Bystanders

In Great Britain, media stories of religious persecution are usually confined to cases of petty discrimination and to false propaganda. Few have the courage ofShabbaz Bhatti who refused to be a bystander.

Some organisations are crying in the wilderness hoping their voices will be heard while according to WikiIslam, more than 29 people are killed in religiously motivated attacks every single day at the hands of Muslims. While hypocrites protest, the Barnabasfund provides hope and aid for the persecuted church.

Don't be a bystander.

Read More

Death by stoning

Allah is merciful! Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is not to be stoned to death, she is to be hanged instead! But stoning is stll allowed to carry on in the twenty-first century in the name of religion. The perpetrators of this barbarism show no mercy persecuting Christians as well as fellow Muslims and Jews even though we are all children of Abraham and worship the one God.

Iran is not the only country in which stoning takes place but victims have a chance to prove their innocence. If they are able to struggle free having been bound and buried to the waist, or the chest for women, they can go free. Not surprising, no-one has.

Two thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth said, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" John 8:7. Which would you choose? Islam or Christianity.

World Day against the Death Penalty is on Sunday 10 October 2010.

Read More

Spare a thought for our persecuted fellow Christians this Christmas

Many of us are now looking forward to a cosy celebration of Midnight Mass followed by a hearty Christmas dinner so spare a thought for other Christians who are beingpersecuted throughout the world. Some will be thankful that their lives have been spared after their place of worship has beendestroyed while others have paid the ultimate price for their faith. But Christianity is still thedominant world religion. Pray that our leaders will strive harder to keep it that Way this Christmas, in the new year and in years to come.

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

Question Time - Evasion or ignorance?

"Was it right for Jack Straw to say that Pakistani men saw young white women as easy meat?" A perfectly reasonable question from Asim Khan (apologies if the spelling is incorrect) on a topical issue proper to BBC Question Time but the panel completely missed the point referring to crime, race, colour, ethnic group, culture, multiculturalism, ethnic minority, class and gender. The only time religion was mentioned was a smear of the Catholic church in a comment from the floor. A girl in the audience claimed that instead of blacks, young Pakistani men were now the victims of stop-and-search. The oppression of women was mentioned only in the context of feminism, not religion.

The question and responses were a gift to those who regard searching questions asIslamophobia. Michael Gove actually suggested that those outside a particular community were ill equipped to comment. None of the Asian community men in the audience did so. Was the panel's response based on political correctness, ignorance of Islam's aim of world domination or fear of raising the problem? The more forthright make no bones about world domination under Islam and Sharia law. Some ex-Muslims have had the courage toaddress the problem on pain of death for their apostasy. Others simply sweep the problem under the carpet in the apparent belief that those without a religion are exempt. Perhaps oblivious to the persecution of Christians they fail to appreciate that they defend a religious ideology that does not tolerate independence.

Read More

Interfaith discussions: the big problem

Archbishop Justin Welby with Dr Waqar Azmi (l) and Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones (r) at the

Muslim Council of Wales dinner, Cardiff, Wales, 1 October 2015.    Photo Credit: Lambeth Palace

In his address to the Muslim Council of Wales (see previous entry), the Archbishop of Canterbury urged faith groups to "go the extra mile" for the common good. Speaking "as a Christian" Archbishop Welby spoke of the values that spring out of the person of Jesus Christ:

"The first of these springs from the fact of incarnation, that in Christian belief we understand that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human, two persons in one nature. Incarnation is summed up in a title of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Not just God for us, but God with us in all the mess of the life in which we live." Full report here .

The event marked the 10th anniversary for Cardiff University’s Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK with its "mission to promote scholarly and public understanding of Islam and the life of Muslim communities in the UK". According to its Director, Prof Sophie Gilliat-Ray, we should understand that "poverty, lack of aspiration and Islamophobia are partly to blame for radicalisation of Muslims from Cardiff and elsewhere". Poverty and lack of aspiration are not peculiar to Muslims while Islamophobia is a construction to deflect honest questioning of a system of oppression and often the utmost cruelty when Muslims are in the majority but that does not prevent them from playing the victim.

Prof Gilliat-Ray has been appointed to a UK-wide commission which will be in Cardiff to hear from local Muslims what barriers they face getting involved in the societies in which they live (here).

When it comes to barriers, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at Edinburgh ­University’s Divinity School gives an account of essential differences between Islam and Christianity in her book 'Christians, Muslims And Jesus'. From a reviewhere "Jesus is revered within Islam as the most significant prophet before Muhammad, and is seen as a key precursor in bringing the message of God’s unity and sovereignty to humanity. He is not, however, worshipped as God; and the ideas of the Incarnation, Resurrection and the Trinity led Muslim scholars to see in Christianity a surreptitious polytheism...The idea of the Crucifixion – that God could voluntarily elect to die – struck Islamic theologians, particularly of the Mu’tazilite school, as a paradox verging on blasphemy."

No meeting of minds there! While the charm offensive continues in this country, Muslims continue to persecute Christians abroad so the real dilema remains unaddressed as Islamic influence expands unabated.

Postscript [03.10.2015]

'Ancient Faith' Interview: Islam through the heart and mind of a convert to Orthodox Christianity - Part 1.

