By The Book

"Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me;

I will repay, says the Lord."Romans 12:19

I have lost count of the number times the Quran has been quoted after the Charlie Hebdo massacre to convince us that Islam is a Religion of Peace: 5.32. It is because of this that We ordained for (all humankind, but particularly for) the Children of Israel: He who kills a soul unless it be (in legal punishment) for murder or for causing disorder and corruption on the earth will be as if he had killed all humankind; and he who saves a life will be as if he had saved the lives of all humankind. Assuredly, there came to them Our Messengers (one after the other) with clear proofs of the truth (so that they might be revived both individually and as a people). Then (in spite of all this), many of them go on committing excesses on the earth.

No mention is made of 5.33: The recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth causing disorder and corruption: they shall (according to the nature of their crime) either be executed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off alternately, or be banished from the land. Such is their disgrace in the world, and for them is a mighty punishment in the Hereafter.

Of course the majority of Muslims want to live peaceful lives but that is not the point. Islamists such as IS and Boko Harem terrorize Muslims and non-Muslims alike for not adhering strictly to the book using "The Verse of the Sword" to justify their actions.  Questioning the basis of this ideology prompts outrage leading to even more deaths and burning of churches. From BBC Africa: At least three people have been killed and six churches attacked in Niger amid fresh protests against French magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. There are 114 chapters in the Quran giving ample scope for quoting peaceful passages  but WikiIslam lists 113 verses which areabrogated by the Verse of the Sword - full list here.

Excuses, half truths and outright dishonesty will not provide a solution to jihad. Islam should be explained openly, not misrepresented. Instead we have the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) complaining about a letter from Eric Pickles "sent to 1,000 Muslim leaders after the attacks in Paris".  He wrote "You, as faith leaders, are in a unique position in our society. You have a precious opportunity, and an important responsibility, in explaining and demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity. "We believe together we have an opportunity to demonstrate the true nature of British Islam today. There is a need to lay out more clearly than ever before what being a British Muslim means today: proud of your faith and proud of your country. We know that acts of extremism are not representative of Islam, but we need to show what is."

The MCB said the letter appeared to suggest that, "like the far right", Muslims and Islam were "inherently apart from British society". MCB members need to get out more. Many people in Britain will recognise the situation outlined in this article where whole areas have been Islamised with Sharia law courts in place around the country while Muslim polygamists simply circumvent UK law by using unofficial Islamic ceremonies. That is not integration. Other critics of the letter are popping up in the media turning the problem around by suggesting that Imams and Mosques are powerless. Playing the victim card is similar to cries of Islamophobia - just shut up and let us get on with what we are doing without interference. That is not good enough.

Open examination of Islam is absent in Great Britain. More often it is promoted by politicians mouthing the usual mantra that Islam is a Religion of Peace despite all the evidence to the contrary from around the world. The basis of violence in the name of Islam needs to be confronted. Muslims who denounce violent jihadists as not being true Muslims need to be part of the debate. The life of their Prophet, the circumstances in which God is said to have delivered His message and its context in the 21st Century would be a useful starting point opening Islam to the same scrutiny as other faiths.

Islam denies the very foundation of the Christian faith: that Christ died for us on the Cross "And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures"1 Corinthians 15:4 but Christians do not take to the streets abducting the innocent, killing, burning and pillaging.

The resurrection of Christ is central to Christianity.If Christ has not been raised our faith is in vain but according to the Quran Jesus did not die on the Cross, thus wiping out the centrality of the Christian faith. "That they said (in boast), 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah'—but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not—nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself." Surah 4:157-158. Read "What does Islam teach about the crucifixion of Isa al Masih (Jesus)?"here.

There are even Muslims who claim thatJesus was a Muslim! In fact, Islam demands the freedom to make any claim regardless of the sensibilities of others while demanding no right of reply for fear of offending their Prophet. Whereas the Bible is a collection of stories which can be held up to scrutiny, the Quran is a set of instructions which Muhammad said he had received from God to be followed without question. There lies the problem.

