The West Trying to Understand Russian and Georgian Reactions

See also my article: Resurgent Russia, The Hope of Persecuted Christians.

MYSTAGOGY — 9/21/2013

As tolerance towards Gay Marriage increases in the West, media sources are trying to understand the reactions of Russia and Georgia in the East to these same issues, as well as other issues of tolerance. The secularized mentality of the West, which more often values greater tolerance to minorities over the majority, is in clear opposition to the traditional mentality of the East, which more often values a certain tolerance to minorities, but not at the expense of the values of the majority. In the past 25 years this has been dramatically altering in Russia and Georgia, with the fall of communism and the rise of Orthodox Christianity. Russia and Georgia are more and more defining themselves historically from before the time of the Russian Revolution and Muslim Invasion, after decades and even centuries of repressing their identities as Orthodox Christians. Without this historical context, it is impossible for the West to understand Russian and Georgian identities and reactions against the secular West.

Below are two examples of how the West tries [and fails] to understand and evaluate Russia and Georgia outside of this historical context:

Russia's Orthodox Awakening

Georgia: What's the Definition of Tolerance?

Genocidal Slaughter of Christians Continues in Syria

Christians in Aleppo — including women and children — taken from their homes at gunpoint, rounded up, and slaughtered en masse. Lebanon reportedly the next target for Al Qaeda and Al Nusra.

REPORTS ABOUT KILLINGS OF CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA CONTINUING

Pravoslavie.ru — 9/23/2013

(ALEPPO) The Ad-Diyar newspaper in Aleppo reports that members of Al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra armed groups have attacked homes of the Christian population in different blocks of the city.

Having encircled the houses, the militants took out their residents, including women and children, and having tied their hands, led them to the recreational park near Aleppo. There, following several bursts of submachine gun fire, the extremists slaughtered all captive Christians.

A report of the Al-Hadas agency, also citing the material from Ad-Diyar, adds that the Al-Qaeda fighters have forbidden their supporters to film the slaughter, telling them to burn the corpses and to bury the remains in a common grave.

In the article mentioned above, the editorial staff of the newspaper considers this course of events to be fatal for Syria: thus, forcible eviction of Christians from the country is being carried out under the auspices of so called "State of Ahl us-Sunnah in Iraq and Syria".

It is supposed that the next target will be Lebanon, reports Linga.

Linga also specifies that they have not been able to find reports about this tragedy in other sources; however, reports about this have appeared in many newspapers of the region, such as Alhadathnews and IА ABNA.

Saint John the New Martyr of Vrachori, formerly a Muslim (+ 1814)

MYSTAGOGY — 9/23/2013

John was born in 1785 in a place called Konitsa, which was populated by Albanian Muslims at the time. He was a Muslim of Muslim parents. His father was both a dervish and a sheik. When John was twenty years old, he also joined the order of dervishes, as there were a few tekes (Muslim dervish monasteries) in Konitsa. He moved to the city of Ioannina, Epeiros, but later he moved to the town of Vrachori in the province of Aitolia, whose pasha was Haznatar Isufaravos, a friend of his father. So the pasha made John his private dervish, where he arose high in rank and fought in the battle of the Turks against the Russians in the area of the Ionian Islands.

During the battle John came into contact with many Orthodox Christians and decided to become an Orthodox Christian himself. He removed his dervish attire and sought baptism, yet no one would baptize him out of fear. The pasha eventually was transferred, but John did not go with him.

Because he was unable to be baptized in Vrachori, John went to the island of Ithaka where he was able to be baptized and at that time was given the name John. Returning to the mainland he married an Orthodox woman and became a rural guard, avoiding Muslims as much as possible.

His father eventually heard of his son's apostasy and sent two dervishes to persuade John to return to his Muslim faith. The messengers failed due to the steadfast faith of John. However news spread in the village that John was a former Muslim and dervish, causing the local Muslims to bring charges against him.

Soldiers were eventually sent by the muselimi of Vrachori to arrest John. When he was asked to identify himself, John replied: "I am an Orthodox Christian and my name is John."

