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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Raymond Ibrahim</title>
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		<title>Only Muslim Schoolchildren Lives Matter?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/only-muslim-schoolchildren-lives-matter/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=only-muslim-schoolchildren-lives-matter</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2014 05:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The world heard about the Peshawar school attack, but many attacks on Christian schools go unreported by MSM.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/4973928-3x2-700x467.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-248284" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/4973928-3x2-700x467-450x300.jpg" alt="4973928-3x2-700x467" width="321" height="214" /></a>Earlier we looked at “<a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">how Western mainstream media enable Islamic terrorism</span></a>,” specifically by employing an arsenal of semantic games, key phrases, convenient omissions, and moral relativism to portray such violence as a product of anything and everything—political and historical grievances, “Islamophobia,” individual insanity, poverty and ignorance, territorial disputes—not Islam.</p>
<p>Another strategy that recently came to the fore consists of highlighting Islamic terror attacks that target other Muslims.  The logic here is clear:  How “Islamic” can such Islamic groups be if they attack and kill fellow Muslims?  In other words, whatever the motivation, it surely cannot be Islam, since those being killed are themselves Muslims.  This suggests that the terrorists themselves cannot be true Muslims since Muslims are generally forbidden by Islam to kill other Muslims (caveats exist).</p>
<p>A recent example of this is the December 16 Taliban attack on an army public school in Peshawar, where 145 people were killed, the majority being schoolchildren age 18 and under.   This incident was reported all over the mainstream media, and rightfully so.</p>
<p>Yet this begs the question: why do similar attacks, when directed at non-Muslims—especially Christians—rarely if ever get the same sort of media coverage?</p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/47-youngsters-killed-at-Christian-school-in-Nigeria-while-Christians-in-Mubi-forced-to-flee-after-Boko-Haram-renames-it-City-of-Islam.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Nigeria</span></a> on November 10,</p>
<blockquote><p>A suicide bomb attack in a Christian secondary school in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, north-eastern <a href="https://barnabasfund.org/US/Our-work/Our-current-projects/BF-Project-Countries/Nigeria.html?"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Nigeria</span></a>, has killed at least 47 people on Monday as the students gathered for morning assembly. Boko Haram is thought to be behind the blast, having carried out several attacks on schools giving a Western-style education. Translated from Hausa, Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” of which this latest school attack is a stark reminder.</p></blockquote>
<p>Earlier in the year in Nigeria “Boko Haram claimed the lives of <a href="http://www.romereports.com/pg155924-nearly-60-students-at-christian-school-killed-in-boko-haram-attack-in-nigeria-en"><span style="color: #0433ff;">59 students</span></a> at a Christian school &#8230;  Some 50 men ambushed the school, then beat and shot staff and students. Once finished, they set fire to the buildings, with many students still inside. It&#8217;s the fourth attack of its kind since May of last year.”</p>
<p>On October 1 in Syria, at least 41 Alawite children—all under 12—were <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=b6wwv3c5aa80706194262ab5ce81131ace25c#bookmark=http://www.fides.org/en/news/36468-ASIA_SYRIA_Massacre_of_children_in_Homs_three_Christians_kidnapped_in_the_province_of_Hassake"><span style="color: #0433ff;">killed</span></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The massacre was one of the most severe in terms of children who died since the beginning of the conflict in Syria. According to official Syrian sources, a car bomb and a suicide bomber caused two explosions when the children came out of school, in the suburb of Akrameh inhabited mainly by Alawites, with the targeted intention to cause the highest number possible of deaths among children of the same religious community to which the Assad family belong.</p></blockquote>
<p>Here is the testimony of an eyewitness to another Islamic attack on a Christian school in Syria, where 12 people—mostly children—were <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/world/43540-god-is-here-but-i-am-getting-so-tired-syrian-christian-mother-mourns-killing-of-children-from-bombings"><span style="color: #0433ff;">killed</span></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I want to tell you about Tuesday. It was a terrible day. We cried and prayed all day. Tuesday they were bombing Bab Touma, the old city of Damascus. A lot of Christians live there. There is also a Christian school—a private one. We know a lot of people in that school. Some children from our area also go to school there. When those kids went to school on Tuesday, gathered at the square like they always do, a mortar fell in their midst. Some friends passed by the school and saw that parents and teachers were carrying their wounded children out of the school, dripping with blood. They saw them running to the hospitals in panic. For me, as a mother and a teacher, I can hardly bear to imagine what these people must be going through right now.  Twelve people lost their lives in that school, most of them children from the elementary school. Many more of them have lost arms and legs or have other injuries.</p></blockquote>
<p>As for Islamic attacks on Christian schools that do not lead to casualties, these are quite common.  Thus, on November 5 in Bangladesh, hundreds of Muslims, some armed with knives and machetes, attacked a Christian school.  <a href="https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2014/11/article_3500298.html/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">They</span></a> torched its library, burned Bibles and hymnals, and committed other wanton acts of violence.  According to a source, “A wave of panic swept through the school and traumatized everyone. Many students became sick in the following days.”  The reason for this particular attack?  <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/islamists-project-islams-worst-traits-onto-christians/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslim projection</span></a>: a rumor started that the Christian school was converting Muslim students to Christianity.</p>
<p>How many of those Western people who could not help but hear about the Peshawar attack—considering its widespread coverage—also heard about these Islamic attacks on schools some of which also took large numbers of children lives?  Not very many, I would wager.</p>
<p>The reason, again, is obvious: reporting Muslims killing Muslims does not contradict the mainstream media’s narrative but ostensibly enforces it.  For—so the simple logic goes—Muslims who kill fellow Muslims cannot be “real” Muslims to start with, and must in fact be, as Western politicians habitually characterize them, mere “criminals.”</p>
<p>Thus, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan issued a <a href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?adbid=545215646309416960&amp;adbpl=tw&amp;adbpr=66369181&amp;cid=social_20141217_37458137&amp;id=123838"><span style="color: #0433ff;">statement</span></a> condemning the Peshawar attack, adding, “The barbaric actions of the Taliban illustrate their lack of value for human life and lack of respect for the Islamic faith. These attacks only prove their selfish desire for power and willingness to murder to reach their self-serving goals.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, it is more difficult for the media to dissemble the motives of Muslims who intentionally target and kill “the other”—outnumbered and defenseless “infidel” minorities—simply because <i>they are</i> “the other.”</p>
<p>Whether small numbers or large—whether <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/islam-built-on-the-blood-of-christian-martyrs/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">four children decapitated for refusing to renounce Christ</span></a> or whether <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/largest-massacre-of-christians-in-syria-ignored/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the largest massacre of Christians in Syria</span></a>—Muslim persecution of Christians will rarely if ever get MSM coverage, for it <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/why-christian-persecution-is-islams-achilles-heel/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">throws a wrench</span></a> in the media’s narrative that Islamic violence is a product of anything and everything but <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-ultimate-source-of-islamic-hate-for-infidels/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Islamic hate for non-Muslims</span></a>.</p>
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		<title>Christians and Churches Attacked in the West</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2014 05:17:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslims]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=248121</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["You have a cross on…Do you know what we do to people like you?" ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/signs.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-248125" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/signs-450x281.jpg" alt="signs" width="283" height="177" /></a><strong>Reprinted from <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/">GatestoneInstitute.org</a>.</strong></p>
<blockquote class="content_preface"><p>&#8220;You have a cross on… Do you know what we do to people like you?&#8221; — Muslim in Denmark.</p>
<p>Muslim Fulani gunmen forced their way into the church, cut [the pastor], his wife and a daughter with a machete, and then tied the hands and feet of the three of them before setting the building on fire&#8230; We only found the charred remains of the three of them in the morning. I heard them shouting at the top of their voices, saying they must obliterate any traces of Christianity in the town.&#8221; — Eyewitness account, Nigeria.</p>
<p>Each year, approximately 1,000 women in Pakistan are forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men. Whenever a case of this nature reaches the law courts, those women, under threat and blackmail, often declare that their conversion and marriage were decisions freely made, and the case is closed.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Muslim persecution of Christians in September started making prominent appearances not just in the Islamic world, but also in the West—in America, Australia and Europe.</p>
<p>In the United States, in Columbus, Indiana, three churches were vandalized on the same night. The words most frequently sprayed were &#8220;Infidels!&#8221; and &#8220;Koran 3:151.&#8221; The verse from the Koran states, &#8220;We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve [or "infidels"] for what they have associated with Allah [reference to Christian Trinity] of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.&#8221;</p>
<p>Father Doug Marcotte of Saint Bartholomew&#8217;s Catholic Church, one of those vandalized, said, &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of bad stuff being done in the name of Allah and so when people see this happening in Columbus, whether that was truly the person&#8217;s intent or there&#8217;s something else going on, it makes people nervous. It makes people upset. It makes them scared.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Australia, AAP reported that &#8220;Church-goers in Sydney&#8217;s west have been left shaken after a stranger shouted death threats from a car bearing the Islamic State flag. The car drove past Our Lady of Lebanon Church at Harris Park on Tuesday and witnesses claim it had a flag similar to those brandished by Islamic State jihadists hanging out the window.&#8221; A church official said the people in the car threatened to &#8220;<a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/sydney-church-our-lady-of-lebanon-targeted-by-isis-threats/story-fncynjr2-1227062189328">kill the Christians&#8221; and slaughter their children</a>: &#8220;They were strong words and people were scared of what they saw.&#8221; Witnesses saw a flag outside the window with the words, &#8220;There is only one god and Muhammad is the prophet.&#8221; And as happens frequently in Muslim-majority nations, police security was later dispatched to patrol the Harris Park church while hundreds partook of the mass inside.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;">People in a car bearing a jihadist flag verbally abused parishioners at the Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Sydney, Australia in September, threatening to &#8220;kill the Christians&#8221; and slaughter their children.</p>
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<p>In Denmark—2013&#8242;s &#8220;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/denmark-happiest-country_n_4070761.html">happiest country in the world</a>&#8220;—Christians of Middle Eastern backgrounds continued to experience &#8220;harassment, verbal attacks and in some cases direct violence from Muslims,&#8221; reports TV2, especially in Muslim-majority areas, such as Nørrebro. One Christian, &#8220;Jojo,&#8221; born in Denmark of Lebanese parents, shared her experiences. Once when sitting in her parked car, several Muslims surrounded it, harassing her about her Western attire. When one of them noticed she was wearing a cross, he said &#8220;Well, you have a cross on—then <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/09/denmark-christians-flee-muslim-dominated-areas-they-tell-me-i-ought-to-be-stoned-to-death">you are also a Christian f***ing whore</a>. Do you know what we do to people like you? Do you know what we do to people like you? You get stoned [to death].&#8221;</p>
<p>Another Christian woman of Iranian background recounted how she and her son are harassed on the Muslim-majority block where they live—and where she stands out for not wearing a <i>hijab</i>, the Islamic veil: &#8220;My son is being called everything. I get called all sorts of things. Infidel. Filthy Christians. They tell me I ought to be stoned to death. My son was beaten at the bus stop. He was called pig, dirty potato (Muslim slang for Danes), and that &#8216;you and your mother should die.&#8221;&#8216;</p>
<p>Islamic dreams of conquering Europe were prevalent. A senior analyst in Spain warned that, because Islamists see the Iberian peninsula as being &#8220;under Spanish and Portuguese occupation,&#8221; <a href="http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2014/09/05/jihadists-want-al-andalus-back-spanish-terrorism-analyst_966e7c8a-6480-4a28-b4e1-7a63eabf2d51.html">greater risk of terrorism exists there</a> than in other Western areas. Because Iberia—or, in Arabic, Al-Andalus—was under Islamic domination for centuries, many Muslims consider it part of the Islamic world, or Dar al-Islam, which needs to be reconquered, no less than Israel, also seen as occupied Islamic territory.</p>
<p>More pointedly, in the Islamic State [IS], in a lengthy message partially addressed to the &#8220;crusaders&#8221;—a reference to the West—some members declared, &#8220;<a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/09/islamic-state-we-will-conquer-your-rome-break-your-crosses-and-enslave-your-women-by-the-permission-of-allah">We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah</a>.&#8221; Members of the IS also invoked a statement attributed to Muhammad, that Constantinople would be conquered before Rome—and it was, in 1453. The implication was that the Eternal City of Rome would be next.</p>
<p>Around the same time, Rome responded by rejecting a motion to name a street after the late Oriana Fallaci, a veteran journalist who had once written that, &#8220;<a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/09/rome-nixes-naming-street-after-oriana-fallaci-because-she-wrote-that-the-muslim-world-is-attempting-to-conquer-the-west">the Muslim world is attempting to conquer the West in the name of Islam</a>.&#8221; In explaining their decision, local politicians described Fallaci&#8217;s writings as containing &#8220;religious hatred,&#8221; or &#8220;Islamophobia.&#8221;</p>
<p>In Canada, while 80 special Muslims went to the trouble of attending a Muslim rally on behalf of persecuted Christians, sadly, another rally, an extremist Al Quds Day Anti-Israel Hate Fest, drew approximately 6,000 participants.</p>
<p>The rest of September&#8217;s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.</p>
<p align="center"><b>Muslim Attacks on Churches</b></p>
<p><b>East Jerusalem</b>: <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/09/attacks-on-church-in-east-jerusalem-grow-more-intense/">A Christian church was attacked numerous times</a>: On September 29, young Muslim men, with ties to a Palestinian militant group, wired shut the door of the Living Bread Church and sprayed a gaseous substance at those inside. An earlier gas attack had already occurred on September 17. Hours before the second attack, someone threw a rock through one of the windows of the church, and the day before that, Sunday, September 28, a Palestinian and others assaulted a church member as he was emptying trash into a dumpster outside the church.</p>
<p>On Sept. 21, a Palestinian militant, without warning, ran up behind a church leader, Karen Dunham, and knocked her to the pavement: &#8220;This guy charged me as fast as he could,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He came up behind me and just slammed into my back, and I fell and I hit the ground. My face is bruised. There&#8217;s bruises on the side of my cheek, on my face, on my head, on my knee, cuts on my head, and my wrist was fractured.&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Egypt</b>: A Christian priest in Egypt appealed to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to intervene on behalf of yet another church being threatened by &#8220;religious extremists.&#8221; So far, local authorities have done nothing. Four years ago, the Coptic Church of St. Abram in Shubra al-Khaima received a permit to build an additional building. During those same four years, seven &#8220;thugs&#8221;—in the <a href="http://www.copticsolidarity.org/cs-releases/2910-egypt-muslim-mob-prevents-coptic-church-building">words of the report</a>—have prevented it from being built. The &#8220;thugs&#8221; had mobilized local Muslims to threaten and demonstrate against the church. &#8220;The priest lamented that &#8216;after suffering many long years&#8217; they finally managed to acquire the permit to build, but then the next obstacle presented itself in the person of the aforementioned seven &#8216;thugs&#8217; who constantly harass, and incite Muslim mobs, against the church, whenever it tries to exercise its right to build the services building. Islamic law forbids the building of new churches or the renovation of existing churches.&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Iraq</b>: Islamic State militants &#8220;<a href="http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2014/09/25/isis-blow-up-tikrits-green-church_9ac1fb14-0ae6-417d-a4cc-b20cf9eddef2.html">completely destroyed</a>&#8221; the ancient Green Church in Tikrit. They packed the church with explosives and detonated them &#8212; <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20140925012701.htm">completely destroying the ancient church</a>, which belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. Almost from the time it was built in the seventh century, when Islam overran Iraq, the church had been attacked, ransacked, and destroyed by Muslim rulers and others, but was restored on the orders of Iraq&#8217;s late President Saddam Hussein in the 1990s.</p>
<p><b>Nigeria</b>: Many more churches and a Christian university, <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/09/bible-college-churches-shut-down-as-boko-haram-claims-territory-in-ne-nigeria/">Kulp Bible College</a>, were forced to shut down as a result of the advances of the Islamic jihadi group, Boko Haram. In one instance, a pastor reported that &#8220;Boko Haram violence has been getting worse every day, and our members are fleeing the area by the thousands. Recent attacks in Borno and Adamawa states where our churches are located have seen Boko Haram take over the Army base. As a result, about 350 Christians have been killed.&#8221;</p>
<p>Separately, in Kaduna state, where &#8220;Muslim Fulani assailants seem driven to rid the area of Christianity and use the land to graze their cattle,&#8221; according to church leaders, 46 Christians, including two pastors, were slaughtered in raids. According to an eyewitness,</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Suddenly we heard sounds of gunshots around our village. The pastor was still in the pastorate when the Muslim Fulani gunmen forced their way onto the church premises. They cut him, his wife and a daughter with a machete, and then tied the hands and feet of the three of them before setting the house on fire. The three of them were burned to ashes in the living room of the pastorate. We only found the charred remains of the three of them the following morning&#8230;. The gunmen then came onto the church premises and began shooting. I heard them shouting at the top of their voices, saying they must obliterate any trace of Christianity in the town.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Although Muslim Fulani have historically had property disputes with Christian farmers, Christian leaders say attacks by the herdsmen constitute <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/09/two-pastors-among-46-christians-killed-in-kaduna-state-nigeria/">a war &#8220;by Islam to eliminate Christianity&#8221; in Nigeria</a>.</p>
<p><b>Sudan</b>: In the latest incident of a nearly two-year wave of church demolitions, closures and confiscations, <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/09/sudan-shutters-500-member-church-in-khartoum/">security agents padlocked a 500-member church building</a>, the Sudan Pentecostal Church [SPC] in Khartoum. The church also houses the Khartoum Christian Center (KCC). &#8220;The church is concerned that the building might be sold by the government, which renders more than 500 worshippers to have no place for worship,&#8221; a source told the <i>Morning Star News</i>. The Islamist government appears to be seeking any pretext for closing churches, sources said. In this instance, the space for the church was originally designated as &#8220;office space.&#8221; But, as one source asked, &#8220;How do you close a church building that has been in operation for 20 years in the name of the church being meant for offices?&#8221; The church has a deed showing that it owns the building and property &#8212; a situation that raises the question of the government&#8217;s right to sell it.</p>
<p>On June 30 bulldozers <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/sudanese-authorities-demolish-another-church-building/">demolished</a> the Sudanese Church of Christ in the Thiba Al Hamyida area of North Khartoum as church members watched, while security personnel threatened to arrest them if they tried to block the bulldozers, church members said.</p>
<p><b>Syria</b>: The <a href="http://armenianweekly.com/2014/09/21/der-zor/">Islamic State destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church</a> in Der Zor, seen as the &#8220;Auschwitz&#8221; of the Armenian Genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished in Der Zor and the surrounding desert during the genocide. In the summer of 1916 alone, more than 200,000 Armenians, mostly women and children, were massacred by Ottoman Turks. Armenia&#8217;s foreign minister issued a statement calling the church&#8217;s destruction a &#8220;horrible barbarity,&#8221; and referred to the Islamic State as a &#8220;disease&#8221; that &#8220;threatened civilized mankind.&#8221; The church was built in 1989-90 and consecrated a year later. A genocide memorial and a museum housing the remains of the victims of the genocide were also located in the church compound. Thousands of Armenians from Syria and neighboring countries gathered at the memorial every year on April 24 to commemorate the genocide.</p>
<p align="center"><b>Pakistani Rape and Dhimmitude</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36439-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Christian_girl_raped_the_perpetrators_film_the_violence#.VIXqaDHF9qU">Four young Muslims gang raped a 15-year-old Christian girl</a> and filmed it. The girl&#8217;s father, although he was threatened against filing a complaint, went to police, who confirmed the existence of a video that corroborates the violence. The video will apparently be introduced as evidence against the youths. A lawyer, Mushtaq Gill, issued a statement that, &#8220;Many Christian girls continue to be victims of sexual assault by young Muslims, who go unpunished&#8221; and that, &#8220;in this case there is also a video, flaunted as a trophy.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36280-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Two_Christian_women_abducted_forced_to_convert_to_Islam_and_marry_Muslim_men#.VIXv9zHF9qU">Two Christian women were abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men</a>. Lawyer Mushtaq Gill said, &#8220;A Christian girl, Sairish, forced to marry a Muslim in 2009, in her heart never abandoned the faith and continued to pray to Jesus Christ even after her marriage. After a few years she found the courage to rebel against the situation and run away&#8230;. Her life is now in danger because if she declares herself Christian, Muslims may accuse her of apostasy and the punishment would be death.&#8221; Each year, approximately 1,000 women in Pakistan are forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men. Whenever a case of this nature reaches the law courts, those women, under threat and blackmail, often declare that their conversion and marriage were decisions freely made, and the case is closed.</li>