We owe it to Muslims and all God's people to spread the message while being aware of the dangers involved spreading the Good News today. There can be none other after Jesus Christ. He fulfilled the prophecies of Holy Scripture. Witnesses and historians testify to the Resurrection. Accordingly, Muslims who have lived by the Quran, taking vengeance in God's name are in for a nasty shock when they meet their maker: "Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord."Romans 12:19

This is the reality in Islamic states so, "Why Are Christian Cathedrals Opening the Door for Muslim Prayers to a Different God?" here. HT Anglican Mainstream.

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The new black death

"For Muslims, the whole focus of the life on earth must be directed at securing a place to this Islamic heaven, full of sexual indulgence. And the way of securing a ticket to Allah's whoredom is outlined in Quran 9:111, which says:

'Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden (Paradise) will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain'

Verse 9:111 means what it means. A Muslim who is killed or who kills fulfilling teachings of 9:5, 9:29 and all the other verses of the Quran exhorting murder, rape, terror, and torture are guaranteed accession to Allah's paradisedanquot;.

- From 9/11 is Enactment of Quran 9:111 here.

Death and destruction are rampant. People are beheaded, crucified and worse as a warning to others, churches are destroyed, what remains of ancient civilizations is obliterated, all in the name of Allah. If anyone questions how the 'Religion of Peace' can be responsible for such atrocities the response is the same: " Islamophobia "!

Islam is regarded as one of the great religions of the world. Numerically it is but given the perpetual carnage since its inception, people are entitled to investigate the root cause of the violence. While Islam means submission it does not mean that everyone must be kept in ignorance. On the contrary, if there is nothing to hide an open debate should be welcome.

If Islam were truly a 'Religion of Peace' we should expect Muslims be in the forefront of peacekeeping, extolling the wonders of the Quran and Hadiths.  The problem is that although there are peaceful verses in the Quran they have been abrogated by "at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule".

The UK Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK) claims:Muslims are going through an identity crisis, and have been for many decades...Muslims have suffered oppression for hundreds of years... and with such rampant injustices perpetrated against the Muslims all around the world... "Because the Muslim struggle has never been explained in this manner, the Muslim reaction to oppression is often misconstrued as acts of ‘extremism’ ‘radicalisation’ and so forth. For our Ummah’s struggle to be understood, Muslims must tell the world about their story and their struggle"!

Muslims are invited to "join the struggle for justice" andcomplain to the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) if they have been "verbally abused, harassed, discriminated against or even violently attacked because you are Muslim" or have been "mistreated by the police or security services or a victim of anti-terror laws". Meanwhile the IHRC has named the murdered Charlie Hebdo staff 'International Islamophobe of the Year'!

Do Muslims not understand what real persecution is? "There are few places on earth where Christianity is as old as it is in Iraq. Christians there trace their history to the first century apostles. But today, their existence has been threatened by the terrorist group that calls itself Islamic State. More than 125,000 Christians -- men, women and children -- have been forced from their homes over the last 10 months". Read the heart-rending story of their plight here. That is persecution.

Often funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia mosque building in Europe has shifted into high gear enabling Islam to spread in the West while in Saudi Arabia their Grand Mufti wants churches destroyed . The sadstory of Muslim prayers being offered in an Anglican Church serves to emphasis the ignorance surrounding Islam. It is a supremacist, religious ideology which believes that everything belongs to Allah and all must submit or pay the price - as the people of Syria and Iraq know to their cost.

Not just the ignorant are manipulated. A newsreport claims that: "Nine British medics feared to have crossed into Syria". The contagion is spreading but the problem is not being tackled. The Ebola virus disease has claimed 10,000 lives. A United Nations report highlighting the human rights violations of the Islamic State's jihadist campaign in Iraq found that over 24,000 Iraqi civilians have been injured or killed by ISIS in the first eight months of 2014, and the extremists have taken up the practices of recruiting 12- and 13-year-old soldiers and forcing women and girls into sex slavery.

Now linked with IS,Boko Haram killed 6,347 civilians in 2014 while endless killing goes on in Pakistan (56,867 fatalities in terrorist violence 2003-2015) and elsewhere. If this were a virus huge resources would be made available to prevent it spreading but Islam is not only allowed to spread it is facilitated by politicians and church leaders who have preferred to bury their heads in the sand rather than ask themselves if the world wouldn't be far more peaceful without Islam.

