Muslim cleric on refugee influx: 'We shall conquer their countries'

"No force is more powerful than the human force of us Muslims... We shall conquer their countries – whether you like it or not, oh Germans, oh Americans, oh French, oh Italians, and all those like you. Take the refugees! We shall soon collect them in the name of the coming Caliphate."

Al-Aqsa Mosque Address: Europe Wants the Muslim Refugees as Labor; We Shall Conquer Their Countries

MEMRI, via Jihad Watch — September 11, 2015:

In an address delivered at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Ayed said that the European countries are not motivated by compassion toward the refugees, but by their need for labor. “We shall conquer their countries,” he declared in the address, which was posted on the internet on September 11, 2015.

Sheikh Muhammad Ayed: 

“(The infidels) want us to be tormented. They want us to be humiliated. (The Quran) says: Tthe [sic] Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you,’ but we will never follow their religion. This dark night will be over, and soon, we will trample them underfoot, Allah willing.

The Migrant Crisis: Compassion and Common Sense

"The big picture is that we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of Europe. Historians and journalists have been writing about the coming Islamization of Europe for some time now, but as years pass, the timeline keeps moving up... Now, with the new flood of migrants, another revision may be in order."

by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine — September 17, 2015

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)

Other than the large numbers involved, one of the most striking features of Europe’s migrant crisis is the level of discourse surrounding it. There is an emotionalism about the subject which doesn’t seem quite appropriate to the gravity of the situation. Momentous issues are being decided on the basis of what Peter Hitchens calls “an emotional spasm.”

That’s not to say the plight of refugees shouldn’t call up emotions. The problem comes when news analysts, government officials, and church representatives present the situation as a Dickensian dilemma which leaves one with no choice other than to side with Scrooge or with Tiny Tim.

The clinching argument for many was the image of a drowned Syrian child that went viral. There should, of course, be no doubt about what to do if you spot a drowning boy in the water, or if a hungry person shows up at the door. But the photo tells us absolutely nothing about what sort of immigration policies governments should adopt. It could be argued that if European immigration policy were less liberal, and its welfare allowances less generous, fewer people would risk their lives to get there.

And what about the images we don’t see—images of the European victims of ill-considered immigration programs? Right now I’m looking at a photo of an 87-year-old Dutch man lying in a hospital bed, his face beaten black and blue. He and his 86-year-old wife, both of them Holocaust survivors, were attacked in their apartment by two men of Moroccan descent who threw them on the floor, kicked them repeatedly, and shouted: “Dirty Jews! From now on, your property is ours.” The husband and wife, who had been living independently, are now confined to wheelchairs at a rehabilitation center.

Such photos aren’t featured on the evening news. Nor are the photos of bruised and bloodied rape victims in Sweden—which, thanks to Muslim immigration, is now the rape capital of the Northern Hemisphere. In Rotherham, England, Pakistani gangs raped 1,400 teenaged girls over a fifteen-year period—but you would have to do some searching before you’d find any stories about the plight of the victims. That’s because the story doesn’t fit the standard narrative about peaceful Muslims seeking a better life and good schools for their children.

There are many such people, of course. But, as is now clear, the great majority within the current wave of migrant-refugees are young, single men. The media still favors close-ups of Madonna-like women with children, but the wide-angle lens presents quite a different view.

Muslim Migrants Converting to Christianity to Improve Asylum Chances

[Lutheran Pastor Gottfried] Martens asked Iranian refugee Mohammed Ali Zonoobi: “Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds? Will you break away from Islam?” To which Zonoobi fervently responded: “Yes”. Martens then baptised him “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” Mohammed renamed himself Martin.

A seldom reported aspect of the Migrant Invasion of Europe. Let us hope and pray that a great many Muslims, finally freed from their native culture and the threat of death for apostasy, may be emboldened to leave Islam behind and turn to Jesus Christ.


Muslim Migrants Converting to Christianity to Improve Asylum Chances
by Nick Hallett, Breitbart London — September 8, 2015

Muslim migrants in Germany are converting to Christianity “in droves” in the hope it will improve their chances of winning asylum.

Hundreds of Iranians and Afghanis have been baptised at Trinity Church, a Lutheran church in Berlin, where Pastor Gottfried Martens offers a three-month “crash course” for new converts.