<li>Another Christian family fled their hometown, Lahore, <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36318-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Christian_family_flees_to_save_their_daughters_from_forced_conversion_to_Islam#.VIXuVzHF9qU">to save their daughters from forced conversion to Islam</a>. According to the Justice and Peace Commission, the two sisters, aged 12 and 8, were studying in public schools, where learning to recite the Koran is mandatory. Apparently, because the girls recited the <i>shehada</i>, the Islamic declaration of faith, &#8220;an Islamic cleric, the father of a student stated that these girls had become Muslims and thus needed to be taken from their Christian parents and entrusted to adult Muslims.&#8221; The parents pulled their daughters out of school, but then the headmaster and other Muslim teachers &#8220;warned the parents to send them back to school, offering the family financial aid regarding the school fees.&#8221; The parents quit their jobs and fled the region.</li>
<li>Police arrested 15 Christians and booked 45 other members of the minority community under the blasphemy law <a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/world/15-christians-held-in-pakistan-under-blasphemy-law.html">for allegedly desecrating Muslim graves</a> in a village in Punjab province. According to the AP, &#8220;The case was registered after a local cleric filed a complaint alleging that the Christians had desecrated over 400 Muslim graves to occupy the land in Chak village in Faisalabad, about 150 kilometres from Lahore.&#8221; Rights groups said it was a spurious charge meant to prevent the Christians from acquiring the land. In fact, the accusations were <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36294-ASIA_PAKISTAN_False_accusations_of_blasphemy_later_withdrawn_against_31_Christians_in_a_Punjab_village#.VIXvWzHF9qU">later proven false</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 align="center">Dhimmitude: Islamic Discrimination Against Christianity</h3>
<p><b>Egypt:</b> Iman Sarofim, a 39-year-old Christian mother of five, returned home to her family <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36441-AFRICA_EGYPT_The_Coptic_woman_who_had_disappeared_returns_home_she_did_not_convert_but_had_been_kidnapped#.VIXqsTHF9qU">after being kidnapped</a>. Initially it was believed that she had voluntarily converted to Islam and fled her family to be with a Muslim man. The woman contacted the family from Suez, where she had been brought by the kidnapper. The return of the woman was celebrated by neighbors and relatives in the city of Gabal al-Tir. Her disappearance had been the cause of clashes between Copts and police, who believed the narrative that she had voluntarily left. In retaliation, police officers entered the homes of dozens of Coptic families and violently arrested dozens of Christians. Separately, Ehab Karam, <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36416-AFRICA_EGYPT_Kidnappings_continue_to_the_detriment_of_the_Copts_a_dentist_kidnapped_killed#.VIXrhzHF9qU">a Coptic dentist, was killed</a> after he was abducted by unknown persons, most likely for ransom. The kidnapping of Copts for ransom has evidently become a regular part of life in Egypt for Christians, particularly in Upper Egypt. Last February, for instance, police dismantled a crime network that for months had been organizing kidnappings, robberies and extortion against the local Coptic community. &#8220;Unfortunately,&#8221; said the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Assist, Kyrillos William, &#8220;the phenomenon continues and there are no signs of improvement. Police operations are episodic and ineffective, they are unable to solve the problem.&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Iraq:</b> The Islamic State decreed that <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36336-ASIA_IRAQ_The_school_year_in_the_Islamic_Caliphate_the_teaching_of_Syriac_and_Christian_names_of_schools_have_been_abolished#.VIXuDTHF9qU">all schools in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain</a> which bore Christian names, some since the 1700s, must be changed. Also, the teaching of the Syriac language and culture and Christian religious education has been abolished. Reports indicate that the Islamic State took these moves &#8220;in order to erase all traces of cultural and religious pluralism in the conquered areas and turn schools into propaganda tools of jihadist ideology among the new generations.&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Saudi Arabia</b>: In the Eastern Province city of Khafji, &#8220;religious police,&#8221; or agents from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Christians-detained-by-Saudi-religious-police-in-raid-on-private-home.html">raided a house where at least 27 Christians</a>, mostly expatriates from various Asian nationalities, were gathered. The Christians, including children, were accused of practicing Christianity in a house church, and were arrested and detained overnight. Authorities also confiscated musical instruments and copies of the Bible. The house had been placed under surveillance after a citizen reported that his Indian neighbor had converted his home into a Christian church. After witnessing a large number of individuals enter the home, officers raided the house. The only religion allowed to be practiced in public in Saudi Arabia is Islam. In the land of the prophet, no public places of worship for non-Muslims are permitted to exist.</p>
<p><b>Turkey:</b> According to the Armenian magazine,<i> Agos</i>, many of the primary and secondary education books being used for the current school year still <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36339-ASIA_TURKEY_In_school_books_Christian_communities_portrayed_as_tools_of_foreign_powers_against_the_Ottoman_empire">describe the Armenians and other Christian communities as enemy forces</a> at the service of foreign powers, including Russia and England, after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. One eighth-grade history book tries to whitewash the Armenian genocide, which is portrayed as a &#8220;necessary deportation,&#8221; never as a massacre.</p>
<p><b>Uzbekistan</b>: Security forces reportedly raided the home of Pastor Stanislav Kim in Chirchik, 20 miles northeast of Tashkent, the capital. They detained 11 teenagers and three adults, who had gathered there for a volleyball game, and questioned them for more than four hours before releasing them. Officials also searched the pastor&#8217;s home and <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33773-uzbekistan-prosecuting-pastor-son-for-unregistered-activity">confiscated a New Testament, a Bible, several other Christian books</a>, more than 100 slides of hymns, as well as some computer equipment. Voice of the Martyrs, which says there are at least 65 unregistered congregations scattered throughout Uzbekistan, said in a statement, &#8220;Please pray that this pastor and his son will not face fines, but will soon be acquitted of any perceived wrongdoing. Ask God to strengthen each believer who was present during this unwarranted raid so that they will not give in to governmental intimidation and pressure, but instead be emboldened to serve our Lord faithfully.&#8221;</p>
<p align="center"><b>About this Series</b></p>
<p>While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians is expanding. &#8220;Muslim Persecution of Christians&#8221; was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month.</p>
<p>It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.</p>
<p>It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/"><i>Raymond Ibrahim</i></a> <i>is author of</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20">Crucified Again: Exposing Islam&#8217;s New War in Christians</a> <i>(published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).</i></p></blockquote>
<p><b>Previous reports</b></p>
<ul type="square">
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4927/raping-beheading-faithful">August, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4846/muslim-persecution-christians-july">July, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4817/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june">June, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4763/muslim-persecution-christians-may-2014">May, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4666/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution">April, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4400/obama-muslim-persecutions">March, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4365/christians-most-persecuted">February, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4312/muslim-persecution-christians-january">January, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4252/slaughtering-christians">December, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4170/us-silent-muslim-persecution-christians">November, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4093/slaughter-in-muslim-lands">October, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4065/september-horror-christians-islam">September, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4050/christians-middle-east-august">August, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3967/christian-women-degradation-islam">June, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3904/nigeria-christians-murdered">May, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3875/christian-suffering-under-jihadi-extremism">April, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3760/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013">March, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3673/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013">February, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3641/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013">January, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3577/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012">December, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3566/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012">November, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3485/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012">October, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3421/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012">September, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3318/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">August, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3318/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">July, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3203/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012">June, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3135/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012">May, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3065/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012">April, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3033/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012">March, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2949/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012">February, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2834/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012">January, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2733/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011">December, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2676/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011">November, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2585/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011">October, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2491/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september">September, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2401/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011">August, 2011</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>How Western Media Enable Islamic Terrorism</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Dec 2014 05:45:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247768</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The same lies and distortions shielding Islam “over there” have come “over here.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/la-epa-egypt-unrest2-jpg-20130819.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247776" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/la-epa-egypt-unrest2-jpg-20130819-450x300.jpg" alt="la-epa-egypt-unrest2-jpg-20130819" width="315" height="210" /></a>If the West is experiencing a rise in the sort of terror attacks that are endemic to the Islamic world—<a href="http://www.wthr.com/story/26416131/2014/08/31/3-columbus-churches-vandalized-with-graffiti-overnight"><span style="color: #0433ff;">church attacks</span></a>, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslims-sexually-enslaving-children-a-global-phenomenon/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">sex-slavery</span></a> and <a href="http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/isis-plot-to-behead-people-on-uk-streets-disrupted-after-police-arrest-four-islamic-terrorists-in-london/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">beheadings</span></a>—it was only natural that the same mainstream media that habitually conceals such atrocities, especially against Christians and other minorities under Islam, would also conceal the reality of jihadi aspirations on Western soil.</p>
<p>As The <a href="http://www.thecommentator.com/article/5433/australia_tragicomic_west_stresses_danger_of_islamophobia"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Commentator</span></a> reports:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]he level of the [media] grovelling after the tragic and deadly saga in Sydney Australia over the last 24 hours has been astounding.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-30490696"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the lead story on the BBC website</span></a> is of course about that very tragedy, in which an Islamist fanatic took a random group hostage in a cafe, ultimately killing two of them.</p>
<p>He did this in the name of Islam. But you wouldn&#8217;t get that impression if you started to read the BBC&#8217;s lead story, which astoundingly managed to avoid mentioning the words Islam, Islamic, Islamist, Muslim, or any derivations thereof for a full 16 paragraphs. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/world/asia/sydney-australia-hostages.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">The New York Times</span></a>, which led by calling the terrorist, Man Haron Monis an &#8220;armed man&#8221;, waited until paragraph 11.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/15/sydney-siege-ends-police-storm-lindt-cafe-hostages-run-out"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Guardian&#8217;s main story</span></a> &#8211; whose lead paragraph simply referred to a &#8220;gunman&#8221; &#8212; you had to wait until paragraph 24.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d have blinked, you&#8217;d have missed it.</p>
<p>….</p>
<p>In the wider media, reports about Muslim fears of a &#8220;backlash&#8221; have been all but ubiquitous.</p></blockquote>
<p>If these are the lengths that Western mainstream media go to dissemble about the Islamic-inspired slaughter of Western peoples, it should now be clear why the ubiquitous Muslim persecution of those unfashionable Christian minorities is also practically unknown by those who follow Western mainstream media.</p>
<p>As with the Sydney attack, media headlines say it all. The 2011 New Year’s Eve Coptic church attack that left 28 dead appeared under vague headlines: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/world/middleeast/04egypt.html?_r=0"><span style="color: #0433ff;">“Clashes grow as Egyptians remain angry after attack,”</span></a> was the <i>New York Times</i>’ headline; and “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102697.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christians clash with police in Egypt after attack on churchgoers kills 21</span></a>” was the <i>Washington Post</i>’s—as if frustrated and harried Christians lashing out against their oppressors is the “big news,” not the unprovoked atrocity itself; as if their angry reaction “evens” everything up.</p>
<p>Similarly, the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> partially told the story of an Egyptian off-duty police officer who, after <a href="http://www1.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Egypt-Christian-shot-dead-and-several-others-injured-in-train-attack_311526616347.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">identifying Copts by their crosses</span></a> on a train, opened fire on them, killing one, while screaming “Allahu Akbar”—but to exonerate the persecution, as caught by the report’s headline: <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-eyewitness-claims-train-attacker-did-not-target-copts-state-media-say.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">“Eyewitness claims train attacker did not target Copts, state media say.”</span></a></p>
<p>A February 2012 NPR report titled “<a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/147370689/in-egypt-christian-muslim-tension-is-on-the-rise"><span style="color: #0433ff;">In Egypt, Christian-Muslim Tension is on the Rise</span></a>,” while meant to familiarize readers with the situation of Egypt’s Christians, prompts more questions than answers them: “In Egypt, growing tensions between Muslims and Christians have led to sporadic violence [initiated by whom?]. Many Egyptians blame the interreligious strife on hooligans [who?] taking advantage of absent or weak security forces. Others believe it’s because of a deep-seated mistrust between Muslims and the minority Christian community [what are the sources of this “mistrust”?].”</p>
<p>The photo accompanying the story is of angry Christians holding a cross aloft—not Muslims destroying crosses, which is what prompted the former to this display of Christian solidarity.</p>
<p>Blurring the line between victim and oppressor—recall the fear of “<a href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2014/12/new-fbi-hate-crime-stats-another-blow-to-islamist"><span style="color: #0433ff;">anti-Muslim backlashes</span></a>” whenever a Muslim terrorizes “infidels” in the West—also applies to the media’s reporting on Muslim persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>A February 2012 <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17169935"><span style="color: #0433ff;">BBC report</span></a> on a church attack in Nigeria that left three Christians dead, including a toddler, objectively states the bare bone facts in one sentence.  Then it jumps to apparently the <i>really</i> big news: that “the bombing sparked a riot by Christian youths, with reports that at least two Muslims were killed in the violence. The two men were dragged off their bikes after being stopped at a roadblock set up by the rioters, police said. A row of Muslim-owned shops was also burned…”</p>
<p>The report goes on and on, with an entire section about “very angry” Christians till one confuses victims with persecutors, forgetting what the Christians are “very angry” about in the first place: nonstop terror attacks on their churches and the slaughter of their women and children.</p>
<p>A <i>New York Times</i> report that appeared on December 25, 2011—the day after Boko Haram bombed several churches during Christmas Eve services, leaving some 40 dead—said that such church bombings threaten “to exploit the already frayed relations between Nigeria’s nearly evenly split populations of Christians and Muslims…”  Such an assertion suggests that both Christians and Muslims are equally motivated by religious hostility—even as one seeks in vain for Christian terror organizations that bomb mosques in Nigeria to screams of “Christ is Great!”</p>
<p>Indeed, Boko Haram has <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigeria-boko-haram-torch-185-churches-captured-towns-borno-adamawa-1468763"><span style="color: #0433ff;">torched 185 churches</span></a>—to say nothing of the countless Christians beheaded—in just the last few months alone.</p>
<p>Continuing to grasp for straws, the same NYT report suggests that the Nigerian government’s “heavy-handed” response to Boko Haram is responsible for its terror, and even manages to invoke another mainstream media favorite: the poverty-causes-terrorism myth.</p>
<p>Whether Muslim mayhem is taking place in the Islamic or Western worlds, the mainstream media shows remarkable consistency in employing an arsenal of semantic games, key phrases, convenient omissions, and moral relativism to portray such violence as a product of anything and everything—political and historical grievances, “Islamophobia,” individual insanity, poverty and ignorance, territorial disputes—not Islam.</p>
<p>As such, Western mainstream media keep Western majorities in the dark about the Islamic threat, here and abroad.  Thus the “MSM” protects and enables the Islamic agenda—irrespective of whether its distortions are a product of intent, political correctness, or sheer stupidity.</p>
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		<title>Europe Should Learn Ethiopia’s ‘Islam Lesson’</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/europe-should-learn-ethiopias-islam-lesson/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=europe-should-learn-ethiopias-islam-lesson</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:40:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[destroyed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ethiopia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Another example of “Islam’s Rule of Numbers.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/burned-out-church-Indonesia.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247532" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/burned-out-church-Indonesia-450x283.jpg" alt="burned-out-church-Indonesia" width="323" height="203" /></a>Originally published by<a href="http://www.vieinter.com/europe/europe-should-learn-ethiopias-islam-lesson/"> VIE</a>.</i></p>
<p>Yet another Christian church was destroyed by Muslims in Ethiopia—this time by local authorities.</p>
<p>Heaven’s Light Church, which served some 100 evangelical Christians, was demolished last November 28.  The church had stood and functioned in the Muslim-majority city of Harar for five years.  In the days preceding the destruction, officials forcibly removed the church’s exterior sign and warned believers not to worship there, citing complaints by a local Muslim.  Officials further told church members who had previously congregated at the church “not to gather under what remains of the church building.”  Accordingly, Christians are now meeting in homes of individual believers.</p>
<p>Prior to the demolition of the church, when some Christian leaders protested, they were illegally detained, released only after community members, “outraged by the wrongful detentions,” called “for their immediate release,” reported <a href="http://www.persecution.org/2014/12/01/local-officials-destroy-evangelical-church-in-muslim-majority-area/">International Christian Concern</a>, a rights advocacy group <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/34160-ethiopia-destroys-evangelical-church-building-100-christians-forced-underground">supporting</a> the Christians:</p>
<p>These are no isolated incidents, explained ICC, adding that it had documented “numerous ongoing land rights battles between churches and their local governments across Ethiopia.”</p>
<p>In many cases, ICC said, “churches have been operating peacefully for decades on land given to them by now-deceased former congregants.”</p>
<p>However efforts by local majority Muslim populations to “eliminate the public presence” of churches resulted in the forceful closure, destruction and demolition of several church buildings in recent years, according to ICC investigators.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Cameron Thomas, accused Ethiopia of violating the rights of devoted Christians. “Corrupt officials willing to defend their religion [Islam] rather than the laws they’ve sworn to uphold, are violating Christians’ rights by forcibly closing, destroying and demolishing churches across Ethiopia,” the official said.</p>
<p>If this is the treatment Christian churches receive by Muslim officials and politicians—“sworn to uphold” the rights of every citizen, not just Muslims—one can imagine the treatment churches receive by Muslim mobs.  One example suffices:</p>
<p>In 2011, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/24/thousands-christians-displaced-ethiopia-muslim-extremists-torch-churches-homes-2057387870/#ixzz2SSF8T1xb">thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes</a> when “Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes” in a Muslim-majority region in western Ethiopia.  At least one Christian was killed, many injured, and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 displaced.  Around the same time, in another area that is 90% Muslim, “all the Christians in the city woke up to find notes on their doors warning them to convert to Islam, leave the city or face death.”</p>
<p>For those few Western observers who live beyond the moment and have an interest in the “big picture”—the world bequeathed to future generations—it is well to reflect on the question of numbers in the context of Ethiopia.  As Jonathan Racho, another official at <a href="http://www.persecution.org/">ICC</a>, earlier said, “It’s extremely disconcerting that in Ethiopia, where Christians are the majority, they are also the victims of persecution.”</p>
