REALITY LESSON – Many Muslims do NOT believe in freedom of religion and believe all non-Muslims should pay a tax to them. But NO non-Muslim nation believes that Muslims within their country should pay any tax just for being Muslim. As one Muslim cleric quoted in the news article below said, , "We take the jizya, which is our haq [Arabic for "right"], anyway. The normal situation by the way is to take money from the kafir [infidel], isn't it? So this is the normal situation. They give us the money—you work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar ["Allah is Great"]. We take the money. Hopefully there's no one from the DSS [Department of Social Security] listening to this."
This is a disgusting disregard for the rights of others. And clearly shows that they do NOT believe in freedom of religion.
Like I said in another post:
“Yes, Let me start, Islam is different than other religions. You do not hear of honor killings, subside bombings for religious beliefs, radicalized members, etc. But this is in no way to be taken that all members of Islam are evil and wicked.
As I have said before, “I have noticed a disturbing trend on the Internet and in many forums as ascribing all members of false religions such as Islam as bad or worse, calling them names. Yes, Islam is a bad false religion, but not all members of it are bad people. Unfortunately many good and decent people have been duped into believing in this false religion, and would never commit acts of violence against others.
Therefore, not all Muslims can be placed in the bad and evil category, and should not be by anyone. Yes, I expose the terrible wrongs of this false religion, but I would NEVER condemn all members of it. Some are really very good people.”
THAT, having been said, We must not be in denial with respect the dangers presented by this evil false religion.
• Islamic groups want to murder individuals and publications that publish the unpleasant truths about Islam. For example members of Islam have recently threatened workers of Der Spiegel magazine because they publish unpleasant truths about Islam. For details, check out, http://beowulfjournal.wordpress.com/2013...-plotters/ article entitled, “Germany Cracks Down on Muslim Murder Plotters” [of 03/14/2013 05:27 PM]
• These Islamic groups inspire the murder of Christians including Americans at the Frankfurt airport. For details, check outhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...roops.html article entitled, “'Don't worry mom, I'll be safe': U.S. airman's last promise to mother before he was gunned down by 'Kosovan Muslim' at Frankfurt airport”
Now the body of the news article (http://www.meforum.org/3468/us-aid-egypt-jizya ) so all can read reality for themselves.
Is earlier suggested, the wonderful thing about Salafis—those extra "radical" Muslims who seek to emulate as literally as possible prophet Muhammad's teachings and habits—is that they are so unabashed and frank about what they believe. Such is the degree of brainwashing that they have undergone. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded much earlier, doublespeak is not second nature to the Salafis.
The most recent example comes from Al Hafiz TV, an Egyptian Islamic station. During a roundtable discussion on the U.S. and foreign aid to Egypt, an Islamic cleric, clearly of the Salafi bent—he had their trademark mustache-less-beard—insisted that the U.S. must be treated contemptuously, like a downtrodden dhimmi, or conquered infidel; that Egypt must make the U.S. conform to its own demands; and that, then, all the money the U.S. offers to Egypt in foreign aid can be taken as rightfully earned jizya.
Historically, the jizya was money, or tribute, that conquered non-Muslims had to pay to their Muslim overlords to safeguard their existence, as indicated in Koran 9:29. As the spirit of Islam continues making a comeback, Muslims around the world continue calling for non-Muslims, especially Christian minorities under Islam, to resume paying the jizya, which was abolished in the 19th century thanks to European intervention.
According to the sheikh, Egypt must be less cooperative with the U.S. and at the same time insist for more monetary aid. If so, the sheikh believes that "America will accept; it will kiss our hands; and it will also increase its aid. And we will consider its aid as jizya, not as aid. But first we must make impositions on it."
When the host asked the sheikh "Do the Americans owe us jizya?" he responded, "Yes," adding that it is the price Americans have to pay "so we can leave them alone!" When the host asked the sheikh if he was proclaiming a fatwa, the latter exclaimed, "By Allah of course!" The sheikh added that, to become a truly Islamic state, Egypt must "impose on America to pay aid as jizya, before we allow it to realize its own interests, the ones which we agree to."
While the Egyptian cleric was focused on "international jizya"—that is, money paid by one non-Muslim nation to a Muslim nation, U.S money to Egypt—other Muslims have been receiving and enjoying individual "jizya" from Western, infidel governments, in the form of welfare aid.
Just last February, for example, Anjem Choudary, an Islamic cleric and popular preacher in the United Kingdom, was secretly taped telling a Muslim audience to follow his example and get "Jihad Seeker's Allowance" from the government—a pun on "Job Seeker's Allowance." The father of four, who receives more than 25,000 pounds annually in welfare benefits, referred to British taxpayers as "slaves," adding, "We take the jizya, which is our haq [Arabic for "right"], anyway. The normal situation by the way is to take money from the kafir [infidel], isn't it? So this is the normal situation. They give us the money—you work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar ["Allah is Great"]. We take the money. Hopefully there's no one from the DSS [Department of Social Security] listening to this."
Thus, the non-Muslim world should be grateful to the Salafis for always and ever exposing Islam's teachings and beliefs. Immensely proud of and indoctrinated in their Islamic heritage, and like the earliest Muslim conquerors drunk with power and pride, convinced that Allah is on their side and they can do no wrong, today's Salafis are unabashed when it comes to the things of Islam, from evoking them to upholding them.
But of course, all this honesty is for naught for those many in the West who, having eyes and ears, do not see or hear reality.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Now to know the truth, go to:
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
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[[This is a must read as it reveals Islam as a religion of hate and not freedom:]]
Islam Believes In Hate, NOT Freedom Of Religion For Others – Read The Reality
The Threat of Islamic Betrayal
by Raymond Ibrahim
American Thinker
March 27, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3475/islamic-betrayal
A recent assassination attempt in Turkey offers valuable lessons for the West concerning Islamist hate—and the amount of deceit and betrayal that hate engenders towards non-Muslim "infidels."
Last January, an assassination plot against a Christian pastor in Turkey was thwarted. Police arrested 14 suspects. Two of them had been part of the pastor's congregation for more than a year, feigning interest in Christianity. One went so far as to participate in a baptism. Three of the suspects were women. "These people had infiltrated our church and collected information about me, my family and the church and were preparing an attack against us," said the pastor in question, Emre Karaali, a native Turk: "Two of them attended our church for over a year and they were like family."
And their subversive tactics worked: "The 14 [suspects] had collected personal information, copies of personal documents, created maps of the church and the pastor's home, and had photos of those who had come to Izmit [church] to preach."
Consider the great lengths these Islamic supremacists went to in order to murder this Christian pastor: wholesale deception, attending non-Islamic places of worship and rites to the point that "they were like family" to the Christian they sought to betray and kill. While some may think such acts are indicative of un-Islamic behavior, they are, in fact, doctrinally permissible and historically demonstrative.
Islamic teaching permits deceits, ruses, and dispensations. For an in depth examination, read about the doctrines of taqiyya, tawriya, and taysir. Then there is Islam's overarching idea of niyya (or "intention"), best captured by the famous Muslim axiom, "necessity makes permissible the prohibited." According to this teaching, the intentions behind Muslim actions determine whether said actions are permissible or not.
From here one may understand the many incongruities of Islam: lying is forbidden—unless the intention is to empower Islam; killing women and children is forbidden—but permissible during the jihad; suicide is forbidden—unless the intention is to kill infidels, in which case it becomes a "martyrdom operation."
Thus, feigning interest in Christianity, attending church for over a year, participating in Christian baptisms, and becoming "like family" to an infidel—all things forbidden according to Islamic Sharia—become permissible in the service of the jihad on Christianity.
History offers several examples of Muslims feigning friendship and loyalty to non-Muslims only to break faith at the opportune moment, beginning with Islam's founder. When a non-Muslim poet, Ka'b ibn Ashraf, offended Muhammad, the prophet exclaimed: "Who will kill this man who has hurt Allah and his prophet?" A young Muslim named Ibn Maslama volunteered on condition that, to get close enough to Ka'b to assassinate him, he be allowed to deceive the poet. The prophet agreed. Ibn Maslama went to Ka'b feigning friendship; the poet trusted his sincerity and took him into his confidence. Soon thereafter, the Muslim youth returned with a friend and, while the trusting poet's guard was down, they slaughtered him.
Likewise, Muhammad commanded a convert from an adversarial tribe to conceal his new Muslim identity and go back to his tribe—which he cajoled with a perfidious "You are my stock and my family, the dearest of men to me"—only to betray them to Islam.
Such are the lengths some Muslims—past and present—go to in order to win the trust of those infidels they mean to betray. For example, in October 2012 in Somalia, a nation that has nothing in common with Turkey, neither race, language, nor culture—only Islam—this same story of betrayal recently took place. When a Muslim sheikh became suspicions that a woman in his village had converted to Christianity, he sent his wife to the apostate, instructing her to pretend to be interested in learning about Christianity. The trusting Christian woman was only too happy to share the Gospel with the feigning Muslim woman. After it was verified that the woman was Christian, the sheikh and other Muslims went to her house and shot her dead.
Such betrayals can only be understood in the context of the growing hate felt for infidels, Christians at the top of the list. In Turkey alone—a relatively "moderate" nation in comparison to other Muslim nations like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt—recent anecdotes of hate include the slaying of an 85-year-old Christian Armenian woman, who was repeatedly stabbed to death in her apartment. A crucifix was carved onto her naked corpse. This is the fifth attack in the past two months against elderly Christian women (one lost an eye), even though Christians make less than 1% of Turkey's population.
The Turkish pastor targeted for assassination also explained the great enmity felt for Christians: "There is hate and this hate feeling continues from people here." Muslim children often curse and throw rocks at his church and its congregation—which consists of only 20 members.
Then of course there was the Malatya massacre. In April 2007, several terrorists attacked a publishing house in Malatya, Turkey, for distributing Bibles. They bound, tortured, and stabbed for several hours three of its Christian employees before slitting their throats. Evidence also later emerged that the massacre was part of a much larger operation, including involvement of elements in Turkey's military. One unidentified suspect later said: "We didn't do this for ourselves, but for our religion [Islam]…. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion."
Indeed, the true "lesson" is best captured by the following question: If some Muslims, including women, are willing to go to such lengths to eliminate the already ostracized and downtrodden non-Muslim minorities in their midst—attending churches and becoming like "family members" to those infidels they intend to kill—how much deceit and betrayal must some of the smiling Muslim activists of America, especially those in positions of power and influence, be engaging in to subvert and eliminate the most dangerous of all infidels, the original Great Satan?
And yet, according to the Obama administration, the only Islamic-related threat Americans need to worry about is al-Qaeda—open, bearded terrorists screaming "death to America" while toting their Kalashnikovs—not, of course, that the administration allows that al-Qaeda has anything to do with "radical extremist Islamism," let alone Islam proper.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics: Anti-Christianism, Turkey and Turks | Raymond Ibrahim This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
Proof That Muslims Do Not Believe In Freedom Of Conscience
Read the facts for yourself and see the unpleasant truth.
Muslim Persecution of Christians: January, 2013
by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
March 27, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3482/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013
The 2013 year began with reports indicating that wherever Christians live side by side with large numbers of Muslims, they are under attack. One report said that "Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest." This is certainly true: whether in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, or Tanzania, attacks on Christians in those countries are as frequent as they are graphic.
As for the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, a new study by the Pew Forum finds that "just 0.6 percent of the world's 2.2 billion Christians now live in the Middle East and North Africa. Christians make up only 4% of the region's inhabitants, drastically down from 20% a century ago and marking the smallest regional Christian minority in the world. Fully 93% of the region is Muslim, and 1.6% is Jewish."
How Christianity became all but eradicated from the region where it was born is made clear by yet another report concerning Egypt's Christian Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian minority. Due to a "climate of fear and uncertainty," Christian families are leaving Egypt in large numbers. Along with regular church attacks, the situation has gotten to the point that, according to one Coptic priest, "Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair. Sometimes they hit them when they refuse." Another congregation leader said "With the new [Sharia-heavy] constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don't believe we can be treated on an equal basis."
Elsewhere, Christians are not allowed to flee. In eastern Syria, for example, 25,000 Christians, including Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Chaldeans and Armenians, were prevented from fleeing due to a number of roadblocks set up by armed Islamic militia groups, who deliberately target Christians for robbery and kidnapping for ransoming, often slaughtering their victims.
Categorized by theme, January's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: Reminiscent of the 2011 New Year's Eve church bombing in Alexandria, which left over 23 Christians dead, a car packed with explosives was discovered by a Coptic church celebrating Christmas [which is in January] and neutralized before detonating. A car with masked men was seen speeding away as patrols seized the explosives-packed car. Separately, hundreds of Muslims in the village of Fanous destroyed a social services building belonging to a Coptic Church while chanting Islamic slogans. Security forces arrived only after the building was completely destroyed. According to the report, the social services building "had all the necessary government permits; it had a reception hall on the first floor and a kindergarten on the second. But the Muslims insisted that it would become a church." Mosques in surrounding areas had earlier called on Muslims through their megaphones to go and help their Muslim brethren in Fanous, because Christians were "building a church." Hundreds of other Muslim protesters rioted outside yet another church in Upper Egypt, throwing stones at the building, on claims that a Christian man had sexually assaulted a 6-year-old Muslim girl. Four stores owned by Copts were also torched. Police are investigating the accusations.
Nigeria: A total of 30 Christians were slaughtered in two separate attacks carried out by armed men ahead of the New Year in the Muslim-majority north: on Sunday December 30, 15 people were killed when armed jihadis stormed a church and opened fire on worshippers. The night before, Muslim terrorists broke into selected homes and slaughtered 15 other Christians in their sleep. "The victims were selected because they were all Christians, some of whom had moved into the neighbourhood from other parts of the city hit by Boko Haram attacks," said a relief worker. Meanwhile, Nigerian president Jonathan revealed that Boko Haram has enablers even within his own government: "the saboteurs in government condoning terrorism by Boko Haram, you do not love this nation. Those of you who leak secrets to Boko Haram do not love this nation."
Pakistan: On Christmas day, "when Christian worshipers were coming out of different Churches after performing Christmas prayers, more than one hundred Muslim extremists equipped with automatic rifles, pistols and sticks attacked the Christian women, children and men," according to a report. Several were shot or beaten relentlessly. Much of this appears to have been exacerbated by a fatwa, or an Islamic edict, that came out right before Christmas, saying that, "Christmas cannot be celebrated by Muslims because it is against the concept of monotheism in Islam." Due to the subsequent chaos, Christians "were under siege from Christmas day and running out of food supplies and milk for children on fear of safety and security of life from further attacks of [the] Muslim mob…. The news of this attack on Christians on Christmas Day was intentionally blocked by media and administration of capital city Islamabad."
Russia: Security forces in a North Caucasus province on Sunday killed three Islamic militants suspected of planning attacks on church services during the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday, which comes in January. Security forces tried to stop a van in a Muslim-majority province but its occupants opened fire and were killed in the ensuing battle. Guns and ammunition were subsequently discovered in the van indicating that the men were planning attacks on churches during services marking Russian Orthodox Christmas. "Deadly exchanges of gunfire between police and suspected militants at road checkpoints are common in Russia's North Caucasus, a string of provinces hit by an Islamist insurgency rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya," adds the report.
Murders and Plots of Murder
Algeria: According to a local man who escaped an Islamic raid in the Sahara, the Islamic gunmen who seized hundreds of gas plant workers told staff they would not harm Muslims but would kill Western hostages whom they referred to as "Christians and infidels": "The terrorists told us at the very start that they would not hurt Muslims but were only interested in the Christians and infidels. 'We will kill them,' they said."
Egypt: Two bearded men, apparently Salafis —those Muslims who most try to pattern themselves after Islam's prophet—in what appears to have been a random act of violence, stabbed a Christian woman in Alexandria. The two men were riding a motorcycle when they intercepted Mary and stabbed her in her abdomen as she was crossing the street, causing a serious wound in her peritoneal membrane. The Coptic woman was transported to the hospital where she underwent surgery. Although Mary's family filed a complaint with the police, as usual, the head detective refused to go out and inspect the assault scene. An activist confirmed that this is not the first attack on Coptic women in Alexandria. Indeed there have been several such cases reported in January without any response from authorities.
Iraq: The nation's ever dwindling Christian minority continues to suffer untold atrocities. A Christian university medical student was killed by a car bomb a day after the body of a 54-year-old female Christian teacher was found with her throat cut. The slain Christian woman was discovered in the same area where attacks have been perpetrated in the past against members of the city's Christian minority, some abducted and murdered.
Turkey: An assassination plot against a Protestant pastor was thwarted when police arrested 14 suspects, two of whom had been part of his congregation for more than a year, pretending to be interested in Christianity; one went so far as to be baptized. "These people had infiltrated our church and collected information about me, my family and the church and were preparing an attack against us," said the pastor, a native Turk and convert to Christianity. "Two of them attended our church for over a year and they were like family." Also, an 85-year-old Christian Armenian woman was repeatedly stabbed to death in her apartment. A crucifix was carved onto her naked corpse. Another elderly Christian Armenian woman was punched in the head and, after collapsing to the floor, repeatedly kicked by a masked man. According to the report, "the attack marks the fifth in the past two months against elderly Armenian women (one has lost an eye)…. Opinion remains divided as to whether these are organised hate crimes targeting non-Muslims or just random theft." Yet according to Turkey's Human Rights Association, "The attacks were carried out with racist motives," that is, the victims were intentionally targeted for being Christian Armenians.
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
Egypt: A court sentenced an entire family—Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven children—to fifteen years in prison for converting to Christianity. Seven other people were sentenced to five years in prison, primarily for facilitating the formal conversion of the family. A born Christian, Nadia had earlier converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man; reconverting back to Christianity after the death of her husband, she attempted to reflect this change formally on her identity card and her children's, which created suspicions among security, who arrested the family, followed by the subsequent fifteen year prison sentence.
Iran: Saeed Abedini, an American-Iranian Christian pastor was arrested and, in a sham trial, sentenced "to eight years in prison for threatening the national security of Iran through his leadership in Christian house churches. He will serve the time in Iran's notorious Evin Prison, known as one of the most brutal." "This is a real travesty—a mockery of justice," said the American pastor's attorney. "From the very beginning, Iranian authorities have lied about all aspects of this case, even releasing rumors of his expected release. Iran has not only abused its own laws, it has trampled on the fundamentals of human rights." This would certainly not be the first time Tehran behaves in such a manner.
Malaysia: Threats to burn Bibles in the Malay language were the latest in a series of attacks on Christianity in a nation regularly touted in the Western press as an example of a "moderate" Muslim nation. A note, written in Malay, was sent to a Christian priest saying a Bible-burning festival would soon take place; it ended with a warning in English: "Let's teach 'em a lesson." This latest threat "has had the desired effect of adding to the despair of Malaysian Christians. A fortnight ago the Sultan of the State of Selangor forbade Christians from using the word 'Allah', defying practice and convention in the country. The Arabic term for God, in usage in religious and cultural contexts before the dawn of Islam, has been used in Bibles in the Malay language and litany for more than 400 years." Attacks on Christianity in the nation are often framed in fear that Christianity will spread if not kept in check.
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Egypt: A Muslim preacher, Hisham al-Ashri, appeared on primetime television saying that women not wearing the hijab, or veil, in public, are asking to get raped. He framed his discussion around Christians, who in Egypt are obviously most likely not to wear veils.
"I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can," said the Muslim preacher. He further said that, "In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered," a remark that clearly does not take Egypt's large Christian minority—whose own religious beliefs do not mandate veils or ban alcohol—into consideration.
Indonesia: After being threatened with closure, six Catholic schools in the nation which has the largest Muslim population in the world, finally agreed to hire Islamic teachers and offer Islamic lessons to Muslim students. While this seems equitable, in reality, Muslim schools habitually refuse to offer Christian lessons to Christian students in public schools, which teach Islam to all students. As one Indonesian commentator put it, "If the regulation is upheld, will Islamic schools, which are more exclusive than Catholic schools when it comes to accepting students of different faiths, also be required to provide Buddhist, Christian or Hindu lessons for their non-Muslim students?" Separately, the Indonesia Ulema Council's East Java chapter urged other regions in the province to issue similar decrees so that all schools, be they state-run or managed by Christian foundations, provide Islamic lessons for their Muslim students.
Pakistan: A powerful government official's aide running a prostitution ring abducted a 15-year-old Christian girl from her home, forcing her to convert to Islam and marry him. A tenant of the Christian family, the Muslim man was evicted after police exposed his prostitution ring. After he left, the girl disappeared; he called the girl's family, and according to the mother, "He also claimed that Asma [the girl] had converted to Islam and asked us not to look for her, as she won't be returning home. I could not believe my ears, because Asma is hardly 15 and Ghaji [the Muslim man] is thrice her age," she said. "I told him that I wanted to speak to Asma for the last time, so he handed over the phone to her. 'What have you done my child, my child?' I asked as Asma burst into tears. (She said), 'They are not going to let me return home, mother—do something.'" Police, as usual, refused to register a case, telling the devastated parents, "Do you know Ghaji works for Siraj Durrani [a governmental official]? I'd suggest that you forget your daughter and stop creating problems for your other children."
