New Documentary on Muhammad and Islam - VIDEO

'Through the Lens of Muhammad's Life' by William DiPuccio, presents a clear and straightforward survey of Islam. 

Suitable for viewing and sharing with any age group from mid-teens and older, this professionally produced video benefits from a sober, academic presentation style devoid of polemics or agenda. Rather, it's agenda is to present the truth about Islam and Muhammad from Islam's own primary sources, yet without obscuring the unpleasant facts about the founder of Islam.

A seven page, descriptive chronology of Muhammad’s life is also available with the video.

This documentary (and the supplemental chronology) is a serious teaching tool which can also be shared with Muslims, many of whom may not have been given the full picture Muhammad's life, actions, and directives. Seeing Islam through the lens of Muhammad's life is essential for anyone seeking to understand Islam in the 21st century.




As I watched this video, I was struck by how, without ever stating it, Bill DiPuccio manages to perfectly convey the truth of Jesus Christ's words:

Symposium and Services venerating today's Christian Martyrs under the Sword of Islam

St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary has announced a landmark event for its annual Orthodox Education Day, October 7, 2017:

MODERN MARTYRS

- Christians of the Middle East and North Africa -

Orthodox Education Day - October 7, 2017

• 10AM - Divine Liturgy
• Public Lectures, Children's Activities
• Coffee, Ethnic Food, Icon Display, Book Sale
• Akathist Service  to the New Martyrs
• Free Admission to SVS Grounds

Click to enlarge for event info.

We look forward with hope that this gathering truly honors the heroic New Martyrs and Confessors of Jesus Christ, who refuse to submit to or worship a false god and false prophet, but faithfully witness — even unto death — to Jesus Christ as Lord and God.  These 'Modern Martyrs' — men, women and children — are a powerful sign of faith and light in our age of lukewarmness, apostasy, darkness, and insanity.

Samia the Confessor of Egypt

"We very well know our path, we know our place very well is in faithful hands. Our God is a strong God. He is a God of love. He gave us to love and not to hate."

Samia the Confessor

Translated by M.G., Coptic Orthodox Scientist, May 29, 2017 (Thanks to Fr Steven):

English transcript of an interview with one of the survivors of the shooting that occurred on May 26, 2017 in Minya, Egypt against the Coptic Christians. Samia lost most of her family and she continues to reflect the light of Christ, confessing her faith and love.

(0 minutes to 10:03 minutes):

Interviewer: I want you to tell me your name.

Samia: Samia Adly Ibrahim

Interviewer: Madam Samia, this isn’t easy, right?

Samia: Thank God. Believe me, we are comforted. I am not upset about those who went to heaven, believe me. I placed them in safe hands, better than the world and the problems of the world, all the bad things in the world. They left on the feast of the Ascension. And their dad came from America to have them around him.

Interviewer: Tell me first, where are you from?

Samia: I am from Nazlet Hanna in Fashn.

Interviewer: Fahn is in Bani Suef?

Samia: Yes

Interviewer: So that day, tell me from the beginning what happened?

Samia: what happened is that we were going to the monastery of Anba Samuel. We headed out in the faithfulness of God, singing with joy. And we were about to arrive and they attacked us. The blessing came to us.

Interviewer: “the blessing”?

Samia: Mm, blessing.

Interviewer: These criminals, these terrorists, you call them “the blessing”?

Samia: Yes, may God bless them and protect them.

Interviewer: bless who?

Samia: Bless the demons, to show them His way. Of course, God will reveal Himself for these people and He will show them His way one day. Because they are absent-minded. They do not know the strong faith. If they know the strong faith, they would not have seen the people who are faithful, the ones who know God, and hurt them. We were going to a holy place, we were going to pray in a holy place, to become comforted and joyous by it. So, they don’t want us to be joyful in the world. We don’t have a place in the world, believe me. We have a place in heaven. This world has no use. Plants, and at the end we will go to Paradise. We very well know our path, we know our place very well is in faithful hands. Our God is a strong God. He is a God of love. He gave us to love and not to hate.

MASS JIHAD in the UK: Muslims screaming 'this is for Allah' murder 7 at FIVE locations in London

"Jihadi terrorists shouting ‘this is for Allah’ have reportedly killed seven people after mowing down up to 20 with a white van on London Bridge and stabbing revellers with 12-inch hunting knives."

