Prayers for the Persecuted Church--1/20/2012

1/18/12 Sudan (CDN) Sudan Threatens to Arrest Church Leaders - Sudan's Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources said. THe warning in a January 3 letter to church leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) arrived a few days after Sudan President Omar al-Bashir told cheering crowds on January 3 that, following the secession of the largely non-Islamic South Sudan last July, the country's constitution will be more deeply entrenched in Sharia Law. "We will take legal procedures against pastors who are involved in preaching or evangelistic activities," Hamid Yousif Adam, undersecretary of the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment, wrote to the church leaders. "We have all legal rights to take them to court." Sources said the order was aimed at oppressing Christians amid growing hostilities toward Christianity. Full Story Pray for both North and South Sudan who have been plagued by anti-Christian hostility and persecution. Pray that the new government in North Sudan will not oppress and persecute the church now that the South has seceded. Pray for the remaining church in pro-Islamic North Sudan that they will remain strong and faithful to Christ. Pray for the new leaders in North Sudan, that they might be convicted and changed by God and know Christ as their Lord.

1/18/12 Nigeria (ICC) Religious Cleansing Happening in Nigeria - With more than 80 Christians killed by radical Muslims since Christmas, a Nigerian church leader believes that Islamists are carrying out religious cleansing against Christians in Northern Nigeria. In an exclusive interview with ICC, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, called upon Nigerian Christians to defend themselves from the ongoing problem. The Christian leader decried the Nigerian government's failure to protect Christians from the killings and accused some security agents of taking sides. He said, "The security agencies are polarized along religious lines. Even when the security agents have information (concerning security measures to be taken against Boko Haram), some of them pass the information to these criminals. This is because some of the security agents are more loyal to their religion (Islam) than to Nigeria as a nation." In a disturbing development, the violence has also spread to southern Nigeria where Muslims and their places of worship have been attacked in apparent retaliation for the killing of Christians in Northern Nigeria. According to a report by BBC, a mosque and an Islamic school were burned down in the Southern Nigerian city of Benin on January 10. Five people were killed and six were injured in the violence in the city.  Full Story Pray that the violence in Nigeria, towards Christians and Muslims, subsides and peace resumes. Pray that the Christian population does not retaliate to the violence, but rather displays love toward their enemies. Pray for the Muslims who are determined to wipe out the Christian population in Nigeria. Pray for the victims and their families, that they may be faithful witnesses to Christ and that they may be comforted during this persecution.

1/18/12 United Kingdom (TheChristianInstitute) Use of Sharia 'Courts' Increasing in UK - The use of Sharia 'courts' is on the increase in Britain with thousands using Islamic law to settle disputes, according to the BBC. The news comes as a leading barrister claims that Sharia Law is compatible with human rights and beneficial to communities. However, critics say the courts discriminate against women and should not operate as a parallel legal system. A bill has been brought before the House of Lords by Christian humanitarian, Baroness Cox, to curb the growth of Sharia courts. Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad, a representative of the Islamic Sharia Council at Leyton, told BBC Asian Network that his caseload at the east London council had "easily more than tripled" over the past three to five years - dealing with up to 300 disputes a month. Sharia opponents believe the law discriminates against women as well as rulings falsely claiming legal jurisdiction over criminal and family law. In 2009, think-tank Civitas reported than an estimated 85 Sharia councils could be operating in Britain. Full Story Pray for this disturbing trend to cease in the UK, as it has enormous implications for the future of the European country's legal system. Pray that the church and those representatives in the government who oppose the implementation of Sharia law will continue to fight its use as a parallel legal system. Pray for the church in the UK, who, in recent months, has been faced with its own oppression.

1/18/12 Pakistan (CatholicCulture) 2,000 Protest Government's Demolition of Church Buildings - Two thousand Pakistani Christians, including Auxilary Bishop Sebastian Shah of Lahore, priests, and Protestant leaders, protested the Punjabi government's decision to confiscate Church land and demolish the charitable and educational institutions located on it. "We shall continue protesting until the government returns all the land it took and pays for the losses," said Father Morris Jalal. "We do not fear anyone and will fight for our rights."  Full Story Pray for Pakistan, as the oppression of Christians continues in various forms. Pray for the government. Since implementing blasphemy laws, Christians have been a target of frequent legal oppression and even the death penalty for speaking positively about Jesus Christ or negatively about Mohammed. Pray for the success of these protests, so that the land and buildings can be rebuilt and provide a place for education and worship in Pakistan. Please pray that these protests remain peaceful and loving despite their opposition to the governments actions.