<p>That Muslims are an otherwise peaceable minority group in Ethiopia, but in enclaves where they represent the majority, they attack their outnumbered Christian countrymen, suggests that Muslim aggression and passivity are very much rooted in numbers.  This reflects what I call “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islams-rule-of-numbers-and-the-london-beheading/">Islam’s Rule of Numbers</a>,” which holds that,<b> </b>wherever and whenever Muslims grow in number—and thus in strength and confidence—so too does Muslim intolerance for “the other” grow (<a href="http://www.meforum.org/3757/islam-rule-of-numbers">video explanation here</a>).</p>
<p>This naturally has lessons for the West, especially European nations like Britain and France that have a significant and ever-growing Muslim population—and where <a href="http://diversitymachtfrei.blogspot.ca/2014/08/france-muslim-smashes-up-historic.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">church attacks</span></a> and <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/05/22/uk-soldier-beheaded-near-barracks-by-man-who-praised-allah-after-cleaver-attack/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">even</span></a> <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/09/uk-woman-beheaded-in-broad-daylight-by-machete-wielding-muslim-police-rule-out-terrorism"><span style="color: #0433ff;">beheadings</span></a> are now taking place.</p>
<p>By way of final illustration, the reader is left with the story of Islam’s entry into Ethiopia, one of the oldest Christian civilizations.  According to Islamic tradition, in 615, when the pagan Quraysh were persecuting Muhammad’s outnumbered followers and disciples in Arabia, some fled to Ethiopia seeking sanctuary. The Christian king, or “Negus” of Ethiopia, welcomed and protected these Muslim fugitives, ignoring Quraysh demands to return them—and thus reportedly winning Muhammad’s gratitude.</p>
<p>Today, 14 centuries later, when Islam has carved itself a solid niche in Ethiopia, accounting for 1/3 of the population, Muslim gratitude has turned into Muslim aggression—not least a warning to Western states.</p>
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		<title>‘Muslim Reformers’: Forever Talking the Talk, Never Walking the Walk</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/muslim-reformers-forever-talking-the-talk-never-walking-the-walk-1/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslim-reformers-forever-talking-the-talk-never-walking-the-walk-1</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:29:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Moderate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sisi]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Al-Azhar won’t denounce ISIS as “un-Islamic.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/CP-BTV-21.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247529" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/CP-BTV-21-432x350.jpg" alt="CP-BTV-21" width="316" height="256" /></a>Due to its rarity, it’s always notable whenever a top Islamic leader publicly acknowledges the threat of Islamic radicalism and terror.   And yet, such denunciations never seem to go beyond words—and sometimes not even that.</p>
<p>Thus, in “<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/15286/bahrain-islamists"><span style="color: #0433ff;">An Arab Prince Denounces Islamism</span></a>,” Daniel Pipes highlights “a remarkable but thus-far unnoticed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIBgsazvaOE"><span style="color: #0433ff;">address</span></a> on Dec. 5” by Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the crown prince of Bahrain.  In his address, the prince “candidly analyzed the Islamist enemy and suggested important ways to fight it.”</p>
<p>After discussing the positive aspects of this speech, Pipes remarks:</p>
<blockquote><p>So far, perfect. But Salman avoids the bitter reality that the “twisted” and “barbaric” ideology he describes is specifically Islamic and the theocrats are all Muslim: “this war that we are engaged in cannot be against Islam, … Christianity, … Judaism, … Buddhism.” So, when naming this ideology, Salman dithers and generalizes. He proffers an inept neologism (“theo-crism”), then harkens back to World War II for “fascist theocracy.” He implicitly rejects “Islamism,” saying he does not want a “debate about certain political parties, whether they’re Islamist or not.”</p></blockquote>
<p>In fact, this sort of equivocation is typical of ostensibly moderate leaders and institutions throughout the Islamic world.  Consider Egypt.   One of the most appealing characteristics of President Sisi has been his outspokenness concerning the need for a more modern, moderate Islam.<b> </b></p>
<p>For example, months before Sisi was elected president, I <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/gen-sisi-religious-discourse-greatest-challenge-facing-egypt/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">reported/translated</span></a> the following:</p>
<blockquote><p>During his recent speech at the Dept. of Moral Affairs for the Armed Forces [in January 2014], Gen. Abdul Fateh al-Sisi—the man who ousted former President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood in response to the June Revolution and who is seen as the nation’s de facto ruler—declared that “Religious discourse is the greatest battle and challenge facing the Egyptian people, and pointed to the need for a new vision and a modern, comprehensive understanding of the religion of Islam—rather than relying on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years.”</p>
<p>Sisi further “called on all who follow the true Islam to improve the image of this religion in front of the world, after Islam has been for decades convicted of violence and destruction around the world, due to the crimes falsely committed in the name of Islam.”</p></blockquote>
<p>As with the pronunciations of Bahrain’s crown prince, so far so good.  Yet what has Sisi actually <i>done</i> about renewing Islamic discourse since becoming president?  “Absolutely nothing,” says one prominent Egyptian journalist.  Speaking recently on his popular TV show, Ibrahim Eissa said:</p>
<blockquote><p>What is the position of the Egyptian government concerning religious radicalization among the religious parties?  And now I specifically refer to the position of President Sisi concerning this matter.  Five months have passed since he became president, after his amazing showing at elections.  Okay: the president has, more than once, indicated the need for a renewal of religious discourse….  But he has not done a single thing, President Sisi, to renew religious discourse.  Nothing at all.</p></blockquote>
<p>Actually, if anything, it appears the Sisi government has done the reverse, for instance, allowing Salafis—those Egyptian Muslims most similar in ideology to ISIS—<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/salafis-return-to-egypts-mosques-and-media/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">to return to the podium</span></a>.  One political activist called this move</p>
<blockquote><p>a major setback that will make it that much harder for the government to combat reactionary thinking—and this, after the Egyptian public had made great strides against such thinking….  Permitting the Salafi sheikhs to ascend to the pulpits again revives the bitter experiences of confronting this form of thinking, bringing us back to square one.</p></blockquote>
<p>Individuals aside, what about important Islamic institutions that ostensibly condemn terrorism?  How influential are they?  This last December 5, the embassy of Egypt issued a press release <a href="http://www.egyptembassy.net/news/al-azhar-conference-calls-for-muslims-to-combat-extremist-ideology/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">saying</span></a>,</p>
<blockquote><p>Al-Azhar, the oldest center for Islamic learning, pressed for Muslims to combat extremist ideology at an international conference [possibly the same one that the crown prince of Bahrain spoke at] ….  Delegitimizing the ideology of ISIS is an important pillar of the global effort to combat the group. Egypt’s religious leaders play a critical role in that effort.</p></blockquote>
<p>Good words.  Yet, for all its talk about “combatting extremist ideology,” Al Azhar University—perhaps Islam’s most authoritative voice—will <a href="http://www.vetogate.com/1374000"><span style="color: #0433ff;">not</span></a> even denounce the Islamic State as “un-Islamic.”</p>
<p>When pressed on it, an Al Azhar spokesman, Abbas Shouman, recently said: “As an official entity, Al Azhar has never in all its history proclaimed anyone or any organization as un-Islamic …. [B]eing occupied by this question will not lead to anything,” because “Al Azhar <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-islamic-state-and-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">will not judge ISIS or its Islam as un-Islamic</span></a>, for it is not its right, neither concerning ISIS nor anyone else.”</p>
<p>But, as one human rights advocate in Egypt was quick to <a href="http://www.light-dark.net/mobile/post.php?id=198953"><span style="color: #0433ff;">quip</span></a>: “What, didn’t the ulema and sheikhs of Al Azhar denounce as un-Islamic Naguib Mahfouz and Farag Foda and others from among the intellectuals and writers whose activities were stopped and some of whom were assassinated due to Al Azhar’s position?”</p>
<p>Indeed, Farag Foda was a prominent Egyptian professor, writer, and human rights activist who was assassinated after being denounced by none other than Al Azhar.  And although Naguib Mahfouz won the Noble Prize for Literature, his literature was denounced by Al Azhar and, predictably, he was stabbed in the neck with a knife when he was 82-years-old outside his home.</p>
<p>What accounts for this stark double standard—that Al Azhar will vent against secular/humanist Muslims, thus inciting the mob against them, while refusing to denounce the cancerous Islamic State?  Or that it will denounce terrorism, but praise jihad (as in <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/jihad-vs-terrorism-listen-to-what-islams-authorities-say/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">this bizarre article full of twisted logic and semantic quibbling</span></a>)?</p>
<p>Muhammad Abdullah Nasr, <a href="http://www.mcndirect.com/showsubject_ar.aspx?id=58518"><span style="color: #0433ff;">coordinator</span></a> of a group of former Al Azhar graduates who support a civil government, explains:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Islamic State can never denounce the Islamic State as un-Islamic.   For the Islamic State is the working, postgraduate project for graduates from Al Azhar.  And after this statement [refusing to denounce IS as “un-Islamic”], Al Azhar’s mask has fallen….  Everything that the Islamic State does exists in the curriculum of Al Azhar and is taught to students, including apostasy [punishing Muslims who leave Islam], <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islamic-jizya-protection-from-whom/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">payment of jizya</span></a>, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muhammad-and-islams-sex-slaves/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">sex slaves</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslims-sexually-enslaving-children-a-global-phenomenon/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">captivity of women</span></a>.</p></blockquote>
<p>At this late point in the game—as I write, Islamic jihadis are terrorizing Sydney, Australia—all purported Muslim moderates and reformers, individuals and organizations, need to understand—or rather, be made to understand by their Western counterparts—that talking the talk is no longer enough: they must walk the walk before they can ever be taken seriously.</p>
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		<title>Beheading and Raping the Faithful</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Dec 2014 05:05:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[“You think all men are equal?... Islam does not say that all men are equal.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_247180" style="width: 324px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/syriachristianbeheaded.jpg"><img class="wp-image-247180" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/syriachristianbeheaded-450x251.jpg" alt="syriachristianbeheaded" width="314" height="175" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Christian man publicly converts to Islam under duress, before being beheaded.</p></div>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">Originally published by the </span><span class="zw-portion link" style="font-style: italic;"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4927/raping-beheading-faithful" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4927/raping-beheading-faithful" data-type="1">Gatestone Institute</a></span>.</p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Muslims beheading Christians </span><span class="zw-portion">was a visibly growing spectacle</span><span class="zw-portion"> throughout the month of</span><span class="zw-portion"> August. Islamic State militants cut</span><span class="zw-portion"> off a Christian man’s head—after compelling him to say the </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">shehada</span><span class="zw-portion">, the Islamic profession o</span><span class="zw-portion">f faith,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">“There is no god but Allah</span><span class="zw-portion"> and Muhammad is </span><span class="zw-portion">his</span><span class="zw-portion"> messenger.”  When the </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">shehada</span><span class="zw-portion"> is spoken before Muslim witnesses, the speaker becomes Muslim and thus</span><span class="zw-portion">, in theory,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=sbz8o98a284d102b84b5eb829dff21251ebc0#bookmark=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/002-sbt.php" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/002-sbt.php" data-type="2"><span class="zw-portion link">safeguards his life and possession</span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;">s</span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;"> from the jihad</span></a><span class="zw-portion">.  Not so for this hapless man, who, after renouncing his Christian faith for Islam, was still slaughtered on camera (graphic video can be </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTisrEIv1H0" target="_blank" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTisrEIv1H0" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">viewed here</span></a><span class="zw-portion">).  </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/muslims-hack-off-christian-mans-head-after-forcing-him-to-deny-jesus-christ-and-salute-mohammed-as-messenger-of-god-124300/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/muslims-hack-off-christian-mans-head-after-forcing-him-to-deny-jesus-christ-and-salute-mohammed-as-messenger-of-god-124300/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">Christian Post</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> has the story: </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">A Christian man in Syria recently had his head brutally hacked off by Islamic militants after being forced to deny his faith and salute Mohammed as “the messenger of God</span><span class="zw-portion">.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The incident was caught on video for the world to see and broadcast as a warning to “everyone like him</span><span class="zw-portion">.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">In the video that was posted to YouTube with translated captions, the helpless Christian man is surrounded by armed militants wearing masks and he is heard reciting as instructed: “There is no God but God and I testify that Mohammed is the messenger of God.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">An apparent leader in the group of militants is then heard instructing the group: “No one will shoot him now, do you understand? He will not be killed by shooting because it is merciful for him.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">“He will be beheaded because he is Kaffir, non-Muslim, sided [with] the government and was not praying at all. Everyone like him will have the same end, beheading,” said the militant.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">A militant armed with a machete then grabs the defenseless man by the hair and begins to cut his head from his body as the group cries “Allahu Akbar…there is no God but God.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Apparently inspired by the spate of beheadings conducted by the Islamic State, a female British convert to Islam who is believed to have relocated to IS</span><span class="zw-portion"> controlled territories</span><span class="zw-portion"> “</span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2739006/Revealed-How-middle-aged-mother-two-Kent-used-girl-rock-band-reinvented-jihadi-threatening-behead-Christians-blunt-knife.html" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2739006/Revealed-How-middle-aged-mother-two-Kent-used-girl-rock-band-reinvented-jihadi-threatening-behead-Christians-blunt-knife.html" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">is threatening to behead Christians with a blunt knife</span></a><span class="zw-portion">,” according to the Daily</span><span class="zw-portion"> Mail.  Umm Hussain al-Britani—</span><span class="zw-portion">formerly Sally Jones of Chatham, a member of an all-girl rock</span><span class="zw-portion"> band and single mother of two—</span><span class="zw-portion">warned in messages since deleted “You Christians all need </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading with a nice blunt knife and stuck on the railings at raqqa … Come here I’ll do it for you!” </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">In Nigeria, the Islamic group</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> Boko Haram, which seeks to enforce Islami</span><span class="zw-portion">c law over the whole</span><span class="zw-portion"> African nation, beheaded a six-year-old boy—again, </span><span class="zw-portion">simply</span><span class="zw-portion"> because he was Christian.  During </span><span class="zw-portion">Sunday church services</span><span class="zw-portion">, over 100 Islamic militants descended upon </span><span class="zw-portion">Attagara, a </span><span class="zw-portion">Christi</span><span class="zw-portion">an-majority village.  With machetes and machine guns, </span><span class="zw-portion">t</span><span class="zw-portion">hey slaughtered</span><span class="zw-portion"> men, women, and children</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">According to </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.christiantoday.com/article/boko.haram.beheaded.six.year.old.christian.boy/40066.htm" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.christiantoday.com/article/boko.haram.beheaded.six.year.old.christian.boy/40066.htm" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">Christian Today</span></a><span class="zw-portion">, “One villager, Sawaltha Wandala, was arriving at church for the second service when he saw children being massacred. One six-year-old boy had been slashed and thrown into a ditch, but he was alive. Wandala picked him up and was carrying him to a hospital in Cameroon, when he was stopped by five of the militants.  The men reporte</span><span class="zw-portion">dly took the child from Wandala’</span><span class="zw-portion">s arms and beheaded him, then began beating the 55-year-old with tree branches. After striking him in the head with a rock, they left him for dead.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Another Christian man, </span><span class="zw-portion">John Yakuba, </span><span class="zw-portion">w</span><span class="zw-portion">as told by Boko Haram members, “</span><span class="zw-portion">You must convert to Islam or els</span><span class="zw-portion">e you will die a painful death.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">When Yakuba refused to denounce Christ, they tied his arms and legs to a tree, and hacked his hands with a knife.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">“</span><span class="zw-portion">Can you beco</span><span class="zw-portion">me a Muslim now?”</span><span class="zw-portion"> the militants asked.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">“</span><span class="zw-portion">You can</span><span class="zw-portion"> kill my body, but not my soul,”</span><span class="zw-portion"> Yakubu cried out.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The men continued to cut his feet and back with a machete and knife to torture him.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">“We will show you,”</span><span class="zw-portion"> they said.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Yakuba’</span><span class="zw-portion">s head was slashed, and an axe was driven into his knee, reaching the bone.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">He lost consciousness and was left tied to the tree for three days before someone found him, after which he was t</span><span class="zw-portion">aken to the hospital in a coma.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">In a separate attack by </span><span class="zw-portion">Boko</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Haram</span><span class="zw-portion">, where approximately 100 people from a Christian-majority region were killed, a survivor reported:  “I thank God for sparing my life, but three of my neighbors and members of our church were killed during the attack.  These Christians in our village had </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/massacre-in-predominantly-christian-gwoza-nigeria-said-to-leave-100-dead/" target="_blank" data-href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/massacre-in-predominantly-christian-gwoza-nigeria-said-to-leave-100-dead/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">their throats slit with knives</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> while their hands were tied behind their backs. Some houses were bombed as the </span><span class="zw-portion">Boko</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Haram</span><span class="zw-portion"> gunmen were chanting, ‘God is great!’ in Arabic.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">In Kenya, militants from the Somali Al Shabaab Islamic organization abducted a group of traders near the resort island of Lamu, and drove them into a dense forest.  The </span><span class="zw-portion">militants eventually released three of them, because they were Muslims, </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/659031-suspected-al-shabaab-militants-behead-kenyan-driver.html" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/659031-suspected-al-shabaab-militants-behead-kenyan-driver.html" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">but beheaded the fourth, a Christian</span></a><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">If “infidel” Christian men were beheaded, Christian women—including children—were raped and enslaved in various regions of the Islamic world.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">In Iraq, approximately 1,500 Christian and other minorities not able to escape the advance of the Islamic State were gang-raped and sold as sex slaves, some for as little as $25.  A joint statement by two senior UN officials declared that “Atrocious accounts of abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=sbz8o98a284d102b84b5eb829dff21251ebc0#bookmark=" target="_blank" data-href="" data-type="2"><span class="zw-portion link">reports of savage rapes</span></a><span class="zw-portion">, are reaching us in an alarming manner.” One young woman, who managed to hide a mobile phone in the prison, spoke of horrific experiences, including being raped by dozens of men over a few hours.  Other women said </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33665-news-alert-islamic-state-militants-rape-detained-christians-for-refusing-to-convert" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33665-news-alert-islamic-state-militants-rape-detained-christians-for-refusing-to-convert" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">children born out of rape were ripped from their mothers’ arms</span></a><span class="zw-portion">, and never seen again.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where Christians make for less than one percent, dozens of men armed with machetes, knives and iron rods attacked the convent of Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions nuns in Boldipuku), a village mission in north Bangladesh.  “The nuns were beaten and molested, ending when police arrived,” reported Bishop Sebastian Tudu.  </span><span class="zw-portion">According to </span><span class="zw-portion">Catholi</span><span class="zw-portion">c Online, “</span><span class="zw-portion">[S]ome 60 men attempted to loot the building and </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/the-muslim-rape-of-christian-nuns/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/the-muslim-rape-of-christian-nuns/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">rape the nuns</span></a><span class="zw-portion">… The attackers first tied the hands and legs of the mission’s two night watchmen and gagged them in the early morning hours …. Three PIME nuns suffered attempted rape and were sent to their provincial house in Dhaka, the national capital where they are trying to overcome the shock and mental suffering.”  </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">And in Pakistan, y</span><span class="zw-portion">et another Christian girl, </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=sbz8o98a284d102b84b5eb829dff21251ebc0#bookmark=http://www.fides.org/en/news/36237-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Violence_against_minorities_a_12_year_old_Christian_girl_raped_by_a_gang" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/36237-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Violence_against_minorities_a_12_year_old_Christian_girl_raped_by_a_gang" data-type="2"><span class="zw-portion link">12-year-old Muqadas (“Sacred”) was raped by a gang of Muslim men</span></a><span class="zw-portion">.  