Today, Theresa May has has made it clear that the UK will not tolerate extremists. Watch here. There can be no going back. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres blamed a "global coalition of inaction" which led to "tragic consequences" with the spread of Ebola. We cannot afford to make the same mistake with Islam.

"Speak up. Of course, there is good people of the Islam people. There is not all Muslim people they are bad. I believe. But there is the good people? Where is their voice? Nothing. Few. Few."

- Archbishop Nicodemus Sharaf, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul

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"Don't worry, be happy!"

"The first African-American presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church was instated in a ceremony led by female bishops, openly gay reverends and even a Jewish rabbi. After a spirited opening by a gospel choir, Episcopal leaders filed into the imposing National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to the sound of guitars guiding a Spanish hymn and a Native American drumming preludedanquot;.

"Don?T worry. Be happy! God has not given up on the world, and God is not finished with the Episcopal Church yet," presiding bishop Curry declared. Report here. His sermon can be foundhere.

For a more realistic assessment of the occasion, readPresiding Bishop Michael Curry's Installation: The Desolation of the Episcopal Church from Sarah Frances Ives Ph.D for Virtue Online. In this report an Islamic leader, Dr. Alsanousi, asked God to help us understand the Holy Quran. He then went into long sentences which were assumed to be in Arabic and were not listed in the program. "Who knows what he said? I don't" commented Dr Ives.

A better understanding of the Quran should help Western leaders understand that it is not an Arabic version of the Holy Bible. The place of Christians, the people "of the Bookdanquot;, is described by an Islamic scholar in the following video:

“Abducting Women” and “Destroying Churches” is “Real Islam”—Iraqi Grand Ayatollah.

The video is taken from an article "Offensive Jihad: the insurmountable obstacle between Muslims and non-Muslimsdanquot; here. Far fetched? Not when Muslim inmates are already extorting 'infidel tax' from non-Muslims in the UK's toughest jails if they refuse to convert to Islam. Report here.

Understanding the Quran should be compulsory for ministers, political and spiritual, if we are to be happy and not worry.

Postscript [11.11.2015]

In addition to ministers political and spiritual we should add BBC executives:

"Why is the BBC letting the Islamic Human Rights Commission set the rencana?"

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Not in my name

Source: Independent/PA

"Not in my namedanquot;. Of course not, but in the name of he who it is claimed "knows best"!

This is the key problem for non-Muslims. Are we 'kafirs' being deliberately misled in the same way that verses, or parts of them, are quoted from the Quran in an attempt to prove that Islam bears no fault.

When gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali they were heard to shout "Allahu Akbar" as they began their attack, the cry used before animals are slaughtered in the Muslim manner.

Of course these atrocities are condemned by 'moderate' Muslims, especially when they are a minority. They would be mad not to do so. Meanwhile Christianity is being systematically wiped out where it originated in the Middle East with claims that it is "on course" to disappear from Iraq and Syria. I hear no Islamic condemnation.

On 18 NovemberNewsnight considered [advance to 39 minutes] what we know about the Paris attackers, referring to an attack which "the perpetrators call jihad", raising the question of "the nature of religion and those who carry out cold blooded murder in its name". Professor Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, complained that Muslims had been asked to condemn such atrocities for ten years since the 7 July London bombings. It may not have occurred to him but it occurred to me that there has to be a problem with Islam, one that is blindingly obvious to others because it has existed for centuries with Islamic conquests and occupations, using their own laws to justify their actions. Similar concerns are not expressed about Christianity other than harking back to the Crusaders who sought only to protect Christians and their Holy places from invaders.

In response to the Professor's suggestion that the West was somehow complicit for targeting 'Muslim' countries, historian Tim Holland queried why the Yazidis had been targeted. But there was no answer to that because it was all that Newsnight had time for! Clearly not as important as the sporting fixtures which dominate airtime.

The answer to the question of why the Yazidis were targeted is simple. Islam demands that a choice be made when Muslims have control under Sharia. - Become a Muslim, pay the tax or die while women and children are taken into slavery. The plight of the Yazidis had some initial media coverage but that quickly disappeared from the headlines as many of the Yazidi people have from the face of the earth. Not for them the open doors which have allowed Muslims to flood into Europe, including two 'refugees' who have since been identified among the bombers in Paris.