1/16/12 Iran (ACLJ) Under Increased Pressure, Pastor Youcef Refuses to Recant Faith - Iran is continuing its relentless attempt to force persecuted Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani to recant his faith in Jesus Christ. New reports state that Iranian officials are still pressuring the pastor, who has been sentenced to death for his Christian faith, "to renounce his faith in Christ and accept the prophet Muhammad as his savior." Pastor Youcef once again refused, remaining steadfast in his faith. Remember, Iran previously demanded on at least three separate occasions that Pastor Youcef recant his faith and convert to Islam at his latest trial, to which he replied, "I cannot". The Iranian court tasked with making a final determination about Pastor Youcef's fate has ignored its own promise to make its determination over a month ago. Iran's move to further delay a determination regarding Pastor Youcef not only violates international law; it violates Iranian law as well. Full Story Pray for Pastor Youcef. Give thanks to God for his steadfast faith in Jesus and pray for his faith to remain strong. Pray for those eyes who are watching Pastor Youcef, that they might see and wonder who this God is that he would lay down his life for before he denies Him. Pray for Iran, as the church there is exploding and many more pastors and believers may face pressures similar to Pastor Youcef's.

1/14/12 North Korea (Crosswalk) Seven Underground Churches Raided in North Korea- The underground church has faced increased persecution in North Korea since the unexpected death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on December 17th. "Three weeks ago seven underground churches got exposed," says Thomas Kim, executive director of Cornerstone Ministries. "It's been very difficult for the last month and I think it's going to continue," he says. The North Korean leadership apparently fears the kind of insurrection that swept other communist regimes and is now sweeping through the Middle East. "They are scared there will be an uprising," Kim notes. "They are scared by the expansion of the Christian faith because Christians will die for their faith." "Now the regime is putting out many people to search for the underground church. There is a need to pray for protection," Kim said.  Full Story Pray that this change in leadership may result in eased pressure upon the North Korean church. Pray for the leaders of North Korea, that they may see the love of Christ in these Christians. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing some of the most intense persecution in the world. Pray for their faith to be strengthened and that they would remain faithful to Christ. Giving Made Easier! ICC Offers the Ability to Automate Your Monthly Gift!   You can sign up to be a monthly supporter of the persecuted through a monthly credit card transfer via our website. Your automated recurring gift will help us plan, build, and serve the persecuted with greater confidence. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to serve our persecuted brothers and sisters. You can sign up for recurring gifts or make a secure online donation by clicking here. Thank you for caring and praying for the persecuted.   2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW #941 Washington, D.C. 20006-1846 Web: persecution.org Phone: USA 1-800-422-5441       Email: icc@persecution.org

Deep thoughts, from a Muslim cleric

So, you think Islam is pretty okey-dokey? You think that the fanatical Muslims--the ones who strap bombs to themselves and blow up and kill and maim people--are just a secluded bunch of whackos over there in the desert far, far away?

Think again.

Read this article from the UK Sun (via Voice of the Martyrs). Go ahead. Read it. Then come back and tell me why wew should cater to these people, why we should consider these people to be ones we can "reason" and "negotiate" with:

A FANATICAL Pakistani cleric told The Sun yesterday of his chilling dream to turn the world Muslim – by force if necessary.

Qari Hifzur Rehamn, 60, spoke openly of imposing Islamic law’s stoning and beheading on Britain – as Pakistan was rocked by unrest over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

He warned: “We want Islamic law for all Pakistan and then the world.

“We would like to do this by preaching. But if not then we would use force.”

Rehamn, 60, spoke in the Pakistani town of Kahuta as the call to prayer echoed over the dusty streets.

He is Imam of the town’s fundamentalist religious school or madrassa, where classes for kids as young as nine include Jihad or Holy War and barbaric punishments.

His teachings are frightening enough. But his mosque lies in the shadow of the secret bunker where Pakistan produces nuclear weapons.

And when asked if it would be right to nuke British infidels, he laughed and answered: “Probably.”

Army

Rehamn, in a flowing grey beard and turban, explained Islamic, or Sharia Law as we sat surrounded by some of his 250 students.

He said: “Adulterers who are married should be buried in earth to the waist and stoned to death.

“Homosexuals must be killed – it’s the only way to stop them spreading. It should be by beheading or stoning, which the general public can do.

“Thieves should have their hands cut off. Women should remain indoors and films and pop music should be banned.”

