Islamic Violence | OrthodoxNet.com Blog

The Silence of the Pulpits

August 19, 2012

Christian persecution, loss of religious liberty by Bill Warner -
If you are even slightly awake about the world news today, it is no surprise that Christians are being killed, raped, and brutalized throughout the Islamic world. However, there is a place where you can go to escape the dreadful and relentless details of Christian annihilation by Islam. You can just go to church.

For example, Christians were killed this week in Nigeria. Nothing out of the ordinary — indeed, in the world of Christian persecution, this is routine.

And so the response found in nearly every church to the murder of Christians is…wait for it…complete silence. Not a mention or reference to it, or to the brutality against Christians that happens almost every day in the Islamic world.

This is not a passive silence, because if you try to change it, you will fail. The silence is an active, working conspiracy that goes throughout nearly all of Christendom. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Islamic violence, Islamo-Fascism

Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan

October 17, 2011

Afghanistan Christian Churches Destroyed by Edwin Mora -
There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan’s new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Intolerance, Islamic violence, Islamo-Fascism

The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East

August 7, 2011

Egyptian Coptic Church on Fire

by Cheryl Halpern -
The terrible violence in Oslo last month has brought the world’s attention to the ravings of a madman and a murderer — someone who was motivated to kill fellow Christians because he feels they had acquiesced to a takeover by Islam.

Our revulsion is appropriate — this was the killing of innocent people in the name of religious and political hatred. However, when the roles are reversed, and Christians are in the minority and Muslims in the majority, are we equally upset by murder, intimidation and religious hatred?

Sadly, we don’t appear to be. The world is standing silent as Christians living in Muslim-majority lands are killed, and their killers are venerated.

Today, Christians, regardless of affiliation, are being systematically harassed, persecuted, and murdered throughout the Middle East, the region of the globe from which Christianity first emerged. Churches have been bombed and those attending Christian services have been killed. Christian homes have been ransacked and cemeteries have been destroyed. Converts from Islam to Christianity are considered apostates and subject to severe punishment. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Islamic violence, Orthodox Christianity, Terrorism

Why We Have Enemies

July 12, 2011

by Jason Bradley -
Contemporary Western thought and postmodern relativism compel us to explore our place in the world vis-à-vis other civilizations. The West’s legacy of reasoning is based heavily on thinkers such as Aristotle. The foundation he created implores us to consciously define and pursue an objective method to acquire knowledge. Where his philosophy was limited other thinkers came around and expanded this school of thought by use of Aristotle’s scientific epistemology. In other words, though his practice failed in some areas, his philosophical principles were sound in their fundamentals for the continuance in what we call Western thought.

It is on this foundation that we now seek the abstract and superimpose it over the idea of applied reality. Today’s thinkers exclude specific objects and dismiss concrete reality. Such is the case in when modern intellectuals study the question, “Why Do They Hate Us?” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Islamic violence, Islamo-Fascism, Philosophy

Blood of the Martyrs: Christian Man Tortured, Beheaded in Iraq

May 24, 2011

Iraqi Christians Persecuted and Murdered by Deacon Keith Fournier -
Last Friday, a 29 year old Christian husband and father of three children was kidnapped by Islamic militants in Iraq. A ransom of the equivalent of $100,000 US was demanded.

On Monday, May 16, 2011, his mutilated body, showing signs of extreme torture was found by a bridge. His head had been severed and his eyes had been gouged out.

The heroic Archbishop of Kirkuk, Louis Sako, praised the heroism of this Christian man and the continuing strength and faith of the Christian community in Iraq.

He strongly condemned the evil noting the growing hostility toward Christians in Iraq, “In all these years, I have never heard of a single Christian converting to Islam, despite the many threats.”

He indicated that many Muslims regularly seek to convert to the Christian faith but noted “I am not allowed to baptize them. There is no religious freedom!” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Christianity, Islam, Islamic violence, Terrorism

Egyptian Christians Are ‘Under Organised Attack’ from Muslims

May 12, 2011

Coptic Church burned by Muslims by Richard Spencer -

A priest whose church was at the centre of sectarian riots at the weekend has said Egyptian Christians were “under organised attack” as religious authorities warned the country was at risk of civil war.