AP reports on one baptism where Martens asked Iranian refugee Mohammed Ali Zonoobi: “Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds? Will you break away from Islam?” To which Zonoobi fervently responded: “Yes”.

Martens then baptised him “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” Mohammed renamed himself Martin.

Martin Zonoobi, a carpenter from Iran, arrived in Germany with his wife and children five months ago. He is one of many who have converted, with many claiming true belief has prompted them.

However, Pastor Martens admits that some convert just to improve their chances of winning asylum in Germany – as Christians who have apostatised from Islam they are likely to suffer heavy persecution if they are sent home.

Christian Filmmaker aims to raise awareness about Muslim Persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

“The ethnic and religious purging of Christians today is exactly like Hitler’s ethnic cleansing of Jews in WWII,” [film director Peter] Spencer said. “True Christians are today obligated to rescue the perishing from the blades of [the Islamic State].”


Brave and bold words, and all too rare in America these days. The film, 'Return To The Hiding Place', and the 'Orange Resistance Movement' seem like a strong and creative response to Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa. Judging from the endorsements on Mr. Spencer's site, the message seems to be catching on among Christians and Jews. I see no reason why Orthodox parishes should not host screenings of this important film. 


Related:

• What Every Christian Needs To Know About All Of The Christians Who Saved Jews In The Holocaust
• 400 Syrian Churches Destroyed, Christianity Nearing ‘Extinction’ in Mideast — Russian Orthodox Patriarch
• The New Exodus: Christians Flee ISIS in the Middle East
• All Posts related to Muslim Persecution of Christians

Filmmaker’s ‘Chilling’ Warning About the Islamic State and His Message to ‘True Christians’ About Why They Must Fight Back

by Billy Hallowell, The Blaze, via Pravoslavie — September 17, 2015

The writer and director of a feature film about a group of young people who fought to save the innocent during the Holocaust has unveiled a new movement aimed at raising awareness about the dire religious persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Peter Spencer, director of “Return to the Hiding Place” — the sequel to Billy Graham’s “The Hiding Place” — exclusively told TheBlaze about his new Orange Resistance effort to rescue Christians being harmed by the Islamic State, and the “chilling similarities” that he sees between what’s happing now and the horrors that unfolded during the Holocaust.

“The ethnic and religious purging of Christians today is exactly like Hitler’s ethnic cleansing of Jews in WWII,” Spencer said. “True Christians are today obligated to rescue the perishing from the blades of [the Islamic State].”

The Orange Resistance movement is named for the both the color of the jumpsuits worn by victims of Islamic State extremists and for the Netherlands’ historic association with orange; the setting of the ”Return to the Hiding Place,” which is based, in part, on Dutch Christian Corrie ten Boom’s heroic acts to save Jews in the Netherlands.

Spencer said that the campaign will employ a number of tactics to get the word out about the plight of Middle Eastern Christians.

Western European vs. Eastern European Responses to Mass, Unvetted, Muslim Immigration

"Eastern Europeans are responding very differently to the mass migration of Muslims into Europe than are Western Europeans... Poles are understanding their stance against mass, unvetted immigration as comparable to their stand against the Nazis and past totalitarian and genocidal invaders..."

Here is a very thoughtful article, with a long view of history, which considers the Eastern European Christian response to the Migrant Crisis and Islam.


Western European vs. Eastern European Responses to Mass, Unvetted, Muslim Immigration

By Danusha V. Goska

Frontpage Magazine via AINA — September 15, 2015

The sign reads "Kosciol Walczacy, Nie Kapitulujacy."
That means: "The Fighting Church, not the Surrendering Church."

Eastern Europeans are responding very differently to the mass migration of Muslims into Europe than are Western Europeans. Westerners who encourage mass, unvetted Muslim immigration insist that they are compassionate, tolerant, and ethical. They insist that Eastern Europeans and anyone else who resists immigration are bigots, xenophobes, without compassion and unethical, if not outright Neo-Nazis. Westerners are stereotyping Eastern Europeans as bigoted thugs whose opinions must be demonized, whose choices must be overruled, whose borders must be penetrated and whose demographics must be altered through coercion.

