Monday, June 15, 2015

Muslim persecution of Christians worsens in Palestinian territories, Israel



Muslim persecution of Christians worsens in Palestinian territories, Israel


Christians fear ISIS influence is expanding. Mob violence against Christians, anti-Christian billboards and graffiti, and jihadist rhetoric have Christians concerned: “Feeling afraid. Feeling cornered. Feeling, ‘Maybe this is not my place. Maybe I just need to get out of here. I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t trust them anymore.’”
Just as in Egypt, imams in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel and the Palestinian territories are whipping up the Muslim faithful with sermons like this:
“When you face a polytheist enemy [i.e. a Christian who worships the Holy Trinity], you should give him three options – they must convert to Islam, or pay the jizya [tax on non-Muslims], or else you should seek the help of Allah and fight them. You should fight them even if they do not fight you.” (Sheikh Issam Ameera, imam at Al-Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem)
Christians Suspect Islamic State Influencing Muslims in Palestinian Territories, Israel — Increased radicalization seen in attacks, rhetoric,” Morningstar News, June 11, 2015:

Billboard in Nazareth issues Islamic threat to Christians.
ISTANBULTurkey (Morning Star News) – After months of Islamic State (IS) committing horrific violence in the Middle East and North Africa, Palestinian Christians say a large number of Muslims in the Palestinian Territories and Israel have become “radicalized” and are much more aggressive toward them.
Anti-Christian hostility boiling under the surface for years has come into plain view in the past few months in the form of physical attacks, incendiary religious speeches and inflammatory billboards, they said.
Palestinian Christian leaders said not all Muslims in the Territories and Israel have become extremists, and elders within the Muslim community are trying to dampen the effects of extremist ideology, but enough Palestinians have become radicalized that many Christians feel unsafe or, at minimum, openly unwanted. Whereas tensions between Christians and Muslims previously were seen as issues between individuals, there is now a definite “us vs. them” mentality from Islamic extremists, Christian leaders said.
“Since I was a child this has been happening in the Christian Quarter and in the Muslim Quarter [in Jerusalem’s historic Old City area], but not in this way,” said Rami Fellemon, a Palestinian Christian and director of Jerusalem Evangelistic Outreach, headquartered in East Jerusalem. “Many people are sitting here, and in their own mind they are thinking, ‘What the heck are we doing here in this country? Let’s leave the country.’ Others have resentment toward Muslims now. They don’t understand why they are doing this in such a way.”
Ramped-up hostilities from radicalized Muslims come on top of attacks on Palestinian- and Christian-owned properties by ultra-Orthodox Jewish zealots, in addition to the day-to-day difficulties Israeli officials impose on Palestinians in the Territories.
“They feel like even more of a minority now and feel hated by both sides [Jews and Muslims],” Fellemon told Morning Star News. “It’s a terrible feeling. Feeling afraid. Feeling cornered. Feeling, ‘Maybe this is not my place. Maybe I just need to get out of here. I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t trust them anymore.’”
Opinions differ as to when attitudes started to change in the Territories, but most agree it happened some time in 2014, either during a retaliatory military campaign by Israel against Hamas for the June 12 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, or when the IS territorial expansion in the Middle East started in earnest.
In February, Christians in Israel’s heavily Muslim town of Nazareth were alarmed to find a billboard posted downtown ordering them not to spread their faith or even talk about Jesus in a way that contradicts the Islamic version of His life.
Quoting from Surah 4:171 in the Koran, the sign reads in Arabic, “O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, ‘Three’; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son.”
The billboard was placed just outside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, which, according to tradition, was the site where the angel Gabriel told Mary that she had been chosen by God to give birth to Jesus, the promised Messiah. According to local media reports, area Christians are too afraid to ask to have the sign removed. None of the Christians interviewed by Morning Star News were willing to talk about the sign.
That month in East Jerusalem, in the Old City area, on Feb. 26 someone started a fire at a seminary building used by the Greek Orthodox Church near the Jaffa Gate. No one was injured, and although no one was ever arrested, ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups were widely thought to be responsible.
Islamist anti-Christian sentiment has not been limited to billboards. On May 1, Sheikh Issam Ameera, an imam at the Al-Aqsa mosque (built on the Temple Mount in the Old City area), posted online a video of a sermon entitled “The Islamic State is the keeper of religion and state” in which he essentially told fellow Muslims that they must be in a constant state of war and conquest against the “polytheist enemy”, i.e., Christians, as well as against Jews.
