Orthodox Nun: ‘ISIS is Islam, Islam Is ISIS. Whoever Says Otherwise Is a Liar'

"Sister Hatune Dogan has witnessed the devastation of these ancient Christian communities. She's listened to survivors tell how Christians and Yazidi women are being sold into sex slavery."

Related:

• Sr. Hatune Foundation: Helping hands for the Poor and Needy
• Orthodox Christian Nun warns against Islam: "The reason for all this disaster is the Quran."

by Erick Stakelbeck, CBN News (w/video) — May 11, 2015

via Jihad Watch and The Religion of Peace

Sister Hatune with refugee children

WASHINGTON -- The Islamic terror group ISIS is leaving a trail of destruction across large parts of Syria and Iraq with a specific target in their crosshairs.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been displaced from their homes and countless others have been murdered or enslaved by the jihadist army, with no end in sight.

Sister Hatune Dogan has been on the ground and witnessed the devastation of these ancient Christian communities. She's listened to survivors tell how Christians and Yazidi women are being sold into sex slavery.

"They choose the most beautiful one, even if they have a small child, and they sell these women, these ladies to each other. They don't sell to another religion -- only Sunni Muslim," Dogan said.

"There have been 12,000 kidnapped at the hands of ISIS - Yazidi alone. What is going on there, what I was hearing, is the highest barbarism on earth in the history until today," she added.

Her foundation helps the poor and persecuted in 35 countries, providing them with food, clothing, medicine and shelter.

‘Whoever Disbelieves, Strike Off His Head’: Muslim Persecution of Christians, February 2015

All throughout February, Copts, the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, were slaughtered. Full report follows:

by Raymond Ibrahim — May 13, 2015

Around mid-February, the Islamic State released a video depicting 21 Coptic Christians being decapitated.  The executions took place in Libya, another nation along with Syria and Iraq where the Islamic State has carved a niche for itself. While holding their victims’ bodies down, Islamic State members shoved their fingers in the Christians’ eyes, craned their heads back, and sliced away at their throats with knives—all in the name of Allah and Islam, even as the slaughtered called out on the “Lord Jesus Christ.”

Over one month before the video appeared, the BBC had falsely reported that the majority of those now slaughtered Copts were “released.” (Such downplaying of Muslim persecution of Christians is standard for the BBC.)

In the video, the lead executioner waves his dagger at the camera while saying, “Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of as-Sham and Dabiq’s plain [Syrian regions], chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time.  And today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.”  He concluded by declaring: “We will fight you [Christians] until Christ descends, breaks the cross and kills the pig” (all eschatological actions ascribed to the Muslim “Christ,” Isa).

Also in February it was revealed that Egypt’s Al Azhar University — seen by many as Sunni Islam’s most authoritative voice — continues to incite enmity for and violence against non-Muslims “infidels.”  The Islamic university was exposed as offering free of charge “a book,” in the words of an Egyptian secular critic, “whose latter half and every page—indeed every few lines—ends with “whoever disbelieves [“infidels”] strike off his head.”

Report: Hundreds of UK Muslims have returned home from Jihad in Syria

About 350 individuals are considered to be under the category of “significant concern” after returning from Syria... British authorities are arresting one suspected terrorist every day.

See also: 

• Surge in UK Terror Arrests as Scotland Yard Warns of ‘Massive Threat’ to Britain
• 80% of London Muslims Support ISIS
• ‘Black flag of jihad will fly over London’: Alarm over UK-born Iraq fighters' threat

by Jordan Schachtel, Breitbart News — May 14, 2015

Over 700 potential terrorists have left the United Kingdom in order to carry out jihad in the Middle East, according to London’s Metropolitan Police Service, also known as Scotland Yard. Alarmingly, about half of the jihadis have now returned to the UK, reports have stated.

About 350 individuals are considered to be under the category of “significant concern” after returning from Syria. On average, British authorities are arresting one suspected terrorist every day, Sky News reports.

Algerian Muslim Leader: Turn All Churches Into Mosques

Salafi campaign against Algerian churches calls for the transformation of the nation’s most important churches into mosques.

by Raymond Ibrahim — May 11, 2015

According to Abdel Fattah Zarawi, the Muslim leader of the Salafi party, also known as the Free Front of Algeria, any and all Christian churches remaining in the north African nation must be closed and reopened as mosques.

Islamic State in Nigeria Targets Catholics: 100,000 Homeless, 5,000 Killed

• 350 Catholic churches destroyed in one diocese alone,
• More than half the diocese's institutions deserted,
• Boko Haram controls 85% of the territory,
• Boko Haram recently pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State Caliphate, and re-named itself 'Islamic State in Nigeria'.

Boko Haram Targets Catholics: 100,000 Homeless From Islamist Insurgency, Christian Charity Says

by Morgan Winsor, International Business Times — May 12, 2015

h/t Jihad Watch

More than 100,000 Nigerian Catholics have been left homeless by Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria and another 5,000 have been killed, a Christian charity said Tuesday. As a result, there are now 7,000 widows and 10,000 orphans in the Maiduguri diocese, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) told Premier.