The girl, who worked as a maid for a Muslim family, was returning home from work “when Muqadas was kidnapped by two Muslim men and three women. They took her inside a school (which was closed) and the two men, identified as Ashraf Alias Achi and Ghaffor Alias Paida raped her repeatedly in turn. </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The girl was later abandoned.”  </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span class="zw-portion">As usual, her family received threats of more violence for filing a complaint with local police.  </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">According to the family’s Christian lawyer, Sardar Mushtaq Gill</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> “In Pakistan rape is used as an instrument of arbitrary power over Christian girls, who come from poor and marginalized families. It is a form of violence that wants to reiterate the submission to Muslims. The rest of society is not outraged because the victims mostly belong to religious minorities, who are the most vulnerable. Rarely rapists are punished. Furthermore, rape victims face terrible difficulties; they do not receive adequate medical treatment for sexual assault. Many girls are traumatized and become depressed and in need of psychological assistance.”  (</span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/the-rape-and-murder-of-pakistans-christian-children/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/the-rape-and-murder-of-pakistans-christian-children/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">See here</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> for more on the sexual abuse of Christian minors in Pakistan.)  For his troubles, Gill, a vocal human rights activist who represents abused Christians, was </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33505-breaking-news-prominent-pakistan-activist-survives-shooting" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33505-breaking-news-prominent-pakistan-activist-survives-shooting" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">again targeted for assassination</span></a><span class="zw-portion">: his home was sprayed with bullets in the night, for the second time.  </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Alt</span><span class="zw-portion">hough beheadings </span><span class="zw-portion">and rape </span><span class="zw-portion">in the Islamic world may seem distant from the minds of most in the West, the exiled Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, warned the West that </span><span class="zw-portion">its</span><span class="zw-portion"> turn will come.  In an interview, Archbishop Amel Shimoun Nona</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/18/Exiled-Archbishop-of-Mosul-I-Have-Lost-My-Diocese-To-Islam-You-in-the-West-Will-Also-Become-Victims-of-Muslims/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/18/Exiled-Archbishop-of-Mosul-I-Have-Lost-My-Diocese-To-Islam-You-in-the-West-Will-Also-Become-Victims-of-Muslims/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">said</span></a><span class="zw-portion">:</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future. I lost my diocese. The physical setting of my apostolate has been occupied by Islamic radicals who want us converted or dead. B</span><span class="zw-portion">ut my community is still alive.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Please, try to understand us. Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle East, because you are welcoming in your countries an ever growing number of Muslims. Also you are in danger. You must take strong and courageous decisions, even at the cost of contradicting your principles. You think all men are equal, but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are equal. Your values are not their values. If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed in your home.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The rest of August’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Muslim Attacks</span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;"> on Churches</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">East Jerusalem</span><span class="zw-portion">: Seven years of harassment and attacks by </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/palestinian-church-forced-out-of-building-in-east-jerusalem-israel/" target="_blank" data-href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/palestinian-church-forced-out-of-building-in-east-jerusalem-israel/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">Muslims finally forced </span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;">Calvary Baptist Church</span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;"> to leave their church building</span></a><span class="zw-portion">.  The attacks began soon after the congregation moved into the building</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">located </span><span class="zw-portion">in 2007 </span><span class="zw-portion">in a predominantly Muslim area</span><span class="zw-portion">. Within 10 days of beginning</span><span class="zw-portion"> meetings and worship services, a Muslim who lived near the church </span><span class="zw-portion">attacked a member with a knife.  </span><span class="zw-portion">Then someone tried to set the buildi</span><span class="zw-portion">ng on fire.  Next came vandalism. F</span><span class="zw-portion">irst</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> cars parked at t</span><span class="zw-portion">he church were damaged, then</span><span class="zw-portion"> property.  Finally, some children were physically as</span><span class="zw-portion">saulted on their way to church.  </span><span class="zw-portion">The </span><span class="zw-portion">congregation was finally evicted after the landlord was threatened</span><span class="zw-portion">. </span><span class="zw-portion"> “How dare you do this,</span><span class="zw-portion">” he was told. </span><span class="zw-portion">“This</span><span class="zw-portion"> is a disgrace to Islam. If you don’t d</span><span class="zw-portion">o anything about this, we will.</span><span class="zw-portion">”  The landlord eventually succumbed to the pressure and the 110-member congregation had to leave the building. </span><span class="zw-portion">This is the third church in</span><span class="zw-portion"> Muslim-majority </span><span class="zw-portion">East </span><span class="zw-portion">Je</span><span class="zw-portion">rusalem to be forced shut </span><span class="zw-portion">in recent years</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">France</span><span class="zw-portion">: </span><span class="zw-portion">I</span><span class="zw-portion">n the early morning of</span><span class="zw-portion"> August 5 at Thonon-les-Bains, a man of about 30, described as a “young Muslim,” committed major acts of vandalism in the church of Saint-Hippolyte and in the adjacent basi</span><span class="zw-portion">lica of Saint-François-de-Sales.  H</span><span class="zw-portion">e overturned and broke two altars, the candelabras and lecterns, destroyed statues, tore down a tabernacle, twisted a massive bronze cross, smashed in a sacristy door and even broke some stained-glass windows.  </span><span class="zw-portion">(</span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://diversitymachtfrei.blogspot.ca/2014/08/france-muslim-smashes-up-historic.html" target="_blank" data-href="http://diversitymachtfrei.blogspot.ca/2014/08/france-muslim-smashes-up-historic.html" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">Click for images</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> of the destruction caused in the church.</span><span class="zw-portion">)</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Iraq</span><span class="zw-portion">:  Soon after the unprecedented </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4572/christian-exodus-islamic-world" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4572/christian-exodus-islamic-world" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">Christian exodus from Mosul</span></a><span class="zw-portion">, after the Islamic State told Christians to convert to Islam or die, </span><span class="zw-portion">a human rights organization</span><span class="zw-portion"> went to northern Iraq to provide assistance and support to all displaced Christians.  It reported </span><span class="zw-portion">that “</span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=sbz8o98a284d102b84b5eb829dff21251ebc0#bookmark=" target="_blank" data-href="" data-type="2"><span class="zw-portion link">around 45 churches in Mosul … were destroyed</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> and converted into mosques and centers for the Islamic State.” According to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako “This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied</span><span class="zw-portion">, their crosses were taken down,</span><span class="zw-portion">” </span><span class="zw-portion">and</span><span class="zw-portion"> up to </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/745547/iraqi-militants-remove-crosses-from-churches-burn-manuscripts-patriarch/" target="_blank" data-href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/745547/iraqi-militants-remove-crosses-from-churches-burn-manuscripts-patriarch/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">1,500 manuscripts</span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;">, many ancient,</span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;"> were burnt</span></a><span class="zw-portion">. </span><span class="zw-portion"> </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Nigeria</span><span class="zw-portion">:  According to Vatican Radio, “In Madagali, </span><span class="zw-portion">Boko</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Haram</span><span class="zw-portion"> are said to have looted parish property, vandalized and then </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/08/30/boko_haram_loots_and_vandalizes_catholic_parish/1105542" target="_blank" data-href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/08/30/boko_haram_loots_and_vandalizes_catholic_parish/1105542" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">set alight buildings belonging to the church</span></a><span class="zw-portion">. Fr. Obasogie was not sure of the number of people killed or of other causalities in the Madagali atta</span><span class="zw-portion">ck but he says there are many</span><span class="zw-portion">….  Christian Churches within Maiduguri Diocese have borne much of the brunt of the terrorist activities…  According to Fr. Obasogie, all Christian churches on the major road linking Maiduguri and Adamawa state have been closed after several acts of terrorism at the hands of </span><span class="zw-portion">Boko</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Haram</span><span class="zw-portion"> sects.” </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Muslim Attacks on</span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;"> Converts to Christianity</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Iran</span><span class="zw-portion">: </span><span class="zw-portion">According to the Idaho wife of Iranian-American Christian pastor</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Saeed Abedini, who has been imprisoned in Iran for nearly two years, her husband has received death threats from Sunni militants from the Islamic State held in the same detention center: “He’s already </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/15/us-usa-iran-pastor-idUSKBN0GF01B20140815" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/15/us-usa-iran-pastor-idUSKBN0GF01B20140815" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">under threat because he is a convert to Christianity</span></a><span class="zw-portion">. Now we understand that ISIS members in the prison have said he is their number one target.” The pastor is in the same ward but a separate section from the Islamic State adherents, his wife said, adding that he is afraid to leave his cell and join the general prison population in the yard for exercise. “I fear for his life,” she said, adding that the couple’s young children have submitted a video to President Barack Obama pleading with him to bring their father safely home.  Separately, </span><span class="zw-portion">Pastor Matthias Haghnejad, a former Muslim, is charged with enmity against Allah, a crime that can be punishable by death, while the fate of two other Christians arrested with him remains unknown.   </span><span class="zw-portion">The pastor</span><span class="zw-portion"> was arrested when intelligence agents stormed his home.  </span><span class="zw-portion">They arrested the church leader</span><span class="zw-portion"> along with Mohammad (Vahid) Roghangir and Suroush Saraie, two other converts staying with him. The agents also seized Bibles, Christian booklets, and the pastor’s personal computer. </span><span class="zw-portion">On August</span><span class="zw-portion"> 3</span><span class="zw-portion">, </span><span class="zw-portion">after being interrogated for two hours, </span><span class="zw-portion">the past</span><span class="zw-portion">or was charged with “Moharebeh,”</span><span class="zw-portion"> or “</span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Iranian-pastor-charged-with-waging-war-against-God.html" target="_blank" data-href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Iranian-pastor-charged-with-waging-war-against-God.html" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">waging war against </span><span class="zw-portion" style="color: #000000;">Allah</span></a><span class="zw-portion">,”</span><span class="zw-portion"> a capital offence in Iran</span><span class="zw-portion">.  </span><span class="zw-portion">All three converts have been targeted by the authorities in the past, including for “evangelism” and “actions against public security.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Kenya</span><span class="zw-portion">:  Hussein Hassan Mohammed, 30, a Muslim convert to Christianity, tearfully recounted his experiences at the hands of Muslims at Mogotio King’s Outreach Church, where he originally announced his conversion in April.  He told of how he was beat</span><span class="zw-portion">en</span><span class="zw-portion"> unconscious inside a mosque, how Islamic leaders had paid assassins to kill him, and how his own father tried to poison him to death (similar to the experiences of another Muslim convert to Christianity in Uganda, </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4857/christians-losing-everything" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4857/christians-losing-everything" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">whose aunt tried to poison him</span></a><span class="zw-portion">)</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion">  For a while he was arrested and tortured because authorities refused to believe that he had really converted to Christianity (they thought he was an Islamic terrorist pretending to be Christian</span><span class="zw-portion">, which happens frequently</span><span class="zw-portion">).  Then, w</span><span class="zw-portion">hile he was recuperating in hospital, he called his father, 72-year-old Hassan Mohammed, who </span><span class="zw-portion">came to visit him at the hospital:</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">“Are you serious about what you told me, that you had embraced the Christian faith?” his father asked, to which </span><span class="zw-portion">Hussein</span><span class="zw-portion">, replied, “Yes.”  Acc</span><span class="zw-portion">ording to the Christian convert,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">“My father came with the food, but my conscience rejected the food.  The doctors noticed that I was restless. I was told to eat the food, but I refused. The doctor tried to give the food to the cat, but it too refused to eat it, hence the food was taken to the laboratory, where it was found that it was a poisoned food.”  Police guarding Mohammed arrested his father. Questioned about why he would want to kill his son, he told them, “</span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/convert-from-islam-in-kenya-released-from-prison-after-beatings-attempted-poisoning/" target="_blank" data-href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/convert-from-islam-in-kenya-released-from-prison-after-beatings-attempted-poisoning/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">My son has forsaken Islam as well as defiling our community by joining Christianity</span></a><span class="zw-portion">.”  Said Hussein: </span><span class="zw-portion">“I thought my father had come to help, but I realized that he had come to kill me</span><span class="zw-portion">.”</span><span class="zw-portion">  </span><span class="zw-portion">Still</span><span class="zw-portion">, when he was discharged from the hospital </span><span class="zw-portion">Hussein</span><span class="zw-portion"> pl</span><span class="zw-portion">e</span><span class="zw-portion">d for the release of his father. Mohammed said he had forgiven his father, </span><span class="zw-portion">and police released his father.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">New Zealand</span><span class="zw-portion">:  Friends of Khalid Muidh Alzahrani, a </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10417951/Fears-for-Saudi-christian-converts" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10417951/Fears-for-Saudi-christian-converts" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">Muslim convert to Christianity</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> known as Daniel, “fear the refugee has been abducted from his Christchurch flat and taken back to Saudi Arabia—home to the Islamic holy city of Mecca—where it is against the law for Muslims to abandon their faith.”  Daniel arrived in Christchurch about five years ago on a Saudi Government scholarship to study English, </span><span class="zw-portion">eventually converted to Christianity and applied</span><span class="zw-portion"> for asylum. He was granted refugee status on the grounds that he would be persecuted in Saudi Arabia, and told friends he was terrified he would be kidnapped and forced to return.  The Saudi ambassador to Ne</span><span class="zw-portion">w Zealand said that Daniel had “insisted”</span><span class="zw-portion"> on returning home to visit his mother and the consulate had paid for his air ticket. But, accordin</span><span class="zw-portion">g to National, “his friends don’t believe it—</span><span class="zw-portion">they say he was last seen in the company of two strange Arab men and believe he was taken out of the country under duress, possibly by agents of the state or family membe</span><span class="zw-portion">rs….</span><span class="zw-portion">There have been numerous documented cases of Saudi nationals being uplifted from foreign countries. In 2012, columnist Hamza Kashgari, who&#8217;d been accused of insulting the prophet Mohammad on Twitter, tried to seek asylum in New Zealand but was intercepted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sent home and jailed without trial.  In May last year, a young Saudi Christian who had arrived in Auckland two months earlier and claimed asylum was snatched off the street by three men just three days before his refugee interview and was flown back to Saudi Arabia, where it is believed he spent time in prison and was tortured. His lawyer, Roger Chambers, said the man had managed to secretly make contact with his friends in Auckland.  ‘He has had a dreadful ti</span><span class="zw-portion">me in Saudi Arabia,”</span><span class="zw-portion"> Chambers said. ‘[He was told] more than once if he did not renounce his Christianity that h</span><span class="zw-portion">e could expect to be beheaded.’”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Yemen</span><span class="zw-portion">: Muslim relatives of a woman who converted to Christianity placed </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/woman-in-yemen-burned-to-death-for-her-faith/" target="_blank" data-href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/08/woman-in-yemen-burned-to-death-for-her-faith/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">gasoline in one of her kitchen bottles, it caused her to catch fire</span></a><span class="zw-portion"> while cooking breakfast for her family; eventually she died from the burns.  </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">Morning Star News</span><span class="zw-portion"> reports: “In southern Yemen, Saeed woke to the sound of screaming. He shot out of bed, pushed panicked family members aside and saw his wife stumbling out of their kitchen, engulfed in flames.  His wife, Nazeera, had been preparing breakfast at about 9 a.m. when she poured liquid from a cooking oil bottle into a hot pan. The liquid flashed, and the bottle exploded. While her four children watched, screaming, Nazeera was being burned alive.  ‘I rushed out of the room,” Saeed (full name undisclosed for security reasons) told Morning Star News, weeping. ‘I couldn’t even speak to ask her what happened. All I could think about was putting the fire out and then getting her to the hospital. But my 16-year-old son, he couldn’t stop himself and held on to her, hugging her while she was </span><span class="zw-portion">burning. He got hurt, and I had to pull him away from her.’  About two weeks later, Nazeera, 33, died as a result of her burns. When Saeed returned to his home in a village (undisclosed for security reasons) after her death, a relative told him the unthinkable—members of both his family and hers had taken the vegetable oil out of the bottle and replaced it with gasoline. Saeed knew the reason—many years ago, the two had become Christians and refused to return to Islam.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Dhimmitude: Islamic Discrimination Against Christianity</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Libya</span><span class="zw-portion">: Roaming bands of armed Islamic militants went door to door in Tripoli’s jewelry stores.  They </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/tripoli-salafis-ban-christian-crosses-and-icons/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/tripoli-salafis-ban-christian-crosses-and-icons/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">ordered the owners to stop selling any crosses or Christian icons</span></a><span class="zw-portion">.  “Immediately thereafter,” report Arabic media, “the store owners collected all the crosses and Christian icons and delivered them to their Christian villages outside of Tripoli.  Other store owners hid the Christian crosses and icons deeply, in the hopes of transferring them somewhere later, because they live in Tripoli and have no outside Christian villages to deliver the banned Christian items to.” </span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">United Kingdom</span><span class="zw-portion">: Yasmin Jackson, a 24-year-old Christian mother, claims staff at Kingswood Daycare Nursery in Mitcham, south London</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=sbz8o98a284d102b84b5eb829dff21251ebc0#bookmark=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2724720/Five-year-old-girl-banned-eating-chicken-sandwich-nursery-staff-wasn-t-halal.html" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2724720/Five-year-old-girl-banned-eating-chicken-sandwich-nursery-staff-wasn-t-halal.html" data-type="2"><span class="zw-portion link">“starved” her five-year-old daughter because her packed food was not halal</span></a><span class="zw-portion">—that is, prepared according to Islamic cus</span><span class="zw-portion">tom.  According to </span><span class="zw-portion">the </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">Daily Mail</span><span class="zw-portion">: “</span><span class="zw-portion">Ms Jackson, a single mother an</span><span class="zw-portion">d former nursery worker, said: ‘</span><span class="zw-portion">When I picked her up at the end of the day the f</span><span class="zw-portion">irst thing she said to me was, “mummy I’</span><span class="zw-portion">m really hungry, can I have my lunch</span><span class="zw-portion"> now?”  The mother went to speak with the manager.  When she asked why her daughter was not allowed to eat her packed lunch, the manager said “We didn’t know if it’s halal.” The mother responded, “W</span><span class="zw-portion">e are a Christian famil</span><span class="zw-portion">y and it was a chicken sandwich,” to which the manager said, “We don’</span><span class="zw-portion">t allow any</span><span class="zw-portion"> non-halal meat in the nursery.”</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">About this Series</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “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:</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">2)          To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">jizya</span><span class="zw-portion"> (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed </span><span class="zw-portion" style="font-style: italic;">dhimmis</span><span class="zw-portion">, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—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.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion" style="font-weight: bold;">Previous Reports</span><span class="zw-portion">:</span></p>
<ul style="color: #000000;" data-level="0">
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/we-need-your-head-muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/we-need-your-head-muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">July, 2014</span></a></p>
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<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/isis-snuffs-out-ancient-christianity-muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/isis-snuffs-out-ancient-christianity-muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">June, 2014</span></a></p>