“Today, our honorable Islamic scholars talk about defensive jihad, ‘Fight for the sake of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress, for Allah does not like transgressors,’” Ameera says in the video. “In other words, you should always be polite, never go against anyone, and never point your weapon at anyone, unless someone attacks you. In all other cases, everything must be peaceful? No! When you face a polytheist enemy, you should give him three options – they must convert to Islam, or pay the jizya[tax on non-Muslims], or else you should seek the help of Allah and fight them. You should fight them even if they do not fight you.”
Ameera repeats that “polytheists” are enemies that must be fought with Allah’s help.
“Let the scholars hear this: You should seek the help of Allah and fight them – only when they fight you? No! When they refuse to convert to Islam, and refuse to pay thejizya,” he preaches. “In such a case, it is meaningless to let them keep enjoying their life in this world, eating from the sustenance bestowed by Allah, yet disbelieving in Him. No! Against their will, we shall subjugate them to the rule of Allah.”
Three days later, a disagreement between a Christian and a Muslim in the Old City escalated into a mob attack against Christians. According to several witnesses, 60 to 80 Muslims in their 20s rampaged through the Christian Quarter immediately after the argument, throwing stones at houses and businesses. The young men also attacked an area Ethiopian Orthodox Monastery, where they spray-painted anti-Christian messages on the building and destroyed a cross.
“When they came, it was a wave of anger that was … you cannot describe it, you cannot understand it,” Fellemon said. “Because when one kid is fighting with another kid, and 60 to 80 people come and start smashing doors and throwing stones on windows and doors of Christian families and smashing the cross of the convent, this is totally not about a kid hurting a kid. This is more about Islam and Christianity. It’s more about persecution.”
The attack on the Ethiopian monastery was considered particularly sinister because it took place two weeks after Islamic State released a video in which they beheaded or shot 28 Ethiopians for being Christians and threatened other attacks against Ethiopian Christians. The slogans spray-painted in the Christian Quarter caused concern among Palestinian Christians because they were the same statements made in the video, where IS called Christians “worshipers of the wooden cross.”
There is some debate as to what is causing the change in attitudes of Palestinian Muslims toward Palestinian Christians, particularly those of Muslim youth in the Territories. Christians are asking how far IS ideology has penetrated Palestinian society. Has IS arrived in the Territories, or are the anti-Christian attitudes there the natural outcome of other radical Islamic groups in the region since 1980s? There is evidence for both theories.
The IS graffiti, scrawled word for word in the Christian quarter from the video of the slain Ethiopians, is thought to show that some Muslims are embracing IS ideology or, at minimum, are being influenced by it. Hizb al-Tahrir, an Islamist party in Palestine, has placed a recruiting billboard between Jerusalem and Ramallah inviting Muslims into IS and its caliphate. Ameera of the Al-Aqsa mosque is a leading member of the same party.
On May 11 the Islamic hostility appeared to be mitigated when a traditional elders council between Muslim and Christian leaders took place in Jerusalem. According to every Christian interviewed, the Muslim leaders apologized earnestly for the actions of those who attacked the Christian quarter. One Christian leader said they appeared to be almost shamed by the actions of the mob, which may show that the majority of Muslims in the Territories are tolerant towards the Christian minority.
The group issued an “honor pact” in which further attacks were foresworn. But on May 24, Muslims attacked another group of Christians near the Damascus gate. Details about the attack are scarce, other than that one man was slightly injured and that Israeli police broke it up.
Nashat Filmon, general director of the Palestinian branch of The Bible Society, said recent hostilities in Jerusalem could be the related to IS.
“The dark ideology of ISIS is spreading all over the region like cancer,” he said. “This is also including the Holy Land. Christians, overall, live here in peace and harmony with Muslims in Jerusalem and the West Bank, but incidents do happen from time to time, and it’s true that these incidents have recently increased, especially in the Old City of Jerusalem.”
He added that some incidents could have been inspired and encouraged by Muslim extremists “and ignorant individuals or groups or others who are interested in making a problem.”
Fellemon said that although he thinks IS may have some influence in the Territories, the terrorist group is a part of the larger problem of militant Islam in the Territories and not the other way around.
“Are they [those who attacked the Christian quarter] ruled by ISIS? I don’t think so,” he said. “Are they inspired by ISIS? It is hard for me to answer yes or no because ISIS is inspired by radical Islam. So maybe I would answer and say, ‘Yes, they are inspired by radical Islam.’”…

