The Martyrdom of Bassem, killed by Muslims for having a tattoo of the Cross on his wrist

Each Christian Martyr in the Islamic world provides us with an opportunity to be shocked out of our pathetic Western sloth and ease, which is why Orthodox writers throughout the centuries have always compiled lives of martyrs to strengthen the faithful.

New-Martyr Bassem was described by a friend (see below) as follows:

“Bassem was a very good man... Honest, quiet, modest, a light-hearted person and close friend to me. From early childhood he loved the Church and he was a man of prayer and worship. He didn’t renounce the faith and didn’t deny his Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t fear death. Actually, he didn’t die but has won the real life in Heaven...”

The Muslims who killed Bassem were acting on the dictates of the demon Allah as recorded in the Qur'an:

Kill the mushrikun [unbelievers] wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for them each and every ambush. (Sura 9:5) 

I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved, so strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes. (Sura 8:12) 

Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the enemies of Allah and your enemies. (Sura 8:60) 

So, when you meet those who disbelieve, smite at their necks till when you have killed and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly on them... Thus you are ordered by Allah to continue in carrying out jihad against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam. (Sura 47:4)

Bassem Herz Attalhah did not love his life more than Christ. Rather, he willingly and openly witnessed to his faith in Christ by having the sign of the Cross tattooed on his wrist, a pious tradition which many Coptic Orthodox Christians observe. Bassem did this despite living in a region and in an age when simply being a Christian is likely to mean martyrdom because of Islam's hatred for the Cross and the vast numbers of Muslims who strive to carry out the murderous and satanic teachings of their false god and false prophet.

One more thing: 

Each Christian martyred by a Muslim is another bloody testimonial that the "god" of Islam cannot possibly be the same as the True God. 

Christian leaders who insist on defending Islam against criticism and who assert the "Same God" heresy are betraying every Christian martyred by Muslims since the early 7th century up to today, and they are betraying Jesus Christ Himself, who warned:

"I have told you these things so that you will not fall away... The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God" (JN 16:1, 2). 

In the same discourse, the Lord very simply tells the reason why Muslims kill Christians:

"They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me" (JN 16:3).

In other words, they do these things because they know and worship a different god, a false god.

So what should Christian leaders do when Muslims kill Christians? 

The Christian response to Muslims murdering Christians can be summed up in four clear steps (with a fifth for those Christian bishops and priests able to undertake it):

1. Confirm whether the murdered Christian was practicing his/her faith in Christ, and did not deny Him at the moment of trial;
2. If so confirmed, immediately recognize them as a martyr, who was faithful to Jesus even to the laying down of their life, and immediately extol them as an example for the faithful;
3. Condemn Islam as a false religion of the spirit of Antichrist, instigated by the devil (following the examples of St Gregory Palamas, St Sophronius of Jerusalem, St John Damascene, New Martyr Fr Daniel Sysoev, and others);
4. Forgive the Muslim, while simultaneously issuing a challenge to any Muslims horrified by the wicked acts of their co-religionists to repent of their false religion, and come to know the True God, through Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church, so that they may be saved;
5. Provide catechetical classes specifically for Muslims seeking to learn about Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church, as did Fr Daniel Sysoev of Moscow.

We live an a new age of martyrdom. It is well past time for us to vigorously proclaim Jesus Christ, to honor the martyrs who confessed Him even unto death, and to honor the Lord by plainly and without "nuance" rebuking the evil false religion which preaches and practices murder. "By their fruits you shall know them."

Is that so hard to do? 

Egypt: Sinai militants pledge to ‘kill more Copts’ after murdering man over cross tattoo

World Watch Monitor, January 15, 2018:

New-Martyr Bassem Herz Attalhah

Militants belonging to the ‘State of Sinai’ group in Egypt have promised to “kill more Copts” after murdering a 27-year-old Coptic man because of the tattoo of a cross on his wrist.

Bassem Herz Attalhah, also known as Haythem Shehata, was on his way home from work in El-Arish, capital of North Sinai governorate, on Saturday evening (13 January), with his brother Osama and neighbour and friend Mohamed, when they were stopped by three armed men, aged between 23 and 25.

“We thought they were policemen because they weren’t masked… They were wearing black jackets,” Osama, 38, told World Watch Monitor. “They approached us and asked Bassem to show them the wrist of his right hand, and when they saw the tattoo of the cross, they asked him: ‘Are you Christian?’ Bassem answered ‘Yes, I am Christian’, and repeated that again in a loud voice.”

The men then asked Mohamed his name and made him show his wrist. When they saw he had no tattoo, he was allowed to leave.

Then they turned to Osama.

New Infographic: Muhammad's Life a 'Blueprint for Terrorism'

The ten key points featured in this single-page infographic show how the example and teachings of Muhammad, considered in Islam to be the "perfect pattern of conduct," continue to inspire and justify the broad range of Muslim atrocities against humanity (for 14 centuries and counting), including jihad warfare and terrorism, honor killings and abuse of women and children, slavery, and more.

Feel free to share widely...

New Infographic on the life of Muhammad

By Bill D., Science Et Cetera, November 17, 2017:

A supplement to the recent documentary, "Through the Lens of Muhammad's Life: How the Example and Teachings of Muhammad Shape Islam Today”

More original material on Islam by Bill D...

Click image to enlarge | Download the PDF version.

FGM and Islam’s Mutilation of… Everything

Rather than an outlier Muslim practice held over from its pagan desert origins, female genital mutilation must be seen in its wider context of Islam's view of women, and as an especially shocking indicator of the true nature of the 'god' of Islam.

This is my first original essay on Islam in some time. Let me remind all my readers, while we must always stand for Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life, and stand against Islam and every lie and heresy which denies Him, we must at the same time love and approach our Muslim neighbors and invite them to come to know the true Jesus that they may have eternal life. Those whom the Father draws will come to Him, and we must be open-hearted and ready to help them in their journey.

