Mainstream Media Continues to 'Wake Up' Regarding Genocidal Persecution of Christians by Muslims

Over at Monomakhos, the blog title for this story reads: Its Official: Christianity Most Persecuted Religion in the World.  Kirsten Powers' own title is a simple and direct plea for protection. But will the Obama Administration dare to offend the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt and Islamists everywhere else who are committing an escalating genocide and religious cleansing against Christians?

My guess is no.

The United States used to think of itself as a Christian country. Obama put that self-conception to death early in his first term. 50 million abortions since Roe v. Wade would seem to back him up, just as he backs up the Roe v. Wade mandate for infanticide, trying to turn it into a universal requirement through Obamacare.

At the deepest level, this is a spiritual phenomenon. We might even be so bold as to call it a 'sign'. As in, a 'Sign of the Times'.  With the ever less subtle persecution of Christians in the public square right here in America we might truly be seeing some sort of 'great winnowing'. Though we may be able to exert pressure on our elected officials to protect persecuted Christians throughout the world, we must be most intent on cleansing our hearts through repentance, cultivating a pure abode for Christ to dwell within us, that we may 'acquire the Holy Spirit'.

God help us all...

Middle East Christians need our protection

Source: USA Today | Kirsten Powers

“Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world.” So asserted German Chancellor Angela Merkel late last year, causing a stir. Merkel echoed a concern expressed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who warned in a 2011 speech that Christians face a “particularly wicked program of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing.”

Not ‘War on Christmas’

Now, this is not about clerks who say “Happy Holidays” or bans of nativity scenes in public schools. Merkel spoke of real persecution of hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. Indeed, a 2011 Pew Forum study found that Christians are harassed in 130 countries, more than any of the world’s other religions.

The just-released book Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians provides the gory details behind these statistics. Persecuted is a collaboration of the Hudson Institute’s Nina Shea, Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert to catalog the human rights abuses visited upon Christian believers from North Korea to Mali. They define this persecution as Christians “who are tortured, raped, imprisoned, or killed for their faith.” It’s a worldwide phenomenon, but Shea points out a troubling acceleration in the cradle of Christianity’s birth: the Middle East and North Africa. As London Guardian columnist Rupert Shortt wrote in January, “The religious ecology of the Middle East looks more fragile than ever, as the Arab Spring gives way to Christian Winter.”

Tragically, Christians have been forced to abandon homelands they have occupied for thousands of years. Up to two-thirds of Christians have fled Iraq in the past ten years to escape massacres, church burnings and constant death threats. Many Christians fled to Syria, where they are experiencing persecution anew. In Iran, U.S. pastor Saeed Abedini has been sentenced to eight years in prison for preaching Christianity.

Violence in Egypt

Last week, Amnesty International blasted Egypt’s government, a major recipient of U.S. aid, for its continued failure to protect Coptic Christians from discrimination and violence. Amnesty’s report comes on the heels of a fresh wave of attacks just before Easter in the town of Wasta, south of Cairo.

Lebanon was once a majority Christian country but no longer, as Christians flee the hostility. CBS News reported in 2011 that the former president of Lebanon, Amin Gemayel complained of a “genocide” against Christians in the Middle East. “Massacres are taking place for no reason and without any justification against Christians. It is only because they are Christians.”

“The future of Christians in the Middle East is very bleak,” Neil Hicks of Human Rights First told me. “What has happened in Iraq and Syria is de facto ethnic cleansing of Christians.” In other words: Christians can leave or be killed.

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, an expert on the region, told me he is shocked that American Christians aren’t regularly protesting outside of embassies drawing attention to this issue. Persecution of Christians in the Middle East is, he says, “one of the most undercovered stories in international news.” Perhaps it’s time for that to change.

Kirsten Powers is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, a Fox News political analyst and columnist for The Daily Beast.

‘War is Deceit‘ — Should Christians Use Islamic Tactics?

by Ralph Sidway

Rather than launch into a theological-ethical discussion to try to provide a definitive answer to the question posed in my title, one which would explore the Old and New Testaments, Patristic writings, ‘Just War’ theories, etc., for this particular essay I wish to look at an account from the martyrology of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

In the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions, the lives of saints and the examples of martyrs and confessors are a rich source of theology. These are ones who “completed this life in faith,” and so their ‘witness’ (the literal translation of the Greek word, ‘martyr’) bears considerable weight in the Church’s memory. In the mind of the Orthodox Church, martyrs and confessors present a ‘living word’ to the faithful, one which can become especially relevant during times of crisis and persecution.

The sharing of the lives of martyrs is meant to encourage and embolden the faithful to persevere, in ways that didactics or polemics cannot. Indeed, this is one of the primary reasons for collecting and publishing the lives of martyrs under the Muslim Ottomans given by St Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain. 

In our day, we can learn also from the lives of martyrs much about the application of Islamic law, in various times and places, where it deals with non-Muslims. And we can certainly learn about the responses of Christians to jihad, the dhimma contract, and Muslim practices of taqiyya and kitman. The past decade or two has seen more and more lives of saints and martyrs being translated into English from formerly very obscure traditions, and we turn now to the Georgian Orthodox Church for this interesting narrative.

Commemorated today (April 10) are the Martyrs of the Kvabtakhevi Monastery. Presented as something of a prologue to the specific events of the martyrdoms and destruction of the monastery itself, is a fascinating account of how the shrewd King Bagrat V outwitted the fierce Muslim warlord, Timur:

Martyrs of the Kvabtakhevi Monastery

In the 14th century, during the reign of King Bagrat V (1360-1394), Timur (Tamerlane) invaded Georgia seven times. His troops inflicted irreparable damage on the country, seizing centuries-old treasures and razing ancient churches and monasteries. 

Timur’s armies ravaged Kartli, then took the king, queen, and the entire royal court captive and sent them to Karabakh (in present-day Azerbaijan). Later Timur attempted to entice King Bagrat to renounce the Christian Faith in exchange for permission to return to the throne and for the release of the other Georgian prisoners. 