Tanzania: During a Friday mosque sermon, a cleric called on Muslims "not to cooperate with Christians because they were infidels. He insisted that Muslims should not take part in Christian festivals like Christmas, Easter and other celebrations, including baptism and confirmation." He also called on Muslims not to go to Christian funeral services, because infidel Christians are to be buried as dogs: "Let me tell you if you came from a Christian father or mother, but you got assimilated [converted to Islam], consider yourself you are lucky. But if one of your parents is deceased, you shouldn't burry [sic] him or her, but just put him/her in the grave as if you [were] doing it to a dead dog." The report further adds that, "Since the founding of the Saad bin Mwazi mosque in Makorora half a decade ago [where the above sermon took place], most residents of the area, including Christians and Muslims have been listening to hate sermons uttered in the mosque."
Uzbekistan: Police detained 80 church leaders in a raid on a ministry training gathering. In the process they insulted the Christians and confiscated their Bibles and Christian books, which were later destroyed by a court order. According to the report, "Four leaders were charged with offences under the country's harsh laws regarding religious practice, including violating the procedure for holding religious meetings, carrying out unauthorised religious activity and teaching religious beliefs without permission. They were each fined more than a year's salary in Uzbekistan and are appealing against the ruling. On 24 December, a court ordered that Bibles confiscated during the raid must be destroyed, despite the fact that the Committee on the Religious Affairs of Uzbekistan officially recognises the Bible as a legitimate text."
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1. Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, increasingly chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2. Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Now to know the truth, go to:
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
Simple their religion is an evil false religion based on hate and violence and the following clearly shows this REALITY. Read the reality.
An Islamic Declaration of War on Christianity
by Raymond Ibrahim, FrontPageMagazine.com, April 17, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3486/islamic-war-christianity
While it is easy to confuse the recent jihadi attack on Egypt's St. Mark Cathedral in Cairo as just more of the usual, this attack has great symbolic significance, and in many ways bodes great evil for Egypt's millions of Christians.
Consider some facts: St. Mark Cathedral—named after the author of the Gospel of the same name who brought Christianity to Egypt some 600 years before Amr bin al-As brought Islam by the sword—is not simply "just another" Coptic church to be attacked and/or set aflame by a Muslim mob (see my forthcoming book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians, for a comprehensive idea of past and present Muslim attacks on Coptic churches). Instead, it is considered the most sacred building for millions of Christians around the world—above and beyond the many millions of Copts in and out of Egypt. As the only apostolic see in the entire continent of Africa, its significance and evangelizing mission extends to the whole continent, including nations such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, to name just a few. As an apostolic see—the actual seat of an apostle of Christ—the cathedral further possesses historical significance for Christianity in general.
In short, Muslim mobs—aided and abetted by the state of Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage—did not merely attack yet one more Coptic church, but rather committed an act of war against all Christianity. Such an open attack on a Christian center which holds symbolic and historic significance for all Christians—St. Mark, whose relics are in the cathedral and who authored one of the four Gospels of the Bible, belongs to all Christians not just Copts—was an open attack on a universally acknowledged Christian shrine. It was precisely these sorts of attacks on Eastern and Orthodox churches—including the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem in 1009—that presaged the way for the crusades (back when Christianity was not utterly fragmented and disunited as it is today).
Put differently, this jihadi attack on St. Mark Cathedral is no different for Copts than a jihadi attack on the Vatican would be for Catholics. Or, to maintain the analogy, but from the other side, it would be no different than a "crusader" attack on the Grand Mosque of Mecca for Muslims.
While one can only imagine how the world's Muslims would react to a "Christian/Western" assault on their most sacred of shrines, "post-Christian" Western leaders, as usual, stand idly by (not unlike Egyptian state security, which stood idly by as the Muslim mob opened fire on the cathedral).
As for Egypt's Copts, they certainly did rally to the defense of Egypt's, if not the entire continent of Africa's, most important cathedral—hence the draconian response from Egypt's interior ministry (one eyewitness said security intentionally fired 40-50 gas bombs into the compound, knocking out many Christians, including several women and children). Just as Egyptian forces were wroth with Copts when they demonstrated against the ongoing attacks on their churches in Maspero in 2011—slaughtering over 20 Christians, including by intentionally running them over with armored-vehicles—it appears that Egyptian forces were quite irked with "dhimmi" Copts boldly defending their holiest site.
On the other hand, that Copts rallied to the defense of their cathedral—or, as Reuters characterized them, "an angry young fringe … of Christianity may also be turning to violence—has further validated the Western mainstream media narrative that Egypt's Christian minority is somehow equally violent and responsible for the so-called "sectarian strife"—euphemism for Muslim persecution of Christians—plaguing Egypt.
The symbolical significance of this latest Muslim attack on Christianity was confirmed by several activists. For example, Coptic Solidarity President Adel Guindy said, "Attacking the seat of the Coptic Pope is unprecedented in the last two centuries. It was a deliberate and humiliating act demonstrating the growing Salafist-espoused culture of hate and aggressive behavior towards all non-Muslims. It amounts to a State crime."
Even the Coptic Pope, who must always be diplomatic lest his comments exacerbate matters for his flock, did not equivocate the severity of this assault on Coptic Christianity's most sacred spot—not to mention his primary residence. Among other things, Pope Tawadros said that President Muhammad Morsi had "promised to do everything to protect the cathedral but in reality we don't see this…. We need action not only words… There is no action on the ground." The Pope further confirmed that "This flagrant assault on a national symbol, the Egyptian church, has never been subjected to this in 2,000 years."
The Pope's comment "we need action not only words" was in response to President Morsi's declaration that "I consider any attack on the cathedral an attack against myself"—a declaration he made even as Egyptian state security were firing tear gas canisters into the cathedral compound and standing by watching as Muslims also opened fire on the cathedral and hurled stones and Molotov cocktails, all of which was captured by photos. (Even so, and as usual, the only people to be arrested in connection with this latest assault on Egypt's most important cathedral were Copts themselves.)
Instead of words—which, from Islamists, are absolutely worthless—what Morsi needs to address is the fact that the most unprecedented and symbolically lethal attack on a Christian place of worship in post "Arab Spring" Egypt took place right under his and the Muslim Brotherhood's authority (under Hosni Mubarak, "not so much as a pebble"—as one activist put it—was thrown at the St. Mark Cathedral, a national landmark).
This of course is consistent with the fact that, unlike all former Egyptian presidents, who were all Muslim, Islamist President Morsi is the first president to refuse to enter a church—whether during the ceremonious installation of the nation's new pope or whether during Coptic Christmas ceremonies. Could this be because the pious Morsi believes that a Christian church is like "a nightclub, [or] a gambling casino" as a prominent Egyptian fatwa council declared? Could it be that he, like other popular Muslim leaders, simply hates and is disgusted by Christians?
At any rate, here is the Muslim world's latest, most flagrant, assault on Christianity, even as Western leadership yawns—that is, when it's not actively enabling such anti-Christian animus through its wholesale support for the "Arab Spring."
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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This News Article Says It All – Muslims Do Not Believe In Freedom Of Religion
Muslim Persecution of Christians: February, 2013
by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
April 18, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3490/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013
Reports of Christian persecution by Muslims around the world during the month of February include (but are not limited to) the following accounts. They are listed by form of persecution, and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: Once again, soon after Friday prayers, a throng of Muslims in Fayoum province, destroyed a Coptic church. The reason cited this time was that the church is "an unlawful neighbor to the Muslims who live adjacent to it and must therefore be moved." According to AINA, "The mob climbed to the church dome and started demolishing it and setting it on fire. The dome collapsed into the burning church and caused great damage. Muslims used bricks from the dome and the holy cross and hurled it at the altar inside the church, causing part of it to be demolished; all the icons of saints were destroyed. Muslims tried to assault Father Domadios and threw stones at him, but he was saved by a Muslim family who brought him away from the village in their car." Local Christian families were reported as staying indoors for fear of being assaulted by the Muslims. And, once again, although state security was present throughout this entire proceeding, it did nothing to prevent it. None of the perpetrators was arrested. Two days later, hundreds of Copts demonstrated demanding a halt to the ongoing attacks on their churches. In response, the church was attacked again by Muslims hurling more Molotov cocktails and stones while shouting "We do not want the church." Some Muslims climbed atop the church again to completely destroy the remains of the wooden dome.
Indonesia: Four churches were firebombed with Molotov cocktails in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Two were attacked on a Sunday morning in South Sulawesi. Another two churches were also attacked a few days later. All the churches suffered various degrees of fire damage. According to Barnabas Fund, the same region was earlier "ravaged in a bloody anti-Christian campaign by Islamic extremists between 1997 and 2001. Hundreds of churches and thousands of homes were destroyed; according to some estimates 30,000 Christians were killed and about half a million driven out in what amounted to ethnic cleansing…. The beheading of three girls as they made their way [to] their Christian school in Central Sulawesi in 2005 was among the most egregious." Elsewhere, in the village of Mekargalih, some 50 members of the Islamic Defenders Front descended upon a Pentecostal church, scaling its gates, vandalizing the building, and assaulting the church's minister, including by strangling him with his own necktie. The reason cited for this particular assault was that the church was operating without a permit. Two days later, the only person arrested and currently serving a three month prison sentence, was the minister, for defiantly continuing to hold services without a valid permit. The church, which has been running for 26 years, has made repeated attempts, at significant financial cost, to obtain the required permit but has been obstructed by local authorities. This was the third violent attack against the church by the Islamic party in the last two years. According to the minister's wife, who has also been threatened and harassed, this latest attack has "traumatized" the 400-strong congregation; many Christians are now too afraid to attend services.
Libya: A Coptic Christian church located in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by armed Muslim militants. Initial reports indicate that at least one priest, Fr. Paul Isaac, was injured, as well as his assistant. This would be the second church to be attacked in two months. Earlier, on Sunday, December 30, an explosion rocked a Coptic Christian church near the western city of Misrata, where a group of U.S. backed rebels hold a major checkpoint. The explosion killed two people and wounded two others, all Egyptians.
Zanzibar: Arsonists set the Evangelical Church of Siloam aflame on the island 99% populated by Muslims. The church was under construction following a previous attack in January 2012. This attack follows a string of other attacks on church leaders and Christian property across the country. Two days earlier, a Catholic priest was shot dead on his way to church for Sunday worship. Two Muslim youth at the church entrance shot him in the head. A message signed by "Muslim Renewal" later appeared saying, "We thank our young men, trained in Somalia, for killing an infidel. Many more will die. We will burn homes and churches. We have not finished: at Easter, be prepared for disaster." A few days before the slaying of the Catholic priest an Assemblies of God pastor was beheaded by Muslims on the Tanzanian mainland. And on Christmas Day, gunmen shot and seriously wounded another Catholic priest as he was returning home from church.
Apostates, Evangelists, Murder and Slaughter
Cameroon: Two Muslim converts to Christianity were shot dead and two others wounded, in the Christian-majority African nation where Muslims make approximately 20% of the population. One of them was previously threatened by the Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram ("Western Education is a Sin") to return to Islam or "face Allah's wrath." The attack occurred when these four Muslim converts to Christianity were travelling together around Lake Chad. Their vehicle was stopped by armed men who got the four Christians out of the vehicle and opened fire on them. The slain Christians leave behind wives and several children.
Iran: Fox News reported that American pastor Saeed Abedini, who is jailed in the notoriously brutal Evin prison for his Christian faith, was "facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors demanding he renounce his beliefs." The 32-year-old married father of two, who left his home in Boise, Idaho, to help start an orphanage in his latest country, detailed "horrific pressures" and "death threats," in a letter to family members: "My eyes get blurry, my body does not have the strength to walk, and my steps become very weak and shaky… They are only waiting for one thing…for me to deny Christ. But they will never get this from me." Similarly, according to Mohabet News, since four Muslim converts to Christianity were arrested soon after Christmas, "they have been taken to the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz several times in a pitiful condition with their hands and feet chained, where their charges were officially announced as participating in house-church services, evangelizing and promoting Christianity, having contact with foreign Christian ministries, distributing propaganda against the regime and disturbing national security. These four Christian converts were arrested as they gathered for worship in a house church on February 8, 2012." The report goes on to explain the "obvious mental and physical torture" Iran's converts to Christianity are routinely subjected to in prison.
Kenya: One church leader was killed another wounded during an ambush by the Somali-based Islamic terrorist group, Al Shabaab ("The Youth"). Abdi Welli, a Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1990, becoming a minister, died at the scene. His colleague and former mentor, Pastor Ibrahim Makunyi , another convert to Christianity, survived after sustaining gunshot wounds. Abdi's last words were, "It's good to be in the hands of Al Shaddai," an ancient name for the Judeo-Christian God. He leaves behind a wife and three children. In response to these latest Muslim murders of Christians, Somalia's much oppressed underground church defiantly declared "The Somali Church is the Lord's and he will protect it from the evil one. No degree of Muslim persecution will destroy the Somali Church."
Libya: Christians from all walks of life were arrested, some tortured, on the accusation that they were trying to evangelize Muslims. On February 10, four foreign Christians were arrested in Benghazi, including one with American citizenship, on the claim that they were "missionaries." Three days later, two more Christians from Egypt were arrested. Three days after that, a seventh Christian, also from Egypt, was arrested. Then, on February 27, Benghazi forces raided another Coptic church,rounding up some 100 Coptic Christians and accusing them of being missionaries—simply because they had Bibles and other Christian "paraphernalia" such as icons of Jesus. Many of these Christians were detained and tortured, including by having their heads shaved and cross tattoos removed with acid. Under such torture, one Copt died.
Nigeria: In yet another barbarous attack in the Plateau State, Muslim herdsmen used machetes and guns to murder 10 members of the same Christian family; half of the victims were under the age of six, as confirmed by the military and government. According to one official, "Five little children including a two-month-old child were slaughtered." As happensall throughout the Islamic world, the area's Christians accused the military of involvement in violence on behalf of the Muslim tribesmen—some of the attackers were apparently dressed in military uniform—though a military spokesman denied it, saying, "Somehow, some hoodlums and criminals gained access to our old uniforms."
Pakistan: Younas Masih, a 55-year-old Christian, died shortly after being shot five times in an attack that involved his resistance to convert to Islam. According to sources, "Younas' Muslim colleagues had been pressuring him to convert to Islam. Repeated threats and blackmail attempts had been made against him but he had remained firm in his faith. On the day of the shooting, Younas' co-workers made another attempt to persuade him to convert. A heated discussion ensued, with insults and threats issued." This is not the first time a Christian is slaughtered in Pakistan for refusing to convert to Islam. Younas' son tried to register the attack on his father with the police, but, as usual, they refused to launch a criminal investigation. Also, after local Muslims accused a 19-year-old Christian of being in relationship with a Muslim girl (Islamic Sharia law bans Christian men from marrying Muslim women), he was "barbarically assassinated": three Muslim men broke into his home in the early hours while the family was asleep, and smote the teenager on the head with an axe while stabbing him with a dagger. When his father awoke from the screaming, the Muslim assassins fled the scene. And Roshan Masih, a 45-year-old Christian, was shot dead after an argument over religion in Lahore. According to Agenzia Fides, "it was an act of murder in cold blood: Roshan's defence of his Christian beliefs compared to Muslim beliefs, may have been considered 'blasphemous'… Days before the murder he had a heated argument over religion with a local Muslim, Sohail Akhtar. The latter waited for his opportunity, and, on 16 February, seeing Roshan sitting outside a shop run by Sadiq Masih, another Christian, Sohail Akhtar, armed with a rifle, shot him dead there and then."
United States: A Muslim man slaughtered two Coptic Christians in New Jersey. Although authorities believe that "the defendant was ruthless and calculating in the manner in which he carried out the killings and attempted to prevent identification of the victims by cutting off their heads and hands before burying their bodies," it is significant to note that Koran 8:12 records Allah saying, "I will cast terror into the hearts of infidels, so strike [them] upon the necks [behead them] and strike from them every fingertip." Moreover, as one report puts it, "Privately some wonder if it had something to do with the victims' [Christian] religion."
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Egypt: Fourteen-year-old Sarah Abdelmalek was recently abducted on her way to school. Unlike the many similar cases, Sarah's received much media attention in Egypt due to the loud protests from Copts. In February it was reported that "Sarah was smuggled across the borders to Libya [where Coptic Christians are being brutalized] with the help of the Interior Ministry." The new Coptic pope said the kidnapping and forced conversion of Sarah is a "disgrace for the whole of Egypt," adding "Can any family accept the kidnapping of their daughter and her forced conversion?" Yet in a statement, the Salafi Front made clear that under no circumstances would they ever hand Sarah back to her grieving family. More recently, another Christian minor girl, 13-year-old Agape Essam Girgis, went to school accompanied by a Muslim social worker and two teachers, one of whom was a Salafi, and never returned. After protests, she was "handed over to her family and the church priest where she stayed with his family for some time due to the terrible ordeal she experienced during her abduction." According to a Coptic bishop involved in the case, what happened to Agape—whose name is based on the biblical word for "brotherly love"—is "heart-breaking." She was drugged and awakened to find herself in a secluded place with an elderly woman and later Salafis who tried to convert her to Islam, forced her to wear the full hijab, and beat her. In the last few years, some 550 cases of abduction, entrapment, rape, and forced conversion of Christian women have been documented in Egypt. Their rate has only increased after the "Arab Spring" and the empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ironically, when President Morsi was in Germany in February, he was asked to address this issue, only to respond by saying the abduction of Christian girls was only a rumor. Meanwhile, in Safaga, an Egyptian town near the Red Sea, yet another new jihadi group in Egypt calling itself jihad al-kufr ["jihad on all that is non-Islamic"] sent "invitations" to local priests to convert to Islam or die.
Libya: Islamic rebels threatened Christian nuns into fleeing the nation. Among those Christian communities to leave are the convent of the Holy Family of Spoleto in Derna, the Franciscan Sisters of the Infant Jesus of Barce and the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Beida. The presence of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Spoleto in Libya dates back to 1921; under Colonel Gaddafi, all these Christian orders were left in peace. Until their departure, the mission of the religious and the Church in Libya was focused primarily on health care and care for the elderly.
Saudi Arabia: According to Fox News, "Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith. Saudi authorities further charged three Christian leaders with 'seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity.' The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians."
Sudan: Authorities cracked down on Christian activity with a renewed upsurge of arrests and closures of Christian-run schools. One Christian school is to be shut down for not offering Islamic courses—needless to say, Islamic schools never offer courses on any other religions—and because it was not separating male and female students. Another school was targeted on suspicions that it was evangelizing to Muslims. Additionally, three Christians of South Sudanese origin—since South Sudan ceded, the Islamic government of Khartoum has been avenging itself on Christians under its authority—were ordered last week to leave the country within 24 hours, following their detention. Another four members of a non-profit organization that produces Christian songs and films were arrested and interrogated and then released. A Christian source in Khartoum said that the "atmosphere in Sudan is alarming and frightening."
Syria: U.S.-supported "freedom fighters" abducted an Armenian priest on Sunday and an Orthodox clergyman. Both were working in Aleppo. Sources, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews that the city's Christian community is very concerned about the attack. "Extremist violence is getting worse day by day. Muslim militias are killing anyone suspected of ties with the regime, including women and children. People in the neighbourhoods are comparing these days to the Ottoman conquest five centuries ago." Islamic rebels also stormed the Christian neighbourhood of Jadida where the city's main Evangelical church was destroyed two month earlier. "These fighters live for killing and violence. They act without pity and make distinctions among people," sources said. "When they kill, they turn to God as if they were making a sacrifice." Similarly, an AFP report also tells of the aftermath of the Obama-supported freedom fighters jihad: "The Bibles lie untouched on the carved wooden stands but the chandeliers have been dumped upside down on the altar; the Christian village of Al-Yakubiye may have escaped the full ravages of Syria's civil war but it could not avoid the plundering of the fighters. Along the main road of this agricultural village in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, an old cemetery with stone crosses adjoins an Apostolic Orthodox Armenian church whose door lies open, buffeted by the winds. Those who swept through here seized anything of value, plundering even the chancel and the sacristy. Under a portrait of a benevolent Virgin Mary, a thief stole the chalice from the tabernacle."
Turkey: Parliament is considering reconverting the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque. Originally a church that was transformed into a mosque after the Ottoman-led jihad of 1453, Hagia Sophia was Christendom's grandest cathedral. It was turned into a museum in 1935, back when the Islamic world was largely Western-looking. "We want Santa Sofia to remain a museum," said Patriarch Bartholomew. The Orthodox prelate said that if the museum is converted to any religious use, it should become a Christian church, since it was built for that purpose.
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, increasingly chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
More Proof That Islam Does Not Believe In Freedom Of Religion:
The Siege of Egypt's St. Mark Cathedral
An Insider's Account
by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
April 22, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3491/egypt-st-mark-cathedral
What really happened on Sunday, April 7, 2013, during the St. Mark Cathedral attack in Cairo, where two Christians were killed and dozens wounded by Egyptian forces? As usual, different reports gave different versions, but now that the smoke has settled, the truth as first asserted during the attack by Coptic activists has been confirmed.
Back during the conflict, when state security was actually besieging the St. Mark cathedral—the most sacred building for millions of Coptic Christians and the only apostolic see serving the entire continent of Africa—Amir Ramzi, a Coptic man who managed to escape the compound where hundreds of other Copts were trapped all night was interviewed by phone on the popular Egyptian show, Cairo Today.
According Ramzi, president of the criminal court, "Today we witnessed a day unprecedented in the history of modern Egypt, a day when holy sites are attacked both by the interior ministry and the mob."
