Islam's Conflict With Western Values & Human Rights

About one-third to one-half of Muslims (274.0 million - 503.5 million) in Muslim majority countries uphold beliefs and practices that are contrary to many Western values and international human rights.

This conclusion is part of my recently published study, "Muslim Beliefs & Practices: A Global Demographic Assessment."* The surveys used to compile the study were conducted by Pew Research (2008 - 2012) and covered 1.1 billion Muslims---two-thirds of the Muslim world. North America and Western Europe were not included.

The study found that though 69% (742 million) of Muslims want to live under sharia, those who support the harsh "hudud" punishments (stoning for adultery, amputation for theft, death for apostasy, etc.) ranged from 35% - 45%. Since these punishments are derived directly from the Quran, hadith, and sunna, support for them undoubtedly comes from Muslims who promote the traditional interpretation of those texts.

This group, consisting of 41% (369.7 million) of the survey population, believes that their lives faithfully reflect the hadith and the sunna of Muhammad. Statistically, they are not only more likely to promote the hudud punishments, but also to believe that both Islam and sharia have only one interpretation, that sharia should be the law of their country, and that proselytizing is a religious duty.

But more importantly, those who identify as devout Muslims overlap with 64% (581 million) of Muslims who believe that sharia is Allah’s revealed law, rather than a form of law developed by men and based on the word of Allah. For this reason they are more likely than other Muslims to reject the legitimacy of Western laws and government, along with the rights and values they protect.

It is highly implausible, if not naïve, to suggest that devout Muslims shed their deeply held beliefs in sharia when they immigrate to Western countries. Consequently, there is justifiable concern that immigrants from this group will have a strong impulse to resist and even change the host culture. In a 2016 French poll, 29% of Muslims said they rejected the country’s secular laws.

The full 29 page study graphs and analyzes 16 survey questions in detail, providing the historical, theological, political, and social background of Muslim beliefs and practices. It also includes an assessment of security, terrorism, and areas of potential conflict with Western culture.

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* The study was first introduced on June 21 by an article in Front Page Magazine.

What is "White" Sharia? (Yes, this is a Thing)

Life was cheap to those who created Sharia. Sadly, Americans on the hard right/Alt-Right are openly talking about what their own version of Sharia would look like in the context of non-Islamic European-Americans.

White Sharia is a meme that likely began in late 2016. As far as I can tell, the Alt-Right podcast The War Room was one of the first to explore the idea and for almost two hours the hosts flesh out a graphic vision of white rape gangs and more.

White Sharia is conceptualized as a corrective to the decadence of Western feminism that has led many of our sisters and wives to debauch themselves in prodigal living resulting in less white babies and weaker marriages. This makes demographic replacement by non-Westerners/non-whites inevitable.

It should be mentioned that the Alt-Right and meme culture is based on irony and jokes meant to shock and steer conversation. Much like third-wave feminism, it's full of half-truths.

White Sharia is open to such heinous activities as "corrective rape" and polygamy to forcefully impregnate obstinate Western women of "good genes" who refuse to carry and birth children. By the calculation of White Sharia advocates, this strategy would jack-up desirable female genetic contribution during peak childbearing years that are usually lost to empowered promiscuity and careerism. Earlier childbirth means fewer sexual partners which equals stronger marriages. 

Andrew Anglin, infamous proprietor Alt-Right site The Daily Stormer once mentioned that Western women will eventually need to choose between Islamic Sharia and White Sharia. 

I've found that Leftists, "normies", and most conservative-types don't really understand the Alt-Right or meme-culture. They either don't get the high levels of irony or they pretend they don't. Much of the Alt-Right's belief-cycle plays out as follows (roughly):

1. Become conversant in spiritually/morally dangerous ideas (National Socialism, "helicopter rides" etc) in order to trigger your enemies and signal to fellow travelers.
2. Deploy ironic memes based on these ideas.
3. Begin to actually sympathize with the above ideas and/or start to see other human beings as vermin/sub-human/contemptible.

Ultimately, and these are just the facts, the Alt-Right and White Sharia are the result of the leftwing's war on traditional morality plus identity politics. It's also a result of the capitulation of establishment, economically-minded Republicans in government. The war, the identity politics, and the capitulation are all evil.