For some time Timur was unable to subjugate King Bagrat, but in the end, being powerless and isolated from his kinsmen, the king began to falter. He devised a sly scheme: to confess Islam before the enemy, but to remain a Christian at heart. 

Here we see an amazing scene: a Christian monarch, under extreme duress, employing in its classical form the Muslim practice of taqiyya, which may be defined as “deception” or  “dissimulation.” As Muhammad is recorded saying, “War is deceit” (Bukhari 52:269). Here are a few passages which help convey the nuances of this form of deception:

[A] problem concerning law and order [with respect to Muslims in dar al-harb] arises from an ancient Islamic legal principle -- that of taqiyya, a word the root meaning of which is "to remain faithful" but which in effect means "dissimulation." It has full Quranic authority (3:28, 16:106, and 40:28) and allows the Muslim to conform outwardly to the requirements of unislamic or non-Islamic government, while inwardly "remaining faithful" to whatever he conceives to be proper Islam, while waiting for the tide to turn. (Hiskett, Some to Mecca Turn to Pray, 101.)

Historically, examples of taqiyya include permission to renounce Islam itself in order to save one's neck or ingratiate oneself with an enemy. It is not hard to see that the implications of taqiyya are insidious in the extreme: they essentially render negotiated settlement -- and, indeed, all veracious communication between dar al-Islam and dar al-harb -- impossible. It should not, however, be surprising that a party to a war should seek to mislead the other about its means and intentions. (Gregory Davis, Islam 101.) 

Islamic teaching permits deceits, ruses, and dispensations. For an in depth examination, read about the doctrines of taqiyya, tawriya, and taysir.  Then there is Islam’s overarching idea of niyya (or “intention”), best captured by the famous Muslim axiom, “necessity makes permissible the prohibited.” According to this teaching, the intentions behind Muslim actions determine whether said actions are permissible or not. (Raymond Ibrahim, The Threat of Islamic Betrayal.)

This deception works all too well, as we see in the continuing narrative:

Satisfied with King Bagrat’s decision to “convert to Islam,” Timur permitted the king to return to the throne of Kartli. At the request of King Bagrat, Timur sent twelve thousand troops with him to complete Georgia’s forcible conversion to Islam.

King Bagrat then magnifies his deception, seeking to deliver a serious blow to Timur’s war-making capability by setting up a surprise attack on the unsuspecting troops:

When they were approaching the village of Khunani in southeastern Georgia, Bagrat secretly informed his son Giorgi of everything that had happened and called upon him and his army to massacre the invaders. 

The news of Bagrat’s betrayal and the ruin of his army infuriated Timur, and he called for immediate revenge. At their leader’s command, his followers destroyed everything in their path, set fire to cities and villages, devastated churches, and thus forced their way through to Kvabtakhevi Monastery.

The deception, although successful in the short term, seems to have been the provocation for Timur’s unleashing of a medieval “nuke and pave” strategy, to destroy the rebellious Georgians, teach them a lesson, and decisively secure the Georgian territory.

Monastics and laymen alike were gathered in Kvabtakhevi when the enemy came thundering in. Having forced open the gate, the attackers burst into the monastery, then plundered and seized all its treasures. They captured the young and strong, carrying them away. The old and infirm were put to the sword. 

As the greatest humiliation, they mocked the clergy and monastics by strapping them with sleigh bells and jumping and dancing around them.

Already drunk on the blood they had shed, the barbarians posed an ultimatum to those who remained: to renounce Christ and live or to be driven into the church and burned alive.

Here we see the classic elements of Islamic jihad — taking captives, plundering and pillage, slaughter of innocents (and because this account is posted on a Christian website, we may safely assume accounts of raping and taking captive of young women and girls as sex slaves as been edited out for a PG-13 audience), and humiliation of enemies —  as exemplified by Muhammad himself in his battles and razzias.

The narrative proceeds now to the martyrdom account itself:

Faced with these terms, the faithful cried out: “Go ahead and burn our flesh—in the Heavenly Kingdom our souls will burn with a divine flame more radiant than the sun!” And in their exceeding humility, the martyrs requested that their martyrdom not be put on display: “We ask only that you not commit this sin before the eyes of men and angels. The Lord alone knows the sincerity of our will and comforts us in our righteous afflictions!” 

Having been driven like beasts into the church, the martyrs raised up a final prayer to God: “In the multitude of Thy mercy shall I go into Thy house; I shall worship toward Thy holy temple in fear of Thee. O Lord, guide me in the way of Thy righteousness; because of mine enemies, make straight my way before Thee (Ps. 5:6-7) that with a pure mind I may glorify Thee forever....” 

The executioners hauled in more and more wood, until the flames enveloping the church blazed as high as the heavens and the echo of crackling timber resounded through the mountains. Ensnared in a ring of fire, the blissful martyrs chanted psalms as they gave up their spirits to the Lord. 

The massacre at Kvabtakhevi took place in 1386. The imprints of the martyrs’ charred bodies remain on the floor of the church to this day. (Source: OCA.org)

I specifically noted above that King Bagrat’s deception only “seemed” to be the provocation for Timur’s vengeful slaughter of the Georgian monastics and laity in the monastery fire. I emphasize this cause as only being apparent, based both on immediate historical context (Timur had already invaded Georgia seven times before this campaign), and on Islamic precedence and longstanding historical continuity. 

100,000 Holy Martyrs of Tbilisi

Indeed, in 1226, an earlier Muslim campaign under the Khwarezmid Sultan Jalal al-Din beheaded 100,000 Georgians in Tbilisi for refusing to deny Christ and embrace Islam:

[After the bloody and terrifying invasion,] the sultan ordered that the icons of the Theotokos [Greek for ‘Mother of God’, the theological title for the Virgin Mary used in Eastern Orthodoxy since the late first or early second century, and officially proclaimed as dogma at the Third Ecumenical Council, held in Ephesus, 431AD] and our Savior be carried out of Sioni Cathedral and placed at the center of the bridge across the Mtkvari River. The invaders goaded the people to the bridge, ordering them to cross it and spit on the holy icons. Those who betrayed the Christian Faith and mocked the icons were spared their lives, while the Orthodox confessors were beheaded. 