A report by the charity also found some 350 churches have been destroyed in the diocese, which encompasses Borno and Yobo states as well as part of Adamawa. More than half of the Maiduguri diocese’s parish centers, chaplaincies and church-run primary schools have been deserted by Nigerian Catholics and many of them are occupied by Boko Haram militants, who control up to 85 percent of the diocese territory.

Turkey offers to allow restoration of Halki Seminary in exchange for opening a Mosque in Thessaloniki

The Turkish Muslims are holding the shuttered Halki Seminary hostage in order to extort Greece to capitulate and enable the building of mosques in Athens and Thessaloniki. Allowing any mosques in either city would set a dire precedent, and would only bring strife, crime and open jihad to the already struggling Hellenic state.

For background on Turkey's efforts to establish a beachhead mosque in Greece, see Greek Parliament Surrenders to Islam, Orthodox Bishop and Citizens oppose mosque in Athens, as well as my posts here, here and here. 

For more on the historic Halki Seminary, see here, here and here.

The Greek Orthodox were conquered and enslaved by Muslims once already. Let's hope and pray they hold firm against this form of stealth jihad. For resources on resisting mosque expansions, see my post, Challenging Mosques: Tools for Education and Legal Resistance.

Turkey offers to allow restoration of Halki Seminary in exchange for opening a Mosque in Thessaloniki
Pravoslavie — May 12, 2015

(Ankara, May 11, 2015) The Orthodox seminary on the island of Halki (Turkey) may be restored in exchange for opening of a mosque in Thessaloniki, Greece. This condition was laid down by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Blagovest-info, this information was spread by the Hürriyet Turkish newspaper with the reference to editor-in-chief of one history journal who had discussed the matter with Erdogan in person. The Turkish President said that he was ready to give his consent on reopening of the Orthodox seminary on Halki; however, he added, Greece was not intending to open mosques on its territory at all. Later Metin Kulunk, Member of the Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, specified that the President meant the Fethiye Cami Mosque in Athens, and not a mosque in Thessaloniki.

Turkey Renovates Byzantine Church Into Mosque

A 900-year-old Christian church in Turkey is to be renovated into a functioning mosque—despite former governmental assurances that it would likely be renovated into a museum.

Update on this story. which gives some historical background.

Related:

• Qur'an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years
• Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into mosque in Turkey
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• More posts on 'Hagia Sophia'...

by Raymond Ibrahim — May 11, 2015

Foundations General Director Adnan Ertem argues that the building was a “sanctuary that was consecrated as a mosque….  It is a foundation that can be put into service in line with its foundational charter. Thus its function will be preserved.”

Enez’s Hagia Sophia, the name of the ancient church, is located inside the city of Ainos, along the border with Greece and stationed atop a hill, visible to all.

The Kurdish People, the Yezidi Religion, and Christianity

“To tell the truth is useful to those to whom it is spoken,

but disadvantageous to those who tell it,

because it makes them disliked.”

~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées.

Related:

• Fr. Daniil Sysoev: Special Resource Page
• 'To Make the Whole World Love Christ' - Seraphim Maamdi's memories of Fr. Daniel Sysoev
• 'The Light of Christ will also shine over Kurdistan' - An Interview with Seraphim Maamdi, an Orthodox Kurd
• Fr. Daniel Sysoev's Posthumous Mission: Three Stories

PRAVOSLAVIE — May 11, 2015

This English translation of an interview by the Russian correspondent for the “Rûdaw” newspaper with Monk Madai, an Orthodox Kurd, was sent to OrthoChristian.com for publication.

Monk Madai (Maamdi) was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to a Kurdish-Yezidi family. In 2002, he and his family moved to Moscow, where in 2007 he was baptized in the Orthodox Church with the name Seraphim.

In 2009 Seraphim finished the “School of Orthodox Mission”, which was established by priest Daniel Sysoev. That same year, Fr. Daniel was killed in his own church by a Muslim extremist.

In 2012, Seraphim went to Greece, to live in one of the Greek monasteries. In 2014 he became a monk with the name Madai (in honor of the grandson of Noah, the son of Japheth, Medes’ grandparent, one of the descendant nations of whom are the Kurds). In the same year he entered the Theological Department of the University of Athens. He is a monk of the Georgian Orthodox Church, in the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of Holy Queen Sunniva, Norway.

Hoshavi Muhammad: We would like to welcome our honored guest, monk Madai. Monk Madai, in your first interview you said that the majority of Kurds confess the Islamic faith, while the minority belong to a closed religion, known as Yezidism. Why do you think that Yezidism is a false religion?

Monk Madai: I say that as a Christian, speaking from the point of view of Divine Revelation. A religion that is closed to other people and that is held by a small number of people cannot be the truth for all people. Neither can a faith come from God that only acknowledges one language, here I am speaking about Islam.