"In this two-part interview Kevin's guest is "George," who became a Sunni Muslim at age 14 and studied to become an Imam at a madrasa, studying Quran, Arabic language, Islamic theology, hadith, and jurisprudence. He left Islam and became an Orthodox Christian 20 years later. Among other things, Kevin and his guest discuss Islamic theology, common misunderstandings of Christianity by Muslims, differences between "orthodox" Islam and the Nation of Islam, the true understanding and practice in Islam of slavery and jihad, and the extraordinary journey that led "Georgedanquot; to Orthodox Christianity". Hat tip toFacing Islam Blog.

Postscript [04.10.2015]

More from the "Religion of peace" to "promote scholarly and public understanding of Islam":

Abroad - Christians fleeing Muslim persecution are finding just as much oppression in the refugee camps and shelters of Germany as they suffered in their home states. As the vast majority of asylum seekers are Muslims, many of whom have imported an adherence to sharia law with them, the few Christian co-travellers find themselves ostracised, abused, and even physically attacked. Full reporthere.

At home - A family who converted from Islam to Christianity say they are being driven out of their home for the SECOND TIME by neighbours who accuse them of blasphemy. Nissar Hussain, his wife Kubra and their six children claim they have become "prisoners in their own home" as neighbours attack them in the street, smash their car windscreens and throw eggs at their windows. Report here.

Postscript [05.10.2015]

'Ancient Faith' Interview: Islam through the heart and mind of a convert to Orthodox Christianity - Part 2.

Read More

Interfaith meeting to aid the spread of Islam

A study undertaken by the Muslim Council of Britain has analysed the 2011 Census

to  reveal details of Britain's growing Muslim population.  Source: Mail Online

"The Muslim Council of Wales, an affiliate of Muslim Council Britain, is an accord of mosques, Muslim associations and institutions in Wales. It shall be informed and guided by the Sunnah in all its aims, policies and procedures".

From Wales Online: "Archbishop of Canterbury to address historic event in Wales at invitation of Muslim leaders. Justin Welby, will be joined by the archbishops of Wales, Scotland and Ireland in what is hoped to be a signal of interfaith cohesion...Muslim community leaders said they hoped the interfaith event at Cardiff City Hall, which coincides with the primates' visit, will send a message across Wales, the UK and internationally that inter-faith relations in Britain are strong, despite global tensions such as IS atrocities and the refugee crisis."

There is the whiff of Chamberlain's 'Peace for our time' about this gathering. The Muslim Council of Wales "shall be informed and guided by the Sunnah in all its aims, policies and procedures". That means no deviation from the Sunnah and the Koran, the spread of Islam by any means.

While religious leaders are engaged in conversation in Christian countries, Christianity is being crushed in Muslim countries. It is no coincidence that the main religion is Islam in the top 50 countries on the World Watch List of Christian persecution. This is explained by Dr. Peter Hammond in his book: "Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat". In Dr Hammond's list the United Kingdom is shown with a Muslim population of 2.7%. (At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs.)

By 2011 the Muslim population population in England and Wales rose to 5%. (From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply) leading to "Which restaurant chains have gone halal – and why?"

Christian Voice considers halal products from a biblicalperspective, something that Archbishop Welby should reflect on as he prepares his speech. The Bible is clear: Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He also warned about false prophets: "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. You will know them by their fruits".

Religious choice is not an option for Muslims. The number of Muslims in England and Wales grew by 80% to dua.7 million between the 2001 and 2011 censuses but there is a belief among some of Britain's Muslims that "leaving Islam is a sin and can even be punished by deathdanquot;. An investigation for the BBC has found evidence of young people suffering threats, intimidation, being ostracised by their communities and, in some cases, encountering serious physical abuse when they told their families they were no longer Muslims. Check "which countries still outlaw apostasy and blasphemydanquot; here.

In Muslim countries non-Muslims face death or are forced to pay a poll tax, the Jizya, if they refuse to convert to Islam despite there being "no compulsion in religion", a verse abrogated in the Koran. There is no evidence that the young able-bodied Muslims migrating to Europe have any desire to cast off the yoke of oppression. Indeed Saudi Arabia has pledged to build 200 mosques in Germany to accommodate the spread of Islam.

If Justin Welby wants to make a positive contribution to interfaith relations he should start by encouraging Muslims to show their solidarity with Christians by refusing to build any more mosques while Christians are being massacred and their churches destroyed.

Fat chance!Read on.

Postscript [30.09.2015]

According to a new nationwide online kuesioner of 600 Muslims living in the United States, significant minorities embrace supremacist notions that could pose a threat to America?S security and its constitutional form of government.

The numbers of potential jihadists among the majority of Muslims who appear not to be sympathetic to such notions raise a number of public policy choices that warrant careful consideration and urgent debate, including: the necessity for enhanced surveillance of Muslim communities; refugee resettlement, asylum and other immigration programs that are swelling their numbers and density; and the viability of so-called ?Countering violent extremism? Initiatives that are supposed to stymie radicalization within those communities.

Full details here.

Read More

Something to hide?

Picture Credit: Express/REUTERS?GETTY?AP

Hat tip to Anglican Ink via Anglican Mainstream for this report:

On 5 November in the House of Lords Lord Pearson (UKIP) called for a national debate on the nature of Islam. He asked the government whether, as part of their counter-extremism strategy, they will encourage a national debate about the nature of Islam, including whether the Muslim tenet of abrogation remains valid today.