This is all totally antithetical to the Church's vision of complementary vocations for husbands and wives. Additionally, race/ethnicity are irrelevant in Christ. Christ transcends that for us. We don't have to obsess over it anymore.

Not unlike leftists today, there is a preoccupation in the Alt-Right with earthly justice with no concept of ultimate victory in the eschaton where God will "wipe away every tear" (Rev 21.4). Orthodox Christians have nothing to learn from Islam or Mohammed and ought not take cues from them. We have the fullness of the Truth and life with the witness of the saints. Darkness does not comprehend the light (Jn 1.5).

That said, it's unsurprising in this fallen world that some men would put their foot down and take on the role of oppressor in jest or in reality. If these men can do-no-right in the eyes of our culture's wicked pseudo-reality -- what do they have to lose? It's not right, but it's one of the choices the culture gave them so some men are going to choose it. Surprise, surprise.

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Graphic content warning! The links below are NSFW. Many contain racially charged, offensive and violent language. Presented here for educational purposes.
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*[Video] Explaining why White Sharia is "a good meme." A good place to start to understand the concept.

The women with the most alternatives, the best alternatives to family and reproduction do less of the family and reproduction.

*[Podcast episode] Put a baby in her belly!

November 2016. The War Room. White Rape Gangs #WhiteSharia. This podcast is hosted on a mainstream Alt-Right site.

*Could there be a hard right/Islamic alliance on the horizon? I doubt it, but someone is floating the idea.

People called us crazy, but we have said and continue to say this because this is based on historical precedent going back to the 15th century with the fall the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans through the sale of the cannons to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II and has persisted up through the First World War, Second World War, and will manifest again in the Third World War, as it is coming together today.

*A critique of White Sharia from within the hard right.

If "white sharia" does not sound as ridiculous to you as "white Zionism," then it is time to take stock of who you are and for what, exactly, you are fighting. In doing so, not only will you naturally arrive at a more workable political strategy, but you will have eradicated one more remnant of anti-white indoctrination from your core being.

*In Defense of White Sharia. The author responds to the critique above and lays out the case for stealing the patriarchal form of the enemy.

When I say we will have White Sharia in White Afghanistan one day, it means that we will have an extreme tribal patriarchy in the ethnostate. But it also offers visions of what that patriarchy and that ethnostate could look like. People can imagine themselves with a beard and an AK in the Appalachian Mountains. Images and examples are more powerful than words. That is why joking about White Sharia is more powerful than pleas for returning to long-dead traditions.

*[Video] Emily Youcis, former Philadelphia Phillies snack vendor, stumping for White Sharia.

*White Sharia Will Make You Dumb. A critique of the bizarre eugenics argument for White Sharia.

*They Want Us Caged: Anti-Feminism, "White Sharia" & Traditionalism. Click the link for a standard feminist response.

*[Video] Titled WHITE SHARIA NOW. A laugh track is edited in over a documentary-style video of young white women debauching themselves.

The True Religion of the West

"The idea of a strong and robust nation that holds to traditional Christian values is an idea that Western Europe finds repugnant in the extreme. Why? Because such a nation would be an ideological rival and that is something that the current order can’t tolerate."

by Niko Pafras, Pravoslavie — May 5, 2015

I’m not a professional journalist or an expert in international affairs. Fortunately, one doesn’t need to be either to see what is going on in the popular western media these days. 

Living in America I am bombarded on a daily basis with the “expert” opinions on the Ukrainian crisis by a horde of analysts on the nightly news. The recurring theme in these interviews, regardless of political affiliation or news network, is the outrage felt by western leaders at the supposed “aggression” shown by Russia towards Ukraine. 

Conveniently, the aggression of President Poroshenko towards his fellow citizens in eastern Ukraine vis-a-vis the openly neo-Nazi Azov battalion and its ilk, goes almost entirely unreported. Be that as it may, one must ask, what precisely is it in the psyche of western leaders and pundits that makes them foam at the mouth with outrage at the crisis in Ukraine but turn a blind eye when it comes to similar incidents that are conducted by western countries or their allies?