One hundred thousand Georgians sacrificed their lives to venerate the holy icons. One hundred thousand severed heads and headless bodies were carried by the bloody current down the Mtkvari River. (Lives of the Georgian Saints, Archpriest Zakaria Machidatze, St Herman of Alaska Press, Platina CA, pp 403, 404.)

(Such mass beheadings should sound familiar to the reader, as Muhammad is reported in the Sira to have personally beheaded over 700 men and boys — who had already surrendered — of the Banu Qurayza tribe, thus setting the example for future Islamic genocidal campaigns and Islamic punishments through to our own day.)

Considered in this context, King Bagrat’s resorting to deception might not be judged an unreasonable one. No doubt the Tbilisi genocide, having taken place barely more than a hundred and fifty years earlier, must have been at the forefront of Bagrat’s mind. And the legendary Timur and his savage armies would certainly have found other sufficient motivation to conduct their bloody jihad. As King and Defender of his peoples, Bagrat had few options open to him. It is very interesting, therefore, that he chose a tactic which so perfectly comports with Islamic practice and doctrine.

Significantly, the account of the Martyrs of the Kvabtakhevi Monastery does not judge King Bagrat on this point. As we could illustrate from numerous Christian campaigns against Muslim invaders from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries, Christians have employed a wide spectrum of tactics and strategies. 

Now, the question is, as Islamic supremacism morphs into ever more diverse forms and methods, will our response be one of situational ‘whack-a-mole’, or might we fashion a consistent, coherent 21st century strategy for the defense of Western culture, values and freedoms? Or, will we continue, not to deceive the enemy, but to deceive ourselves that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’?

Presbyterian Author Omits Crucial Info on Islamic College

It appears another soft Christian defense of Islam has been analyzed and found lacking.  (I like the book title, by the way. But I would have written a different book stemming from that title.)


Presbyterian Author Omits Crucial Information About College’s Foundersvia Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)

Rev. Ben Daniel is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) who has written a book just published by his denomination's publishing house – Westminster John Knox Press. The book, The Search for Truth About Islam: A Christian Pastor Separates Fact from Fiction, is Rev. Daniel's effort to promote good interfaith relations in the United States. The main thrust of his book is entirely reasonable: The vast majority Muslims in America are loyal, law-abiding citizens who have no intention of imposing a theocracy on their fellow citizens.

The Facebook page publicizing the book describes the text as Rev. Daniel's effort to call out and correct “many of the falsehoods, stereotypes, and misconceptions that many Christians hold.”

Zaytuna College
In an effort to accomplish this goal, Rev. Daniel highlights Zaytuna College located in Berkley, California. He describes the school, which is currently seeking accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in the United States, as “filling an important niche in American higher education” and as the “only Muslim college in the United States.” (In fact,Stephen Schwartz, an American convert to Islam, reports that there is in fact another Muslim college in the U.S., American Islamic College, an already accredited institution which was founded in 1981.)

In his description of the Zaytuna College, Rev. Daniel interviews one of the school's co-founders Imam Zaid Shakir, who says that the goal of the school is to “standardize the understanding of Islam” and train Muslim graduates to be leaders in how Islam is practiced in the United States.

Rev. Daniel chides Americans who might be fearful of the founding of a Muslim college in the U.S., writing that he has “no doubt that the existence of what Imam Zaid hopes to establish in Berkley—a fully accredited and vibrant Islamic university—would strike fear into the hearts of many Americans and provide ample fodder for the rhetorical canons of those who would have us regard Islam with trembling dread.” This fear is unfounded, Rev. Daniel asserts, because of assurances he received from Imam Shakir at the end of his conversation with him:

In parting, I asked Imam Zaid if there was anything else he wanted the Christian readers of his book to know. There was. He wanted my readers to understand that Muslims are not trying to take over America, and that 99 percent of Muslims are living peacefully in the United States, trying to make a living, trying to take care of their families, trying to take advantage of the benefits that are present in American society, trying to contribute in a positive way to the society.

Rev. Daniel suggests Zaytuna will be a lot like his alma mater, Westmont College, a Christian college located in Santa Barbara, California. “With an overabundance of Christian colleges in America, I'm sure we can make room for an Islamic college,” Rev. Daniel jokes.

There's just one problem. The school's most prominent founders, including the man Rev. Daniel interviewed – Imam Zaid Shakir – have said some pretty hateful things about America, Zionists, and Judaism. The things they have said contradict Shakir's apparent commitment to pluralism and raise legitimate doubts about the school he has established.

Hamza Yusuf
Let's start with Shakir's colleague, Zaytuna co-founder Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (Hanson), a man who has made some ugly statements that were recounted by Stephen Schwarz in 2007. Schwarz writes that Hamza Yusuf's “bigoted declamations are well recorded and widely-known” and that in 1995 he

described Judaism as "a most racist religion." On September 9, 2001, two days before 9/11, Hanson hollered in Los Angeles, “This country (America) unfortunately has a great, a great tribulation coming to it. And much of it is already here, yet people are too illiterate to read the writing on the wall.” 

In another pearl of Hansonian wisdom, the Islamist extremist side of his multiple personality babbled freely at a 1996 convention of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a paramilitary front for Pakistani jihadists. There Hanson described America as "a country that has little to be proud of in its past and less to be proud of in the present. I am a citizen of this country not by choice but by birth. I reside in this country not by choice but by conviction in attempting to spread the message of Islam in this country. I became Muslim in part because I did not believe in the false gods of this society whether we call them Jesus or democracy or the Bill of Rights or any other element of this society that is held sacrosanct by the ill-informed peoples that make up this charade of a society… [F]undamentals of Islam are being compromised… [C]onvention resolutions are meaningless Masonic exersises (sic) devised by men who desire to engage people in forums that would insure nothing changes… [T]here should be no voting or debate… [W]e have no room for ayes or nays." The final lines in this quotation reflect the standard radical Islamist contempt for all forms of democratic governance. 

