces'

Pravoslavie — Istanbul, September 19, 2014

The Ministry of Education of Turkey is continuing to carry on an ideological and intensified struggle against Christianity and Christians using history textbooks, reports the Copts Today news portal with the reference to Agos Armenian newspaper.

According to the study published by the media, school textbooks describing the Turkish history of the 19th – 20th centuries avoid any talk on the subject of the genocide of the Armenians, referring to the victims as well as nearly all Christians in the world as to “the instruments of hostile occupant forces, intended for undermining the state.”

Professor at Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome: Islamic State not un-Islamic, 'Model is Muhammad himself'

This brave Roman Catholic professor sounds amazingly like St Gregory Palamas in the 14th century, or Archbishop Mark of Berlin in our own day. 

Hierarchs and leaders of the Orthodox Church, take courage from such bold voices and speak out against the heresy of Islam and its demonic assault against Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church! The flock will follow if you speak truth and lead with righteousness!


Professor at Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome: Islamic State not un-Islamic, “model is Muhammad himself”
Posted at Jihad Watch — October 6, 2014

Translation via 10news. For more translation, newsletter and support: 10news.dk.

Where is the border between Islam and Islamism? The media says that the two are different as night and day; Islam is a religion of peace, and the Islamists have stolen the name. Others believe that Islamism represents the traditional, pure Islam, true to the Koran.

This latter view is advanced, remarkably enough, by a theologian Martin Rhonheimer from a university endorsed by the Pope. He is a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and wrote an essay on this particular distinction in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

You do not hear many official Muslim voices condemning Islamic State, says Rhonheimer. And when it finally happens, it is usually only to condemn the bestiality because it harms Islam’s reputation. The Islamic State is no heresy, but “a recurring pattern in the history of violent expansion. The model is Muhammad himself.”

“Islamic State’s legitimation finds its basis in the Koran and Islamic law, the Sharia,” believes the Catholic professor. He states: “You will find no arguments within Muslim theology that can be used to condemn Islamic State’s behavior as un-Islamic.”…

Has Your Bible Become A Quran?

"The Quran is what a misinformed desert preacher thought the Christian and Jewish holy books looked like. It is a poor substitute and a caricature of those writings."

by Fr. Stephen Freeman — Glory To God For All Things
October 1, 2014

Those who engage in debates on a regular basis know that the argument itself can easily shape the points involved. This is another way of saying that some debates should be avoided entirely since merely getting involved in them can be the road to ruin. There are a number of Christian scholars (particularly among the Orthodox) who think that the classical debates between Christians and Muslims during the Middle Ages had just such disastrous results for Christian thinking.

Now when engaging in religious debates it is all too easy to agree to things that might make for later problems. It is possible, for example, to agree to a comparison of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and the Book of the Quran. After all, Muslims have a holy book – Christians have a holy book. Why should we not debate whose holy book is better?

It is even possible to agree with the Muslim contention that Christians (and Jews) are “People of the Book.” Of course Muslims meant that Christians and Jews were people of an inferior book, but were somehow better than pagans. Again, it is possible, nevertheless, to let the matter ride and agree that Christians are “People of the Book.”

And it is also possible to give wide latitude to the Muslim claim that the most essential matter with regard to God is “Islam,” that is “submission.” After all, if God is the Lord of all creation, then how is submitting to Him, recognizing and accepting that He is God, not the most important thing?

But each of these proposals had disastrous results in the history of Christianity and may very well be the source of a number of modern distortions within the Christian faith.

Thus, at the outset I will state:

1. The Bible is not the Christian Holy Book.
2. Christians (and Jews) are not People of the Book.
3. Submission to God is not a proper way to describe the Christian faith

Further, any and all of these claims, once accepted, lead to fundamental distortions of Christianity. An extreme way of saying this is that much of modern Christianity has been “Islamified.” Thinking critically about this is important – particularly in an era of renewed contact with Islam.

Inside Oklahoma Beheading Suspect's Mosque (VIDEO)

This interview rings true, and perfectly echoes the interview I recently conducted with a former Muslim, which you can read here.

Both these interviews corroborate, in their anecdotal manner, four separate studies over the last 10-15 years, which report that upwards of 80% of mosques in the United States teach/preach offensive jihad warfare and call for the institution of sharia and the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution.

I know there are many good-hearted readers out there who find all this very hard to believe. I wish that it weren't so, but sadly, we are seeing the fruits of Islam in these Quran-inspired crimes, in the steady stream of Western Muslims traveling to Syria/Iraq to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and wage jihad, and in the many jihad terror attacks and thwarted plots here in the U.S.

The Lord Jesus Christ warned us about false prophets: "By their fruits you shall know them." 1400 years of Islam provides ample fruit.

Leaked Video of Imam Teaching Muslims How To Cut Off Heads

While we're posting about mosques, here is another shocker about another of the 80%-ers. Mosques are "synagogues of satan" (Rev. 3:9).