The response from a number of members of the House was that discussing Islam would be counter productive and therefore that we should stay silent on radical Islam. Full reporthere.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport and Home Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con) said: My Lords, the Government?S approach and strategy to countering extremism is firmly based on further strengthening our relationships and work with the communities and organisations across the United Kingdom and together confronting, challenging and disrupting extremism in all its ugly guises.

In reply to Lord Pearson's claim that some noble Lords may not be aware that "abrogation means that where there is contradiction in the Koran, its later and more violent verses outweigh its admirably peaceful early texts" Lord Ahmad said "...With the exception of one verse in the holy Koran, every verse starts with the words: "In the name of God, the gracious, most merciful", which underlines the true sentiments and principle of that religiondanquot;. Lord Ahmad needs to look around more and consider what is happening "in the name of Goddanquot; in the Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea and Syria for a start.

There is more evidence in this Christian Post article which doubters may wish to read if they are not convinced: 'Unimaginable Horrors' Detailed in US Report on ISIS' Persecution of Christians.

Back in 2008 The Spectator reported on No-go Britain: "One of Britain’s best and most courageous men, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, said that there were parts of Britain which had become no-go areas for non-Muslims. For these comments he was met with widespread scorn and denial."

"Nick Clegg ? Then merely leader of the Liberal Democrat party ? Said the Bishop?S comments were ?A gross caricature of reality.? William Hague said that the Bishop had ?Probably put it too strongly?, while the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) accused him of ?Frantic scaremongering.? Unfortunately for Bishop Nazir-Ali's critics the offenders made videos of themselves proving Bishop Nazir-Ali correct.

In February 2015 the Gatestone Institute think tank published a fuller report "European 'No-Go' Zones: Fact or Fiction? Part dua: Britain". Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality said "We are sleepwalking our way to segregation. We are becoming strangers to each other and leaving communities to be marooned outside the mainstream."

Meanwhile, Christians in Middle East 'are facing genocide'. Also, from The Express, "Migrants flee incomprehensible violence but are they all victims?"

Are our politicians so desperate for votes that anything goes? If not a conspiracy of silence, perhaps there is something to hide that we should know about.

Read More

In season of warmth, a look at chilling, global war on Christianity

The aftermath of the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians   SourceTelegraph/Universal News

From The Rev. John Armstrong, Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Columbus, Indiana writing in The Republic:

Pope Francis acknowledges it.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, confirms it.

Foreign leaders recognize it.

Human rights advocates, along with more than 80 members of Congress, insist that it is real.

But will the leader of the free world publicly admit it?

?It? Refers to the genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

Genocide involves the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious class.

In addition to outright murder, genocide includes preventing births within the class and forcibly transferring children of the class to another group.

Can you say ?Boko Haram??

Recently, Pope Francis said, ?Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus.

?In this Third World war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.?

Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of the United Kingdom says, ?What is happening to Christians in (the Middle East) is the religious equivalent of ethnic cleansing.?

However, words such as ethnic cleansing and genocide are radioactive to many politicians, because they imply that we have a moral and legal obligation to use whatever means necessary, including military force, to end the atrocities.

Some in the West are slow to acknowledge Christian persecution because they are in the habit of thinking of Christianity as rich, powerful and socially oppressive, and therefore cannot imagine that Christians in many parts of the world are themselves oppressed.

But facts are stubborn things.

From West Africa to Indonesia, from Eritrea to North Korea, Christians are routinely subjected to violence, imprisonment and death, for no other reason than believing in Jesus.

German Prime Minister Angela Merkel declared that Christianity is ?The most persecuted religion worldwide.?

According to the International Society for Human Rights, a secular organization based in Frankfurt, Germany, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians.

Between 2006 and 2010, Christians faced some sort of discrimination in 139 countries, almost three-quarters of all countries on earth, according to the Pew Forum.

The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts reports that over the past decade, an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed every year.

John Allen, associate editor of The Boston Globe, writes that the global persecution of churchgoers is the unreported catastrophe of our time.

According to Allen, it is ?The greatest story never told of the early 21st century.?

When will the world pay attention?

One church leader in the Middle East put it this way: ?Does anybody hear our cry? How many atrocities must we endure before somebody, somewhere, comes to our aid??

Silence in the face of evil is evil itself.

Pray for our government to use financial and diplomatic pressure against offending countries.

Pray for direct humanitarian assistance by our government and condemnation of these crimes against humanity.

Pray for Christian martyrs to be faithful unto death, and pray for their persecutors to be forgiven and to better understand the faith which they seek to destroy.

Think your friends should see this? Share it with them!

Read More

All mosques in Europe should be destroyed says Archbishop

Can you imagine the outcry if a senior cleric were to claim that no more mosques should be built in Europe and existing ones razed to the ground? I have seen no British response to the claim by Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, when he said it was not only forbidden to build new churches on the Arab Peninsula but that all existing ones in the region should also be razed to the ground "as there are too manydanquot;.

All credit then to Christians and Muslims in Austria for their condemnation but where is the British voice or has everyone here been cowed by accusations ofIslamophobia? The British Government tell us that they have other priorities in the region but that is no excuse for the deafening silence in response to the continuingpersecution of Christians throughout the world.

Read More

In the pink

Straight, monogamous heterosexual with cancer but drugs too expensive? Tough.

Gay and promiscuous? Drugs that can prevent HIV infections will be offered to gay men for free via an NHS trial starting next month.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) drug Truvada can "drastically reduce people?S chances of being infected with HIV, and is available in a number of countries to high-risk groups including sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people in serodiscordant relationships."

