NATIVITY APPEAL for the ORTHODOX MISSION IN PAKISTAN

This week I received a warm and heartfelt email from Priest Joseph Farooq of the Archangel Michael Orthodox Mission in Pakistan.

Please consider his appeal on behalf of the Mission, and the children and widows whom he hopes to bless this Christmas. Perhaps you could share the appeal with your parish, and help support this growing oasis of light.

At the website, you will find a wealth of info on the growth of the Mission, photos, news stories, and more. There are links on the left hand column to follow by email, to their Facebook page, and to follow by Twitter. There is a Tab for Donations as well.

Mission Website: https://archangelmichaelmission.wordpress.com/

See all posts related to Pakistan, including the Mission...

Dear Zosimas, 

Greetings and blessings in the Holy Name of Jesus! 

I extend my heartfelt thanks for your kind concern and support for the orthodox mission in Pakistan. I am sorry for being delay to answer your mail please accept my apology. 

I am sending you the link of my website and the information you sent me are no more functioning with our mission. I humbly request you please share information about orthodox mission which are posted on our website and on the website of pravoslavie.ru/english. 

Every year I distributed rations and warms clothes among widows and the needy orthodox families and small gifts to orthodox children to share happiness, joy and blessings of Christmas. 

This year again the blessings of God I wish to repeat this event again. The most important thing to share that I do not have any sort of funds in hand for Christmas celebrations, I most humbly request you if you may send some generous help for the poor and needy orthodox widows and for the happiness of children, mission needs at least 1200 US dollars for the Christmas celebrations. 

I will thankful to you for your kind and generous help. 

May this season of Nativity fasting bring many blessings and happiness for you and all your your family. 

God bless you. 

Yours in Christ,
Fr.Joseph
THE LINK OF OUR WEBSITE:
https://archangelmichaelmission.wordpress.com/

RADIO INTERVIEW: Ralph Sidway on Donald Trump and 'Sandboxing' Islam

My sincere thanks to John and Kathy of WORD-FM 101.5 in Pittsburgh, who had me on for a great segment this afternoon. We discussed Donald Trump's proposal for a freeze on Muslim immigration, the challenge of Islam and Muslims in America, my article on 'Sandboxing Islam', and how to meet the Jihad Threat without losing our Christian charity or our basic humanity.

My segment begins at about 14:15 and runs to about the 39 minute mark.

Share widely...

Muslim Persecution of Christians — Call it what it is: GENOCIDE

While I prefer to speak of our age as the New Era of Christian Martyrdom, by the secular definition, the global Muslim persecution of Christians, especially that perpetrated by the Islamic State in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, clearly should be classified as genocide.

Observers have been calling it genocide for years now, including the highly respected Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), head of the Department of External Church Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, and Pope Francis I of Rome.

Now the issue is front and center in a unique way, as the U.S State Department is set to release its findings on whether ISIS is indeed committing genocide against minority groups in the Middle East. This report will influence U.S. policy on everything from refugee issues, to immigration, to the war against ISIS, to aid to Middle East and African nations, and so on.

Kirsten Powers, in an important article in USA Today, emphasizes the urgency of the genocide ruling:

Invoking the “g word” to recognize this fact is not just a matter of semantics. “Groups that have been designated as genocide victims are much more likely to receive military protection, including arming and training their militias for self-defense, which is always the best defense against genocide,” Gregory Stanton, the former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, told me. “Members of such groups are also much more likely to receive preferential treatment as bona fide refugees under the U.N. convention and protocols on the status of refugees.”

An article in CRUX sets out the concerns many Christians have that the Obama administration is preparing to exclude Christians from its category of groups suffering genocide:

A group of 30 Christian leaders, including Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, has asked for a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry in advance of the State Department’s declaration of genocides taking place around the world. 

The group believes Middle East Christians should be included in any listing of genocide victims based on their treatment by the Islamic State, commonly called ISIS. 

“We recently learned that a State Department finding is imminent that ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidis,” an Iraqi ethnic group that traces its origins to biblical times, said the Dec. 4 letter to Kerry. “We would wholeheartedly endorse that finding, but we are deeply troubled by the prospect that the department’s statement will either omit or reserve judgment on whether ISIS is committing genocide against Christians” in the Nineveh area since summer 2014.

The State Department seems to be paving the way for exclusion of Christians from its findings through a series of statements and press reports. The CRUX article continues:

One reason given for the State Department not counting Christians as genocide victims, according to the letter, is that it “lacks sufficient information about the experience of the Christian communities in Nineveh during that time to conclude that genocide took place.” [...] 

Another reason is a press report indicating that “unlike Yazidis, ISIS gives Christians a ‘choice’: They can convert to Islam, pay an Islamic tax, or be killed, enslaved, tortured, or held hostage. The implication is that ISIS abides by traditional Islamic sharia, under which other ‘people of the book’ — Christians and Jews — pay a tax in exchange for protection by their Muslim rulers,” the letter said. “We would like the opportunity to explain why this is emphatically not the case.” 