Armed troops and riot police guarded the streets around St Mena’s church and nearby burned-out shops and apartment blocks in the impoverished, crumbling Cairo suburb of Imbaba.

Inside, Father Cherubim Awad said a conspiracy was the only possible explanation for the violence that had engulfed relations between Christians and Muslims in recent weeks.

“Five churches were attacked on the same night,” he said. “From the beginning of this year we have had all these attacks in a short space of time.

“There is some hidden hand behind this, whether from inside the country or outside it.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Coptic Orthodox Church, Islamic violence, Islamo-Fascism, Terrorism

Christophobia in the Muslim World

May 11, 2011

Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church - Embaba, Giza

by John Eibner -

Last weekend’s scenes of anti-Christian mob violence in Cairo, against a background of churches in flames, is a powerful reminder of a grim reality: Non-Muslim communities have become endangered species throughout much of the Islamic world.

Some statesmen have begun to acknowledge the existential crisis facing non-Muslims. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Amine Gemayel warned earlier this year that Islamic extremists are waging a war of “genocide,’’ while French President Nicolas Sarkozy now refers to the region’s Christians as the victims of “a perverse program of … religious cleansing.’’

The most sensational acts of anti-Christian terror command headlines — for a moment. Such was the case when 41 worshippers at Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church were held hostage and then massacred by Islamic extremists last October, and 23 Egyptian Christians in Alexandria were killed by a bomb blast as they left mass early this year.

Pakistan’s only Christian Cabinet member, Shahbaz Bhatti — the minister for minority affairs — was shot dead in March. He was a critic of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Coptic Orthodox Church, Islamic violence, Islamo-Fascism, Terrorism

Why Don’t Christians Help … Christians?

April 19, 2011

Dennis Prager

by Dennis Prager –

In 1969, at the age of 21, I was sent to the Soviet Union. I was a young American Jew who spoke Hebrew and Russian and who practiced Judaism. My task was to bring Jewish religious items into the Soviet Union and the names of Jews who wished to leave the Soviet Union out of that country. Upon returning to the United States, I became the national spokesman for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, one of the most effective organizations for Soviet Jews in the world.

As such, I spoke before synagogues of every denomination, Hadassah groups, Jewish federations, Jewish groups on college campuses. If there was a Jewish organization, it cared about the plight of Soviet Jews. For decades, virtually every synagogue in America had a “Save Soviet Jewry” sign in front of it.

Over time, the plight of the Soviet Jews awakened me to the plight of all Soviet dissidents, whether secular ones — such as that great man, the physicist Andrei Sakharov — or Christian. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Defense of Innocence, Human rights, Islamic violence, Leftist Tyranny

I Am In Awe of Such Faith

February 15, 2011

by Matthew Archbold -
An Afghanistan Christian and father of six, is imprisoned and scheduled to die. His crime? He believes Christ is his Savior. And he is scheduled to die because of it. No defense lawyer will take his case for fear of retribution. And he has been told that if he renounces Christ things would go easier. But he doesn’t. He won’t.

Said Musa, who lost his leg from a landmine in the 1990’s and has worked since then as a medical worker for the Red Cross fitting children with prosthetics, has been in jail for eight months. According to a public letter written by him and addressed to our President and the world community, he has been brutally tortured and abused in every way possible, both by guards and inmates.

As of yet the media and the world seem to have taken little notice of Said Musa. There are currently less than 100 mentions of Musa in the news and most of them are not considered part of the mainstream media, other than the Wall Street Journal. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Defense of Innocence, Islamic violence, Persecution

Running for Their Lives, Christians in the Middle East

January 21, 2011

Chuck Colson

by Chuck Colson -

“As the last of Baghdad’s and Mosul’s Christian population packs up their cares and flees for their lives,” writes international religious freedom expert Nina Shea, people are finally taking notice.

Before the Iraq War began, Christians comprised about five percent of the population of Iraq. Since then more than half have fled the country. And with last fall’s Islamic terrorist raid on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad that left fifty-nine dead, many who are still there are planning to run for their lives as well.