Put another way, respect for a lie shows contempt for the Truth. Respect for our neighbor shows love for the Truth.

This is the final installment in a 7-part series on Islam and FGM: 

• Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |  Part 5  |  Part 6  |  Part 7

FGM and Islam’s Mutilation of… Everything.

by Ralph H. Sidway, June 26, 2017:

1. Introduction

The recent Federal Department of Justice case in Michigan against a pair of Muslim doctors — one as perpetrator, the other providing access to his clinic — accused of performing female genital mutilation against several young girls, has suddenly put FGM into the spotlight.

A recent statement from the DOJ indicates their investigation leads them to believe that “up to 100 girls” may have had their genitals cut by the Michigan FGM ring. There are even accusations a Michigan mosque paid for genital cuttings. In a related story, a Muslim imam at a mosque with multiple terror ties is recorded as endorsing FGM.

Most recently, two Oakland County Muslimas have been arrested and charged with subjecting their young daughters to the Islamic practice of genital cutting, bringing the total number of arrests in the federal case to six. And the attorneys for the Muslim doctors have indicated they will be defending their clients based on religious liberty. If they win, female genital mutilation will be a protected practice of the Islamic religion.

Robert Spencer distills the main Islamic sources which established FGM in Muslim culture fourteen centuries ago:

“Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — ‘Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64

Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so:

“Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75
“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251
“Do not cut severely,” but not “Do not cut.”

That’s why it is so common around the world, and why it is certain to become increasingly common in the United States…

2. Children of Islam

There is a classic saying, “A civilization is judged by how it treats its weakest members.” Needless to say, for taking a razor blade to its daughters’ most tender and vulnerable parts, Islam should be judged quite harshly.

But there is a bit more to Islam’s tendency to mutilate than only FGM. Mutilation is a disturbing psychological thread which is woven throughout the entire tapestry of Muslim culture.

Consider how many Muslim societies rob children of their childhood, teaching them to hate, to kill, even to behead infidels. Organizations like Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) and The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) report and archive Muslim hate broadcasts such as these:

Ramadan in Egypt: Muslims murder 26 Christians in bus on way to monastery

Islamic State jihadis honor Muhammad and their bloodthirsty god by killing peaceful, defenseless Coptic Christians on a holy pilgrimage to a sacred monastery. The death toll is now at 28 and may rise.

Soon after the news reports broke, our priest sent out an email to the parish in which he said the following:

When "God" is invoked to inspire such violence, then we have entered the realm of blasphemy.

That sums up what I have been writing about for almost a decade now, first in my book, and then on this blog, that Allah, Muhammad and Muslims blaspheme the True God through jihad, false theology, legalistic religious demands, female genital mutilation, child marriages, honor killings, sharia restrictions against free speech, death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy, and a whole range of barbaric practices ad infinitum. 

When one looks at Islam, it is clear that Allah is not the One True God, but a demonic imposter, that Muhammad is a false prophet, and that Muslims are all — whether jihadi or so called 'moderates' — under spiritual delusion.

This evil attack is completely in accordance with the commands of Allah in the Koran, and with the example of Muhammad in the ahadith. And we can expect much, much more of the same.

Ramadan in Egypt: Muslims murder 26 Christians in bus on way to monastery

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, May 26, 2017:

Ramadan begins today. It is the month of jihad, the month when Muslims strive to please Allah more fervently. And so because murdering Infidels who are considered to be at war with Allah is a pious act, there is generally more bloodshed during Ramadan than during the rest of the year.

“26 killed, 26 injured as gunmen fire on Coptic Christian convoy in Egypt,” Straits Times, May 26, 2017:

CAIRO (Bloomb erg [sic], Reuters, AFP) – Gunmen in military fatigues opened fire on a bus carrying members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority killing at least 26 people, including children, the latest in a string of militant attacks targeting the community. 

Another 26 were wounded in the assault in Minya province, some 200km south of Cairo, said Ministry of Health spokesman Khaled Mogahed. 

The Copts were on their way to the Saint Samuel monastery, according to Minya’s governor Issam al-Bedewi. Bishop Anba Ermia, president of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Centre, said on Twitter that the attack may have killed as many as 35 people in a convoy of vehicles. 

Islamic FGM in Michigan - Part 5: 'FGM is illegal in the United States. So why is it still happening here?'

"Many Muslims have insisted that the practice of FGM has nothing to do with Islam, that it is, originally, an African and pagan custom. This may be true. However, many Muslims believe it is religiously required..."

This is the fifth of a 7-part series on Islam and FGM: 

• Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |  Part 5  |  Part 6  |  Part 7

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch explains why Muslims believe the barbaric practice of circumcision of the clitoris is religiously required:

Female genital mutilation is indeed sanctioned in Islam. “Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — ‘Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64 

Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al-Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75 

That’s why it is so common around the world:

• A Muslim cleric in Russia said that “all women should be circumcised.” 
• A Muslim cleric in India likewise urged that it be done. 
• A Muslim cleric in Australia said that Islamic law permitted the practice. 
• A leading U.S. Muslim jurist from the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) said it was an “honor” in Islam. 
• A marabout — a Muslim holy man — was arrested in France for having it done on his daughters. 
• In the UK, there were 5,500 cases of FGM in 2016 alone. 
• It is commonly claimed to be an East African problem, but 93% of Muslim women in Malaysia have suffered this procedure, and it is common in Indonesia. 
• In one province in Iran, 60% of the women have suffered FGM.
• It is certain to become increasingly common in the United States.

FGM is illegal in the United States. So why is it still happening here?

