BOOK REVIEW: 'Crucified Again' by Raymond Ibrahim

Essential Resource and Persuasive Paradigm Shift
by Ralph H. Sidway

Order from Amazon

Raymond Ibrahim’s new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, is an essential text — not merely for its thorough and deliberate documentation on the phenomenon of Islamic persecution against Christians from one end of the Muslim world to the other, but primarily for its contribution to our overall understanding of the challenge facing us from Islam. What I mean by this is that Mr. Ibrahim not only collects and collates data, and delivers it in a readable form. But far more importantly, he presents the historical record of Islam’s interaction with Christian communities in such a manner as to give us a corrective to the faulty understanding of Islam many have formed as the result of an historic aberration in recent times.

Here you will find clear definitions of classic Islamic doctrines of jihad, the dhimma contract, the Conditions of Omar, and more. Crucified Again serves very well as a primer for someone wanting to get up to speed on the threat of Radical Islam. But it is much more than an introductory book.

The book’s title is a subtle hook. For many, the eruption of Islamic violence against Christians the last couple of decades, and increasingly these last several years, indeed seems like a new war of Islam against Christians. Even the mainstream media is dropping its guard at times, and occasionally reporting (however haltingly) on the undeniable Muslim attacks against Christians. However, the idea that this might be a resumption of a very old war is literally unthinkable to many, whose knowledge of Islamic history is usually rather limited.

The accumulation of evidence presented by Raymond Ibrahim offers ominous proof that Muslim extremists are relentlessly persecuting Christians, from Morocco in northwest Africa to Nigeria in the Sub-Sahara; from the headline-grabbing church burnings, rapes, murders and forced conversions in Egypt, the Sinai and Syria, through Pakistan and Afghanistan; and from exotic locales like Malaysia and Thailand to the Philippines and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country. Literally everywhere in the Islamic world, Christians are under mounting pressure and worsening conditions. Safety and coexistence are a thing of the past. 

NEW BOOK BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam

New title by scholar and historian Raymond Ibrahim presents "vivid and dramatic profiles of eight extraordinary warriors—some saints, some sinners—who defended the Christian West against Islamic invasions."

"Discover the real Count Dracula, Spain’s El Cid, England’s Richard Lionheart, and many other historical figures, whose true and original claim to fame revolved around their defiant stance against jihadist aggression. An instructive and inspiring read; whereas Sword and Scimitar revolved around decisive battles, Defenders of the West revolves around decisive men." (From the publisher's description.)

I saw the announcement of this title (just published in late July) while traveling earlier this year, and have just now purchased the Kindle edition and begun to read it. The publisher's blurb and the solid but reserved Foreword by Victor Davis Hanson don't even begin to do it justice. 

Ibrahim's Introduction positively crackles with intelligence and energy, and advances with a certain intensity — even ferocity — his warnings about Islam, as well as his warnings concerning the ever weakening postmodern, post-Christian West, which in spite of its superiority in force over the Islamic world, nevertheless is feeble in its belief in and defense of its own heritage, purpose and future. This is a major book with many lessons for us, won at great cost by valiant figures of our culture's past.

The below review by Mark Tapson frames this important new work in vigorous and appropriate terms.

Order Raymond Ibrahim’s Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam HERE.

Learn more about Raymond Ibrahim's writing and sign up for his regular posts HERE.

Defenders of the West

Raymond Ibrahim profiles eight heroes in the clash of civilizations.

by Mark Tapson, FrontPage Mag, July 28, 2022

Historiography has been dominated in recent decades almost exclusively by leftists determined to take a wrecking ball to the glorious edifice of Western civilization in the name of social justice and multiculturalism. New York Times propagandist Nikole Hannah-Jones of the widely-debunked but nonetheless influential 1619 Project comes to mind. The coordinated mission of such activists has been to pervert and subvert the grand narrative of our culture into a sordid tale of oppression, exploitation, and white supremacy, and to brand all our flawed heroes as racists and knock them off their pedestals, both figuratively and literally.

This is one reason why the new book Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, by historian Raymond Ibrahim... is such a refreshing, even thrilling read. As if the title alone weren’t guaranteed to inflame Progressive sensibilities, the book is unabashedly dedicated to “all the Past, Present, and Future Defenders of that which is Good, Right, and True.” Standing up for the Good, the Right, and the True (capitalized, no less) in our postmodern, post-Christian era? That’s a bold, increasingly rare position for any historian and publisher (Bombardier Books, in this case) to take today.

Defenders is a sort of follow-up to Ibrahim’s essential 2018 book Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. That book centered on decisive battles in the clash of civilizations, while the newer one zeroes in on the profiles of eight decisive men in that ongoing conflict, between the 11^th and 15^th centuries, from Spain’s El Cid and England’s Richard Lionheart to lesser-known but no less heroic figures such as France’s Saint Louis and the “Albanian Braveheart” Skanderbeg.

Support Raymond Ibrahim: Sign the Open Letter protesting his being disinvited from speaking at the War College on Islam

No jump-break on this one, folks. This is too important to bury any of it below a "Read more" link.

This is urgent. Please follow the link and sign the NAS Open Letter to President Trump.

Thank you...

Sign Now: NAS Letter to Trump on War College’s Surrender to CAIR

06/26/2019 by Raymond Ibrahim

The National Association of Scholars (NAS), “the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom,” has come forth in my support and written an open letter to the President of the United States.

The signatories, most of whom are academics, call President Trump’s attention to the US Army War College’s recent capitulation to CAIR/Linda Sarsour and “urge you to use the ‘bully pulpit’ of the presidency to call on USAWC Commandant Gen. John Kem and Provost Dr. James Breckenridge to restore Raymond Ibrahim’s lecture.”