The program's host, Amr Adib, asked him to back up, evidently finding it difficult to implicate the interior ministry in an attack on an Egyptian landmark. So Ramzi began from the beginning, explaining how after the funeral service for another six Christians killed the day earlier—including one intentionally set aflame—in a conflict that started by Muslims sexually harassing a Christian girl, many of the Copts coming out of the cathedral were angry and protesting. Waiting for them in the streets were Islamic extremists, who began hurling rocks on the Copts, who responded in like manner. Eventually police appeared; Ramzi himself called a police chief, who assured him that the Copts should just go back into their cathedral, until the police secure the situation:
So that's what we did, thinking police would come to protect and separate the clashers. We were surprised to find that the police began to intervene and become another party to the conflict, attacking the Copts who were fighting back against the [Muslim] youth who were attacking them, and shooting gas bombs into the cathedral compound, which caused extreme poisoning, to the point that the ambulance cars were not enough to take the sick.
Ramzi added that three to four gas bombs struck the papal headquarter itself—the seat of the Coptic pope—while another 40 to 50 entered into the general compound, causing dozens of Copts, including many women and children, to grow sick and/or faint. Whether from the gas bombs themselves or from another source, Copts also found the ceiling of their cathedral catching fire, though their youth managed to put it out.
He further confirmed that live ammunition was fired on the Copts who refused to relent and fought back fiercely, primarily with rocks. When Ramzi tried to get them to cool down, they told him that they "were ready to be martyred for our most important church" and "We're not just children to abandon our cathedral to be set aflame or have someone attack it."
Ramzi said that he could not really blame these Christian defenders, adding that many of them were already in heavy mourning for the six Copts murdered the day earlier, and, with a second attack on their cathedral for the funeral of these same deceased, had reached a point beyond frustration.
But Ramzi's most important and (at the time) controversial assertion was the role played by Egypt's Interior Ministry. Among other things, police and security figures would tell the beleaguered Copts everything is okay, that matters were secured, "only to find another five gas bombs thrown their way, not to mention live ammunition fired at them." Similarly, He said that security kept circling the cathedral, shooting gas bombs at every door: "Why, why would they do this"? Ramzi implored on the phone. When he and others contacted police, urging them to bring an armored vehicle in front of the cathedral to guard it, it came. But far from protecting the cathedral, he personally saw "the [Muslim] youth" standing atop it, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the cathedral.
When the host continued to express dismay, and even doubt, that state security would really behave this way, the eyewitness articulated an important question: the one thing that everyone agreed to is that, for hours, there were at least 30-40 Muslim youth hurling projectiles and Molotov cocktails at the cathedral, "so can you tell me why security didn't stop them or apprehend them? Was Egypt's entire state security unable to stop a mere 30-40 youth from vandalizing the nation's cathedral?"
When the host said, "but they arrested some ten people," Ramzi scoffed: "What are you thinking? You'll find that the majority of them are Christian."
Time has proven all of Ramzi's eyewitness assertions true. Soon after his interview, which was conducted even as the cathedral was still under siege, several pictures were published, including by Youm7, a prominent Egyptian paper, showing Muslims shooting rifles and throwing rocks and other projectiles at the cathedral, while security forces stand by. One picture shows a masked man in civilian clothes sitting in an Egyptian armored vehicle. Even the Western mainstream media recently came around to affirming that Egyptian security forces were involved in the attack on the cathedral. And, true to Ramzi's prediction, the only people to be arrested in connection with this latest atrocity against Christianity were Christians themselves—for daring to protect their holiest site against an Islamic attack.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the forthcoming book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians. He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics: Anti-Christianism, Egypt | Raymond IbrahimThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
Christians throughout the Islamic world are under attack. Unlike Muslim attacks on Christians, which are regularly confused with a myriad of social factors, the ongoing attacks on Christian churches in the Muslim world are perhaps the most visible expression of Christian persecution under Islam. In churches, Christians throughout the Islamic world are simply being Christians—peacefully and apolitically worshipping their God. And yet modern day Muslim governments try to prevent them, Muslim mobs attack them, and Muslim jihadis massacre them.
To understand the nature of this perennial hostility, one must first examine Muslim doctrines concerning Christian churches; then look at how these teachings have manifested themselves in reality over the course of centuries; and finally look at how modern day attacks on Christian churches mirror the attacks of history, often in identical patterns. The continuity is undeniable.
Because tracing and documenting the treatment of churches across the thousands of miles of formerly Christian lands conquered by Islam is well beyond the purview of this study, a paradigm is needed. Accordingly, an examination of the treatment of Christian churches in Egypt suffices as a model for understanding the fate churches under Islamic dominion. Indeed, as one of the oldest and largest Muslim nations, with one of the oldest and largest Christian populations, Egypt is the ultimate paragon for understanding all aspects of Christianity under Islam, both past and present. [For a complete survey of the fate of Christians and their churches throughout the entire Muslim world, both past and present, see author's new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians.]
Muslim Doctrine Concerning Churches
Sharia law is draconian if not hostile to Christian worship. Consider the words of some of Islam's most authoritative and classic jurists, the same ones revered today by Egypt's Salafis. According to Ibn Qayyim author of the multivolume Rules for the Dhimmis, it is "obligatory" to destroy or convert into a mosque "every church" both old and new that exists on lands that were taken by Muslims through force, for they "breed corruption." Even if Muslims are not sure whether one of "these things [churches] is old [pre-conquest] or new, it is better to err on the side of caution, treat it as new, and demolition it."
Likewise, Ibn Taymiyya confirms that "the ulema of the Muslims from all four schools of law—Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali, and others, including al-Thawri, al-Layth, all the way back to the companions and the followers—are all agreed that if the imam destroys every church in lands taken by force, such as Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Syria … this would not be deemed unjust of him," adding that, if Christians resist, "they forfeit their covenant, their lives, and their possessions." Elsewhere he writes, "Wherever Muslims live and have mosques, it is impermissible for any sign of infidelity to be present, churches or otherwise."
Echoing the words of the jurists that the church is "worse than bars and brothels" and "houses of torment and fire," in August 2009, Dar al-Ifta, an Al Azhar affiliate, issued a fatwa likening the building of a church to "a nightclub, a gambling casino, or building a barn for rearing pigs, cats or dogs." In July 2012, Dr. Yassir al-Burhami, a prominent figure in Egypt's Salafi movement, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslim taxi-drivers and bus-drivers from transporting Coptic Christian priests to their churches, which he depicted as "more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar."
Regardless, one need only examine the Conditions of Omar—an influential document Muslims attribute to 7th century Caliph Omar, purportedly ratified with a conquered Christian community—to appreciate the plight of the church under Islam. Among other things, conquered Christians had to agree:
Not to build a church in our city… and not to repair those that fall in ruins or are in Muslim quarters;…. Not to clang our cymbals except lightly and from the innermost recesses of our churches; Not to display a cross on them [churches], nor raise our voices during prayer or readings in our churches anywhere near Muslims; Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims;…. [I]f we change or contradict these conditions imposed upon ourselves . . . we forfeit our dhimma [covenant], and we become liable to the same treatment you inflict upon the people who resist and cause sedition.
History
When it comes to churches, Islamic history is a testimony to Islamic doctrine: under Muslim rule, from the 7th century to the present, tens of thousands of churches that were once spread across thousands of miles of formerly Christian lands, were attacked, plundered, ransacked, destroyed and/or converted into mosques. Such a large number is consistent with the fact that, at the time of the Muslim conquests, half of the world's entire Christian population lived in those lands invaded and subjugated by Islam.
According to one medieval Muslim historian, over the two-year-course of a particularly ruthless Christian persecution campaign, some 30,000 churches were burned or pillaged in Egypt and Syria alone. Major church attacks during Abbasid rule include when "the Muslims in Jerusalem made a rising [in 936] and burnt down the Church of the Resurrection [believed to be built atop the tomb of Christ] which they plundered, and destroyed all they could of it." Nearly a century later, Caliph Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996-1021) ordered that the already ravaged Church of the Resurrection be torn down "to its very foundations, apart from what could not be destroyed or pulled up, and they also destroyed the Golgotha and the Church of Saint Constantine and all that they contained, as well as all the sacred gravestones. They even tried to dig up the graves and wipe out all traces of their existence."
A Coptic Paradigm
The history, or plight, of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church is well preserved. The History of the Patriarchate of the Egyptian Church, for instance, a multivolume chronicle begun under Coptic Bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa in the 10thcentury, records innumerable massacres and persecutions over the centuries, from destroyed churches, to crucified Christians, to raped and murdered nuns.
However, to bypass the objection that Christian writers may have been biased against their persecutors, let us content ourselves with the famous history of Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (1364 – 1442), the most authoritative Muslim scholar of Egyptian history in the Middle Ages. His account appears especially objective when one considers that the pious Muslim Maqriz was no friend to the Christians. For example, after recounting centuries of persecution and church destruction at the hands of Muslims, Maqrizi concludes by sounding like a modern-day Salafi, blaming Christians for their own persecution: "For from the traces they left, will then be seen how shamefully they intrigued against Islamism and the followers of it, as any one may know who looks into the lowness of their origin, and the old hated of their ancestors towards our religion and the doings thereof."
In Maqrizi's account, things appear relatively quiet during the first century of Islam's occupation of Egypt (circa 641-741), no doubt due to the fact that Christians still numerically overwhelmed their Muslim conquerors. By 767, however, after decades of Coptic uprisings in face of abuses, "heavier hardships than ever fell upon the Christians, who were obliged to eat the[ir] dead; while their new churches in Egypt were destroyed. The church of Mary anent [alongside] that of Abu Senuda in Egypt was also pulled down, as well as that in the ward of Constantine, which the Christians entreated Suliman bin Ali, Emir of Egypt, to spare for fifty thousand dinars; but he would not." By 845, al-Mutawakal ordered Christian churches to be pulled down. In 912, "the great church in Alexandria, known as that of the Resurrection, was burnt down." In 939, "the Muslims made another rising in the city of Askalon, where they demolished the Greek Church of Mary, and plundered what was in it."
Then comes the era of the aforementioned Caliph Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who decimated the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. In the words of al-Maqrizi:
And in his [al-Hakim's] time, hardships such as one never saw befell the Christians…. He then laid his hands on all endowments of the churches and of the monasteries, which he confiscated to the public treasury, and wrote to that effect to all his provinces. He then burnt the wood of a great many crosses, and forbade the Christians to buy men or maid servants [which were often set free]; he pulled down the churches that were in the street Rashida, outside the city of Misr [Old Cairo]. He then laid in ruins the churches of al-Maqs outside Cairo, and made over their contents to the people, who plundered them of more goods than can be told. He threw down the convent of al-Qosseir, and gave it to the people to sack….He then set about demolishing all churches, and made over to the people, as prey and forfeit, all that was in them, and all that was settled on them. They were then all demolished, all their furniture and chattels were plundered, their endowments were forfeited to others, and mosques were built in their place. He allowed the call to prayer from the church of Senuda in Misr; and built a wall around the church of Mo'allaqa [the Hanging Church], in Qasr esh-Sema. Then many people [Muslims] sent up letters to request to be allowed to search the churches and monasteries in provinces of Egypt. But their request was hardly delivered [at headquarters], when a favourable answer was returned to the request; so they took the vessels and chattel of the churches and of the monasteries, and sold them in the market places of Egypt, together with what they found in those churches of gold and silver vessels, and things of the kind; and bartered their endowments. The emir also wrote to the intendants of the provinces to support the Muslims in their destruction of the churches and of monasteries. And the work of demolition in Egypt was so general in the year 1012, that according to statements on which one can rely, as to what was demolished at the end of the year 1014, both in Egypt and in Syria and the provinces thereof, of temples built by the Greeks—it amounted to more than 3,000 churches [the original Arabic says 30,000]. All the gold and silver vessels in them were plundered, their endowments were forfeited; and those endowments were splendid and bestowed on wonderful edifices.
Finally, after describing different forms of persecutions against Christians during Hakim's reign, Maqrizi, the Muslim historian, makes an interesting observation: "Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims." In another place, after recounting how "the greater number of the churches of the Sa'id [Upper Egypt] had been pulled down, and mosques built in their stead," the historian notes again the typical consequence: "more than four hundred and fifty Christians became Muslims in one day."
It bears repeating that the Muslim Maqrizi had no great love for Egypt's Christians, and made disparaging observations concerning them in his volumes—thereby making his account of persecution all the more trustworthy.
Because Hakim's persecution was so terrible and far-reaching, most modern Western historians acknowledge it, even as they portray it as an aberration of a madman, implying that Christians suffered only under his rule. Yet there is no dearth of Muslim leaders throughout the whole of Islamic history that did not at one time or another persecute Christians and their churches.
If Hakim is remembered as a terrible and insane tyrant, consider Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who in the West is depicted as a colorful and fun-loving prankster in the Arabian Nights. Though renowned for his secular pursuits—including riotous living, strong drink and harems of concubines, to the point that a modern day female Kuwaiti activist referred to him as a model to justify the institution of sex-slavery—Harun al-Rashid was still pious enough "to force Christians to distinguish themselves by dress, to expel them from their positions, and to destroy their churches through the use of fatwas by the imams." Similarly, Saladin (Salah ad-Din)—another Muslim ruler who is habitually portrayed in the West as magnanimous and tolerant—commanded that all crucifixes on Coptic church domes be destroyed, and that "whoever saw that the outside of a church was white, to cover it with black dirt," as a sign of degradation.
Indeed, in 1354, well after the "mad caliph" Hakim was gone, churches were still under attack, including by Muslim mobs, who, according to Maqrizi, "demolished a church anent the Bridge of Lions, and a church in the street el-Asra in Misr, and the Church of Fahhadin within the precincts of Cairo; also the Convent of Nehya in Djizah, and a church in the neighborhood of Bataq al-Tokruni; they plundered the wealth of the churches they demolished, which was great; and carried away even the woodwork and slabs of alabaster. They rushed upon the churches of Misr and Cairo…"
Such was the state of affairs of churches under Islam, explaining how, over the course of nearly 14 centuries, former centers of Christianity like Egypt, were reduced to sporadic enclaves that came to resemble dilapidated strongholds of Christianity surrounded by a sea of Muslim hostility.
And such is the state of affairs of Christian churches throughout much of the Muslim world at this very moment as the past returns to the present.
The Modern Era
The sort of Muslim attacks on Christian churches described by the historian Maqrizi and conforming to the Conditions of Omar are reoccurring with increased frequency. Again, while the patterns described above are occurring all around the Muslim world—sometimes even in the West—modern day Egypt alone, with its significant Christian population, offers an abundance of recent examples.
After some 14 centuries of persecution and church attacks, Egypt's Copts ushered in the 2011 new year by having one of their largest churches attacked: during midnight mass in the early hours of January 1, 2011, the Two Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria, crowded with hundreds of Christian worshippers praying for the new year, was bombed, leaving at least 23 dead and approximately 100 injured. According to eyewitnesses, "body parts were strewn all over the street outside the church. The body parts were covered with newspapers until they were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting jihadi chants," including "Allahu Akbar!" Islam's victory cry since the days of Muhammad. Eyewitnesses further attest that "security forces withdrew one hour before the church blast." One year earlier, "drive-by Muslims shot to death six Christians as they were leaving church after celebrating Christmas mass in 2010" in Nag Hammadi.
No Church Bells, Crosses, or Renovations
The story of St. George Coptic Church in Edfu is especially instructive of the plight of churches in Egypt. Built nearly a century ago, during the Christian "Golden Age," St. George was so dilapidated that the local council and governor approved its renovation and signed off on the design. Soon local Muslims began complaining, making various demands, including that the church be devoid of crosses and bells—as stipulated by the Conditions of Omar—because they were "irritating Muslims and their children." Leaders later insisted that the very dome of the church be removed. Arguing that removal of the dome would likely collapse the church, the bishop refused. The foreboding cries of "Allahu Akbar!" began; Muslims threatened to raze the church and build a mosque in its place; Copts were "forbidden to leave their homes or buy food until they remove the dome of St. George's Church"; many starved for weeks.
Then, after Friday prayers on September 30, 2011, some 3,000 Muslims rampaged the church, torched it, and demolished the dome; flames from the wreckage burned nearby Christian homes, which were further ransacked by rioting Muslims. Security, which was present, just "stood there watching," according to Christian eyewitnesses. Edfu's Intelligence Unit chief was seen directing the mob destroying the church. Even the governor of Aswan appeared on State TV and "denied any church being torched," calling it a "guest home." He even justified the incident by arguing that the church contractor made the building three meters higher than he had permitted: "Copts made a mistake and had to be punished, and Muslims did nothing but set things right, end of story," he proclaimed on TV.
It was this incident which caused Egypt's Christians to protest in October 2011, leading to the Maspero Massacre, when the Egyptian military intentionally targeted and killed dozens of Christian protesters, including by running them over with armored vehicles—even as state media lied by portraying the Christians as the aggressors and the military as the victim, a narrative which the Western mainstream media gullibly disseminated.
In July 2011, a Muslim mob went on a violent spree, attacking, among others a 5-month pregnant Christian woman and other Christians who were "beaten with iron rods and pipes." According to Fr. Estephanos of the region, "The real reason behind this assault was the church bell, which has greatly angered the Muslims in the village. This is the first time such an incident has taken place in this village which is 60-75% Christian, and the reason is definitely the presence of the church bell." As seen in the Conditions of Omar, church bells are forbidden in Islam.
Similarly, in October 2011, in the Upper Egyptian village of Elmadmar which only has two churches to serve 15,000 Christians, Muslim mobs surrounded one of these two churches, St. Mary's Church, hurling bricks at it and trying to demolish it, while chanting "No to the church." Although it has had state security approval to operate, its license was still pending. According to the priest, "Muslims claim that we hold a mass every day at 4 PM, and we ring the church bell, which the church does not have, besides singing hymns, which they claim disturbs them."
Collective Punishment
Many attacks on Coptic churches occur in the context of "collective punishment," which also has echoes tracing back to the Conditions of Omar. After naming any number of other conditions—including not displaying crosses, not ringing bells, not singing loudly—the Conditions of Omar concludes by having Christians agree that "if we change or contradict these conditions imposed upon ourselves . . . we forfeit our dhimma [covenant], and we become liable to the same treatment you inflict upon the people who resist and cause sedition."
Accordingly, throughout Islamic history to the present moment, anytime any Christian anywhere has been accused of breaking Sharia's dhimmi laws, churches—at once the most obvious and vulnerable representation of Christianity—are first to be attacked in retribution by the Muslim mob, often in the context of collective punishment.
This has centuries of historical precedents. While discussing the status of churches in the Middle East after the Islamic invasions, Bat Ye'or writes "they were often burned or demolished in the course of reprisals against infidels found guilty of overstepping their rights." Collective punishment is even doctrinally approved: the Yemeni jurist al-Murtada wrote, "The agreement will be canceled if all or some of them break it." At the other end of the Arab world, the Moroccan jurist al-Maghili taught that "the fact that one individual (or one group) among them has broken the statute is enough to invalidate it for all of them."
Thus, for some 14 centuries churches have been treated as hostages to guarantee good (that is, submissive) Christian behavior. For example, in March 2011, a Muslim mob attacked the local Church of the Two Martyrs in Sool, south of Cairo, burning it down, even as a Muslim prayer leader called on Muslims to "kill all the Christians." Adding insult to injury, the attackers played "soccer" with the ancient relic-remains of the church's saints and martyrs. Afterwards, throngs of Muslims gathered around the scorched building where they spent some 20 hours pounding its walls down with sledgehammers to cries of "Allahu Akbar."
Even minor details like desecrating the relics of Coptic saints have immense continuity. Discussing the Muslim attack on the Church of Shubra, Maqriz writes: "after it had been demolished, the fingers of a [Christian] martyr which were kept in a casket…. Were then burnt in presence of the Sultan…"
Neither the military nor state security appeared—and this was happening near Cairo, Egypt's capital, not some inaccessible village. After demolishing it, a group of Muslims held prayers at the site and began making plans to build a mosque atop the destroyed church—a live example of history, almost identical to the examples recorded a millennium earlier by the Egyptian historian Maqrizi and others. Because of the attack, Copts in Sool fled to adjacent villages. Women who remained in the village were sexually assaulted.
Less violently, in January, 2012, before a bishop was going to celebrate Epiphany Mass in the Abu Makka church, several Muslims, mostly Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood members, entered the building, saying that the church had no permit and no Christian can pray in it. One Muslim was heard to remark that the building would be suitable for a Muslim mosque.
In May 2011, throngs of Muslims, estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo: twelve Christians were killed—some shot by snipers atop rooftops—232 injured; three churches were set aflame to cries of "Allahu Akbar," while Coptic homes were looted and torched. As usual, Egyptian leadership did little to stop this rampage, showing up nearly five hours after it began, providing ample time to terrorize the Copts. One priest said "I called everyone, but no one bothered to come. I mourn all those young people who died." The pretext for this particular attack was that a Christian girl had converted to Islam and the Coptic Church had supposedly responded by abducting and torturing her into renouncing Islam. Muslims found this argument persuasive, of course, because that is precisely what Islam requires Muslims to do to female apostates who convert to Christianity.
