Fasting with friends

Preparing for ordination to the Deaconate by fasting with Muslims         CinW

Tomorrow, Church in Wales ordinand Sara Roberts will spend the day at Bangor Islamic Centre, before joining with the Iftar, the meal which Muslims share to break/end their day time fast during Ramadan, according to a Diocesan press release from Bangor.

If her face looks familiar she previously appeared on this blog as a member of the Diocese of Bangor?S new LGBT Chaplaincy Team. You have to wonder what the local Imam makes of that given Islam's absoluterejection of homosexuality.

Presumably the bishop of Bangor is content with this arrangement which makes it all the more worrying. Perhaps the Dean of Bangor facilitated the visit given her Muslim links. But the Iftar is not a first. Archbishop Justin Welby has already been 'honoured' in joining Muslims breaking their daily Ramadan fast.

As the church embraces Islam I am reminded of an earlier departure from accepted norms when a deacon down South proudly described herself as "Reiki Master, Feng Shui practitioner, Crystal Healer and Deacon".

No doubt these people have the best of intentions but for the Church? I am sure Ms Roberts means well but one has to wonder about the selection process for ordination in the Church on Wales. Islam and Christianity are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to beliefs.

Ms Roberts said, ?There are many reasons why I am doing this: to show solidarity to our Muslim neighbours, to share in this powerful testament to faith, to contemplate my approaching ordination and what it means and to explore more deeply the relationship between food, prayer and connection to the Divine." What testament to faith? Islam or Christianity?

The duduk perkara is that Islam denies Christ died on the cross. Under Sharia Christians are given the options of convert to Islam, pay the dhimmi jizya tax or die. As pleasant as her Muslim neighbours may be, that is what they are taught. As they grow in numbers their demands increase. If the diocese of Bangor needs any proof they should just look beyond our borders at Islamic states abroad.

One hopes that Ms Roberts will feel able to preach the Gospel without fear of offending her Muslim friends. Christ died on the cross. He is the only way to the Father

Read More

Welby's Muslim charm offensive

Click here for Archbishop Welby's understanding of Islam, a faith which denies that Jesus died on the cross, a faith that has no time for unbelievers in its political ideology, a political system which is explainedhere in a 5 minute video for those prepared naively to accept claims that Islam is a religion of peace.

Justin Welby says, "We can show the world around us that it is possible to differ and yet to support and care for one another very, very profoundly. That is particularly important for me and has been growingly so over the last few years when it comes to the unacceptable expression of Islamophobia which is totally against what anyone who professes to have their own faith should do."

The Archbishop then gives his blessing: "May God bless you and protect you as you dedicate yourselves to this time of fasting and discipline. I wish you a very good Ramadan. Ramadan Kareem."

On the same day, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: 'We mourn, we lament, we cry out for the injured and bereaved in Manchester' here. He fails to see the connection. Some leaders, political and religious, would have us believe that such attacks are our own fault, that Western foreign policy is to blame but Islam needs no such excuses.

I find Welby's comment about Islamophobia particularly offensive. It is a word conjured up to avoid any critical assessment of a supremacist ideology. There is nothing irrational in fearing such an ideology which has spread its influence through conquest for 1400 years. Accusations of Islamophobia also serve to obscure the fact as Alexander Boot put it in his blogMassacre, Manchester, Muslims that "Over 300 verses in the Koran explicitly call for murdering infidels, specifically Christians and Jews".

Regardless of all the evidence to the contrary, Islam is being affirmed by the leader of the Anglican Communion as a great religion on an equal basis with Christianity which Islam is fighting to eliminate as illustrated by the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt, a pattern beingrepeated in many other Muslim majority countries.

How can that be? Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".  He warned us about false prophets, "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."

Welby is not alone in his charm offensive. See Manchester chief of police posing after bomb attack with the Koran which legitimised the killing. Of course there are many Muslims who would not act as soldiers of Islam but there are many who are prepared to die for their religion and take innocent people with them.

The way to defeat Islam is not by affirming it but to confront the ideology that drives followers to present the ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death. The Great Commission is the key.

Read More

And now the smears...

Source: Evening Standard

Many of us are used to smears if we hold an opinion contrary to the received wisdom. To misogynistic, homophobic and Islamophobic I can now add xenophobic and racist.

I was horrified when I read that the Polish and Social Cultural Association (POSK) in Hammersmith had beentargeted by vandals who had sprayed yellow paint on the front of the centre saying "Go Home".

Do these idiots not understand that after Poland was overrun by the Nazis in WW2 many Poles gave their lives fighting with the Allies and many of their pilots fought in the Battle of Britain?

In Prime Minister's Question Time today David Cameron assured the House that all possible steps will be taken to tackle the persoalan of a few extremists exploiting the Brexit vote but it does not help the situation when Ministers and others brand people as racists simply because they take a balanced view of immigration and the inherent risks to stability of an open-door policy which will bring further chaos to our over-stretched public services.

Writing in the Guardian Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, writes "Brexit has given voice to racism – and too many are complicit". Self proclaimed Brexit defector and former Conservative Party chair, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, cited "hate and xenophobia" as the reasons for changing her position. Tell Mama is devoted to "Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks" inviting complainants to submit reports. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has compiled "over 100 incidents reported of hate crimes following the referendum result" according to figures on their web site. For a world view click here.