The 'Same God Heresy' becomes increasingly difficult to defend, as followers of the bloodthirsty Allah seek to please him through yet more jihad mass murders — as commanded in the Quran and in imitation of Muhammad. 

Further reporting on the London Attacks:

• Second attack in London: Eyewitness “saw a man wielding knife and people on the floor in blood”
• Witnesses report stabbings, three people with throats cut at London Bridge vehicle attack site
• BREAKING: Van plows into 15-20 on London Bridge, people on scene call it “terrorist attack”

Jihadi terrorists shouting ‘this is for Allah’ kill seven in knife frenzy at ‘FIVE’ locations in the capital:

Hunt for men with 12in blades who began the rampage by mowing down revellers on London Bridge 

by Ekin Karasin, Mailonline, June 3, 2017 (thanks to Jihad Watch):

Jihadi terrorists shouting ‘this is for Allah’ have reportedly killed seven people after mowing down up to 20 with a white van on London Bridge and stabbing revellers with 12-inch hunting knives.

The men, described as being ‘of Mediterranean origin’, reportedly drove the van at 50mph across the bridge, then jumped out and began ‘randomly stabbing people’ along Borough High Street in central London at 10pm.

One woman said she saw three people with what appeared to be their throats cut at London Bridge. There are also reports that a bystander was shot in the head in the crossfire and at least seven people have been stabbed.

One person has been killed at London Bridge – and one of the casualties is reportedly a police officer.

Coptic Martyrs and their Forgiving Families - Seeds of the Church in Egypt

“When people see this attitude [of forgiveness] from Christians and the church, they ask themselves, ‘What kind of power is this?’” he said. “But with this witness we must also declare the message of Christ, which we are fulfilling—literally. We may not see the response immediately. But we will in the near future.”

The Lord's grace is present and real among the Coptic faithful, as they persevere through the valley of the shadow of death, bearing their heavy cross of mass martyrdom, following Christ to their own Golgotha. Their profound faith — and their forgiveness of their Muslim persecutors — may be planting seeds for a new Orthodox Christian harvest in Egypt. May it be so!

Forgiveness: Muslims Moved as Coptic Christians Do the Unimaginable

Amid ISIS attacks, faithful response inspires Egyptian society.

by Jayson Casper, ChristianityToday, April 20, 2017

Coffins are carried to the funeral of Egyptian Christians killed in Palm Sunday bombings. (Photo: Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP)

Twelve seconds of silence is an awkward eternity on television. Amr Adeeb, perhaps the most prominent talk show host in Egypt, leaned forward as he searched for a response.

“The Copts of Egypt … are made of … steel!” he finally uttered.

Moments earlier, Adeeb was watching a colleague in a simple home in Alexandria speak with the widow of Naseem Faheem, the guard at St. Mark’s Cathedral in the seaside Mediterranean city.

On Palm Sunday, the guard had redirected a suicide bomber through the perimeter metal detector, where the terrorist detonated. Likely the first to die in the blast, Faheem saved the lives of dozens inside the church.

“I’m not angry at the one who did this,” said his wife, children by her side. “I’m telling him, ‘May God forgive you, and we also forgive you. Believe me, we forgive you.’

“‘You put my husband in a place I couldn’t have dreamed of.’”

Stunned, Adeeb stammered about Copts bearing atrocities over hundreds of years, but couldn’t escape the central scandal.

“How great is this forgiveness you have!” his voice cracked. “If it were my father, I could never say this. But this is their faith and religious conviction.”

Millions marveled with him across the airwaves of Egypt.

So also did millions of Copts, recently rediscovering their ancient heritage, according to Ramez Atallah, president of the Bible Society of Egypt which subtitled and recirculated the satellite TV clip.

“In the history and culture of the Copts, there is much taught about martyrdom,” he told CT. “But until Libya, it was only in the textbooks—though deeply ingrained.”

The Islamic State in Libya kidnapped and beheaded 21 mostly Coptic Christians in February 2015. CT previously reported the message of forgiveness issued by their families and the witness it provided.

“Since then, there has been a paradigm shift,” said Atallah. “Our ancestors lived and believed this message, but we never had to.”