Leaked Video of Imam Teaching Muslims How To Cut Off Heads

Creeping Sharia — October 1, 2014

How many U.S. mosques, storefronts and backrooms is this being taught in? via Shoebat.com.

What we stated from the Manifest was the term Ihsan and “Ihsinu Al-Qatla” (Perfect Your Killing).

أن الأصل في القتل الإحسان:
فقد ثبت في الصحيح عن شداد بن أوس رضي الله عنه قال: قال رسول الله صلى

الله عليه وسلم: (إن الله كتب الإحسان على كل شيء؛ فإذا قتلتم فأحسنوا القتلة، وإذا ذبحتم فأحسنوا الذبحة، وليحد أحدكم شفرته وليرح ذبيحته).

In English:

Oklahoma beheader’s mosque taught caliphate, destruction of US and Israel

Apparently the Oklahoma mosque which catechized and nurtured Oklahoma beheader Jah’Keem Yisrael was one of the 80% of mosques in the United States which support jihad and call for the institution of sharia law and the overthrow of the US Constitution, as documented in four separate studies over the last 10-15 years. 

Related: 

• Oklahoma beheader’s mosque once led by imam of Boston jihadis’ mosque
• Islamic State (ISIL) propagandist was regular worshiper at Islamic Society of Boston
• Islamic State tie to Boston mosque: massive FBI failure

Time for Muslims who sincerely wish to know the truth and be pleasing to God to repent and turn to Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church.  Mosques are "synagogues of satan" (Rev. 3:9).

Oklahoma beheader’s mosque taught caliphate, destruction of US and Israel

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch — September 27, 2014

The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City is in full damage-control and victimhood mode, saying they hardly knew Oklahoma beheader Jah’Keem Yisrael, and asking for protection against “backlash.” But here is a look inside that mosque, courtesy an ex-Muslim who attended there and still lives nearby, and who sent me this information directly:

I went to the same mosque the Oklahoma Muslim who beheaded his co-worker today.  I live ten minutes away! 

Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into a mosque in Turkey

Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey continues its push to eliminate all traces of Orthodox Christianity and literally recapture its supposed former glory of the Ottoman period. 

Pravoslavie - September 25, 2014

Muslim prayers are being performed in another ancient Orthodox Church, reports AgionOros

The Hagia Sophia Church in Eregli (the Greek form is Heraclea) has become the ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into a mosque by Turks over recent years.

Mark Durie: Fear and the rhetoric of 'unprecedented' barbarity

Context and analysis from one of the foremost Christian writers on Islam.

By Mark Durie, September 26, 2014

Many leaders have been stating that the Islamic State’s actions are ‘unprecedented’, ‘extreme’, ‘unique’, or even ‘eccentric’.  Western leaders who are intervening in the Syria-Iraq conflict justify their actions by declaring the Islamic State to be uniquely evil.  In announcing military action and increased security measures, Australian Prime Ministry Tony Abbottsaid of the Islamic State that “To do such evil — and to revel in doing such evil — is simply unprecedented”. David Cameron stated that “ISIL is a terrorist organisation unlike those we have dealt with before.”  Barack Obama claimed “these terrorists are unique in their brutality.”

The actions of Islamic State’s adherents are morally repugnant in the extreme, but only by applying historical amnesia and selective vision could one claim that their evil is unique or unprecedented.

In recent decades, not dissimilar horrors have regularly been reported from around the world, for example the abuses of the ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’, or the genocide pursued by the government of  Sudan against the Christians and traditional believers in the Nuba mountains and  the Blue Nile region, and before that against tribal Muslims in the Dafur region.  Indeed for decades the Sudanese government has unleashed jihad – with all the atrocities of the Islamic State – against its own (black African) citizens, often assisted by jihadis from all over the Arabic world, just like in Syria and Iraq today. 

The Islamic State's actions are also not unique in history.  Quite apart from the horrors of Nazism and Communism, Andrew Bostom has rightly pointed out that the atrocities of the Ottoman Caliphate in exterminating Christians under their rule were greater in magnitude than what is currently being experienced in Syria and Iraq. He writes:

“Notwithstanding the recent horrific spate of atrocities committed against the Christian communities of northern Iraq by the Islamic State (IS/IL) jihadists, the Ottoman jihad ravages were equally barbaric, depraved, and far more extensive. Occurring, primarily between 1915-16 (although continuing through at least 1919), some one million Armenian, and 250,000 Assyro-Chaldean and Syrian Orthodox Christians were brutally slaughtered, or starved to death during forced deportations through desert wastelands. The identical gruesome means used by IS/IL to humiliate and massacre its hapless Christian victims, were employed on a scale that was an order of magnitude greater by the Ottoman Muslim Turks, often abetted by local Muslim collaborators (the latter being another phenomenon which also happenedduring the IS/IL jihad campaign against Iraq’s Christians).”

Bostom also points out that the Yazidi’s recent sufferings at the hands of the IS are nothing new, but are consistent with a pattern of genocidal assaults against them which stretches back to Ottoman times.