But being a Muslim carries its own risks. In February CP World reported that an ISIL policing unit in Mosul had severely disfigured the faces of 15 Iraqi women by pouring acid on them as a form of punishment after the women were caught without their faces being veiled appropriately, by ISIS standards.

There is no way out. Apostasy carries a death sentence. Those who escape risk being beaten. Nissar Hussain, 49, suffered a shattered knee cap and broken hand when he was attacked with a pickaxe handle outside his home in Bradford.

Lying for the faith is permitted but questioning is not. Outsiders are accused of Islamophobia if they dare to question Islam. Continuing death and destruction should be enough for anyone to raise serious questions even in isolation but when it is on a continuous basis one has to question people's motives.

In Islam Jesus is regarded as a prophet so why are His words ignored? Jesussaid: "Everyone who is committed to the truth listens to my voice."

Everyone deserves to know the truth. More honesty would save many.

Postscript [24.11.2015]

British women filmed 'urging young girls to join Islamic State terrorists in Syria'

and from the Jewish Journal:

Why are we abandoning the Christians?

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Thought for the Day

Credit: South Wales Argus

"A young man who recently converted to Islam told me that while he loved his new found faith, the worship the prayers and the discipline, one of the worst things about his new life was listening to the Friday sermon. He had yet to hear a sermon which actually engaged with the very real ethical issues which plague many Muslim communities, integration, identity, radicalisation as well as the more complex discussions around loyalty and belonging. Rather than address those very real problems, many imams were more obsessed with the length of beards, how much water you needed for ablutions or the dangers of men and women mixing. And it?S true, so many of these sermons are absurdly divorced from the painful realities of what?S happening around us. Many preachers refuse to acknowledge that even if militant Islamism lies at the margins of society, it has a cancerous effect on the whole of Islam and affects us all.

In all these sermons, there are copious references to the Prophet?S daily life. But if the prophet is to be a reference point, why not raise those other matters he is also reputed to have said, that a time would come when nothing would remain of Islam but its name, nothing of the Quran but its word, and that many mosques would be beautifully furnished but destitute of any guidance. Our witness to the faith today is preachers who use their sermons to encourage hate while calling Islam peaceful. We have young men who talk of the brotherhood of Muslims but kill innocents randomly simply because they can, conflicted Muslim states too busy both blaming the west and indulging the west. If this continues what will remain of Islam, a religion seemingly reduced to compulsory ritual without spiritual essence.

The Islamic world has become far less sophisticated in how it reads its own scripture and sources. In this lies one of the roots of religious fundamentalism and over the years, it has morphed into a harsh and cruel Islamism. The two are inexorably linked both deluding themselves that Islam will one day be dominant. There is no victory here only nihilism. Geopolitics may drive the violence, extremist militancy may be small in numbers, but innocents being slaughtered in the Arab world and in Europe has at its core an ideology where dying is more important than living. God is the greatest is a call to prayer, but it has also become a prelude to a death cult. Many ordinary Muslims remain baffled by global events, for them their faith remains a source of moral and spiritual growth, of giving and generosity. But last week?S tragic attacks in Paris, yesterday?S shootings, show that unless we are active in defending all that is good in our faith, there will be no faith to defend. With each attack Islamism won?T weaken the west, but it will hollow out the Muslim faith just that little bit more."

- BBC Radio 4Thought for the Day 19 November 2015.

Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations,

University of Edinburgh School of Divinity.

As Sadiq Khan the MP for Tootingsaid,  "Extremism isn't a theoretical risk. Most British Muslims have come across someone with extremist views at some point – and so have I. It's affected my personal life, my friendships and my career. People I knew as a boy have gone on to hold extremist views, and even to act on them in terrible ways."

The message attached to the rose in the illustration is a powerful one. The quotation has been used countless times as an Islamic condemnation of the Paris bombings. But it is only part of a longer verse in the Quran which is contradicted by the next verse 5:33 as explained here in response to a comment made on the Answering Muslims blog:

Verse 5:32 - On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.

Verse lima:33 - The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.

Greater honesty as expressed by Professor Mona Siddiqui in 'Thought for the Day' would bring more credit to Muslims who protest that Islam is a Religion of Peace.