For example, on July 20th, 1974, NATO member Turkey under the leadership of then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit launched the invasion of Cyprus known as “Operation Attila”. What reason did Mr. Ecevit give for this naked aggression and violation of international norms? The prevention of “Enosis”, which is Union with the Greek mainland, and the protection of the Turkish minority from alleged pogroms by Greeks whose population, at the time, made up approximately 77% of the Island. The result of the invasion was the bifurcation of Cyprus into the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and the so-called TRNC or Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus who is only recognized by Turkey. 

On paper, the TRNC is considered by Turkey to be a separate state but in reality, the TRNC is a de facto part of Turkey. In other words, an annexation. Now one would expect, all things being equal, that similar outrage was shown towards Turkey for its illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of northern Cyprus. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where things are not equal. The Western response? Negligible at best. There was no American castigation of Turkey or heavy sanctions. No military build-up of American forces on the Turkish border or heaping of opprobrium by the western media. And interestingly, there were no Hitler-Ecevit comparisons made on a daily basis like there have ubiquitously been throughout the western press since the reunification of Crimea with Russia. No, on the contrary, Turkey cemented its ties with America and Europe and continues to receive billions of dollars worth of military aid through the Truman doctrine.

Unlike the violent invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, which claimed the lives of thousands, Crimea was received into Russia by a free and fair referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Crimean residents chose unification with Russia. The American response to the Turkish invasion was silence. Yet, when it comes to the people of Crimea exercising their democratic rights and their right to self-determination, which America holds as universal right, the response is outrage, sanctions and threats.

How do we explain this response or rather, lack thereof? Interests. Plain and simple. 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali responds to Brandeis University's withdrawal of honorary degree

Activist for Women's Rights and Fearless Critic of Islam rises above shameful and cowardly decision by formerly respected university. 

For more on Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her efforts to defend women and girls from oppression justified by religion and culture (including, especially, Islam), see the AHA Foundation website.  

For background on how Muslim groups pressured Brandeis U. to go against their core principles and dishonor an activist honored by the U.S. State Department for her work, see AnsweringMuslims.com post here.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: ‘They Simply Wanted Me to be Silenced’ 

Time Magazine — April 9, 2014

On Tuesday, officials at Brandeis University backed off granting an honorary degree to Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Alian, a staunch women’s advocate and fierce critic of Islam, due to many faculty members’ requests and a large online petition. Here is Ali’s statement in response to the university’s actions:

Yesterday Brandeis University decided to withdraw an honorary degree they were to confer upon me next month during their Commencement exercises. I wish to dissociate myself from the university’s statement, which implies that I was in any way consulted about this decision. On the contrary, I was completely shocked when President Frederick Lawrence called me — just a few hours before issuing a public statement — to say that such a decision had been made.

Patrick J. Buchanan: Whose Side Is God on Now?

"In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity."

by Patrick J. Buchanan, Creators.com — April 3, 2014

In his Kremlin defense of Russia's annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin, even before he began listing the battles where Russian blood had been shed on Crimean soil, spoke of an older deeper bond.

Crimea, said Putin, "is the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized. His spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus."

Russia is a Christian country, Putin was saying.

This speech recalls last December's address where the former KGB chief spoke of Russia as standing against a decadent West:

Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values. Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.

Heard any Western leader, say, Barack Obama, talk like that lately?

Indicting the "Bolsheviks" who gave away Crimea to Ukraine, Putin declared, "May God judge them."

What is going on here?

With Marxism-Leninism a dead faith, Putin is saying the new ideological struggle is between a debauched West led by the United States and a traditionalist world Russia would be proud to lead.

In the new war of beliefs, Putin is saying, it is Russia that is on God's side. The West is Gomorrah.

Obama Accused of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

I had reported on a similar but apparently separate initiative in my October 5 article, Egyptian Human Rights Org to charge Obama with 'Crimes Against Humanity' for his support of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Raymond Ibrahim references towards he end of his article.


Obama Accused of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’
by Raymond Ibrahim, CBN News — 11/7/2013

According to Egyptian newspaper El Watan, a group of Egyptian lawyers has submitted a complaint charging U.S. president Barrack Hussein Obama with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

The complaint charges Obama of being an accessory to the Muslim Brotherhood, which incited widespread violence in Egypt both before and after the June 30 Revolution.