The Fall of an Empire ~ The Lesson of Byzantium (VIDEO)

May 29 is the anniversary of the defeat of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Muslims. This fine documentary, scripted and hosted by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), Abbot of Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, presents a uniquely Russian Orthodox perspective on the history and fall of Byzantium, and the lessons to be drawn from the world's greatest and longest-enduring empire.


h/t to Fr Thomas Soroka

The Fall of Constantinople, 29 May 1453

"The great doors of Saint Sophia were forced open, and crowds of angry soldiers came in and fell upon the unfortunate worshippers. Pillaging and killing in the holy place went on for hours. Similar was the fate of worshippers in most churches in the city..."

by Dionysios Hatzopoulos, Romiosini:

In the city everyone realized that the fateful moment had come. In the city, while the bells of the churches rang mournfully, citizens and soldiers joined a long procession behind the holy relics brought out of the churches. Singing hymns, men, women, children, soldiers, civilians, clergy, monks and nuns, knowing that they were going to die shortly, made peace with themselves, with God and with eternity.

When the procession ended the Emperor met with his commanders and the notables of the city. In a philosophical speech he told his subjects that the end of their time had come. In essence he told them that Man had to be ready to face death when he had to fight for his faith, for his country, for his family or for his sovereign. All four reasons were now present. 

Furthermore, his subjects, who were the descendants of Greeks and Romans, had to emulate their great ancestors. They had to fight and sacrifice themselves without fear. They had lived in a great city and they were now going to die defending it. 

As for himself, he was going to die fighting for his faith, for his city and for his people... He thanked all present for their contribution to the defense of the city and asked them to forgive him, if he had ever treated them without kindness. 

'Breaking of the Crosses in North Carolina' continued: It's worse than we first thought

"[Pastor Jim] Melnyk said he has personally worshiped Allah with Muslims during interfaith gatherings in Raleigh... "

Journalist Leo Hohmann shines a light on the galloping apostasy in mainline Protestant churches, as typified in this story of how good intentions and generous hearts, cut off from the truth and fullness of the apostolic faith, can lead Christians to embrace a false god, false prophet, and false religion.

I look at this travesty as a 'teachable moment', and have provided commentary throughout the article.

Related:

'Breaking of the Crosses' in North Carolina: Christian leaders welcome conversion of church into mosque

Worshipping with Muslims? — "Our ultimate goal and divine mandate is not co-existence with Muslims but their conversion—as it is for all the children of men." —Fr. Lawrence Farley

Christian pastor in Bible Belt admits personally worshiping Allah
Muslim deity takes over church as leaders claim to honor 'same god'
by Leo Hohmann, WND, May 15, 2017

A former church has been taken over and converted to a mosque in a rural North Carolina county, and a group of Christian pastors took part in the conversion ceremony in an effort to show mutual respect for their Muslim neighbors. 

Crosses have been removed from the former church’s facade and steeple, and mosque leader Ali Muhammad turned them over to the group of pastors. 

“What they were attempting to do is honor our tradition and so they wanted to turn the crosses over to us,” said the Rev. Jim Melnyk, pastor of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Smithfield, a small town in Johnston County about 45 minutes south of Raleigh. “They were reaching out to us, and we were reaching out to them.” 

No, Rev. Melnyk.

They were symbolically "breaking the crosses", an eschatological sign of their belief in the ultimate triumph of Islam over Christianity, and then they duped you into thanking them for doing it.

Melnyk said he was joined by pastors from the United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ and three different Baptist congregations at Saturday’s ceremony, which marked the official conversion of a former Pentecostal church into a mosque. One lay person from the local Presbyterian Church was also present for the “celebration.” 

Melnyk told WND the mosque had reached out to the local churches through an interfaith group in Raleigh and was hoping to strike a welcoming and respectful tone for the two faiths. 

Melnyk said Christianity and Islam “share common origins and scriptures” and that he felt it was the right thing to do to participate in the mosque opening as a show of respect for Islam, a fellow monotheistic faith. 

“Christians, Jews and Muslims are all people of the book, and we all claim what the Hebrew Scriptures call the Abrahamic faith,” Melnyk told WND. “We call it the Old Testament, and Muslims also claim the Bible.” 

No, Rev. Melnyk.

This naive and false theology and history expressed by Rev. Melnyk is the perfect summation of why the Same God position is so dangerous.  Islam does not "share common origins and scriptures" with Christianity. To say so is to assert that Islam and Christianity are spiritually and ontologically linked, stemming from the same source, with the equally false implication that they are spiritually equivalent, leading their followers to the same destination.