The muselimi replied: "Aren't you the young dervish, the son of the skeik of Konitsa?"

"Yes I am," answered John, "but now I am an Orthodox Christian and I will die as an Orthodox Christian."

Muslim Persecution of Christians: June 2013

Gatestone Institute, compiled by Raymond Ibrahim — 9/11/2013

The degradation of Christian women living in the Islamic world continued in the month of June.  In Syria, after the al-Qaeda linked rebel group conquered Qusair, a city of the governate of Homs, 15-year-old Mariam was kidnapped, repeatedly gang raped according to a fatwa legitimizing the rape of non-Sunni women by any Muslim waging jihad against Syria’s government, and then executed.

According to Agenzia Fides, “The commander of the battalion ‘Jabhat al-Nusra’ in Qusair took Mariam, married and raped her. Then he repudiated her. The next day the young woman was forced to marry another Islamic militant. He also raped her and then repudiated her. The same trend was repeated for 15 days, and Mariam was raped by 15 different men. This psychologically destabilized her and made her insane. Mariam became mentally unstable and was eventually killed.”

In Pakistan, Muslim men stormed the home of three Christian women, beat them, stripped them naked and tortured them, and then paraded them in the nude in a village in the Kasur district. Days earlier, it seems the goats of the Christian family had accidentally trespassed onto Muslim land; Muslims sought to make an example of the Christian family, who, as third-class citizens, must know their place at all times.

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

Russian Muslim clerics warn of unrest over ban of translation of Koran

Where have we heard threats of violence and unrest from Muslims before, and seen those threats acted out? Why, everywhere Islam has spread!

It is unlikely that this would lead to the complete banning of all translations of the Koran in Russia, but if the ban on this one translation holds, it would serve notice that Orthodox Christian Russia will not tolerate the intolerance innate to Islam. Indeed, later on in this article, we learn that a hadith collection of the sayings of Muhammad has already been banned in Russia as well.

As philosopher Karl Popper wisely said:

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them.

Russian Muslim clerics warn of unrest over ban of translation of Koran
By Alissa de Carbonnel — Reuters — 9/20/2013

MOSCOW | (Reuters) - Russia's senior Islamic clerics warned the country's leaders on Friday unrest could erupt in Muslim communities in Russia and beyond if a court decision ordering the destruction of a interpretive translation of Koran is not overturned.

Tuesday's ruling by a court in Novorossiysk, a city in southern Russia, ordered the widely read text outlawed under a Russian anti-extremism law that rights activists say has been abused by local officials out of prejudice or to persecute groups frowned upon by the dominant Russian Orthodox Church.

Rights campaigners said that the decision, which will apply nationwide unless it is overturned on appeal, comes dangerously close to banning the Koran itself.

Blaming the Crusades for Jihad

by Ryan Mauro — FrontPage Magazine — 9/23/2013

The cultural relativists on the Left and apologists for radical Islam like to blame the Crusades for almost everything. The Muslim extremists are only responding to the deeds of Christian extremists, the argument goes. In his new book, Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies, former Muslim Ibn Warraq takes on this misleading theme intended to blame the West for the Muslim world's troubles.

The claim that the Crusades are the starting point of Islamic jihad is basically the political application of, "For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction." It equates the Christian beliefs driving the Crusades with the Islamic beliefs driving jihad.

Ibn Warraq's new book tackles this misconception. Islamic atrocities were not provoked by the Crusaders' own reprehensible acts, but preceded them. Islamic jihad was not triggered by the Crusades; it preceded them.

In fact, as explained by Warraq and in books like The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and What's So Great About Christianity, the Christian world was reduced to about one-third of what it was by the sword of jihad. The Crusades were launched with the objective of, without any exaggeration, saving Europe and Western civilization from Sharia.

My personal experience in school is that the opposite was taught. The Crusades were framed as offensive and the jihads as defensive. The Crusaders were depicted as barbarians, particularly to Jews. I cannot recall hearing about a single Islamic atrocity before or during these wars.