Along with Obama, the complaint reproduced by El Watan mentions several Brotherhood members by name, beginning with the leader of the organization Muhammad Badie, and other top ranking leaders such as Mohamed al-Beltagy, Essam al-Erian, and Safwat Hegazi, adding that “Obama cooperated, incited, and assisted the armed elements of the Muslim Brotherhood in the commission of crimes against humanity in the period from 3/7/2013-8/18/2013, in the Arab Republic of Egypt.”

According to the published text, the complaint begins by quoting Article 7/1 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, titled “Crimes against humanity,” which is reproduced below:

Exposed: Muslim Brotherhood Operatives in the U.S.

by Raymond Ibrahim — 10/31/2013

El Watan, one of Egypt’s most widely circulated and read newspapers, has published a report discussing the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence over the United States, especially in the context of inciting pro-Brotherhood policies against Egypt’s popular June 30 Revolution, which resulted in the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood from power.

Titled (in translation), “With Names, Identities, and Roadmap…  El Watan Exposes Brotherhood Cells in America,” it’s written by investigative journalist Ahmed al-Tahiri, who begins the report by saying:

In the context of El Watan’s ongoing investigation concerning the Brotherhood’s cells and lobby inside America that support the regime of the ousted [Morsi], and which intensified their activities to attack and defame the June 30 Revolution, informed sources have disclosed to El Watan newspaper the names and cell entities of the Brotherhood and their roadmap of activities all throughout the United States of America. 

The sources said that these organizations, which are spread throughout the States, agitated for and were supportive of the decisions taken by Muhammad Morsi’s project to “Brotherhoodize” and consolidate power [in Egypt] and gave a favorable opinion to the general American public that Morsi’s decisions were welcomed by the public [in Egypt]. Following the June 30 Revolution, these groups  launched a malicious war in order to incite the American administration to take hostile decisions against Egypt, with the aim of bringing back the Brotherhood to the power.

El Watan then goes on to name names, saying that the following activists and entities are Brotherhood operatives working within the United States (reproduced verbatim):

EU Gives Turkey a Failing Mark On Media Freedom

AINA — 10/26/2013

The European Parliament's report on Turkey this year, adopted on Oct. 18, presents a mixed bag of progress and concern related to the country's democratization efforts. It's noteworthy that media freedom receives the least praise, which in a way reveals the state of democratic culture in the country.

Key provisions of the Turkish legal framework and their interpretation by members of the judiciary continue to hamper freedom of expression, including freedom of the media," the report states. "The ownership structure of the Turkish media, dominated by large industrial groups, combined with at times intimidating statements by high-level officials and warnings by the authorities, also makes self-censorship in the media widespread, as shown when mainstream media failed to report on the June protests. This environment has also led to dismissals and resignations of journalists.

Well said -- especially the flag raised concerning the business establishment's ownership of media and the cost of such relationship.

Truth be told, this is not a new thing. It is just that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has figured out how to use this weakness to its interest. The media conceded their duty long ago as the fourth estate. The government decided to play hardball with the long-standing media patronage, confident in their strong showing at the ballot box since increasing their votes in three consecutive general elections, beginning in November 2002.

The report bluntly stated:

[The] state officials themselves continued to launch suits against critical journalists and writers. This, together with the high concentration of media ownership in the hands of industrial conglomerates with interests going far beyond the free circulation of information, continued to lead to widespread self-censorship by media owners and journalists. In particular, the mainstream media hardly reported on the Gezi Park protests in early June. Columnists and journalists were fired or forced to resign after criticizing the government. As a result, freedom of the media remained restricted in practice.

Obama: Dhimmi or Dunce?

by Timothy Furnish, PhD — FrontPageMag — 9/26/2013

Timothy R. Furnish holds a PhD in Islamic History and is an author, analyst, and consultant to the US military who specializes in transnational Islamic movements, eschatology and Mahdism. His website is www.mahdiwatch.org.

When I went to Iran in 2008 (to attend and present a paper at the annual Mahdism conference there) one of the Muslim presenters spoke about the future Mahdiyah as a global state where Christians would be given the choice to convert to Islam and acknowledge the returned Twelfth Imam—or be put to death.  Alas, as anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear knows, neither Shi`i nor Sunni  (al-Shabab; Syrian jihadists; Pakistanis) Muslims are waiting for the Mahdi to persecute Christians.  Indeed, despite being the world’s largest religion in number of adherents (2.2 billion), Christians are the world’s most-persecuted believers of any stripe—and mostly at the hands of followers of the world’s second-largest religion: eight of the top ten most dangerous countries for Christians are majority Muslim.