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Our 'multi-cultural' society

I missed the Channel 4 programme,Make Bradford British, but since it has been referred to so many times and debated on the BBC's Question Time I caught up with it on 4OD. There is a Telegraph review here. Reading the review, I see I was not alone in thinking that Rashid, a Muslim former Rugby League player made the biggest impact. The reason being that out of eight people from various backgrounds brought together in an integration experiment he was the least co-operative, not out of malice, but because his religion came first which was clearly disappointing for the others in the house. What put a different complexion on the proceedings was not that Rashid insisted on praying five times a day but that he had to go to the mosque to pray, delaying the dinner he had offered to cook (he eventually went to a take-away) and disrupting the experiment in the process. The reason? In his own words because he would get a lot more blessings and rewards, the reward being '27 to 25 times more' if he prayed in a congregation rather than at home.

For most Christians, buying one's way to paradise is an alien concept, a concept explained here in 'Gather Blessings in the Mosques'. This article stresses that 'praying in the mosque and being attached to the mosque is a very pious and rewardable action gathering rewards and good deeds for the hereafter. God loves and rewards those who find repose and comfort in the mosques. Whoever builds a mosque seeking the pleasure of God, God builds a similar one for him in paradise'.The following paragraph helps to explain the thinking of Muslims and to understand the pressure for more mosques to be built:'There are six places in which a person is guaranteed the safekeeping of God, the Most High, as long as he is in one of them. In a congregational mosque, with a sick person, at a funeral, in his house, with a just ruler whom he supports and treats with respect, or at a place where people are fighting jihad! [my emphasis - Ed].

With almost daily stories of Christian churches being burned to the ground in Islamic states and worshippers murdered or driven out of their homeland it is illuminating toread "Britain is among the safest places for people to worship freely and in peace, an Islamic leader has said at the opening of a new £900,000 mosque in Feltham, west London" despite the constant reports of supposed Islamophobia. There is an interesting juxtaposition between the 'Gather Blessings in the Mosques' article referred to above and anarticle in the Left Foot Forward Blog  under the headline 'Warsi’s call for the dominance of Christianity ignores that it’s Islam under threat'. In defence of mosque building, towards the end of the article there is a complaint about a statement in the Telegraph back in 2006:

   "the most prominent religious building in the camera  shot will not be one of the city’s iconic churches that have shaped the nation’s history, such as St Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, but the mega mosque. Its arrival in London will be a significant coup for Islam and a major event for the country as a whole’. However, there was no complaint or even a mention about the introduction to the article where 'Abu Izzadeen, the firebrand Islamist militant, berated John Reid last week for "daring" to visit a Muslim area." Thisa concept that is spreading, a problem which was referred to in the CH4 programme where Bradford City centre was said to be now 95% Asian.

But these double standards are something to which we have become so accustomed that we hardly turn a hair. It was no surprise then that the head of the BBC, Mark Thompson, admitted that 'We’ll mock Jesus but not Mohammed'. Of course if anyone dared to offend Muslims there would be demonstrations and death threats from those who say they are British but Muslimfirst. Theybelieve that 'Mosques are special places filled with blessings and rewards, however, God has conferred a special blessing upon the nation of Muslims, the whole earth has been declared a mosque, so when the time for prayer comes and a believer is unable to pray in congregation in a building he may pray wherever he may be.' Hence the use of surrounding streets to justify more and bigger buildings.

We are surrounded by Islamic symbols be it mosque or Islamic dress and threatened with retribution against perceived threats while Christians are denied the opportunity to express their religion other than in their churches. The authorities pussyfoot around making endless excuses about unrepresentative extremists in apparent ignorance of fundamental Islamic teaching which regards non-Muslims as underdogs in a world that belongs to Allah. In the Question Time programme I referred to above, most speakers uttered the usual bland platitudes about living together apparently unconcerned about David Starkey's complaint that he was the one who would be arrested if he criticised the Quran because it prescribed the death sentence for his homosexuality, one of many Islamic 'sins' attracting the death penalty such as apostasy and blasphemy, often used to oppress Christians, particularly in Pakistan.