So what does he think of Britain? The dad insisted: “The nonbelievers must be converted to Islam. Morals in your society, with women wearing revealing clothes, have gone wrong.”

The spot where enriched uranium is produced for Pakistan’s 80 to 120 nuclear warheads is behind razor wire less than five miles from where we spoke.

A dummy missile even sits in a children’s playground in Kahuta.

Only this month, doomed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto raised the spectre of al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants seizing control of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads – and activity by radicals near Kahuta.

Despite the efforts of politicians such as her to champion democracy, the country has long been a hotbed of Islamic extremism and there is no shortage of potential martyrs.

At the Red Mosque in the heart of the capital Islamabad, Maulana Mohavya Irshad, 24, stared coldly at me. He said: “I’m ready to become a suicide bomber and lay down my life for Islam. Democracy is wrong. Earth belongs to God and God’s law must be implemented.

“I hope Britain and the rest of the world will have Sharia Law this century. We will continue to sacrifice our lives to achieve this.”

Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda warlord accused of masterminding the death of Ms Bhutto, 54, has warned his 13,000-strong private army will fight to the death against any troops sent to seize him.

Long-bearded Baitullah Mehsud, holed up in the bandit country of South Waziristan on the Afghan border, denied being behind Bhutto’s murder last Thursday in a suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

But his cousin Shehryar Mehsud, 34, told The Sun: “Baitullah and the rest of us will fight to the last man.

Our army of thousands of Muslim brothers is ready for Jihad against the infidels and against the infidel government in Pakistan.

“UK and America are the enemy number one of Islam. We have joined the Taliban troops fighting in Afghanistan and will continue Jihad until we liberate the country.”

The Pakistani government claims a phone-tap caught Mehsud, 34, and a cleric gloating over Bhutto’s death, calling it “spectacular”.

His cousin insisted: “Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in the killing of Western ally Benazir Bhutto.


Fight

“We did not kill her but she was against Islam and Islamic teachings.”

Another of his clan, Mohamad Ali Mehsud, 26, bragged to The Sun about Mehsud striking from his lair in Pakistan against British and US forces in Afghanistan.

Mohamad said: “Baitullah is cunning. He moves positions all the time and uses disguises. Many times he has survived by a whisker.

“His men cross into Afghanistan, fight infidel soldiers and steal laptops, mobile phones and money. They bribe the soldiers guarding the border to get back into Pakistan.”

But did Mehsud kill Bhutto? Mohamad said: “Baitullah didn’t like Bhutto’s lipstick and Western ways. But he didn’t kill her. He only kills men.”

More Islamic barbarism

Take a look at Islam. This is what it is, always has been, always will be. The same people who would not want a Baptist minister to be president will roll over for Islamofascists, and trip over themselves to be more accomodating to Muslims.

Um, folks, do you really want Sharia Law in this country? Go over to Jammie Wearing Fool--to this post, and this one too--and you tell me if you want some crazy Mullah in charge here. But hey, it's a religion of peace, right?

And here--here's an extra special picture of the day for ya. The caption is correct.

This sobering image, showing a 40-year-old groom sitting beside his 11-year-old future bride in Afghanistan, brought Stephanie Sinclair top honors in the annual Photo of the Year contest sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).


Join the Christians Against Leftist Heresy blogroll sponsored by Faultline USA

Stop the terrorist memorial blogburst (12/12/07)

From Cao's Blog:

-------------------------

Kevin Jaques: U.S. response to 9/11 should conform to sharia law

Dr. Three Mosqueteers. Of the three academics who are helping architect Paul Murdoch to plant a terrorist memorial mosque on the Flight 93 crash site, Jaques was most central to the Park Service's fraudulent internal investigation.

He has also left a revealing paper trail. Shortly after 9/11, Indiana University School of Law sponsored a forum on the likely legal fallout from the attacks: consequences for immigration law, civil rights, etcetera. As the university's resident expert on Islamic (sharia) law, Jaques was invited to say something about our looming engagement with the Islamic world and their systems of law.

He chose to write a prescriptive article, urging the United States to frame its response in conformity with traditional sharia requirements:

In formulating an American response to the acts of terror, it is necessary to define them according to the provisions of Islamic law.

Whitewashing sharia

Jaques makes the basic arguments for submission that any anti-war multiculturalist might make. He offers and appeasement pitch:

If the United States wishes to approach the fight against terrorism to limit future revivalist terror groups from forming and attacking American citizens and interests, it will be necessary to craft a response that conforms to the realities of Islamic law.

