Christians Cry Loud to Stop Terrorism in Syria, rebuke USA for supporting Islamic Extremists

"The USA allies with terrorism through sending weapons to the Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria,” Metropolitan Antonius Shidrawi

The Metropolitan of Mexico issued a strong statement to Washington: “You are supporting those who do not know what freedom is…The Christians are being slaughtered and displaced from their homeland in Syria, while you are sending weapons to the Takfiri terrorists under the name of opposition.”

Pravmir — May 11, 2014

TEHRAN (FNA)- Metropolitan of Mexico, Venezuela and Central America and the Caribbean Islands for the Roman Orthodox Church Antonius Shidrawi said Christians' cries around the world were continuous tirelessly, appealing for repelling Takfiri extremism and stopping support for the western-backed terrorist groups who were committing systematic crimes in Syria.

“The USA allies with terrorism through sending weapons to the Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria,” Antonius Shidrawi said in a SANA’s report.

Metropolitan Shidrawi called upon Washington in a statement directed to the US Ambassador in Lebanon David Hill “you are supporting those who do not know what freedom is…The Christians are being slaughtered and displaced from their homeland in Syria, while you are sending weapons to the Takfiri terrorists under the name of opposition.”

More on 'Boko Haram'

Boko Haram is a party of dedicated Muslims whose actual name is 'Party of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad'.

Still from the infamous video of the abducted Nigerian Christian schoolgirls, forced to convert to Islam by the Muslim group 'Boko Haram'.

Robert Spencer discusses the importance of both the nickname and the official, and unpacks this very deliberate construct as follows:

Boko Haram means “Western education is sin,” or more literally, “Books bad.” The mainstream media has reported this as if the group were a bunch of Luddites with AK-47s – people who for some unexplained reason object to modern technology except for the weaponry. But actually the moniker “Boko Haram” is a specifically Islamic name, referring to the sinfulness of any system of education that is not based and centered upon the Qur’an and Islam. 

And the actual name of the group is not Boko Haram at all; it is the 'Party of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad'. Sunnah is accepted Islamic practice as derived from the Qur’an and Hadith; dawah is Islamic proselytizing; and jihad, of course, is (according to mainstream Islamic tradition) primarily warfare against unbelievers in order to establish the hegemony of Islamic law. 

Clearly, then, the group’s focus and motivation is entirely Islamic – which is probably why the media never calls the group by its actual name: too much focus on Islam in connection with terrorism is, for the media, as verboten for today’s media as it would have been for Der Stürmer to run a piece favorable to Jews.

Mr. Spencer arrays several other key points to understanding Boko Haram:

The abduction of the schoolgirls is only the latest in a huge string of atrocities. 

[They have] murdered over 2,500 people in the first three months of 2014 alone and torched numerous churches and Christian homes.

Muslim clerics recruit for them in mosques.

The British tabloid The Sun reported in late April that “Nigerian Muslim clerics living in the border towns of Cameroon and Nigeria are recruiting Boko Haram members in their mosques, the government of Cameroon has alleged.” It quoted StrategyPage, an American military news site: 

"Cameroon is also concerned about pro-Boko Haram clerics from Nigeria quietly preaching and recruiting for Boko Haram in Cameroon mosques. Islamic conservative clergy are not unusual on either side of the border, but those who do not denounce Boko Haram are suspected of quietly recruiting young men to join the “jihad” (struggle) and fight (and often die) in Nigeria."

Nigeria abducted girls: Boko Haram leader claims captives converted to Islam (with video)

Boko Haram, and its abduction of these poor girls is motivated by Islam, its leader is an Islamic scholar, and the group justifies its actions by citing specific passages from the Quran and examples from the life of Muhammad. See also this story:

90% of abducted Nigerian schoolgirls are Christians; jihadists released Muslim girls

Nigeria abducted girls: Boko Haram leader claims captives converted to Islam (with video)

By Aminu Abubakar and Faith Karimi, 

CNN — May 12, 2014

(CNN) -- A Boko Haram video emerged Monday purportedly showing some of the kidnapped Nigerian girls in Muslim headdresses and the terror group's leader declaring they have converted to Islam.

Watch the harrowing video at CNN.

The video, released by French news agency Agence France-Presse, was shot in a nondescript bush area and showed about 100 girls.

In the 27-minute footage, the terror group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, says he is willing to exchange the schoolgirls for Boko Haram prisoners.

It shows girls dressed in black and gray hijabs, and reciting the Quran as they make Islamic declarations of faith. Shekau appears in a separate part of the video, but never with the girls.

"Praise be to Allah, the lord of the world," the girls in the video chant.