Click here to read and sign the letter to President Trump.

The letter appears on a NAS page titled, “Disinviting Scholarship: An Open Letter in Support of Free Inquiry at the U.S. Army War College.” Below is the note that precedes NAS’s open letter:

Editor’s note: The National Association of Scholars invites scholars and members of the public to sign this petition in support of Raymond Ibrahim. Ibrahim was invited to speak at the United States Army War College (USAWC) as part of its 2019 Perspectives in Military History Lecture Series. USAWC, however, has “postponed” Ibrahim’s appearance indefinitely after the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained that he is “biased.” The “postponement” is, in fact, a disinvitation that reflects USAWC’s eagerness to appease a group that claims to represent Muslim-American sensitivities. Capitulating to CAIR by censoring Ibrahim is not in the educational interests of America’s present and future military leaders. 

The USAWC has created a dangerous precedent for institutions of military education. The National Association of Scholars is petitioning the White House to call on the USAWC to reverse its decision, and to set up procedures to prevent such disinvitations in the future. In the letter below we lay out our reasoning and our resolutions. If you agree with these, we urge you to sign.

Click here to read the letter to Trump. If you agree with it, sign it, and share with others.

____________

RAYMOND IBRAHIM is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam specialist. His books include Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (Da Capo, 2018), Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, 2013), and The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007).

Ibrahim’s writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times Syndicate, CNN, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Hoover Institution’s Strategika, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites, including American Thinker, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Christian Post, Daily Caller, FrontPage Mag, Jihad Watch, NewsMax, National Review Online, PJ Media, and World Magazine. He has contributed chapters to several anthologies and has been translated into dozens of languages.

Among other media, he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, and NPR; he has done hundreds of radio interviews and some of his YouTube videos (here and here for example) have received over a million views each.

Ibrahim guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, has briefed governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam and the worsening plight of Egypt’s Christian Copts.

Ibrahim’s dual-background—born and raised in the U.S. by Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former. His interest in Islamic civilization was first piqued when he began visiting the Middle East as a child in the 1970s. Interacting and conversing with the locals throughout the decades has provided him with an intimate appreciation for that part of the world, complementing his academic training.

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The West’s (and Christianity's) Prostration to Islam

I cannot recommend strongly enough Raymond Ibrahim's work. Here, in a wide-ranging interview, he clearly puts forth the challenges facing Christians and Western culture from Islam, and warns against religious dialogue and interfaith outreach, which will only "exacerbate Christian persecution."  

In my book, Facing Islam, I also warn quite vigorously against religious dialogue of Christians with Muslims, primarily because it leads directly to Christians committing apostasy. Any Christian who affirms Islam is denying Jesus Christ. Any Christian who affirms Muhammad as a prophet is denying Jesus Christ. Any Christian who asserts that Islam is an Abrahamic religion is denying Jesus Christ. To remain uninformed about Islam in this day and age is tragic, and places one's soul in grave danger.  Get the book. 


The West’s Prostration to Islam
via RaymondIbrahim.com — August 5, 2014

Editor’s note: Raymond Ibrahim was recently interviewed by Fronda, a leading website in Poland.  The English-language version of the Polish interview, originally titled “Raymond Ibrahim: Prostration before Islam,” follows:

• Q: Who is Raymond Ibrahim? A scholar, a writer, an activist? What is his mission and the main goal?

Raymond Ibrahim: I am a little of all that and more.  Due to my background, academic and personal, I have had a long interest in the Middle East and Islam, especially the historic and contemporary interaction between Islam and Christianity.  After the strikes of September 11, 2001, I took an interest in the current events of the region vis-à-vis the West, and what immediately struck me was how, on the one hand, the conflict was almost identical to the historic conflict, one of continuity—at least that is how many Muslims were portraying it.

"In the West, the narrative was very different and based on a 'new paradigm', one that saw Islam and Muslims as perpetual victims of all sorts of outside and material pressures, mostly from the West.  Thus the [Western] analyses were immensely flawed and had little to do with reality."

But on the other hand, in the West, the narrative was very different and based on a “new paradigm,” one that saw Islam and Muslims as perpetual victims of all sorts of outside and material pressures, mostly from the West.  Thus the analyses that were being disseminated through media and academia were to my mind immensely flawed and, while making perfect sense to people in the West—for they were articulated through Western, secular, materialistic paradigms—had little to do with reality as I saw and understood it.

That was one of the reasons I left academia and began writing for more popular audiences, to try to offer a corrective to these flawed narratives.  My first book, The Al Qaeda Reader (2007), was meant to do precisely this—to compare the words of al-Qaeda as delivered to the West and as delivered to fellow Muslims, and to show how when speaking to the West, al-Qaeda and other Islamists used Western arguments, claiming any number of grievances, political and otherwise, as being the source of their jihad.  Obviously such arguments, widely disseminated by Western mainstream media, made perfect sense to the West.

But al-Qaeda’s Arabic writings that I discovered when I was working at the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and which I translated for the book, made completely different arguments, basically saying that, irrespective of all grievances, Muslims must hate and wage jihad on all non-Muslim “infidels” until they come under Islamic authority, according to the worldview of Sharia, or Islamic law.

So in a way, you can say my mission since then has been to open Western eyes to the truths and reality of Islam—at least the reality of how it is understood and practiced by many Muslims—for Western eyes have been closed shut in recent times.