In February 2012, thousands of Muslims attacked a Coptic church, demanding the death of its pastor, who, along with "nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building." They did this because a Christian girl who, according to Islamic law, automatically became a Muslim when her father converted to Islam, fled her father and was rumored to be hiding in the church. Again, one is reminded that the Conditions of Omar stipulate that Christians shall not prevent any of their family members from converting to Islam—or in this case, aid a hapless Christian who, because of Sharia law, found herself Muslim one day.
No to Churches, Period
In June 2011, hundreds of Muslims surrounded another St. George Church, south of Minya, vowing to kill its priest—who was locked inside serving morning mass to several parishioners. The Muslims cried "We will kill the priest, we will kill him and no one will prevent us," adding that they would "cut him to pieces." As usual, police and security forces gave the terrorists ample time to terrorize—appearing a full five hours after the incident began; and when they escorted the priest out, it "looked as if he was the criminal, leaving his church in a police car." Several reasons were given for this attack, from claims that the priest had earlier tried to make renovations to the 100-year old church, to claims that the priest refused demands from local Muslims that the Christians in the region must pay jizya.
In May 2011, hundreds of Muslims, angered by the prospect of a government-closed church re-opening in their neighborhood, protested and rioted in front of the church, causing the provisional military authority to back away from its promise to reopen it. Before its scheduled reopening, the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam in Ain Shams, a poor section of northeastern Cairo, was surrounded by Muslims preventing anyone from getting in and trapping the priests who were inside. Fights ensued between Copts and Muslims, leading to the injury and arrest of the former. Muslims besieged the church and threatened to kill the head priest of the congregation, trapping those inside.
Other times, the mere rumor of a church being built or renovated prompts Muslim violence and chaos. On January 16, 2013, hundreds of Muslims in the village of Fanous destroyed a social services building belonging to a Coptic Church while chanting Islamic slogans. Security forces arrived only after the building was completely destroyed. "The social services building had all the necessary government permits; it had a reception hall on the first floor and a kindergarten on the second. But the Muslims insisted that it would become a church." Even so, surrounding mosques began called on Muslims through their megaphones to go and help their Muslim brethren in Fanous, because Christians were "building a church."
Earlier, in March 2012, some 1,500 Muslims—several armed with swords and knives and shouting Islamic slogans—terrorized the Notre Dame Language School in Upper Egypt, in response to calls from local mosques which falsely claimed that the private school was building a church: "Two nuns were besieged in the school's guesthouse for some eight hours by a murderous mob threatening to burn them alive"; one nun suffered a "major nervous breakdown requiring hospitalization… The entire property was ransacked and looted. The next day the Muslims returned and terrorized the children. Consequently, school attendance has dropped by at least one third."
In fact, attacks on convents in Egypt—often followed by mass rapes—have a long history. Maqrizi recounts several, including one at the hands of a caliph, Marwan II (r.744–50). During one of his raids ordered on churches and monasteries, Marwan "made captive a number of women from among the nuns of several convents. And he tried to seduce one of them." The account describes how the enslaved nun deceived him into killing him, by telling him she had a magic oil that make skin impenetrable: "She then took some oil and anointed herself with it; then stretched out her neck, which he smote with the sword, and made her head fly. He then understood that she preferred death to defilement."
Islamic Supremacism
Other attacks are simple byproducts of the culture of Islamic supremacism, and the hate and contempt it engenders for Christians and their "houses of infidelity." On Friday, February 15, Muslims in the village of Sarsena attacked and set fire to the church of St. George and hurled stones at it. This latest assault was prompted by Salafi Muslims instigating the villagers to attack the church because it is "an unlawful neighbor to the Muslims who live adjacent to it and must therefore be moved." According to the report, "The mob climbed to the church dome and started demolishing it and setting it on fire. The dome collapsed into the burning church and caused great damage. Muslims used bricks from the dome and the holy cross and hurled it at the altar inside the church, causing part of it to be demolished; all the icons of saints were destroyed." Security was present throughout this entire attack but did nothing.
In October 2012, another group of Muslims, led by Mostafa Kamel, a prosecutor at the Alexandria Criminal Court, broke into the Church of St. Mary in Rashid near Alexandria and proceeded to destroy its altar, under claims that he bought the 9thcentury church, which, in fact, was earlier sold to the Copts by the Greeks due to the latter's dwindling numbers in Egypt. Two priests, Fr. Maximos and Fr. Luke, rushed to the police station for aid. Kamel and his two sons also came to the police station where they openly threatened to kill the two priests and their lawyer. Said Fr. Maximos: "We stayed at the police station for over six hours with the police begging prosecutor Kamel and his two sons not to demolish the church"; Fr. Luke said that the prosecutor had earlier lost all the cases he brought against the church, "So when this route failed, he tried taking the matter into his own hands."
In June 2012, because many visiting Christians came to attend service, Muslims surrounded St. Lyons Coptic Church during Divine Liturgy "demanding that the visiting Copts leave the church before the completion of prayers, and threatening to burn down the church if their demand was not met." The priest contacted police asking for aid only to be told to comply with Muslim demands, "and do not let buses with visitors to come to the church anymore." Christian worshippers exited halfway through Mass to jeers outside. As they drove away, Muslims hurled stones at the buses.
The same story repeated itself in October 2012, when a Muslim mob consisting mostly of Salafis surrounded the St. George Church in the Beni Suef Governorate. Armed with batons, they assaulted Christians as they exited the church after Sunday mass, leaving five hospitalized with broken limbs. The Salafi grievance was that Christians from neighboring villages—who have no churches to serve them—were traveling and attending St. George. The priest could not go out of church for hours after mass, even though he contacted police, who only came after a prominent Coptic lawyer complained to the Ministry of Interior concerning the lack of response from police, saying "I want the whole world to know that a priest and his congregation are presently held captives in their church, afraid of the Salafi Muslims surrounding the church."
This desire to make things complicated for Christians by not allowing them to enter churches out of their jurisdiction is echoed by Muslim prophet Muhammad's command to Muslims: "Do not initiate the Salam [peace greeting] to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley," which has always been interpreted to mean that Muslims should make things hard on dhimmis.
Outside Egypt
Amazingly, even when Copts quit their homeland in hopes to practice their Christian faith in peace, Muslim persecution follows them. Most recently, in New Jersey, two Coptic Christian youth were found buried, decapitated and with their hands cut off. Police say they have not been able to unearth the motive of their murderer, a Muslim. Yet one cannot but remember the haunting words of the Koran: "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, so strike [them] upon the necks [decapitate them] and strike from them every fingertip." [Koran 8:12]
Coptic churches are under attack outside Egypt. In Libya, for example, where, thanks to U.S. support, "freedom fighters" took over the nation, on Sunday, December 30, 2012, an explosion rocked a Coptic Christian church near the western city of Misrata, where a group of U.S. backed rebels hold a major checkpoint, killing two. Two months later, on February 28, another Coptic Christian church located in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by armed Muslim militants, resulting in serious injuries for the priest and an assistant. This is to say nothing of the approximately 100 Coptic Christians who were arrested and tortured—including with acid and by having their heads shaven, concentration camp style—on the accusation that they were trying to "proselytize" to Libyans. One Christian man, Ezzat Atallah, died under torture.
The attacks on Christian churches have now even reached North America. In Canada in late October 2012, just as happens regularly in Egypt, a Molotov cocktail was hurled through the window of a newly opened Coptic church near Toronto. Unlike in Egypt, however, firefighters came quickly, even as "Police have no suspects or motive in the incident." Needless to say, for centuries, Copts have only been all too familiar with the suspects and motives. Thus as Egypt's Christians flee their indigenous homeland searching to worship in peace, the jihad of hate follows.
Conclusion
While the above anecdotes, both past and present, have almost exclusively dealt with Egypt, the fact is that churches throughout the entire Islamic world have experienced, and continue to experience, a similar pattern of abuse at the hands of Muslims. The key to understanding why Egypt is especially paradigmatic has to do with numbers. How many Christians and Muslims there are in any given country—especially their ratio to one another—is the primary factor behind which countries see the most and least attacks on Christian churches. For example, Saudi Arabia, which is vehemently more anti-Christian than Egypt, also sees much less accounts of persecution of Christians. The reason for this conundrum is simple: Saudi Arabia has nipped the problem in the bud by banning Christianity altogether; there are no churches to bomb or burn. Similarly, the ravages of the historic jihad have seen the decimation of Christianity in Muslim lands not traditionally deemed "radical." For instance, the whole of north Africa—which, prior to the Islamic conquests, was Christian, giving the world giants like St. Augustine who played a major role in articulating Western Christianity—sees much less Christian persecution than Egypt, simply because there are virtually no Christians left to persecute (less than 1% of the entire population, from Morocco to Libya).
On the other hand, the very large numbers of Christians in Egypt—according to the baptismal records of the Coptic Orthodox Church, there are some 16 million Christian Copts in Egypt—prompt regular attacks on Christian churches. Thus, due to the large number of Christians in modern day Egypt, that nation offers a live glimpse of history—a live glimpse of the fate of Christians and their churches under centuries of Islam, and the true reason millions of Christians ended up converting to Islam: to evade oppression as Christians.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the forthcoming book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians. He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
In January, an American Christian was sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence on charges of "endangering national security" in Iran. A 32-year-old married father of two from Boise, Idaho, Pastor Saeed Abedini traveled to his country of origin last year to visit family and help build an orphanage, only to be arrested and sent to Tehran's brutal Evin prison.
According to Fox News, Abedini, a Muslim convert to Christianity—also known as an apostate deserving of death under Islamic Sharia law—is "facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors demanding he renounce his beliefs." In a recent letter smuggled to family members, he recounted the "horrific pressures" and "death threats" he endures: "My eyes get blurry, my body does not have the strength to walk, and my steps become very weak and shaky… They are only waiting for one thing… for me to deny Christ. But they will never get this from me."
Indeed, the authorities' words are "Deny your faith in Jesus Christ and return to Islam or else you will not be released from prison. We will make sure you are kept here even after your 8 year sentence is finished."
While Pastor Abedini's medieval-style sufferings may come as a surprise to many Americans, they are regular features of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Recall the persecution of Pastor Youssef Nadarkhani, another Muslim who converted to Christianity. He too was imprisoned, placed on death row, and tortured to renounce Christ for nearly three years. Then, likely due to the international scandal his story caused for Iran, he was released—only to be rearrested again, on Christmas Day, adding insult to injury.
And just as Tehran claims that Abedini was arrested for "threatening national security," so was Nadarkhani formally accused of anything and everything—from being a "Zionist spy" to running a brothel—even as Iran's official Supreme Court ruling made clear that Nadarkhani was convicted of turning his back on Islam [i.e., apostatizing], the greatest religion the prophesy of Mohammad at the age of 19. He has often participated in Christian worship and organized home church services, evangelizing and has been baptized and baptized others, converting Muslims to Christianity. He has been accused of breaking Islamic Law… During court trials, he denied the prophecy of Mohammad and the authority of Islam. He has stated that he is a Christian and no longer Muslim. During many sessions in court with the presence of his attorney and a judge, he has been sentenced to execution by hanging…
Nor are pastors Abedini and Nadarkhani the only ones to be so obviously persecuted for their Christian faith: countless are the Christians and Muslim converts to Christianity that Iranian authorities harass, imprison, and torture in an attempt to have them renounce Christ. A few recent examples follow:
Mohabet News reported that four Muslim converts to Christianity were arrested in February during house-church worship and "taken to the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz several times in a pitiful condition with their hands and feet chained." They were charged with the usual: "participating in house-church services, evangelizing and promoting Christianity … and disturbing national security." The report elaborates on the "obvious mental and physical torture" Iran's converts to Christianity experience in prison.
Another house church pastor, Benham Irani, remains behind bars even as his family expresses concerns that he may die from continued beatings, leading to internal bleeding and other ailments. The verdict against him contains text describing him as an apostate who "can be killed." According to one activist, "His 'crimes' were being a pastor and possessing Christian materials."
A six-year prison sentence for Pastor Farshid Fathi Malayeri—whose crime was to convert to and preach Christianity—was upheld last year following an unsuccessful appeal hearing. A woman, Leila Mohammadi, who had earlier converted to Christianity was arrested when security agents raided her house. Imprisoned for five months in Evin prison without any word on her fate, she was later sentenced to two years in prison.
A June report indicated that, five months after five Christian converts were arrested, their condition and fate was still unknown. They were accused of "attending house church services, promoting Christianity, propagating against the regime and disturbing national security." Being imprisoned for 130 days without word "is an obvious example of physical and mental abuse of the detainees…. one of the prison guards openly told one of these Christian detainees that all these pressures and uncertainties are intended to make them flee the country after they are released."
A young woman who had recently converted to Christianity and was an outspoken activist against the Islamic regime, was found dead, slumped over her car's steering wheel, with a single gunshot wound to her head.
Then there are Iran's many other faces of Christian persecution, including shutting down churches, regular crackdowns on house-church gatherings, confiscating Bibles and other Christian literature, and banning church services in Farsi.
For all that, Iran's persecution of Christians is a minor reflection of a much bigger, rarely reported humanitarian crisis: Christian suffering from one end of the Islamic world to the other, which I document in my new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians, by connecting-the-dots and exposing the same patterns of persecution.
For example, what happens to Christians in Iran—arrested and harassed for being apostates to Christianity or for preaching Christ—happens in countries as different from Iran as Indonesia, Egypt, and Nigeria. Countries that share neither race, language, or culture—only Islam.
Patterns are not only evident in the Muslim world's persecution of Christians, but in the Obama administration's indifference. The U.S. State Department has excluded Abedini from its Iran Prisoners List—commensurate with the fact that it regularly whitewashes the sufferings of Christians under Islam, and even failed to cite Egypt and Pakistan as "nations of particular concern" despite the fact that Christians there are being hounded mercilessly, as documented in the book.
The persecution of Pastor Abedini, an American citizen in Iran, is the tip of the iceberg of the persecution of Christians under Islam—persecution that, try as they may, the mainstream media, the Obama administration, and all the politically correct powers that be, cannot ignore out of existence, especially now that it is fully exposed and documented in Crucified Again.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the forthcoming book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians. He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.
We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world—much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian—came into being.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: "The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it's increasing year by year." In our lifetime alone "Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt."
Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion. Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.
In 2003, Iraq's Christian population was at least one million. Today fewer than 400,000 remain—the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.
The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg.
Now as the U.S. supports the jihad on secular president Assad, the same pattern has come to Syria: entire regions and towns where Christians lived centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings, all in compliance with mosque calls that it's a "sacred duty" to drive Christians away.
In October 2012 the last Christian in the city of Homs—which had a Christian population of some 80,000 before jihadis came—was murdered. One teenage Syrian girl said: "We left because they were trying to kill us… because we were Christians…. Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house."
In Egypt, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their homeland soon after the "Arab Spring." In September 2012, the Sinai's small Christian community was attacked and evicted by al-Qaeda linked Muslims, Reuters reported.
But even before that, the Coptic Orthodox Church lamented the "repeated incidents of displacement of Copts from their homes, whether by force or threat. Displacements began in Ameriya [62 Christian families evicted], then they stretched to Dahshur [120 Christian families evicted], and today terror and threats have reached the hearts and souls of our Coptic children in Sinai."
Iraq, Syria, and Egypt are the Arab world. But even in "black" African and "white" European nations with Muslim majorities, Christians are fleeing.
In Mali, after a 2012 Islamic coup, as many as 200,000 Christians fled. According to reports, "the church in Mali faces being eradicated," especially in the north "where rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out… there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, church and Christian property has been looted or destroyed, and people tortured into revealing any Christian relatives." At least one pastor was beheaded.
Even in European Bosnia, Christians are leaving en mass "amid mounting discrimination and Islamization." Only 440,000 Catholics remain in the Balkan nation, half the prewar figure. Problems cited are typical: "while dozens of mosques were built in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, no building permissions were given for Christian churches."
"Time is running out as there is a worrisome rise in radicalism," said one authority, who further added that the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina were "persecuted for centuries" after European powers "failed to support them in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire."
And so history repeats itself.
One can go on and on:
* In Ethiopia, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes when "Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes."
* In the Ivory Coast—where Christians have been crucified—Islamic rebels "massacred hundreds and displaced tens of thousands" of Christians.
* In Libya, Islamic rebels forced several Christian nun orders serving the sick and needy since 1921 to flee.
* In Muslim-majority northern Nigeria, where nary a Sunday passes without a church bombing, Christians are fleeing by the thousands; one region has been emptied of 95% of its Christian population.
* In Pakistan, after a Christian child was falsely accused of desecrating a Koran and Muslims went on an anti-Christian rampage, an entire Christian village—men, women, and children—was forced to flee into the nearby woods, where they built a church, permanently resided there.
* In Somali, where Christianity is completely outlawed, Muslim converts to Christianity are fleeing to neighboring nations, including Kenya and Ethiopia, sometimes to be tracked down and executed.
* In Sudan, over half a million people, mostly Christian, have been stripped of citizenship in response to the South's secession, and forced to relocate.
To anyone following the plight of Christians under Islam, none of this is surprising. As I document in my new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians, all around the Islamic world—in nations that do not share the same race, language, culture, or economics, in nations that share only Islam—Christians are being persecuted into extinction. Such is the true face of the global Islamic resurgence.
Often forgotten is that, in the 7th century, half of the world's entire Christian population was spread across what is now nonchalantly called the "Muslim world." Then, Islam, born in the deserts of Arabia, burst out in a series of world-altering jihads, conquering and slowly transforming these once Christian nations into Islamic nations.
In order to evade sporadic persecution and constant discrimination, over the centuries most Christians converted, while others fled. A few opted to remain Christian and live as barely tolerated third-class subjects, or dhimmis, according to Sharia law.
They eventually experienced something of a renaissance during the colonial and post-colonial era, when many Muslims were Westward-looking.
But today, with the international resurgence of Muhammad's religion, these remaining Christians are reaching extinction, as Islam's 1400 year mission of supremacy and global hegemony continues unabated—even as the West looks the other way, that is, when it's not actually supporting it in the context of the so-called "Arab Spring."
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the new book "Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians" (Regnery Publishing 2013). A Middle East and Islam specialist, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics: Anti-Christianism | Raymond Ibrahim This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL
Blog item #2, Conversion to Islam on point of the sword
Islam is the second biggest religion on our planet. Did you ever think that how the most questionable,violent and full of injustice religion can have billion of followers? Let me know you then. The basic ideology of Islam is Force,Threat and Violence. These 3 factors are the keys of spreading Islam worldwide. I mean to say that Islam was imposed and introduced by (1)Force (2)Threat (3)Violence.
Muhammad, who was not actually a prophet but indeed was a mafia, never recieved any message from Allah but falsely he declared himself a prophet and created false messages saying that those messages are from Allah. His objective was clear, to make his mafia gang (his followers) and his country (Saudi Arabia) developed and get respected by everyone.
He spread the message to all his muslim followers that:
“I have been commanded by Allah to fight them (Infidels) until they bear testimony to the fact that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”.
He also spread a clear death threat to all non muslims:
“Submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the apostale of Allah, before you lose your head”.
In short, according to the message of Allah which Muhammad conveyed to the world through Quran, “Muslims are commanded to fight infidels until they are either dead or converted to Islam. Allowing people of other faiths to live and worship independently is not an option in Islam”.
Muhammad and his successors iniciated offensive war against peaceful countries in order to impose Islam by force. By using force,violence and killing million of people he was succeed to get more and more people converted to Islam. His idea of war for spreading Islam (Jihad – holy war for sake of the god) was extraordinarily successfull. Muhammad´s formula in this war was “success on any price”. He killed many innocent Christians, Hindus and Jews who did´nt agree to embrace Islam. Their wives were made slaves of Muhammad and their children were sold to the rich muslims for sexual abusement (the favourite hobby of muslims). Their jwellery and lands were seized by Muhammad.
Those, who by force were converted to Islam continued to follow this Islamic Hoax by the fear of Muhammad. And then generation to generation the time passed, things got forgotten and the new generations did´nt realize that they are following a religion which is based on the graves of many innocent men, they are respecting a religion which is based on the mountain of the tears of uncountable women. They continued respecting Muhammad as the messenger of Allah and Islam the religion which their past generations gave them. They never came to knew the history or reality that how actually Muhammad brutally torture people to embrace a religion which does´nt even exist. And since then until today billion of innocent muslims are following the Hoax education of Islam which Muhammad imposed on them.
Well, the point to focus is that these blind faith muslims do not know that they are the following generations of the people who were forced to embrace Islam and many of them were killed brutally by Muhammad and that they are following a religion which is the creation of a selfish mafia (Muhammad) who created this Islamic Hoax for making himself strong, otherwise islam is nothing else then creation of a cunning islamic dictator.
IMRAN FIRASAT
(SPAIN)
www.mundosinislam.com
[source - retrieved from http://imranfirasat.blogspot.com/ on 5/17/2013]
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 2:32 pm Post subject: The Usual, Many Muslims Plan And Enjoy Killing Non-Muslims –
The Usual, Many Muslims Plan And Enjoy Killing Non-Muslims – More Proof Example
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Uzbekistan national living in Idaho has been arrested on federal charges that he gave support, cash and other resources to help a recognized terrorist group in his home country plan a terrorist attack.
Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, is expected to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court Friday morning, one day after federal agents arrested him during a raid of his small Boise apartment. Kurbanov was arrested after an extensive investigation into his activities in Idaho and Utah late last year and this year. A federal grand jury indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and possession of an unregistered explosive device.