And he offers a when-in-Rome pitch:

Muslim religious leaders think of the world in legal terms and will react to U.S. policies according to how these policies conflict or adhere to Islamic legal principles.

Of course we should avoid gratuitous offense, when in Rome (just as we should practice it as a pastime at home). But should we really submit to sharia law?

Nowhere does Jaques even acknowledge that world-wide submission to sharia law is the ultimate goal of the 9/11 terrorists. That is a pretty glaring omission for someone who is advocating adherence to sharia law, but Jaques does more than just elide the point. He actively misleads, going to great lengths to pretend that the terrorists reject the whole idea of sharia law:

[R]evivalist movements around the Islamic world are articulating new and exciting systems of legal interpretation that, in real terms, are similar to traditional legal norms. Only the violent fringe--approximately 1 percent to 2 percent of Muslims worldwide--would disparage any discussion of Islamic law as being reflective of the kinds of non-Islamic ideas that they claim have contaminated Islam since the very first centuries of Islamic history.

Talk about a whitewash! To paint sharia as benign, Jaques pretends that the "violent fringe" is opposed to it, and this is no offhand comment. The whole first third of Jaques' discussion is spent setting up this punch line.


Qutb did you say?

Jaques begins by describing how Islamic jurisprudence has historically proceeded by working out consensus views of the meaning of "texts of revelation": the Koran and the sunnah (Muhammad's biography). He then discusses the trend toward "revivalism," starting in the 14th century, which sought to purify Islamic jurisprudence by purging all influences other than Koran and biography.

The modern phase of this revivalism is the work of Wahhab and Qutb, the sources of today's bin Laden-ist doctrines of maximally aggressive conquest. Wahhab dismissed the requirement for consensus, insisting that anyone can read the Koran for themselves, and Qutb carried this innovation in a particularly violent direction:

Qutb advocated a radicalized form of Wahhabi extremism as the only means of driving foreign (meaning U.S. and Israeli) influences out of the Islamic world. His writings have become the basic texts of contemporary violent fringe movements around the Islamic world.

Jaques identifies the "violent fringe" with Qutb while claiming that the violent fringe "disparage[s] any discussion of Islamic law." But Qutb did not shun sharia law. Just the opposite. He declared that any Muslim ruler who failed to impose sharia should be killed as an apostate.

This is detailed in Lawrence Wright's book excerpt last year:

Sayyid Qutb had pointed the way by declaring that a leader who does not impose Sharia on the country must be an apostate. There is a well known saying of the Prophet that the blood of Muslims cannot be shed except in three instances: as punishment for murder, or for marital infidelity, or for turning away from Islam. The pious Anwar Sadat was the first modern victim of the reverse logic of takfir.

Jaques takes the 20th century's foremost advocate for imposing sharia by violent means across the entire globe and suggests that he and his followers "would disparage any discussion of Islamic law."


Whitewashing Wahhabism

Pretending that the violent fringe spurns sharia allows Jaques to whitewash, not just sharia, but also the mainstream revivalist movements that, as Jaques acknowledges, fully embrace sharia:

... revivalist movements around the Islamic world are articulating new and exciting systems of legal interpretation that, in real terms, are similar to traditional legal norms.

The mainstream of revivalism is Saudi Wahhabism, the state sponsored doctrine of violent aggressive conquest whose "fringe" elements attacked us on 9/11. As Jaques notes, these revivalists are thoroughly traditional in their interpretations of sharia law. All of them look backwards to the purity of 7th century Islam. Not much "new" there, however "exciting" to a person of Jaques' evident sympathies.

Doctrinally, there is no gap between the "violent fringe" of bin Ladenists and the larger Wahhabi sect that spawned them. At most there are questions about whether bin Laden has been a good general, whose strategies effectively serve the Wahhabi goal of world domination. Mainstream Wahhabism completely embraces all of bin Laden's objectives.


Honest about one thing: how sharia limits infidel responses

When he turns to the question of how we could frame a military response that is consistent with sharia law, Jaques takes the subject seriously, and is commendably forthright, acknowledging sharia as the law of Islamic conquest:

The laws of war that developed in the earliest periods divide the world into two halves, dar al-Islam, or the "land of submission" and dar al-harb, the "land of war." Dar al-Islam refers to any territory that is under the control of Muslims and thus forms an Islamic commonwealth. Legal texts imply that the term is meant to denote a political designation of submission to Muslim political authority. … All areas outside of Muslim political authority are considered to be in a potential state of war with the Muslim state. All relations between the areas of submission and the areas of war are regulated by the concept of jihad an obligatory "struggle" against non-believers who are not already under Muslim rule.