By Dr. Phyllis Chesler, April 27, 2017 - Fox News:

Let's be clear: FGM (female genital mutilation) is illegal in the United States. That fact did not stop Drs. Humana Nagarwala, Fakhruddin Attar, and his wife Farida Attar, from allegedly performing these criminal and human rights atrocities against two vulnerable 7-year-old girls in the Detroit metro area. The physicians and Attar's wife have all been arrested. According to Fox 2 News in Detroit the three have been charged with female genital mutilation and conspiracy. The doctors are also charged with making false statements to investigators and trying to obstruct the investigation.

For years, many Muslims have insisted that the practice of FGM has nothing to do with Islam, that it is, originally, an African and pagan custom. This may be true. However, many Muslims believe it is religiously required.

Boldly, cleverly, the Detroit-area physicians are arguing that FGM is a "religious practice" and that to interfere with it is tantamount to religious discrimination. There is some proof that Mohammed allowed a female "exciser" to perform this mutilation -- but he advised her not to "overdo it."

FGM is practiced most widely in the Islamic world in the Arab Muslim Middle East, both in the Gulf and African states (such as Egypt, Somalia, Sudan); it has, increasingly, spread to Muslim communities in Central Asia (parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran), and to the Far East (Malaysia and Indonesia).

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not at all like male circumcision. Not only is the capacity for sexual pleasure destroyed, complications are routine and include bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture.

Saying "NO!" to Islam on OXI Day and Every Day

Icon of St Maria Skobtsova of Paris

Last Wednesday, October 28, is commemorated by Greek Orthodox Christians as OXI! Day, when, in 1940, small and vulnerable Greece had the courage to stand against and say a fearless and forceful "NO!" (Greek: Oxi) to Nazism and Fascism when they threatened Greece with war if Greece did not open strategic positions to the Italian and German forces.

I wrote about OXI Day a few years ago here, and this year my eye was caught by this excellent post (below) by the Greek American Girl Blog, who presents one of the great examples of Christian bravery and witness of the twentieth century, Mother Maria of Paris, who also said "NO!" to Nazism, in daring and creative ways, which eventually led to her death in a Nazi concentration camp.

The purpose of Christians who warn against jihad is precisely the same, to say an emphatic and clear "NO!" to Islamic supremacism, jihad, murder and subjugation of non-Muslims, to Islam's misogynist culture, female genital mutilation, honor killings and the death penalty for apostasy.

Going further, we Orthodox Christians must be firm in our faith, and realize that simply by confessing Jesus Christ — by striving to be a faithful, devout disciple of the Son of God, by acquiring the Holy Spirit so as to have the Holy Trinity abiding in us, by partnering with the Lord to work towards the goal of theosis, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27) — we are saying the most powerful YES! to the True God, and the most powerful NO! to the false god Allah, the false prophet Muhammad, the false religion of Islam.

Islam, under commands in the Koran and taken from the example of Muhammad, has been waging theological and murderous jihad against Christians for 1400 years, and continues to do so. Islam denies Jesus Christ, offering a false Jesus named Isa. It denies that Jesus was crucified, thereby denying the resurrection. Islam denies the sublime creation and destiny of Mankind, fashioned by God's Word in God's own image. Islam is anti-Christian, anti-Spirit, anti-Human.

So, let us make the Sign of the Cross, say "YES!" to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and by the witness of our lives lived in Christ through the Holy Spirit, let us say "NO!" — OXI! — to the way of perdition, the lie, the death of Islam. Jesus is Light, "We have seen the True Light", there is nothing but darkness in Islam.

Mother Maria of Paris says “OXI!” to the Nazi Mass Murder Machine

Greek American Girl (via Pravoslavie), November 2, 2015

On the occasion of OXI Day, when we commemorate the occasion when a tiny, run down nation had the guts to stand up against the bullying of the Nazi/fascist juggernaut, I want to bring up another underdog who deserves some recognition. No, she isn’t Greek, although she is Orthodox Christian. She isn’t American either. She probably never even stepped foot in Greece. But she is a heroine. She displays the ideal of “philotimo” (or doing the honorable thing for the honorable thing’s sake). She too had the courage to say “NO” to the Nazi murder machine. For her sacrifices to her immigrant community and the poor and the stranger, and ultimately in her ultimate sacrifice of her life, she is recognized as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. Her name is Maria Skobtsova or more simply Mother Maria of Paris.

I can’t summarize her entire life story in one short article as this would not do justice to the complexities of her thought and her being. (But you can get a more detailed account by reading Jim Forest’s bio of her at In Communion). Suffice it to say that she was a character; she, like Dorothy Day, her Catholic counterpart, believed that Christ took the guise of the poor, the wretched, the ill, and that instead of glorious towering temples, the Church could be found “in the streets.”

Here are some life notes:

Canadian "Hate Speech" Proposal Threatens Free Speech, targets 'people who write against the Islamic religion'

The law known as Bill 59 would allow Quebec's Human Rights Commission or members of the public "to initiate a 'hate speech' lawsuit against a person who makes a statement considered discriminatory against a group..."  

In addition, the bill would grant the commission power to investigate people alleged to have uttered hate speech. Those convicted of promoting hate could be fined up to $20,000 and their names would be made public and posted indefinitely to a list available online.

As Robert Spencer wrote in his commentary on this openly fascist law designed to silence free speech and specifically any criticism of Islam:

"Come and get me, coppers."

But the purpose of this blog is not merely criticism of Islam for its own sake, because Islam is patently false. Nor is it to defend freedom of speech and the American way of life per se. 

Rather, the purpose of this blog is to present the Christian response to Islam, which is best described as "Love Speech." We hold out to Muslims the Word of God, Jesus Christ, who came to free us from sin, death and the devil. "There is no other name given in heaven or on earth by which we may be saved" (Acts 4:12). 

So, dear Muslim readers, if your conscience is nagging you and you are weary of your co-religionists hacking the heads off non-Muslims, and all their killing and raping in obedience to Allah and the Koran and following the example of Muhammad, leave all that behind and turn to Jesus Christ and eternal life as lived and preached in the Orthodox Church.