And the LGBT lobby still complains that they are persecuted with the publicly funded BBC taking the lead!

Updates

[07.08.2017]

NHS cutting back on IVF fertility treatment to save money here.

[15.08.2017]

New pill to enable safer promiscuity

 "Over 95% of people living with HIV in the UK have acquired HIV through sex without a condom." - National AIDS Trust. Full Christian Concern report here .

Read More

Barry's gay legacy

Provincial news: Pride Cymru                                                                                                                Source: Church in Wales

After 14 years in office as Archbishop of Wales, this is his legacy. A gay pride event fronted by the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales, highlighted as Provincial news on the Church in Wales web site under the headline "Bishop celebrates at Pride Cymrudanquot;.

Supported by predominantly women clergy, the bishop of St Davids will "take part in a discussion about faith and sexuality" before "leading Pride’s first ever Communion service". Penarth assistant curate, the Revd Rosemary Hill, will be talking about "bi-sexual Christianity" and later Newport assistant curate, the Revd James Henley, will discuss "belonging in a disconnected world". On Sunday, the Revd Rhian Linecar, Cardiff assistant curate, will lead Taize sung prayer and meditation, no doubt on an 'inclusive' theme.

FaithTent coordinator, the Revd Delyth Liddell, said, ?We are delighted to be welcoming our first ever Bishop to the #FaithTent this year, Bishop Joanna".

In one small step towards the bishop of Llandaff's goal of parity, the omnipresent cleric at 'inclusion' events, Canon Aled Edwards, chief executive of Cytun, Churches Together, will talk about ?Open Inclusive Nation? Before leading the closing thanksgiving service.

Deemed by Archbishop Morgan to be the 'best person to be a bishop', Joanna Penberthy was reported to have been elected in a 'stitch up'. Could her LGBT credentials have been why?  The news of her election was welcomed by one gay priest on Thinking Anglicans as "Wonderful news - for Wales and for the LGBT Community in the Church".

Given that her name had been circulating months before her election it should have come as no surprise but it did for those who believed that the work of the Holy Spirit could not be manipulated. One former Archbishop actually described the loss of the vote for woman priests as the work of the Devil.

If twenty years of women priests culminating in a bishop favouring the gay community over cradle Anglicans whose only desire has been to worship as the Holy Spirit moves them, the Archbishop could have been right but on the wrong occasion.

Presumably, then, the task of a bishop in the Church in Wales today in Barry Morgan's book is to advance Queer Theology. Joanna Penberthy has been most conspicuous by her presence at all things gay but little else from Church in Wales news reports.

Looking back, bishop Penberthy was to the fore inVictims last December and inChurch in Crisis in February this year. More recently she preached at the Welsh NationalEisteddfod on 'diversity', reported more accurately elsewhere as LGBTQIA+.

The first woman bishop is no longer alone. The new bishop of Llandaff, June Osborne has a similar LGBTagenda.

The bishop of St Davids participation in Pride Cymru's Gay Weekend in Cardiff brings more LGBT 'good news' from one who has become a peripatetic ambassador for the LGBTQIA rencana, moving from diocese to diocese to welcome those who claim to be unwelcome despite all the evidence to the contrary. It is a ploy. Their aim is same sex marriage in church.

So this is Barry Morgan's legacy. A queered church motivated by illiberal 'liberal' clergy with a bishop in St Asaph taking on the mantle ofSelf inflicted pain while leaving traditional Anglicans with nothing but memories to support their faith.

Barry Morgan's successor as Archbishop must break his secularist mould and return the Church to spirituality.

Update [27.08.2017]

"Bishop's Pride Cymru involvement 'fantastic'" - Rev Delyth Liddell faith tent coordinator.

The faith tent coordinator is a Methodist minister and University Chaplain. In a BBC video interview she highlighted the leadership of the bishop of St Davids.  Liddell claimed that LGBT people "would not be allowed to receive Communion" and "would not be welcome in church" which is what made the bishop's Eucharistic celebration so "fantastic".

As a Methodist minister Liddell may be ale to back up her claim but not in the Church in Wales. In reality I suspect it is just another 'persecution' claim built on fantasy as was bishop Penberthy's claim of discrimination which on examination turned out to be nothing more than someone taking an opposing view to hers.

Read More

Islamic finance and persecution

"In response to customer demand, NatWest bank has launched its first mortgage product compliant with Islamic Shariah law. In accordance with Shariah law, the product will not charge interest." -NatWest Business Banking

'Sharia compliant' finance is not only permitted in Great Britain, it is encouraged by HM Government which is committed to making the UK the 'Western hub of Islamic finance'. This video by 'Christian Concern' explains that accommodating Sharia finance makes it hard to object to Sharia in family law or other areas even though it is 'inherently discriminatory' against women and non-Muslims. The aim of Islamic finance is to create a separate, rival financial system serving to prevent the integration of Muslims into Western societies [my emphasis - Ed.].

I was shocked to hear a prayer in the Intercessions at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance [@01:18:30] on Saturday night praying that Her Majesty, as Defender of the Faith, should 'protect the freedom of other faiths. Are our public servants and religious leaders ignorant of false prophets and the charge that we should "go and make disciples of all nations" in the knowledge as Christians that there is only one way to the Father? Do they not recognise the supremacist ideology in our midst that condemns to death apostates and beheads and crucifies people who refuse to convert to Islam?