Note the naked hypocrisy here. The Obama administration steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the Islamic State as "Islamic," yet when it comes to the question of whether ISIS is committing genocide against Christians, the State Department presents ISIS' application of the terms of the dhimma contract in offering Christians the classic three choices mandated by Islamic law, as evidence that ISIS is not committing genocide against Christians, but showing them tolerance.

Only the devil himself would make such an argument.

The Cross and the Crescent - 2-Part AUDIO PODCAST

I am in the process of listening to this excellent presentation by Fr. Josiah Trenham of Patristic Nectar Publications, and strongly recommend it. It is long, two parts, each over an hour in length... Perhaps an excellent opportunity for parish study groups.

Orthodox Christian Synergy’s Annual Symposium 2015

Ancient Faith Radio, December 2, 2015 (Thanks to Theophan):

Orthodox Christian Synergy is a pan-Orthodox organization consisting of clergy and lay representatives of Chicago-area Orthodox Christian parishes who seek to project awareness of Orthodox Christianity to the public at large. Synergy works together with its parent organization, the Orthodox Christian Clergy Association of Greater Chicago, and with the blessings of the Chicago-area Orthodox hierarchs.

The topic of Synergy’s 2015 Symposium was “The Cross and the Crescent” and featured Fr. Josiah Trenham, the priest at St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, California. The gathering took place at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday, October 17, 2015.

The Cross and the Crescent: Part One 

Length: 1:30:28 • Play • Download

The Cross and the Crescent: Part Two

Length: 1:12:16 • Play • Download

For more talks and audio productions by Fr Josiah Trenham, visit Patristic Nectar.

‘Sandboxing’ Islam: How to Protect America from Jihad Terrorism

Donald Trump’s recent call for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” is not a new or original idea. 

Senator Rand Paul put forth a similar policy recommendation way back in July, following the Chattanooga jihad attack, and again in November called for a halt to “all immigrants, visitors and students” from countries with “large jihadist movements” from entering the United States.

In the wake of the San Bernardino jihad massacre, Mr. Paul and his fellow senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz have amped up this message, calling for a halt on immigration from nations with “active terrorist networks,” and a “moratorium on refugees from countries with a significant al Qaeda or ISIS presence,” respectively.

These candidates and all elected officials with eyes to see need to work hard to “make the case” for these steps, which may sound drastic to some, and hate-filled and bigoted to those on the Left.

The below article I wrote back in August is a modest effort to “make the case.” By using visual concepts like “sandboxing,” and enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), America can protect herself from jihad attacks, and reverse seven years of willful blindness in the face of Islamic terrorism.

When I start hearing “sandboxing” and FARA being discussed by Republican presidential candidates, I’ll feel greatly encouraged. As I conclude below,

It is time to “sandbox” Islam in America, and use decisive, legal means to counter its threat to our freedoms and our way of life.

‘Sandboxing’ Islam: How to Protect America from Jihad Terrorism,” by Ralph Sidway, Jihad Watch, August 21, 2015:

Enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) can give us the legal and tactical edge in countering the threat from Islamic supremacism.

Background

It should be obvious for anyone with eyes to see that Islam — its scriptures, the example of Muhammad, its doctrines, and its overall ideology — is behind the spread of most terrorism and unrest in the world today.

From the Islamic State (ISIS), Boko Haram, al-Nusra and al-Shabaab, to slightly older groups such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood, to lesser known jihadi organizations throughout Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim, and China, a survey of terrorist attacks reveals Muslim involvement throughout the entire world.

Here in the United States, we are seeing a dramatic rise in Muslim “lone wolf” jihad terrorist attacks (and, as some have described them, “known wolves”). Further, from all points of the compass, we are seeing literally tens of thousands of Muslims flocking to the Middle East to join the Islamic State caliphate and support the jihad with their very lives.

The scenario gets worse. Some analysts argue that we are seriously underestimating the numbers of Western Muslims joining the Islamic State. 

Here at home, we have a “full blown insurgency.” The FBI has already arrested seventy IS-inspired Muslim terrorists, and has active investigations of IS-inspired jihad plots in all 56 of its field offices. NewsMax reports “the government’s terrorist watch list carries 700,000 to a million names.”

Counting the Tragedies from the San Bernardino Jihad Attack

Trying to assess the magnitude of the loss in last week's massacre committed by two devout Muslims...

A composite photo of all 14 victims from the San Bernardino shooting rampage. They are top row left: Robert Adams, Isaac Amanios, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman and Sierra Clayborn. Second row from left: Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel Kaufman and Damian Meins. Bottom row from left: Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco and Michael Wetzel. (Courtesy of family / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Times has put up a very respectful piece honoring the San Bernardino shooting victims. Short bios with photos portray a very diverse group of good, dedicated people. You can read their stories here, and then say a prayer for the repose of their souls, and for God's care for their families.