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/06/muslim-persecution-of-christians-worsens-in-palestinian-territories-israel


Mosul Archbishop calls for military action to free city, or asylum for Christians in West

Mosul Archbishop calls for military action to free city, or asylum for Christians in West


Iraq, diocese of Mosul-SIR May 2011Syrian-Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Youhanna (Yohanna) Boutros (Petros) Moushe (Mouche)on the occasion of his inauguration in BaashequaProject trip of Father Halemba and André Stiefenhofer
Oddly enough, he didn’t say anything about the “dialogue” upon which his brother bishops in the West are staking the future of the Church and its people. Archbishop Yohanna Mouche has been forced by the rush of events to take a more sober, realistic view, and drop the politically correct fantasies that his brother bishops are using to stifle discussion of just what has happened to the Christians of Mosul and the surrounding areas.

Mosul prelate calls for liberation of city, Nineveh Plain–or mass asylum in the West,” by John Pontifex, Aid to the Church in Need, June 13, 2015:
NEW YORK (June 11, 2015)—A leading Iraqi prelate has called on world governments to increase their efforts to defeat ISIS and restore land and property to some 120,000 exiled Iraqi Christians.
Marking the first anniversary of ISIS’s capture of Mosul, Syrian Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Mouche called on “people who have the responsibility” to come to the rescue of the ousted Christian communities, whose people, he added, long to go home.
In an interview with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the archbishop said that military action is the “best solution.” “We ask everyone to put pressure on the people who have the responsibility to free the [towns and villages] as soon as possible so the people can come back and live in peace in their homes and continue their lives there,” he said.
The archbishop’s comments reflect ongoing frustration felt by a number of senior Middle East clergy about what they perceive as the West’s reluctance to commit to a full-scale intervention to confront and overcome extremism in the region—a move many Church leaders opposed until very recently.
Archbishop Mouche also said that if the West is unable to redouble its efforts in the fight against ISIS, it should open its doors to Christians and other minorities seeking asylum.
“I am calling on the international community: if they cannot protect us, then they must open their doors and help us start a new life elsewhere,” he said, adding, however that “we would prefer to remain in Iraq and be protected here.”
Speaking of his own hardship, the prelate said: “I am like someone who is dreaming or drunk. I can’t understand what is going on around me. It is a nightmare.”
Asked about widespread reports of destruction of religious artefacts and Churches buildings in Mosul, he said his contacts with the city had been severed. But he confirmed that “all our heritage is in Mosul, and in Qaraqosh,” on the Nineveh Plain. He singled out the monastery of St Behnam, which dates back to the fourth century AD. The monastery is rumored to have been partially destroyed by ISIS.
“We have no news about our churches and monasteries, because we have no-one left in Mosul  to report on it,” the archbishop concluded.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/06/mosul-archbishop-calls-for-military-action-to-free-city-or-asylum-for-christians-in-west