What is so disturbing to Western people about the Islamic State is not the extremity of the barbarity, which is far from unprecedented, but the fact that so many Western citizens have been signing up with IS, and the psychological warfare being directed by IS against the outside world, including the West, manifested, for example, in the videos of beheadings, and the way some enslaved, raped women have been forced to phone their families to tell them about their abuse, even while it is going on. 

What is unique for us in the West is the way the fear is now upon our doorstep: this is the fear that what is happening there will come back home to haunt us.

The challenge facing the West now is not simply stopping the Islamic State – as important as that is – but what to do about the fear.

Dropping bombs on the Islamic State will not do it.

Mark Durie is the pastor of an Anglican church, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Founder of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness.  His book The Third Choice explains the implications for Christians of living under Islamic rule.

Originally posted at: http://blog.markdurie.com/2014/09/fear-and-rhetoric-of-unprecedented.html

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Amvrosios: 'Your children will surely be slaves of Muslims'

More clear-headed warnings about Islam by another revered hierarch in a traditional Orthodox nation. The Greek people suffered for centuries under brutal Muslim tyranny during the Ottoman period. Numerous Ecumenical Patriarchs, bishops and priests were among the countless thousands martyred by the Turkish Muslims (not counting the Armenian and Orthodox Christian Genocide, which spread from 1894 to 1922, and claimed over 3.5 million lives). The warnings about Islam from Metropolitans Amvrosios and Anthimos (see my recent post) should be taken very seriously by Orthodox Christians everywhere.

Pravoslavie - September 23, 2014

(Athens) Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta and Aigialeia has spoken out against the “Anti-racist law” passed in Greece.

“With the entering into force of the anti-racist bill, all who talk about the motherland and patriotism will risk jail.

“A priest who will speak up against Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions from the ambo, may be declared a racist and imprisoned,” said the hierarch, cited by AgionOros with the reference to Rua.gr (”Russian Athens”).

“Soon we will become aliens in our own home country. I do not know whether I will live to see these times, but your children will surely be slaves of Muslims. Greece is disappearing, faith is disappearing… Keep the flame of the motherland and faith. Globalization is not knocking at our doors any more – it has already entered our home,” he added.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/73925.htm

Muslim Beheads Woman in Oklahoma: A Sign for Muslims as well as Christians

Islam's mask is slipping. And in spite of absurd denials by presidents and prime ministers, bishops and priests, more and more Christians are waking up to the truth about the "religion of peace":

• Islam is a false religion, and Muhammad was a false prophet;
• Islam is innately violent and supremacist, and has been so from its creation fourteen hundred years ago, as evidenced by the Quran, the Sira, and hadiths about Muhammad;
• Islam is dangerous, and has become a global threat to all non-Muslims;
• Islam especially targets Christians and Jews, as evidenced in the Quran, etc.
• The Islamic State is drawing large numbers of Muslims to its ranks from all around the globe, including from Europe and North America, due to its adherence to pure,  orthodox Islam, and especially due to its apocalyptic, eschatological orientation. (See articles by Timothy Furnish.)

While it is perhaps easy for Christians to see the resurgence of pure Islam as a sign of the dark times we have entered into, I believe it is also a sign for those Muslims who are shocked and fearful to discover through such horrific headlines just what their religion and prophet really teach.

Here are just a few current headlines:

• Oklahoma: Muslim Beheads Co-Worker, had tried to convert colleagues to Islam
• Italy: Imam gets prison for jihad terror plots
• Spain, UK, Morocco: 11 Muslims arrested for jihad terror plots

That such pure evil is unleashed upon the world is indeed a sign of the end times. But what are we to do? What does this sign mean?

Clearly it is a call to repentance, for Christians first but also for Muslims.

Christians, and especially Orthodox Christians who have received the fullness of the apostolic faith, are being called to repent and live an authentic Christian life in Christ and His Church. If we are friends with the world, then we are at enmity with God. In the words of Fr Seraphim Rose:

"Now one cannot be a half-hearted Christian. Only entirely, or not at all."

Put in its apocalyptic context, the beheading of Christians by the Islamic State is a sign and a warning to us to strive to be faithful witnesses and confessors of Jesus Christ, in all our deeds, words and thoughts, that we may be found worthy of Him at His Return. 

But the meaning of this sign for Muslims is also a call to repent. 

Just as we Christians must repent of our lukewarmness and our easy friendship with the world, so Muslims who in their heart of hearts long to know the truth and honor God must repent of their false religion and false prophet, and turn to the True God, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to restore us to the Father, granting us to be co-heirs with Him, even co-reigning with Him, even unto becoming partakers of the divine nature. Muhammad and Allah lower you to the level of mere slave. But in Christ we are no longer enslaved,  but are set free, becoming children of God. This is the high calling that is offered to everyone who turns to Jesus Christ.

To Muslims and Christians alike, the Lord calls us to Himself, that He may save us and strengthen us for the horrific tribulations yet to come, and grant us eternal life.

Let us all run to an Orthodox Christian church, turn to the priest, confess our sins, and prepare for trials, for it is coming quickly...