A separate federal grand jury in Utah also returned an indictment charging Kurbanov with distributing information about explosives, bombs and weapons of mass destruction. Wendy Olson, the U.S. attorney in Idaho, said Kurbanov is the only person charged, and any potential threat was contained by his arrest.
"He was closely monitored during the course of the investigation," she said. "The investigation has been underway for some time." Olson declined to share any specifics of Kurbanov's alleged activities, including whether any potential terrorist threat or targets were domestic or abroad.
A statement from the U.S. attorney's office said Kurbanov is in the United States legally, but Olson declined to give specific details about his immigration status. It was unclear when he moved to Idaho or the extent of his activities in Utah. An Idaho telephone number registered to Kurbanov has been disconnected.
The Idaho indictment alleges that between August 2012 and May 2013, Kurbanov knowingly conspired with others to provide support and resources, including computer software and money, to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the U.S. has identified as a terrorist organization. The group's purpose is to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan, said David B. Barlow, U.S. attorney in Utah.
The alleged co-conspirators were not named. In count two, the indictment alleges Kurbanov provided material support to terrorists, knowing that the help was to be used in preparation for a plot involving the use of a weapon of mass destruction.
The indictment also alleges that on Nov. 15, 2012, Kurbanov possessed an explosive device, consisting of a series of parts intended to be converted into a bomb. Those parts included a hollow hand grenade, a hobby fuse, aluminum powder, potassium nitrate and sulfur.
Meanwhile, in Utah, federal investigators said that for a 10-day period in January 2013, Kurbanov taught and demonstrated how to make an "explosive, destructive device, and weapon of mass destruction."
The grand jury alleges that Kurbanov provided written recipes for how to make improvised explosive devices and went on instructional shopping trips in Utah showing what items are necessary to buy to make the devices, Barlow said. Kurbanov also showed Internet videos on the topic, Barlow said.
The prosecutor declined to say whom Kurbanov took on the shopping trips in Utah but said that information will come out as the case moves through the courts. The indictment from Utah also alleges that Kurbanov intended that the videos, recipes, instructions and shopping trips be used to make an explosive device for the "bombings of a place of public use, public transportation system, and infrastructure facility."
The arrest, Barlow said, shows that "there is no priority that is more important than the protection of the public and the prevention and disruption of alleged terrorist activities — wherever they might occur."
Although the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan started in the 1990s with the stated aim of overthrowing the Uzbek regime and establishing an Islamic government, its goals have expanded to creating a broader Central Asian caliphate.
The movement's fighters have a presence in Afghanistan's northern provinces and in Pakistan's Waziristan province. U.S. and Afghan officials say al-Qaeda has been building ties with the IMU. Last year, an Uzbek named Ulugbek Kodirov was sentenced to a minimum 15 years in prison in Alabama for plotting to shoot President Barack Obama while on the campaign trial. Kodirov pleaded guilty, saying he was acting at the behest of the IMU.
According to Idaho's court system, Kurbanov has no criminal convictions but was ticketed for speeding violations twice in 2012 — once in October, when he paid a $90 fine, and another instance in May when he paid $85. [source - retrieved from http://www.mail.com/news/us/2092554-idaho-man-heads-to-court-terrorism-arrest.html#.7518-stage-hero1-10 on 5/17/2013]
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
As Usual, Islam Is Against Freedom Of Religion – Read Reality, It Speaks For Itself:
Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2013
U.S. Defends "Human Rights" of Persecutors of Christians
by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
June 12, 2013
The Islamic jihad against Christians in Nigeria is proving to be the most barbaric. A new report states that 70% of Christians killed around the world in 2012 were killed in the African nation. Among some of the atrocities committed in March alone, at least 41 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a bus station in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, these attacks "were a signpost of the intended extermination of Christians and Christianity from northern Nigeria."
According to the Rev. Jerome Ituah, "Out of the 52 Catholic churches in Maiduguri diocese, 50 of them have been destroyed by Boko Haram. When two Christian brothers were returning home after Sunday church service, jihadis opened fire on them with machine guns, killing the brothers, as well as three others, and injuring several more Christians.
Another 13 Christian factory workers in Kano were "gruesomely" slain. Said the local bishop: "Reports of the attack reaching us disclosed that on that fateful Saturday at about 7 p.m, Muslim faithful were conducting their prayer close to the affected compound occupied by Christian families, when two taxi cabs stopped in front of the compound and the occupants, who all concealed their arms dashed into the complex and demanded to know why the residents were not part of the 7 p.m. Muslim prayer. They responded by telling the visitors they were Christians and so could not be part of the Muslim gathering. At that point, they separated the men from their wives and children and shot them dead on the spot after ordering the women and children into their homes" to be enslaved.
The bishop added that, "government should show more concern, like it has always done when Muslims are affected; I have not seen that in the case of Christians—that 13 Christians were killed in one straight attack and nothing is heard from the government reflects selective justice because we are aware of compensation paid to Muslim families in situations of this nature."
However, the Nigeria government recently did go on the offensive to try to contain the jihadis in northern Nigeria—only to be chastised by the Obama administration, in the person of John Kerry, who recently warned the Nigerian government not to violate the "human rights" of the jihadi mass murderers.
Categorized by theme, the rest of March's Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: According to El Watan News, three Christian brothers were shot dead at their home by automatic weapons a few weeks before two were set to have their weddings. The victims' family was earlier accused of trying to build a church on land they owned because they purchased building material to build a house on that land. The rumors about the building of a church spread during the Friday sermon at the mosque, following which 2,000 Muslims stormed the land and tried to destroy the house, car and tractor, resulting in the murder of the three Christian brothers.
Indonesia: Authorities demolished a church building with a bulldozer in West Java, even as Muslim bystanders cheered and denounced Christians as "infidels." According to Pastor Leonard Nababan, the government is "criminalising our religion." The congregation had gathered around the church in an effort to save it; so did Muslims, shouting, "They're infidels and they've built their church without permission," "Knock the church down now" and "Allahu Akbar."
Iraq: According to Fox News, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, there were more than 300 Christian churches. Today, a decade after the jihad was unleashed on Christians and their churches, only 57 Christian churches remain in the nation. And "The churches that remain are frequent targets of Islamic extremists, who have driven nearly a million Christians out of the land…" An Iraqi-based human rights organization said that "The last 10 years have been the worst for Iraqi Christians because they bore witness to the biggest exodus and migration in the history of Iraq…. More than two-thirds [of Christians] have emigrated." One of the most dramatic cases of Christian persecution came in late October of 2010, when Al Qaeda members laid siege to Our Lady of Deliverance Church in Baghdad, killing 58 and wounding 78. According to an AP report "Iraq's Catholic Christians flocked to churches to celebrate Easter Sunday [in March], praying, singing and rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ behind high blast walls and tight security cordons… [emphasis added]."
Libya: A Coptic Christian church located in Benghazi was attacked by armed Muslims. The jihadis severely beat and shaved the beard and mustache of Father Paul, the priest of the church, as a sign of humiliation. They also beat the deacon and nine attendees. Meanwhile, because Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-led government had done little regarding the systematic abuse of Egyptian citizens in Libya, including the murder of one under torture, Copts demonstrated in front of the Libyan embassy in Cairo—prompting yet another attack on the Benghazi church, which was set on fire.
Pakistan: In response to one Christian man accused of blaspheming Islam's prophet thousands of Muslims attacked the Christian Joseph Colony of Lahore, burning two churches, one Catholic, the other a Seventh Day Adventist, as often happens in Pakistan in the context of collectively punishing Christians.
Sudan: According to Morning Star News, Khartoum's jihad continues to "rid the area of non-Arabs and Christianity": the Evangelical Church in the Nuba was "reduced … to ashes" after an aerial bombardment. Days later, another bombing campaign left two dead and twelve injured, in the Christian-majority region. "These bombardments are major sources of fear among the people in South Kordofan," said a church leader.
Turkey: The 5th century Studios Monastery, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is set to go from being a branch of the Hagia Sophia—Christianity's grandest cathedral, which was transformed into a mosque, after the Islamic conquest and is currently a museum—to being an active mosque. Many Turkish Muslims continue calling for the return of the Hagia Sophia itself to a mosque.
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
Holland: A 43-year-old Iranian Muslim convert to Christianity was found murdered. According to the Farsi Christian News Network, the victim went to church the afternoon he was killed: "The shocking news of this senseless murder has brought grief and sorrow to the local Christians, Iranian-Christian community, and asylum seekers across the country." Christians constitute a large percentage of the Iranians seeking asylum in Holland. (Islamic Sharia law calls for the killing of apostates, and converts to Christianity are regularly targeted in the Islamic world.)
Iran: During a major conference, a Shi'ite leader claimed that Islam was under attack by Christianity in Iran: "Christian booklets and brochures are being sent to people's doors for free in many areas… Christianity is being preached in many shops in the Islamic city of Mashhad. Also Christian booklets are sent to people's addresses without restrictions." But a Mohabat News spokesperson said "Of course, the Islamic cleric did not provide any supporting evidence for his claim. However, it seems their sole purpose in bringing up and repeating these claims is to provoke security authorities against, and provide the means for increased pressure on Iranian Christians converts."
Kazakhstan: Vyacheslav Cherkasov , a Christian street evangelist, was detained for offering Christian literature to passersby and fined the equivalent of one month's wages on charges of "violating the rules" regarding "importing, publishing and distribution of religious literature" which came into force in 2011. The court ordered the destruction of his 121 pieces of Christian literature, including Bibles and children's Bibles, in the first such ruling since the nation gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Local Council of Churches Baptists said in published remarks: "We were shocked—this is sacrilege and illegality."
Pakistan: The blasphemy case against Rimsha Masih, the 14-year-old Christian girl who was earlier arrested for "blasphemy" when a Muslim cleric falsely claimed that she burned a Koran, has been reopened. According to a BosNewsLife report, "A police investigator asked the Supreme Court in Islamabad to reopen the case" against the Christian girl, "saying he was pressured by the government to drop charges against her after an international outcry." She and her family are currently in hiding. A court is also considering a death sentence against 47-year-old Martha Bibi, a Christian and mother, due to alleged "derogatory remarks" about Muslim prophet Muhammad. Another Christian man was arrested after a Muslim accused him of blasphemy. But his arrest was not enough to appease the 3000 strong mob that went on to collectively punish the nation's Christians, burning two churches, some 200 Christian homes, and stealing their property.
Somalia: Muslim militants murdered yet another Christian. Ahmed Ali Jimale, 42, was killed by two men as he stood outside his house, near a police station. Among other things, the man was accused of apostasy—on the widespread assumption that all Somalis are born Muslims—and, because he worked as a teacher, of "introducing the children to foreign Christian religion"; Muslim militants had warned him that "we shall come for your head." A friend of the slain said "Jimale was a good man who helped our community. His widow is very scared and afraid, not knowing what will happen." He also leaves behind four children, ages 10, 8, 6, and 4.
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Egypt: Muslim rioters in town of Kom Ombo threw firebombs and rocks at police after Friday mosque prayers in an effort to storm a church where they claimed a Muslim woman who converted to Christianity was hiding. Violence began when a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who had been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside the church with a female Christian friend. Days later, hundreds of Muslims marched in the town of al-Wasta, to protest the disappearance of another young Muslim girl and accuse the priest of St. George's Church of using "black magic" to lure her to Christianity. They hurled stones at the church; Coptic shops were forced to close down; Salfis threatened to kidnap a Christian girl if their Muslim girl did not return. However, Watani newspaper had already reported that the Muslim girl sent an open letter to her family, posted on the Internet, saying that she ran away because she was sexually abused by her uncles, was forced to marry a man she did not want, and that she had left Egypt and was married to a Muslim man. Unrelatedly a Fox News report states that "Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into [a] torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse." And according to a Voice of Russia report, "up to 100,000 Christians have left Egypt since the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Some of those have arrived in Moscow."
Iran: According to Fox News, a UN report indicates that "Iran's hard-line regime has intensified its violent crackdown on Christians and other religious minorities, even imprisoning nursing mothers for practicing their faith…" The March report provides a "rare, detailed view into the shocking treatment of Christians in Iran, where American Pastor Saeed Abedini is serving an eight-year sentence for his alleged work with Christians." According to a UN expert on human rights in Iran, "The persecution of Christians has increased. It seems to target new converts and those who run house churches…. more than 300 Christians have been arrested since June 2010, according to the report." Most recently, Five members of the Church of Iran denomination appeared before a judge and "charged with disturbing public order, evangelizing, action against national security and an internet activity against the system."
Pakistan: After 3,000 Muslims attacked a Christian village—burning two churches and some 200 homes—the government punished Christians for protesting. According to the Daily Times, "Christians around the country are incensed by the recurring theme of blasphemy allegation followed by attacks and burning down of their vulnerable communities. They have held protests across the country in a concerted effort to vent their disgust at the recent incident and to show solidarity with the victims… Lahore police used the opportunity to beat the innocent Christian protesters. They shot tear gas shells at them and beat them with sticks. Yet when the Muslim attack took place they stood back and watched till the town had been razed to the ground…Muslims of Jhelum city have threatened to burn Christians home in response to the protests. Now the community is living in fear of reprisals for their simple act of condemning violence and the blasphemy laws of Pakistan."
Sweden: According to Charisma News, "Christians in Iran face arrest, torture, even death. But that doesn't seem to matter to Swedish immigration officials. Sweden wants to send Iranian Christian asylum seekers, who left Islam, back to Iran where they could be killed. Iran is one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians. As apostates from Islam, they face grave danger in this country. But their requests for asylum status that could save their lives have been denied."
Syria: According to a Catholic leader, up to 30,000 Christians have fled the city of Aleppo, and two priests were abducted and held for a ransom of 15 million Syrian pounds each. Christians are regularly kidnapped and beheaded by jihadi rebels. Also, a short English-language video appeared where Fr. Fadi al-Hamzi told of how his uncle was recently murdered: "They killed him because he is Christian, they refuse to have any Christians in Syria. … I'm not afraid; my uncle died, he's immortal now. I can be like him." When asked if he was worried if Christians would be massacred if the U.S.-supported jihadis overthrew the government, the priest said , "Yes, yes, this will be… they don't want us here." Christians were in Syria 600 years before Islam conquered the nation.
about this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, increasingly chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
It is accepted as a truism by many liberals and multiculturalists and touted by much of the Western media that the "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Islamic world is a clash of values between a secular, tolerant, post-Christian world and a minority (albeit a large one) of Muslims, fundamentalists, and literalists who pervert the meaning of their faith-traditions. The Qur'anic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion,"[1] is frequently invoked to prove that Islam is not the intolerant, subjugating religion that Islamist clerics like Yusuf Qaradawi or terrorists like Osama bin Laden make it out to be. The belief is that "Islam," as former president George W. Bush said not long after the 9-11 attacks, "is peace."[2]
But what if Bush's statement, along with the mainstream view, ignores the reality of Islam's central tenets? Are the Islamists' beliefs really only a warped minority position or are they a truer reflection of the inherent nature of the Muslim faith-system? Can the West ever reach a modus vivendi with an Islam that by its very nature considers Western civilization an unclean "other" that must be brought into the orbit of Islam through subjugation at best or destruction at worst?
Despite attempts to reframe the meaning of jihad for Western audiences, as in this ad on a Chicago bus, classic Muslim commentators are clear: Jihad reflects the normal relations existing between the believers and the infidel. Islam sees jihad as the means of creating peace by subjugating all others and enforcing Islamic order. A pax Islamicacovering the globe is the aim of jihad, which is thus a just war.
A closer examination of Islam's central tenets is called for, one that gets past the feel-good nostrums of multiculturalism and that engages the Muslim belief-system on its own terms, beginning with one of the most fundamental of those tenets, the doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara (love and hate for the sake of God).
Love and Hate for the Sake of Allah
In the introduction to the 2005 exposition of al-Wala wal-Bara by Muhammad Qahtani, Sheikh Abdar Razaq Afifi, deputy president of the Department of Guidance and a member of the Board of Great Ulema of Saudi Arabia, declares:
The subject matter is of paramount importance and utmost interest: Firstly, it is concerned with one of Islam's main foundations, which has two major prerequisites of true faith: al-Wala is a manifestation of sincere love for Allah, his prophet and the believers; al-Bara is an expression of enmity and hatred toward falsehood and its adherents. Both are evidence of true faith. Secondly, it has been written at a very crucial time where Muslims are no longer aware of those qualities which distinguish the believers from the nonbelievers; their faith has become so weak; and they have taken the disbelievers as their friends while displaying enmity toward the believers.[3]
Qahtani's English publisher adds the following:
It is impossible to provide a literal translation in English of the al-Wala wal-Bara, but the meaning of this Arabic term indicated, on the one hand, drawing near to what is pleasing to Allah and His Messenger and, on the other hand, withdrawing from what is displeasing to Allah and His Messenger.[4]
Al-Wala wal-Bara means then total loyalty to Islam and total disavowal of anything else. It is one of Islam's main foundations and is of paramount importance, second only to Tawhid, acknowledgement of the oneness of God. Total allegiance and love are only to be given within the Islamic community, and rejection, hate, and enmity against the other is commanded, based upon Qur'anic foundations:
Say: "If you love Allah then follow me that Allah may love you and forgive your faults… Allah does not love the infidels. … They are the residents of Hell, and will there forever abide."[5]
Al-Wala wal-Bara doctrine originated in the pre-Islamic Arab tribal system from which it was passed on to the umma(Islamic community). The constructs of love and loyalty were extended to the family and the hamula (clan) while suspicion and hatred was directed toward those outside the clan, the "other" who did not embrace Muhammad's teachings. The Islamic umma has evolved into a super-tribe by way of religious linkage.[6]
The medieval exegete Ibn Taymiya (1263-1328 C.E.), one of the authorities cited most by Wahhabis and Salafists, expressedal-Wala wal-Bara this way:
Whoever loves for the sake of Allah, and hates for the sake of Allah, and whoever seals a friendship for His sake, or declares an enmity for His sake, will receive the protection of Allah. No one may taste true faith except by this even if his prayers and fasts are many.[7]
A real-world application of this conceptual framework was provided by Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, formerly chief mufti of Saudi Arabia, who issued a fatwa (religious ruling) before the 2003 Iraq war prohibiting seeking help from the infidels (kuffar) in jihad and urging Muslims to hate non-Muslims and show animosity toward them.[8]
Islam and Infidels
The issue of the Muslim's relationship with the infidel is one of the most important in Islam. The amount of attention devoted to the infidel is huge: 64 percent of the total Qur'an addresses that relationship while 81 percent of the Sira (chronological biographies of Muhammad) and 37 percent of the Hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) focus on this as well. In sum, nearly two thirds of Shari'a (Islamic law) is devoted to the infidel.[9]
What comes through clearly by examining this subject is that Islam is not about universal brotherhood, as is often claimed, but about the brotherhood of believers, members of the umma.[10] The flip-side of this is a total denunciation of the "other."[11] There are more than four hundred verses in the Qur'an alone that describe the torment in hell that Allah has prepared for the infidel. The Qur'an dehumanizes infidels: They are vile animals and beasts, the worst of creatures and demons;[12] perverted transgressors and partners of Satan[13] to be fought until religion is Allah's alone.[14] They are to be beheaded;[15] terrorized,[16] annihilated,[17] crucified,[18] punished, and expelled,[19] and plotted against by deceit.[20]Believers must be in a constant state of war with the infidel.[21]
According to Ibn Taymiya:
Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is entirely for Allah [2:189, 8:39] and the word of Allah is uppermost [9:40], therefore, according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought. Whosoever contends with Muhammad deserves death.[22]
The Qur'anic pedigree for this view is unambiguous. In the spirit of al-Wala wal-Bara, Muslims are to be compassionate with one another but ruthless to the infidel. The infidels must not be taken as friends. "Hostility and hate" exist between them forever until the infidel "believe in Allah alone."[23] They are a hated and cursed people; vile and evil-doers;[24]disgraced and misguided.[25] Even one's relatives should not be taken as friends if they are not Muslim.[26] As Bernard Lewis has put it:
Islam is still the ultimate criterion of group identity and loyalty. It is Islam that distinguishes between self and other, between insider and outsider, between brother and stranger … the ultimate definition of the other, the alien outsider and presumptive enemy, has been the kafir [infidel].[27]
Other Religions
The Qur'an says that all other religions are cursed by Allah.[28] All those who join idols[29] or false gods to Allah,[30] or invent lies about Him,[31] or deny Allah,[32] or change even one word of Allah's book,[33] or do not believe in Allah's messenger Muhammad[34] are to be "seized wherever found and slain with a slaughter."[35]
Judaism and Christianity are rejected and not acceptable to God since he has sent his final messenger to the entire world, who has revealed their errors. To love God is to reject those who reject Him.
O believers do not hold Jews and Christians as your allies. They are allies of one another; and anyone who makes them his friends is surely one of them; and Allah does not guide the unjust.[36]
The practical applications of this are delineated by the Hadith:
Narrated Ibn Umar: Allah's apostle said: "I have been ordered to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's apostle."[37]
There are approximately seven hundred verses in more than fifty Qur'anic suras that have direct and explicit negative references to the Jews; together with the other major books of Islam, they comprise in total 9 percent of the total Shari'a.[38]The characterizations employed against Jews are situated in the attitude toward the "other" that al-Wala wal-Baraperpetuates.