Any cessation in hostilities is purely strategic, until Muslims can get back to a position of strength from which to continue to fight:

The law outlines, in most cases, rules for the cessation of struggle (hudnah) when it is deemed by the Imam or his surrogates that it is to the advantage of the Muslims to do so, or out of a need due to Muslim weakness. In cases where Muslims simply seek some advantage in the cessation of hostilities, hudnah is limited to a period of four months. If the cessation of hostilities is due to Muslim weakness, hudnah can last for a period of up to 10 years.

Jaques also acknowledges that under Islamic law, infidels have no legal rights to fight back against Muslims at all:

reaction by the United States becomes problematic since the rebels are still defined as Muslim and the law expressly forbids non-Muslims from attacking Muslims in a Muslim land.

Yes, well, that is the problem with conforming to the law of Islamic supremacism. It's called "surrender."


Takfir squared, or Qutbed

So we must submit to Islamic law, says Jaques, yet according to Islamic law, we are not allowed to fight back. What to do? What to do?

Jaques, expert in the nuances of Islamic law, offers us a way out. We can embrace Qutb's innovation and declare the bin Ladenists apostates! (The strategy of takfir.) Then we would be allowed to kill them. But of course we have to get Muslim jurists to okay this first:

American responses to the attacks will be greatly assisted if Muslim jurists are willing to define the attacks as riddah (apostasy) and not as bughat (rebellion), or simple homicide (qatl). In the latter two categories, the perpetrators remain Muslim and any effort by non-Muslims to punish them will expressly violate provisions in Islamic law that prevents non-Muslims from killing Muslims. Only apostates may be killed by non-Muslims, and in some interpretations, Muslims may ask non-Muslims for assistance in bringing apostates to justice.

The only way Jaques is able to make this Qutbian strategy seem like a real possibility is through his earlier deception, pretending that the "violent fringe" is hostile to sharia law. Since there is not actually any doctrinal divide between the bin Ladenists and the traditional Islam, there is no way for traditional jurists to declare them apostates.

Jaques himself makes clear that the complaint about bin Laden from the point of view of traditional Islam is that he acted without consensus, and that he seems to be a bad general, engaging in acts that weaken rather than strengthen the Muslim position:

Defining the acts as contraventions of ijma would not hinge just on the enormity of the acts (simple murder contravenes ijma but is not defined as apostasy), but also on the idea that they endanger the Muslim community because of what they suggest about structures of legal authority. Encouraging others to commit suicide, claiming the right to declare jihad, to kill thousands (including many Muslims) and destroy billions of dollars of property without proper consent, and to risk the lives of Muslims due to Western military and economic retaliations challenges the authority of the community of jurists and of every principle of law that, by consensus, seeks to promote the welfare of the Muslim community.

But if bin Laden is just a bad general, acting without proper authority, how exactly is he supposed to be declared an apostate? Under sharia, the terror attacks might at most be viewed as rebellion (for which infidels have no recourse), but as Jaques notes, the demise of the caliphate makes it impossible even to establish bin Laden as a rebel. Who is he rebelling against?

Defining the acts as bughat [rebellion] is complicated by the fact that there is no universally recognized Muslim leader in any area of the Muslim world and has not been for more than 700 years. Many jurists argue that since this is the case, rules for bughat are not applicable today.

The bin Ladenists are trying to rectify this lack of a recognized Muslim leader by establishing a new caliphate. That hardly makes them apostates.

First Jaques pretends that the terrorists are hostile to sharia law. Then he pretends that sharia law is hostile to the terrorists. All the while neglecting to mention that the terrorists' explicit goal is world submission to sharia law. That is quite a concatenation of strategic deception (taqiyya).


Jaques was just as deceptive in his advice to the Memorial Project

That giant Mecca-oriented crescent that forms the centerpiece of the Flight 93 Memorial? Jaques admits that it is similar to the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built, but so what:

...just because something is 'similar to' something else does not make it the 'same'.

The half-mile wide crescent is much too big, says Jaques, to be recognized as the central feature of a mosque. After all, that would make it the world's biggest mosque by a factor of a hundred! What could be sillier? But Taqiyya very much for asking.

Jaques does not name his own religious beliefs, but it seems pretty clear that he must be a Muslim, and probably of the revivalist stripe (which he finds so "new and exciting"). Will he deny it, as Islam allows (Koran, verse 16:106)?