So here we have a man who has called Judaism a racist religion, portrayed the Masons as an evil force in American society and who has called Jesus Christ, the Bill of Rights and the notion of democracy itself as false gods of American society and proffered the radical Islamist line that “there should be no voting or debate” regarding how society should be governed. And he's founding a college in of all places – Berkley, California – in an effort to affect how Islam is practiced in the United States.

How could Rev. Daniel have missed all this?

To be fair, Schwarz reports that in the years after the September 11 attacks, Yusuf has moderated his public utterances. Also, he has apologized for his 1995 statement that Judaism is a most racist religion. (For more detail about Yusuf's statements and his apologies, see this report by the Investigative Project.)

Nevertheless, in light of Yusuf's previously stated contempt for democracy, the Bill of Rights and of voting, it seems reasonable to ask if he is really committed to democracy and pluralism and if the college he has helped establish is worthy of the positive treatment Rev. Daniel gave it.

Any responsible treatment of Zaytuna College would include a discussion of Yusuf's past statements because we simply have no way of knowing whether or not Yusuf's moderation is the result of a change of heart, or is merely a tactical change of tone made necessary by an act of Islamist terrorism.

But Rev. Daniel omitted any reference to these statements altogether. Did he not know about them? They were readily available to anyone with access to Google!

Zaid Shakir
Now let's look at the statements issued by the man Rev. Daniel interviewed – Imam Zaid Shakir. As documented in an article previously published by JNS.org, Shakir has:

suggested that the attack on the WTC in 1993 was “undertaken by Zionist forces to give proof to their allegations concerning the magnitude of ‘Islamic fundamentalist' terrorism, and as a pretext to intensify their anti-Islamic propaganda campaign in the U.S. media.” Shakir seems to think Israel and its supporters are responsible for the attack. 

Shakir has also worked to undermine pluralism in the U.S., stating, “As Christians and Jews of this country have rejected the divine law and created their own secular system of a rule, the legal and political system of America is sinful and constitutes open rebellion against Allah. For a Muslim to join with the Jews and Christians in this system is to join them in their rebellion against Allah. Allah explicitly orders against this.”

According to the Investigative Project, the article in which he suggests that Zionists were responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Towers was published in Inquiry, a magazine published by Sami Al-Arian, an operative for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the Investigative Project, this publication “frequently featured reports about the PIJ and other radicals.”

The Investigative Project also reports that Imam Shakir implicated the FBI in this bombing. At a 2001 speech at Zaytuna Institute, he said, “What are the consequences of so-called ‘Jihad in America?' What are the consequences of acts like the World Trade Center bombing, which of course was aided and abetted by our good friends at the FBI?”

It should come as no surprise that Shakir has made similar statements in reference to the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, stating he doesn't “really know what happened on 9/11” and that he has encouraged his fellow Muslims in the U.S. to read a book by David Ray Griffin to find out what actually happened that day. David Ray Griffin is a leading proponent of the notion that the Bush Administration was complicit in Al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attack that killed approximately 3,000 U.S. citizens. In other words, he's a Truther.

So let's recap. Rev. Ben Daniel has essentially given a clean bill of health to an Imam who has (1) blamed “Zionists” for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in a magazine published by an operative for an Islamist terror organization, (2) has suggested that the FBI was complicit in the 9/11 Attack, and (3) has encouraged his followers to read the works of David Ray Griffin who traffics in outlandish conspiracy theories that encourage Muslims to deny Islamist responsibility for the 9/11 Attack.

Rev. Daniel might be less sanguine about the prospects of Zaytuna College if he were an Israeli targeted by PIJ violence or a Jew living in the United States who had to regularly listen to accusations about Jews staying home on Sept. 11, 2001 and of evil Zionists being responsible for all the troubles of the world.

And he might think differently about the school if he were a Christian who had fled Egypt, Iraq or Syria to avoid Islamist violence and oppression. And he might be less sanguine about the prospects of Zaytuna College being a positive force for change in American society if he were one of the many Muslims in the North America who want nothing to do with Islamist doctrine as espoused by the school's co-founders.

Apparently, these folks have yet to appear on the radar of Rev. Daniel's prophetic imagination.

Egyptian Forces Allow and Abet Savage Attack on St Mark Coptic Cathedral in Cairo (w/photos)

There have been so many reports coming out about this ongoing horrendous jihad attack against the Copts' holiest church, St Mark's Cathedral, which has gone on for days now, that I was looking hard for what to post that would sum it up and provide some perspective.

Well, our good friend Raymond Ibrahim has just posted a brief article, with numerous photos, which begin to show the extent of the assault, and prove that Egyptian authorities not only are doing nothing to protect the Copts, nor to arrest the perpetrators, but may even be aiding the jihadis.

I'm only posting a couple of photos below. Do click over to Raymond's site for the full report.

In Pictures: Savage Islamic Attack on St. Mark Cathedral Allowed by Egyptian Forces

RaymondIbrahim.com

Egypt’s Coptic Christians frequently accuse State Security and police of overlooking Muslim attacks on Christians and their places of worship, especially monasteries and churches.  The Western mainstream media often ignores these accusations, or mentions them in passing as “unsubstantiated reports.” Last weekend’s assault on the St. Mark Cathedral — unprecedented in significance — was no different, except for the fact that there are many pictures demonstrating State complicity.

To recap: After last Sunday’s St. Mark Cathedral funeral service for Egypt’s most recent Christian victims of jihad — including one man set aflame — gangs of Muslims attacked the Christian mourners, resulting in the deaths of two more Copts, including one shot through the heart.   Hundreds of Christians retreated back into the cathedral — both to get out of harm’s way, and to protect their holiest site.  They were trapped there all night, enduring projectile and firebomb attacks.   State Security also opened fire on the cathedral, including through tear-gas.