Jews are cursed forever,[39] having been transformed into apes and swine[40] (or apes alone).[41] The ultimate sin committed by the Jews is that they are the devil's minions,[42] and if they do not accept the true faith of Islam, they will burn in hellfire.[43] Jews conceal the truth, being "the vilest of all creatures,"[44] most wicked with hearts harder than stones.[45] By perverting the words of God, Jews corrupted the scriptures and killed the prophets.[46] Jews are "fond of lies," "devour the forbidden," and are "cowards, vulgar, and fools."[47] They are the worst of God's creation; rats are, in fact, "mutated Jews."[48] From an operational standpoint, the Hadith takes these views and offers a prescription for their application (albeit sometime in the future):
The hour will not be established until you fight the Jews, and the stone and the tree behind which a Jew will be hiding will say: "O Muslim! O Servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, so come and kill him."[49]
As for Christianity, Islam believes that it is a corrupted and distorted religion based on myths and legends. Jesus is a Muslim prophet; Christ's divinity is a blasphemy and thus the foundations of Christianity are false.[50] Christians have invented lies about God[51] by ascribing partners to Him, which is the worst of sins.[52] For that, they too are condemned forever to Hell.[53] Jesus will one day come back and destroy Christianity by breaking the cross, and on the Day of Judgment, he will be a witness against them.[54]
As a final act before his death, Muslim tradition claims that Muhammad ordered an ethnic cleansing of Jews and Christians from Arabia.[55] Whether that took place under the auspices of the Muslim prophet or happened in some other fashion, the reality is that Jews have been banished from the territory of Arabia and that Saudi Arabia—the modern nation-state that occupies that peninsula—bars all Jews from dwelling in its borders to this day.
Supremacy of the Muslim and the Way of War
The logical outcome of this world-view is the Islamic imperative to subjugate the world through the establishment of a universal umma.[56] Since Allah's word (as transmitted by Muhammad) is inherently superior,[57] man-made laws are intrinsically sinful and must be replaced by the Shari'a. It would be wicked and embracing al-Bara to permit humanity to ignore the perfect law of Allah, and thus it is a religious duty to create the most perfect world by political or other means.[58]
As Islam is the perfect religious system, consisting of God's wisdom from the beginning of time and thus above and beyond all other religions,[59] Muslims are the best of all peoples, and their reward is a luxurious life in Paradise.[60] Dawa,[61]often translated as "preaching" or "teaching," is more literally an "invitation" to humanity to accept Islam as the only true religion and submit to its dictates.[62] Alternatives, such as allowing others to wallow in their ignorance, would essentially be doing the opposite of al-Wala wal-Bara, something no good Muslim (who knows better about the superiority of his faith) should do.
The imperative that flows from this is that killing or being killed for the sake of Islam is a hallowed duty:
Behold, Allah has bought of the believers their lives and their possessions, promising them paradise in return, [and so] they fight in Allah's cause, and slay, and are slain: a promise which in truth He has willed upon Himself in [the words of] the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Qur'an. And who could be more faithful to his covenant than Allah?[63]
Being God's chosen people, Muslims need have no guilt or remorse toward the infidels. The world is divided into two distinct realms: Dar al-Islam (the house of submission) and Dar al-Harb (the house of the sword), and the normal and only justified relationship between the two is a state of perpetual war. There can be no peace with non-Muslims, only temporary truces.[64] Islam's concept of a just war is any war directed against the infidels, whatever its causes and circumstances, since fighting the infidel is always morally justified and religiously legitimized.
Jihad reflects the normal relations existing between the believers and the infidel. Islamic wars are futuhat, derived from the Arabic root for "open" in the sense that they open the world to the call of Islam; wars instigated by the infidel are hurub, derived from the Arabic root for "anger." Any territory conquered during jihad by Muslims is waqf, never to be returned, while territory conquered by the infidel is considered occupation that must be returned by force.[65] By this reasoning, territorial expansion through war by Muslim forces is not aggression but fulfillment of the Qur'anic command to disseminate Islam.
Islam then sees war as the means of creating peace by subjugating all others and enforcing Islamic order. A pax Islamicacovering the globe is the aim of jihad, and therefore, it is a just war. A hudna or truce does not imply the abandonment of jihad but rather a suspension of hostilities, a dormant status from which a leader may revive fighting at any time at his will.[66] For the Muslim, a permanent peace is a theological state to be achieved for the sake of the good (al-Wala) rather than a political one, which is no more than a temporary truce to gain strategic advantage.
Love, Hate, and Prayer
Five times a day, Muslims declare their total allegiance and submission to God by reciting the opening verses of the Qur'an. While the first six verses seem unobjectionable, verses 6 and 7 take on a different complexion in light of the doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara:
[6] Guide us to the straight path, [7] the path of those whom you have favored, not of those against whom there is wrath, nor of those have gone astray.
One of the earliest Qur'anic exegetes, al-Tabari (838-923), explained in his Commentary on the Qur'an that "those against whom there is wrath" are the Jews while "those who have gone astray" are the Christians.[67]
This view is maintained to this day as can be seen in recent translations of the Qur'an by al-Hilali and Khan endorsed by the Saudi government and circulated in bookstores, mosques, even prisons. Thus, notwithstanding the extensive whitewashing of the inherent prejudice within Islam in an attempt to portray Jews and Christians as honored and protected "people of the book" (ahl al-Kitab) rather than plain infidels, one of the central pillars of the Islamic faith maintains that Jews and Christians are the "other" to be avoided if one is to live by al-Wala wal-Bara.
In fact, Muslim jurists are careful to make this distinction: Under Islamic rule, and only under Islamic rule, are Jews and Christians to be considered ahl adh-Dhimma, a protected group of second-class citizens designated as such because of their connection to the "Book" (the Bible). When Jews and Christians reside outside Islamic rule (as do Jews in the State of Israel), then they are no longer ahl adh-Dhimma but infidels.[68]
The "Saved Sect"
Loving and hating for the sake of Allah is not only mandated for members of other faith groups but has an internal component as well. The practice of declaring other Muslims infidel (takfir) due to insufficient piety is widely practiced by Salafists and Wahhabis and used by jihadists to justify the use of violence against other Muslims.
Jihadists frequently point to a saying attributed to Muhammad:
This community will be split up into seventy-three sects, seventy-two of them will go to Hell, and one will go to Paradise, and it is the majority group.[69]
They, along with Muslim fundamentalists, believe they are that "Saved Sect" (at-Ta'ifa al-Mansura), the only group possessing the correct Islamic beliefs. The concept of takfir, propounded by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (founder of the Wahhabist movement), includes the command that anyone who does not show sufficient levels of wala (allegiance to his view of true Muslim belief) and adequate bara (rejection of non-Muslims, including the wrong kind of Muslims) is at risk of committing apostasy.[70]
A jihadist web forum quotes Sayyed Imam al-Sharif, aka "Dr. Fadl" and Abdul Qadir bin Abdul Aziz, mentor of al-Qaeda's current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri:
The most important duties of …[the Saved Sect] in this age are to wage jihad against the apostate rulers who have changed the rules of Allah and who govern Muslims using heretical man-made laws … the Salafi-Jihadists are at-Ta'ifa al-Mansura who have been promised victory against its enemies and the enemies of Islam.[71]
The linkage to al-Wala wal-Bara could not be made clearer on another popular jihadist Internet forum:
Who are at-Ta'ifa al-Mansura? Al-Bukhari says they are the people of knowledge. Other scholars say they are Ahl al-Hadith [Sunna]. Al-Nawawi says: They are those who enjoin good and forbid evil [al-Wala wal-Bara].[72]
The doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara is used to distance Muslims from infidels but at the same time to identify other Muslims as being taghut (idolaters). As the Saved Sect, Salafist-jihadist groups are believed to have the divine right to judge other people's levels of observance and to kill them if necessary. Muslims have an obligation to struggle against idolaters who do not follow what Allah has revealed.
Labeling groups taghut is at the heart of the jihadists' struggle against Muslim regimes that do not comply with their Islamic conceptions, and the doctrine legitimizes their terrorist attacks. In their view, this is grounded in a hadith: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him."[73] Salafi-jihadists can accuse any ruler who implements a political system that conflicts with their exact interpretation of Islam of being takfir.[74]
Doctrine of al-Fitra
The doctrine of Fitra encompasses the Islamic concept of human nature. Fitra is the natural predisposition of all humans to recognize that there is but one God and, by extension, to submit to His will. Islam is called Din al-Fitra, the religion of human nature, because in the Muslim view, its laws and its teachings are relevant to the entire universe and all human beings.
In line with this doctrine is the belief that all of mankind is innately Muslim. All babies who come into the world are born Muslim and only their inconsiderate or ignorant parents have changed their religion. The supposed proof for this view comes from the Old and New Testaments: All Jewish and Christian patriarchs and prophets were actually Muslims who preached Islam from the outset, and who clearly testified that Muhammad is the messenger of God and the "Seal of all Prophets."
Thus, Abraham is said to have prayed, "Make us submit, oh Allah to your will"[75] while Jacob's sons later declare: "We shall worship your Allah and the Allah of Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, the one and only Allah, and to him we submit."[76] Moses is said to have exclaimed: "O my people, if you do believe in Allah place your trust in him if you are obedient. They answered: We have placed our trust in Allah."[77]
The appropriation of biblical figures into the fold of Islam extends further to Christianity. Mary is told that Jesus will declare,
Surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path. But when Jesus perceived unbelief on their part, he said, who will be my helpers in Allah's way? The disciples said: We are helpers (in the way) of Allah: We believe in Allah and bear witness that we are submitting ones.[78]
Like the church fathers who scoured the Old Testament for proofs that Jesus Christ had been foretold by the prophets, Muslim exegetes also find testimony to Muhammad and his truth in the Old and the New Testaments. The biblical promise to one day raise up another prophet for the Children of Israel[79] is interpreted as foretelling the coming of Muhammad as the "seal" of all prophets.[80] The Song of Moses found in Deuteronomy 33:2—"The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran"—is similarly reinterpreted: Sinai is said to be the place where Moses received the Taurat (Torah), Seir the place where Jesus received divine revelation while Paran is a mountain range in the area of Mecca where God manifested himself to mankind for the last time through his revelation to Muhammad.[81]Muslim exegetes also quote Isaiah 42:1-4, Psalms 72:8-17, and Micah 4:1-2 as further proofs of Muhammad's prophethood and superiority.[82]
On the face of it, Fitra would seem to contradict the understanding of al-Wala wal-Bara. Al-Wala wal-Bara is divisive;Fitra is inclusive. Al-Wala wal-Bara rejects the other: Fitra annexes the other. However, a close examination demonstrates that Fitra affirms the practical application of the former through a totalist approach. Both understand the world as being under the sway of Allah and the superiority of Islam as being evident. The Fitra doctrine is intended to prove Islam's superiority by declaring that the innate religion of all mankind (as testified to by both Old and New Testament prophets in words and deeds) is the religion embodied in Muhammad's message. All other faith-systems are hence inferior. This is precisely what is advanced by the al-Wala wal-Bara doctrine—drawing near to Allah's word and rejecting all that He hates—especially the corrupted beliefs of the other.
Conclusion
The doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara is critical to understanding the Islamic world-view and its perception of the other as it is second only to attesting to tawhid, the oneness of God, for the faithful. Faith is incomplete without it, and it is the criterion used to distinguish between believers and the enemies of Islam. Tawhid will never be achieved on earth until believers apply al-Wala wal-Bara through adherence to Muhammad's way of life (as-Sirat al-Mustaqim).[83]
Since it is the deepest Islamic obligation to have all recognize the truth of Muhammad's message, it is a Muslim duty to impose Shari'a on humanity. The infidels who resist Islam are thus responsible for the persistence of violence and the absence of world peace. It is they who force Muslims to take defensive measures to protect the truth of Islam through jihad, if necessary.[84] Submission is the only solution to world peace, and it is in the best interest of humanity for the other to lose his otherness. This self-image helps explain why multitudes of Muslims react violently at almost every situation in which the honor of their prophet or their faith seems to be belittled while simultaneously complaining of being victims of oppression, aggression, racism, and the new and custom-made bête noir, "Islamophobia."
David Bukay is a lecturer in the school of political science at the University of Haifa.
[1] Qur. 2:256.
[2] George W. Bush, remarks, Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2001.
[3] Sheikh Muhammad Said al-Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara (Jeddah: Kashf ul Shububat Production, 2005), p. 4.
[4] Sheikh Muhammad Said al-Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara, According to the Aqeeday of the Salaf, Part 1, Omar Johnstone, trans. (Jeddah: Kashf ul Shubuhat Publications, 1992).
[5] Qur. 3:31-32; 2:257; see, also, Qur. 4:89; 5:51; 9:71; 60:4.
[6] Ignac Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 50, 230-1; Ibn Khaldun,al-Muqaddima (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 98-9; Ira Lapidus, "Historical, anthropological, methodological, and comparative perspectives: Tribes and State Formation in Islamic History," in Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, eds., Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 30, 34.
[7] Al-Ihtijaj bil-Qadir (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1993), p. 62.
[8] Ta'qib Ala Maqalat ash-Sheikh Jad al-Haq Sheikh al-Azhar bi-Unwan: Ilaqat al-Islam bil-Adyan al-Ukhra, accessed Apr. 29, 2013.
[9] Compiled from data by Bill Warner, "Statistical Islam," Center for the Study of Political Islam, Nashville, Tenn., accessed Nov. 21, 2012.
[10] Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 32.
[11] Qur. 49:10.
[12] Qur. 2:65; 5:60; 7:176; 8:55; 46:29-35; 98:6.
[13] Qur. 3:10, 82, 110; 4:48, 56, 76, 91; 7:144; 9:17, 34; 11:14; 13:15, 33; 14:30; 16:28-9; 18:103-6; 21:98; 22:19-22, 55; 25:21; 33:64; 40:63; 48:13.
[14] Qur. 2:193; 8:39; 9:5,111, 123; 47:4.
[15] Qur. 8:12; 47:4.
[16] Qur. 3:151; 8:12, 60; 33:26; 59:2.
[17] Qur. 2:191; 4:89, 91; 6:45; 9:5, 36, 73; 33:60-2; 66:9.
[18] Qur. 5:33.
[19] Qur. 5:33; 8:65; 9:9, 29,123; 25:77.
[20] Qur. 3:54; 4:142; 8:30; 86:15.
[21] Qur. 61:4, 10-2; 8:40; 2:193.
[22] Qur. 3:141; 4:115; 5:17, 52, 72-3; 10:68-70; 29:68; 36:49-64.
[23] Qur. 60:4; 9:123.
[24] Qur. 7:44; 9:37; 23:97; 33:60; 40:35; 33:60.
[25] Qur. 6:25; 9:37; 37:18.
[26] Qur. 9:23; 58:22; Sahih Muslim (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al-Misri, n.d.), bk. 1, no. 417.
[27] Bernard Lewis, "Metaphor and Allusion," The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), pp. 4-5.
[28] Qur. 9:30; 48:28; Muhammad Ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari (Lahore: Kazi, 1979), vol. 8, no. 427.
[29] Qur. 14:30.
[30] Qur. 11:14.
[31] Qur. 29:17.
[32] Qur. 40:63.
[33] Qur. 6:115; 10:64; 30:30.
[34] Qur. 2:99; 4:150-2; 13:33-4; 16:28-9; 22:19-22.
[35] Qur. 33:60-2.
[36] Qur. 5:51.
[37] Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 1, bk. 2, no. 25, bk. 8, no. 387.
[38] Compiled from data by Warner, "Statistical Islam."
[39] Qur. 4:47; 5:13.
[40] Qur. 5:60.
[41] Qur. 2:65; 7:166.
[42] Qur. 4:60.
[43] Qur. 4:55; Sahih Muslim, bk. 001, no. 0284.
[44] Qur. 2:42, 61; 3:112; 98:6.
[45] Qur. 2:74, 78, 145; 4:160-2; 7:132; 18:27.
[46] Qur. 2:75, 87, 100; 4:46; 5:13, 62, 70; 17:4; 9: 30-1.
[47] Qur. 2:93-6, 142; 3:183-4; 4:51-2, 161; 5:42, 52, 79.
[48] Qur. 8:55-6; 98:6; Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, bk. 54, no. 524.
[49] Qur. 8:55-6; 98:6; Sahih Bukhari, 4:52:176-7; 4:56:791; Sahih Muslim, 41:6981-5.
[50] Qur. 4:171; 5:17, 73; 19:88-93.
[51] Qur. 10:68-9.
[52] Qur. 7:37; 29:68.
[53] Qur. 10:70; 5:72-3.
[54] Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 55, no. 657.
[55] Ibid., vol. 5, bk. 59, nos. 362, 392; vol. 4, bk. 52, no. 288; Sahih Muslim, bk. 10, no. 3763, bk. 019, no. 4366; Abu-Dawud Sulaiman bin al-Aash'ath al-Azdi as-Sijistani, Sunan abu-Dawud, Ahmad Hasan, trans. (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 1990), vol. 2, no. 28.
[56] Qur. 7:158; 9:33; 21:107: 12:109; 21:22.
[57] Qur. 9:33.
[58] Qur. 4:141; 5:17; 10:68; 40:62; 46:33; 48:14; 63:8.
[59] Qur. 5:3; 9:33; 12:109.
[60] Qur. 9:72; 48:17; 61:12.
[61] Qur. 16:125.
[62] Qur. 7:158; 14:44.
[63] Qur. 9:111.
[64] Majid Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1979), pp. 53-4, 64-5, 134-6, 220-1.
[65] Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat al-Muqtasid (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya, 1991), vol. 1, pp. 454-87; Naqib al-Misri,Umdat as-Salik (Lahore: Qazi, 1997), pp. 599-605.
[66] Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat al-Muqtasid, vol. 1, pp. 454-87; Misri, Umdat as-Salik, pp. 599-605; Hasan Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (Reading: Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization, 1996), pp. 43-7, 137, 182.
[67] Muhammad Ibn Jarir at-Tabari, Tafsir al-Qur'an (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, 1992), relating to Qur'an, 2:61; Jews, 5:60; Christians, 5:77.
[68] Ibn Qaym al-Jawziyah, Ahkam Ahl adh-Dhimma (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1997).
[69] Derives from hadith of Sijistani, Sunan abu-Dawud, vol. 3, no. 4580.
[70] Sheikh Muhammad Said al-Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara fil-Islam (Cairo: an-Nur al-Islamiyah, 1980), pp. 3, 34-5.
[71] Dr. Fadl, "Istifadat A'ada' al-Islam Min Wathiqat Tarshid al-Jihad wa-Faq al-Itifaq," accessed Apr. 19, 2013.
[72] Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara fil-Islam, p. 29.
[73] Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 9, bk. 84, no. 57.
[74] Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, "Wujub Tahkim Shar' Allah wa-Nabza Ma Khalafahu," accessed Apr. 19, 2013.
[75] Qur. 2:127-8.
[76] Qur. 2:133.
[77] Qur. 10: 84-5.
[78] Qur. 3: 51-2; 5:111.
[79] Deut. 18:17-9.
[80] Qur. 33:40, Ismail Ibn Umar, Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim (Cairo: Maktabat al-Malik Faisal, 1984), pp. 493-4, 501.
[81] Zaghlool Al-Najjar, "Paran in the Bible is Mecca today," accessed May 3, 2013; Qur. 3:3, 7:157; "Mecca is Bacca and Paran," Pss. 84:5-6; Qur. 3:96-7.
[82] "Eleventh Hadith: Man's Good-Seeking Nature," Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project, al-Islam.org, accessed Apr. 19, 2013.
[83] Taqi ad-Din Ahmad Ibn Taimiya, Majmu al-Fatawa (Riad: Maktabat al-Abiqat, 1998), vol. 28, ?. 37.
[84] Qur. 3:118; 4:89; 9:32, 34; 47:34-5; 2:217.
Related Topics: Anti-Christianism, Antisemitism, Islam | David Bukay | Summer 2013 MEQThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
It is accepted as a truism by many liberals and multiculturalists and touted by much of the Western media that the "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Islamic world is a clash of values between a secular, tolerant, post-Christian world and a minority (albeit a large one) of Muslims, fundamentalists, and literalists who pervert the meaning of their faith-traditions. The Qur'anic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion,"[1] is frequently invoked to prove that Islam is not the intolerant, subjugating religion that Islamist clerics like Yusuf Qaradawi or terrorists like Osama bin Laden make it out to be. The belief is that "Islam," as former president George W. Bush said not long after the 9-11 attacks, "is peace."[2]
But what if Bush's statement, along with the mainstream view, ignores the reality of Islam's central tenets? Are the Islamists' beliefs really only a warped minority position or are they a truer reflection of the inherent nature of the Muslim faith-system? Can the West ever reach a modus vivendi with an Islam that by its very nature considers Western civilization an unclean "other" that must be brought into the orbit of Islam through subjugation at best or destruction at worst?
Despite attempts to reframe the meaning of jihad for Western audiences, as in this ad on a Chicago bus, classic Muslim commentators are clear: Jihad reflects the normal relations existing between the believers and the infidel. Islam sees jihad as the means of creating peace by subjugating all others and enforcing Islamic order. A pax Islamicacovering the globe is the aim of jihad, which is thus a just war.