Raymond Ibrahim: Has Syria Got a Prayer? Attacks on Christian Churches Near Damascus

"Prayer is never silly.  But accompanying it with action is obviously better.  Let us not forget that when Jesus was slapped by a guard, he did not meekly submit, but questioned him for it, and when St. Paul was persecuted, he did not meekly go along, but invoked his Roman citizenship. The idea that Christians must always “turn the other cheek” — which increasingly is being exploited to make Christians passive — is much more complicated than normally thought, and does not mean Christians should be doormats." —Raymond Ibrahim (from the interview below)

National Review Online via raymondibrahim.com — 9/7/2013

[Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Raymond Ibrahim]

After destroying and ransacking a Syrian church, a U.S.-supported

jihadi poses to mock Christianity.

On his website, Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again, posts a video of what appear to be Islamic extremists attacking Christian churches in Syria — St. Elias Church and St. Grace Church in the Christian village of Maaloula near Damascus – where villagers still speak Aramaic, the language Christ spoke.

KJL: Do a lot of people still speak Aramaic? How many of their lives are in danger right now?

IBRAHIM: Not a lot, but they are out there, mostly in Syria and eastern regions of Turkey. And in both regions both communities are under attack: in Syria, via U.S.-supported al-Qaeda (whatever else Assad is, he is certainly not a persecutor of his nation’s indigenous Christians), and by the Islamist government of Turkey. For example, the existence of the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, the fifth-century Mor Gabriel Monastery, inhabited by a few dozen Christians dedicated to learning the monastery’s teachings, including the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Jesus, is at risk. The highest appeals court in Ankara ruled that the land that had been part of the monastery for 1,600 years is not its property, absurdly claiming that the monastery was built over the ruins of a mosque — even though Muhammad was born 170 years after the monastery was built.

KJL: Do we have any idea how many churches have been attacked in Syria and Egypt recently?

IBRAHIM: In Egypt, in just the last few weeks, approximately 80 churches and monasteries and other Christian institutions were attacked, many set aflame and/or destroyed.  In Syria, I am not sure of the exact number, but nary a month goes by when I compile my monthly Muslim persecution of Christians series, that an attack on at least one Syrian church or monastery does not take place. A recent report says that a decade after the U.S. “liberated” neighboring Iraq, some 70 churches have been destroyed. That appears to be the fate of the ancient churches of Syria should the Obama administration get its way in Syria.

KJL:  Are Syrian Christians better off if the U.S. does not strike against Assad?

IBRAHIM: Absolutely. That is not because Assad is a great guy, but because the alternatives — the same alternatives we saw in Libya and Egypt, that is, the Islamists and jihadis — are hostile to “infidel” Christians, a fact with ample doctrinal, historical, and current-affair proof.

KJL: Why is the debate over “Allahu Akbar” this week worth having?

IBRAHIM: Allahu Akbar is Islam’s most original and distinct war cry, it is always shouted out when Islam scores a victory, most often, a military victory, such as, in this case, shooting missiles at a church.  It literally means “my god [Allah] is greater” than your god (hence why shouted in the context of military victory). And hence why it is disgraceful for John McCain to compare it to Christians saying “thank God.”  He elevates the war cry of Islam to the level of the evcharistia – the Greek word for “thanksgiving” — and thus implicitly equates the Holy Eucharist with 1,400 years of jihad against Christianity.

Raymond Ibrahim: 'The Muslim Appropriation of Mary'

In this second in our series for the Nativity Season, Raymond Ibrahim shows how contemporary Islam perpetuates the blasphemous appropriation of the Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God (Greek: Theotokos), first initiated by the depraved false prophet Muhammad fourteen-hundred years ago, and why it is essential for Christians to be aware of the truth behind Islam's "veneration" of Mary. 

Using the Virgin Mary "as a model of 'open borders' between religious and multicultural worlds" in an effort to reconcile Islam and Catholicism is to deny Christ and His Most Pure Mother, and reveals those behind such initiatives as full-blown apostates from the Christian Faith and self-condemned.

The Muslim Appropriation of Mary

by Raymond Ibrahim, February 21, 2021

In “Vatican: Mary is Catholic-Muslim Bridge,” Jules Gomes of Church Militant interviews me:

VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – The Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI) is promoting the Blessed Virgin as a bridge reconciling Islam and Catholicism following the Abu Dhabi pact between Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayyeb.

On Thursday, the Marian academy in Rome launched a 10-week webinar series titled “Mary, a model for faith and life for Christianity and Islam” in collaboration with the Grand Mosque of Rome and the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy.

Based on his belief that Mary is “a Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman,” Fr. Gian Matteo Roggio, organizer of the Muslim-Catholic dialogue series on Our Lady, is seeking to mobilize Mary as a model of “open borders” between religious and multicultural worlds.

Mary responds “to the genetic codes of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” affirms Roggio, a member of the religious order of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, writing in the Italian liberal Catholic periodical Famiglia Cristiana.

Islamic historian Raymond Ibrahim told Church Militant that “this series is yet another attempt to try to convince Catholics that Islam is somehow similar to their Faith when, in fact, Islam appropriates the names and sacred auras of biblical figures but then recasts them with completely different attributes — ones that reaffirm Islam as the ‘true’ faith.”

Ibrahim, a prolific writer, and the author of recent bestseller Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West, explained:

For example, the series’ organizers insist that Mary was a “Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman,” which is only two-thirds true: Yes, she was a Jew by race and background, and yes, she was a Christian in that she literally birthed Christ(ianity), but she was most certainly not a Muslim — a term and religion that did not exist until 600 years after the end of her earthly life.

“Worse, far from being the Eternal Virgin, as she is for 1.5 billion Christians — Catholics and Orthodox — Islam presents Mary, the Mother of Christ, as ‘married’ to and ‘copulating’ with Muhammad in paradise,” Ibrahim revealed.

In an article for Frontpage Magazine titled “Muhammad and the Virgin Mary: A Match Made in Heaven?” Ibrahim cited a hadith (Islamic canonical tradition) wherein Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, declares: “Allah will wed me in paradise to Mary, daughter of Imran.”