British teacher avoids lashing

The British teacher who was facing the prospect of receiving 40 lashes for **gasp** naming a teddy bear "Muhammed" has been convicted. However, somebody with a shred of common sense must have gotten through to these barbarians, since--thankfully--she only received 15 days in jail. (From London Times Online):

A British schoolteacher was behind bars in an overcrowded Sudanese prison last night after being convicted of inciting religious hatred for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Mohamed.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, escaped a sentence of 40 lashes after apologising to the court for any offence she had caused. But she began serving a 15-day sentence in a women’s prison where the regime is extremely harsh by Western standards.

Further into the article, you can read what a wonderful world this would be if we all submitted to Sharia Law. Religion of peace my foot.

Religion of peace at work in Sudan

The loving, caring, peaceful, merciful Muslims in Sudan heard that a teacher asked her students what to name their teddy bear. They voted on the name 'Muhammed', a common name to give a Muslim child. But, those who follow Merciful Allah thought otherwise, and have decided to reprimand her...with 40 lashes (From London Telegraph Online):

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested on Sunday for allowing her seven-year-old pupils to name the stuffed toy after Islam's holiest prophet, prompting complaints from several Muslim parents to the Ministry of Education.

She was charged with insulting religion and inciting hatred under article 125 of the Sudanese Criminal Code and if found guilty could face 40 lashes, six months in jail or a substantial fine.

The divorced mother-of-two from Liverpool is being held at Sudan's CID headquarters in Khartoum is expected to appear in court on Thursday.

Although Miss Gibbons has been visited twice by consular staff, there were concerns for her welfare after she was seen in a prison yard looking pale and scared.

Staff at Unity School where she had worked since August insisted she had made an "innocent mistake". But her teaching contract has been terminated and the school remains closed until further notice.

A spokesman for Gordon Brown said the Government was "surprised and disappointed" by the charge and said Mr Miliband's meeting with Omer Mohamed Ahmed Siddig was designed to "get a clear explanation for the rationale behind the charges and a sense of what the next steps might be".

Are we Christians outraged when the LORD our God and His Christ are mocked and ridiculed by those who blaspheme His name? Of course we are. Do we take them to court and try to get them whipped? Of course not!

Yet Islam is supposed to be the "religion of peace." Yeah, whatever.

"He paid his life for his faith, for his dignity, and the dignity of the Bible and Jesus Christ"

The owner of a Christian bookstore in Gaza has been murdered by Islamists because he was a Christian. From Yahoo News (h/t: Jawa Report):

The body of Rami Khader Ayyad, the 32-year-old director of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, bore a visible gunshot wound to the head, and an official at Gaza's Shifa Hospital said he was also stabbed numerous times. Ayyad had been missing since Saturday afternoon.

Ayyad regularly received anonymous death threats from angry people who accused him of missionary work, a rarity among Gaza's Christians. His store, which is associated with a Christian group called the Palestinian Bible Society, was firebombed in April.

"We feel Rami was killed for his Christian faith," said Simon Azazian, a spokesman at the Bible Society's head office in Jerusalem.

About 3,200 Christians live in Gaza among 1.4 million Muslims, and the Christian community has grown uneasy since Hamas routed forces of the secular Fatah movement and seized control of the coastal strip in June. During the takeover, vandals ransacked a Roman Catholic convent and an adjacent school, breaking crosses and smashing the face of a ceramic Jesus.

Ayyad had been increasingly worried about threats on his store, Azazian said.

On Friday, he noticed that he was being followed by a car with no license plates. Ayyad called his family Saturday afternoon to tell them he had been abducted but would be freed later in the evening, said Azazian. Police were notified, but his body was found the next morning.

Ayyad left two young children and a pregnant wife.

This is what we are up against. We are up against an enemy that will kill innocent men for the simple crime of being a Christian, and selling Christian books. And don't be so comfortable in your life that you think it can't happen here. Many in positions of power are eager to convince this country to bow down at the feet of Islam, rather than fight it.

Don't let anybody sell you that whole "Islam is a religion of peace" nonsense. The goal of Islam is for the whole world to bow to Allah. They will fight until "religion [is] only for Allah." (Sura 2:193). They will "then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)" (Sura 9:5). Because, according to the Hadith, "[A] martyr’s privileges are guaranteed by Allah; forgiveness with the first gush of his blood...he will be...[married] to seventy-two [virgins] and his intercession on the behalf of seventy of his relatives will be accepted." What better way to convince young men to kill and maim than to promise them eternal sex? Yet some people try to claim that this is the same God we Christians worship. Baloney!