A closer examination of Islam's central tenets is called for, one that gets past the feel-good nostrums of multiculturalism and that engages the Muslim belief-system on its own terms, beginning with one of the most fundamental of those tenets, the doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara (love and hate for the sake of God).
Love and Hate for the Sake of Allah
In the introduction to the 2005 exposition of al-Wala wal-Bara by Muhammad Qahtani, Sheikh Abdar Razaq Afifi, deputy president of the Department of Guidance and a member of the Board of Great Ulema of Saudi Arabia, declares:
The subject matter is of paramount importance and utmost interest: Firstly, it is concerned with one of Islam's main foundations, which has two major prerequisites of true faith: al-Wala is a manifestation of sincere love for Allah, his prophet and the believers; al-Bara is an expression of enmity and hatred toward falsehood and its adherents. Both are evidence of true faith. Secondly, it has been written at a very crucial time where Muslims are no longer aware of those qualities which distinguish the believers from the nonbelievers; their faith has become so weak; and they have taken the disbelievers as their friends while displaying enmity toward the believers.[3]
Qahtani's English publisher adds the following:
It is impossible to provide a literal translation in English of the al-Wala wal-Bara, but the meaning of this Arabic term indicated, on the one hand, drawing near to what is pleasing to Allah and His Messenger and, on the other hand, withdrawing from what is displeasing to Allah and His Messenger.[4]
Al-Wala wal-Bara means then total loyalty to Islam and total disavowal of anything else. It is one of Islam's main foundations and is of paramount importance, second only to Tawhid, acknowledgement of the oneness of God. Total allegiance and love are only to be given within the Islamic community, and rejection, hate, and enmity against the other is commanded, based upon Qur'anic foundations:
Say: "If you love Allah then follow me that Allah may love you and forgive your faults… Allah does not love the infidels. … They are the residents of Hell, and will there forever abide."[5]
Al-Wala wal-Bara doctrine originated in the pre-Islamic Arab tribal system from which it was passed on to the umma(Islamic community). The constructs of love and loyalty were extended to the family and the hamula (clan) while suspicion and hatred was directed toward those outside the clan, the "other" who did not embrace Muhammad's teachings. The Islamic umma has evolved into a super-tribe by way of religious linkage.[6]
The medieval exegete Ibn Taymiya (1263-1328 C.E.), one of the authorities cited most by Wahhabis and Salafists, expressedal-Wala wal-Bara this way:
Whoever loves for the sake of Allah, and hates for the sake of Allah, and whoever seals a friendship for His sake, or declares an enmity for His sake, will receive the protection of Allah. No one may taste true faith except by this even if his prayers and fasts are many.[7]
A real-world application of this conceptual framework was provided by Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, formerly chief mufti of Saudi Arabia, who issued a fatwa (religious ruling) before the 2003 Iraq war prohibiting seeking help from the infidels (kuffar) in jihad and urging Muslims to hate non-Muslims and show animosity toward them.[8]
Islam and Infidels
The issue of the Muslim's relationship with the infidel is one of the most important in Islam. The amount of attention devoted to the infidel is huge: 64 percent of the total Qur'an addresses that relationship while 81 percent of the Sira (chronological biographies of Muhammad) and 37 percent of the Hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) focus on this as well. In sum, nearly two thirds of Shari'a (Islamic law) is devoted to the infidel.[9]
What comes through clearly by examining this subject is that Islam is not about universal brotherhood, as is often claimed, but about the brotherhood of believers, members of the umma.[10] The flip-side of this is a total denunciation of the "other."[11] There are more than four hundred verses in the Qur'an alone that describe the torment in hell that Allah has prepared for the infidel. The Qur'an dehumanizes infidels: They are vile animals and beasts, the worst of creatures and demons;[12] perverted transgressors and partners of Satan[13] to be fought until religion is Allah's alone.[14] They are to be beheaded;[15] terrorized,[16] annihilated,[17] crucified,[18] punished, and expelled,[19] and plotted against by deceit.[20]Believers must be in a constant state of war with the infidel.[21]
According to Ibn Taymiya:
Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is entirely for Allah [2:189, 8:39] and the word of Allah is uppermost [9:40], therefore, according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought. Whosoever contends with Muhammad deserves death.[22]
The Qur'anic pedigree for this view is unambiguous. In the spirit of al-Wala wal-Bara, Muslims are to be compassionate with one another but ruthless to the infidel. The infidels must not be taken as friends. "Hostility and hate" exist between them forever until the infidel "believe in Allah alone."[23] They are a hated and cursed people; vile and evil-doers;[24]disgraced and misguided.[25] Even one's relatives should not be taken as friends if they are not Muslim.[26] As Bernard Lewis has put it:
Islam is still the ultimate criterion of group identity and loyalty. It is Islam that distinguishes between self and other, between insider and outsider, between brother and stranger … the ultimate definition of the other, the alien outsider and presumptive enemy, has been the kafir [infidel].[27]
Other Religions
The Qur'an says that all other religions are cursed by Allah.[28] All those who join idols[29] or false gods to Allah,[30] or invent lies about Him,[31] or deny Allah,[32] or change even one word of Allah's book,[33] or do not believe in Allah's messenger Muhammad[34] are to be "seized wherever found and slain with a slaughter."[35]
Judaism and Christianity are rejected and not acceptable to God since he has sent his final messenger to the entire world, who has revealed their errors. To love God is to reject those who reject Him.
O believers do not hold Jews and Christians as your allies. They are allies of one another; and anyone who makes them his friends is surely one of them; and Allah does not guide the unjust.[36]
The practical applications of this are delineated by the Hadith:
Narrated Ibn Umar: Allah's apostle said: "I have been ordered to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's apostle."[37]
There are approximately seven hundred verses in more than fifty Qur'anic suras that have direct and explicit negative references to the Jews; together with the other major books of Islam, they comprise in total 9 percent of the total Shari'a.[38]The characterizations employed against Jews are situated in the attitude toward the "other" that al-Wala wal-Baraperpetuates.
Jews are cursed forever,[39] having been transformed into apes and swine[40] (or apes alone).[41] The ultimate sin committed by the Jews is that they are the devil's minions,[42] and if they do not accept the true faith of Islam, they will burn in hellfire.[43] Jews conceal the truth, being "the vilest of all creatures,"[44] most wicked with hearts harder than stones.[45] By perverting the words of God, Jews corrupted the scriptures and killed the prophets.[46] Jews are "fond of lies," "devour the forbidden," and are "cowards, vulgar, and fools."[47] They are the worst of God's creation; rats are, in fact, "mutated Jews."[48] From an operational standpoint, the Hadith takes these views and offers a prescription for their application (albeit sometime in the future):
The hour will not be established until you fight the Jews, and the stone and the tree behind which a Jew will be hiding will say: "O Muslim! O Servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, so come and kill him."[49]
As for Christianity, Islam believes that it is a corrupted and distorted religion based on myths and legends. Jesus is a Muslim prophet; Christ's divinity is a blasphemy and thus the foundations of Christianity are false.[50] Christians have invented lies about God[51] by ascribing partners to Him, which is the worst of sins.[52] For that, they too are condemned forever to Hell.[53] Jesus will one day come back and destroy Christianity by breaking the cross, and on the Day of Judgment, he will be a witness against them.[54]
As a final act before his death, Muslim tradition claims that Muhammad ordered an ethnic cleansing of Jews and Christians from Arabia.[55] Whether that took place under the auspices of the Muslim prophet or happened in some other fashion, the reality is that Jews have been banished from the territory of Arabia and that Saudi Arabia—the modern nation-state that occupies that peninsula—bars all Jews from dwelling in its borders to this day.
Supremacy of the Muslim and the Way of War
The logical outcome of this world-view is the Islamic imperative to subjugate the world through the establishment of a universal umma.[56] Since Allah's word (as transmitted by Muhammad) is inherently superior,[57] man-made laws are intrinsically sinful and must be replaced by the Shari'a. It would be wicked and embracing al-Bara to permit humanity to ignore the perfect law of Allah, and thus it is a religious duty to create the most perfect world by political or other means.[58]
As Islam is the perfect religious system, consisting of God's wisdom from the beginning of time and thus above and beyond all other religions,[59] Muslims are the best of all peoples, and their reward is a luxurious life in Paradise.[60] Dawa,[61]often translated as "preaching" or "teaching," is more literally an "invitation" to humanity to accept Islam as the only true religion and submit to its dictates.[62] Alternatives, such as allowing others to wallow in their ignorance, would essentially be doing the opposite of al-Wala wal-Bara, something no good Muslim (who knows better about the superiority of his faith) should do.
The imperative that flows from this is that killing or being killed for the sake of Islam is a hallowed duty:
Behold, Allah has bought of the believers their lives and their possessions, promising them paradise in return, [and so] they fight in Allah's cause, and slay, and are slain: a promise which in truth He has willed upon Himself in [the words of] the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Qur'an. And who could be more faithful to his covenant than Allah?[63]
Being God's chosen people, Muslims need have no guilt or remorse toward the infidels. The world is divided into two distinct realms: Dar al-Islam (the house of submission) and Dar al-Harb (the house of the sword), and the normal and only justified relationship between the two is a state of perpetual war. There can be no peace with non-Muslims, only temporary truces.[64] Islam's concept of a just war is any war directed against the infidels, whatever its causes and circumstances, since fighting the infidel is always morally justified and religiously legitimized.
Jihad reflects the normal relations existing between the believers and the infidel. Islamic wars are futuhat, derived from the Arabic root for "open" in the sense that they open the world to the call of Islam; wars instigated by the infidel are hurub, derived from the Arabic root for "anger." Any territory conquered during jihad by Muslims is waqf, never to be returned, while territory conquered by the infidel is considered occupation that must be returned by force.[65] By this reasoning, territorial expansion through war by Muslim forces is not aggression but fulfillment of the Qur'anic command to disseminate Islam.
Islam then sees war as the means of creating peace by subjugating all others and enforcing Islamic order. A pax Islamicacovering the globe is the aim of jihad, and therefore, it is a just war. A hudna or truce does not imply the abandonment of jihad but rather a suspension of hostilities, a dormant status from which a leader may revive fighting at any time at his will.[66] For the Muslim, a permanent peace is a theological state to be achieved for the sake of the good (al-Wala) rather than a political one, which is no more than a temporary truce to gain strategic advantage.
Love, Hate, and Prayer
Five times a day, Muslims declare their total allegiance and submission to God by reciting the opening verses of the Qur'an. While the first six verses seem unobjectionable, verses 6 and 7 take on a different complexion in light of the doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara:
[6] Guide us to the straight path, [7] the path of those whom you have favored, not of those against whom there is wrath, nor of those have gone astray.
One of the earliest Qur'anic exegetes, al-Tabari (838-923), explained in his Commentary on the Qur'an that "those against whom there is wrath" are the Jews while "those who have gone astray" are the Christians.[67]
This view is maintained to this day as can be seen in recent translations of the Qur'an by al-Hilali and Khan endorsed by the Saudi government and circulated in bookstores, mosques, even prisons. Thus, notwithstanding the extensive whitewashing of the inherent prejudice within Islam in an attempt to portray Jews and Christians as honored and protected "people of the book" (ahl al-Kitab) rather than plain infidels, one of the central pillars of the Islamic faith maintains that Jews and Christians are the "other" to be avoided if one is to live by al-Wala wal-Bara.
In fact, Muslim jurists are careful to make this distinction: Under Islamic rule, and only under Islamic rule, are Jews and Christians to be considered ahl adh-Dhimma, a protected group of second-class citizens designated as such because of their connection to the "Book" (the Bible). When Jews and Christians reside outside Islamic rule (as do Jews in the State of Israel), then they are no longer ahl adh-Dhimma but infidels.[68]
The "Saved Sect"
Loving and hating for the sake of Allah is not only mandated for members of other faith groups but has an internal component as well. The practice of declaring other Muslims infidel (takfir) due to insufficient piety is widely practiced by Salafists and Wahhabis and used by jihadists to justify the use of violence against other Muslims.
Jihadists frequently point to a saying attributed to Muhammad:
This community will be split up into seventy-three sects, seventy-two of them will go to Hell, and one will go to Paradise, and it is the majority group.[69]
They, along with Muslim fundamentalists, believe they are that "Saved Sect" (at-Ta'ifa al-Mansura), the only group possessing the correct Islamic beliefs. The concept of takfir, propounded by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (founder of the Wahhabist movement), includes the command that anyone who does not show sufficient levels of wala (allegiance to his view of true Muslim belief) and adequate bara (rejection of non-Muslims, including the wrong kind of Muslims) is at risk of committing apostasy.[70]
A jihadist web forum quotes Sayyed Imam al-Sharif, aka "Dr. Fadl" and Abdul Qadir bin Abdul Aziz, mentor of al-Qaeda's current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri:
The most important duties of …[the Saved Sect] in this age are to wage jihad against the apostate rulers who have changed the rules of Allah and who govern Muslims using heretical man-made laws … the Salafi-Jihadists are at-Ta'ifa al-Mansura who have been promised victory against its enemies and the enemies of Islam.[71]
The linkage to al-Wala wal-Bara could not be made clearer on another popular jihadist Internet forum:
Who are at-Ta'ifa al-Mansura? Al-Bukhari says they are the people of knowledge. Other scholars say they are Ahl al-Hadith [Sunna]. Al-Nawawi says: They are those who enjoin good and forbid evil [al-Wala wal-Bara].[72]
The doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara is used to distance Muslims from infidels but at the same time to identify other Muslims as being taghut (idolaters). As the Saved Sect, Salafist-jihadist groups are believed to have the divine right to judge other people's levels of observance and to kill them if necessary. Muslims have an obligation to struggle against idolaters who do not follow what Allah has revealed.
Labeling groups taghut is at the heart of the jihadists' struggle against Muslim regimes that do not comply with their Islamic conceptions, and the doctrine legitimizes their terrorist attacks. In their view, this is grounded in a hadith: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him."[73] Salafi-jihadists can accuse any ruler who implements a political system that conflicts with their exact interpretation of Islam of being takfir.[74]
Doctrine of al-Fitra
The doctrine of Fitra encompasses the Islamic concept of human nature. Fitra is the natural predisposition of all humans to recognize that there is but one God and, by extension, to submit to His will. Islam is called Din al-Fitra, the religion of human nature, because in the Muslim view, its laws and its teachings are relevant to the entire universe and all human beings.
In line with this doctrine is the belief that all of mankind is innately Muslim. All babies who come into the world are born Muslim and only their inconsiderate or ignorant parents have changed their religion. The supposed proof for this view comes from the Old and New Testaments: All Jewish and Christian patriarchs and prophets were actually Muslims who preached Islam from the outset, and who clearly testified that Muhammad is the messenger of God and the "Seal of all Prophets."
Thus, Abraham is said to have prayed, "Make us submit, oh Allah to your will"[75] while Jacob's sons later declare: "We shall worship your Allah and the Allah of Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, the one and only Allah, and to him we submit."[76] Moses is said to have exclaimed: "O my people, if you do believe in Allah place your trust in him if you are obedient. They answered: We have placed our trust in Allah."[77]
The appropriation of biblical figures into the fold of Islam extends further to Christianity. Mary is told that Jesus will declare,
Surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path. But when Jesus perceived unbelief on their part, he said, who will be my helpers in Allah's way? The disciples said: We are helpers (in the way) of Allah: We believe in Allah and bear witness that we are submitting ones.[78]
Like the church fathers who scoured the Old Testament for proofs that Jesus Christ had been foretold by the prophets, Muslim exegetes also find testimony to Muhammad and his truth in the Old and the New Testaments. The biblical promise to one day raise up another prophet for the Children of Israel[79] is interpreted as foretelling the coming of Muhammad as the "seal" of all prophets.[80] The Song of Moses found in Deuteronomy 33:2—"The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran"—is similarly reinterpreted: Sinai is said to be the place where Moses received the Taurat (Torah), Seir the place where Jesus received divine revelation while Paran is a mountain range in the area of Mecca where God manifested himself to mankind for the last time through his revelation to Muhammad.[81]Muslim exegetes also quote Isaiah 42:1-4, Psalms 72:8-17, and Micah 4:1-2 as further proofs of Muhammad's prophethood and superiority.[82]
On the face of it, Fitra would seem to contradict the understanding of al-Wala wal-Bara. Al-Wala wal-Bara is divisive;Fitra is inclusive. Al-Wala wal-Bara rejects the other: Fitra annexes the other. However, a close examination demonstrates that Fitra affirms the practical application of the former through a totalist approach. Both understand the world as being under the sway of Allah and the superiority of Islam as being evident. The Fitra doctrine is intended to prove Islam's superiority by declaring that the innate religion of all mankind (as testified to by both Old and New Testament prophets in words and deeds) is the religion embodied in Muhammad's message. All other faith-systems are hence inferior. This is precisely what is advanced by the al-Wala wal-Bara doctrine—drawing near to Allah's word and rejecting all that He hates—especially the corrupted beliefs of the other.
Conclusion
The doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara is critical to understanding the Islamic world-view and its perception of the other as it is second only to attesting to tawhid, the oneness of God, for the faithful. Faith is incomplete without it, and it is the criterion used to distinguish between believers and the enemies of Islam. Tawhid will never be achieved on earth until believers apply al-Wala wal-Bara through adherence to Muhammad's way of life (as-Sirat al-Mustaqim).[83]
Since it is the deepest Islamic obligation to have all recognize the truth of Muhammad's message, it is a Muslim duty to impose Shari'a on humanity. The infidels who resist Islam are thus responsible for the persistence of violence and the absence of world peace. It is they who force Muslims to take defensive measures to protect the truth of Islam through jihad, if necessary.[84] Submission is the only solution to world peace, and it is in the best interest of humanity for the other to lose his otherness. This self-image helps explain why multitudes of Muslims react violently at almost every situation in which the honor of their prophet or their faith seems to be belittled while simultaneously complaining of being victims of oppression, aggression, racism, and the new and custom-made bête noir, "Islamophobia."
David Bukay is a lecturer in the school of political science at the University of Haifa.
[1] Qur. 2:256.
[2] George W. Bush, remarks, Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2001.
[3] Sheikh Muhammad Said al-Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara (Jeddah: Kashf ul Shububat Production, 2005), p. 4.
[4] Sheikh Muhammad Said al-Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara, According to the Aqeeday of the Salaf, Part 1, Omar Johnstone, trans. (Jeddah: Kashf ul Shubuhat Publications, 1992).
[5] Qur. 3:31-32; 2:257; see, also, Qur. 4:89; 5:51; 9:71; 60:4.
[6] Ignac Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 50, 230-1; Ibn Khaldun,al-Muqaddima (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 98-9; Ira Lapidus, "Historical, anthropological, methodological, and comparative perspectives: Tribes and State Formation in Islamic History," in Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, eds., Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 30, 34.
[7] Al-Ihtijaj bil-Qadir (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1993), p. 62.
[8] Ta'qib Ala Maqalat ash-Sheikh Jad al-Haq Sheikh al-Azhar bi-Unwan: Ilaqat al-Islam bil-Adyan al-Ukhra, accessed Apr. 29, 2013.
[9] Compiled from data by Bill Warner, "Statistical Islam," Center for the Study of Political Islam, Nashville, Tenn., accessed Nov. 21, 2012.
[10] Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 32.
[11] Qur. 49:10.
[12] Qur. 2:65; 5:60; 7:176; 8:55; 46:29-35; 98:6.
[13] Qur. 3:10, 82, 110; 4:48, 56, 76, 91; 7:144; 9:17, 34; 11:14; 13:15, 33; 14:30; 16:28-9; 18:103-6; 21:98; 22:19-22, 55; 25:21; 33:64; 40:63; 48:13.
[14] Qur. 2:193; 8:39; 9:5,111, 123; 47:4.
[15] Qur. 8:12; 47:4.
[16] Qur. 3:151; 8:12, 60; 33:26; 59:2.
[17] Qur. 2:191; 4:89, 91; 6:45; 9:5, 36, 73; 33:60-2; 66:9.
[18] Qur. 5:33.
[19] Qur. 5:33; 8:65; 9:9, 29,123; 25:77.
[20] Qur. 3:54; 4:142; 8:30; 86:15.
[21] Qur. 61:4, 10-2; 8:40; 2:193.
[22] Qur. 3:141; 4:115; 5:17, 52, 72-3; 10:68-70; 29:68; 36:49-64.
[23] Qur. 60:4; 9:123.
[24] Qur. 7:44; 9:37; 23:97; 33:60; 40:35; 33:60.
[25] Qur. 6:25; 9:37; 37:18.
[26] Qur. 9:23; 58:22; Sahih Muslim (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al-Misri, n.d.), bk. 1, no. 417.
[27] Bernard Lewis, "Metaphor and Allusion," The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), pp. 4-5.
[28] Qur. 9:30; 48:28; Muhammad Ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari (Lahore: Kazi, 1979), vol. 8, no. 427.
[29] Qur. 14:30.
[30] Qur. 11:14.
[31] Qur. 29:17.
[32] Qur. 40:63.
[33] Qur. 6:115; 10:64; 30:30.
[34] Qur. 2:99; 4:150-2; 13:33-4; 16:28-9; 22:19-22.
[35] Qur. 33:60-2.
[36] Qur. 5:51.
[37] Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 1, bk. 2, no. 25, bk. 8, no. 387.
[38] Compiled from data by Warner, "Statistical Islam."
[39] Qur. 4:47; 5:13.