Far from being the Perpetual Virgin — Islam presents Mary, the Mother of Christ, as ‘married’ to and ‘copulating’ with Muhammad in paradise.Tweet

Few Christians know about this claim, but medieval Christians living under Islamic occupation were familiar with it because their Muslim conquerors regularly humiliated them with this text to refute the Church’s claim of Mary’s perpetual virginity, writes Ibrahim.

In fact, Egypt’s former deputy minister of religious endowments, Dr. Salem Abdul Galil, openly declared that among other biblical women like Moses’ sister and Pharaoh’s wife, “Our prophet Muhammad — prayers and peace be upon him — will be married to (the Virgin) Mary in paradise.”

Ibrahim obtained the Arabic video of Galil stating this on the Mahwar television network.

“Far from creating ‘commonalities,’ it should be clear that such appropriation creates conflict,” Ibrahim told Church Militant.

Mary is a Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman.  The prolific writer elaborated:

By way of analogy, imagine you have a grandfather whom you are particularly fond of, and out of the blue, a stranger says: “Hey, that’s my grandfather!” Then — lest you think this stranger is somehow trying to become your friend — he adds: “And everything you thought you knew about grandpa is wrong!” Would that endear this stranger to you?

The webinars will end during the month of Ramadan in the conference room of the Great Mosque of Rome with “Mary’s dates” — a reference to the fruit of the date palm and a verse from the Koran (Sura 19.22–26).

Congressional Hearings Offer Truth, Glimmer of Hope

The below videos of Raymond Ibrahim's recent Congressional testimony regarding Muslim persecution against the Egyptian Coptic Christian community is one of the most helpful brief presentations I have yet seen on this extremely urgent issue. Mr. Ibrahim presents the historical context of Islam's domination of Egypt since the Muslims conquered the ancient nation in 641A.D., and demonstrates through historical analysis the unbroken continuity of the institutionalized discrimination against and persecution of Christians by Muslims in Islamic cultures spanning fourteen centuries and several continents, cultures and languages. 

I cannot recommend watching these videos (or reading the transcripts) strongly enough. In addition to shining the clear light of real historical scholarship on the plight of Egypt's Copts, and offering sound, measured advice on what an informed American policy towards the new Egypt might look like, Ibrahim also exposes one of the great failings of our time, namely the willful subordination of modern Western academia to politically correct self-censorship when it comes to the study of Islam and its relations with non-Muslims. Of course, Western mainstream media is notorious for misreporting the situation in Egypt and the rest of the Islamic world so as to avoid casting a bad light on Islam. When 3,000 Muslims destroy and burn a Coptic church, the MSM reports it as "sectarian violence," which implies two relatively evenly matched protagonists, rather than the one-sided genocidal religious persecution it, in fact, is.

For the sake of brevity, I am posting the videos below,  following a brief intro detailing Raymond Ibrahim's credentials. If you wish to read the transcripts online, you can do so here. A PDF version of the transcript is available also. For videos and transcripts of the testimony by Coptic activist Cynthia Farahat and some of the other witnesses, please visit the Center for Security Policy.

Raymond Ibrahim testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the House of Representatives. Reps. Frank Wolf and James McDermott presented "Under Threat: The Worsening Plight of Egypt's Coptic Christians."

Raymond Ibrahim is a Middle East and Islam specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. A widely published author, best known for The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007), he guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, briefs governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam.

Sword and Scimitar: 'Compelling Reminder of the Terrifying Dynamic which Continues to Drive the Islamic World'

An in-depth, "must read" review of Raymond Ibrahim's most recent masterwork.

Sword and Scimitar: “A Compelling Reminder of the Terrifying Dynamic which Continues to Drive the Islamic World”

10/02/2019 by Raymond Ibrahim

Note: The following book review of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West was written by Terry Scambray and first appeared in the Sept. 2019 issue of the New Oxford Review:

___________________

We judge individuals by what they say and what they do. We judge cults, religions and ideologies the same way; that is, by their doctrines and history.

Which is common sense, of course.

Apparently though, common sense is abandoned when it comes to ideologies like Marxism which has largely escaped such scrutiny by our schools and popular culture; and now the same cover up is happening with Islam.

But Raymond Ibrahim, fluent in Arabic, is an equal opportunity Middle East scholar committed to truth rather than conforming to dangerous fads.

Ibrahim gained attention with his revealing translations in his 2007 book, The Al Qaeda Reader, which showed the difference between what Osama bin Laden said in Arabic to Muslims and what he said for receptive, if not gullible, Western audiences.

Ibrahim’s second book, Crucified Again, showed the murder and destruction that Christians are enduring at the hands of Muslims throughout the world.

In Sword and Scimitar, Ibrahim begins by explaining Mohammed’s doctrine of jihad or “holy war”: “Whereas the rewards of the pre-Islamic tribal raid were limited to temporal spoils and came with the risk of death, the deified raid (jihad) offered rewards in the here and the hereafter – meaning it was essentially risk free – and thus led to a newborn fanaticism and determination.” In other words, robbery, murder and enslavement were sacralized and then transformed into a prodigious engine of Islamic conquest.

Conquest being the major feature of Islam’s 1,400 year history, Sword and Scimitar takes the reader on a tour – “a tour of force” – as represented by eight significant battles and an array of lesser clashes.

Skillfully relying on first person descriptions, Ibrahim’s narration of these battles is gripping and suspenseful while also evoking the pain and terror of warfare. Especially after the current revival of jihad, his recounting of these barbaric episodes and their consequences is not comforting.