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<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">May, 2014</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">April, 2014</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">March, 2014</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">February, 2014</span></a></p>
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<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">January, 2014</span></a></p>
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<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">December, 2013</span></a></p>
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<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">November, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">October, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">September, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">August, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">July, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">June, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">May, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">April, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">March, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">February, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">January, 2013</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">December, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">November, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">October, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">September, 2012 </span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">August, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">July, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">June, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">May, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">April, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">March, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">February, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">January, 2012</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">December, 2011</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">November, 2011</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">October, 2011</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">September, 2011</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011" data-type="1"><span class="zw-portion link">August, 2011</span></a></p>
</li>
<li data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]">
<p class="zw-paragraph" data-tabpoints="[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;0.5in&quot;,&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;6&quot;}]"><span class="zw-portion link"><a style="color: blue;" title="" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/" target="_blank" data-href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/" data-type="1">July, 2011</a></span></p>
<p>*</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>David Wood</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discuss <strong>The Top Ten Qur’an Verses to Understand ISIS</strong>:</em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8C1lKjm7ysk" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Ten Ways the Mafia and Islam Are Similar</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/ten-ways-the-mafia-and-islam-are-similar/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=ten-ways-the-mafia-and-islam-are-similar</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/ten-ways-the-mafia-and-islam-are-similar/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2014 05:18:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[godfather]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[koran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MAFIA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muhammad]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246959</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to the clan. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/GF.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246961" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/GF-437x350.jpg" alt="GF" width="287" height="230" /></a><em>Note: The following article was published on</em><em> </em><a href="http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/12/05/10-ways-the-mafia-and-islam-are-similar/?singlepage=true"><em>PJ Media</em></a><em> </em><em>where it is supplemented with clips from various mafia-related movies like</em><em> </em><em>The Godfather <em>to help demonstrate the ten similarities.  Portions of this article were earlier serialized on</em> </em><a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/author/raymond-ibrahim/"><em>FrontPage Magazine</em></a><em>. </em></p>
<p>During <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/other-matters/ben-affleck-portrait-of-islams-clueless-apologetics/">a debate on HBO’s <em>Real Time</em></a> last October, host Bill Maher declared that Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”</p>
<p>Maher was apparently referring to Islam’s “blasphemy” laws, which ban on pain of death any “insult”—as found in a statement, a picture, a book—to Islam and especially its prophet, Muhammad.</p>
<p>While Maher has been criticized for his “Islamophobic” assertion, he and others may be surprised to learn that the similarities between Islam and the mafia far exceed punishing those who say, draw, or write “the wrong thing.”</p>
<p>In what follows, we will examine a number of these similarities.</p>
<p>We will begin by looking at the relationship between Allah, his messenger Muhammad, and the Muslims, and note several parallels with the relationship between the godfather, his underboss, and the mafia.</p>
<p>Next, we will examine the clannish nature of the mafia and compare it to Islam’s tribalism, especially in the context of the Islamic doctrine “Loyalty and Enmity.” For example, in both Islam and the mafia, members who wish to break away, to “apostatize,” are killed.</p>
<p>We will consider how the mafia and Islam have both historically profited from the “protection” racket: Islam has demanded <em>jizya</em> from non-Muslims under its authority/territory and the mafia has demanded <em>pizzo</em> from people that fall under its jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Finally, we will consider what accounts for these many similarities between Islam and the mafia, including from an historical perspective.</p>
<p><strong>1. Allah and Muhammad/Godfather and Underboss </strong></p>
<p>The <em>padrino</em> of larger mafia organizations and families—literally, the “godfather” or “boss of bosses”—has absolute control over his subordinates and is often greatly feared by them for his ruthlessness. He has an “underboss,” a right-hand man who issues his orders and enforces his will. The godfather himself is often inaccessible; mafia members need to go through the underboss or other high ranking associates.</p>
<p>Compare this with the relationship between Allah and his “messenger” Muhammad (in Arabic, Muhammad is most commonly referred to as <em>al-rasul</em>, “the messenger”). Unlike the Judeo-Christian God—a personal God, a Father, that according to Christ is to be communed with directly (Matt 6:9)—Islam’s god, Allah, is unreachable, unknowable, untouchable. Like the godfather, he is inaccessible.   His orders are revealed by his messenger, Muhammad.</p>
<p>If the Judeo-Christian God calls on the faithful to “come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18), Allah says “Do not ask questions about things that, if made known to you, would only pain you” (Koran 5:101). Just follow orders.</p>
<p><strong>2. A “Piece of the Action” </strong></p>
<p>The godfather and his underboss always get a “piece of the action”—a “cut”—of all spoils acquired by their subordinates.</p>
<p>So do Allah and his messenger, Muhammad. Koran 8:41 informs Muslims that “one-fifth of all war-booty you acquire goes to Allah and the messenger” (followed by Muhammad’s family and finally the needy).</p>
<p><strong>3. Assassinations </strong></p>
<p>The godfather, through his underboss, regularly sends mafia men to make “hits”—to assassinate—those deemed enemies of the family.</p>
<p>So did Allah and his messenger. One <a href="http://www.sahih-bukhari.com/Pages/Bukhari_5_59.php">example</a>:  A non-Muslim poet, <a href="http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islam_Undressed:_Muhammad%E2%80%99s_Actions,_Speaking_Louder_than_Words#The_Murder_of_Kab_Ashraf">Ka‘b ibn Ashraf</a>, insulted Muhammad, prompting the latter to exclaim, “Who will kill this man who has hurt Allah and his messenger?” A young Muslim named Ibn Maslama volunteered on condition that to get close enough to assassinate Ka‘b he be allowed to lie to the poet.</p>
<p>Allah’s messenger <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/bukhari/bh4/bh4_274.htm">agreed</a>. Ibn Maslama traveled to Ka‘b and began to denigrate Islam and Muhammad until his disaffection became so convincing that the poet took him into his confidence. Soon thereafter, Ibn Maslama appeared with another Muslim and, while Ka‘b’s guard was down, slaughtered the poet, bringing his head to Muhammad to the usual triumphant cries of “Allahu Akbar!”</p>
<p><strong>4. Circumstance is Everything</strong></p>
<p>While the mafia adheres to a general code of conduct, the godfather issues more fluid orders according to circumstances.</p>
<p>This is reminiscent of the entire “revelation” of the Koran, where later verses/commands contradict earlier verses/commands, depending on circumstances (known in Islamic jurisprudence as <em>al-nāsikh wal-mansūkh</em>, or the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islamic-jihad-and-the-doctrine-of-abrogation/">doctrine of abrogation</a>).</p>
<p>Thus, whereas Allah supposedly told the prophet that “there is no compulsion in religion” (Koran 2:256), <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/how-circumstance-dictates-islamic-behavior/">once the messenger grew strong enough</a>, Allah issued new revelations calling for all-out war/jihad till Islam became supreme (Koran 8:39, 9:5, 9:29, etc.).</p>
<p>While other religions and scriptures may have contradictions, only Islam rationalizes them through abrogation—that is, by giving prominence to later verses which are seen as the “latest” decision of the deity.</p>
<p><strong>5. Clan Loyalty </strong></p>
<p>Loyalty is fundamental in the mafia. Following elaborate rituals of blood oaths, mafia members are expected to maintain absolute loyalty to the family, on pain of death.</p>
<p>Similarly, mafia members are expected always to be available for the family—“<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7086716.stm">even if your wife is about to give birth</a>,” as one of the mafia’s “ten commandments” puts it—and to defend the godfather and his honor, even if it costs their lives.</p>
<p>Compare this to the widespread violence and upheavals that occur whenever Allah or his prophet is offended—whenever non-Muslim “infidels” blaspheme them. Or, as Bill Maher put it: “Its’ the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”</p>
<p>Islam’s “Loyalty and Enmity” doctrine (<a href="http://quranicverse99.tripod.com/islamicways/id15.html"><em>al-wala’ wa’l bara’</em></a>)—which calls on Muslims to be loyal to one another even if they dislike each other—is especially illustrative. Koran 9:71 declares that “The believing [Muslim] men and believing [Muslim] women are allies of one another” (see also 8:72-75). And according to <a href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/muslim/032.smt.html#032.6219">Muhammad</a>, “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim. He neither oppresses him nor humiliates him nor looks down upon him…. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother in faith: his blood, his wealth, and his honor”—precisely those three things that mafia members respect among each other.   This is why Muslims like U.S. Army Major Nidal Hassan, whose “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/nidal-hasan-and-fort-hood/">worst nightmare</a>” was to be deployed to fight fellow Muslims, often lash out.)</p>
<p><strong>6. Death to Traitors </strong></p>
<p>Once a fledging mafia member takes the oath of loyalty to the mafia—including the Omertà code of silence and secrecy—trying to leave the “family” is seen as a betrayal and punishable by death.   Any family member, great or small, is given authority to kill the traitor, the “turncoat.”</p>
<p>Compare this to Islam. To be born to a Muslim father immediately makes the newborn a Muslim—there are no oaths to be taken, much less any choice in the matter.   And, according to Islamic law, if born Muslims at any point in their lives choose to leave Islam, they are deemed “apostates”—traitors—and punished including by death.   Any zealous Muslim, not just the authorities, is justified in killing the apostate (hence why Muslim families that kill apostate children are rarely if ever prosecuted).</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/084-sbt.php">words</a> of Muhammad—the messenger (“underboss”) of Allah (“godfather”): “Whoever leaves his Islamic faith, kill him.”</p>
<p><strong>7. Distrust and Dislike of “Outsiders”</strong></p>
<p>Aside from loyalty to the family, mafia members are also expected not to befriend or freely associate with “outsiders”—who by nature are not to be trusted, as they are not of the “family”—unless such a “friendship” helps advance the family’s position.</p>
<p>Similarly, the second half of the doctrine of Loyalty and Enmity—the enmity (<em>al-bara’</em>)—calls on Muslims to maintain distance from and bear enmity for all non-Muslims, or “infidels.”</p>
<p>Thus Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and Christians as friends and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely one of them.” According to the mainstream Islamic exegesis of al-Tabari, Koran 5:51 means that the Muslim who “allies with them [non-Muslims] and enables them against the believers, that same one is a member of their faith and community,” that is, a defector, an apostate, an enemy.</p>
<p>Similar scriptures include Koran 4:89, 5:54, 6:40, 9:23, and 58:22; the latter simply states that true Muslims do not befriend non-Muslims—“even if they be their fathers, sons, brothers, or kin.” Koran 60:1 declares, “O you who believe! Do not take my enemy and your enemy [non-believers] for friends: would you offer them love while they deny what has come to you of the truth [i.e., while they deny Islam]?” And Koran 4:144 declares “O you who believe! Do not take the infidels as allies instead of the believers. Do you wish to give Allah [“godfather”] a clear case against yourselves?”</p>
<p><strong>8. Deception and Dissimulation </strong></p>
<p>As mentioned, close relations to non-mafia individuals that prove advantageous to the family (for example, collaboration with a “crooked cop”) are permissible—as long as the mafia keeps a safe distance, keeps the outsider at arm’s length.</p>
<p>Compare this to Koran 3:28 which commands “believers not to take infidels for friends and allies instead of believers… unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions.” According to the standard Koran commentary of Tabari, “taking precautions” means:</p>
<blockquote><p>If you [Muslims] are under their [non-Muslims’] authority, fearing for yourselves, behave loyally to them with your tongue while harboring inner animosity for them … [but know that] Allah has forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels rather than other believers—except when infidels are above them [in authority]. Should that be the case, let them <em>act friendly</em> towards them while preserving their religion.</p></blockquote>
<p>After interpreting Koran 3:28 as meaning that Muslims may “protect” themselves “through outward show” when under non-Muslim authority, Ibn Kathir, perhaps Islam’s most celebrated exegete, quotes Islam’s prophet (“underboss”) saying: “Truly, we smile to the faces of some people, while our hearts curse them.”</p>
<p>Similarly, a few years ago, Sheikh Muhammad Hassan—a leading Salafi cleric in Egypt—<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/sharias-sinister-smiles/">asserted on live television</a> that, while Muslims should never smile to the faces of non-Muslims, they should smile, however insincerely, if so doing helps empower Islam, especially in the context of <em>da‘wa</em>.</p>
<p>The idea of hating “outsiders” is apparently so ingrained in Islam that another leading Salafi cleric, Dr. Yasser al-Burhami, insists that, while Muslim men may marry Christian and Jewish women, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-ultimate-source-of-islamic-hate-for-infidels/">they must hate them in their heart</a>—and show them that they hate them in the hopes that they convert to the “family” of Islam.</p>
<p>(For more on the doctrine of “Loyalty and Enmity,” including references to the exegetical sources quoted above, see al-Qaeda leader Dr. Ayman Zawahiri’s comprehensive treatise by that name in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Qaeda-Reader-Essential-Organization/dp/076792262X/ref=rec_dp_0"><em>The Al Qaeda Reader</em></a>, pgs. 63-115.)</p>
<p><strong>9. “An Offer You Can’t Refuse”</strong></p>
<p>Although the novel-turned-movie, <em>The Godfather</em>, is fictitious, it also captures much of the mafia’s modus operandi. Consider, for example, that most famous of lines—“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeldwfOwuL8&amp;spfreload=10">I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse</a>”—spoken by the Godfather to one of his “godsons,” an aspiring actor and singer. After being turned down by a studio director for a role that he desperately wanted, the godson turned to his Godfather for aid.</p>
<p>As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that the offer that can’t be refused consists of nothing less than violence and death threats: after the Godfather’s messenger to the director asking that the actor be given the role is again rejected, the director awakens the next morning to find the bloodied and decapitated head of his favorite stallion in bed with him. The godson subsequently gets the movie role.</p>
<p>Throughout the context of the entire <em>Godfather</em> trilogy (which captures well the mafia’s approach to business) making someone “an offer they can’t refuse” means “do as I say or suffer the consequences,” possibly death.</p>
<p>Compare this to Islam’s threefold choice. On Muhammad’s <a href="http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/002-sbt.php#001.002.025">orders</a>, whenever Muslims conquer a territory in the name of Islam, its non-Muslim inhabitants are given three choices: 1) convert to Islam (“join the family”), 2) keep your religious identity but pay tribute (<em>jizya</em>, see below) and live as an “outsider,” a subjugated <em>dhimmi</em> or 3) execution.</p>
<p>Throughout history, converting to Islam has been an “offer” that countless non-Muslims could not refuse. In fact, this “offer” is responsible for transforming much of the Middle East and North Africa, which were Christian-majority in the 7<sup>th</sup> century when the jihad burst forth from Arabia, into the “Muslim world.”</p>
<p>And this <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/western-ignorance-of-the-conditions-of-omar/">offer is still alive and well today</a>. For example, several older and disabled Christians who were not able to join the exodus out of Islamic State controlled territories <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/world-ignores-christian-exodus-from-islamic-world/">opted to convert to Islam rather than die</a>.</p>
<p>Like the mafia, then, Islam’s offer to conquered non-Muslims (“outsiders”) is basically “join our ‘family,’ help us and we will help you; refuse and we hurt you.”</p>
<p><strong>10. The “Protection” Racket</strong></p>
<p>Once the mafia takes over a territory, one of the primary ways it profits is by collecting “protection money” from its inhabitants. While the protection racket has several aspects, one in particular is akin to an Islamic practice: coercing people in the mafia’s territory to pay money for “protection,” ostensibly against outside elements; in fact, the protection bought is from the mafia itself—that is, extortion money, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzo_(extortion)"><em>pizzo</em></a>.   Potential “clients” who refuse to pay for the mafia’s “protection” often have their property vandalized and are routinely threatened and harassed.</p>
<p>Compare the collection of <em>pizzo</em> with the Islamic concept of <em>jizya</em>: The word <em>jizya</em> appears in Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and his Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth, <em>until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued</em> (emphasis added).”</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/muslim/019-smt.php#019.4294">hadith</a>, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad—in our analogy, the “underboss”—regularly calls on Muslims to demand <em>jizya</em> from non-Muslims:  “If they refuse to accept Islam,” said the prophet, “demand from them the <em>jizya</em>. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay <em>jizya</em>, seek Allah’s help and fight them.”</p>
<p>The root meaning of the Arabic word “jizya” is simply to “repay” or “recompense,” basically to “compensate” for something.  According to the <em>Hans Wehr Dictionary</em>, the standard Arabic-English dictionary, <em>jizya</em> is something that “takes the place” of something else, or “serves instead.”</p>
<p>Simply put, conquered non-Muslims were to <em>purchase their lives</em><em>,</em> which were otherwise forfeit to their Muslim conquerors, with money.  As one medieval jurist succinctly puts it, “their lives and their possessions are only protected by reason of payment of <em>jizya</em>” (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"><em>Crucified Again</em></a>, p. 22).</p>
<p>And to top it off, just as the mafia rationalizes its collection of “protection money” by portraying it as money that buys mafia protection against “outsiders”—when, as mentioned, the money/tribute serves only to protect the client from the mafia itself—so too do <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islamic-jizya-protection-from-whom/">Islam’s apologists portray the collection of jizya</a> as money meant to buy Muslim protection from outsiders, when in fact the money/jizya buys protection from Muslims themselves.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion: Mafia—What’s In a Word?</strong></p>
<p>What accounts for all these similarities between Islam and the mafia? One clue is found in the fact that the very word “mafia,”which means “hostility to the law, boldness,” is derived from an Arabic word, <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mafia?s=t"><em>mahya</em></a>, which in translation means “bragging, boasting, bravado, and swaggering.”</p>
<p>This etymology is a reminder that Sicily, birthplace of the mafia, was under Arab/Islamic domination for over 200 years. Aside from a borrowed etymology, could some of the mafia’s modus operandi also have been borrowed from Islam? Isolated on their island, could native Sicilians have co-opted the techniques of social controls that they had lived under and learned from their former overlords—albeit without their Islamic veneer?</p>
<p>The mafia is not the only historical example of a non-Muslim criminal organization to be influenced by Islam. For example, the Thuggees — whence we get the word “thug” — were a brotherhood of allied bandits and assassins who waylaid and savagely murdered travelers in India, often by first feigning friendship. Although they were later associated with the Hindu cult of Kali, the original Thuggees were all Muslim. As late as the 19<sup>th</sup> century, a large number of Thuggees captured and convicted by the British were Muslim.</p>
<p>The similarities are clear: Along with assassinating his opponents, including, as seen, through treachery, Muhammad also personally engaged in banditry, ransacking the caravans of enemy tribes.</p>
<p>And if the words “mafia” and “thug” have Arabic/Islamic etymologies, the words “assassinate” and “assassin” are derived from a Medieval Islamic sect: the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/islamic-assassination-silencing-freedom-fighters/"><em>Hashashin</em></a>, who pioneered the use of political assassination—with <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/was-marco-polo-an-islamophobe/">promises of a hedonistic paradise</a> for the assassin who almost certainly died—in the name of Islam.</p>
<p>At any rate, when HBO personality Bill Maher recently proclaimed that Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book,” he was barely touching on the similarities between the mafia and other criminal organizations, and Islam.</p>
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		<title>Islam: Built on the Blood of (Christian Child) Martyrs</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/islam-built-on-the-blood-of-christian-child-martyrs/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islam-built-on-the-blood-of-christian-child-martyrs</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:28:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[beheading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ISIS's gruesome crimes against Christian children who refuse to renounce Jesus. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/450667614.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246752" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/450667614-450x350.jpg" alt="IRAQ-UNREST-CHRISTIANS" width="359" height="279" /></a>In a recent interview on CBN News, Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” <a href="http://www.cbn.com/tv/3879370412001"><span style="color: #0433ff;">tried to recount</span></a> the horrific atrocities Christians in Iraq are suffering at the hands of the Islamic State.  After explaining how Christian minorities fled Baghdad to Ninevah when Islamic militants began terrorizing them and bombing their churches, White said:</p>