More from the sick, twisted Howard Dean

Check out Jammie Wearing Fool. He has posted an article from the New York Slimes detailing Howard "YEEEAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!" Dean screaming at Islamists to go run for office, and make this country the caliphate they and their buddies in the Dhimmicratic Party want it to be.

The vision of Nancy Pelosi and Jimmy Carter

I posted yesterday (and updated today) about what this country will look like under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi's and Dhimmi Carter's buddies the Islamofascists. More from those zany moderate (**wink wink**) Muslims in the Iranian caliphate from Jawa Report. It ain't pretty:

His face covered by a balaclava, an official brandishing a cane repeatedly lashes the back of a man found guilty of breaking Iran's morality laws.

Two police officers hold the legs of 25-year-old Saeed Ghanbari and another his arms to ensure there is no escape from the punishment of 80 lashes handed down by a religious court.

Traffic was brought to a halt in Qazvin, 90 miles west of the capital Tehran, as more than 1,000 men gathered behind barricades to watch the public flogging...

...One police officer held his hands together beneath the bench, two others gripped his legs to ensure there was little movement.

Two police officers stood-by, their faces covered with balaclavas - each to administer 40 lashes.

Both men then lashed Ghanbari, taking the cane back behind their heads to guarantee maximum impact, each stroke leaving a distinctive red mark and bruising on his back.

Several wounds began to bleed.

It was unclear exactly what his offence had been as the country's strict morality laws cover many areas, but it was reported he had been convicted of abusing alcohol and having sex outside of marriage.

If you've seen "The Passion of the christ", think of that part where they first start to whip Jesus with the switches, and the Roman guard is counting off. That's what the guy's back looks like.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but for all you who think that it's Christianity that lives in the Dark Ages and is responsible for subjigating and repressing women, take a look at your future under Islamofascism.

But if these were Christians...

the American Communist Liberals Union would be all over it like white on rice (was that an ethnocentric remark? Oh well.) But, since these PUBLIC institutions are bending over backwards for Islamofascists, it's OK. Just a little heads-up folks: start saving up for your kid's graduation. You want it to be a special day when they walk down the aisle wearing their cap and gown burka (via Stop the ACLU):

“What (school officials) [at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA] are doing … is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now,” says Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, an advocacy group for Christians.

Advocates say the accommodations are legal.

“The whole issue is to provide for a religious foundation for those who are observant while respecting separation of church and state [notice he says, 'CHURCH and state', not 'MOSQUE and state'],” says Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles. Many schools accommodate the Christian and Jewish sabbaths and allow Jewish students to not take tests on religious holidays, he says [um, yeah. Schools close on the weekend. Besides, it's not as though pushing a test back a day imposes on everybody else.].

Barry Lynn, of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, says however that the law is murky on these expressions of faith. And the American Civil Liberties Union says overt religious symbols like crucifixes are not legal, but whether Muslim foot baths and prayer rugs fall into that category is not clear [In other words, they haven't quite figured out how to reconcile their hypocrisy and dhimmitude.].

[...]

The University of Michigan agreed to install foot baths after talks with the MSA, said Terry Gallagher, director of public relations at the campus. Some Muslims ritually wash their feet before praying five times a day.

Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank, sees the requests as part of a movement to force the public to acquiesce to Islamic law.

“The goal of Islamists is the application of Islamic law,” Pipes says.

In the San Diego case, a substitute teacher at Carver Elementary School alleged that teachers were indoctrinating students into Islam. The San Diego Unified School District determined that a teacher’s aide was wrong to lead Muslim students in prayer. Carver still has a special recess to allow 100 Muslim students to pray.

The ACLU, which has often sued schools for permitting prayer, says it is waiting to see what kind of policy the school settles on before deciding whether to sue. It says promoting prayers is unconstitutional.

“If you start carving out time in the school day that you would not do but for the need to let students pray, then it begins to look like what you’re trying to do is to assist religion,” says David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU in San Diego.

A person working for a publikk skrool can't wear a cross on a pendant, but we're going to make all these accomodations for Muslims. Welcome to Amerkistan.

UPDATE: No wonder George Mason is kowtowing to the Islamists. It's all about the money. If they don't acquiesce to the Islamists, how can they keep their campus open in the UAE?

Hey, let's be like Iran! NOT!!