Extended Interview with Raymond Ibrahim on Islam, by Hank Hanegraaf

This is an outstanding, "Ultimate" interview with Raymond Ibrahim, author of 'Crucified Again - Exposing Islam's New War On Christians', 'The Al Qaeda Reader', and a new book scheduled for 2018, 'Sword and Scimitar'.

Hanegraaf lets Raymond really explore the topics, which results in a riveting, wide-ranging discussion, with Raymond being able to stretch out and make a compelling presentation based on his many years of research.

It's a long interview (more than 90 minutes), but well worth it. Raymond Ibrahim continues to elevate his stature as one of the great Christian scholars on the Islamic threat.

St Vladimir's Seminary — You should invite this man and give him an honorary PhD and have him give a keynote address on Orthodoxy and Islam.

Money quotes:

• "If Allah is God, then he's schizophrenic."

• "The early Christians... were scandalized when they finally got the Koran and Muhammad's biography, saying basically, 'What sort of a God is this, that exists to validate this man's primordial and savage impulses?'"

From Hank Hanegraaf's podcast site:

This week, Hank is joined on Hank Unplugged by Middle East expert Raymond Ibrahim to discuss the stark reality of Islamic issues faced by the world today in context with historical analysis, not the least of them being the Muslim genocide and persecution of Christians.

Topics discussed include: 

• the West actively undermining itself and the reality of Islam (6:00); 
• the aberration of labeling Islam as one of the Abrahamic faiths (10:00); 
• the difference between Mohammed and Christ (13:30); 
• is the Allah of Islam the God of the Bible? (19:30)

(interview description continues below the player)

Listen to ""Drip-Drip" Genocide: Muslim Persecution of Christians" on Spreaker.

William Kilpatrick and Raymond Ibrahim: 'Defenders of Faith and Family'

William Kilpatrick's stirring, in-depth review of Raymond Ibrahim's newest book, is itself a vigorous rallying cry to defenders of Western Christian Culture against not merely Islamic supremacy or terrorism, but against the anti-Christian, anti-family and anti-human Progressive, Leftist agenda.

Defenders of Faith and Family

Like today’s leftists, the Ottoman Turks wanted to turn Christian children against their parents; but one man turned the tables on them.

by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine

Christianity was saved in Europe solely because the peoples of Europe fought. If [Europeans]…had not possessed a military equality with, and gradually a growing superiority over the Mohammedans who invaded Europe, Europe would at this moment be Mohammedan and the Christian religion would be exterminated. 

—Theodore Roosevelt

I came across Roosevelt’s observation in Raymond Ibrahim’s recent book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes who stood against Islam. At a time when Islam once again seems poised to conquer Europe—this time by dint of immigration and higher birthrates—Ibrahim’s book serves as a timely reminder that this clash of civilizations is far from over.

Defenders of the West focuses on eight individuals who fought against Islamic armies at various times in past centuries. Interestingly, Ibrahim himself can be considered a modern-day “defender of the West” or, more accurately, “defender of the faith.”

I say this because the faith can’t be effectively defended unless Christians first realize that it needs defending. Much of Ibrahim’s work concerns the oppression of Christians by Muslims all over the world but particularly in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—a story that relatively few Western Christians are familiar with.

Ibrahim, of course, also writes about the continuing threat to the West—to Europe and the Americas. 

VIDEO: Raymond Ibrahim — The ongoing war between Islam and Europe

In the following video, Hanne Nabintu, historian of religions, interviews Raymond Ibrahim on the history of Islam and the West.  Topics include the original (but forgotten) Arab conquests, the (demonized) Crusades, and why the modern West’s notion of “history” is immensely skewed.

Raymond Ibrahim — May 21, 2015

Interview with scholar Raymond Ibrahim on the Middle East and vital facts of history that we often hear little about in the media today. We often forget that during the early Islamic conquest a high number of Christian nations in the Middle East were taken over by Islam. Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Marocco - these were Christian lands at the time.

Europe itself was under siege for several hundred years, - only Scandinavia, Germany and the British Isles were exempt from the Muslim effort to take Europe. We forget that the Crusades were originally a European reaction to the horrors that was done to Christians, both pilgrims and the indigenous Christians in the Middle East as a result of the Muslim Conquests.

Scroll down for video...

Raymond Ibrahim: 'Islam’s Erasure of Christianity'

The recent discovery of of "how an eighth century Koran was found to be written over... the Bible" has been hailed by the media as evidence of "cultural interactions between different religious communities.”

The truth, however, as Raymond Ibrahim proves in his most recent article, is much darker and far more foreboding:

"What is euphemistically referred to as 'cultural interactions between different religious communities' is a reference to the near cultural annihilation of Coptic Christian civilization by Islam. "

Islam’s Erasure of Christianity

by Raymond Ibrahim, May 14, 2018:

A recent article titled “Passages from the Bible discovered behind Qur’an manuscript” is a reminder that for centuries Islam has been literally and figuratively erasing Christianity.

The report tells of how an eighth century Koran was found to be written over a Christian book, possibly the Bible: “French scholar Dr Eléonore Cellard … noticed that, appearing faintly behind the Arabic script, were Coptic letters. She contacted Christie’s [an auction house], and they managed to identify the Coptic text as coming from the Old Testament’s Book of Deuteronomy—part of the Torah and the Christian Old Testament.”

What this means, and how Western scholars understand it, are two different things: “This is a very important discovery for the history of the Qur’an and early Islam,” said Cellard. “We have here a witness of cultural interactions between different religious communities.” Christie’s specialist Romain Pingannaud concurs: “It shows the contact between communities in the first centuries of Islam.”

What is euphemistically referred to as “cultural interactions between different religious communities” and “the contact between communities in the first centuries of Islam” is a reference to the near cultural annihilation of Coptic Christian civilization by Islam on the former’s own homeland.