<blockquote><p>Then one day, ISIS, the Islamic State, the Islamic caliphate came [to Ninevah] and they hounded all of them [Christians] out.   Not some, <i>all</i> of them.  And they killed huge numbers.  They chopped their children in half; they chopped their heads off.</p></blockquote>
<p>It should be noted that the targeting of Christian children in Iraq goes back years before the creation of ISIS.  For example, in June 2008, a Canadian parliamentary committee heard about how “militant Muslims” were <a href="http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e7649576-0ebe-4b4f-b803-9a2c64449c41"><span style="color: #0433ff;">crucifying Christian children</span></a>: “Since the war began in 2003, about 12 children, many as young as 10, have been kidnapped and killed, then nailed to makeshift crosses near their homes to terrify and torment their parents.”</p>
<p>During his interview, White offered the following, likely surreal to Western sensibilities, anecdote:</p>
<blockquote><p>ISIS turned up and they said to the [Christian] children, “You say the words [<i>shehada</i>, convert to Islam], that you will follow Muhammad.”  And the children, all under 15, four of them, they said, “No, we love Jesus [Yesua].  We have always loved Jesus.  We have always followed Jesus.  Jesus has always been with us.”  They [ISIS] said, “Say the words!”  They [children] said, “No, we can’t.”  [White starts sobbing] They chopped all their heads off.  How do you respond to that?  You just cry.  They’re my children.   That is what we have been going through.  That is what we <i>are</i> going through.</p></blockquote>
<p>As callous as it is to say, perhaps these faithful children are better off.  After all, ISIS members have been known to compel Christians to convert to Islam, and <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/muslims-hack-off-christian-mans-head-after-forcing-him-to-deny-jesus-christ-and-salute-mohammed-as-messenger-of-god-124300/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">still cruelly hack their heads off</span></a>—thus damning them twice.</p>
<p>Similarly, in one of his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/apbw2/posts/10152620972646369"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Facebook postings</span></a>, White wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Today’s Pictures are too awful to show.  You know I love to show photos but the photo I was sent today was the most awful I have ever seen.  A family of 8 all shot through the face laying in a pool of blood with their Bible open on the couch. They would not convert it cost them their life.</p></blockquote>
<p>During his CBN interview, White also told of how ISIS members came to a Christian man saying, “Either you convert to Islam or we kill all your children.”  The desperate father declared the words, the <i>shehada</i>, that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,” thus becoming a Muslim.  Contrite at heart, he phoned White crying, “Abouna, abouna [father, father] I said the words! Does that mean Jesus doesn’t love me anymore?  I’ve always loved Jesus but I said those words because I couldn’t see my children being killed!”</p>
<p>White responded: “No Elias, Jesus still loves you—he will always love you.”</p>
<p>The two types of anecdotes offered by White—Christians refusing to embrace Islam and dying for it, and Christians embracing Islam under duress—are an integral part of how the “Islamic world,” the majority of which was almost entirely Christian before <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-historical-reality-of-the-muslim-conquests/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the Islamic conquests</span></a>, came into being: a historic fact Western people were once well acquainted with, before the current age of <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/surreal-and-suicidal-modern-western-histories-of-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">political correctness and alternate realities</span></a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark="><span style="color: #0433ff;">historic anecdote</span></a> that combines the twain—forced conversion to Islam followed by Christian remorse—comes from Egypt:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1389, a great procession of Copts who had accepted Muhammad under fear of death, marched through Cairo.  Repenting of their apostasy, they now wished to atone for it by the inevitable consequence of returning to Christianity. So as they marched, they announced that they believed in Christ and renounced Muhammad. They were seized and all the men were beheaded one after another in an open square before the women. But this did not terrify the women; so they, too, were all martyred. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Crucified Again</i></span></a>, pgs. 113-114)</p></blockquote>
<p>First forced to convert and then forced to remain in Islam—both on pain of death: these are two facts of Islam, past and present; facts that, according to top ranking Islamic cleric Sheikh Qaradawi are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMu8ihDlVA"><span style="color: #0433ff;">responsible for the existence of Islam today</span></a>.  Just ask  Sudan’s <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islam-appalling-and-abhorrent-in-the-eyes-of-a-blind-world/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Meriam Ibrahim</span></a>, Egypt’s <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christian-convert-illegally-imprisoned-and-tortured-begins-hunger-strike/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muhammad Hegazy</span></a>, or Iran’s (rather America’s forsaken) Saeed Abedini.</p>
<p>Aside from the numerous historic accounts of Christians slaughtered for refusing Islam—whether <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-importance-of-witnesses-newly-translated-georgian-christian-martyrdoms-expose-islamic-jihad-continuity/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">100,000 Georgian beheaded or burned alive</span></a>, or a <a href="http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/how-the-800-martyrs-of-otranto-saved-rome"><span style="color: #0433ff;">“mere” 813 Italians beheaded</span></a>—Christians are still being forced to convert to Islam, and not just at the hands of ISIS:</p>
<p>•Palestine, July 2012: Christians in Gaza protested over the “<a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark=http://global.christianpost.com/news/christians-say-forced-conversions-to-islam-happening-in-gaza-79011/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">kidnappings and forced conversions of some former believers to Islam</span></a>.”  The ever-dwindling Christian community banged on a church bell <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/16/christians-in-gaza-protesting-forced-conversions-to-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">while chanting</span></a>, “With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus.”</p>
<p>•Pakistan:  In 2004,<a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark=http://www.fides.org/en/news/35368-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Women_in_Pakistan_Christian_girls_raped_by_Muslims"><span style="color: #0433ff;"> a-two-year old child was raped because her Christian father “refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.”  Another “devoted Christian” was <a href="http://www.persecution.org/2010/03/23/muslims-murder-pakistani-christian-with-axe-blows/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">butchered by Muslim men</span></a> “with multiple axe blows [24 per autopsy] for refusing to convert to Islam.” In April 2014, A Muslim security guard <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/family-of-christian-shot-dead-in-pakistan-doubts-suicide-claim/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">murdered a Christian worker who refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.</p>
<p>•Uganda, July 2014: After a gang of Muslims brandishing machetes stormed a church during service, <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Christian-teenager-killed-by-machete-in-attack-on-church-in-Uganda.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">hacking one 18-year-old woman to death</span></a> and leaving three others, including a one-year-old baby, injured, the pastor explained that the attackers belong to a local “group of Muslims” which seeks “to transform [Christian-majority] Uganda into an Islamic nation and would kill anyone who refused to convert.”</p>
<p>•Nigeria, May 2014: A Christian teenage girl told of how Boko Haram came to her household and slaughtered her father and brother <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/christian-teen-whose-dad-brother-slain-boko-haram-was-denied-us-visa"><span style="color: #0433ff;">because they refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.  After abusing her, they tied her up and left her in a state of shock between the two corpses.</p>
<p>•Bangladesh, October 2013:  After shutting down the construction of a church, a local government official threatened Christians with eviction from their village unless they renounced their faith and <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/world/41264-bangladeshi-christians-told-to-close-church-convert-to-islam"><span style="color: #0433ff;">embraced Islam</span></a>.  Said one of the Christians: “Their threats chilled me to the bone. That is why I pretended to accept Islam, but faith in Christ is the wellspring of my life.” Another said: “The chairman is clipping the wings of our faith. I do not know how long we can grin and bear it. We want religious freedom. We want to practice our religion freely.”</p>
<p>•Russia, 2013: In Tatarstan, a Muslim-majority republic in Russia, seven churches were burned and “<a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Russia:-seven-churches-burned-in-one-year-in-Tatarstan-29713.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">increased pressure on Christians to convert to Islam</span></a>” was widespread.</p>
<p>•Uzbekistan, August 2012: A 26-year-old Christian woman, partially paralyzed from youth, and her elderly mother were violently attacked by invaders who ransacked their home, confiscating “icons, Bibles, religious calendars, and prayer books.” At the police department, the paralyzed woman was “<a href="http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&amp;cid=3&amp;nid=20659"><span style="color: #0433ff;">offered to convert to Islam</span></a>.” She refused and was accordingly fined almost two years’ worth of her wages.</p>
<p>Pakistan, Uganda, Russia, Nigeria, Palestine, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh: these are not “ISIS.”  Yet Christians there are experiencing the same intolerance and violence that Christians under ISIS are experiencing.</p>
<p>The lesson?  If all around the Muslim world Christian minorities are being forced to embrace Islam, the very least the non-Muslim world can do is embrace the fact that <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-koran-and-eternal-war/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Islam is inherently hostile</span></a>—a costly lesson that countless innocents have been paying for nearly 1,400 years.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Christian Convert Illegally Imprisoned and Tortured, Begins Hunger Strike</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/christian-convert-illegally-imprisoned-and-tortured-begins-hunger-strike/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=christian-convert-illegally-imprisoned-and-tortured-begins-hunger-strike</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:18:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bishoy Armia Boulous]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Convert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hunger strike]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Victim of religious persecution vows to starve himself to death. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/egypt-bishoy.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246557" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/egypt-bishoy.jpg" alt="egypt-bishoy" width="319" height="255" /></a>According to attorney Karam Ghobrial (“Gabriel”), his client, Bishoy Armia Boulous, a Muslim convert to Christianity, <a href="http://www.coptstoday.com/Copts-News/Detail.php?Id=91625"><span style="color: #0433ff;">remains</span></a> illegally incarcerated and has “vowed to starve himself to death.”</p>
<p>Bishoy, more notoriously known as Mohammed Hegazy, is the first Egyptian ever to try legally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his official ID, prompting much shock and outrage in Muslim-majority Egypt.</p>
<p>Ghobrial further cited that Bishoy’s detention—in the execution room no less—is illegal, prompted solely by malicious charges against him, all of which stem from his original attempt to formally change his religious identity.</p>
<p>In the words of his lawyer: “Bishoy is imprisoned in the execution room in violation of the law.  Trumped up charges against him have not been proven and he is being treated even worse.  He has not seen the light [of day] since being released from Minya’s misdemeanor court.”</p>
<p>Bishoy was arrested in July 2014.  Then, the judge in Minya cited “disturbing the peace by broadcasting false information” as the reason for sentencing the apostate, who in the weeks before was documenting political unrest in Egypt brought on by numerous Islamic attacks on Christians.   He was eventually released, but then immediately scooped up again by State Security acting on behalf of Cairo, now under the charge of insulting the Islamic faith.</p>
<p>Bishoy’s lawyer further said that “the [current] judge is behaving in a prejudiced manner in this case because Bishoy had public announced his conversion to Christianity.”  He stressed the “need for attention to this case, and escalating it, so everyone knows what this convert is being exposed to.”</p>
<p>Bishoy has been imprisoned for nearly six months, without any action being done in his case.  He is being held on charges of “contempt to the Islamic religion” and reportedly spreading “false news” about the existence of State Security “torture chambers” where Muslim converts to Christianity are detained and tortured.  Bishoy apparently refuses to recant this claim (quite possibly because he himself is now experiencing it first hand).</p>
<p>As lawyer Karam Ghobrial maintains, it is clear that the real reason his client is being tortured in prison—where he is being held illegally under ever morphing charges—has to do with what made Bishoy Armia, formerly Mohammed Hegazy, notorious in Egypt in the first place: his audacity not only to convert to Christianity, but to try formally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his ID card, prompting much enmity for him in Egypt.</p>
<p>In short, Bishoy is just another prisoner of conscience, just another born Muslim who wishes to be Christian—but whose actions have been deemed offensive to the state.  His story occurs with great frequency all around the Islamic world.  In nearby Iran, for example, Iranian-American Christian pastor Saeed Abedini—also seen as an apostate agitator—continues to rot in prison.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>The Koran and Eternal War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/the-koran-and-eternal-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-koran-and-eternal-war</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2014 05:04:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[infidels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[koran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslims]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[If some Islamic texts are banned for inciting terrorism, what about the Koran?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #202021;"><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Koran-book.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246203" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Koran-book.jpg" alt="Koran-book" width="308" height="216" /></a>Originally published by </em><em><a style="color: #cf0000;" href="http://www.vieinter.com/otherregions/the-quran-and-eternal-war/">VIE.</a></em></p>
<p style="color: #202021;">News recently emerged that Russia was banning key Islamic scriptures—including Sahih Bukhari—on the charge that they promote “exclusivity [supremacism] of one of the world’s religions,” namely Islam; or, in the words of a senior assistant to the prosecutor of Tatarstan Ruslan Galliev, “a militant Islam” which “arouses ethnic, religious enmity.”</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">If Sahih Bukhari, a nine-volume hadith collection compiled in the 9th century and seen by Sunni Muslims as second in importance only to the Koran itself is being banned for inciting hostility, where does that leave the Koran?</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">After all, if <a style="color: #cf0000;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/is-russia-banning-islam/">Sahih Bukhari contains pro-terrorism</a> statements attributed to the prophet of Islam and calls to kill Muslims who leave Islam, the Koran, Islam’s number one holy book itself is full of intolerance and calls for violence against non-believers. A tiny sampling of proclamations from Allah follows:</p>
<ul style="color: #202021;">
<li>“I will cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, so strike [them] upon the necks [behead them] and strike from them every fingertip’” (Koran 8:12).</li>
<li>“Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued” (Koran 9:29).</li>
<li>“Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them—seize them, besiege them, and make ready to ambush them!” (Koran 9:5).</li>
<li>“Fighting has been enjoined upon you [Muslims] while it is hateful to you” (2:216).</li>
</ul>
<p style="color: #202021;">That Islam’s core texts incite violence and intolerance has many ramifications, for those willing to go down this path of logic.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">For example, as I <a style="color: #cf0000;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/how-religious-defamation-laws-would-ban-islam/">argued more fully here</a>, although Muslims around the world, especially in the guise of the 57-member state Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), continue to push for the enforcement of “religious defamation” laws in the international arena, one great irony is lost, especially on Muslims: if such laws would ban movies and cartoons that defame Islam, they would also, by logical extension, need to ban the religion of Islam itself—the only religion whose core texts actively defame other religions.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">Consider what the word “defamation” means: “to blacken another’s reputation” and “false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another, as by slander or libel,” are typical dictionary definitions.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">What, then, do we do with Islam’s core religious texts—not just Sahih Bukhari but the Koran itself, which slanders, denigrates and blackens the reputation of other religions?</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">Consider Christianity alone: Koran 5:73 declares that “Infidels are they who say God [or “Allah”] is one of three,” a reference to the Christian Trinity; Koran 5:72 says “Infidels are they who say God is the Christ, [Jesus] son of Mary”; and Koran 9:30 complains that “the Christians say the Christ is the son of God … may Allah’s curse be upon them!”</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">Surely such verses defame the Christian religion and its central tenets—not to mention create hostility towards its practitioners.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">In short, the argument that some Islamic books should be banned on grounds that they incite segregation and violence is applicable to the Koran itself, which unequivocally defames and creates hostility for unbelievers, that is, non-Muslims.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">That said, in the “real world” (as it currently stands), the very idea of banning the Koran—believed by over a billion people to be the unalterable word of God—must seem inconceivable.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">For starters, whenever Muslims are pressed about the violent verses in the Koran, they often take refuge in the argument that other scriptures of other religions are also replete with calls to violence and intolerance—so why single out the Koran?</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">To prove this, Muslim apologists almost always point to the Hebrew Scriptures, more widely known as the “Old Testament.”  And in fact, the Old Testament is replete with violence and intolerance—all prompted by the Judeo-Christian God.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">The difference between the violent passages in the Koran and those in the Old Testament (as more <a style="color: #cf0000;" href="http://www.meforum.org/2159/are-judaism-and-christianity-as-violent-as-islam">comprehensively explained here</a>) is this: the Old Testament is clearly describing historic episodes whereas the Koran, while also developed within a historical context, uses generic, open-ended language that transcends time and space, inciting believers to attack and slay nonbelievers today no less than yesterday.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">Thus in the Old Testament God commands the Hebrews to fight and kill “Hittites,” “Amorites,” “Canaanites,” “Perizzites,” “Hivites,” and “Jebusites”—all specific peoples rooted to a specific time and place; all specific peoples that have not existed for millennia.  At no time did God give an open-ended command for the Hebrews, and by extension their Jewish descendants, to fight and kill all “unbelievers.”</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">To be sure, Muslims argue that the verses of the Koran also deal with temporal, historical opponents, including the polytheists of Mecca, and to a lesser extent, the Byzantine and Sassanian empires.</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">The problem, however, is that rarely if ever does the Koran specify who its antagonists are the way the Old Testament does.  Instead, Muslims were (and are) commanded to fight the “People of the Book,” which Islamic exegesis interprets as people with scriptures, namely, Christians and Jews—“<em>until</em> they pay the jizya with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued” (9:29) and to “slay the idolaters <em>wherever</em> you find them” (9:5).</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">The two Arabic conjunctions “until” (<em>hata</em>) and “wherever” (<em>haythu</em>) demonstrate the perpetual and ubiquitous nature of these commandments: There are still “People of the Book” who have yet to “feel themselves utterly subdued” (especially all throughout the Americas, Europe, and Israel) and “idolaters” to be slain “wherever” one looks (especially Asia and sub-Saharan Africa).</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">In fact, the salient feature of almost all of the violent commandments in Islamic scriptures is their open-ended and generic nature: “Fight <em>them</em> until there is no more chaos and [all] religion belongs to Allah” (Koran 8:39).</p>
<p style="color: #202021;">This fact will ensure that as long as the Koran proliferates and is read as God’s literal word, its readers will continue to exist in a dichotomized world, themselves versus the rest.</p>
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		<title>Is Russia Banning Islam?</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2014 05:20:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[What the ban on Islam’s second most important book suggests.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/140212_feifer_putin_ap.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245980" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/140212_feifer_putin_ap-388x350.jpg" alt="Vladimir Putin" width="320" height="289" /></a>Russia appears to be taking serious moves to combat the “radicalization” of Muslims within its border.</p>
<p>Recent pro-Islamic <a href="http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/146939/russian-muslims-slam-ban-on-books"><span style="color: #0433ff;">reports</span></a> are <a href="http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/analysis/asia/19966-sahih-al-bukhari-to-be-banned-in-russia"><span style="color: #0433ff;">complaining</span></a> that Russia is banning the Islamic hijab—the headdress Islamic law requires Muslim women to wear—and, perhaps even more decisively, key Islamic scriptures, on the charge that they incite terrorism.</p>
<p>In the words of Arabic news site <a href="http://www.elaph.com/Web/News/2014/11/954683.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Elaph</span></a>, “Russia is witnessing a relentless war on the hijab.  It began in a limited manner but has grown in strength, prompting great concern among Russia’s Muslims.”</p>
<p>The report continues by saying that women wearing the hijab are being “harassed” especially in the “big cities”; that they are encountering difficulties getting jobs and being “subject to embarrassing situations in public areas and transportation.  The situation has gotten to the point that even educational institutions, including universities, have issued decrees banning the wearing of the hijab altogether.”</p>
<p>Moscow’s Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University appears mentioned as one of the schools to ban the donning of the hijab on its premises, specifically, last September (the <i>New York Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/world/europe/russian-regions-hijab-ban-puts-squeeze-on-muslims.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0"><span style="color: #0433ff;">bemoaned</span></a> an earlier instance of anti-hijab sentiment in 2013).</p>