It's important to reflect on the loss. Perhaps like many of us, I've been focused in my earlier posts on the attack and the details surrounding it, the connections to ISIS, and the ongoing threat from Muslims inspired to zealously follow the example of Muhammad and the words of the Koran.

I'd like to reflect now on the depths of the tragedy of San Bernardino from a different perspective.

In the Orthodox Church, at the Midnight Office, we pray:

for protection...  from plague, famine, earthquake, flood, fire, sword, invasion by enemies, civil war and sudden death; and that our good God, who loves mankind, will be merciful, kindly and easily entreated, turn away and dispel all wrath and disease stirred up against us, and deliver us from his just threat that hangs over us, and have mercy on us.

In the Orthodox view of life and salvation, sudden death is a tragedy, because those who die unexpectedly are deprived of that final time of preparation for eternity which a final illness provides. Who among us is repenting until their last breath? Who among us would feel prepared to face the judgment if we were confronted by violent attack by "sword, invasion by enemies, civil war and sudden death"?

So we pray for the souls of those whose lives were cut off so suddenly, without that time for preparation. May God have mercy on their souls!

There is, however, another element to this tragedy, which I wish to explore, and that concerns the deluded, deceived jihadis, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik.

We must not forget that these two people were also created in the image of God. 

How deceived they became by immersing themselves in the Koran and the example and words of Muhammad! How tragic that they took Islam so seriously that they allowed their God-given conscience to be nullified, neutered, deadened. 

And then, having murdered their God-given conscience, they then proceeded to plan and implement the wicked, evil, bloodthirsty mass murder of other people created in the image of God! (And people who had thrown them a baby shower only months earlier!?)

Do we see how the one murder leads to the second? 

But this is not merely an individual tragedy. This is the tragedy at the very heart and core of Islam.

8 Unanswered Questions About the San Bernardino Attack

To me, the strangest aspect, and one of the eight questions Ben Shapiro raises below, is Why Was CAIR So Quick To The Podium?

This struck some observrs as very odd, and hints at behind the scenes coordination between law enforcement, CAIR, the Farook family, and perhaps even the FBI and the Obama administration:

• Toby Harnden: Weird weird weird @CNN right now. No mention of Islam & then live to CAIR presser w multiple people saying it’s nothing to do with Islam.
• toddstarnes: Not quite what to make of that CAIR presser….Odd.

8 Unanswered Questions About the San Bernardino Attack
by Ben Shapiro, Breitbart News, December 4, 2015

On Friday, the FBI finally announced that it would be investigating the San Bernardino shootings as a terrorist attack. But there are still an enormous number of unanswered questions ranging from government policy to the terrorist cell itself.

Here are the top eight.

Who Were The Terrorist Influences Syed Farook Communicated With? 

The federal government didn’t have Syed Farook on a terror watch list or a no-fly list. According to CNN, however, Farook was “in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism, law enforcement officials said Thursday.” If so, why wasn’t Farook on a watch list? Who are these influences?

Who Were The Middle Eastern Men Reported By The Neighbor? 

CBS Los Angeles reported: 

A man who has been working in the area said he noticed a half-dozen Middle Eastern men in the area in recent weeks, but decided not to report anything since he did not wish to racially profile those people. “We sat around lunch thinking, ‘What were they doing around the neighborhood?’” he said. “We’d see them leave where they’re raiding the apartment.” 

Who were these suspicious people, especially now that the FBI has said there was no indication that these two were part of an organized terror cell?

Where Did Farook Get Their Terrorist Armory? 

We know they purchased their guns legally, but their apartment was apparently an IED factory. According to Chief Jarrod Barguan, there were three pipe bombs rolled into a remove control car device, as well as 12 pipe bombs in the garage and “hundreds” of tools used to build bombs. Where did they get all of this? Were they supplied by anyone else?

Was Another Attack Planned? 

According to Barguan, “clearly they were equipped” to stage another attack. The FBI’s David Bowdich said as much on Friday, stating it was “certainly a possibility” they were looking to commit a second act of terror.

The Taqiyya Factor

Keep the below article on the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya in mind, as you read reports on Muslim responses to the San Bernardino Jihad Massacre such as these:

• Syed Farook’s Family Doubts FBI’s San Bernardino Account, Questions Sandy Hook Shooting
• Terror Mosque Imams: ‘No Comment’ On FBI Investigating MORE Muslim Attendees, Refuse To Talk Islamic Caliphate
• US TO BLAME? Muslim leader points finger at US for terror attacks

The Taqiyya Factor
by Carol Brown,  American Thinker, November 12, 2015

The CAIR Press Conference with the Farook family: Why was it staged before the jihadi's name had even been released?