The New York Times reported that an Iraqi army officer told a Christian living in hiding, “We cannot protect you.” “Cannot”? Or “will not”?

What is especially disturbing is that what is happening in Iraq is beginning to happen across the Middle East. And the implications for Middle Eastern Christians and the strategic interests of the United States and the West could not be more serious. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Islamic violence

Prominent Coptic Editor in Egypt: ‘I Accuse!’

January 4, 2011

by James Lewis – On January 1, 2011, a hugely important terror attack took place in Egypt that you probably were not told about. A terrorist bomb went off at the al-Qiddissin (Saints) Church in Alexandria, Egypt, killing innocent civilians in the usual ruthless and bloodthirsty manner. The Western media hardly noticed, but the shock waves rippled through the Muslim and Christian Orthodox world.

The Coptic Church in Egypt traces its origins back to the Apostle Mark in A.D. 42. It is one of the earliest churches with a continuous history from the beginnings of Christianity, which rose several centuries before Mohammed and Islam. In Egypt, the Coptic Church has survived as a symbol of coexistence between the major institutions of Christianity and Islam. The Coptic Church is identified not only with Egypt as a country, but also with the other Orthodox Churches, including the Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, and Russian Churches. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Coptic Orthodox Church, Islam, Islamic violence, Leftist Hypocrisy, Terrorism

The Murderers of Christianity

November 9, 2010

11/9/2010 – Patrick J. Buchanan -

Sunday, on the eve of All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, 2010, the faithful gathered at the Assyrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad.

As Father Wassim Sabih finished the mass, eight al-Qaida stormed in, began shooting and forced him to the floor. As the priest pleaded that his parishioners be spared, they executed him and began their mission of mass murder.

When security forces broke in, the killers threw grenades to finish off the surviving Christians and detonated explosive-laden vests to kill the police. The toll was 46 parishioners and two priests killed, 78 others wounded, many in critical condition after losing limbs.

Within 48 hours, al-Qaida in Mesopotamia issued a bulletin: “All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the (holy warriors).” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian Persecution, Islamic violence, Islamo-Fascism, Terrorism

Sharia Degradation of Women

September 13, 2010

9/13/2010 – Eileen F. Toplansky –
The unremitting degradation of women in most of the Mideast, Africa, and other parts of Asia where Islamic law plays a huge role is horrifying and appalling. Islamic law endorses slavery, demands executions for apostasy, and condones the repression of women.

The debasement of women plays a critical role among Palestinian women, where little girls live under a death threat of honor killing. The male sexual abuse of female children is quite pervasive [Read more...]

Filed Under: Islam, Islamic violence, Moral issues

Tribute to Innocent Victims of 9/11 – Never Forget 2010

September 11, 2010

Never forget! Always Remember! May God bless all those innocent souls who lost their lives at the hand of absolute evil.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: American history, Defense of Innocence, Islamic violence, Terrorism, Videos

The Left’s Unlikely Alliance with Islam

August 28, 2010

8/28/2010 – Robert Eugene Simmons Jr. -

As we look around the world at the countries that practice Islam as a state religion, it is almost incomprehensible that the left should defend Islam so fervently. We don’t have to look to the radicals in the Taliban or Hamas to see issues that most Americans would question. Sharia Law is practiced by most Islamic centric countries, and it is in almost direct opposition to the principles on which America was established and in direct contrast to the agenda of the left in America. What is important to realize is that Sharia Law isn’t an outlier, practiced by radicals like al-Qaeda, but actually the mainstream core of jurisprudence in the Islamic world.

The application of Sharia Law is incomprehensible to most Americans used to Western common law. For example, late last year, the Saudi equivalent of the Supreme Court refused to grant a divorce to an eight-year-old who was essentially sold to her fifty-year-old husband by her father. Child brides are prevalent and legal in Muslim countries governed by Sharia law. In another example, just recently, a case of a couple who were stoned to death for having sexual relations outside marriage made the news from Afghanistan, and a thirteen-year-old was stoned to death for being raped and ending up pregnant. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture war, Islam, Islamic violence, Leftism, Leftist Tyranny, Persecution, Terrorism Apologist