Raymond Ibrahim: 'Islamic reform? Top Muslim university says no'

"Renewal is in no way possible concerning those texts which are irrefutable in their certainty and stability." 

- Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb 

"The problem is that many of the worst teachings plaguing the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds are derived directly from those texts deemed entirely reliable." 

- Raymond Ibrahim

Islamic reform? Top Muslim university says no

by Raymond Ibrahim, American Thinker, February 16, 2020

Pope Francis greets Egypt's Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb at Abu Dhabi Conference in 2019

Largely unknown to and unreported in the West, a large, two-day conference was recently hosted (Jan. 27–28) by Al Azhar University in Egypt and attended by the leading clerics and politicians from 46 nations. Titled "Renewal in Islamic Thought," it is currently the most significant response to Egyptian president Sisi's calls for reform, which he forcibly made on January 1, 2015.

The conference focused on the most pressing topics affecting the Islamic — and in some cases non-Islamic — world, including women's rights, government and society, and the question of "radicalization" and the emergence of jihadi terror groups such as the Islamic State.

I've watched many of the panels with great interest, and in the coming weeks, I hope to remark on some of these, but for now I wish to discuss what can be learned from the closing remarks of the grand imam of Al Azhar (and Pope Francis's good friend), Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb.

First, he — in agreement with the other clerics present — closed the door on the possibility for reform on a great number of issues: "Renewal," he announced, "is in no way possible concerning those texts which are irrefutable in their certainty and stability; as for those texts that are not entirely credible, they are subject to ijtihad [reinterpretation, especially based on changing circumstances]."

'The problem is that many of the worst teachings plaguing the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds are derived directly from those texts deemed entirely reliable.'

In plain language, the teachings of those Islamic texts that are deemed entirely reliable — chief among them, the Koran as well as certain hadith, including, according to mainstream Sunnism, all nine volumes of Sahih Bukhari — are not subject to any change; only those secondary Islamic texts, including many other volumes of hadith, the sira (biography of Muhammad), and other works of history, are open to debate.

The problem is that some — many — of the worst teachings plaguing the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds are derived directly from those texts deemed entirely reliable. The Koran, for example, very clearly permits the sexual enslavement of non-Muslim women, the beating of one's wife, and polygamy. The Koran calls on Muslims to have hate for and when convenient to war on non-Muslims just because they are non-Muslims. 

Christian Tragedy in the Muslim World

Book Review By Bruce Thornton — originally published in Defining Ideas, a Hoover Institution Journal

Few people realize that we are today living through the largest persecution of Christians in history, worse even than the famous attacks under ancient Roman emperors like Diocletian and Nero. Estimates of the numbers of Christians under assault range from 100-200 million. According to one estimate, a Christian is martyred every five minutes. And most of this persecution is taking place at the hands of Muslims. Of the top fifty countries persecuting Christians, forty-two have either a Muslim majority or have sizeable Muslim populations.

The extent of this disaster, its origins, and the reasons why it has been met with a shrug by most of the Western media are the topics of Raymond Ibrahim’s Crucified Again. Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an associate fellow of the Middle East Forum. Fluent in Arabic, he has been tracking what he calls “one of the most dramatic stories” of our time in the reports and witnesses that appear in Arabic newspapers, news shows, and websites, but that rarely get translated into English or picked up by the Western press. What he documents in this meticulously researched and clearly argued book is a human rights disaster of monumental proportions.

Raymond Ibrahim: 'How Islam Mutilates Christ'

 "While relying on the figures of the Old and New Testaments—for the weight of antiquity and authority attached to their names—Islam completely recasts them in a manner that validates itself and invalidates Judaism and Christianity.  This would seem to burn rather than build bridges." 

— Raymond Ibrahim

As we enter into the Nativity Fast and the Advent/Christmas season, it seems an especially proper time to post some recent articles of a theological nature. This new piece by Raymond Ibrahim surveys numerous examples of how Islam strives to appropriate Jesus Christ, Abraham, and a whole range of Old and New Testament figures, and even some Christian saints, but as Muslim heroes, distorting historical fact and mutilating their actual theological and spiritual message and import. 

This is a well known tactic of Muslim 'dawah' which dates back to Muhammad himself, and must be exposed as one of the primary lies of the Same God Heresy which Islamic apologists and well intentioned but gullible Christians so often promote.

How Islam Mutilates Christ

by Raymond Ibrahim, 11/2/2021

Not only does Islam claim Abraham, Moses, and Jesus; it apparently claims post biblical figures, such as Saint George, as well.  So states a recent article on My London, the real point of which is apparently to assert Christian and Muslim “commonalities.”  Thus, we learn that “on St George’s Day, which in Eastern Christianity is marked on May 6, Muslims in the area [of Nazareth] join Christians in their venerations of the saint.”

Judaism also finds its way into this article on religious syncretism: “According to some Sufi traditions, the [Hebrew] Prophet Elias, Al-Khidr [a character in the Koran], and Saint George are all the same person. They believe Elias reappears at different times in human history under different names to help stricken believers in times of crisis.”

The entire article is a testimony to the widely entrenched conviction that, because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share many of the same characters, creating rapprochement between the three faiths is not just easy; it’s the most natural thing to do.

Left out of this calculus is the all-important fact that Islam does not treat biblical characters the way Christianity does.  Christians accept the Hebrew Bible, or “Old Testament,” as it is. They do not add, take away, or distort the accounts of the patriarchs that Jews also rely on.

Conversely, while also relying on the figures of the Old and New Testaments—for the weight of antiquity and authority attached to their names—Islam completely recasts them in a manner that validates itself and invalidates Judaism and Christianity.  This would seem to burn rather than build bridges.