Taqiyya is an Islamic doctrine that allows Muslims to deceive non-Muslims. As in lie to them. Dr. Sami Mukaram, author of Taqiyya in Islam, writes: “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it… Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.” (Specific references to taqiyya in the Quran, the Hadith, and in Islamic law, can be found here.)

One of the most common and persistent forms of taqiyya we are witnessing today is noted at Islam-Watch:

When placed under scrutiny or criminal investigation, (even when there is overwhelming, irrefutable evidence of guilt or complicity), the taqiyya-tactician will quickly attempt to counter the allegation by resorting to the claim that it is, in fact, the accused who are the 'the victims'. Victims of Islamophobia, racism, religious discrimination and intolerance. Currently, this is the most commonly encountered form of distraction and 'outwitting'….

Indeed. We see this manifest just about every day as Muslims claim to be victims when it is they who are the aggressors. And the goal is always the same: deceive the non-believer in order to advance Islamic supremacy. Of course, the non-believers can only be outwitted if they are also non-thinkers.

Here are three among a seemingly infinite number of examples of taqiyya in action.

Russia – a Game Changer for Global Christianity

"Russia derives its spiritual strength after the Cold War from a mighty revival of the Orthodox Christian faith while the West is abandoning its Christian identity. The East and the West have switched roles as Christian superpower and defender of the Christian faith."

by Iben Thranholm, RT, November 10, 2015

Syrian Christians, father and daughter, visiting their house abandoned during the military action in the center of Homs. © RIA Novosti

At no time in history has the persecution of Christians been as intense and widespread as it is at the moment. There is a global war on Christians, which has escalated in scale and intensity since the US invasion of Iraq.

After the deliberate destruction of nation states and government structures all over the Middle East, Islamist groups have seized the opportunity to wage war on and persecute Christians.

American journalist and poet Eliza Griswold has written extensively in the New York Times about how the US invasion has caused hundreds of thousands to flee in Iraq. “Since 2003, we’ve lost priests, bishops and more than 60 churches were bombed,” Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil said.

...the USA, supposedly ‘God’s Own Country’, created hell on earth for Christians all over the Middle East and then turned a blind eye to beheadings, rape of children and unspeakable atrocities.

With the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians began to leave Iraq in large numbers, and the population shrank to less than 500,000 today from as many as 1.5 million in 2003.

With the Arab Spring things only went from bad to worse. ISIS’ success in Iraq has inspired similar groups in other continents, most notably Africa, where the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood commit numerous atrocities against Christians, as do Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Not only has the USA, supposedly ‘God’s Own Country’, created hell on earth for Christians all over the Middle East and then turned a blind eye to beheadings, rape of children and unspeakable atrocities. America appears to be deaf, dumb and blind to the problem, and that is obviously bad enough. But in addition to this, Western foreign policy has failed miserably. It has failed by underestimating the significance of religious faith in the countries subjected to Western intervention. The West’s most egregious foreign policy error is the assumption that the Western secular model, which demands clear separation between organized religion and politics, may be imposed on the rest of the world, irrespective of cultural or religious background.

St John of Damascus (Dec 4)

St John of Damascus was born less than fifty years following the traditional date of the death of Muhammad. As the Muslims had conquered Syria and the Middle East, John grew up in a Christian household under Islamic rule, and so had a first-hand and intimate acquaintance with Islam.

St John of Damascus was a theologian and a zealous defender of Orthodoxy. Since he was known as a hymnographer, we pray to St John for help in the study of church singing. His most important book is the Fount of Knowledge. The third section of this work, “On the Orthodox Faith,” is a summary of Orthodox doctrine and a refutation of heresy.

Read St John's Critique of Islam, from his section 'Heresies', contained in The Fount of Knowledge.

Life of St John of Damascus 

(Commemorated December 4)

Saint John of Damascus was born about the year 680 at Damascus, Syria into a Christian family. His father, Sergius Mansur, was a treasurer at the court of the Caliph. John had also a foster brother, the orphaned child Cosmas (October 14), whom Sergius had taken into his own home. When the children were growing up, Sergius saw that they received a good education. At the Damascus slave market he ransomed the learned monk Cosmas of Calabria from captivity and entrusted to him the teaching of his children. The boys displayed uncommon ability and readily mastered their courses of the secular and spiritual sciences. After the death of his father, John occupied ministerial posts at court and became the city prefect.

In Constantinople at that time, the heresy of Iconoclasm had arisen and quickly spread, supported by the emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741). Rising up in defense of the Orthodox veneration of icons [Iconodoulia], St John wrote three treatises entitled, “Against Those who Revile the Holy Icons.” The wise and God-inspired writings of St John enraged the emperor. But since the author was not a Byzantine subject, the emperor was unable to lock him up in prison, or to execute him.