All aboard!

Representatives of all the world's major religions againhead for Assisi. Pray with them for peace throughout the world.

Pope Benedict's address here. More here including other participants.

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Encouraging sounds

From a Rome Reports video: "Middle East patriarchs fight for peace".

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Israel's response to Vatican pleas

Pope Benedict XVI has held a mass at Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the close of the two-week special synod of bishops on the Middle East. In his homily he said that conflicts, wars, violence and terrorism have gone on for too long in the Middle East and one must never resign oneself to the lack of peace. Peace is possible, it is urgent and it is the indispensable condition for a life worthy of the human person and of society. Israel's initial response to pleas to "put an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories" have not been encouraging.

Pope Benedict called on Islamic countries in the Middle East to guarantee freedom of worship to non-Muslims and said peace in the region was the best remedy for a worrying exodus of Christians.

Postscript

Now read this.

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Today's children tomorrow

Could this be the line-up Mr Gove envisages for his planned Children's Olympics?

Directgov, the government web site's guidance on 'Children and healthy weight' states that "Through the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People, the aim is to offer young people five hours of sport and PE each week (both inside and outside of the school day)." The funding for this project is to be scrapped under another false economy in the state sector. Front bench offspring and other privately educated children will not be affected.

Already worried that too many children are inactive and lack a proper diet this cut is janggal. Short term savings should not affect our children's future. There are already indications that obese children are at risk from heart disease, breathing problems, diabetes, liver and joint problems. The medical cost of dealing with these problems will be immense. That cuts need to be made is accepted but to prejudice the health of our children and build up problems for the future is not only short sighted, it is cruel.

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Christmas greetings

The Nativity (1858)                   Arthur Hughes

Joy to the world!

Best wishes for a

Blessed and Peaceful

Christmas

and for

2015

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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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Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful 2018

L'Adoration des bergers 1689 Charles Le Brun

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Don't mention The Sword

This handout picture taken in Carcassone military headquarters in 2018 and released by the

 Gendarmerie  Nationale on March 24, 2018, shows French Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame

who was killed after swapping  himself for a hostage in a rampage and siege in the town of Trebes,

southwestern France on March 23. HO / GENDARMERIE NATIONALE / AFP / Channels Television

French Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has died of his wounds after a jihadist shooting spree.

He was shot by an Islamic terrorist after swapping himself for a hostage in a rampage and siege by an attacker who stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff in the town of Trebes. The attacker claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group

One more killer in a campaign of Islamic violence which has lasted 1,400 years but only yesterday a judge followed political leaders in describing Islam as a religion of peace despite all the evidence to the contrary.

In answer to a Commons question by Jeremy Corbyn after the horrendous terror attack in Paris in 2015 that killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds, David Cameron told the House that there was no connection between terrorists and Islam and we need to prove it.

We are still waiting. A list of Islamist terrorist attacks before and after can be found onWikipedia

Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan was jailed for life with minimum term of 34 years for his terror attack. He was told by the judge that he had "violated the Quran and Islam" with his actions, as well as the law of all civilised people.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said the Quran was a “book of peace” and noted its teachings forbidding terrorism and crime, adding: “You will have plenty of time to study the Quran in prison in the years to come.”

There are 149 sword verses in the Quran. Perhaps to mention them would be the "Islamophobia" Jeremy Corbyn had in mind when he put his question to David Cameron.

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The problem with belief

Iraqi soldiers putting the Cross back to where it belongs in Baghdeda and Karemlesh

after retaking the cities from ISIS.                                                Source: @AliAjeena

In my previous entry I included a video of an Imam who claims that saying 'Merry Christmas' is worse than murder. One cannot doubt his sincerity in believing that God could not have been born on Christmas Day. It is contrary to his faith. If he understood that God came down from heaven and was made man to share our misery he would be better informed but as a Muslim he regards Jesus as no more than one in a line of prophets.

For Christians Jesus is the Incarnate Word, the 'Son of God'. Hence the condemnation of saying 'Merry Christmas'. For Muslims Muhammad is the last in a line of prophets from Abraham. He is the model of the perfect man whose life should be emulated as far as possible. An unlikely example some 1400 years later for one who married a child bride of nine, had many wives, and who is said to have personally beheaded between 700 and 900opponents. Nevertheless he is the model for devout Muslims resulting in the barbarism witnessed today.

A recent BBCreport, 'An extremist in the family', illustrates the agony of a mother, a convert to Islam, whose son became a jihadist. She said "Islam's part of our daily life. We pray and fast but beyond that, not a huge amount". Her son Rasheed had somehow fallen for the idea of the caliphate, "if you don’t do this journey you are not a believer, not a good Muslim".