Several Egyptian media outlets and newspapers, especially the popular Youm7,  have published a variety of pictures showing mobs, if not terrorists, attacking the cathedral in front of absolutely indifferent, possibly approving, security forces.  Some of these pictures, with my captions, follow:

A Muslim burns a Bible in front of the cathedral, right under  security’s nose. In Egypt, if a Christian is merely accused of “desecrating” a Koran, he/she gets several years in prison. Yet here is a Muslim burning a Bible, with photo evidence, but he has nothing to fear.

St. Mark Cathedral, holiest site for Egypt’s indigenous Christians — and home of the Coptic pope — now turned into a war zone,  under Muslim Brotherhood leadership.

Muslim”youth” climb to the roof of a building adjacent to St. Mark Cathedral to attack it. To the left, a man winds to hurl a projectile at it. And in the white circle to the right, high-ranking Egyptian officials and security stand by watching (easily recognizable by their hats and helmets).

Go to raymondibrahim.com for the full gallery of over ten photos with detailed captions.

Holy Neo-Martyrs Raphael, Nicholas and Irene

Newly-Appeared Martyrs of Lesbos, Sts Raphael, Nicholas and Irene were martyred by the Turks on Bright Tuesday (April 9, 1463) ten years after the Fall of Constantinople. For nearly 500 years, they were forgotten by the people of Lesbos, but “the righteous Judge... opened the things that were hid” (2 Macc. 12:41).

For centuries the people of Lesbos would go on Bright Tuesday to the ruins of a monastery near Thermi, a village northwest of the capital, Mytilene. As time passed, however, no one could remember the reason for the annual pilgrimage. There was a vague recollection that once there had been a monastery on that spot, and that the monks had been killed by the Turks.

In 1959, a pious man named Angelos Rallis decided to build a chapel near the ruins of the monastery. On July 3 of that year, workmen discovered the relics of St Raphael while clearing the ground. Soon, the saints began appearing to various inhabitants of Lesbos and revealed the details of their lives and martyrdom. These accounts form the basis of Photios Kontoglou’s 1962 book A GREAT SIGN (in Greek).

St Raphael was born on the island of Ithaka around 1410, and was raised by pious parents. His baptismal name was George, but he was named Raphael when he became a monk. He was ordained to the holy priesthood, and later attained the offices of Archimandrite and Chancellor.

In 1453, St Raphael was living in Macedonia with his fellow monastic, the deacon Nicholas, a native of Thessalonica. In 1454, the Turks invaded Thrace, so the two monks fled to the island of Lesbos. They settled in the Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos near Thermi, where St Raphael became the igumen.

In the spring of 1463, the Turks raided the monastery and captured the monks. They were tortured from Holy Thursday until Bright Tuesday. St Raphael was tied to a tree, and the ferocious Turks sawed through his jaw, killing him. St Nicholas was also tortured, and he died while witnessing his Elder’s martyrdom. He appeared to people and indicated the spot where his relics were uncovered on June 13, 1960.

St Irene was the twelve-year-old daughter of the village mayor, Basil. She and her family had come to the monastery to warn the monks of the invasion. The cruel Hagarenes cut off one of her arms and threw it down in front of her parents. Then the pure virgin was placed in a large earthen cask and a fire was lit under it, suffocating her within. These torments took place before the eyes of her parents, who were also put to death. Her grave and the earthen cask were found on May 12, 1961 after Sts Raphael, Nicholas and Irene had appeared to people and told them where to look.

Others who also received the crown of martyrdom on that day were St Irene’s parents Basil and Maria; Theodore, the village teacher; and Eleni, the fifteen-year-old cousin of St Irene.

The saints appeared separately and together, telling people that they wished to be remembered. They asked that their icon be painted, that a church service be composed for them, and they indicated the place where their holy relics could be found. Based on the descriptions of those who had seen the saints, the master iconographer Photios Kontoglou painted their icon. The ever-memorable Father Gerasimos of Little St Anne Skete on Mt Athos composed their church service.

Many miracles have taken place on Lesbos, and throughout the world. The saints hasten to help those who invoke them, healing the sick, consoling the sorrowful, granting relief from pain, and bringing many unbelievers and impious individuals back to the Church.

St Raphael is tall, middle-aged, and has a beard of moderate length. His hair is black with some grey in it. His face is majestic, expressive, and filled with heavenly grace. St Nicholas is short and thin, with a small blond beard. He stands before St Raphael with great respect. St Irene usually appears with a long yellow dress reaching to her feet. Her blonde hair is divided into two braids which rest on either side of her chest.

Sts Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene (and those with them) are also commemorated on Bright Tuesday. Dr. Constantine Cavarnos has given a detailed account of their life, miracles, and spiritual counsels in Volume 10 of his inspirational series MODERN ORTHODOX SAINTS (Belmont, MA, 1990).

Source: oca.org

Saudi Arabia Declares Destruction of All Churches in Region

Per Muhammad:  "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim." (Sahih Muslim 19.4366)

Saudi Arabia Declares Destruction of All Churches in Region

From CharismaNews.com

Earlier this month, news reports surfaced out of Saudi Arabia that raised the red flag for Christians.

Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs USA, says, "The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia—the top Islamic official in the country of Saudi Arabia—has declared that it is 'necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.'" Nettleton goes on to note that the report hasn't surfaced anywhere except on the Council on Foreign Relations Web site, which was then picked up by The Atlantic.

As Saudi Arabia is ranked second on the Open Doors World Watch List (a compilation of the 50 countries where persecution of Christians is most severe), the news is not really a surprise. There is no provision for religious freedom in the constitution of this Islamic kingdom.

All citizens must adhere to Islam, and conversion to another religion is punishable by death. Public Christian worship is forbidden; worshippers risk imprisonment, lashing, deportation and torture. Evangelizing Muslims and distributing non-Islamic materials is illegal. Muslims who convert to Christianity risk being subjected to honor killings, and foreign Christian workers have been exposed to abuse from employers.