In and of itself Yezidism arose as a result of the compilation of various religious teachings. It is a natural phenomenon when in the context of Christianity, Judaism or Islam religious leaders appear who, on the basis of traditional religious teachings, add something new and create their own “true path”.

H.M.: In your opinion the founder of Yezidism is the Arab Sufi Sheikh Adi. He radically changed the worldview of Kurdish society. He united ideas from heretical Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Paganism to form Yezidism. For the Yezidis, is Sheikh Adi God or a messenger of God?

M.M.: That is not merely my opinion; it is a well-known and credible fact that the Arab Sheikh Adi descended from the Arabic Umayyad Caliphs. The testimonies of his contemporaries tell us that he was a Muslim of the Sufi doctrine and studied under well-known Sufis of the time. He later settled in a Christian monastery (now called Lalish) and wrote his Tariqa (path). His followers began to be called “Adavis” (followers of Adi) among the locals. Today they are known as Yezidis.

Unfortunately, modern Sheikhs and Pirs, and the clerics of Lalish as a whole, react very negatively to the historical facts which show that Yezidism is an offshoot of Islam. This is related to the fact that Yezidis have always been persecuted by Muslims. Any contact with Muslims is, therefore, categorically rejected by Yezidis. 

Pakistani Christian leader receives threats from Muslims, told to ‘stop building churches or we will kill you'

Muslims warn, "This is an Islamic nation. We cannot allow church building. Either you convert to Islam or you leave this country! Stop building churches or you’ll pay the consequences!"

Related:

• Freedom, Provocation and Targets
• Celebrations of Holy Pascha in Pakistan
• Jihadis Cleansing Pakistan of Christians

To help support the Orthodox Christian Mission in Pakistan, kindly contact: fr.joseph.rocpk@gmail.com

Pakistani Christian leader receives threats from Muslims, told to ‘stop building churches or we will kill you'

by Shafique Khokhar, AsiaNews, May 11, 2015

via Jihad Watch and The Religion of Peace

Lahore (AsiaNews) – For the past three months, Javed David, a Christian leader in Lahore, has been receiving death threats from a group of unidentified people because of his involvement in the construction of several churches in the area.

Three of his associates – John Akram, Ata-ur-Rehman and Saman Joy Alexander – have also been threatened. David is president of a Christian association, ‘Hope for the Light Ministries’.

The latest incident occurred on 4 April, the day before Easter, but the Christian leader spoke to AsiaNews about only today.

“I had been to church in Sheikhupura to attend a meeting with colleagues,” he said. “It was 8 o’clock in the evening when we left to return to Lahore. We were about to reach the main road when a motorbike drove up and blocked the way. Maybe they were following us. The two bikers were wearing a helmet. One of them came up to my window and spoke to me. ‘We know what you are doing here,’ he said. ‘Stop building churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true religion. Otherwise we will make a horrible example of you.”

Neo-Martyr St. Argyri: 'She Regarded Her Hardships as Comforts'

For Christian women and even young girls in Islamic lands, persecution often takes the form of unwanted advances from Muslim men, abductions and rape, and attempts at forced conversion to the false religion of Muhammad.

In Neo-Martyr Argyri we see a powerful witness — martyria (Greek) — who suffered 17 years of prison and torture, and ultimately death, for rejecting a Muslim man's advances and refusing to deny Jesus Christ.

Notice in her 'Life' how we are told that even though in prison, "she humbled her body through fasting. Her heart was filled with such love for Christ that she regarded her hardships as comforts."

Neo-Martyr Argyri gave her life for Christ three centuries ago, yet the same barbaric Muslim persecutions against Christians are occurring today throughout the Islamic world. Let us pray for our Christian brothers and sisters as they climb their Golgotha and bear witness to our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ!

OCA via Lessons from a Monastery — April 30, 2015

Icon of St. Argyri at a monastery
near Giannitsa in Greece

The holy New Martyr Argyri (or Argyra, commemorated April 30) lived in Proussa, Bithynia, and came from a pious family. She was a beautiful and virtuous woman. When she was eighteen, she married a pious Christian, and they moved into a neighborhood inhabited by many Moslems.

After only a few days, she was approached by a Turkish neighbor, the son of the Cadi (magistrate). He boldly declared his love for her, and tried to convert her to his religion. She rejected his advances, saying that she would rather die than be married to a Moslem. She did not tell her husband, fearing that he would go after the Turk and then be punished for it.

The Moslem brought her to trial and testified that she had assented to his advances, but then had laughed and said she was only joking. His lies were corroborated by false witnesses, and Argyri was sent to prison.

The saint’s husband, hoping to get her a fair trial, appealed to Constantinople. There the accuser repeated his lies before the judge. St Argyri said that she was a Christian, and that she would never deny Christ. The judge ordered her to be flogged, then sentenced her to life in prison.