This is not hate speech, it is the most loving invitation in the world. We're waiting for you with open arms.

Canadian "Hate Speech" Proposal Threatens Free Speech

by Abigail R. Esman, IPT News — August 27, 2015

Thirteen years, thirteen honor killings, all in Muslim families, all of them in Canada. But if you should condemn those murders, you might find yourself the subject of investigation and convicted of a crime.

Quebec Human Rights Commissioner Jacques Frémont has proposed a bill "to prevent and combat hate speech and speech inciting violence."

If adopted, the law known as Bill 59 would allow Quebec's Human Rights Commission or members of the public "to initiate a 'hate speech' lawsuit against a person who makes a statement considered discriminatory against a group," Marc Lebuis, director of Point de Bascule, an organization that tracks Islamist activities in Canada, said in a recent interview.

In addition, the bill would grant the commission power to investigate people alleged to have uttered hate speech, said Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée. Those convicted of promoting hate could be fined up to $20,000 and their names would be made public and posted indefinitely to a list available online.

Most view Bill 59 as a response to pressure from Muslim groups, who have filed several complaints of "Islamophobia" and anti-Muslim hate speech in recent years. In many ways, the bill resembles UN Resolution 16/18, an initiative of the 56 Islamic States who comprise the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and which restricts speech that could be considered "discriminatory" or which defames religion and can be considered "incitement to violence." Only Bill 59 is worse: it pertains to personal, subjective, emotional responses that an individual has to something that he reads, hears, or encounters.

Women Saints Who Suffered under Islam

In this article, Fr George Maximov cites some historical examples of Muslim persecution of Christian women. Two were killed by their own families or fellow villagers, becoming martyrs — witnesses — for Christ by their faith. The first example cited, the Martyr Argery, was imprisoned for seventeen years until her death because she, a married Christian woman, rejected the lustful advances of a Muslim man. 

Islam's brutal and horrific treatment of young Christian girls and women, has its roots in the Quran and the example of Muhammad. Hence rape of captive women, the taking of sex slaves, and forced marriage and conversions to Islam are codified in Islamic law.

The status of women in Islam in general is extremely demeaning, especially when contrasted with the exalted status of women in Christianity. 

How a culture views and treats its most vulnerable members reveals much. Islam's sub-human view of women, as stated in its holy texts, and its treatment of women as witnessed around the world via honor killings, spouse abuse, acid attacks on women, clitorectomies, epidemic rape, stoning of adulterers, etc., goes a long way towards proving Islam to be a false religion.

For contemporary examples of women saints under the yoke of Islam, see the lives of New Martyrs Helen the Accountant and Mary the Copt.

Women Saints Who Suffered under Islam

by Fr. George Maximov, Pravoslavie, via Pravmir — October 3, 2008

If we have not found ourselves in a Muslim environment due to increased migration and conversion to Islam, many of us have Muslim neighbours. Like all people, these neighbours are different but as a rule they don’t hide their faith or their conviction in its superiority but often make attempts to acquaint people with it.

It is a sad event when, as often happens, an Orthodox girl or woman marries a Muslim and perhaps even adopts Islam.  Those who do not adopt it personally have to be prepared for their children becoming Muslims – such are laws of Islam. Practice shows that this results in family misfortune and the suffering and grief of these women.

If we think about it, this is not surprising. After all, it is not by mere chance the church forbids marriage between those of different faiths. Such marriage will not be consecrated by the church canons and therefore will not be blessed by God.  Perhaps the main issue is that a married couple should be united in everything.  It is a natural law and the desire of human souls. But if such unity is missing in the most essential thing – faith – it will not be present in other things. In the beginning mutual affection disguises this lack but without real unity as a foundation affection fades away fast.  When this happens, inner discord inevitably shows up on the surface and under this or that pretext it will start darkening the marriage more and more as time goes on.

Some unhappy women, realizing this by intuition, adopt Islam. But practice shows that such a step doesn’t make the tempted women happy as apostasy is a heavy sin which, if not repented of, creates a heavy burden in this life. A lot of terrifying examples are known from the life of such “Russian Muslim women” whose husbands threw them out of their homes, took away their children, beat them, treated them as beasts.  God cannot be profaned:  we reap what we sow.

However there are cases, although not many, when an Orthodox girl convinced her Muslim fiancé to convert to the true faith. And after baptism and a church wedding such marriages were very strong and happy. To support these decisions we will recall several cases when Orthodox women of strong faith and love for Christ, after suffering from conflict with the Islamic world, could bring the great fruit of sacredness and prove the superiority of the true faith.

Saint Argery (Argyrie)

Icon of Saint Argery (Orthodox

church of St Cosmus and St Damian.

Avignon, France)

In the early 18th century in the Ottoman Empire, in the provincial town of Prusse there lived a beautiful Greek girl called Argery. She was brought up by pious parents and when she was young she met her love – a kind Greek youth. They got married in the church and their honeymoon was happy. But their Turkish neighbour was inflamed with lust towards Argery and tried with his sweet words to talk her into committing adultery in the absence of her husband. The pious wife declined his advances. Then the embittered Turk slandered her before the judge of Prusse by telling him that she had promised to become Muslim. According to the laws of Sharia, a person who expressed the wish to become Muslim must adopt Islam; if he denies thereafter he must be punished: for a man – death penalty, for a woman – life imprisonment. The judge, having believed the plaintiff, immediately put Argery into prison. Her husband, who thought the judgment was biased, demanded its transferal to Istanbul.