<p>While this move against the hijab may appear as discriminatory against religious freedom, the flipside to all this—which perhaps Russia, with its significant Muslim population is aware of—is that, wherever the Islamic hijab proliferates, so too does Islamic supremacism and terrorism.  Tawfik Hamid, a former aspiring Islamic jihadi, says that “the proliferation of the hijab is strongly correlated with increased terrorism…. Terrorism became much more frequent in such societies as Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, and the U.K. after the hijab became prevalent among Muslim women living in those communities.”</p>
<p>The reason for this correlation is clear: strict Islamic Sharia commands jihad (“terrorism”) against unbelievers just as it commands Muslim women to don the hijab. Where one proliferates—evincing adherence to Sharia—so too will the other naturally follow.</p>
<p>But Russia’s growing list of Islamic books to be banned on the charge that they incite terrorism is perhaps more significant.  Elaph continues: “This move [ban on the hijab] coincides with a growing number of religious books to be prohibited, with dozens of them being placed on the terrorist list, including Sahih Bukhari and numerous booklets containing verses from the Koran and sayings of the prophet.”</p>
<p>According to Apastovsk district RT prosecutors, Sahih Bukhari is being targeted <a href="http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/analysis/asia/19966-sahih-al-bukhari-to-be-banned-in-russia"><span style="color: #0433ff;">because</span></a> it promotes “exclusivity of one of the world’s religions,” namely Islam, or, in the words of a senior assistant to the prosecutor of Tatarstan Ruslan Galliev, it promotes “a militant Islam” which “arouses ethnic, religious enmity.”</p>
<p>This is significant.  While one may expect modern day books and tracts written by the likes of al-Qaeda or the Islamic State to be banned, Sahih Bukhari, compiled in the 9<sup>th</sup> century, is fundamental to Sunni Islam (that is, 90 percent of the world’s Muslims).   Indeed, the nine-volume book is often seen as second in importance only to the Koran itself and contains the most authentic sayings attributed to the Muslim prophet Muhammad.</p>
<p>And yet, that this important scripture promotes “exclusivity”—that is, supremacism—and “arouses ethnic, religious enmity”—that is, “terrorism”—should not be missed on anyone.  The following few statements contained in Sahih Bukhari and attributed to the prophet of Islam speak for themselves.  Muhammad said:</p>
<p style="color: #121212;">•“I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings [<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/tawriya-lying/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">tawriya</span></a>, Islamic deception], and <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=hgbov49e2bb23bd564945904ac041d7b037ab#bookmark=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/052-sbt.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I have been made victorious with terror</span></a> (cast in the hearts of the enemy).”</p>
<p style="color: #121212;">•“Whoever changed his Islamic religion [“apostates”], then <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=hgbov49e2bb23bd564945904ac041d7b037ab#bookmark=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/084-sbt.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">kill him</span></a>.”</p>
<p style="color: #121212;">•In the end times, a “stone will say, ‘O Muslim! <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=hgbov49e2bb23bd564945904ac041d7b037ab#bookmark=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/056-sbt.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">There is a Jew behind me; kill him!</span></a>’”</p>
<p style="color: #121212;">•“<a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=hgbov49e2bb23bd564945904ac041d7b037ab#bookmark=http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/002-sbt.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people</span></a> until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity” [i.e., until they become observant Muslims].”</p>
<p>Apparently the Russians are aware that such assertions—whether they come from this or that jihadi or from Prophet Muhammad—are enough to incite chaos on their soil.  Indeed, the “terrorist” writings of modern day Islamic jihad groups are all infused with and based on the intolerant texts found in Islamic scriptures such as Sahih Bukhari.</p>
<p>This begs the following question: what of the Koran?  Can it too be banned on the same grounds?  After all, Islam’s number one holy book is also replete with calls to violence and terrorism against unbelievers.  Koran 8:12 is one of numerous examples: Allah declares “I will cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, so strike [them] upon the necks,” that is, behead them, as the Islamic State has been doing—<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/beheading-infidels-how-allah-heals-the-hearts-of-believers/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">while citing the Koran</span></a>.</p>
<p>At any rate, back in La La Land, far from banning Islamic texts that incite violence and terrorism, Barack Hussein Obama has <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obama-administration-bans-knowledge-of-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">banned U.S. intelligence communities from connecting anything Islamic to Islamic terrorism</span></a>.  In other words, Muslims are free to be incited by Islam’s scriptures—prompting things like beheadings and hatchet jihad attacks in America.  The only ban rests on those who dare connect such acts to the core texts of Islam that so clearly inspire them.</p>
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		<title>A Dead Caliph vs. the Hydra of Jihad</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2014 05:35:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Abu Bakr al Baghdadi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dead]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Has the self-appointed leader of the Islamic State been killed? Does it matter? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245306" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi-398x350.jpg" alt="Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi" width="306" height="269" /></a>Is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-styled “caliph” of the Islamic State, injured or dead, as some in the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/4883/can-islamic-state-survive-without-baghdadi"><span style="color: #0433ff;">media are eagerly speculating</span></a>?</p>
<p>Better question: does it really matter?</p>
<p>For almost a decade now, every time an Islamic jihadi leader is killed, the Western mainstream media exult, portraying the death as a major blow to the jihad.  And, for almost a decade now, I have responded by posting an article that I first wrote in 2006 for Victor Davis Hanson’s website, <a href="http://victorhanson.com/wordpress/?p=5559"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Private Papers</span></a>.</p>
<p>Although I changed the names of the jihadi leaders killed to suit the occasion—first <a href="http://victorhanson.com/wordpress/?p=5559"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Abu Mus‘ab al-Zarqawi</span></a>, then <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/terrorists-die-but-ideology-lives/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Abu Laith al-Libi</span></a>, then <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/defeating-radical-islam-the-herculean-strategy/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Misri,</span></a> and finally <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/bin-laden-and-the-eternal-hydra-of-war/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Osama bin Laden</span></a>—my conclusion has remained the same:</p>
<blockquote><p>The West’s plight vis-à-vis radical Islam is therefore akin to Hercules’ epic encounter with the multi-headed Hydra-monster.  Every time the mythical strongman lopped off one of the monster’s heads, two new ones grew in its place.  To slay the beast once and for all, Hercules learned to cauterize the stumps with fire, thereby preventing any more heads from sprouting out.</p>
<p>Similarly while the West continues to lop off monster heads like figurehead Zarqawi [or bin Laden, al-Baghdadi, etc.] it is imperative to treat the malady — radical Islam—in order to ultimately prevail.  Victory can only come when the violent ideologies of radical Islam are cauterized with fire.</p>
<p>But alas, the Hydra-monster is myth, while radical Islam is stark reality.</p></blockquote>
<p>Eight years later, this “stark reality” has manifested itself into a head-chopping, infidel-crucifying, mass-murdering, female-enslaving Islamic State.</p>
<p>And yet, in the previous years, proclamations of “victory” were habitually made by media and politicians whenever a top jihadi was killed.</p>
<p>Recall all the exultation that took place in 2006 after al-Zarqawi—the forefather of the Islamic State, or “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/exposed-decade-old-plan-to-create-islamic-state-and-obama-helped/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Al-Qaeda Second Generation</span></a>”—was killed.   Then, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR2006060800114.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">almost every major politician</span></a>, including President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki, gave some sort of victory speech.  The <i>New York Times</i> called his death a “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-iraq.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0"><span style="color: #0433ff;">major watershed in the war</span></a>.”</p>
<p>Similarly, in 2008, after Abu Laith al-Libi was killed, Congressman <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/31/alqaeda.death/index.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Peter Hoekstra</span></a> issued a statement saying that his death “clearly will have an impact on the radical jihadist movement.”</p>
<p>More myopic triumphalism was in the air after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri were killed in 2010 during a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation.  Then, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden said the “deaths are potentially devastating blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq [the original name of the Islamic State],” adding “This operation is evidence in my view, that the future of Iraq will not be shaped by those who would seek to destroy that country”—an assertion that has now proven woefully wrong.</p>
<p>Similarly, U.S. commander Gen. Raymond Odierno <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/04/25/iraq.militant.leaders.killed/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">asserted</span></a> that “The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency,” adding that it would be “very difficult” for the al Qaeda network to replace the two men.</p>
<p>And who could forget all the media triumphalism, if not hysteria, surrounding <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/osama-bin-laden-chicken-or-egg/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the 2011 death of Osama bin Laden</span></a>?  Then, <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/04/bin-ladens-theology/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">CNN</span></a> security analyst <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/bergen-time-to-move-on-from-war-on-terror/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Peter Bergen declared</span></a> that “Killing bin Laden is the end of the war on terror. We can just sort of announce that right now.” Insisting that the “iconic nature of bin Laden’s persona” cannot be replaced, Bergen further suggested that “It’s time to move on.”</p>
<p>Another CNN analyst, <a href="http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/al-qaeda-is-dead/?hpt=T2"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Fareed Zakaria</span></a>, assured us that “this is a huge, devastating blow to al-Qaeda, which had already been crippled by the Arab Spring. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the end of al-Qaeda in any meaningful sense of the word.”</p>
<p>In retrospect, surely all these assertions and assurances have proven to be immensely puerile—even for mainstream media “analysts.”</p>
<p>To recap, for years, U.S. leadership and its media mouthpiece so misled Americans about the status of al-Qaeda (code name for the amorphous jihad)—thus directly contributing to the rise of the Islamic State: we were repeatedly told that al-Qaeda was suffering “devastating blows”; that the killing of individual jihadis were “major watersheds in the war”; that “the end of the war on terror” occurred in 2011, when bin Laden died (“it’s time to move on,” counseled Peter Bergen); and “that the future of Iraq will not be shaped by those who would seek to destroy that country,” according to Biden.</p>
<p>Yet, lo and behold: an Islamic State, a caliphate engaged in the worst atrocities of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, has been born—despite the deaths of Zarqawi, bin Laden, et. al.</p>
<p>When it comes to the significance of the killing of this or that jihadi leader, the best prediction I have ever read—a prediction that has proven too true—comes not from U.S. politicians, “experts,” or media.  It comes from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Asked in a 2005 interview about the status of bin Laden and the Taliban’s Mullah Omar, he confidently replied:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual or organization</i>. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden—may Allah protect them from all evil—are<i> merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth [Islam] and Falsehood [non-Islam] transcends time</i> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Qaeda-Reader-Essential-Terrorist-Organization/dp/076792262X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415844801&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=al+qaeda+reader"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>The Al Qaeda Reader</i></span></a>, p.182, emphasis added).</p></blockquote>
<p>And there it is: jihad “transcends time” and is not personified by this or that leader—something our myopic leaders and experts, who apparently can’t see beyond their noses, will never comprehend (and how can they, when Barack Obama has <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obama-administration-bans-knowledge-of-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">banned knowledge of Islam</span></a> from U.S. intelligence?).</p>
<p>Jihadi leaders, ideologues, emirs, sultans, caliphs, even the prophet of Islam himself, have come and gone for nearly 1,400 years—but the jihad rages on.  It’s time Western leaders began to respond to the jihad and not just its individual practitioners.</p>
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		<title>Christian Extermination in the Middle East</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:25:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genocide]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Chuches and communities are being terrorized into oblivion. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ISIS-Burns-Down-Church.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244875" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ISIS-Burns-Down-Church.jpg" alt="ISIS-Burns-Down-Church" width="321" height="272" /></a>The purge of ancient Christian communities throughout Iraq that started in June culminated in a show of great intolerance in July.</p>
<p>Among other things, a Christian church that had stood on the ground of Iraq for 1,800 years—a church that was erected less than 200 year after Christ—was reportedly torched by the Islamic State, according to numerous news agencies, including <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/20/ISIS-burns-1-800-year-old-church-in-Mosul.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Al Arabiya</span></a>.</p>
<p>Islamic State jihadis also stormed and took over an ancient monastery in northern Iraq and <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/jihadists-seize-iraq-monastery-005850871.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">expelled its few monks</span></a>, telling them “You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately.”  The monks plead to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s ancient relics but the jihadis refused and ordered them to walk many miles along a deserted road with nothing but their clothes.  (St. Behnam monastery had stood since the fourth century and was one of Iraq’s best-known Christian landmarks.  It was built by an Assyrian king as a penance for executing his children Behnam and Sarah for converting to Christianity.)</p>
<p>The Islamic State issued a July 19 deadline for Mosul’s remaining <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/iraqi-christians-mosul-isis-convert-islam-or-be-executed"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christians either to convert to Islam or face execution</span></a>.  Islamic State members also singled out Christian homes by placing the Arabic letter for “N”—based on the Arabic word <i>Nasara</i>, or “Nazarenes,” the Koran’s pejorative for Christians—on the sides of their homes.   The result, in the words of Patriarch Louis Sako, is that “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”</p>
<p>In response to the Islamic State’s latest atrocities against Iraq’s Christian minorities, the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Mount Lebanon and Tripoli,<span style="color: #0433ff;"> George Saliba</span>, <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=fs79p4de3b9a0916c47bc898fe0713d6d0e07#bookmark=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Jul-30/265488-syriac-orthodox-bishop-muslims-enemies-of-christ.ashx"><span style="color: #0433ff;">denounced</span></a> not just the Islamic State but Muslims in general for their long “history of violence and oppression against Christians”:</p>
<blockquote><p>What is happening in<span style="color: #0433ff;"> Iraq</span> is a strange thing, but it is normal for Muslims, because they have never treated Christians well, and they have always held an offensive and defaming stand against Christians….  We used to live and coexist with Muslims, but then they revealed their canines [teeth]….  [They don’t] have the right to storm houses, steal and attack the honor of Christians.  Most Muslims do this, the Ottomans killed us and after that the ruling nation-states understood the circumstances but always gave advantage to the Muslims.  Islam has never changed&#8230;</p></blockquote>
<p>Islamic organizations responded by denouncing the Syriac bishop’s words as “hateful” and Islamophobic, demanding an apology.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made some telling remarks concerning the plight of Christians, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/presbyterian-church-usa-criticizes-israel-ignores-christian-persecution/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">especially in those Mideast countries the U.S. is involved in</span></a>.  When asked if he was “troubled” by the Presbyterian Church USA’s decision to withdraw $21 million worth in investments from Israel on behalf of the Palestinian people, the prime minister said:</p>
<blockquote><p>You know I would suggest to these Presbyterian organizations to fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give them two pieces of advice, one is, make sure it’s an armor plated bus, and second, don’t say that you’re Christians.<i> </i></p></blockquote>
<p>The rest of July’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.</p>
<p><b>Muslim Attacks on Churches and Carnage</b></p>
<p><b>Afghanistan</b>: according to BosNewsLife, the central Asian nation’s “tiny Christian community was left in shock Friday,  July 25, after <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33389-news-alert-finish-christian-workers-killed-in-afghanistan"><span style="color: #0433ff;">two Finnish Christian aid workers were shot dead</span></a>.”  The attack “underscored the dangers faced by Christian aid workers.”  The two women were slain by motorcycle riding gunmen in the western city of Herat, “the latest in a series of attacks targeting Westerners, including Christian believers.  The Christians, who represented International Assistance Mission (IAM), had been working in Afghanistan since the 1990s…  They both spoke Dari well and knew and respected the culture of Afghanistan.”  Among those the aid workers were helping were people with mental disabilities and illiterate women.</p>
<p><b>Central African Republic</b>:  At least <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Help-Christians-affected-by-CAR-violence-27-killed-in-church-attack.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">27 Christians were slaughtered</span></a> during a July 7 attack on the St. Joseph’s Cathedral compound in Bambari, where thousands of people, mostly Christian, were receiving sanctuary.  The attackers were fighters from the Islamic Seleka rebel movement and Muslim civilians. The armed attackers entered the grounds at around 3pm and began shooting indiscriminately. Women and children were among those killed; over 20 people were injured.  The Islamic attackers burnt down 20 <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/Our-work/Our-current-projects/BF-Project-Categories/Buildings.html?"><span style="color: #0433ff;">buildings</span></a> within the church compound, set fire to three cars, and stole two others as well as a number of motorbikes.  Weeks earlier, on May 28, another attack on a church compound in Bangui, the capital, left around 20 people dead.</p>
<p><b>Kenya</b>: On July 5, Muslims attacked the Covenant Church, three kilometers north of Hindi, just as Bible study was closing.  As the Bible study participants fled, two men opted to hide inside the church building—and were <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/07/christians-killed-in-attacks-in-coastal-region-of-kenya/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">burned alive after the Islamic attackers set the building on fire</span></a>.  On the same night, a Catholic church building in the village of Gamba, in neighboring Tana River County, was also destroyed by attackers.   Two days earlier, 15-20 assailants armed with guns and knives attacked Gamba and the village of Hindi, killing at least 13 people, including a 12-year-old student and a 30-year-old man “who was found in a pool of blood with a Bible on his back,” reports Morning Star News. One survivor of the attacks said the invaders were heard “saying non-Muslims should get out, and if not they should convert to Islam.”  Another survivor said, “I was removed with my daughter from the house while the attackers tied my husband to the bedside before setting the house on fire.  The attackers, who spoke mainly in Somali, targeted non-Muslims, whom they tied with ropes before slitting their throats.” (Gamba is about 28 miles from Mpeketoni, another Christian town where gunmen killed at least 57 people in a <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/christians-targeted-in-massacre-by-al-shabaab-in-kenya/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">June 15 attack</span></a>.)</p>
<p><b>Lebanon</b>: A shadowy group known as the Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade, which had only recently pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State, announced on its twitter account that a “specialized group of free jihadists were tasked with cleansing the Islamic state of Bekaa in particular and in Lebanon in general <a href="http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/137260-free-sunnis-of-baalbek-brigade-vows-to-silence-church-bells-in-bekaa"><span style="color: #0433ff;">from the churches</span></a>.  We will target crusaders in the state and in Lebanon to silence the ringing of the bells.”  (According to Islamic Sharia, churches under Islamic authority are <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/western-ignorance-of-the-conditions-of-omar/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">forbidden from ringing their bells</span></a>.)  The Brigade has claimed responsibility for several rocket and bomb attacks inside Lebanon, the last of which were the suicide blasts in Dahr al-Baydar and Raouche’s Duroy Hotel.</p>
<p><b>Nigeria</b>: A <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=fs79p4de3b9a0916c47bc898fe0713d6d0e07#bookmark=http://www.smh.com.au/world/five-killed-in-bomb-attack-on-nigerian-church-20140728-zxhss.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">bomb blast inside the Saint Charles Catholic Church</span></a> left five people dead and eight injured.  The attack came shortly after Sunday mass ended, when an improvised explosive device was thrown inside the city of Kano, which has a strong presence of Boko Haram, the local Islamic terrorist organization.  On the same Sunday and also in Kano, a woman suicide bomber blew herself up outside a university after police prevented her from carrying out an attack.  Five officers were injured.  According to a police spokesman, “A female suicide bomber was isolated (by police) as she was walking towards the gate of the university.”  She had hidden the bomb under her “long black hijab” and was singled out for behaving strangely, said the spokesman.  Police were about to ask a female colleague to frisk the woman when she detonated the bomb, killing herself and injuring the police officers.  Also in July,<b> </b>Nicholas Okoh, primate of the Church of Nigeria, said in an interview that, despite Boko Haram’s nonstop attacks on Christians and their churches, for long “the United States did not come out to say anything about Boko Haram.  They kept talking about economic problems, [saying] that Boko Haram is fighting because of economic problems. That is not true &#8230; <a href="http://www.brnow.org/News/July-2014/Boko-Haram-s-Islamic-motives-ignored"><span style="color: #0433ff;">The United States deliberately ignored the fundamental issues of religious ideology</span></a>.”</p>