Sheikh Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, created an implication with his assertion. Nettleton explains, "This was in a meeting with Kuwaiti officials who came to Saudi Arabia. They were asking this Islamic official, ‘What should we do about the churches?' His statement was, ‘There should be no Christian churches on the Arabian Peninsula.'"

According to the report, the delegation wanted to confirm Shariah's position on churches. Essentially, Nettleton says, "If you have churches in Kuwait, which they do, they should be destroyed. The interesting thing about this is that there are no churches in Saudi Arabia. There are no church buildings that are allowed to exist there. So he clearly wasn't talking only for his own country. He was trying to export this ideology to the surrounding countries."

This proclamation could affect churches in Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Nettleton observes that "in most of these countries, we're not talking about a lot of churches; we're talking about a few that are allowed to exist primarily to serve foreigners that are living in that country."

However, the U.N. Human Rights Council has yet to take a stand on such blatant violations of freedom of religion. How the governments implement this declaration is yet to be determined.

"Most of these countries would consider their native population to be 100 percent Muslim," says Nettleton. "We could see more persecution. We could see churches closed or destroyed. We just kind of wait to see now."

The concern raised by this view has not escaped the notice of the U.S. government, though. The most recent International Religious Freedom report (annually issued by the State Department) remarks, "Freedom of religion is neither recognized nor protected under the law and is severely restricted in practice. ... The government officially does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country to conduct religious services, although some do so under other auspices and are able to hold services. These entry restrictions make it difficult for non-Muslims to maintain regular contact with clergy. This is particularly problematic for Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, whose faiths require that they receive sacraments from a priest on a regular basis."

For the most part, says Nettleton, the Mufti's statement will be buried in the mainstream media. However, he's encouraging believers to ask God to continue to intervene. There are Christ followers in Saudi Arabia who "take great risk to follow Jesus Christ," he says. "They take great risk to even talk about their faith with another person. We can pray for God's protection over them. We can pray for encouragement."

What's more, ask God to continue His intervention. While the Arabian Peninsula isn't a place for the more traditional approach to sharing Christ's story, there are still many who are encountering the gospel.

"Pray that Muslims will come to know Christ," Nettleton says. "One of the things that's happening, not only in Saudi Arabia but across the Middle East, is Muslims encountering Christ through dreams and visions and other supernatural ways."

US Army Identifies Evangelicals and Catholics as Extremists

Many sources have been commenting on this Fox News story about a U.S. Army Reserve Training Program in Pennsylvania which included Evangelical Christianity (#1) and Catholicism (#10) in its list of religious extremist groups.

For the record, the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) is #2, Al Quaeda — misspelled in original — is #5, Hamas is #6. Islamophobia is at the bottom of the list. There are Jewish groups and other Muslim organizations, and fringe sects like those dastardly Huttaree.

Mark Steyn notes, with his characteristic understatement, that in the preparation of this training program, nobody thought to say, "Hey, this is totally dumb." (Not only the concept, but they couldn't even spell 'Al Qaeda' properly.)

Of course, this is dumb on all sorts of levels, not merely the poor spelling, nor just the listing of two of the most mainstream variations of Christianity in the U.S.  For instance, President Obama supports Sunni Muslims (#13) and the Ikhwan/Muslim Brotherhood (#2), and is sending billions of taxpayer dollars to Egypt and elsewhere to prove it. He has also instructed NASA to make Muslims feel good about their (supposed) contributions to science and advancement. Yet here they are listed as extremists also.

If this all sounds like absurdist humor to you, you're not alone.

In fact, this reminds me of one of Woody Allen's essays in his book, Side Effects, where he comments on the UFO phenomenon:

Up until now, the entire subject of flying saucers has been mostly associated with kooks or oddballs. Frequently, in fact, observers will admit to being a member of both groups.

So it is with conspiracy theorists. Ten or even five years ago no one would have believed a US Army presentation would put forth such nonsense. But it seems this is just the tip of the iceberg, and it's no longer a theory when they really are out to get you.

Mark Steyn goes on to report a Daily Mail story which provides more slides (with more deplorable spelling errors) from the presentation, including this one, which prohibits soldiers from attending meetings or otherwise supporting the already defined extremist groups:

This of course suggests that U.S. soldiers would not be permitted to practice their Christian faith, go to church services, or tithe or otherwise support their church.

Further, if the U.S. Army now considers Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics to be 'religious extremists', what might they say about Orthodox Christians!

Extreme Orthodox Piety!

This is just one of several recent news stories indicating that statist efforts at consolidation of power are just winding up. For instance, there is this chilling MSNBC video spot, stating that your children don't really belong to you, they belong to the "community."

This is in full accord with the Obama administration's anti-homeschooling stance.

We could go on and on with examples like these tracking the erosion of our freedoms and the crafting of a Bolshevik-style narrative that Christians are the enemy, but I think Robert Spencer sums it up best:

This is not going to end well.

Pondering Crucifixions

Yesterday, April 7, was the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, which occurs at the midpoint of Orthodox Christian Great Lent. Without minimizing or shying away from Christ's horrific sufferings, the Orthodox services offer poetically beautiful and moving hymns in praise of Christ and the means of His sacrifice, the "Precious and Life-Giving Cross."

For some profound reflections on the Cross and its placement at the midpoint of the Fast, you may wish to go here or here. What I would like to concentrate on instead is the practice of Crucifixion itself.