Why should Her Majesty protect a faith based on a religious ideology that has no regard for other religious beliefs? Nissar Hussain converted from Islam to become a Christian in 1996. He has since faced aggressive behaviour and violence from members of the Muslim community where he lived in Bradford, reportedhere. There is graphic coverage in the MailOnline of the beating he received in 2015 after being targeted as a 'blasphemer' because he converted from Islam. He suffered a broken kneecap, a fractured forearm and concussion.

Despite evidence from the world over of the attitude of Islam to non-Muslims, leading Anglicans continue to pander to 'interfaith cohesion' interpreting the Quran in a way that some misinterpret the Bible to suit their own ends.

The hand of friendship offered by the Muslim Council of Wales in Great Britain is not mirrored in Muslim dominated countries. When Muslims form a majority churches are closed or destroyed and Christians are persecuted or killed. Peace in Islam means when everyone has been converted, if necessary by the sword.

It has been estimated by Open Doors International that 100 million Christians worldwide endure some sort of persecution each year with 7,100 Christians killed for their faith in 2015 alone.

Encouraging and protecting the freedom of Islam is the last thing we need if we value our own freedom. Christians are the victims of 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world. Please find the time to watch the short documentary, Under Caesar's Sword (HT Anglican Mainstream).

Late News [14.11.2016]

From MailOnline:

BBC will increase religious coverage for Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs after it was slammed for being 'too CHRISTIAN'.

Postscript [15.11.2016]

Petition toProtect Christian programming and coverage at the BBC

Voice for Justice UK has organised a petition via CitizenGo calling on Her Majesty’s Government, and in particular Karen Bradley, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, to exercise due oversight of the BBC and to reject any attempt to downgrade Christian programming in favour of increased coverage for Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh faiths. The Director-General of the BBC, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, has said he will increase the coverage of other faiths and could broadcast Friday prayers from a mosque along the lines of Songs of Praise. He says he will do this because there have been complaints that the Corporation was ‘too Christian’.

In 2011 a informasi lapangan conducted by the BBC itself found that of the 4,500 people approached, the overwhelming feeling was that the BBC was anti-Christian, and that the Christian faith was consistently misrepresented. In 2012, the then Director-General, Mark Thompson, himself admitted that Christianity was treated ?Less-sensitively? Than other religions. Since that time there have been numerous similar complaints of clear bias against Christianity, some coming from employees at the BBC themselves. Full report on Anglican mainstream here. You can sign the petition here.

Translation of the Dedication that appears in the entrance hall of Broadcasting House:

This Temple of the Arts and Muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors of Broadcasting House in the year 1931, Sir John Reith being Director-General. It is their prayer that good seed sown may bring forth a good harvest, that all things hostile to peace or purity may be banished from this house, and that the people, inclining their ear to whatsoever things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the path of wisdom and uprightness.

Read More

Worldwide Persecution of Christians

A Guardian article sourced by data from Open Doors in July 2015 reported that "Converts from Islam have faced persecution in Egypt for many years, but until recently the indigenous Coptic Christians have largely been left alone. After the overthrow of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, however, there was a sharp increase in attacks, with 65 churches, convents, Christian bookshops and schools attacked. There are fears these attacks will increase as radical Islamist groups gain power in the region."

Yesterday it was reported in Christian Daily that "Orthodox Coptic Christians thought that they would experience less discrimination from Muslims after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak five years ago, but the post-Arab Spring years have only seen the attacks against them rise."

Persecution of Christians is widespread in Muslim countries (details here) which makes it all the more extraordinary that Islam is being allowed to extend its influence in the Western World with shocking consequences for the victims of a culture which regards women as second class along with non-Muslims, or kafir. Worries have been expressed over the Government's desire to make the UK the centre for 'Sharia compliant' Islamic finance even though it is 'inherently discriminatory' against women and non-Muslims and about BBC plans to increase Muslim influence at the expense of Christianity, the foundation of British law and our culture.

With friends yesterday I found myself in conversation about the BBC's plans to downgrade Christian programming in favour of increased coverage for Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh faiths. The Director-General of the BBC, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, is reported to have said that he will increase the coverage of other faiths and could broadcast Friday prayers from a mosque along the lines of Songs of Praise because there have been complaints that the Corporation was ‘too Christian’. One can imagine how such complaints originate whendifferent values are in evidence.

It was put to me by a nominal Christian that the BBC should allow Friday prayers to be broadcast because 'Imams in the UK have explained that Islam means peace and love of others'. This is a well usedtactic to hoodwink the ill-informed. If the BBC were to increase their coverage by taking a critical look at a religious ideology which encourages such deception while bringing death and destruction around the world, people would be better informed about Islamic ambitions for world dominance under Sharia.

The Open Doors Watch List consistently reports persecution, repression, killing Christians and destruction of their churches along with persecution of others such as the Yazidis, greatly adding to the refugee crisis. In some countries such as Saudi Arabia Christians must keep their faith completely secret. If not executed by the state, they risk becoming the victim of an honour killing by a family member because leaving Islam is regarded as a great disgrace.

Islam is Islam. Many Muslims live peacefully, ignoring what is done in their name but the essential difference in the attitude of devout Muslims to non-Muslims is if they are in a minority rather than a majority.