For Christians the mother is the good Muslim but for Islamists the real Muslim was her son. He was killed fighting for ISIS. This is the masalah with belief. Blind obedience serves only the manipulators. Catholicism, particularly in Ireland, has learnt the hard way. Anglicanism, the middle way, has lost its way while Islam remains resolute against any other way. So much so that renouncing Islam is punishable by death.

In anothervideo 'Wolves in Sheep's Clothing' the Imam who condemned people for saying Merry Christmas rails against the 'enemies of Islam'. He names Jews, Christians, Hindus and the secular, atheistic world at large who "disagree among themselves on everything except that Islam is a target and is to be removed from the world map". Finally he tells his audience that the real wolves in sheep's clothing are not Jews, Christians or Hindus but the Shia, a different Muslim sect.

Muslims believe that, unlike Moses and prophets who heard from God directly, Muhammad heard through an intermediary, Gabriel. In these revelations Allah changes his mind many times leaving followers with the problem of abrogation which results in taking the more recent (violent) verses in preference to earlier (peaceful) verses. Consequently the religion of peace in the Quran gives way tothe sword:  "The later verses, known as the “Sword Verses” (9:5 and 9:29), were considered by Muslim scholars to have cancelled the previous verses mandating kindness and persuasion. Expansionist jihad became the explicit norm."

By contrast with uncorroborated revelations received by Muhammad, Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of eight Old Testament prophesies. The probability of fulfilling all eight prophesies has been calculated as 1 x 1028 or 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Jesus Christ came into the world not to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil them. He made another prophecy which has been fulfilled: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." Thisprophecy could not be clearer but nevertheless, Muslims regard Muhammad as the last prophet without question. That is the problem.

For years Islam has been treated as above criticism, validated for its pre-'Sword' verses aboutkindness and persuasion. But there is a glimmer of hope. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has come out and said "It's time to stop saying Isil has ‘nothing to do with Islam’".

It is ironic that people who have largely lost their Christian faith judge Islam from a traditional Christian perspective accepting what they are told about peaceful Islam while ignoring the evidence to the contrary which has been exhibited all around the world for hundreds of years. 'Christian Daily' explodes the peace loving myth in an article "Muslim migrants display 'pure hatred' of Christians". An Arabic translator who has been living in Germany for more than 20 years explains that Muslim migrants secretly despise Christians and believe that the country should be Islamised.

Muslims need to know about Christianity. They should be encouraged to question their own faith instead of attacking others and question the imposition of penalties for renouncing Islam contrary to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights that "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religiondanquot;.

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Peace, perfect peace

The Cathedral Church of Saint Deiniol, Bangor. Source Wikipedia

AnEXCLUSIVE from The Sun:

Cathedral, surviving on cash reserves, paying to re-home clerics

"A CHURCH is blowing nearly ?1million to re-home two clerics after they whinged about noisy students. The pair say they are being kept awake at night by revellers from the neighbouring university.

Bangor Cathedral in North Wales has already bought a ?465,000 four-bedroom detached house for Rev Kathy Jones. Now it is looking for a similar property for its Canon, Rev David Fisher."

The Rev Kathy Jones has been appointed as the new Dean of Bangor and Ministry Area Leader of the Bro Deiniol Ministry Area.

The Rev Canon David Fisher was installed as the Canon Precentor of Bangor Cathedral in 2013. His ministry is centred mainly on the liturgy and music of the Cathedral.

In July 2015 it wasreported that Bangor Cathedral choir was to benefit from £30,000 grant which officials hoped would provide a "strong foundation for choral scholars from colleges in the area and Bangor University".

Perhaps they will include in their repertoire the hymn Peace, perfect peace for further reflection.

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?

The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?

On Jesus? Bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?

In Jesus? Keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?

Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?

Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

It is enough: earth?S struggles soon shall cease,

And Jesus call us to Heaven?S perfect peace.

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Alleluia! Christ is risen

He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

A Happy, Peaceful and Blessed Easter to All.

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Peace and Reconciliation

German president lays a wreath at the Cenotaph                                                            Source: Mirror

There was a heart-warming gesture at the spot where the First World War ended when French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel embraced at a special ceremony which marked the centenary at Compiègne north of Paris.

The mood ofreconciliation continued into Remembrance Sunday when German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier placed a wreath at the base of the Cenotaph.

President Steinmeier reverently bowed his head in a prolonged gesture which encapsulated the tone of the Royal British Legion centenary commemoration at the Festival of Remembrance on Saturday night and at the commemorationservice in Westminster Abbey on Sunday evening.

A fitting tribute to all those who gave their tomorrow for our today.'Their name liveth for evermore'.

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"Soulless neutrality"

St Hilda's College, Oxford                                                                                                Source: web

From the Telegraph: St Hilda’s College in Oxford is set to become the first  undergraduate college in the University to cease having a dedicated Anglican chapel, transitioning instead to a multi-faith prayer room described by Elizabeth Oldfield as a victory for 'soulless neutrality'.