In this article I focus on three signs at the Warsaw anti-immigration rally of Saturday, September 12, 2015. Full understanding of these protest signs illuminates how many Poles and other Eastern Europeans view the current immigration. These protest signs will help to illuminate why many people, not just Eastern Europeans, oppose this immigration for and against mass Muslim immigration. The press estimates several thousand people took part in an anti-immigration demonstration in Warsaw. An estimated one thousand people marched in favor of immigration.

In August, 2015, Slovakia announced that it would accept only Christian, not Muslim, migrants. Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, has been outspoken in his resistance to mass Muslim immigration. "Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims ... This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity," Orban wrote in a commentary for Allgemeine Zeitung.

'To remain Christians, if we can manage...' - Igumen Daniel (Irbits) on the new 'migration of peoples'

We are commanded by Christ in the Gospels to care for the sick, the imprisoned, the displaced, even to love our enemies. The challenge of the mass migrations of Middle Eastern peoples into Europe and Western nations is as much a challenge for us, as Christians, "to remain Christians",  as it is a logistical, cultural and national security challenge for Western governments.

More posts to follow on the Migrant Crisis...


'To remain Christians, if we can manage...'
Igumen Daniel (Irbits) on the new 'migration of peoples'
Interview by Peter Davydov, Pravoslavie — September 14, 2015

The arrival of thousands of refugees, migrants and settlers from Africa and Asia to “the Old World” is already being interpreted by many Europeans as a catastrophe, a curse, and a real challenge not only to the culture, economy, and the Christian faith of the continent (which is still alive, though is becoming very weak), but, therefore, to the very existence of the continent and its native inhabitants. Judging by the comments in the social networks and media reports, an undisguised panic, provoked by the new “Great migration of peoples” has begun. Beyond a doubt, there is a cause for fear and concern. But fear is alien to Christianity. It was not in vain that Christ said these words many times to His disciples: “Do not be afraid!” How not to be afraid, how to remain Christians in these disturbing, alarming times? What should Europe do not to be afraid? Igumen Daniel (Irbits), Abbot of the St. George’s Monastery in Götschendorf (Brandenburg state, Germany), who is in charge of relations between the Berlin Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with the German government and the public and is a member of the integration committee at the Federal Office of the Chancellor of Germany, answers these questions in his interview with Pravoslavie.ru.

—Father Daniel, as a person living in Germany do you consider the current influx of refugees to this country and to the whole of Europe a big problem? Or maybe even a danger? If yes, then what, in your view, is this jeopardy connected with and what is causing it?

—It may become a danger, provided that the refugee policy is wrongly pursued. After all, among those who make decisions there are many Christians not in name only, but also true believing Christians. And many people act according to the Christian beliefs, frankly thinking that, whenever aid is needed to people in extremely difficult circumstances of life, it should necessarily be rendered. Christ said, “Give food to the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to strangers.” Or are these words of Christ no longer relevant to us? And how to do it competently depends on the professionalism of those who are in charge of this; so to say, ex officio.

The first step that should be taken is the registration of each individual arriving on the territory of Europe; this is important in order to prevent incidents like the one when a crowd of illegal immigrants got to Germany from Hungary.

—Do you believe that Germany will cope with this difficulty—financially, economically, and psychologically?

—I believe Germany has enough wisdom and strength to cope with this issue. With God’s help —since the Lord is always on the side of those who show mercy and give aid where it is needed.

Why Western Nations Should Only Accept Christian Refugees

Raymond Ibrahim makes a compelling case as to why Western nations should only accept Christian refugees, keying on four main reasons:

• Christians are true victims of persecution;

• Muslim persecution of Christians has been further enabled by Western policies;

• Unlike Muslims, or even Yazidis, Christians are easily assimilated in Western countries, due to the shared Christian heritage;

• Mideast Christians bring trustworthy language and cultural skills that are beneficial to the West.

Why Western Nations Should Only Accept Christian Refugees
by Raymond Ibrahim — September 16, 2015

As refugees from the Middle East flood the West, a number of countries—including Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus, and Australia—are defying political correctness by wanting to accept Christian refugees only.

While more “progressive” voices cry “racism,” the fact remains: there are several objective reasons why the West should give priority, if not exclusivity, to Christian refugees—and some of these are actually to the benefit of European host nations.

Consider:

Christians are true victims of persecution.  