Consider, for example, Islam’s treatment of Jesus (‘Isa in the Koran).  Not only does Islam vehemently deny Christ’s sonship to God, a new book on Islamic sources inadvertently underscores the fact that ‘Isa is the antithesis of Jesus—his doppelganger.

Raymond Ibrahim: "Islam: The West’s 'Most Formidable and Persistent Enemy'”

"What is now called 'the West' is actually the westernmost remnant of what was a much more extensive civilizational block that Islam permanently severed, thereby altering the course of 'Western' history." - Raymond Ibrahim

The below article by Raymond Ibrahim presents a condensed synopsis of the core presentation of his new book, Sword and Scimitar, which I intend to review here as soon as possible. 

When it comes to understanding the threat to Christianity and the West from Islam, having a long view of history is essential. This is Raymond Ibrahim's forté, tracing the inexorable continuity of Islamic history and its relentless imperative to wage jihad against the Christian world.

In the words of Hilaire Belloc, whom Mr. Ibrahim cites below, we hear a dire warning from a serious observer of history:

The whole spiritual strength of Islam is still present in the masses of Syria and Anatolia, of the East Asian mountains, of Arabia, Egypt and North Africa. The final fruit of this tenacity, the second period of Islamic power, may be delayed —but I doubt whether it can be permanently postponed.

Islam: The West’s 'Most Formidable and Persistent Enemy'

by Raymond Ibrahim, American Thinker, Feb 13, 2019

Hilaire Belloc, 1870-1953

At the height of Western dominance over Islam in the early twentieth century, the European historian Hilaire Belloc made a remarkably prescient observation that may have seemed exaggerated at the time:

Millions of modern people of the white civilization—that is, the civilization of Europe and America—have forgotten all about Islam. They have never come in contact with it. They take for granted that it is decaying, and that, anyway, it is just a foreign religion which will not concern them. It is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past (from Belloc’s The Great Heresies, 1938, emphasis added).

Anyone who doubts that Islam has been “the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had,” should familiarize themselves with Islam’s long offensive record vis-à-vis the West. A succinct summary follows:

According to Islamic history, in 628, the Arabian founder of Islam, Muhammad, called on the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius—the symbolic head of Christendom—to recant Christianity and embrace Islam. The emperor refused, jihad was declared, and the Arabs invaded Christian Syria, defeating the imperial army at the pivotal Battle of Yarmuk in 636 (see my MA thesis on this battle, which one prominent historian described as the world’s “most consequential”).

This victory enabled the Muslims to swarm in all directions, so that, less than a century later, they had conquered the greater, older, and richer part of Christendom, including Syria, Egypt, and North Africa.

Their drive into Europe from the east was repeatedly frustrated by the Walls of Constantinople; after the spectacularly failed siege of 717-718, many centuries would pass before any Muslim power thought to capture the imperial city. The Arabs did manage to invade Europe proper through and conquered Spain but were stopped at the Battle of Tours in 732 and eventually driven back south of the Pyrenees.

For more than two centuries thereafter, Europe continued to be pummeled by land and sea—untold thousands of Christians were enslaved and every Mediterranean island sacked—in the ongoing Muslim quest for booty and slaves, as what historians have dubbed “the Dark Ages” descended on the continent.

Raymond Ibrahim: Christians ‘Crucified Again’ for Refusing Islam

A still frame from the 1919 documentary film Auction of Souls, which portrayed eye witnessed events from the Armenian Genocide, including crucified Christian girls. 

by Raymond Ibrahim — May 5, 2014
Raymond Ibrahim is the author of the essential book, Crucified Again - Exposing Islam's New War on Christians.

To the awe of its readership, a recent Daily Mail article reports that the “jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant [ISIL],” which is currently entrenched in Raqqa, Syria, “publicly crucified two Syrian rebels in northeastern Syria in revenge for a grenade attack on members of their group.”

While the Daily Mail is to be commended for exposing these barbaric acts—along with posting photos of the crucified—it nonetheless minimized their significance, in two important ways: 1) by repeatedly saying things like “even al-Qaeda is distancing itself from ISIL,” and so implying that the act of crucifixion is some wild aberration that even the poster-child of jihadi terror, al-Qaeda, wants nothing to do with it; and 2) ignoring the much “sexier” story that Christians in Syria are also being crucified simply for refusing to embrace Islam (as opposed to the rather mundane but politically more correct story of jihadis crucifying each other in the context of vendetta killings).

Consider the atrocities earlier committed in Ma‘loula, Syria, an ancient Christian village where the inhabitants still spoke Aramaic, the language of Christ.

According to recent Arabic news media, “a Syrian nun testified to the Vatican news agency that some Christians in Ma‘loula were crucified for refusing to convert to Islam or pay jizya” (tribute subjugated Christians are required to pay to their Islamic conquerors in order to exist as Christians, per Koran 9:29).

Incidentally, they were crucified by the al-Qaeda linked Nasra Front (so much for Daily Mail’s portrayal of al-Qaeda “distancing” itself from the apparently “extra-extremist” ISIL for crucifying its victims).

Sister Raghad, the former head of the Patriarchate School in Damascus who currently resides in France, told Vatican Radio how she personally witnessed jihadi rebels terrorize Ma‘loula, including by pressuring Christians to proclaim the shehada—Islam’s credo that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger—which, when uttered before Muslim witnesses transforms the speaker into a Muslim, with the death penalty for apostasy should the convert later “renege” by returning to Christianity.

According to the nun, those Christians who refused to embrace Islam were

killed in atrocious and violent ways that cannot be described.  If you want examples, they crucified two youths in Ma‘loula for refusing to proclaim Islam’s credo, saying to them: “Perhaps you want to die like your teacher [Christ] whom you believe in?  You have two choices: either proclaim the shehada or else be crucified.”  One of them was crucified before his father, whom they also killed.