This decision even ruffled the feathers of Giles Fraser who wrote: "St Hilda’s College is the first college of the University of Oxford to have demolished its chapel. First of all they were going to replace it. But having knocked down the old one they have now decided they want a multi-faith space instead. The humanists are crowing that this represents a triumph for the forces of secularism – and they are, of course, perfectly correct."

But Fraser goes further: "This has nothing to do with an Anglican desire to maintain some sort of theological dominance within the University. If St Hilda’s decided it was going to have a mosque or a synagogue instead, I for one could entirely see the point and much prefer it. Such a space would have a particular religious character and be so better for that. Indeed, there are dozens of college chapels. So why not a bit of re-balancing? But of course they won't do that, too afraid of the Daily Mail, too afraid of being labeled as the college with the mosque."

Prior to 2007 St Hilda's was a Hall for Women Students. Women would have been able to worship on equal terms with men in the Anglican chapel unlike Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women who are segregated in worship.

Replacing the dedicated Anglican Chapel with a multi-faith prayer room is a politically correct, retrograde step signalling equal worth of beliefs contrary to the teaching of the Bible.

Ignorance of what Islam teaches is rife and is unlikely to improve without radical changes.

In July 2019 the Government appointed an "Independent expert" to tackle Islamophobia. The appointee, Imam Qari Asim, MBE, said at the time: "To tackle the alarming rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, it is imperative that Islamophobia is defined. I am deeply committed to working across Muslim communities and with relevant stakeholders to formulate a legally robust, comprehensive and workable definition of Islamophobia."

Talking at a workshop organised by The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies the Imam "argued the case for Muslims to obey the law of the land most of the time. But he also made clear how he would like the law to accommodate Islamic ideas. For example, he would like to see polygamy legalised, and inheritance to favour male heirs in line with sharia principles. He also supports Islamic finance with its radical view that interest should be banned." He would also "support an explicit Islamic blasphemy law."

Qari Asim is facing calls to stand down after he was accused of questioning free speech. Replaced or not, a clear distinction needs to be made between Muslims and Islam. Having an opinion on the teaching of Islam is not anti-Muslim.

The 'soulless neutrality' of political and spiritual leaders also needs to be confronted.

The following is an extract from Christian Concern'sIs Islam a religion of peace? :

The teaching of the Qur’an

"Confusingly for the ordinary reader, the Qur’an is not in chronological order. The chapters (Surahs) come in order of length, from the longest to the shortest. According to classical Islamic teaching, however, earlier verses (in chronology of revelation rather than position in the Qur’an) are sometimes cancelled by later instructions in a manner somewhat similar to how Christians view the New Testament as cancelling some of the instructions of the Old Testament. This Islamic doctrine is called abrogation, and it is found in the Qur’an:

"We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth [one] better than it or similar to it. Do you not know that Allah is over all things competent? (Q 2:106)

"Or again:

"And when We substitute a verse in place of a verse – and Allah is most knowing of what He sends down – they say, “You, [O Muhammad], are but an inventor [of lies].” But most of them do not know. (Q 16:101)[10]

"This doctrine of abrogation enables apparent contradictions in the Qur’an to be resolved; later verses abrogate earlier ones. Furthermore, Muhammad did not advocate violence earlier in his career, but waited until he had amassed a following large enough to wage war. Earlier verses are thus more peaceful, while later verses are more violent.

"The most famous example of a peaceful verse is Q 2:256:

"There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.

"However, this verse, and many others, is regarded as having been abrogated by the ‘verse of the sword’:[11]

"But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. (Q 9:5)

"In fact, surah 9 is the last chapter to be revealed in the Qur’an and is seen as abrogating earlier instructions. Surah 9 is also the most violent chapter as the following verses demonstrate:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Q 9:29)

"Here ‘Jizya’ is the Islamic subjugation tax to be paid by Christians or Jews who have accepted the subjugated status of ‘dhimmi’.

"O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination. (Q 9:73)

"Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur’an: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? (Q 9:111)

"O ye who believe! Fight the unbelievers who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you: and know that Allah is with those who fear Him. (Q 9:123)

"Note that these are open-ended commands without qualification. In total, there are well over a hundred verses advocating violence in the Qur’an.[12]"

Postscript

An extract from Christian Concern'sHow to tackle the Islamisation of prisons:

"The latest prison population statistics show that 16.1% of the prison population is Muslim, up from 12% in 2009. This compares with around 5.6% of the UK population who identify as Muslim. As of 2018 there were 61 full-time equivalent Muslim prison ‘chaplains’ (nearly 40% of all chaplains working in prisons), compared with 157 Christian prison chaplains. This makes the Prison Service one of the largest employers of Muslim religious professionals in the country. Yet former prison governor Ian Acheson, when reviewing Islamist extremism in prisons, found that virtually none of the prison imams he asked even knew about their Prevent duty."

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