The Cause of Evils & Illness, and the Source of Healing

"Do those that wish to slaughter the peoples of other countries want to be healed of their passion for bloodletting, ethnic hatred and territorial conquest?"

by Archpriest Andrew Phillips
Pravoslavie — May 11, 2014

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Today's Gospel (JN 5:1-15) of the healing of the paralytic raises a number of questions. The first perhaps is: Where does illness come from? 

“Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

The answer to this question is contained within the selfsame Gospel, in the words of Our Lord to the healed paralytic: 'Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee'. In other words, the origin of illness is in sin. 

We can see this very clearly in the cases of those who destroy their organisms through the taking of drugs, such as tobacco, alcohol or heroin. But most illnesses are not voluntary, they are involuntary. Thus anyone can catch a cold. And we all know people who have lung cancer but have never smoked a cigarette in their lives. Another example: at this very moment our prayers are with Archbishop Alipy who lies paralysed after falling from a tree that he was pruning. This was not his fault, and yet he is now an invalid, requiring healing. The fact is that the vast majority of illnesses and infirmities are involuntary, not the result of personal sin, but the result of the general sin that is in the world, the consequence of the Fall of Adam. This is part of our general human condition and this can happen to anyone. 

What is the way out? What is the solution? 

The way out is Christ, He who healed the paralytic.

The answer to this question too is given in today's Gospel. The way out is Christ, He who healed the paralytic. Not only can He heal illness, because He overcomes sin, but also He can overcome the ultimate consequence of sin—death itself. 

Today's miracle of the healing of the paralytic is most apt for today's world, for this world lies like a paralytic, in a spiritual and moral paralysis, seeming not to know how to overcome the problems that it has invented for itself. 

Iraq’s Vanishing Christians

"The head of the Iraqi Catholic Church sent a chilling warning that Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is on the brink of extinction as new waves of Christians take the journey of exodus."

OCP Media — May 10, 2014

By Salah Nasrawi

As the mass exodus of Iraq’s Christians continues, so does the call for ending the plight of those who have remained. Like Iraq’s ancient Jewish community before them, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities may soon cease to exist.

The disappearance of Iraq’s religious minorities has been a troubling trend since the US-led invasion in 2003, and it has threatened to end the cultural diversity of Iraq. As the violence in the country spikes and religious intolerance grows, many Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans and other minority community members are leaving the country.

Last week, the head of the Iraqi Catholic Church sent a chilling warning that Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is on the brink of extinction as new waves of Christians take the journey of exodus.

The exodus is largely blamed on the worsening security since the US-led invasion that toppled former president Saddam Hussein’s regime. Christians have suffered abuses by Muslim extremists and militias, including brutal attacks, death threats and forcible seizure of property.

‘Christians in Turkey Are Second-Class Citizens’

By Walter Flick

OCP Media — May 10, 2014

The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew of Constantinople, arrives to Germany May 10. During his nine-day visit, the 74-year-old will meet with state representatives including Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck. He’ll also be a guest of honor at major Christian churches, and receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Munich.

Bartholomew I has been the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, based in Istanbul, since November 1991. Orthodox Christians are a tiny minority in Turkey, and the population routinely faces discrimination. Walter Flick, a religious expert with the International Society for Human Rights in Germany, shares his insights on the situation in an interview with DW.

DW: Are Christians oppressed in Turkey?

Walter Flick: Turkey has almost 80 million inhabitants. There are only around 120,000 Christians, which is less than 1 percent of the population. Christians are certainly seen as second-class citizens. A real citizen is Muslim, and those who aren’t Muslim are seen as suspicious. Christians aren’t equal. You can’t say they’re being persecuted in Turkey, but they don’t have the same rights, especially when it comes to religious freedom.

Bethlehem: One stabbed as Muslim mob storms and stones church

Church Near Beit Jala Attacked

CAMERA, May 8, 2014 (via JihadWatch):

Reports are starting to trickle out of the West Bank about violence St. George’s Orthodox Church near Beit Jala. The details are sketchy, but the violence took place on May 6, 2014. One person was allegedly stabbed and several others hurt during a confrontation between Muslims and Christians at the church, which was celebrating the feast of St. George, its patron saint. [Linked] is video of the event that was posted on Youtube soon after the attack. Injured parishioners can be seen moving past the camera and at one point, a stone can be seen flying into a crowd.

More details as they are available.