Ya know, for all the grousing that many people do about Christians being "backwards", etc., they don't seem to have a lot to say about Islam. Um, folks, when was the last time you heard Dr. James Dobson call for an adulterer or adulteress to be stoned to death. What's that, you haven't? No, you haven't. Because we don't follow a book written by a guy under the influence of Satanic spirits while lurking in a cave. Like the Muslim clerics in Iran (via Gateway Pundit):

Mokarrameh Ebrahimi is a 43 year old woman and mother of an 11 year old who has spent the past 11 years in Choubin prison in Ghazvin after being sentenced to stoning. The father of the child has also been in prison for 11 years and is scheduled to be stoned with her.

According to the Meydaan, the official site of the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign, an informed source has verified the news and added that “the pits are dug and prepared in Behesht Zahra cemetery to implement the sentence.”

This source also added that the sentence has been issued solely based on the judge’s knowledge, and there have been no witnesses to the so called crime of adultery and having a child out of wedlock...

Ah, yes! The religion of peace! What a wonderful example of love and mercy for the rest of the world to follow! And we're supposed to believe that these people don't want to kill US?

Islam--empowering women since...

Well, maybe not so much. But, don't tell that to the liberals that seem to be fawning over the Religion of Murderous Terrorists Peace. Even when one of the liberals' own comes back from Saudi Arabia, having been humiliated by her experience having to wear the customary abaya, or full-length cloak women in Saudi Arabia are forced to wear. (via Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters):

The sleeves, the length of it, always felt foreign, at first. But it never took long to work its alchemy, to plant the insecurity. After a day or two, the notion of appearing without the robe felt shocking. Stripped of the layers of curve-smothering cloth, my ordinary clothes suddenly felt revealing, even garish. To me, the abaya implied that a woman's body is a distraction and an interruption, a thing that must be hidden from view lest it haul the society into vice and disarray. The simple act of wearing the robe implanted that self-consciousness by osmosis.

In the depths of the robe, my posture suffered. I'd draw myself in and bumble along like those adolescent girls who seem to think they can roll their breasts back into their bodies if they curve their spines far enough. That was why, it hit me one day, I always seemed to come back from Saudi Arabia with a backache.

The kingdom made me slouch.

Yes, it does that to women. But to hear the typical liberal tell it, it's Christianity that subjugates women, and makes them inferior. Yeah, right.

Iran--Hotbed of freedom

Thanks to the guys at Cox and Forkum and Global Defense Group, we can get a good look at the "freedoms" that women are entitled to in Tehran.

Islam--religion of peace. Eh, maybe not

The following seems to be the attitude of the Drive-by Media when it comes to Islam:

Nothing to see folks! We're not in the middle of a worldwide jihad led by militant Islamofascists. Don't look!! Keep moving!! Here, here's a headline about a celebrity. (Whew! That ought to divert their attention away from noticing that Muslims all around the world want to kill us!)

Via Hot Air:

About 500 Pakistani Christians in Charsadda, a town in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, received letters earlier this month telling them to close their churches and convert by Thursday or be the target of “bomb explosions.”

[...]

More than 3,000 policemen are on guard in about 1,000 government schools in Thailand’s Muslim south as the new school year begins on Wednesday. Seen as a symbol of “Buddhist” Bangkok, the schools - and the teachers - have been the preferred targets of the Islamic rebels fighting for independence of the Muslim majority southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani.

[...]

Tell me again how Christianity "subjugates" women?

Over at LaShawn Barber's Corner, she has a post about a Western feminist who married a Muslim, moved with him to Afghanistan, and had a fairy-tale marriage. Not.

My second question to Chesler is why in god’s name she even thought about moving to a backward Muslim country, let alone actually doing it? The most likely explanation is that she, like so many liberal westerners, bought the insipid multicultural all-cultures-are-equally-valid line. Strangely enough, these same people tend to hold Islam and other religions in higher esteem than they do Christianity, a religion that played and continues to play a huge role in the fact that even Christianity’s harshest critics can denigrate the faith without worrying about having their heads chopped off!

Islam is a religion of peace. As long as the wife doesn't do anything to anger her loving husband, there will be peace in their household. If not, well, that's what the scimitar is for. You know, it really galls me when I read about liberals (outside and inside the church) who try to say that "Christianity was invented to deal with all the other religions that honored women", blah blah blah.

I guess I must be reading the wrong Bible. In the one I have, Paul commands husbands to "love [their] wife as Christ loved that church..." (Ephesians 5:25), and that husands are to treat their wives with honor, as a delicate vessel (1st Peter 3:7). But it must be that "love" and "honor" stuff that keeps their bare feet chained to the stove, while Muslim wives enjoy all the freedom they could ever want or need. Oy!