So it is indeed “open season on Christians.”   Yet other than Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and, before he stepped down from the chair of St. Peter, Benedict XVI—no major world leader or organization has spoken up, much less fought for, Christians.  Case in point: President Obama gave a long speech at the United Nations Tuesday and stated that the two greatest problems emanating from the Middle East are Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   The chronic and toxic torment of his own co-religionists was never mentioned—except in passing reference to undesignated “terrorists” and “extremists” who engage in “sectarian conflict.”

Obama’s white-washing of Islamic violence—rooted, that is, in the Qur’an and in both the examples and hadiths (alleged sayings) of Muhammad, Islam’s founder—extended even to the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the president once again adduced a purported fatwa against nuclear weapons by Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, which does not, in fact, exist.

Obama pointed out that “the U.N. was designed to prevent wars between states” but “increasingly we face the challenge of preventing slaughter within states” [emphases added].  His reference clearly was to Syria, but nary a presidential peep was uttered about equally-horrific venues where Christians are being butchered, such as Nigeria, Pakistan or Iraq; or where churches were burned, as in Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood; or where Christians are not even allowed to have churches, as in Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, relative to Syria, Obama’s obsession with international treaties and norms is rather selective:  violating the Geneva Convention rubrics on chemical weapons is reason to use military force; but breaching Geneva Convention genocide prohibitions—which include “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”—elicits no such outrage on the part of Obama, Sec of State Kerry or Director of Central Intelligence John Brennan when Christians are the victims. This despite the fact that a Sudanese Anglican bishop has written to Obama, asking him to help persecuted Christians in Sudan.

Solzhenitsyn's Prophetic Voice

Biographer Joseph Pearce Discusses Critic of Communism

A fine companion piece to the 1978 Harvard Commencement Address, which I posted here earlier, and very appropriate to post during the Week of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose.

By Annamarie Adkins, for ZENIT — 9/21/2011

AVE MARIA, FLORIDA, Sept. 21, 2011 (Zenit.org).- After the fall of the Berlin Wall, some people predicted that global affairs had reached "the end of history" and that democratic capitalism had definitively triumphed.

Now, as the West teeters on the verge of economic crisis and suffers from the increasing statist imposition of illiberal dogmas, the prophetic voice of Alexander Solzhenitsyn -- one of the 20th century's greatest writers who saw the same errors at the heart of both the capitalist and communist systems -- seems more timely than ever. 

According to Solzhenitsyn biographer Joseph Pearce, the heroic Russian dissident knew that the materialism that shaped the culture of both capitalist and communist societies was ultimately inhuman because of its denial of spiritual values and because it led to serious environmental degradation.

The professor of literature and writer-in-residence at Ave Maria University has updated and reissued his biography, "Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile" (Ignatius Press), including new chapters written after conducting more interviews with Solzhenitsyn's family. The latest edition also follows the Russian writer's death in 2008. 

Pearce spoke to ZENIT about what Solzhenitsyn's monumental writings can tell us today about our own spiritual, cultural and political condition. 

Islamic Throwbacks Are Erasing Civilization

The problem is that these "throwbacks" think they are the future... And, God help us, they just may be.

By Giulio Meotti — Israel National News via AINA —  8/26/2013

Back to the days of the Mongols. Burn, pillage, destroy.

"Dozens of churches were burned and destroyed in the largest attack on Coptic houses of worship since 1321", reports the Wall Street Journal about the latest persecution of Christians in Egypt.

A symbol of Egypt's national culture, the ancient churches of Minya, did not hold religious services for the first time in 1,600 years. The churches had been destroyed by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

The Coptic Pope Tawadros II, who appeared at the side of General Al Sisi during the announcement of Morsi's dismissal, is now hiding in a secret location for fear of terrorist attacks.

Christian shops and homes have been marked by a black "X", while the Muslim buildings are marked with a red "X". At the end of the clashes, the black painted buildings were destroyed, while the red ones were left unharmed. It was an operation of religious cleansing.