In one of the meditations on the Cross linked to above, the author provides this excerpt from Martin Hengel's book, Crucifixion:

Crucifixion satisfied the primitive lust for revenge and the sadistic cruelty of individual rulers and of the masses.  It was usually associated with other forms of torture, including at least flogging.  At relatively small expense and to great public effect the criminal could be tortured to death for days in an unspeakable way.  Crucifixion is thus a specific expression of the inhumanity dormant within men which these days is expressed, for example, in the call for the death penalty, for popular justice and for harsher treatment of criminals, as an expression of retribution.  It is a manifestation of trans-subjective evil, a form of execution which manifests the demonic character of human cruelty and bestiality. (p. 87)

It is all too common to view the practice of crucifixion as a form of torture and execution from antiquity which hasn't been used in nearly two millennia, yet this is hardly the case. In fact, crucifixion is a standard means of execution in Saudi Arabia, and there is a growing movement among Islamists to bring back crucifixion as the preferred means of punishment for a variety of crimes, including apostasy from Islam, "fitna," which is a pliable term which can refer to unbelief or mischief-making, or anything which goes against Islam and Shariah. This is explicitly taught in the Qur'an:

The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this: that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off… (Qur'an 5:33).

Ominously for Christians, strongly associated with fitna is "shirk," the associating of partners with Allah. Believing Jesus to be the Son of God is, for Muslims, one of the worst forms of shirk, and is therefore punishable by death, including crucifixion. 

And fight them until there is no fitna and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah. And if they cease - then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do. (Qur'an 8:39)

In one of the authorized hadiths, Muhammad himself said: “I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah” (Sahih Muslim 30).  

Obviously, if Muslims take these passages from the Qur'an and the hadiths seriously, their fight against fitna — and against Christians — could go on for a very long time indeed. It certainly seems to be increasing in intensity, per the reports below.

Sometimes, the zealous Islamists get a little too excited, and have a hard time prioritizing between crucifixion and beheading, one of Islam's other favorite forms of execution, as in this recent story out of Saudi Arabia, where a man convicted of murder was beheaded first, then crucified. Obviously, he didn't suffer from the crucifixion at all. Perhaps it was done as a crime deterrent. 

Lately, the Saudis seem to be showing signs of restraint and moderation, having recently delayed the executions of seven men sentenced to death by crucifixion. 

Screen Capture from Video of Crucifixion in Yemen 

In August and September 2012, reports from multiple media agencies in Egypt pointed to Muslim Brotherhood operatives crucifying opponents of Egypt's MB president Muhammad Morsi. There were charges of "hoax" which were repudiated by Raymond Ibrahim, who also cited video footage of an Islamic crucifixion of a man in Yemen. 

In 2008, reports out of Iraq of atrocities committed against Christians included accounts of children as young as 10 years old being crucified. 

Nomikos Michael Vaporis, in his landmark book, Witnesses For Christ: Orthodox Christian Neomartyrs of the Ottoman Period 1437-1860, includes crucifixion as one of the many forms of execution used by the Turks, although most martyrdoms during the Ottoman oppression seem to have been performed by beheadings. 

I could go on and on with citations and links, but you get the picture: Islam shows remarkable continuity and consistency throughout its history.

I'll close by repeating portions of the quote from Martin Hengel's book, Crucifixion:

Crucifixion satisfied the primitive lust for revenge and the sadistic cruelty of individual rulers and of the masses...  It is a manifestation of... evil, a form of execution which manifests the demonic character of human cruelty and bestiality. (p. 87)

Gee. Let's look at this in list form:

• Primitive, 
• lust for revenge, 
• evil, 
• sadistic cruelty, 
• demonic character, 
• bestiality. 

Yet this is one of the top two explicit forms of execution mandated in the holy book of Islam, the Qur'an itself, as well as in the life and words of Muhammad. And this is being mandated and practiced today both by official courts in Islamic countries, as well as by Muslim mobs in Egypt and elsewhere.

And our government is sending our taxpayer dollars to the people who perform these atrocities.

God help us as the darkness gathers...

Copts Denounce Mursi as more Christians are Killed by Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt's Islamic Winter brings persecution, displacement and death to Coptic Christians. More posts to come as this situation develops...

Copts Denounce Egypt’s Mursi as Violence Erupts at Church

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi sought to contain growing turmoil after Muslim-Christian clashes turned deadly again outside a cathedral where Copts mourned four killed in weekend fighting.

The worst sectarian violence in months has added to the chaos that has convulsed Egypt since Mursi’s election in June. The Islamist president is under assault from an array of critics frustrated by political instability and a stalled economy. He is also embroiled in a deepening dispute with the judiciary and seeking to end a strike on the country’s railways.

The attack by unknown assailants yesterday came as services were being held St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral for four Christians killed in fighting that started late on April 5 in the Greater Cairo town of Khosous. Rocks and bottles were hurled at mourners in a melee outside the cathedral, and one person died while 84 were injured, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.

Mursi reached out to Coptic Pope Tawadros II, telling him in an evening phone call: “I consider any aggression against the cathedral as aggression against me,” the presidency said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Egypt’s Copts, long disadvantaged under Mursi’s ousted predecessor Hosni Mubarak, have voiced concerns about the Islamists’ growing power. At yesterday’s services, many called for Mursi to quit and denounced him as a “puppet president” for the Muslim Brotherhood, which fielded him for office.

‘Desperate Attempts’

The violence is the latest in a series of “desperate attempts to subvert our national unity,” the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, said on the group’s website. “They will not succeed, God willing.”

Mursi and the Brotherhood have frequently blamed violent episodes on unidentified people they say are seeking to destabilize Egypt.

The recurring unrest has undermined Mursi’s efforts to revive an economy damaged by the flight of investors and tourists after the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. Rising inflation, triggered by a slump in the currency, shortages of fuel and other goods and growing poverty and unemployment have fueled protests against him.

The sectarian clashes in Khosous resumed overnight with two houses in the area set ablaze, the state-run Ahram Gate reported.

Reports about what triggered the initial fighting were contradictory. According to one account by local police, Christian boys were caught defacing the outside wall of a mosque.

Mourners Attacked

Cairo police Major Mohamed Hassan said by phone that residents of the neighborhood housing St. Mark’s Cathedral hurled rocks and bottles at mourners as they left the service yesterday. Copts at the scene said that as they left the church, they were assaulted with rocks. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Some worshipers retreated back inside the church, Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher who monitors religious freedom at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said by phone.

