Oppression or oppression: The Christian dilemma in Islamic states

It was reported in the New York Times yesterday that 'Fearing Change, Many Christians in Syria Back Assad'. It is a sad irony for Christians there that even Iran has called for an end to the Syrian crackdown despiteoppression being the norm in that country.

While the Anglican church herecontents itself with becoming a social club for non-dissenters, fellow Christians elsewhere are prepared to die for their faith subjecting themselves to endlessharassment. [Caution: the harassment link shows distressing images.]

The unintendedconsequences of the Arab Spring have provided a stark reminder that Christians in Iraq werebetter off under Saddam Hussein leaving Christians in Syria impaled on the horns of a dilemma.

Read More

Tory Candidate Scrapes the Barrel for Muslim Vote

If the Tory candidate for Blackburn unseats the Secretary of State for Justice in the coming election the Conservative whip is not the whip he deserves..

The Telegraph reports today that he circulated a leaflet, now withdrawn on the orders of HQ, which challenges Labour?S claim to serve the Muslim vote.

It says:

??We cannot be deceived by their hollow claims. We have in front of us a whole saga of atrocities committed in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Palestine and as if this was not enough, the Labour government allowed the Israeli government to create havoc in Lebanon and Gaza in Palestine, destroying their infrastructure and killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilians. The Labour government did nothing, absolutely nothing for a number of days while the Israelis carried on their inhuman killing of innocent men, women and children.?

It accuses Jack Straw, who is the MP for Blackburn, of insulting ?Our religion and culture and?Our sisters and mothers? By refusing to hold meetings with women constituents wearing a full veil. ?We should not forget that today they are criticising our women?S(sic) veil, tomorrow it will be our caps and our beards they will attack,? The pamphlet declares.

It goes on to urge a vote for Mr Law-Riding ?If you want to see an end to unnecessary and very expensive wars, shedding of innocent blood and save Britain from bankruptcy.??

It is not just the leaflet that should have been withdrawn. This is not the sort of person who should represent us in British politics.

Read More

Christian persecution - old and new

Thankfully Christian persecution is no longer the Roman ‘sport’ which inspired box-office spectaculars such as Quo Vadis but the persecution of Christians continues today on a much bigger scale and is just as evil. From Konrad Szymanski in New Europe :

?According to the statistics at least 75% of religious persecution is directed against people of Christian faith and each year about 170,000 Christians suffer because of their beliefs. The total number of faithful who are discriminated amounts already to 100 million. It's also a known fact that more Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in all the prior 1,900 years. All in all it makes Christians the most persecuted religious class.?

Many of the worst atrocities are too distressing to illustrate here but burning, beating, beheading and all manner of brutality are documented on the web, including the use of rape as a weapon. The beating of Christians in Egypt (above) for opening their cafe during Ramadan is a minor punishment by comparison. In Iraq, killings and persecution have resulted in the Christian population being halved to 400,000 since 2003. Meanwhile in Pakistan ?Blasphemy? Is used as a weapon of persecution. Not only does much of the persucution go un-reported but Islamic states have attempted to get the United Nations to legitimise it. Meanwhile many delude themselves by making excuses.

Here in Great Britain, in addition to the Islamic atrocities perpetrated on British citizens we have subtler methods of oppression, often by do-gooders who are so immersed in political correctness it has almost become a religion. Even church-goers are not exempt. Orthodox Anglicans in the Church of England are oppressed by those who have abandoned the traditional faith of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church because they refuse to adapt their religion to suit terbaru life styles. In the forefront of this movement are the feminist organisation Women and the Church (WATCH) which battles ceaselessly to exclude Christians who don?T agree with their political agenda of parity for women in the church as though they were working for Local Government Social Services or the Co-op.

Those whose agenda is to make the church relevant to society fail to see that they have made faith irrelevant to many with the consequent decline of the church. If we are not careful the remaining vacuum will be filled by others leaving the oppressors themselves as victims.

Postscript

On his Blog Archbishop Cranmer has published a long but interesting US Report on Religious Freedom in the UK.

Read More

Physician heal thyself!

Credit: BBC/AP

The Archbishop of Wales has criticised former Prime Minister Tony Blair over his 'emphatic defence' of the Iraq war. Blair was 'gung-ho' on Iraq invasion, says the Archbishop. Mr Blair has apologised for mistakes in the conflict but says without invasion Iraq might have become another Syria. Dr Morgan said the implications of the actions should have been considered. Report here.

That's rich coming from the Archbishop who is primarily responsible for the current parlous state of the Church in Wales after imposing his liberal values on her. Could he not see the consequences of pursuing the same failed policies which led to the decimation of the US Episcopal Church? Wise after the event on Iraq he must have been willfully blind to events which result in the collapse of the historic Parish system in Wales and in less than 1% of the population of Wales attending the Church of which he is Archbishop.

Also, I very much doubt that the Archbishop and the Bench considered the implications of their emotional response to the "refugee" crisis. From theFacing Islam Blog: "As millions of more Muslims continue to flood the continent, they will not be limited to expressing their anti-Christian hostility on the unprotected dead in cemeteries, or on inanimate church buildings, statues, and crosses. Rather, as in the Islamic world, native Christians themselves will be hounded and persecuted, possibly into extinction".

Dr Morgan said "It would seem to me that if you are the prime minister, it's no good just removing one regime without thinking what's going to replace it". So what is to replace the Church in Wales afterextinction? It would seem to me that if you are Archbishop, Dr Morgan, you should ensure that members of the Church in Wales who wish to keep the faith benefit fromarrangements already established in England. Physician heal thyself!