While Islam is allowed to flourish and more mosques are built in Britain and Europe, often financed through the Saudi Connection, Christianity is being systematically destroyed in the Middle East with attempts to obliterate all evidence of ancient pre-Islamic civilisations such as the Assyrians.

The persecution of Christians must be stopped. You can help by signing a petition against the BBC proposals here.

Postscript [18.11.2016]

"Donald Trump’s Pick For National Security Adviser Loves To Stoke Islamophobia" - Huffington Post:

Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump?S pick for national security adviser, has stoked Islamophobia by calling Islam a ?Cancer? And saying fear of it was ?Justified?. In August, Flynn said that Islam, which has around 1.6 billion followers around the world, was a ?Political ideology? That ?Hides behind being a religion.? He also described it as a ?Cancer? Because terrorist groups instructed followers to ?Get into the bloodstream of the opposition.? He has tweeted that fearing Muslims is ?Rational.?

Doubters should look at the map. Non-Muslims living in Muslim countries know what fear is. The evidence speaks for itself. Are they are guilty of Islamophobia?

Read More

Christian today but what of tomorrow?

"Christianity is being quietly erased from public life. What are we going to do about it?" Good question but very little where it matters, if anything. The question was posed in Christian Today:

"A strange and troubling paradox is now glaringly evident in society today. On the one hand the UK Government is praising and giving funding to Christian initiatives in communities and recognising the rich contribution the church makes to national life. On the other it is proposing measures to tackle extremism that could privatise Christianity. As we enter this New Year, it is clear 2016 will be a critical year for Christian freedoms. This week former Whitehall mandarin William Nye talked of the "secularising spiritdanquot; now permeating the machinery of government. After 20 years of working at the highest level he sees the gradual "squeezing out of Christianity" from our national life despite the public expressions of support from ministers. The chilling effect has been that more and more Christians are afraid to speak out and feel disenfranchised."

If we value our heritage we must do something about it. While Christianity is being marginalised, Islam continues to gain ground. From Patheos:

"Christians may be the most persecuted class in the world, and their persecution is on the rise. As Islamic extremism takes hold and repressive governments step up their campaigns against Christianity, the Pope has been moved to warn of ?A form of genocide?, and for campaigners to speak out over ?Religio-ethnic cleansing.? Organisations that monitor religious persecution have rung alarm bells worldwide, from South America to sub-Saharan Africa and from Asia to the Middle East, warning of a rapid increase in attacks and repressiondanquot;.

Despite the welldocumented evidence of how Muslims oppress others in Islamic countries, do-gooders with no apparent comprehension of the threat of an IslamicSupremacist ideology press for more and more concessions for Islam. The latest from the Mail Online: "Sit exams early to fit in with Ramadan: Pupils taking GCSEs and A-levels face timetable shake-up to accommodate fasting Muslims". Quite a contrast with the option offered to Christians in many Muslim countries - convert, pay the tax or die.

In Belfast, "Following yesterday’s ruling which found Pastor James McConnell not guilty of a “hate crime” for referring to Islam as “heathen” and “satanic”, the Belfast Islamic Centre, which reported the pastor to the police, has said that they “disagree with the verdict”. The Islamic Centre is calling for a blasphemy law in Northern Ireland, by demanding that “insulting” a faith be punishable under Irish law. However, shortly after the ‘Satanic Islam’ sermon, Dr. Raied al-Wazzan, the executive director of Belfast Islamic Centre, made remarks that were not only insulting to some Christians, but appeared to support a banned terrorist organisation."

In Birmingham a former teacher at two schools linked to the Trojan Horse scandal could face a lifetime ban from the classroom after he told pupils that Christians and Jews were 'ignorant' and Muslims have 'the true religion'.

This is a Christian country but for how long? Christian belief is that there is only one way to the Father. The Bible warns about false prophets but still many of our bishops and even archbishops encourage the spread of Islam instead of seeking tomake disciples of all nations. Encouraging other faiths denies them the real truth. Meanwhile, Christians in the United Kingdom are facing increasing marginalization and oppression under new laws originally intended to safeguard equality. The position abroad is worse, serving as a warning to those who condemn as Islamophobic anyone who seeks the truth about Islam.

If we do not stand up for what we believe our children and grand children will become part of the Dhimmitude as Islam expands and Christianity becomes a minority religion in the UK. Leaders who persist in regarding Islam as just another faith similar to others have had a rude awakening following the terrorist attacks in France by supposed refugees and the more recent attacks on women inGermany on New Year's Eve but bishops still persist with their deluded embrace of an alien culture which seeks our demise. They may believe that they are following the Gospel but Jesus gave short shrift to those who deserved condemnation.

'Refugees' or 'migrants', the vast majority of immigrants are Muslim. They do not leave their ideology behind. Christians in refugee camps who have not fled the persecution there continue tosuffer at the hands of Muslim refugees while others who have sought safety by sea have been thrown overboard.

There is no escape from an ideology which regards the kafir as worthless while Muslims try to buy their way to heaven doing what they believe to be the will of God, even if it means killing the innocent, something our political as well as religious leaders need to grasp.