This is a common phenomenon, Warraq explains, and it's part of an overall trend when it comes to education about the history of Islam.

Muslim Brotherhood banned in Egypt, and more Quick Headlines (with links)

I don't pretend to run a news service, but do try to keep abreast of related developments in the Islamic world, here n the US, and in Russia and other Orthodox countries. Here are some important headlines this Monday morning:

Egypt court bans Muslim Brotherhood, orders its assets confiscated

Fox News — 9/23/2013

Gunfire at Besieged Kenyan Mall, Islamists Threaten Hostages

Pravoslavie.ru — 9/23/2013

American Muslims Among Kenyan Mall Massacre Killers

Muslims from Illinois, Maine, and Arizona were listed by al Shabaab along with Muslims from Minnesota & Kansas City as being among the Islamic killers that perpetrated the Kenyan Mall Massacre.

Creeping Sharia — 9/23/2013

Pakistani Christians Protest Deadly Church Bombing

Death toll climbs to 81...

Pravoslavie.ru — 9/23/2013

People gather next to victims of a suicide attack on a church in Peshawar.

Photo: Mohammad Sajjad

CAIR–the largest Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group in America–Is Running a Money Laundering Operation

You may have already seen the new TIME cover story on 'Islamophobia', which deals with the report published by CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations). For a critical review of the report and the TIME story, go here.

This newest revelation of money laundering is potentially devastating to CAIR. Just as Al Capone was taken down by tax laws, so criminal prosecution of CAIR could severely cripple and possibly shut down the most influential Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group in the US.

CAIR–the largest Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group in America–Is Running a Money Laundering Operation

AFLC — 9/20/2013

The largest Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group in America is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). After three years of litigation in federal court in Washington, D.C., AFLC has uncovered facts demonstrating that CAIR has been running a global criminal money laundering operation out of the nation’s capitol.

The money laundering scheme was discovered in the course of legal discovery in unrelated federal litigation arising out of allegations by five of CAIR’s former clients that CAIR defrauded them by failing to provide the legal services they had been promised. (See here for the latest update in that case).

While CAIR bills itself as the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, it has been named by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal litigation as a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation criminal trial, the nation’s largest terrorism finance prosecution to date, resulting in convictions in 2008 for all five leaders of the terrorist financing ring operating as the Holy Land Foundation Muslim charity. Prison sentences ranged from 20 years to 65 years.

As brought out in the Holy Land Foundation criminal trial, CAIR founders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad were participants in the conspiracy, although not formally charged. These two men formed CAIR in 1994 in an effort to create a front organization to further the Muslim Brotherhood goals in this country. But, like many criminal fronts, CAIR itself turns out to be a criminal organization.

VIDEO: Islam's Global War on Christianity

Liberty-GB via Creeping Sharia — 9/22/2013
Watch, read and share.

Islamic Extremists Bomb Church in Pakistan, Attack Shopping Mall in Kenya

— Scale of attack in Peshawar unprecedented.

— Non-Muslims targeted in Nairobi.

Morning Star News — 9/22/2013

Woman injured in attack on church in Peshawar, Pakistan.

(Morning Star News)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists today killed at least 78 people in an unprecedented church bombing in Pakistan, a day after Islamic militants in Kenya targeted non-Muslims in a mall attack that killed at least 60.

Believed to be the deadliest assault on Christians in Pakistan, two suicide bombers struck All Saints Church in Peshawar, capital of Pakistani Taliban-infested Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province bordering Afghanistan, after the Church of God congregation’s Sunday worship. A large number of women and children were among the dead.

Another 145 people were injured in the blasts, authorities said.

S.P. Asghar, arch deacon at All Saints Church, told Morning Star News by phone that around 300 members of the congregation were having lunch in the church compound when suicide bombers wearing police uniforms struck. Nearly 60 percent of the congregation had left the church premises after worship ended at 11 a.m., he said.

“Around 11:15 a.m., the two bombers sneaked into the compound and blew themselves up,” Asghar said. “I cannot explain the situation here in words … Our compound is full of bodies and injured people, and ambulances are making rounds to take them to the hospital.”