But it didn’t help. Both Argery and the Turkish plaintiff came to the court of the capital where the Muslim witnessed against her, giving the false evidence about her before the judge. Argery replied that she had never said anything like she was charged with She also said that she was not going to betray her faith; she was a Christian and wanted to die as a Christian. According to the judge’s order she was beaten and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Confederate Flag and the Flag of Jihad

Even Southerners are calling for the retiring of the Confederate Flag. Where are the Muslim protests to ban the Black Flag of Islam?

by Ralph H. Sidway

Over at The American Conservative, Rod Dreher has a really stirring piece in which he grapples with the complexity and pain of the guerre du jour, the movement to finally banish forever the Confederate Flag (a movement so sweeping that the classic film ‘Gone With The Wind’ may itself soon be gone with the wind). Dreher is a born and raised Southerner, and shares his inner struggle over the issue:

From the time I was old enough to realize what slavery and the ideology of white supremacy that sustained it, and that remained after slavery died, I have had a troubled conscience about the South. I found it so difficult to reconcile the place and the culture into which I was born, and which I loved, and do love, with the hideous facts of our history.

That is the tone of honesty grappling with reality. There’s much more, for Dreher strives to place himself (and his readers) in the shoes of any and all who have dark shadows in their cultural and societal and ideological history. To wit: 

Even though your people may have thought and behaved wrongly in a particular instance, you may try to explain the context in which the sin was committed, and to point out the complexity of the situation — not to excuse it, necessarily, but to shed light on the broken humanity of the phenomenon...

I would assert that such issues of situational “complexity” and “context” won’t wash when it comes to Islam and Muslims, because in Islam, it’s not about what Dreher calls “a few bad actors” in “particular instances.” It’s about a lot of bad actors — beginning with one in particular — consistently acting badly over fourteen centuries, under the black flag of divine sanction and command.

Indeed, if anyone has dark shadows in their history, it is Muslims. Yet we rarely if ever see from them any self-examination or troubled conscience such as Rod Dreher and other Southern progeny are displaying now. President el-Sisi of Egypt comes to mind, but most Muslim critics of Islam are ex-Muslims (think Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq). 

The darker side of Islam — jihad, genocide, sharia, apostasy and blasphemy laws, honor killings, abuse of women, child marriage, FGM, and that whole supremacist culture which eternally demands for Islam to reign supreme — is analogous neither to the white-supremacist side of Southern Culture, nor to other examples Dreher uses, such as the challenges within Black America or the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandals, all of which derive from the flaws of human nature in each person, extended at times to the mob.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

Yet this is precisely why the case of Islam and American Muslims is radically unlike that of any other cultural, racial or religious group. The evils being perpetrated by the “bad actors” of Islam do not merely stem from the human heart of darkness, “the line dividing good and evil [which] cuts through the heart of every human being.” 

'Do the Muslims Love Their Children Too?' — Reapplying Sting’s Cold War anthem to a new war

In Europe and America, 

There’s a growing feeling of hysteria…

. . . But what may save us, me and you,

Is if the [Muslims] love their children too.

—Adapted from ‘Russians’, by Sting, 1985.

By Ralph H. Sidway

The Islamic State's Poster Child

June 1 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of Sting’s solo career with his critically acclaimed, jazz inflected hit album, Dream Of The Blue Turtles. Included on this radical departure from the musical stylings of Sting’s former band, The Police, was the sobering meditation, Russians. (Complete lyrics here. Watch his live performance at the 1986 Grammys here.)

Although I disagree with some of Sting’s political sensibilities (after all, Reagan won the Cold War), his use of a simple, rhetorical question was most compelling. (Of course, the Russians love their children!) 

In any case, today, thirty years after Russians was released, we seem to have entered into a new phase of a different war, a very, very old war, with ominous clouds on the horizon. 

Ours is a time of fitful contradictions and spasms of policy incoherence, as the United States, the UK, and the West vacillate between outright denial of the threat of Islam, and ill advised alliances with the very forces seeking to destroy us. Sorely lacking is a clear-headed appraisal of and strategy to meet the mortal threat posed by a globally emboldened, militant Islam, which, after fourteen hundred years, is once again 100% determined to conquer us, through immigration, birth rates, lawfare, politics, stealth, and conversion when necessary, by terrorism wherever possible, and by open warfare whenever the odds are in their favor. 

No doubt you’ve seen the projections: England will be a Muslim majority country in a couple of decades. Europe too. The growth of Muslim populations in major European cities has led to sharia “no-go zones,” where police seldom venture, and from where Muslim youths routinely riot over the slightest offense. Last Spring it was Sweden which burned. In 2005, the outskirts of Paris. This year (so far) it’s Denmark. 

Generational Assimilation among Western Muslims?

We were told that multiculturalism was the way of the future in England, Europe, Canada and America. That any mild inconveniences experienced because of new (Muslim) immigrants having difficulties adjusting to Western paradigms would smooth away as their children grew to maturity, adopting wholeheartedly the Western worldview of prosperity, freedom, tolerance and congeniality.

Rather, the reverse seems to be happening, as numerous reports indicate second and third generation Muslim immigrants are committing far more crimes (218% more in Denmark) and are far more inclined to join the global jihad in Syria than their supposedly less-acclimated parents. There are whole French and German-speaking units in ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the most bloodthirsty jihadist faction among the Syrian “rebels”) made up primarily of second and third generation descendants of Arab immigrants and Muslim converts.

In the Netherlands, 65% of Moroccan Muslim youths have been arrested by police, and a third of that group have been arrested five or more times. 

There are reports, too, of whole Muslim families joining the jihad, as in the case of a British Muslim father who took his five sons across Europe and Turkey in order to wage jihad with them in Syria. 

The Muslim Dad from the UK: Proud of his Jihadi Sons.

Problems within Muslim Culture?