From a humanitarian point of view—and humanitarianism is the chief reason being cited in accepting refugees—Christians should receive top priority simply because they are the most persecuted group in the Middle East—well before the Islamic State phenomenon came into being.  As Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop put it, “I think that Christian minorities are being persecuted in Syria and even if the conflict were over they would still be persecuted.”

Indeed.  While they are especially targeted by the Islamic State, before the new “caliphate” was established, Christians were and continue to be targeted by Muslims—Muslim mobs, Muslim individuals, Muslim regimes, and Muslim terrorists, from Muslim countries of all races (Arab, African, Asian, etc.)—and for the same reason: Christians are infidel number one.  See Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians for hundreds of anecdotes before the rise of ISIS as well as the Muslim doctrines that create such hate and contempt for Christians.

Conversely, Muslim refugees—as opposed to the many ISIS and other jihadi infiltrators posing as “refugees”—are not fleeing direct persecution, but chaos created by the violent and supremacist teachings of their own religion, Islam.  It’s not for nothing that Samuel Huntington famously pointed out that “Islam’s borders are bloody, and so are its innards.”  This means that when Muslims enter Western nations, chaos, persecution, and mayhem follow.  Take a look at those West European cities—for example, Londonistan—that already have a large Muslim population for an idea.

MONOTHEISM, PART 3: ISLAM, by Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

The religion of the Law, which for 15 centuries prepared the chosen people for the coming into the world of the its Savior, the Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, preceded New Testament religion. According to the Holy Apostle Paul, "the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Gal. 3:24)... When the Savior came into the world, Old Testament religion had fulfilled its purpose. 

Islam, having arisen in Arabia in the seventh century, appeared as the religion of the law six centuries after the God of the chosen people of the religion of the Law fulfilled its purpose. 

The difference between the Old Testament religion of the Law and Islam is not only that the latter emerged more than two thousand years after God gave on Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments and other precepts that governed life for the chosen people. The most important difference is that the Law of Moses has a Divine source... The founder of Islam, however, did not have a Divine revelation.

This theological study by Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) is a very helpful discussion of several fundamental problems with Islam's claim to be the true religion, correcting the supposed errors of Judaism and Christianity.


MONOTHEISM, PART 3: ISLAM
by Hieromonk Job (Gumerov), Pravoslavie — July 23, 2014

Part 1: Christianity

Part 2: Judaism

Jibril (the angel Gabriel) appears before Muhammad, drawing.

Islam: Origins

The religion of the Law, which for 15 centuries prepared the chosen people for the coming into the world of the its Savior, the Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, preceded New Testament religion. According to the Holy Apostle Paul, "the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Gal. 3:24). It was all in all only "a shadow of good things to come" (Heb. 10:1). When the Savior came into the world, Old Testament religion had fulfilled its purpose. Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us the mystery of the Heavenly Kingdom and established the New Covenant, which was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jer. 31:31-33).

Man was redeemed from original sin and its consequences by the voluntary death on the Cross of Jesus Christ as Savior of the World. He entered into an entirely new period in terms of his relationship with God in comparison with the Old Testament: instead of the law, there was a free condition of sonship and grace. Man received new means for achieving the ideal set for him of moral perfection as a necessary condition for salvation.

Islam, having arisen in Arabia in the seventh century, appeared as the religion of the law six centuries after the God of the chosen people of the religion of the Law fulfilled its purpose.

The difference between the Old Testament religion of the Law and Islam is not only that the latter emerged more than two thousand years after God gave on Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments and other precepts that governed life for the chosen people. The most important difference is that the Law of Moses has a Divine source. The book of Exodus gives a narrative of the majestic Epiphany. "And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up" (Exod. 19:17-20).

The founder of Islam, however, did not have a Divine revelation.

How the Islamic World was Forged: An Exercise in Common Sense

"That there are still millions of Christians in Egypt (approximately 10% of the population)—is not proof of Islam’s tolerance but rather its intolerance." 

by Raymond Ibrahim, FrontPage Magazine — August 31, 2015

What made non-Muslims convert to Islam, leading to the creation of the Islamic world?

Early historical sources—both Muslim and non-Muslim—make clear that the Islamic empire was forged by the sword; that people embraced Islam, not so much out of sincere faith, but for a myriad of reasons—from converting in order to enjoy the boons of being on the “winning team” to converting in order to evade the dooms of being on the “losing team.”