Last July, a Christian was beheaded by Islamists and there have been least seven deaths among Christians in the last few days.

The guru of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, gave formal approval for the attacks against Christians. In a video, Qaradawi says that "Christians" have been "recruited (by the military junta) to kill innocent Muslims."

Videos from Egypt show burned churches and Islamists who embrace and kiss each other, congratulating one another for the destruction of the buildings of "infidels." In the city of Sohag, Islamists raised the black flag of al Qaeda on a church and executed a Christian couple after asking for their identity cards.

The Franciscan School of Beni Suef has been destroyed by Islamists and nuns have been forced to march in the streets as if they were "prisoners of war", while the cross in front of the building was torn down and replaced by the terrorists' flag.

Meanwhile, in the church of Mallawi, the statue of the mother of Jesus was literally decapitated.

Islamists are obliterating non-Muslim heritage in the Middle East. Their targets are Jewish shrines, Christian churches, monuments and cultural masterpieces.

The Poor, Persecuted Muslim Brotherhood!

The author, Henri Boulad, SJ, is a Catholic priest living in Egypt.

by Henri Boulad, SJ — Jihad Watch — 8/22/2013

The entire Western world is outraged, offended and scandalized because the Egyptian Army has dared to dislodge the Muslim Brotherhood from the two bastions of Rabia and Nahda, where they had been barricaded for several weeks. Bottom line: more than six hundred dead in the two camps.

In no time at all, the right-thinking Western media uttered cries and whimpers asking the Security Council and international human rights associations to condemn this savage aggression with the utmost firmness.

The poor Muslim Brothers! Victims of violence! Those gentle lambs, well known for their sweetness and innocence! The object of unacceptable brutality. Consequently, it’s a duty to defend them against the devouring wolves of the Egyptian army and police. The USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Turkey, the UN... then, should rise as one man to denounce injustice, defend those innocents, and invite the world to fly to their rescue. The international media instantly leapt upon Pegasus to charge at the guilty ones...

This lifting of shields to claim and proclaim the right of all citizens to protest "peacefully" has something tragicomical about it.

Consider the facts:

-the Rabaa mosque, where the Brothers were holed up was a real armoury where incredible arsenal of war was discovered. No denunciations from the West

-For weeks, the Brotherhood’s militias, armed to the teeth, sowed terror among the whole population of Egypt: killings, abductions, kidnappings, ransom demands, abductions and rape of girls forcibly married to Muslims. No reaction from the West.

IOCC Reaches Syrian Families Unable to Flee to Safety

IOCC via Pravoslavie.ru — 8/12/2013 Baltimore, MD, August 1, 2013 Since the opening of satellite offices in the Syria's Dara'a governorate last January, IOCC/GOPA has registered more than 20,000 internally displaced families from the towns of Dara'a and Ezraa in immediate need of humanitarian assistance. An additional 40,000 families that fled the town of Nawa last week due to intensified fighting are also being registered to receive humanitarian aid. Photo: IOCC/GOPA Restricted movement and disruption to normal life brought on by Syria's two-year conflict has left as many as eight million Syrians in need. With roads linking Damascus to Dara'a and other major Syrian towns often closed for extended periods of time, thousands of families living in the country's southwestern governorate of Dara'a remain trapped in their homes as prolonged fighting in neighborhoods throughout the region intensifies. Many have lost their jobs. Food and basic necessities are becoming harder to find. International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) in cooperation with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (GOPA) is responding to the urgent needs of the more than 60,000 families confined to this volatile area with emergency relief including food parcels, family hygiene kits, bedding, kitchen sets, and school supplies for children.

Solzhenitsyn and the Russian Renaissance

This is an extremely significant essay for our time.

by Andrew Doran — First Things via Pravmir — 8/1/2013

In the early spring of 1953, a sickly Russian novelist, “covered with ice, out of the dark and the cold,” staggered forth from the Soviet Gulag, the constellation of Communist prison camps that stretched from Siberia to South Asia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ill with cancer, had once been a proponent of the system that condemned him to forced labor. Now he saw his nation’s “deep suffering,” like his own, as redemptive.