Doesn’t this reveal something about Islamic culture, the message being propagated via mosques, books, videos, and, of course, through core Islamic texts, including the Quran, the Hadiths and the Sira?  Devotion to the example of Muhammad’s victories in battle, the all important Muslim self-image of Islamic superiority over all other religions, supposedly proven by its conquering of the Byzantine Christian Empire in 1453 (celebrated annually by “secular” Turkey), coupled with disdain for the lax and soft European, British and American cultures, breeds contempt for the West and a sense of rightful entitlement.

And that’s just the West.

Media Watch Groups report on Global Muslim views

There are shocking video reports out of the Middle East of Palestinian, Egyptian, Lebanese and Syrian TV programs and videos geared expressly towards children, which portrays Christians and Jews as sub-human, openly calling for their slaughter, and prepping Muslim children for suicide operations. A quick list of examples follows.

New Martyr Helen the Accountant (†March 15, 2013)

MYSTAGOGY , March 17, 2015

John Sanidopoulos at MYSTAGOGY blog has translated to English from the original Greek an amazing account of a young Russian woman, Helen Machankova, raised in an atheist home in Siberia, who moved to Asia Minor to find work among the Russian emigré community there. She eventually met a man and fell in love. He was a Muslim; they married in a mosque.

Her conscience was wounded when her husband expressed how glad he was that Muslims were killing Christians in Syria, and she began to despise him for his hatred of the innocent Christians. He became violent and abused her. Helen left her husband and went to live with her friend Anna, whom she knew from the Russian Church.

Her heart was softened and warmed by the love shown her by her Russian Orthodox friends, and she was led to Christ by their kindness. Helen attended frequently the Divine Liturgy, and asked her friends to teach her how to pray, and about what happens during the Liturgy.

Helen's faith continued to deepen. She began wearing a pendant her family had given her with an icon of St Seraphim of Sarov. When she happened to encounter her husband in the town, he saw the pendant and asked her if she had changed her religion. She did not deny, but answered yes, and bravely confessed Christ. He began to curse at her, as he had considered her to be a Muslim, since they had married in the mosque.

Honor Killings in Islam

In my recent interview for OCN Now, Fr Chris Metropulos and I discussed the case of Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudan Christian woman who was held for over four months under a death sentence for apostasy from Islam (her father was a Muslim, so according to Sharia Law all his offspring are Muslim). The death penalty for apostasy is specifically codified in the Quran and in the hadiths (saying attributed to Muhammad) as seen in these two excerpts:

If they turn back from Islam, becoming renegades, seize them and kill them wherever you find them. (Quran 4:89)

“[In the words of] Allah’s Apostle, ‘If anyone changes his religion from Islam, kill him’.” (Sahih Bukhari 9.84.57)

One of the important sub-themes of Meriam's case is that her Muslim family have threatened to kill her even though she has now won her appeal and been released from prison. She continues to live under a death sentence in Islam.

In our discussion, I mentioned that 91% of all honor killings worldwide are committed by Muslims, and I thought it proper to post on this tragic dimension of Islamic culture, which extends even to America and Canada and indeed all Western nations.

Islamic law is very specific in its penalties for the killing of a Muslim, with these notable exceptions:

A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. (Source)

Such provisions, together with the death penalty for apostasy from Islam, and violent jihad against and brutal subjugation of non-Muslims, are an engrained part of the 1400-year-old Islamic culture, which warps and deadens the God-given conscience of its adherents. Such twisted and blatantly evil commandments and practices are some of the more obvious proofs that the "god" of Islam is not the true God. Therefore, we Christians invite all Muslims of good conscience, who may be reaching a crisis point in their faith, to repent and turn from their false religion of darkness to the Light of Truth which is in Christ Jesus, in the bosom of the Orthodox Church.

Appended below is a scholarly study on honor killings to further make the point:

Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings

by Phyllis Chesler, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2010

To combat the epidemic of honor killings requires understanding what makes these murders unique. They differ from plain and psychopathic homicides, serial killings, crimes of passion, revenge killings, and domestic violence. Their motivation is different and based on codes of morality and behavior that typify some cultures, often reinforced by fundamentalist religious dictates. In 2000, the United Nations estimated that there are 5,000 honor killings every year.[1] That number might be reasonable for Pakistan alone, but worldwide the numbers are much greater. In 2002 and again in 2004, the U.N. brought a resolution to end honor killings and other honor-related crimes. In 2004, at a meeting in The Hague about the rising tide of honor killings in Europe, law enforcement officers from the U.K. announced plans to begin reopening old cases to see if certain murders were, indeed, honor murders.[2] The number of honor killings is routinely underestimated, and most estimates are little more than guesses that vary widely. Definitive or reliable worldwide estimates of honor killing incidence do not exist.

Most honor killings are not classified as such, are rarely prosecuted, or when prosecuted in the Muslim world, result in relatively light sentences.[3] When an honor killing occurs in the West, many people, including the police, still shy away from calling it an honor killing. In the West, both Islamist and feminist groups, including domestic violence activists, continue to insist that honor killings are a form of Western-style domestic violence or femicide (killing of women).[4] They are not.[5] This study documents that there are at least two types of honor killings and two victim populations. Both types differ significantly from each other, just as they differ from Western domestic femicide. One group has an average age of seventeen; the other group's average age is thirty-six. The age difference is a statistically significant one.

Families Killing Their Young Women

The study's findings indicate that honor killings accelerated significantly in a 20-year period between 1989 and 2009.[6] This may mean that honor killings are genuinely escalating, perhaps as a function of jihadist extremism and Islamic fundamentalism, or that honor killings are being more accurately reported and prosecuted, especially in the West, but also in the East. The expansion of the Internet may account for wider reporting of these incidents.

The worldwide average age of victims for the entire population is twenty-three (Table 1). This is true for all geographical regions. Thus, wherever an honor killing is committed, it is primarily a crime against young people. Just over half of these victims were daughters and sisters; about a quarter were wives and girlfriends of the perpetrators. The remainder included mothers, aunts, nieces, cousins, uncles, or non-relatives.