Read More

The sword

The beheading of the American journalist, James Foley, apparently by a British Muslim with a London accent, drew pledges by outraged Western governments to aid those 'battling the jihadists' among whom British extremists are thought to be among the "most vicious and vociferous fightersdanquot; (here). The British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, described the execution as an "appalling example of the brutality of this [Islamic State] organisation" (readhere). But it is not simply the "shocking and depraveddanquot; action of a single organisation as Mr Cameron described it. It is part of a culture:

"In Islam, the prophet Muhammad is the greatest example for the faithful to follow. He is the model of dedication to God par excellence; in fact, he is deemed the perfect example of submission to Allah...

Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic sect, encompassing 85% of Muslims in the world. ?Sunni? Is based on the ?Sunna,? ?The pathway of the prophet? Muhammad (to which all Muslims are committed, whether formally Sunnis or not). ?Muslims have the duty of da?Wa, calling, summoning people to submit to Allah and to follow the sunna, the pathway trodden first by Muhammad.?

But what is the example, the way, the path of the prophet? He not only engaged in caravan raids early in his career as a prophet and in war later, but he himself was involved in the massacre of the Qurayza Jews wherein he “had trenches dug, and the men were led out in batches and beheaded.” Ibn Ishaq’s ancient, authoritative Life of Muhammad records this event: “There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.” How could the recent beheadings and dismemberments of a few “pagans” alarm the devout Muslim today? His “perfect” prophet beheaded upwards of 900 in one setting! We are alarmed because we are Christians." - See "Christ, Muhammad, and the Culture of Beheading"here.

Many Christians are not only alarmed but thoroughly confused that such actions can be justified as acts of faith in the name of God. Christians are taught to ''Love your neighbour as yourself', having moved on from Old Testament excesses. It is the reverse in Islam which after its peaceful period becomes increasingly violent, using the sword to threaten those wishing to convert from Islam and those who refuse to convert to Islam as is now witnessed intensely by minorities in Iraq.

Some Muslims protest that the violence is contrary to the teaching of Islam. Indeed an Imam was doing precisely that on BBC Breakfast time this morning despite evidence to the contrary from around the world. Muslims are themselves victims if their interpretation of Islam differs from fundamentalist hardliners. Saudi Arabia's top cleric says that extremism and the ideologies of groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida are Islam's No. 1 enemy and that Muslims have been their first victims (here). But watch this chilling video to see how "Taqiyya: Islamic doctrine of deception" (here) operates in the defence of Islam to the detriment of all other faiths and none making it difficult to know who is telling the truth and who is engaged in deception. The closing words in the report are "We will be paying for it [playing patsy] a vast amount in the years to come". Prophetic words indeed!

Dispatches - Undercover Mosque: The Return from Emil Kirkegaard on Vimeo.

On that score, and no doubt in the spirit of brotherly love, Christian leaders have been moved to make extravagant gestures which appear to validate Islam at the expense of Christianity. In his Archbishop Cranmer blog in 2007Cranmer reported that the Bishop of Liverpool had accepted the invitation of a Muslim friend to become patron of a mosque renovating project. More recently the Bishop of Portsmouth "along with numerous other clerics visited the Al Mahdi Center in Wessex where verses from 'the Noble Qur’an' were recited before Bishop Christopher blessed the community and the centre" (here). In Wales Archbishop Morgan has far more time for his Muslim friends than for faithful adherents of the Catholic faith - see 'Barry's blunder' here. Having been warned about false prophets and told by Jesus Christ that 'No one comes to the Father except through Me' such gestures appear ill-advised to say the least.

While Anglican leaders in this country water-down the Christian faith, questioning the legitimacy of basic beliefs such as the virgin birth and even the Resurrection, Muslims by contrast will not tolerate any perceived criticism or even discuss apparent Contradictions and Inaccuracies (here). Recall how, even though "beheading was practiced by the Prophet Muhammad himself during the 7th century period of Islam and by the most Islamic rulers thereafterdanquot; (here), Pope Benedict was obliged to apologise for a misunderstanding following a speech to university professors in Germany in 2006 after he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam?S founder, as ?Evil and inhuman?:

"Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was “deeply sorry” about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that didn’t reflect his personal opinion. “These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought,” Benedict told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome." Full account here.

James Foley was a freelance photojournalist whose work highlighted the depths to which these jihadists will sink, even killing fellow Muslims in the name of Allah to achieve what they mistakenly believe to be their reward in heaven. Reports of James' own death have done far more to galvanise world opinion than any other report so far. May he now rest in peace.

The International Civil Liberties Alliance reported in May that that a new organisation, Sharia Watch UK, was launched in the House of Lords. See their special report: SHARIA LAW: Britain?S Blind Spot. Here is a taste:

"We call on the UK government to recognise that the establishment of a sharia state, or campaigning for such, is itself an extremist position. We base this on the fact that a sharia state would involve profound mistreatment of women and girls (including forced marriage and unequal legal status), the implementation of barbaric punishments (including stonings and amputations) and the complete destruction of freedom of speech and democracy."

It also has something to say about the Muslim organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain which "has received several hundred thousand pounds of taxpayers? Money, despite evidence of its links with extremists and its own extremist beliefs". Full Reporthere. Church and State take note!

Read More