Coptic Victims Call on “Lord Jesus Christ” Before Slaughter

Praying the Jesus Prayer right up to the moment they were beheaded. This is the very definition of Christian Martyrdom, and these faithful men earned their crowns.

by Raymond Ibrahim, February 16, 2015

Before having their heads sliced off by the Satanic forces of the Islamic State in post “Arab Spring” Libya, some of the Coptic Christians can be seen and heard muttering “O Lord Jesus Christ,” say Arabic media.

Do not be deceived: this is a war on Christians — one that began almost 1,400 years ago, when Islam was born, and has been consistent since.

Liturgical Life Continues in Desecrated and Burned Egyptian Church

"According to the parishioners, the interior of the ruined church does not disturb, but, rather, adds solemnity to the services during which the faithful offer up prayers and praise God right in the open, under the rays of the rising Sun."

Pravoslavie, February 11, 2015

(El Arish) Despite the scale of destruction of the burned and plundered Church of Greatmartyr George the Victory-Bearer in El Arish, its parishioners and clergy are continuing their usual parish life, spending most of time in prayer and labors on restoration of the church, reports the Copts Today portal.

On August 14, 2013, a group of individuals belonging to the “Muslim Brothers” terrorist organization burst into one of the most ancient churches of the town of El Arish in Sinai – the Church of St. George the Victory-Bearer - breaking the gates open and bringing down the cross above them. The terrorists at first desecrated the church altar and removed valuable liturgical vessels and then set fire to the church building from inside. As a result rare icons, manuscripts, and relics of saints were destroyed in the fire, and the dome of this ancient church collapsed.

After the August tragedy the parish life came to a standstill, waiting for further steps by the newly elected government. However, in spite of the authorities’ promises to start restoration of the temple, the house of God was in an utter desolation for six months. Then the clergy and laity decided to resume celebration of services in this church whose walls turned black from soot (the same situation remains today).

Raymond Ibrahim: 'Christian Slaughter in Libya'

ISIS escalates "Open Season" on Libya's Christians.

by Raymond Ibrahim, February 16, 2015

The disputed fate of the 21 Coptic Christians abducted in Sirte, Libya is now clear and visible for all to see on video: while holding them down, Islamic State members shove their fingers in the Christians’ eyes, crane their heads back, and slice away at their throats with knives—all in the name of Allah and Islam, all as the slaughtered call out on the “Lord Jesus Christ.”

Earlier, the BBC had falsely reported that 13 of these now slaughtered Copts were “released.” (Such downplaying of Muslim persecution of Christians is, of course, standard for the BBC.)

In the video, the lead executioner waves his dagger at the camera while boasting of the Islamic State’s savagery: “Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of as-Sham and Dabiq’s plain [Syrian regions], chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time.  And today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.”

He adds: “We will fight you until Christ descends, breaks the cross and kills the pig” (all eschatological actions ascribed to the Muslim “Christ,” Isa).

As opposed to the Obama administration’s reactions to Islamic State beheadings of Americans and others—namely, strong assertions that such actions are not Islamic—Egyptian President Sisi responded to the slaughter of Egyptian citizens by immediately sending fighter jets to bomb Islamic State targets in Libya.

What did these Coptic Christians—or, as the Islamic State refers to them, “The Humiliated Followers of the Coptic Church”—do to deserve such treatment?  According to Catholic Pope Francis, “They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians.  It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians!”

Far from being satisfied with the slaughter of these 21 Christians, the Islamic State is calling on Muslims to find and slaughter more Coptic Christians. (Copts make for the majority of Christians in Libya, having migrated there from neighboring Egypt to find work during the Gaddafi years; most of them are desperate to return but need aid from the Egyptian government to cross the Libyan desert.)

In its online English magazine Dabiq, after justifying the slaughter of the 21, the Islamic State concludes by asserting that “it is important for Muslims everywhere to know that there is no doubt in the great reward to be found on Judgment Day for those who spill the blood of these Coptic crusaders wherever they may be found.”

US Army Veterans, Westerners Join Christian Militia to Fight ISIS

"I'm here to make a difference and hopefully put a stop to some atrocities." — British Christian volunteer Tim. 

Reuters via Newsmax, February 15, 2015
h/t the Colonel

Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.

Brett, 28, carries the same thumb-worn pocket Bible he did whilst deployed to Iraq in 2006 - a picture of the Virgin Mary tucked inside its pages and his favourite verses highlighted.

"It's very different," he said, asked how the experiences compared. "Here I'm fighting for a people and for a faith, and the enemy is much bigger and more brutal."

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha - meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq.

ISIS Beheadings: Hotwiring the Apocalypse One Christian Martyr At A Time

What the mass beheading of 21 Copts in Libya tells us about the Islamic State

by Timothy R. Furnish
Mahdi Watch, February 15, 2015

The Coptic Christians immediately before being martyred for Christ.

Major news outlets are reporting, today, the mass beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians by the Islamic State affiliate in Libya.

The Ottomans beheaded tens of thousands of Georgian

Christians who stubbornly, and heroically,

clung to their Christian faith.

In my 2005 Middle East Quarterly article, “Beheading in the Name of Islam,” I wrote that “the purpose of terrorism is to strike fear into the hearts of opponents in order to win political concession[s].”  Then I went on to spend much of the article explicating the legitimately Islamic roots (Qur’anic rubrics, precedents by Muhammad, examples from Islamic history, exegesis by Muslim scholars) of decapitating  “non-believers”—especially Christians, the primary political and military adversaries of Islamic expansion over the last 14 centuries.

The Islamic State has upped the ante with its regular beheadings of Christians by IS central and, now, its far-flung branches.  Seen in light of incessant calls for recruits, and even more vociferous citations of apocalyptic hadiths—both of which are clearly explained in the many issues of “Dabiq” magazine—I now think that ISIS cares not one whit about political concessions.  Rather, it chops off Christians’ heads for three primary reasons: 1) to reinforce its literalist Islamic credentials;  2) to win over young Muslims, particularly men, and persuade them of Islamic State’s power and dedication; and 3) to provoke the “Christian” West, particularly the United States (the world’s most populous Christian nation), into deploying ground troops—which ISIS is certain it will defeat, based on the group’s adherence to this eschatological hadith.

Return to Blogging

In the life of Holy Neo-Martyr Damian the New (+1568) we read that after contesting in the monastic life for three years, "he heard a divine voice saying to him, "Damian, you must seek not only your own profit, but that of others as well." So he left the monastery in order to serve the villages in his native regions. As with many others who strengthened the faith of the Orthodox during the Ottoman tyranny, he was eventually arrested by the Turkish Muslims and put to death for his faithfulness to Christ.

Well, I didn't hear any voices during my brief, three month sabbatical, but in reflecting on my life, it eventually became clear to me that I needed to return to this work. God willing, I'll soon be as frequent and as relevant as before.

If not more so.

Thank you for your interest, please stay tuned...

Beyond Islam: Pausing to Reflect

Dear Readers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God's blessings on you...

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

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

Moscow, October 31, Interfax via Pravmir

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

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

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

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

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

Allah’s Messenger said: “I have been ordered [by Allah] to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah... so if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me.” (Sahih Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, 1:10:29-35)

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

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

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

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

via Robert Spencer,  Jihad Watch — October 26, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

_____

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

MEMRI, October 17, 2014:

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

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

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

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

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Russia has experienced a Spiritual Resurrection

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

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

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

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

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