“The entire twentieth century,” Solzhenitsyn observed in his 1983 Templeton Lecture, was “sucked into the vortex of atheism and self-destruction.” Why? “Men have forgotten God,” he said. At the outset of the twentieth century, the faith of the Russian people could be witnessed even in the trenches of the Great War, where the Germans would gun down thousands of Russians by day only to listen in wonder at their seraphic, if melancholic, chant by night.

But when war and famine proved too much to bear, the Russian people rebelled. Decades earlier, Dostoevsky had prophetically warned that “great events could come upon us and catch us intellectually unprepared.” Those events came swiftly in Russia. The Bolsheviks, the most organized and ruthless of the factions that vied to replace the old regime, emerged victorious. Solzhenitsyn wrote of Marx and Lenin, “Hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions.” Nowhere was this more evident than in the Bolsheviks’ systematic campaign of atheistic violence—unprecedented in human history.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: May, 2013

by Raymond Ibrahim — via Gatestone Institute — 7/30/2013

The month of May continued to prove that Nigeria is the most dangerous nation for Christians—where more Christians have been killed last year than all around the Muslim world combined.  In one instance, Boko Haram Muslim militants stormed the home of a Pentecostal pastor and secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, and opened fire on him, instantly murdering him.

Separately, other Boko Haram gunmen killed 14 Christians, including the cousin and two nephews of the Rev. Moses Thliza, head of a Christian organization dedicated to preventing AIDS and caring for AIDS patients and orphans:  Said Thliza: “My cousin, Bulus [Paul] Buba, was dragged out at gunpoint from his house by the Boko Haram members. They collected his car keys, demanded money and asked him three times to renounce his Christian faith, and three times he declined to do so [prompting them to execute him]. The attackers met three guards on duty, killed two of them by cutting their necks with knives, and then proceeded to take the third guard, Amtagu Samiyu, at gunpoint to lead them to where the keys of the deputy governor’s house is.”

As for some Christians observing a wake two kilometers away, Boko Haram Muslims asked to know what was going on there, and when they learned that people were saying prayers for an elderly Christian woman who had died, they charged in and shot into the crowd. “The attackers went there and shot indiscriminately at the worshippers, killing eight Christians—two women and six elderly men,” said Thliza. “In all, we buried 14 Christians. Some were injured and taken to the hospital.”

Despite all this, when the Nigerian government tried militarily to confront and neutralize Boko Haram, the Obama administration criticized it, warning it not to violate the “human rights” of the Islamic terrorists.

Categorized by theme, the rest of May’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Church Attacks 

Bosnia: The Serbian Orthodox church of Saint Sava in Sarajevo, where Muslims make up approximately half of the population, was “desecrated” and six of its windows panes broken.  The unidentified vandals wrote “Allah” in dark paint twice on the church wall.  A month earlier, unidentified persons tried to set the church on fire.

Op-Ed: To end Syria civil war, West must guarantee minorities' safety with peacekeeping force

This is a solid piece of analysis, treating very seriously the fears of Syria's Christians, although it lacks any specific mention of Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal of a multi-national peace conference led by Russia and the U.S., which could convene as early as August.

CSMonitor - 7/25/2013

Op-Ed by Thorsten Janus, Helle Malmvig

Minorities in Syria support the Assad regime because they fear the alternative. To erode Bashar al-Assad's base of support, Western leaders should offer meaningful security reassurances to Syria's minorities, including the promise of an international peacekeeping force.

A commander of the Ghurabaa al-Sham Front (a jihadist rebel group that is fighting in Syria)

speaks on his phone in front of a church that was shelled by mortars at the Christian

village of Judeida, in Idlib province, Syria, Feb. 21. —Hussein Malla/AP/File

Though Syria’s civil war rages on, Western leaders may have the power to help end the bloody conflict. And it’s not by arming the rebels.

Instead, Western countries – in cooperation with regional powers like the Arab League – should work to offer meaningful security reassurances to the minorities now supporting the Assad regime. This will undermine Bashar al-Assad’s base, move the country toward a political resolution to the conflict, and help ensure an inclusive post-Assad society. Without safety guarantees, Syria’s minorities are unlikely to shift support away from Mr. Assad. The promise of an international peacekeeping force, possibly headed by NATO and backed by the Arab League, could achieve that goal.