The best Archbishop we never had, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, summed up the problem of convincing the ill-informed when heresponded to Boris Johnson's claim that "we should counter anti-Islamic scare-mongering by recalling our debt to the culture of Muslim Spain". Bishop Michael said: Boris Johnson points out the achievements of Muslim rule after their conquest of the mostly Christian and Jewish Middle East, North Africa and Spain (Comment,3 January). In fact, if they had not been stopped at Tours by Charles Martel, Mr Johnson might have had a more direct experience of such rule. [My emphasis - Ed.]. Read Bishop Michael's full responsehere and about the Battle of Tours (732 AD)here:

"Had Martel fallen at Tours the long term implications for European Christianity may have been devastating. His victory there, and in the following campaigns, may have literally saved Europe and Christianity as we know it, from conquest while the Caliphate was unified and able to mount such a conquest." - And today they are invited in to spread their supremacist ideology!

Read More

A new beginning?

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Pope Francis met at the Jose Marti

 airport in Havana Feb. 12, 2016 ? The first-ever papal meeting with the head of the Russian

 Orthodox Church, a historic development in the 1,000-year schism within Christianity.

 (Crux / Max Rossi / AP)

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21

The key points in the declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill after their historic meeting on Friday 12 Feb 2016 reported by Crux include:

• An acknowledgement that ?We have been divided by wounds caused by old and recent conflicts, by differences inherited from our ancestors.?

Deep concern for ?Christians [who] are victims of persecution.? The two leaders said, ?In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated. Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed.?

A plea for greater inter-religious dialogue: ?Differences in the understanding of religious truths must not impede people of different faiths to live in peace and harmony,? The two men said.

Worry about secular hostility to religion: ?We observe that the transformation of some countries into secularized societies, estranged from all reference to God and to His truth, constitutes a grave threat to religious freedom. It is a source of concern for us that there is a current curtailment of the rights of Christians, if not outright discrimination.?

Defense of immigrants and refugees: ?We cannot remain indifferent to the destinies of millions of migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations,? They said.

A strong call for preserving the ?Natural family? Based on marriage between a man and a woman, and the ?Right to life,? Including opposition to abortion and euthanasia.

An invitation to ?Prudence, social solidarity and action aimed at constructing peace? In Ukraine.

Full report here.

In the words of St Benedict "Always we begin againdanquot; -

"that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

Read More

Apologists' myopia

So far there is no evidence that Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil was crucified by ISIS on Good Friday as threatened. His fate is uncertain. But he is one of many. Others have been crucified. Muslim children are not exempt, 'crucified for not fasting during Ramadan'.

Women are routinely raped and sold into slavery yet people in authority continually make excuses.

Instead of relying on evidence fed to them of how wonderful this alien ideology is, apologists for 'the religion of peace' should open their eyes to the horrors that are being perpetrated around them.

Peaceful onlookers and those who look away after turning the other cheek are of no comfort to the persecuted.

Read More

Christianity erased from history and memory

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 27 - Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain will be lit up red on April 29 to

 highlight the plight of Christian martyrs  and victims of persecution in many parts

 of the world, including the Middle East, west Africa and Pakistan.

Anevent in Rome tomorrow highlights the plight of Christian martyrs and victims of persecution around the world. More here.  Subsequent report here.

While Christians are being persecuted and martyred today, all traces of Christianity are being "erased from the Middle East and expunged from memory".

Christian minorities throughout the Middle East have long maintained that "the history taught in public classrooms habitually suppresses the region's Christian heritage while magnifying (including by lying about) Islam".

"It sounds absurd, but Muslims more or less know nothing about Christians, even though they make up a large part of the population and are in fact the original Egyptians," said Kamal Mougheeth, a retired teacher in Egypt. "Egypt was Christian for six or seven centuries [before the Muslim invasion around 640]. The sad thing is that for many years the history books skipped from Cleopatra to the Muslim conquest of Egypt. The Christian era was gone. Disappeared. An enormous black whole."

"One of Islam's bitterest ironies: a great many of today's Middle East Christians are being persecuted by Muslims ? Including of the ISIS variety ? Whose own ancestors were persecuted Christians who converted to Islam to end their suffering. In other words, Muslim descendants of persecuted Christians are today slaughtering their Christian cousins. Christians are seen as "foreign traitors" in part because many Muslims do not know of their own Christian ancestry".

The article can be found in 'Middle East Forum' here.

An ISIS video released last month shows members of its religious police

in Mosul, Iraq, burning hundreds of Christian books it deems blasphemous.

Read More

Mad or bad? If you are dead you're dead.

?All of you are infidels? We will go to paradise if we kill you and you will go to hell.?

There is no shortage of Muslims who believe that they will have a place in paradise if they die killing infidels even if their stock of virgins isdepleted. It is neither here nor there that the vast majority of Muslims do not kill infidels. The God they worship sanctions death for unwilling converts as well as apostates. Unless Muslims face up to this reality and enter into serious dialogue about their supremacist religious ideology, the killings will go on and on.

After each atrocity the media scurry around to find any excuse they can to point the finger away from Islam. Why? It is the common thread that has linked1400 years of violence. Two questions are usually asked. Was the perpetrator in need of psychiatric help? - as if other perpetrators are normal - and, Has the 'so-called' Islamic State claimed responsibility or is there any evidence of a link? The introductory video, 'Persecuted and Forgotten' clearly illustrates that the persecution of Christians is not peculiar to ISIS.