Islam's Continuity

For my first post since July, I've chosen to share a new article by noted scholar of Islam, Raymond Ibrahim, who I had the great pleasure of meeting at the Lima Conference on Orthodoxy and Islam, this past August 19-21. Raymond has for some time now been "demonstrating continuity" (the sub-heading of his former blog) in Islam, that is, how the actions of today's devout Muslims can be seen to span not merely decades back, but precisely 1.38 millennia, being evidenced in every land where Islam has spread.

In this article, Raymond makes his point stunningly clear by focusing on two nearly identical instances of attempted forced conversion, separated by five hundred years, culture and language:

Islam’s History of Forced Conversions

Raymond Ibrahim, September 29, 2011

Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization.

Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with ample precedents.  Indeed, from its inception, most of those who embraced Islam did so under duress, beginning with the Ridda wars and during the age of conquests, and to escape dhimmi status.  This is a simple fact.

Yet, when one examines today’s cases of forced conversions with those from centuries past, identical patterns emerge, demonstrating great continuity.  Consider:

Days ago in Pakistan, two Christian men were severely beaten with iron rods and left for dead by a group of Muslims, simply because they refused to convert to Islam.  According toCompass Direct News ^[1], they were returning from a church service when they were accosted by six Muslims.  After they discovered they were Christian, the Muslims:

then started questioning them about their faith and later tried to force them to recite the Kalma [Islamic conversion creed, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger”] and become Muslims, telling them that this was the only way they could live peacefully in the city. They also offered monetary incentives and “protection” to Ishfaq and Naeem [the Christians], but the two refused to renounce Christianity.

“After cajoling the two Christians for some time,” the Muslims pretended to go away, only to ram their car into the Christians: “The Muslims [then] got out of the car armed with iron rods and attacked Ishfaq and Naeem, shouting that they should either recite the Kalma or be prepared to die…severely beating[ing] the two Christians, fracturing Ishfaq Munawar’s jaw and breaking five teeth, and seriously injuring Masih…. [T]he two Christians fell unconscious, and the young Muslim men left assuming they had killed them.”

Contrast this contemporary account with the following anecdote from some 500 years past (excerpted from Witnesses for Christ ^[2], pgs.62-64):

In the year 1522, two Christian brothers in Ottoman Egypt were denounced by local Muslims “mostly out of jealousy and envy”; so the emir arrested them and “began flattering them and asking questions about their faith.”  The brothers made it clear that they were firm adherents of Christianity.  “The Muslims in the audience became enraged with the brothers when they heard their answers, and they began screaming and demanding they must become Muslims.”  The brothers responded by refusing to “deny the faith we received from our forefathers, but we will remain unshaken and very firm in it until the end.”

The Muslim judge deciding their case told the Christian brothers that if they simply said the Kalma and embraced Islam, they “would be given many honors and much glory”; otherwise, they would die.  At that point, the brothers’ mother came to support them, but “when the Muslims in court noticed her, they fell upon her, tore her clothing, and gave her a thorough beating.”

After rebuking them for their savagery, the brothers reaffirmed that they would never deny Christianity for Islam, adding “behold our necks, do what you wish, but do it quickly.”

 Hearing this, one of the Muslims in the audience became so angry that he took out a knife and stabbed Kyrmidoles [one brother] in the chest, while someone else kicked him as hard as possible, and another dropped a large stone on his head.  Finally, they plucked out his eyes.  Thus Kyrmidoles died.  As for Gabriel [his brother] they threw him to the ground and one of the soldiers severed his right shoulder and then proceeded and cut off his head.

Now, consider the near identical patterns in the two accounts, separated by half a millennium:

1. The Muslims first begin by talking to the Christians about their religion, suggesting they convert to Islam.
2. Failing to persuade the Christians, the Muslims proceed to “cajole” and offer “monetary incentives and protection” (in the modern case) and “flatter” and offer “many honors and much glory” (in the historic case).  All that the Christians need do is speak some words, the Kalma, and become Muslim.
3. When the Christians still refuse, the Muslims fly into a savage rage, beating and torturing their victims to death (in the modern case, the Muslims assumed they had killed their victims).

Considering the Ottoman Empire and contemporary Pakistan are separated by culture, language, and some 500 years, how does one explain these identical patterns?  What binds them together?

Only Islam—Islam empowered, Islam in charge; Muslim majorities governing, and thus abusing their non-Muslim minority.  A fact of life, past and present.

Source.

____________

What Raymond Ibrahim does in his many articles, Dr Mark Durie has accomplished in his superb book-length presentation of Islam's treatment of Christians and other non-Muslims, The Third Choice. Durie devotes a large portion of his discussion precisely to "demonstrating continuity", showing through objective historical research how the Islamic practices of aggressive jihad, forced conversions, and the domination, subjugation and humiliation of non-Muslims through the institutionalization of the dhimma contract, are constants in Islamic history, spanning nearly fourteen hundred years, and evidenced in every part of the globe where Islam has spread. 

Wherever Islam goes, it seeks to usurp and dominate, by force if possible (jihad), and by stealth, immigration and deception if necessary, until it is sufficiently strong enough to wage offensive jihad. And wherever Islam is successful in overcoming and conquering a new territory and peoples, it becomes aggressively disposed towards its non-Muslim population, and wherever that happens, one sees the type of barbaric behavior against Christians documented in the lives of the Holy Neomartyrs (see Witnesses for Christ, by Nomikos Michael Vaporis), and in the lives of Christians in Islamic countries today.

Acknowledging this continuity in our considerations of Islam is essential for an honest appraisal of this alien and threatening culture which is once again seeking to assert itself over the world.