Brad Thor’s message for Pamela Geller’s critics: You are pansies

Brad Thor’s message for Pamela Geller’s critics: You are pansies

Brad-thor3This is the age of cowardice — masked as “respect” and “avoiding provocation” — and so Brad Thor is right. I am proud to call both Brad Thor and Pamela Geller my friends. If future ages revere courage at all, which is an open question in this weak and pusillanimous age, they will be remembered, and honored.
Brad Thor’s message for Pamela Geller’s critics: You are pansies,” by Benjamin Weingarten, The Blaze, June 12, 2015:
Author Brad Thor is not one to mince words when it comes to defending free speech and challenging jihadists.
So it should come as no surprise that during an in-depth interview in connection with his forthcoming “Code of Conduct,” when the topic of Islamic supremacism versus the West came up — and in particular the Garland, TX shooting — sparks were going to fly.
Listen to what Brad had to say below, and for a sneak peek at the creepy enviro-globalist agenda at the heart of “Code of Conduct,” Brad’s assessment of the threats to the homeland and how to take it to Islamic supremacists and his endorsement for president in 2016, you can skip to the full interview here.
And I don’t care who criticized her…You are weak, and you’re a pansy for not standing behind her   The First Amendment exists to protect speech you don’t agree with. It actually is there — if all that was worthy of protection was speech everybody agreed with, we wouldn’t need the First Amendment. OK.                                          So you don’t have to agree with what Pamela Geller is doing, but my G-d, Pamela Geller is doing more to help reform Islam than any pansy on the left or right who is criticizing her.                                 And I don’t care who criticized her. I don’t care who it is: You are weak, and you’re a pansy for not standing behind her.                        It makes no sense to me that you would not support someone who is trying to bring about reform in one of the most dangerous ideologies since Nazism. And it actually predates Nazism, so I can’t say it’s since Nazism.                                                                                   This idea that Pamela Geller somehow deserved what they got — and she’s making it worse for people. You know I heard people say “Well why provoke all Muslims?” She’s not trying to provoke all Muslims. She’s trying to provoke a discussion.                               And moderate Muslims should not be offended by the depiction of their Prophet Muhammad. They can say it’s in their book … Islam is the only major world religion that has not had a reformation. Judaism has. Christianity has. Islam has not.                                                 And … I would encourage you to please link to probably one of the best articles ever written about the West and how we are pandering to fundamentalist Islam. It was actually — I don’t know that you do a lot of links to the Huffington Post — but it was on the Huffington Post and it was written by Sam Harris, who is on Bill Maher a lot. And Sam’s an agnostic.                                                                           And Sam wrote a great article called “Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks.” And he talks about the fact that we have allowed a protected space to be carved out in the public square where every other group is expected to debate rationally on the playing field of ideas, except for Islam.                                                                     We can go ahead and talk about Catholicism, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, but we can’t critique and discuss the tenets of Islam. And that’s because we are hamstringing ourselves.               And Islam needs more attention, more criticism, not less. If we don’t criticize Islam and put pressure on Islam, how do you expect reformers and again moderates to have the wind at their backs, the wind in their sails to have them do the work that needs to be done? Because we as non-Muslims can’t affect any change.                       All we do, like I said, we get our civil liberties eroded.                      It’s longer lines at TSA for those of us who can’t reform Islam.        We need to do everything we can to help reform it. And reforming Islam means we have to draw attention to all its failings.                   It’s only when people are shown “Hey, the house is full of termites,” that maybe they’re gonna stop spending money on cable and tons of beer, and start applying the money to fixing their own house.                
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/06/brad-thors-message-for-pamela-gellers-critics-you-are-pansies

Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey closing Christian schools because of their “missionary work”

Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey closing Christian schools because of their “missionary work”

The Turks are irked by Christians being… well, Christians. And they can’t have that in the Islamic Republic of Turkey, so the official position is that Christian schools “do not have a right to promote Christian values.” But for us to draw attention to this is “Islamophobic.” As an important historical side note, the once Christian region of modern-day Turkey now has less than 120,000 Christians out of a population of more than 75 million. In 1914, the non-Muslim population was 19%, but the Armenian, Assyrian and Pontian genocides literally slashed that to 2.5% by 1927. The Istanbul Pogroms of 1955 against the Orthodox Christians in the Phanar killed or drove out many thousands more. Turkey’s “secular” nature is only skin deep, as the past decade’s push to convert ancient churches into mosques, and stories like this one clearly demonstrate.
More on this story, via “Turkish Authorities are closing Christan schools because of their “Missionary Work,” Pravoslavie, June 11, 2015:
Turkish authorities are more and more frequently encroaching on Christian educational institutions on the territory of Turkey. In the officials’ view, such schools do not have a right to promote Christian values, reports the Linga news portal.
Christian charitable organizations in Turkey have for the fifth year now been assisting refugees from Syria, providing them with accommodation and work; the refugees’ children also can afford to continue their education in specialized schools. Among such schools until recently were volunteer educational institutions belonging to the Association of Churches of Jerusalem in the city of Gaziantep. At the beginning of the next academic year, they were ready to accept hundreds of children aged between 8 and 12.
But last week an imam of a local mosque, who saw teachers of one Christian school distributing copies of the Bible to its students and their parents, hastened to inform the media representatives about it.
Firas Dib, spokesman of the Referance newspaper, published the information on “distribution of Christian literature” in Gaziantep schools, personally meeting with the paper’s editor-in-chief and representative of the head of the country’s ruling party. The latter have taken into account “a fact of violation of Muslim children’s rights.” Later on the same day, the city administration received special directives; it at once sent police officers who conducted a search in four Christian schools in the city and sealed them.
It should be noted that the fate of the Christian students as well as schools of other Christian organizations still remains unknown.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/06/rapidly-re-islamizing-turkey-closing-christan-schools-because-of-their-missionary-work