The quote "All of you are infidels… we will go to paradise if we kill you and you will go to hell" is taken from an article in the Catholic Herald: "A priest is slaughtered at Mass in rural France. This is what life is like for Christians in the Middle East". The article recalls: "One priest, Fr Thaer Abdal, was shot dead at the altar. In total, 58 innocent people were murdered. Their killers were members of an Iraqi faction of Al-Qaeda that had declared war on churches, “dirty dens of idolatry”, and in particular “the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican. The Baghdad massacre was one of countless atrocities that have reduced ancient Christian communities in the Middle East to shrivelled and terrified ghettos or underground churches".

In Egypt: Muslim attacks on Christians are "increasing at alarming ratedanquot;. So widespread has the persoalan become that after the French priest was murdered a 'UK Church leader' who asked to remain anonymous has warned that "it may be sign of things to comedanquot;. He said:

"There needs to be a connection made between what is happening here and what has been happening in places such as Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iraq. Suddenly we are seeing this in Europe. It could be an alarming sign of things to come. There is a lot of copycat psychology in these kinds of attacks. We are hoping this does not turn into anything more serious and get out of hand, but we are concerned that it might." Full report here.

For Christians there is onlyone way to the Father, through Jesus Christ. There is no compulsion.

For Muslims "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger".

This is the basic statement of the Islamic faith: "anyone who cannot recite this wholeheartedly is not a Muslimdanquot;.

When a Muslim recites this they proclaim:

That Allah is the only God, and that Muhammad is his prophet

That they personally accept this as true

That they will obey all the commitments of Islam in their life

Little surprise, then, that other religions are held in contempt by Islam. 'Blasphemy' is a tool often used in Islamic states. Sadly this process is aided by attitudes in the West which imply that only Islam is sacred. In the wake of latest atrocity in France it has beenreported that a "Fireman Sam" episode has been pulled amid a "Koran row" in marked contrast to the persecution of Christians highlighted in the "Persecuted and Forgotten" video above.

In the following video, former Prime Minister Tony Blair along with former US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton insist, contrary to all the evidence available, that Islam is a religion of peace, ignoring the opinions of experts. Only a sensible dialogue will expose the truth but while Islam is regarded as above criticism the West will remain compliant without uttering a word of the Shahadah.

Meanwhile the slaughter of the innocents continues.

Postscripts [31.07.2016]

From The Telegraph:Islamism is an attack on our civilisation ? This must be recognised, not evaded.

also [03.08.2016]

From OnePeterfiveISIS Rejects Pope?S Interpretation of Their Own Religion

Read More

Second-class Christians

Preparations are underway to celebrate what has become one of the major festivals in the Church in Wales, Gay Pride week, 'giving a voice' to those who claim to be persecuted.

As Archbishop Barry Morgan said way back in 2008: "There are a huge number of gay clergy and gay partnered clergydanquot; adding that "there?S no reason why they shouldn?T be bishops and they will be. We?Re not arguing about if, we?Re just arguing about when."

Now that the Church in Wales has appointed an openly lesbian bishop, claiming to be persecuted while running the show has a hollow ring. It is more about tactical advantage than persecution as outlined in Would I Lie to You?

As part of their 2020 LGBT campaign thediocese of Llandaff is launching their first ever LGBT prayer writing competition to celebrate LGBT History Month 2020: "We?Re inviting you to write an original prayer based around the theme Power of Prayer. Your prayer could feature in our forthcoming LGBT prayer book and may be spoken at the Faith Tent Eucharist at Pride Cymru."

The diocesan press release invites readers who may be looking for inspiration to watch the above Prayer for Pride video. In fact it is another propaganda tool claiming discrimination while twisting the meaning of love.

News from Wales has announced a special service in North Wales "celebrating diversity and the legendary Ladies of Llangollen" which takes place at St Collen’s Church in Llangollen on Saturday 22nd February, including a blessing of the tomb of the Ladies of Llangollen.

According to the report: "The service is timely following a recent report issued by the bishops of the Church of England on same-sex marriages. This report has hurt, disappointed and discouraged many LGBT Christians...This service will send out a powerful message of inclusion, hope and welcome to all LGBT people across the land."

That is, inclusion, hope and welcome for an alleged oppressed minority but exclusion, no hope and goodbye to Anglicans who are among the majority of Christians who remain faithful to the teaching of the Apostolic Church.

Following the statement by the Church of England's House of Bishops that for Christians marriage is the lifelong union between a man and a woman and remains the proper context for sexual activity, trendy bishops started to break ranks, distancing themselves from the guidance.

Quick off the mark, the bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, issued a statement saying that she was ?Deeply frustrated and saddened? At the guidance. "I recognise that it has fanned into flame unnecessary pain and distress and I wish to acknowledge my part in thatdanquot;, she said.

Again using love to justify her stance Treweek added, "The word ?Love? Emanating from the generous love of God is one that needs to be heard and lived, and I am extremely sorry that it has not been heard in the publication of the House of Bishops".

In the House of Commons civil partnered vicar's son Ben Bradshaw questioned the Second Church Estates Commissioner on the guidance. Alleging that the Church "still treats its LGBT members as second-class Christiansdanquot;, he told the House that "serious questionsdanquot; will be asked about the Church of England's established status if it stands by its position on opposite-sex civil partnerships.

Justifying her enthronement as the first openly gay bishop in the Church in Wales the bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, said, “God has given us a world teeming with difference and diversity".

That is their own diversity, soon to be enshrined in the forthcoming Church in Wales LGBT+ prayer book.

It is not difficult to identify the real second-class Christians in the Anglican Church.

Read More