Statement by Heads and Representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches Assembled for the Celebration of the 1025th Anniversary of the Baptism of Russia

[AXIOS to The Russian Orthodox Church, which leads the Christian world in standing for our Christian brothers and sisters being persecuted for their faith in the Islamic world. I hope to post more articles related to this initiative over the coming days.]

Pravmir - July 25, 2013

We, heads and representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches, who have come to Moscow on the occasion of the celebration of the 1025^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia at the invitation of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, consider it our duty to raise our voice in defense of our Christian brothers subjected to persecution for their faith in various parts of the world today.

Every day thousands of believers in Christ are being tortured and driven out of their native lands; many people meet their death.

News about tortures and murders are coming from Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. In Kosovo, religious shrines are being defiled, many churches have been destroyed, and many people are deprived of the opportunity to visit the graves of their relatives and to pray to God in the land of their ancestors.

The situation in the Middle East causes deep concern. Many countries of this region are swept with a wave of violence and terror, with Christians falling victims to it. Libya, where there are almost no Christians left, is breaking into warring tribes. Terrorist acts go on in Iraq, where one tenth of the former one and a half million Christians has left. The situation in Egypt is getting more and more alarming as the conflict there has entered into another bloody phase and the Christian population flees the country in a mass exodus. Grief and sufferings have befallen families of thousands of ordinary people. As a rule, the first to suffer from unfolding conflicts are the most unprotected groups of the population including ethnic and religious minorities.

In September 2010, the first meeting of the Orthodox Primates of the Middle East region took place in Cyprus. The Primates expressed their deep concern over the situation in this region and the future of Christians in the area. The same concern was expressed at the similar meetings in Jordan in August 2011, in Constantinople in September 2011, and in Cyprus in March 2012. The statement in support of suffering Christians in the Middle East was adopted at the meeting of the heads and representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches, held in Moscow in November 2011.

The situation in Syria is particularly tragic today. In the heat of the fratricidal war, Christians, as well as representatives of other religious groups, are massacred, driven out of their native cities, towns and villages, out of the places where they used to live for centuries in peace with people of other religious traditions.

Congress Will Ship Arms To Syria Rebels Despite Overwhelming Public Disapproval

...and despite certain escalation of the religious cleansing of Christians by the Syria Jihadists.

See also Obama's Proxy War On Mideast Christians

Deal done for U.S. to ship arms to Syria rebels

USA Today, h/t Creeping Sharia

A deal reached in Congress to allow the United States to ship arms to Syrian rebels could spur more support from other nations, blunting the military gains of dictator Bashar Assad and preventing him from crushing the rebel movement.

Syrian rebels say the decision by U.S. lawmakers to go along with President Obama’s plan announced weeks ago to arm their factions will give them an edge.

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement saying committee members questioned the plan but have agreed it can move forward.

“The House Intelligence Committee has very strong concerns about the strength of the administration’s plans in Syria and its chances for success,” Rogers, R-Mich., said in a statement issued this week.

Rogers and other committee members declined to elaborate on the deal.

More here, with links to related news items, and commentary...

Islam on Cows, Horses, Camels and Women

I also discuss this dehumanizing aspect of Islamic doctrine in my book, Facing Islam - What the Ancient Church has to say about the Religion of Muhammad.

Islam on Cows, Horses, Camels and Women
by Raymond Ibrahim

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

Taliban: “herding” women with a stick

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

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

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

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

Escaped Priest Now Helps Syrian Refugees Resettle in British Columbia

By Agnieszka Krawczynski
Catholic Register via AINA - July 23, 2013

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A priest who escaped from Syria is now helping other Christian refugees flee oppression and resettle in cities in British Columbia.

"I know what it's like to be a refugee there," said Father Sarmad Biloues of Sts. Peter and Paul Chaldean mission. "They lost everything, even their dignity."

Several years ago, Father Biloues worked day and night among thousands of faithful at a parish in Syria. He saw refugee camps and heard about people who had been abused or killed because they were Christian.

The day he fled was the day a terrorist group put his name on their kill list. A member of the group knew the priest personally and was able to warn him.

"Father, we're going to come and kill you today. Leave the church," Father Biloues said, recounting the man's words.

The priest fled and later found out that a car bomb had been set up near the church.

"They're still asking for my name. If I come near the border, they will take me and kill me," Father Biloues added.