Update: 11:10 a.m. May 8, 2014: 

Here is what Lela Gilbert, author of Saturday People, Sunday People, Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner, reports:

A Bethlehem Greek Orthodox Church (St. George’s Church – Khadar – near Beit Jala) was attacked by Muslims during its annual St. George’s Day services on May 6. … Some local Muslims either tried to park a car too close the church and/or tried to enter the church during a service honoring St. George – the initial instigation isn’t clear. But when the intruders were asked to leave, one of them stabbed a Christian man who was outside the church serving as a guard. He was hospitalized. Several then started throwing stones at the church. 7 or 8 Christians were injured and some physical damage was done – broken windows etc. The police didn’t show up for an hour.

Christians persecuted at alarming rate in Iran, Arab world, US report says

"The number of Christians in the Middle East has plunged to just 10 percent of the overall population from more than 25 percent in 2011."

by Benjamin Weinthal, FoxNews.com — May 11, 2014

Christians are under siege in the Middle East, and the Obama administration is not doing enough to stop religious persecution by its allies, according to a new report from a bipartisan federal commission.

The report, from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, faulted usual suspects Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, as well as North Korea. The number of Christians in the Middle East has plunged to just 10 percent of the overall population from more than 25 percent in 2011.

Lessons Learned from the ‘Brave German Woman’

The incident of the 'Brave German Woman' is very instructive. And it vividly reminds me of an incident in my former parish which I wrote about in my book, Facing Islam:

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG CONVERT new to Orthodoxy, the late Archbishop Michael (Shaheen) of the Antiochian Archdiocese came to our parish. In delivering the homily, he stated unequivocally that (and I paraphrase), “We must embrace the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, for we all worship the same God; we just worship in different ways, and are merely traveling different paths to the same destination.” In doing so, he was blatantly standing against Jesus Christ, the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the Confessors and Martyrs and all true Orthodox believers of every age. 

Many of us were scandalized beyond belief. Cries of “ANAXIOS!” welled up in our throats, only to be strangled by cowardice. The teens in the church were greatly confused, and it caused quite an uproar, which our beloved priest and spiritual father tried to calm down by urging us to forgive and forget because, “He’s an old man and not much of a theologian.” 

Perhaps that was the correct thing to do in this situation, but the day may soon be coming when we may again hear someone in authority preaching heresy with a bared head from the ambon itself. Will we have the courage to at least walk out and refuse to listen? Will we be even stronger and find our voice of faith to refute the falsehood? Or will we be passive and implicitly deny Christ and lose our salvation? 

There is an old legal maxim: “Silence implies assent.” St. John of Kronstadt lamented a century ago, “How many are silent when it is necessary to defend the glory of God and of His saints, which is blasphemed by the children of this world!” And as St. Gregory the Theologian warned, “By your silence you can betray God.” 

O Heavenly Father, grant us to speak even one word of faith in our hour of trial!

Lessons Learned from the ‘Brave German Woman’
by Raymond Ibrahim — May 7, 2014

Mund waves flag saying ‘Christ is Lord’ while imam shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’

Several are the important lessons learned from last year’s “Brave German Woman” incident.

Context: On November 10, 2013, a Muslim imam was invited to give the Islamic call to prayer inside the Memorial Church of the Reformation in the city of Speyer, Germany—a church dedicated to honoring Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.

“When the brave German woman, whose real name is Heidi Mund, heard about the event, she prayed,” reports CBN News.  Not sure what she would do upon arrival, she grabbed her German flag emblazoned with the words “Jesus Christ is Lord” and headed for the concert:

BREAKING NEWS: Hagia Sofia to become half-mosque and half-museum

Christian Icons and frescoes to be shrouded in shadows and 'dark light' to avoid offending Islam.

We knew this was coming, yet it is still an immensely significant, symbolic move, which Muslims will universally see as a "second conquering" of Christendom, and even as a precursor to the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate. As I wrote back in December:

The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is an eschatological sign of our times, as pure, seventh-century Islam, that "forerunner of the Antichrist," reasserts its diabolical hold over its fervent adherents, and re-stakes its claim to global domination, ushering in a new era of bloody Muslim jihad already raging around the globe.

Here are some of my recent posts on this:

• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• Ecumenical Patriarch says 'No' to Hagia Sophia as Mosque
• Hagia Sophias: From Museums to Mosques
• The Great Church: Reflections on Turkey's urge to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque
• More posts with the label: 'Hagia Sophia'

Turkey: Hagia Sofia to become half mosque and half museum
ANSAMed (Thanks to JihadWatch) — May 8, 2014

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government plans to turn Istanbul's Hagia Sofia Basilica into a mosque in the afternoon and evening and a museum in the morning. The historical monument, which draws millions of tourists every year, will have the Byzantine frescoes covering its walls cast into shadow by 'dark light' so as to avoid offending Islam.