AsArchbishop Cranmer wrote: "Brexit may have spurred a few racists but the heartbeat of the nation is unity and tolerance". All violence is to be deplored, from whatever source. We are constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace and that extremists do not represent true Islam despite all the evidence to the contrary in Islamic states where the Dhimmi status of non-Muslims is thought acceptable.

From Archbishops down, or up depending on one's point of view, Islam is being affirmed as if it were an acceptable religion on a par with Christianity. Justin Welby hosted an iftar this week at Lambeth Palace - a breaking of the Muslim fast of Ramadan.  Addressing the Muslims there, he said: "Your faithfulness in observing Ramadan in this way has been an example of what it means to take faith seriously"!

When I first clicked on the Welby link there was a link to another page "Soldiers beheaded, churches destroyed and constant fear: Syrian Christian on life under ISIS in Raqqadanquot;. Will we ever learn?

Earlier I read a report that the WATCH 'F-word' advocate, now Rector of St James' Piccadilly "opens doors for Muslims, hosts grand Iftardanquot;. So much for theclaim that "there will be no repetition of the March 2015 Muslim prayer service held at St John?S Waterloo".

While Anglican clergy are busy affirming Islam, MCB and their supporters are busy playing the victim. Again from Cranmer: "There are undoubtedly some vile people out there who are abusing Asians, Muslims, Poles and Romanians, but it seems particularly crass for Remainers (including some senior clergy) to smear all Brexiters with the whiff of racism (not to mention stupidity)."

A sense of proportion please.

Read More

Christian leaders endorse Islam

Religious and civic leaders, interfaith Itfa, St John's Wood Synagogue, 2018    Source: Church Times

Acting LibDem Leader Sir Ed Davey appeared on Twitter a few days ago announcing that he was preparing for his first ever fast in the holy month of Ramadan prompting Adrian Hilton (AKA Archbishop Cranmer) to respond:

"Forgive me, I'm curious. Did you fast during #Lent? I'll understand if you did but didn't signal it. But did you tweet about fasting or #HolyWeek? Did you express empathy with Christians in isolation over Easter, the holiest time in the liturgical year?

Along with other religious leaders the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a habit of identifying with Ramadan, eg, here and here. In this year's excruciating contribution here Archbishop Justin Welby implies that all religions are the same with some differences in theology but the god of Islam who demands submission could not be more different to the Christian God who sent His Son into the world for our salvation.

For years the BBC have been squeezing Christianity. This year they have been broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer, the adhan, prayed in Arabic:

Allah is greater (Allahu besar ); intoned four times.

I testify that there is no God but Allah (Ashhadu anna la ila ill Allah); intoned twice.

I testify that Mohammed is Allah?S Prophet (Ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah); intoned twice.

Come to prayer (Hayya alas salah ); intoned twice.

Come to security/salvation (Hayya alal falah); intoned twice.

Allah is greater (Allahu akbar); intoned twice.

There is no God but Allah (La ilah ill Allah); intoned once.

Dr. Gavin Ashenden, a former Chaplain to the HM the Queen, resigned his position in protest against a Qur?An reading in a Scottish church. In response to the BBC's decision he observed in Frontpage Mag, ?The Muslim call to prayer is a dramatic piece of Islamic triumphalism. It proclaims Islam?S superiority over all other religions, and in so doing casts Jesus in the role of a charlatan and a liar. The Muslim god, Allah, is unknowable and has no son. Jesus was, therefore, a fraud in claiming He and the Father are one.

"Is the BBC, the government-funded broadcasting agency of an ostensibly Christian land, really wise to broadcast a declaration of the superiority of another faith, one that directs its adherents to make war against Christians and subjugate them as inferiors under the hegemony of believers (cf. Qur’an 9:29)? Is the BBC wise to broadcast the cry “Allahu akbar,” beloved of jihad terrorists the world over?"

Nobody is suggesting that all Muslims are evil but people quickly forget the victims of a political ideology that seeks to subjugate others.

In Germany the trial has begun of a 27-year-old Iraqi national, charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organization, crimes against humanity, human trafficking, and war crimes, including the murder of a five-year-old Yazidi girl.

According to the indictment, in the summer of 2015, Taha A. J. “purchased” and enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl and her mother, and he and his wife held them captive at their residence in Fallujah, Iraq, where they forcibly converted them to Islam. Taha A. J. beat the captives and one day chained the child outdoors, leaving her to die of thirst in scorching temperatures."

There is hope. Inanother story of "God at work around the world", this time from a man who grew up Muslim having memorized the majority of the Qur’an. He was warned by his grandmother to “Watch out for the infidels, and don’t befriend or associate with them; they are a disease on society.”

He started reading the New Testament and fell in love with the character of Jesus. Within months he had read the Bible in its entirety. When his Muslim family found out that he had become a Christian his uncle called him with a warning: “Gather your family, pack your bags, and move out of the house because your grandfather is going to terrorist groups, and if they find you, they will kill every single person in the house.”

Today, he works for a ministry that "shares God?S love with Muslims, presenting Christ in a way that connects with their cultural background and speaks to their interest in themes of shame and honor ."

Our Christian leaders would do well to remember that "No-one comes to the Father except through me". (John 14:6)

Postscripts

[03.05.2020]

VATICAN URGES CATHOLICS TO SHARE RAMADAN

Throwing in the towel!

[06.05.202]

Food aid in exchange for converting to Islam: violence against the poor, in times of pandemic

Read More