Honor killings are a family collaboration. Worldwide, two-thirds of the victims were killed by their families of origin. (See Table 1). Murder by the family of origin was at its highest (72 percent) in the Muslim world and at its lowest in North America (49 percent); European families of origin were involved almost as often as those in the Muslim world, possibly because so many are first- or second-generation immigrants and, therefore, still tightly bound to their native cultures. Alternatively, this might be due to the Islamist radicalization of third or even fourth generations. Internationally, fathers played an active role in over one-third of the honor murders. Fathers were most involved in North America (52 percent) and least involved in the Muslim world; in Europe, fathers were involved in more than one-third of the murders.

Worldwide, 42 percent of these murders were carried out by multiple perpetrators, a characteristic which distinguishes them considerably from Western domestic femicide. A small number of the murders worldwide involved more than one victim. Multiple murders were at their highest in North America and at their lowest in Europe. In the Muslim world, just under a quarter of the murders involved more than one victim. Additional victims included the dead woman's children, boyfriend, fiancé, husband, sister, brother, or parents.

Worldwide, more than half the victims were tortured; i.e., they did not die instantly but in agony. In North America, over one-third of the victims were tortured; in Europe, two-thirds were tortured; in the Muslim world, half were tortured. Torturous deaths include: being raped or gang-raped before being killed; being strangled or bludgeoned to death; being stabbed many times (10 to 40 times); being stoned or burned to death; being beheaded, or having one's throat slashed.

Finally, worldwide, 58 percent of the victims were murdered for being "too Western" and/or for resisting or disobeying cultural and religious expectations (see Table 1). The accusation of being "too Western" was the exact language used by the perpetrator or perpetrators. Being "too Western" meant being seen as too independent, not subservient enough, refusing to wear varieties of Islamic clothing (including forms of the veil), wanting an advanced education and a career, having non-Muslim (or non-Sikh or non-Hindu) friends or boyfriends, refusing to marry one's first cousin, wanting to choose one's own husband, choosing a socially "inferior" or non-Muslim (or non-Sikh or non-Hindu) husband; or leaving an abusive husband. There were statistically significant regional differences for this motive. For example, in North America, 91 percent of victims were murdered for being "too Western" as compared to a smaller but still substantial number (71 percent) in Europe. In comparison, only 43 percent of victims were killed for this reason in the Muslim world.

OCN Interviews on Boko Haram, Meriam Ibrahim, and ISIS

Fr Chris Metropulos and I cover some of the most urgent news of Orthodoxy and Islam, the Global Jihad, and Muslim Persecution of Christians:

1. Orthodoxy and Islam: Boko Haram
By Fr. Chris Metropulos in OCN Now Radio — Islamic militant group Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian girls, killed masses of civilians, and called for Muslims around the world to “kill, kill, kill.” Ralph Sidway updates us on the group’s atrocities, discusses how it relates to other Islamic terrorist groups, and asks how they are receiving funding to continue.
Play in Browser.

2. Orthodoxy and Islam: Meriam Ibrahim
By Fr. Chris Metropulos in OCN Now Radio — Join Ralph Sidway and Fr. Chris as they discuss Meriam Ibrahim – the Sudanese Christian woman who was condemned to be lashed 100 times and then executed. Hear about the developments in her situation, the danger she faces from honor killings, and what her story can teach us.
Play in Browser.

3. Orthodoxy and Islam: ISIS
By Fr. Chris Metropulos in OCN Now Radio — ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has declared its plan to take over large territories in the Middle East. Ralph Sidway offers a crash course on this Islamic terrorist group. Who are they? How has the group developed? Who are they targeting and is the US in danger?
Play in Browser.

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.

Has the Church in the U.S. Succumbed to the Charms of Islam?

William Kilpatrick on the dangers of Muslim-Christian 'interfaith dialogue'.

I admire Kilpatrick's writing, and included the following passage from him in my book, Facing Islam:

Although many won’t admit it, we are in the midst of an ideological war with Islam. And since the advantage goes to the side that fully realizes they are at war, the West is losing. The propaganda war is going in favor of Islam precisely because the West doesn’t realize it is supposed to be fighting one... 

Even those who see the danger clearly rarely talk in terms of victory; they talk mainly in terms of resisting cultural jihad. You know you’re in trouble when your ideological opponent is a primitive seventh-century belief system, and yet the best that your top strategists hope for is to put up a good resistance... 

In past ideological struggles we wisely sought ideological victory—the discrediting of the belief system that inspired our enemies. Because the driving force behind Islamic aggression is Islamic theology, it makes no sense to treat Islamic theology like a protected species. Rather, we should hope that Muslims lose faith in Islam just as Nazis lost faith in Nazism and Eastern-bloc Communists lost faith in communism... Of course, it would be all the better if we had something to offer them in its place. — William Kilpatrick, Losing Their Religion, Front Page Magazine, June 14, 2010.

Excellent observation at the end (and a rare one for counter jihad writers), and one of the reasons why we must never think of Islam and Muslims in terms of "coexistence" or "interfaith harmony." Such notions imply that we don't think we have "something to offer them in its place." Such notions make it seem that we really don't believe in our Christian faith, but rather that all religions are basically equivalent.

For an Orthodox Christian, such an attitude is absolute apostasy. The Risen Lord commanded us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He did not tell us to be "nice" and get along, but that we would be persecuted if we truly followed Him. And He pronounced a severe warning: "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so they did to the false prophets..."

The Orthodox Church emphatically does have "something better to offer" Muslims in place of the false religion of Islam. And if we have a heart for the Gospel and care for the lost and perishing, we will at some level grieve for the powerful deception which holds 1.6 billion Muslims under its sway.