Christine Niles interviews Brother Andre Marie MICM : is Vatican Council II Feeneyite ?

Forward BoldlyOn Forward Boldly,the blog talk show Christine Niles interviews Brother Andre Marie MICM and neither of the two could say that Vatican Council II  is Feeneyite and that it affirms the rigorist interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus (EENS).
Instead Christine Niles says that she affirms EENS but she is not  necessarily a Feeneyite !!?
It's like Michael Voris also saying that he also affirms outside the Church there is no salvation but every one does not need to be a card carrying member of the Church.
Why?
Who do they know in Detroit who is in Heaven  this month without Catholic Faith and the baptism of water?
Brother Andre Marie was vague on Vatican Council II and is still using Marchetti's inference to interpret the Council.He could not say that Vatican Council II is not vague for him and that it affirms the Feeneyite version of the dogma.
It was interesting listening to them. We need more interviews of Brother Andre Marie, the Prior of the St. Benedict Center, Richmond, New Hampshire. We need more discussion on this subject which is related to the Traditional Latin Mass, the new ecclesiology and the canonical status of the SSPX among other things.
I am re-listening to the show as I write this. Last night I was in a hurry.
I am a Feeneyite like St.Francis Xavier, St. Thomas Aquinas, St., Augustine....
I am also faithful to the magisterium according to Vatican Council II  and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Like Fr.Leonard Feeney I affirm the rigorist interpretation of the dogma, the traditional version  and ALSO being  saved with the baptism of desire and invincible ignorance. Since being saved in invincible ignorance etc  are always unknown and invisible for us humans in the present times, they cannot be exceptions to the traditional centuries old  interpretation of the dogma.
So I affirm Ad Gentes 7 and Lumen Gentium 14 which says all need faith and baptism for salvation and LG 16, LG 8, UR 3, NA 2 etc cannot be exceptions.So there are no exceptions in Vatican Council II to AG 7 and LG 14. Neither are there any exceptions to the dogma. So I affirm the dogma and baptism of desire and invincible ignorance.
Similarly I affirm the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257,845  which  says all need to be baptised in the Catholic Church for salvation and for me there cannot be any exception in the Catechism to 1257 .Since we humans cannot know of any case of someone saved, because 'God is not limited to the Sacraments'(CCC 1257).Physically, personally we cannot know of any exception to the dogma in the present times.
I know that this is not the interpretation of Christine Niles, Michael Voris and the Archdiocese of Detroit.
For them LG 16, LG 14  etc refer to objectively seen cases in 2015.So they are explicit exceptions  to the dogma for them. This was how Cardinal Francis Marchetti Selvaggiani originaly understood it.So Vatican Council II cannot be Feeneyite for them.
For me Vatican Council II and the Catechism are Feeneyite.There are no explicit exceptions.
For  Ralph Martin,  Vatican Council II is not Feeneyite. Since for him there are explicit exceptions to the dogma . This is his irrational reasoning.
Patrick Archbald on the Remnant has written that we cannot have it both ways.Here I have showed how you can have it both ways. I affirm extra ecclesiam nulla salus and invisible for us; theoretically accepted and not defacto for us, baptism of desire and being saved in invincible ignorance.
-Lionel Andrades

 
Forward Boldly: Br. Andre-Marie