Rather, Muhammad sought to appropriate Christianity and Judaism, retelling in the Koran, as Allah's mouthpiece, various events in the Old and New Testaments, yet in narratives with significant, irreconcilable differences from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and always with the same purpose, the assertion that Islam was always the true religion, that Abraham, Moses, and even Jesus, were true Muslims, but that the Jews and Christians distorted their scriptures to conceal the true Islamic teaching.

UPDATE: Coptic Christians True Martyrs - Killed for Refusing to Renounce Their Faith in Jesus Christ

"As each pilgrim came off the bus they were asked to renounce their Christian faith and profess belief in Islam, but all of them—even the children—refused. Each was killed in cold blood with a gunshot to the head or the throat."

The classic Muslim way, just like with the 100,000 Holy Martyrs of Tbilisi, Georgia.

Update on this report.

The Copts continue to faithfully ascend their Golgotha, following the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though we are not in full ecclesial communion with the Coptic Orthodox Church, there have been fruitful talks in recent years, and we are certainly united with them through a communion of martyrdom, an ecumenism of blood.

Just like the Russian New Martyrs of the 20th century under the God-hating Soviet atheists, the Copts today are witnessing to Christ through confessing Him as Lord even unto death. And they and their families further fulfill the Lord's divine commands by forgiving and praying for their persecutors.

At every Divine Liturgy, at the Third Antiphon we chant the Beatitudes, from Matthew 5:3-11. We must wonder at what our Coptic brothers and sisters feel when they hear and sing these words:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven...

The mass martyrdom of the Coptic Church in our time should force us all to our knees in tears and repentance for our lax and comfortable lives. May we be emboldened and encouraged in our faith by their ultimate sacrifice for love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and may the Lord strengthen us for our own time of trials, which is coming swiftly, and is already at the very doors.



In Ramadan Massacre, Egyptian Christians Killed for Refusing to Renounce Their Faith in Jesus

by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News, May 28, 2017:

Funeral procession for the New Coptic Martyrs of Egypt, killed by Muslims for refusing to deny Jesus Christ. They were on a holy pilgrimage to a sacred monastery when they were attacked by Islamic jihadis.

As more and more details emerge concerning Friday’s Ramadan attack on a busload of Christians on pilgrimage, the more it becomes evident that these 29 martyrs died solely because they were Christians.

Survivors of the attack said that the ten masked Islamic State militants did not merely open fire on the bus full of Christian pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confesor, but that the victims were made to descend from the bus and asked one by one whether they were Christians before being shot by the assailants.

According to one of the chaplains of the group, Father Rashed, as each pilgrim came off the bus they were asked to renounce their Christian faith and profess belief in Islam, but all of them—even the children—refused. Each was killed in cold blood with a gunshot to the head or the throat.

Why do Muslim jihadis kill children?

The Islamic State and other jihad groups claim to follow the Koran and the example of Muhammad. Yet surely Muhammad didn't kill children? Did he?

The Islamic State and other Muslim, jihad groups follow Muhammad's example. Yet they kill women and young children, as seen in the Egypt bus attack in which 28 Coptic Christians were killed, and in the Manchester jihad bombing. In both instances children as young as eight years old were among the victims.

The Religion of Peace website has a helpful section that debunks Muslim myths about Islam and Muhammad which we are fed after each deadly Muslim jihad attack.

Myths of Muhammad, The Religion of Peace:

The Myth: Muhammad Would Never Do Harm to a Child

"Our Prophet (peace be upon him) was a great man who would never order any measure that might do harm to an innocent child." 

The Truth:

It is probably fair to say that Muhammad did not approve of killing children intentionally. A verse from the Quran laments the pre-Islamic Arab practice of infanticide against baby girls, for example. Other evidence from the Hadith suggests that he instructed his men not to kill children in battle if it could be avoided, but to capture them for slavery.

He also gave children a reprieve, when telling his people to "kill those who disbelieve in Allah":

[Muhammad said] “Fight everyone in the way of Allah and kill those who disbelieve in Allah. Do not be deceitful with the spoils; do not be treacherous, nor mutilate nor kill children.” (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 992)

But Muhammad’s definition of a child was not the same as contemporary understanding. Following the surrender of the Qurayza stronghold, he ordered the execution of every male child who had reached puberty. His men had the boys drop their pants so that that anyone with pubic hair could be beheaded (Abu Dawud 4390).