Unusual for the BBC, today's Breakfast News reported on the 'divided loyalties' of one million Pakistanis living in Great Britain out of 3.7 million expatriates who are to be given the vote in Pakistan in recognition that 5% of Pakistan's GDP had been sent back by overseas Pakistanis showing “solidarity and integrity of our motherland” despite their country's failure to protect minorities, something they insist on in Great Britain. On top of this comes therevelation that British war graves on the outskirts of Benghazi have been desecrated by Islamist militants and the symbol of Christ's redeeming love, the Cross, attacked with sledge hammers. This after Libyans had pleaded with the West to assist them in their struggle for freedom and theoutrage expressed after burning some copies of the Quran.

No doubt the CH4 experiment will show that multiculturalism can work in a house of eight people designed for the purpose but in the real world, Christianity is suppressed and only Islam is shown any respect, something that our children now pick up in school adding to the impression that in our multi-cultural society, Islam is holy when all the evidence is to the contrary. Apologists for a political ideology that seeks our demise should get their heads out of the sand, look around them and listen to someone with experience.

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Jesus was a Muslim!

Much has been written recently about the cross and whether it is appropriate for Christians to wear it as an expression of their faith. At the same time in Afghanistan the cross has been publicly burned by Muslims who complain bitterly about any form of disrespect shown to their own faith.

It seems ironic then that Muslims claim Jesus as one of their own, a prophet referred to in the Quran as well as in the Bible. But that is only part of the story, a story which some years ago was the subject of an ITV programme,The Muslim Jesus. To the casual viewer I imagine the story would have been quite compelling without further evidence of the truth. Muslims deny that Christ died on the cross (some say another took His place) so they would have no objection to burning the cross as a Christian symbol. There is no dispute that Jesus is referred to in the Quran but the claim that Muhammad is mentioned in the Bible is readilydisputed even by many Muslims.

Visitors to Birmingham will be familiar with Islam being freely promoted on the streets as illustrated in this video. Last year I heard complaints that similar operations had been extended. A stall had been set up opposite a well-known Anglo Catholic church in a Cardiff suburb where, in common with many other areas, Christians are becoming marginalised as parishes become dominated by Islamic influences and appearance. When a dispute arose over the claim that 'Jesus was a Muslim' the police intervened. On being told that exception was taken to people shouting outside the Church that Jesus was a Muslim, the police response was that the pamphlets were not offensive and that we live in a free country.  One wonders what would have been the reaction if Christians stood opposite one of the City's 32 mosques and made counter claims. The group still engages with passers by claiming: "Let us show you what the Bible really says about Islam - and how Jesus really was a Muslim"!

When Channel 4 broadcast a programme, 'UnderCover Mosques', to highlight what was being said inside rather than outside mosques, in this case the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, the West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service ignored the hate allegations uncovered and investigated the programme makers instead. They were later forced to apologise after the programme makers were vindicated. The National Secular Society (no friend of Christianity) recently quoted this example in their evidence to the United Nations. Illustrating the extent to which Islamic influence is spreading around the world the NSS included this astonishing testimony:

"I am deeply saddened that in this Council of all places in the whole world, Sharia law has been ruled to be beyond discussion by distinguished delegates, unless they are "experts" and therefore presumably Muslim. If I have got that wrong and non-Muslim experts are acceptable, I will be quick to apologise.

For those of you who like solving simultaneous equations, or are logicians, I have a little exercise. If criticising Islam = Islamophobia, and Islamophobia = racism (as we are told), and racism = unacceptable (as we agree), does this therefore mean that criticising Islam is unacceptable? That is the very questionable algebra or dubious logic that is being increasingly employed to silence critics in the UK by guilt-tripping them. We must not allow criticism to be stifled in this manipulative way. I'm very much struck by Indian born UK writer Kenan Malik's opinion that: "The trouble with Islamophobia is that it is an irrational concept. It confuses hatred of, and discrimination against, Muslims, on the one hand, with criticism of Islam on the other. The charge of 'Islamophobia' is all too often used not to highlight racism but to stifle criticism. And, in reality, discrimination against Muslims is not as great as is often perceived - but criticism of Islam should be greater. All too often Islamophobia is used as an excuse in a way to kind of blackmail society."