“Security forces have been very unresponsive since the start of this,” he said. “We never know who is behind any of the sectarian incidents.”

Mursi ordered an investigation into the latest incident. He has repeatedly said it was a priority to ensure that the Christians who make up about 10 percent of the population are afforded equal opportunities.

Critics say those pledges haven’t translated into action, pointing to Mursi’s focus on pushing through an Islamist-backed constitution that many Christian and secular groups opposed.

Source: Pravmir.com

The New Islamic Worldview

It would be a grave mistake to see persecution of Christians in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Nigeria, and throughout the Islamic world, as "sectarian clashes" (one of the mainstream media's favorite turns of phrase) or as merely spasmodic outbursts of violence perpetrated by hot-headed extremists.

Instead, by considering the statements of the growing chorus of Islamic clerics, as well as the occasional remarks of government officials in Muslim countries, and even through key opinion polls of ordinary, so-called 'moderate' Muslims, we can identify a definite shift in the overall Islamic Worldview. Put another way, the mask is slipping, and we can see their purpose and goals, which is, basically, an ever expanding hegemony leading to world domination.

This should come as no surprise, as the inspiration for the birth of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 was the eventual resurgence of Islam through all forms of jihad.

[The Muslim Brotherhood] was established in accordance with [founder] Hasan al-Banna’s proclamation that Islam should be “given hegemony over all matters of life.” Toward that end, the Brotherhood seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate, or kingdom -- first spanning all of the present-day Muslim world, and eventually the entire globe. The organization further aspires to dismantle all non-Islamic governments wherever they currently exist, and to make Islamic Law (Shari’a) the sole basis of jurisprudence everywhere on earth. This purpose is encapsulated in the Brotherhood’s militant credo: “God is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle [jihad] is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.”
Consistent with the foregoing credo, MB since its founding has supported the use of armed struggle, or jihad, against non-Muslim “infidels.” As al-Banna himself wrote: "Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded." Added al-Banna: "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." [1]

Of course, the Muslim Brotherhood is the ruling force in Egypt now, and has expanded its influence to more than seventy countries, with clandestine operations in the United States.

Below are a few examples to keep in mind as we witness the ever escalating reports of Islamic supremacism both here and abroad.

Muslim Cleric Calls U.S. Aid to Egypt 'Jizya'
by Raymond Ibrahim

During a roundtable discussion on the U.S. and foreign aid to Egypt, an Islamic cleric, clearly of the Salafi bent—he had their trademark mustache-less-beard—insisted that the U.S. must be treated contemptuously, like a downtrodden dhimmi, or conquered infidel; that Egypt must make the U.S. conform to its own demands; and that, then, all the money the U.S. offers to Egypt in foreign aid can be taken as rightfully earned jizya. Read the full article...

This position was strongly reinforced by the remarks of Imam Khaled Said of the Salafi Front political party in Egypt, who stated that U.S aid to Egypt was "mandatory"and "a tribute that America pays to honor the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Revolution." [2]


Turkish Foreign Minister Invokes Ottoman Empire as New Order for Middle East
Tulin Daloglu - aina.org

Take [Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet] Davutoglu's recent remarks on two consecutive days, March 3 and 4 -- as an example. First he claims that Turkey for the first time has finally been back to the lands that were lost during the Ottoman times, and he suggests that it's time for Turkey to take the lead to set an order for these lands and re-connect them once again -- "Without going to war, we will again tie Sarajevo to Damascus, Benghazi to Erzurum and to Batumi..."
..."Last century was only a parenthesis for us. We will close that parenthesis. We will do so without going to war, or calling anyone an enemy, without being disrespectful to any border, we will again tie Sarajevo to Damascus, Benghazi to Erzurum to Batumi. This is the core of our power," he said. "These may look like all different countries to you, but Yemen and Skopje were part of the same country 110 years ago, or Erzurum and Benghazi."  Read the full article...

Over 80% of Mosques in the U.S. advocate violence against non-Muslims
Mapping Shariah Project

A random survey of 100 representative mosques in the U.S. was conducted to measure the correlation between Sharia adherence and dogma calling for violence against non-believers.  Of the 100 mosques surveyed, 51% had texts on site rated as severely advocating violence; 30% had texts rated as moderately advocating violence; and 19% had no violent texts at all.  Mosques that presented as Sharia adherent were more likely to feature violence-positive texts on site than were their non-Sharia-adherent counterparts.  In 84.5% of the mosques, the imam recommended studying violence-positive texts.  The leadership at Sharia-adherent mosques was more likely to recommend that a worshiper study violence-positive texts than leadership at non-Sharia-adherent mosques.  Fifty-eight percent of the mosques invited guest imams known to promote violent jihad.  The leadership of mosques that featured violence-positive literature was more likely to invite guest imams who were known to promote violent jihad than was the leadership of mosques that did not feature violence-positive literature on mosque premises.  Visit the website to read more and see the full study.

46% of U.S. Muslims think Criticism of Islam should be Criminalized; 12% advocate Death Penalty for Americans who Criticize or Parody Islam
Wenzel Polls

Nearly half of 600 Muslim-American citizens polled believe parodies of Muhammad should be prosecuted criminally in the U.S., and one in eight say the offense is so serious violators should face the death penalty.
The results came in a groundbreaking scientific poll for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies. It was taken Oct. 22-26 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.98 percentage points.
The poll also found 40 percent of Muslims in America believe they should not be judged by U.S. law and the Constitution, but by Shariah standards.
“Almost half of those Muslims surveyed – an astonishing 46 percent – said they believe those Americans who offer criticism or parodies of Islam should face criminal charges,” said pollster Fritz Wenzel in an analysis of the survey’s results.
“Even more shocking: One in eight respondents said they think those Americans who criticize or parody Islam should face the death penalty, while another nine percent said they were unsure on the question,” he said.  More sobering numbers in the full article... 

[1] discoverthenetworks.org - Extensive history, documents and links regarding the Muslim Brotherhood.
[2] Source: Atlas Shrugs blog.