[40] Qur. 5:60.
[41] Qur. 2:65; 7:166.
[42] Qur. 4:60.
[43] Qur. 4:55; Sahih Muslim, bk. 001, no. 0284.
[44] Qur. 2:42, 61; 3:112; 98:6.
[45] Qur. 2:74, 78, 145; 4:160-2; 7:132; 18:27.
[46] Qur. 2:75, 87, 100; 4:46; 5:13, 62, 70; 17:4; 9: 30-1.
[47] Qur. 2:93-6, 142; 3:183-4; 4:51-2, 161; 5:42, 52, 79.
[48] Qur. 8:55-6; 98:6; Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, bk. 54, no. 524.
[49] Qur. 8:55-6; 98:6; Sahih Bukhari, 4:52:176-7; 4:56:791; Sahih Muslim, 41:6981-5.
[50] Qur. 4:171; 5:17, 73; 19:88-93.
[51] Qur. 10:68-9.
[52] Qur. 7:37; 29:68.
[53] Qur. 10:70; 5:72-3.
[54] Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 55, no. 657.
[55] Ibid., vol. 5, bk. 59, nos. 362, 392; vol. 4, bk. 52, no. 288; Sahih Muslim, bk. 10, no. 3763, bk. 019, no. 4366; Abu-Dawud Sulaiman bin al-Aash'ath al-Azdi as-Sijistani, Sunan abu-Dawud, Ahmad Hasan, trans. (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 1990), vol. 2, no. 28.
[56] Qur. 7:158; 9:33; 21:107: 12:109; 21:22.
[57] Qur. 9:33.
[58] Qur. 4:141; 5:17; 10:68; 40:62; 46:33; 48:14; 63:8.
[59] Qur. 5:3; 9:33; 12:109.
[60] Qur. 9:72; 48:17; 61:12.
[61] Qur. 16:125.
[62] Qur. 7:158; 14:44.
[63] Qur. 9:111.
[64] Majid Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1979), pp. 53-4, 64-5, 134-6, 220-1.
[65] Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat al-Muqtasid (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya, 1991), vol. 1, pp. 454-87; Naqib al-Misri,Umdat as-Salik (Lahore: Qazi, 1997), pp. 599-605.
[66] Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat al-Muqtasid, vol. 1, pp. 454-87; Misri, Umdat as-Salik, pp. 599-605; Hasan Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (Reading: Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization, 1996), pp. 43-7, 137, 182.
[67] Muhammad Ibn Jarir at-Tabari, Tafsir al-Qur'an (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, 1992), relating to Qur'an, 2:61; Jews, 5:60; Christians, 5:77.
[68] Ibn Qaym al-Jawziyah, Ahkam Ahl adh-Dhimma (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1997).
[69] Derives from hadith of Sijistani, Sunan abu-Dawud, vol. 3, no. 4580.
[70] Sheikh Muhammad Said al-Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara fil-Islam (Cairo: an-Nur al-Islamiyah, 1980), pp. 3, 34-5.
[71] Dr. Fadl, "Istifadat A'ada' al-Islam Min Wathiqat Tarshid al-Jihad wa-Faq al-Itifaq," accessed Apr. 19, 2013.
[72] Qahtani, al-Wala wal-Bara fil-Islam, p. 29.
[73] Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 9, bk. 84, no. 57.
[74] Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, "Wujub Tahkim Shar' Allah wa-Nabza Ma Khalafahu," accessed Apr. 19, 2013.
[75] Qur. 2:127-8.
[76] Qur. 2:133.
[77] Qur. 10: 84-5.
[78] Qur. 3: 51-2; 5:111.
[79] Deut. 18:17-9.
[80] Qur. 33:40, Ismail Ibn Umar, Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim (Cairo: Maktabat al-Malik Faisal, 1984), pp. 493-4, 501.
[81] Zaghlool Al-Najjar, "Paran in the Bible is Mecca today," accessed May 3, 2013; Qur. 3:3, 7:157; "Mecca is Bacca and Paran," Pss. 84:5-6; Qur. 3:96-7.
[82] "Eleventh Hadith: Man's Good-Seeking Nature," Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project, al-Islam.org, accessed Apr. 19, 2013.
[83] Taqi ad-Din Ahmad Ibn Taimiya, Majmu al-Fatawa (Riad: Maktabat al-Abiqat, 1998), vol. 28, ?. 37.
[84] Qur. 3:118; 4:89; 9:32, 34; 47:34-5; 2:217.
Related Topics: Anti-Christianism, Antisemitism, Islam | David Bukay | Summer 2013 MEQThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
As Mohamed Morsi faces the prospect of an imminent military coup, Raymond Ibrahim, the American son of two Egyptian parents and author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians, talks about the situation in Egypt and its implications, in particular for Christians who already find themselves in a precarious position.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What could the backlash against Morsi in Egypt mean for the future of Egypt?
RAYMOND IBRAHIM: On the one hand, the average Egyptian has tasted a solid year of rule under the Muslim Brotherhood — and the majority don't like it, as evinced by the mass demonstrations currently underway. On the other hand, it is a mistake to think that the uprising against Morsi and the Brotherhood is all about rejecting Islamization and sharia. A great many of those protesting Morsi are doing so less because of his Islamist agenda — which many are indifferent to — and more because he and his party have proven to be incompetent, corrupt, and, in short, making the average Egyptian miss Mubarak. Egyptians have been reduced to not having food to eat — and this is their fundamental concern. All that said, Egyptians have now had a taste of an Islamist government — which always sounded great, in theory — and, by and large, they have learned they don't like it, the hard way.
LOPEZ: What do the Copts need?
IBRAHIM: All that the Copts want is equality — to be seen and treated as full Egyptian citizens, irrespective of their Christian faith. Under the era of Westernization and modernization, they were indeed largely seen as "regular" Egyptians. But, as Muslims went from emulating the West, to having contempt for it — I discuss this phenomenon at length in my book Crucified Again — so too did they begin to reclaim their Islamic heritage, and its teachings, which are fundamentally hostile to non-Muslims, and so Egypt's most indigenous and native inhabitants — the Christian Copts — come to suffer for it.
LOPEZ: Who was Cyril Yusuf Sa'ad?
IBRAHIM: He was a six-year-old Coptic Christian boy who was abducted and held for ransom. Muslim abductions of Christians is an increasingly common practice, not just in Egypt, but in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, etc. (as I show in Crucified Again). The boy was eventually killed in late May. According to the Arabic language report, the boy's "family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body into the toilet of his home, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed."
LOPEZ: Who was Agape Essam Girgis?
IBRAHIM: She is a 14-year-old Coptic girl who, on her way to school accompanied by a Muslim social worker and two teachers — one of whom was a Salafi — never returned. She was drugged and awakened to find herself in a secluded place with an elderly woman and Salafis who tried to convert her to Islam, forced her to wear the full hijab, and beat her. She was eventually released — she's actually one of the few lucky Coptic girls who made it back home (one recent study states that well over 500 Coptic girls have been abducted, raped, seduced, blackmailed, etc., in the last few years).
LOPEZ: Is it an exaggeration to argue that there is a jihad on children in Egypt? And is there a danger in relying on some of the news accounts?
IBRAHIM: Well, what more must happen before highlighting the plight of Christian youth under Islam is justified? Christian boys and girls in Egypt are frequently targeted, often for "ransom" money — as they are in Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and all throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Those targeting them are Muslims who, for a variety of reasons, have concluded that their actions — targeting Christians for extortion, and often yanking them from the doorsteps of their "infidel" churches — are legitimate in the context of Islam and jihad. I explain this phenomenon — doctrinally and historically – in Crucified Again. Indeed, only the other day, I wrote about new threats directed against Egypt's Christians, telling them not to join protests against Morsi, otherwise their "businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches" might "catch fire." The message concluded by saying: "If you are not worried about any of these, then worry about your children and your homes. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact." Around the same time, Sheikh Essam Abdulamek, a member of parliament's Shura Council, warned Egypt's Christians on live TV against participating in the June 30 protests, saying, "Do not sacrifice your children."
LOPEZ: Is it really fair to say that the Obama administration is enabling Christian persecution, as you do?
IBRAHIM: It's not just fair — it's indubitably true. In every single country where Christian minorities live among Muslim majorities, Obama's policies have empowered the Islamist parties, with the obvious consequence that the Christians are first to suffer. In Egypt, as expected, since the Obama-backed Brotherhood came to power, the persecution of Copts has practically been legalized, as unprecedented numbers of Christians — men, women, and children — have been arrested, often receiving more than double the maximum prison sentence, under the accusation that they "blasphemed" Islam or its prophet. It was also under Brotherhood rule that another unprecedented scandal occurred: St. Mark Cathedral — the holiest site of Coptic Christianity and home of the pope himself — was besieged in broad daylight by Islamic rioters. When security came, they too joined in the attack on the cathedral.
In Libya, after Obama supported the al-Qaeda "freedom fighters," Libya's small Christian minority has been targeted in unprecedented ways. Among other things, the very few churches there are under attack and bombed; nuns that have been serving the sick and needy since 1921 have been harassed and forced to flee; foreign Christians possessing Bibles have been arrested and tortured (one recently died from his torture). And in Syria — where does one begin? Churches are being bombed and Christians are routinely being beheaded — most recently a Catholic priest, one of many. I discuss all this in my recent article, "Obama's Proxy War on Mideast Christians." If the reader finds this title outrageous, I might point out that, the same day my article was published, it was revealed that Syrian Christians were asking, "Why is America at war with us?"
LOPEZ: Should the persecution of Christians in the Middle East serve as a reminder to us of how precious a liberty religious freedom is?
IBRAHIM:Yes. Yes. And yes.
LOPEZ: How do you avoid being anti-Muslim while documenting "the continuity and interconnectivity of Christian persecution under Islam"?
IBRAHIM: It is one thing to talk about Islam and its teachings — which often are black and white (depending on whether one is a Sunni, Shia, etc.) — and another thing to talk about the Muslim guy down the street. I know the former inside out; I do not know the latter. So I talk about Islamic history, doctrine, continuity, etc. — but I leave room for the fact that, of course, just because someone is named "Muhammad" certainly does not mean he's a jihadi, anymore than someone named "Christian" is always "turning the other cheek." That said, I think it is folly to suppress talk about Islam simply because it might make a nominal American Muslim feel "uncomfortable." It's a question of priorities: What's more important — to have the plight of millions of Christians suffering under Islam reach the light of day, even though some Muslims in America might feel uncomfortable at how such news makes Islam look, or to cover up the plight of these millions of victims, simply so Islam doesn't look so bad in the West? The mainstream media has tended for this latter option. This is why I wroteCrucified Again, to fill the vacuum created by the MSM's negligence in reporting on the reality of Muslim persecution of Christians.
LOPEZ: "Now that the 'Arab Spring' has reached Syria – another stronghold of early Christianity that today is almost entirely Islamic — the attacks on monasteries there demonstrate the continuity between the original jihad and the jihad we know in the twenty-first century." Is that the backstory to the murder of Fr. Murad?
IBRAHIM: Absolutely. That's just it: All that we're seeing today has a long continuity. As I tried to show in Crucified Again, every pattern of persecution we see today — whether church bombings or bannings, blasphemy codes to silence Christians, execution of Muslim apostates to Christianity, destruction of Bibles and crosses, extortion, and even the targeting of Christian women and children — goes back 1,400 years to the very beginnings of Islam, with identical patterns of behavior by Muslims vis-a-vis Christians. This is demonstrably true and documented in the book.
LOPEZ: What goes through your head as you cover these stories of persecution and violence as a son of Egyptian parents?
IBRAHIM: Lots of things: empathy for mideast Christians — as I know that could be me, and actually is some of my extended family — and hence commitment to try to be their voice — the voice of the voiceless; gratefulness that my parents emigrated from Egypt to the U.S. when they did; and despair, for I know that that which is on full display in the Islamic world, is destined to come here — unless the West finally opens its eyes.
Proof That Islam Is An Evil Religion That Does NOT Respect The Rights of Others:
Islam falsely claims to be a peaceful religion, but reality in many countries shows otherwise. All Muslims who believe in human rights should leave Islam immediately! See REALITY, below:
Before Egypt's President Muhammad Morsi was ousted, April was one of the worst months for Christian Copts there. On April 5 near Cairo, when a longstanding feud between a Christian family and a Muslim family—based on male Muslims sexually harassing Christian girls—culminated in the violent deaths of six Christians, including two of the participants, a Christian and a Muslim, being set on fire, local Muslims went on another "collective punishment" spree. It resulted in the injury of at least 20 other Copts, an Evangelical church being set on fire, and an attack on a Coptic church, Two days later, after Copts had mourned their dead in the St. Mark Cathedral—Coptic Christianity's holiest site and home to the Coptic pope—Muslim mobs, who had waited outside, launched yet another attack—aided by state security forces. Eyewitnesses said as many as 40-50 tear gas canisters targeted the mourners, many of whom were women and children hiding in the cathedral. Two more Copts were killed and many dozens wounded as other officers stood by while the Muslim mob tried to destroy the cathedral.
On one Friday after prayers, the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Cairo was turned into a "torture chamber" for Egyptians, many of whom were Christians, protesting the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the victims, Amir Ayad, a Christian, said he was severely beaten before being left for dead at the side of the road. He suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, bleeding in his right eye and pellet wounds. Coptic Christian children, mostly boys, were targeted for kidnapping and held for ransom; one 6-year-old, after his family had paid the Muslim kidnapper, was killed. And a video appeared on Arabic-language websites showing a crowd of Muslims in Egypt assaulting and raping two Christian women on a crowded street and in broad daylight. Throughout, the women scream in terror as the men shout Islamic slogans such as "Allahu Akbar" "[Allah is Greater.] None of the many passersby intervenes in any way.
Also in April, during Easter week in Nigeria, Muslim herdsmen launched a series of raids, killing at least 80 Christians, on Christian villages. Most of those slain were either children or the elderly. Over 200 Christian homes were destroyed, eight churches burned, and 4,500 Christians displaced. According to a pastor present at the time, "It was a helpless situation, as no Christians had any weapon to fight back. Women, children, and the elderly who were not able to escape were shot and killed. Luckily, all my children are in school, so this made it easier for our escape from the Muslim attackers. We sneaked away in the midst of the confusion and trekked for more than 20 kilometers [12 miles] to find a place to stay."
Categorized by theme, the rest of April's Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Central African Republic: A number of church buildings were attacked and the homes of Christians looted in the aftermath of a bloody coup by Sharia-adherent Muslim rebels. During the chaos, as in a standard jihad, Christian property was targeted for plundering, while Muslim property was spared. The leader of the Muslim rebels, Michel Djotodia, "assumed the presidency from the ousted François Bozizé, becoming the predominantly Christian nation's first Muslim president." According to one Christian, "We are no longer at home. They pillage our goods which are then sold by the Muslims, who export them."
Indonesia: Local officials, at the behest of Islamist forces, demolished the Batak Protestant Church building in West Java and threatened to close others, causing hundreds of Christians to protest in the streets. Once again, as happens with increasing regularity in Indonesia, congregation members then held services in the street, near the site of the destroyed church. As the Morning Star News added: Indonesian officials routinely delay or deny church building permits… thus providing Islamic extremists a pretext for protests and attacks." Newspapers covering the event posted photos of "church members in tears—singing hymns, crying and begging local officials not to demolish their facility. Hundreds of police and army officers guarded the area while Muslim militants, shouting Koranic verses, cheered the excavator."
Saudi Arabia: Apparently once again "The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia—the top Islamic official in the country of Saudi Arabia—has [again] declared that it is 'necessary to destroy all the churches of the region." ( First reported here over a year ago.)
Sudan: In the latest of a series of moves that have put pressure on Christians, a Muslim government minister announced that no new licenses will be granted for church buildings; he claimed that the existing churches are sufficient for the number of worshippers. Building churches has, in fact, been disallowed since South Sudan seceded in July 2011; the Islamist government of Khartoum responded by making the lives of Christians in Sudan even more difficult than usual. Days before this latest measure, the government deported a senior church leader and two expatriate missionaries who had been working with children in Khartoum. No reason was given. The government has also demolished countless church buildings on the pretext of paperwork irregularities.
Turkey: A 13th century church building, the Hagia Sophia of Trabizon (not to be confused with Constantinople's famous Hagia Sophia) is set to become a mosque again. After the Ottoman conquest it had been turned from a church into a mosque, but later, under Turkey's secularist President, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and apparently due to its "great historical and cultural significance" for Christians, it had been turned into a museum. Local authorities decreed that its Christian frescoes must again be covered in preparation for its reopening as a mosque. [Update: As of July, the Hagia Sophia of Trabizon has become a functioning mosque.]
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
India Kashmir: In Srinagar, a Muslim mob attacked two men, five women and two children, all of British origin, on the accusation that they were preaching Christianity. The mob also threw stones at their vehicles and tried to destroy their home. The police, however, when they arrived, arrested the two men on, according to Asia News, "false charges of forced conversions." The local imam told police that, "if they try to convert anyone, I will prevent it at all costs." According to a Christian close to the case, "The false and defamatory accusations of the imam and the complicity of the police in arresting these Christians are a serious threat to religious freedom, a right guaranteed by the Constitution of India." Also in Srinagar, another Muslim mob attacked a Christian-children's home, beat the staff and visitors, tried to kill the pastor and kidnap the children, destroyed property, and killed the home's pet dog—again on the accusation that the group running the home was converting Muslim children to Christianity.
Somalia: Muslims from the Islamic organization Al Shabaab ("The Youth") shot to death 42-year-old Fartun Omar, a widow and mother of five, for converting to Christianity. Months earlier, they had killed her husband for the same "crime," and had been hunting for the wife, who, after abandoning Islam, had gone in hiding. She leaves behind five orphaned children. Separately, Al Shabaab Muslims also seized Hassan Gulled, 25, for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, and imprisoned him, and tortured him. According to local sources, "Al Shabaab have been torturing him to see whether he would deny his Christian faith. Since last week, no information has surfaced concerning Gulled. There is a possibility that he could have been killed."
Tanzania: After a visit by an evangelist, Lukia Khalid, a Muslim mother of three and nearly seven months pregnant, converted to Christianity; she later said: "My husband asked me whether I had left Islam, to which I said 'Yes.' He threatened to kill me if I was to stay with him. I then decided to escape that night with my three children to a neighbor's house…. We left only with the clothes that we were wearing. The command was so urgent that we could not wait any longer. We had to leave immediately." Unable to pay school fees and supplies without her husband, the children have stopped attending school.
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse of Non-Muslims as Third-Class "Citizens," or Dhimmis]
Iran: A new report, based on interviews with 31 Christians and produced by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, has found "that the authorities consistently treat standard Christian practices, such as being a member of a house church or attending a Christian conference, as criminal acts. Although the Iranian government claims to respect the rights of its recognised religious minorities, it does not do so in practice. The report found that Christian converts and members of unregistered churches are denied the right freely to practise their faith, and that they face violations of their right to life through extrajudicial killings and even execution for apostasy (though only one Christian convert is known to have been executed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution)."
Pakistan: According to the Morning Star News, "Incited by calls from mosque loudspeakers after a dispute between Muslim and Christian youths, which started when Muslims told Christians not to play music [ forbidden in Islam] a Muslim mob attacked a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala today, injuring at least five Christians and damaging a church and dozens of shops and vehicles…. A resident of Francis Colony, where 2,000 Christian families have settled in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority country, said police bias was evident in today's attack. 'The police was doing what it does best – nothing!' said Asif Barkat, who received minor injuries as he and other Christians tried to defend themselves. 'Their bias towards Christians is quite evident, because when the Muslims were raiding our church and property, they just watched, but when we confronted them, they started hitting us with batons and used live ammunition to deter us.'" Separately, two unidentified men tried by force to stop the car of the president of All Pakistan Minorities, Saleem Khursheed Khobar, a Christian, and when that failed, opened fire on him. As with other Christian human rights activists who have been assassinated in Pakistan, Khobar is being hounded for vocally representing the nation's downtrodden religious minorities: "I am being threatened and have gone into hiding to protect myself," he said from an undisclosed location. "Law enforcement agencies know that I am being followed. My whole family is under threat but the government doesn't care."
Syria: Christians continued to be targeted by Islamic rebels, especially for kidnapping. Among those abducted were two bishops, Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Bishop Paul Yazigi. An armed group of Chechen jihadis stopped their car, killed the driver, and took the two bishops hostage. Meanwhile, thousands of Christians continued to flee Syria. In in one instance, 500 crossed the border into Turkey, where church officials are considering building a "tent city" to house the refugees. Adds AINA: "Assyrians and other Christians in Syria have been disproportionately affected by the war, and have been targeted by the Muslims rebels. The Muslim Jihadists have kidnapped Assyrians for ransom, attacked places of worship and created a climate of fear, forcing many Assyrians to abandon their homes and villages and seek safety in Turkey."
Turkey: Erdal Dogan, a human rights defender, who played an important role in the trial of the 2007 Malatya massacre, against thoseMuslims who tortured and slaughtered three Christian men working in a Bible publishing house, "remained in life danger Friday, April 12, after receiving death threats," including from the defendants, one of whom threatened him during a hearing.
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like dhimmis, or second-class, "tolerated" citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, 2013). A Middle East and Islam expert, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics: Anti-Christianism | Raymond IbrahimThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
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