I am not suggesting that restrictions to freedom of expression are the monopoly of any one religion. I therefore oppose all blasphemy laws, and helped in the abolition of the UK's remaining (Christian) blasphemy laws. We also know of censorship by Sikhs and Hindus. The worst example of countries operating a blasphemy law, however, is Pakistan where accusing a rival of blasphemy is a convenient way of removing them. Not only does this result in their removal to jail, but the survival prospects of those accused of blasphemy, far less convicted of it, is very poor. And the judiciary are wary of even trying such cases.

Looking at the categories of Muslim influence in What Islam Isn't, it is clear what is now happening in the UK and elsewhere around the world. Islamic street propaganda must be seen for what it is.

Jesus was NOT a Muslim. Hedied on the Cross and is the fulfilment of the prophecies.

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Problem? What problem?

In my previous entry I referred to the owner of a Tandoori Indian Balti House in Ashford who discovered that his Muslim staff were ignorant of aspects of their own religion:

"After reading the Qur'an and observing the behaviour of my Muslim staff, it became clear that they were not practising much of their religion’s teachings. I found this curious, and, after chatting to them about their belief, I realised this was due to their ignorance of the Quranic verses. They simply do not know what their religion teaches. Their ignorance is almost on a par with the wider public's, where the horrors and gross gender inequalities of Islam are not apparent to most people".

By contrast, speaking to Ian Dale on LBC, Dionne, a young British Muslim convert, said she had been brought up as a Christian but soon found herself searching for something with more “integrity”. Christians, she said, “did not know their bible” and would “interpret things however they wanted to” - something she claimed is not possible with Islam.

?With the Quran you can?T do that, you have to take every word literally. There is no modernising of the Quran? There is no modernising with this religion?. Listen to their 4 Min. Dialogue here.

When Ian Dale challenged Dionne on the position of woman in Islam she was in denial, claiming that people have "misconceptions" of Islam. Perhaps she considers the law which allows Muslim men to divorce their wives simply by uttering the word "talaq" three times is fair.  India's Supreme Court took a different view when it ruled a 'controversial Muslim instant divorce law unconstitutional'.

Three months on from the horror of the Manchester terror attack the method now favoured by Islamists for attacking innocent Westerners is to hire a lorry and drive it into a crowd of people who were simply minding their own business having been assured that Islam is a religion of peace.

Of particular relevance to problems which British Anglicans are facing was Dionne's comment that "you cannot make God in your own image, you have to worship God as He is", something that the bishops of the Church of England feel the need to wrestle with. She said, with the Quran you have to take every word literally.

That is the masalah. While the majority of Muslims do not, a minority of Muslims take the violent verses in the Quran as instructions but nobody it seems is willing to tackle that problem head on.

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Islam and the Church

The Barnabas Fund recently published an Editorial: 'Can the Church survive the Islamist onslaught?' The article says that in 2017 Christians can expect to face five major challenges to their freedom of religion:

• Widespread religious cleansing,
• The formal spread of sharia enforcement,
• The spread of violence to enforce sharia,
• Christian refugees unseen, ignored and targeted by Islamists, and
• The West’s loss of its own Judaeo-Christian values.

Christianity is experiencing a major dilema. As Christianity is being wiped out in many countries abroad, religious leaders in Great Britain continue to cosy up to Muslims in the mistaken belief that they can encourage better relations between Christianity and Islam even though Islam completely rejects basic Christian beliefs.

As explained for theCranmer Blog by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, Chaplain to the Queen, the latest Anglican gaff took place during the Eucharist in Glasgow's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin when a reading from the Quran was included in the liturgy. Dr Ashden has been interviewed on Anglican Unscripted (AU) where he gives a clear explanation of the problems facing Christianity today, not only from Islam but from the liberal Left.

This is not about hating Muslims as explained here. It is about recognising that Christians are being led astray while Muslims seeking salvation are being denied the truth.

The AU video should be compulsory viewing for clerics, especially trendy liberals.

Postscript [15.01.2017]

Glasgow Quran Reading: Scottish Episcopal Church 'Deeply Distressed At Offence' Caused.

Postscript [23.01.2017]

Why I've resigned as Chaplain to the Queen - Dr Gavin Ashenden in Premier Christianity.

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