Modern day Muslims and other apologists—primarily in academia, government, and mainstream media—reject this idea.  They argue that the non-Muslims who embraced Islam did so from sheer conviction; that the ancestors of today’s 1.5 billion Muslims all converted to Islam due to its intrinsic appeal; that the modern day coercion and persecution committed by the Islamic State and other organizations is an aberration.

Of course, as mentioned, the primary texts of history are full of anecdotes demonstrating the opposite.  However, because ours is an increasingly ahistorical society, in this essay I endeavor to show that sheer common sense alone validates what history records, namely, that the Islamic world and its populace was forged through violent coercion.

To do so, I will use Egypt—one of the most important Muslim majority nations and my ancestral homeland—as a paradigm.  I will show how a historic fact that Islam’s apologists habitually boast of—that there are still millions of Christians in Egypt (approximately 10% of the population)—is not proof of Islam’s tolerance but rather its intolerance.

——

In the 7th century, when Islam was being formulated, Egypt had been Christian for centuries,[1] before most of Europe had converted.  Alexandria was one of the most important ecclesiastical centers of ancient Christian learning and, along with Rome and Antioch, one of the original three sees.[2]  Much literary and ongoing archaeological evidence attest to the fact that Christianity permeated the whole of Egypt.

Writing around the year 400—roughly two-and-a-half centuries before the Arab invasion—John Cassian, a Christian monk from the region of modern day Romania, observed that

the traveler from Alexandria in the north to Luxor in the south would have in his ears along the whole journey, the sounds of prayers and hymns of the monks, scattered in the desert, from the monasteries and from the caves, from monks, hermits, and anchorites.[3]

And in recent times, both the oldest parchment to contain words from the Gospel (dating to the 1st century) and the oldest image of Christ were discovered in separate regions of Egypt.

Possibly oldest known image of Christ, found in Egypt and dating to the 1st century

The question now becomes: what made such an ancient and heavily Christian nation become Islamic?  More specifically, what made the ancestors of today’s Egyptian Muslims—most of who were Coptic Christians—convert to Islam?

For an objective answer to this question, a completely overlooked factor must be considered.

Russia and the West have swapped Spiritual and Cultural Roles

Powerful insights from a Danish theologian and journalist on the spiritual collapse of the post-Christian West and the resurgence of Orthodox Christian Russia, with its renewed love of God, its "poetic and cultured people", and its "fantastic energy, a moral energy":

"The situation in the West is the complete opposite [from that in Russia]. We celebrate death and have surrendered to the satanic view of man in a self-righteous rage and rant against God... We favour euthanasia, abortion on demand, homosexual rights and same-sex marriage while our cities are submerged in Islam and growing segregation."

Russia and the West have swapped Spiritual and Cultural Roles

Interview with Iben Thranholm
Russia Insider — September 7, 2015

The subject of this interview is a Danish journalist and theologian who hosted a series of five programmes, entitled “From Russia with Love” on Danish national public service radio, Radio24syv, with the sub-heading “An Unbiased Look at Putin's Russia.”

Thranholm on a recent trip to Russia

Inspired by Emperor Constantine, she believes Christianity in the West can be rejuvenated by looking to the East. Iben is aware of the sheer enormity of this task. “Such, alas, is the depth to which Western hatred for Christianity has sunk,” says the theologian, who does not hesitate to defend President Putin, on whom the Western media delights in heaping derision and scorn.

“The Pussy Riot case opened the door to Russia for me,” she explains.   

“I understood that Russia is a country that refuses to compromise on Christian values. Russia is not just a country or a nation, Russia is a spiritual concept, a state of mind. Criticism of President Putin was not the crime for which the activists were tried and convicted. Their crime was the invasion of the Christ-The-Saviour Cathedral, the holiest of places, and engaging in a blasphemous act in front of the iconostases.

“They are familiar with the bitter fruit of atheism and have no appetite for the bleak and barren wasteland it produced.”

"In the West, freedom of speech is widely deployed for the purpose of desecrating religion, but Russia does not permit crossing the line into blasphemy. That really fascinated me, and so I travelled to Moscow to learn more and this eventually resulted in a series of radio programmes trying to help Danes move beyond the tedious and unhelpful caricature-like clichés and provide them with a nuanced view of Russia.”