By living authentic Christian lives, and supporting Orthodox Christian mission efforts (such as in Muslim countries like Indonesia and Pakistan), we are supporting the Great Commission, we are following our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are daily strengthening both our own faith, as well as the global Orthodox Christian witness. We will show that we fervently believe we have something much better to offer Muslims and all people, and that we wish to invite them to eternal life in Christ.

But such authentic, evangelical Christian faith is rare, perhaps because so many consider Islam a sister-religion to Christianity.

Returning to William Kilpatrick, in the below article he critiques recent pan-ecumenist fantasy remarks by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and the broader context of Roman Catholic inter-faith relations with Islam. Kilpatrick's warnings should equally be heeded by Orthodox Christians, who as a rule can be overly generous in their assessment of Islam, its doctrines, and its purpose.


Has the Church in the U.S. Succumbed to the Charms of Islam? 
by William Kilpatrick, New Oxford Review — January 2014

New York’s Timothy Cardinal Dolan paid a visit last summer to the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville on Staten Island, where he met with a large group of Muslim leaders. As is often the case when Catholic prelates meet with Muslims, his theme was the common ground shared by the two faiths. Cardinal Dolan told his Islamic audience, “You love God, we love God, and he is the same God,” and he thanked them “for making me feel like a friend and a member of a family...” He went on to tell them how much they share in common with Catholics: “Your love of marriage and family, your love of children and babies, your love of freedom — religious freedom particularly — your defense of life, your desire for harmony and unity and your care for others, your care for God’s creation and your care for those who are in need.”

Perhaps this is true of the Muslims of Tompkinsville, but unfortunately the cardinal’s words will be taken as an endorsement of Islam in general. I say “unfortunately” because what he says about the common values and beliefs of Muslims and Catholics is highly misleading.

THE ISLAMIZATION OF AMERICA IN 2013

An exhaustive, sobering assessment by one of the leading anti-jihad, anti-sharia writers and activists in America today. Get informed — read and share this wake-up call. (With extensive links to sources and resources.)

by Pamela Geller, for Breitbart News — January 9, 2014

Since I wrote my book Stop the Islamization of America and established the Stop Islamization of America initiative of my organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), we have seen increasing accommodation and submission to Islam in the United States. This past year was a particularly good year for Islamic supremacists, who are working furiously in this country to impose Sharia (Islamic law) -- and in particular, the blasphemy laws under the Sharia.

The Islamic supremacist approach is stealthier here in the States than it is in Europe, where we see no-go zones, mass car burnings, etc., because Europe currently has a much bigger Muslim population than the U.S. does. More on Muslim immigration here.

That kind of aggression is in our future, for nothing is being done to prevent its coming here. The few of us who dare to speak against Sharia and jihad are blacklisted from the mainstream media’s major newspaper and broadcast outlets. Trimmers (those who soften the message about Islam or speak of “Islamism,” an artificial word making a distinction without a difference) and Islamic apologists are dusted off and trotted out to make some inane comment whenever the mainstream media cannot avoid covering a jihad news story (such as the Boston Marathon jihad bombing). But the effective true voices against Islamization, such as myself, Robert Spencer, Wafa Sultan, and Ibn Warraq are rarely seen these days.

It’s never been as bad as it is now, and we have never been proven so right as we were in 2013. In the U.S., in a survey released at the end of 2012, almost half of the Muslims in America said that they thought parodies of Muhammad should be subject to criminal prosecution. One in eight thought that insulting Islam should be a death penalty offense. Forty percent said that they shouldn’t have to obey U.S. laws, but should be subject only to Islamic law.

These findings should have come as no surprise; they weren’t much different from those of a May 2013 survey of Muslims worldwide. The survey showed that the harshest Sharia punishments enjoy broad support among Muslims the world over: “72% of Indonesian Muslims, 84% of Pakistani Muslims, 82% of Bengladeshi Muslims, 74% of Egyptian Muslims, and 71% of Nigerian Muslims supported making Sharia the official state law of their respective societies.” 85% of Muslims in Pakistan, 81% in Afghanistan, and 70% in Egypt supported the most brutal aspects of Sharia, such as amputating the hands of thieves. 86% of Muslims in Pakistan, 84% in Afghanistan, and 80% in Egypt supported stoning for adultery. 75% in Pakistan, 79% in Afghanistan, and 88% in Egypt favored executing those who leave Islam. “91% of Iraqi Muslims and 99% of Afghan Muslims supported making Sharia the official state law of their respective societies.”

And in America, wherever Islamic law and American law conflict, it is increasingly American law that gives way.

Canada's Growing Islamic Radicalization a Warning Sign

"With the exception of the United States, there are more terrorist groups active in Canada today than in any other country in the world."

by Abigail R. Esman, IPT News — 11/4/2013

The man who calls himself Abu Muslim sits with his fellow fighters, members of the group Katiba al Muhajireen, and raises his rifle for the camera. He has come to Aleppo to fight, he tells the man who has come to interview him for Britain's Channel 4. A Muslim convert, he – like some 100 others joining the jihad in Syria's civil war – has left his family at home. In Canada.

The United States' neighbor to the north is experiencing a radicalization problem, according to a confidential report by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Made public earlier this year through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Canada's National Post, the report confirms that "Islamist extremists are now radicalizing Canadians at a large number of venues," ranging from mosques to dinner parties and even the family home.

"Parents have radicalized children, husbands have radicalized wives and some wives have radicalized or supported their husbands," the study's authors contend, "and siblings have radicalized each other."

Indeed, according to one assessment cited by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), "with the exception of the United States, there are more terrorist groups active in Canada today than in any other country in the world." And while most of their activity is based abroad, a study published earlier this year by the International Institute for Counterterrorism (IIC) shows that 25 individuals have developed or been involved in four plots against Canadian targets since 2006. Of these, eight were Canadian born; three were converts to Islam; and 20 – nearly all – were between the ages of 18 and 35. Most were affiliated with al-Qaida.