<p><b>Sudan</b>:  In adherence to Islamic law, the east African nation formally announced a <a href="http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/72207.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff;">ban on the construction of any new Christian churches</span></a> in the country.  This move came after several churches, some of which have been in existence for decades, were bulldozed to the ground by authorities, the most recent one, the Sudanese Christ Church at El Izba residential area in Khartoum North, on July 1. According to Pravoslavie, “The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Religious Endowments Shalil Abdullah announced that the government will henceforth not issue permits for the building of churches in the country.  Minister Shalil Abdullah told the press on Saturday [July 12] that the existing churches are enough for the Christian population remaining in Sudan after the secession of South Sudan in 2011.”  Since 1989, Sudan has been governed by a Sharia enforcing Islamic regime. Reverend Kori El Ramli, the Secretary-General of Sudan Council of Churches, criticized this move as contradicting the nation’s Constitution, adding “Yes, we are a minority, but we have freedom of worship and belief just like the rest of the Sudanese as long as we are Sudanese nationals like them.”</p>
<p><b>Turkey</b>:  A band of <a href="http://www.catholic.org/news/international/europe/story.php?id=56220"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslims attacked the Saint Stephanos Church</span></a> in Istanbul during a baptismal service held on July 15. Among other things, the Muslim intruders pushed their way into the baptismal service, yelling obscenities, with one waving a knife and threatening to stab a parishioner.  The attack occurred during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/ramadan-islams-holy-month-of-christian-oppression/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">often sees a concomitant rise of intolerance</span></a> in Muslim majority areas.   Speaking about the attack, one parishioner said on condition of anonymity that “It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last.”  In fact, two months earlier, men in their late teens and 20s entered the church building at night, ripped out most of its audio equipment and destroyed what they couldn’t carry away. They also took some of the ceremonial candles, lit them and started setting items in the rear of the building on fire. They stacked all remaining candles into a pile, lit them and left.</p>
<p><b>Uganda</b>: A gang of Muslims brandishing machetes stormed a church during service, <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Christian-teenager-killed-by-machete-in-attack-on-church-in-Uganda.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">hacking one 18-year-old woman to death</span></a> and leaving three others, including a one-year-old baby, injured.  A group of around 20 Christians had gathered at Chali Born Victory Church in Kyegegwa district for their regular Friday night prayer session when armed Muslims burst into the building around 2 am.  Pastor Jackson Turyamureba was preaching when he saw somebody peeping through a window.  According to the pastor, “I thought he was a drunkard and told him to either enter or go away. Shortly after that I heard doors being banged and men shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ (Allah is great) as they stormed the church brandishing pangas (machetes) and beating worshippers….  One of the attackers followed me and threw a panga which went over my head. I ran through a garden and the man who was pursuing me fell down and gave up the chase.”  The Muslim attackers then fled to a nearby mosque; police surrounded the mosque and one officer was killed when attackers opened fire.  Two suspects were arrested.   According to the pastor<i>, </i>the church has had problems with a group of Muslims in the area who had unsuccessfully tried to convert them to Islam. Church member Polly Tashobya added that the group said they wanted to transform Uganda into an Islamic nation and would kill anyone who refused to convert.</p>
<p><b>Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom and ‘Dhimmitude’</b></p>
<p><b>Iran</b>: <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33301-iran-detains-evangelical-christians-bible-confiscated"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Authorities detained a pastor and two other members of the Church of Iran</span></a>, one of the country’s largest house church movements.  Pastor Matthias Haghnejad, Mohammad Roghangir, and Suroush Saraie were arrested July 5 by security forces at the pastor’s home in the city of Bandar-Anzali.  According to BosNewsLife, “Their detention comes amid an ongoing government campaign to halt the spread of Christianity in the Islamic country. Especially converts from Islam, many of whom visit the Church of Iran, have been targeted.”  Security forces reportedly confiscated the pastor’s belongings, including his Bible, and several other books.  This would be the latest setback for Pastor Matthias, who was jailed for his faith on three other occasions between 2006 and 2011.  Separately, <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=fs79p4de3b9a0916c47bc898fe0713d6d0e07#bookmark=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2702774/Christian-sentenced-Iranian-judge-lips-burnt-cigarette-eating-Ramadan.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">a judge sentenced a Christian man to have his lips burnt with a cigarette</span></a> for eating during the day in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink during daylight.  The punishment was carried out in public in a square in the city of Kermanshah.  Five other Muslim men were also flogged in public with 70 lashes for not fasting during Ramadan.  A spokesperson from The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political coalition which opposes the government, denounced the treatment as ‘savage’ and called on Western countries to respond:  “The silence of the world community, especially of western countries, vis-à-vis these medieval punishments under the excuse of having nuclear talks with Iran has intensified the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran.”</p>
<p><b>Somalia</b>: Muslim converts to Christianity who fled Somalia and reside in Kenyan refugee camps remain in mortal danger.  One convert, known only as “Abubakr,” and his wife reportedly held each other under their bed in their refugee camp as suspected gunmen from the Islamic terrorist organization Al Shabaab pounded on their door. They ordered the man to come out and called him an “infidel” (in both the Arabic and Somali languages), saying, “<a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/07/stay-or-leave-somali-christians-in-kenyan-refugee-camps-face-danger/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">We need your head</span></a>.”  When the apostate refused, they opened fire through the spaces of the poles of the couple’s hut, striking their legs.  Then they heard the attackers say, “We have killed the infidels” as they shot into the air while leaving.  The Christian couple was found two days later lying in their own pool of blood.   According to Abubakr, far from providing security for the hiding apostates, Muslim guards at the refugee camp actually help Al Shabaab militants locate them.  Another Somali convert from Islam, Abdikadir, saw Muslim relatives and other Somalis burn down his home in one of the undisclosed Dadaab refugee camps in April. They took away his wife and four children in the course of destroying his home.  He fled the camp and is now living elsewhere.</p>
<p><b>United Kingdom</b>: According to the Telegraph, “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10977187/Christians-lie-and-wives-must-have-sex-or-go-to-hell-Trojan-Horse-pupils-told.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Children were taught that all Christians are liars</span></a> and attempts were made to introduce Sharia law in classrooms as part of an alleged ‘Trojan Horse’ takeover plot of Birmingham schools, an inquiry has found.”  Commissioned by Birmingham City Council, the inquiry found “evidence of religious extremism in 13 schools as school governors and teachers tried to promote and enforce radical Islamic values.”  Among other things, schools canceled Christmas, put up posters warning children that they would “go to hell” if they did not pray, and girls were taught that women who refused to have sex with their husbands would be “punished” by angels “from dusk to dawn.”  The report found that the extremism went unchecked because the council “disastrously” prioritized community cohesion over “doing what is right.”</p>
<p><b>About this Series</b></p>
<p>The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “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:</p>
<p>1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.</p>
<p>Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of <i>jizya</i> (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed <i>dhimmis</i>, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.</p>
<p>Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—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.</p>
<p><b>Previous Reports</b>:</p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/isis-snuffs-out-ancient-christianity-muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2014/">June, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2014/">May, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2014/">April, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2014/">March, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/">February, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/">January, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/">December, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/">November, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">October, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">September, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/">August, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/">July, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/">June, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/">May, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/">April, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/">March, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/">February, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/">January, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/">December, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/">November, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/">October, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/">September, 2012 </a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/">August, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">July, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012">June, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012">May, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012">April, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012">March, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012">February, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012">January, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011">December, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011">November, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011">October, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011">September, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011">August, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/">July, 2011</a></p>
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		<title>Christians ‘Losing Everything’ to Islam</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/christians-losing-everything-to-islam/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=christians-losing-everything-to-islam</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 05:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244872</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Struggles with the relentless “Hound of Jihad.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iraq-christian-afp.png"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244877" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iraq-christian-afp-450x337.png" alt="iraq-christian-afp" width="359" height="269" /></a>Originally published by the </i></b><span style="color: #0433ff;"><b><i><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4857/christians-losing-everything">Gatestone Institute</a></i></b></span></p>
<p><i>“I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things”—</i>Philippians 3:8</p>
<p>When St. Paul wrote the above in his letter to the Christians of Philippi, he and the early church were being persecuted (Paul was eventually executed in Rome).  While today’s Western Christians still quote his words in the context of their daily struggles, an increasing number of Christians around the world, especially the Muslim world, are still literally losing absolutely everything for their faith.</p>
<p>In Uganda, matters have gone from bad to worse to murderous. The plight of Hassan Muwanguzi, for instance, a Muslim convert to Christianity—whose initial sacrifices are recorded in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Crucified Again: Exposing Islam&#8217;s New War on Christians</i></span></a> (page 131)—far from abating, has only gotten worse.</p>
<p>After earning a university degree in Islamic law and then, in 2003, when he was in his early 20s, converting to Christianity, his family immediately threw him out of their home. “Enraged Muslims” beat him. Later that same year, his wife left him and he lost his job as a teacher at Nankodo Islamic School, near Pallisa.</p>
<p>This was just the beginning.  Picking up the pieces of his life and moving on, he eventually opened a Christian school, Grace International Nursery and Primary School, near Muslim-majority Mbale.  Accordingly, “The Muslims have tried to use all kinds of threats to make me close the school—first they used witchcraft,” said Hassan. “This did not work, so then they tried to discourage Muslims from bringing their children to the school, saying that the school was converting Muslim children to Christianity by teaching Christian Religious Education.”</p>
<p>When all else failed, in 2011 an Islamic teacher, Sheikh Hassan Abdalla, filed a false charge claiming that Hassan had “defiled” the sheikh’s young daughter. Together with his fellow Muslim countrymen, the Islamic cleric filed a case at the chief magistrate’s court.  Hassan was subsequently arrested and incarcerated for three weeks.</p>
<p>But because Sheikh Abdalla, his accuser, repeatedly failed to appear in court to testify, Hassan was released.  In his words:  “The judge found out it was a false accusation, hence the case was dropped.  I had been subjected to humiliation, but I forgave them for the sake of my Christian outreach in the area.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2013/07/mulinde-other-converts-from-islam-in-uganda-struggle-to-recover/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">next Islamic attack</span></a> came a few months after Hassan was acquitted.  First, the owner of the land where Hassan had built his Christian school denied ever having sold it, leading to a court order to close down the school in May, 2012.  This incurred great losses on Hassan.   The month after, in June, the Christian convert’s home was burnt down by three Muslims:</p>
<blockquote><p>I and my family escaped from the house by grace, but if it had not been so, then by now we would be no more….  This attack was mobilized by Muslim sheikhs, imams and family members after hearing that I had converted to Christianity after studying and completing university with a degree in Islamic law.</p></blockquote>
<p>Less than a year later, on March 31, 2013, Hassan was hospitalized in Mbale after an aunt who had called a “family gathering” slipped some insecticide in his tea.  According to Hassan:</p>
<blockquote><p>After eating and taking tea, I started feeling stomachache, then I realized that she was the one responsible for it—and I believe she did not do it alone, since they have been hunting for me directly and indirectly, because when I left them and converted to Christianity it pained them so much….  The reason they want to kill me is very clear—it is because of being a convert to Christianity; above all, to them it is like I brought shame by converting, as a [former] sheikh. But to God the Almighty Father, this was His plan for me to expand His Kingdom.</p></blockquote>
<p>According to the doctor who treated him, when Hassan arrived at the hospital, he had already vomited, “looked confused with slurred speech” and his “vision was getting very poor,” so that “he could not even recognize the friend who brought him in.?</p>
<p>During the family meeting, when he first began to feel ill, he telephoned a local Christian leader who advised him to leave secretly: “I knew if he were to mention to them that he was getting sick, they would harm him more,” said Bishop Kinyewa.</p>
<p>Now, most recently, on June 16, 2014, four Muslim men barged into his home with one shouting, “Today we shall kill you—you have been a trouble-maker and are not respecting our prophet’s religion.”  The “apostate” fled into a room, thinking they would not hurt his young daughter, Grace Baruka.  But then he heard the 12-year-old girl’s cries, as the Muslim invaders were strangling her.</p>
<p>When he came out of the room they seized him:  “They hit me with a blunt object, and I fell down.  I just woke up and saw neighbors surrounding me while wailing, saying that my daughter is in critical condition.”  Neighbors took Grace to a clinic but she was declared dead upon arrival.  “I am regretting why I survived the poisoning,” said Hassan.  God could have allowed me to die. My daughter has died, and I am now mourning for her death as well [as] have pain all over my body.”</p>
<p>While Hassan’s ongoing experience with the relentless “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-hound-of-jihad/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Hound of Jihad</span></a>” speaks for itself, the reality is that countless Christians around the world—both Muslim converts and born Christians—are quietly “losing everything” at the hands of Muslims, whether family members, “local Muslims,” Islamic regimes and courts, or Islamic terrorist organizations.</p>
<p>According to a human rights activist who recently visited the Christians fleeing the Islamic State’s advance into Mosul, “People are severely traumatized: <a href="http://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/stories/iraq_141031.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">they have lost everything</span></a>. Often they are fleeing for the second, third or even fourth time.”  One Iraqi Christian man, lamenting his ongoing struggles and sounding like Hassan, told her: “Sometimes I wish my parents had never brought me into the world.”</p>
<p>From one end of the Muslim world to the other, Christians are suffering persecution.  <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/we-need-your-head-muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2014/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Not one month goes by</span></a> without several attacks on churches, many—for example in Nigeria and Kenya—resulting in large casualties; not one month goes by without several attacks on Christians accused of apostatizing from Islam or “blaspheming.”</p>
<p>Last week a pregnant Christian mother of four and her husband, falsely accused of burning pages of the Koran, were beaten by a Muslim mob and <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/11/islamist-mob-in-pakistan-kills-christian-couple-accused-of-blasphemy/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">throw into a kiln, a fiery oven</span></a> at a brick factory, where they were roasted alive; and the world recalls the plight of Meriam Ibrahim, another Christian wife and mother who, while also pregnant, was imprisoned in Sudan and sentenced to receive 100 lashes followed by execution on the charge of apostatizing from Muhammad’s religion.  Although she has been freed, Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American, is still being held in prison in Iran for apostasy and practicing his Christian faith. His case was apparently not even raised by the Americans negotiating with Iran on its nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>As tragic as the story of Uganda’s Hassan Muwanguzi is, he is only one of countless Christians and other minorities living under, and losing everything to, Islam.</p>
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		<title>Exposed: Obama Helped Decade-Old Plan to Create IS</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2014 05:40:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The resurrection of the caliphate was planned—and exposed to the world—nearly ten years ago.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/20140613_ISIS8.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244703" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/20140613_ISIS8-388x350.jpg" alt="20140613_ISIS8" width="290" height="262" /></a>Although the birth of the Islamic State and the herald of the caliphate are often regarded as some of 2014’s “big shockers,” they were foretold in striking detail and with an accurate timeline by an al-Qaeda insider nearly one decade ago.</p>
<p>On August 12, 2005, Spiegel Online International published an article titled “<a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-future-of-terrorism-what-al-qaida-really-wants-a-369448.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">The Future of Terrorism: What al-Qaeda Really Wants</span></a>.”  Written by Yassin Musharbash, the article was essentially a review of a book written by Fouad Hussein, a Jordanian journalist with close access to al-Qaeda and its affiliates, including the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who pioneered the videotaping of beheadings “to strike terror into the hearts” of infidels (Koran 3:151).</p>
<p>As Hussein explained in the introduction of his book <i>Al Zarqawi: Al Qaeda’s Second Generation</i>: “I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaeda members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future.”</p>
<p>And in fact the book details the master plan of al-Qaeda—in its “second generation” manifestation known as the “Islamic State” which follows much of Zarqawi’s modus operandi—to resurrect a caliphate.  This plan is sufficiently outlandish that Yassin Musharbash, the author of the Spiegel article reviewing Hussein’s book, repeatedly casts doubt on its feasibility.  Thus al-Qaeda’s plan is “proof both of the terrorists’ blindness as well as their brutal single-mindedness”; there is “no way” al-Qaeda can follow the plan “step by step”; “the idea that al-Qaeda could set up a caliphate in the entire Islamic world is absurd”; and the following “scenario should be judged skeptically.”</p>
<p>Yet it is all the more remarkable that much of this plan—especially those phases dismissed as infeasible by Musharbash (four and five)—have come to pass.</p>
<p>In what follows, I reproduce the seven phases of al-Qaeda’s master plan as presented in Musharbash’s nearly ten-year-old article (in bullet points and italics, bold for emphasis),<b><i> </i></b>with my commentary interspersed for context.  Phases four and five are of particular importance as they describe the goals for recent times, much of which have come to fruition according to plan.</p>
<p><b>An Islamic Caliphate in Seven Easy Steps</b></p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The First Phase</i></b><i> Known as “the awakening”—this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby </i><b><i>“awakening” Muslims</i></b><i>. “The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaeda as very successful,” writes Hussein. “The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target.” The terrorist network is also reported as being satisfied that its message can now be heard “everywhere.”</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Much of this is accurate and makes sense.  Sadly, if any eyes were opened after the 9/11 attacks on American soil, they weren’t Western eyes—certainly not the eyes of Western leadership, mainstream media, and academia.  But to many Muslims, the strikes of 9/11 were inspiring and motivating, giving credence to Osama bin Laden’s characterization of America as a “paper tiger.” A few years after the Islamic strikes of 9/11, Americans responded by electing a man with a Muslim name and heritage for president, even as he continuously <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obamas-proxy-war-on-mideast-christians/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">empowers</span></a> in a myriad of ways—including <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obama-administration-bans-knowledge-of-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">banning knowledge of Islam</span></a>—the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-calm-before-the-jihadi-storm/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">same ideology behind the strikes of 9/11</span></a>. Meanwhile, the average Muslim relearned the truths of their religion, namely that the “infidel” is an existential enemy and jihad against him is a duty, as al-Qaeda and others had successfully shown.</p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The Second Phase</i></b><i> “Opening Eyes” is, according to Hussein’s definition, the period we are now in [writing in 2005] and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy </i><b><i>aware of the “Islamic community.”</i></b><i> Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaeda wants </i><b><i>an organization to develop into a movement</i></b><i>. </i><b><i>The network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an “army” set up there and bases established in other Arabic states</i></b><i>.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>This too is accurate.   Among other things, the “Islamic community,” the <i>umma</i>, began to be more visible and vocal during this time frame, including through a rash of attacks and riots following any perceived “insult” to Islam, growing demands for appeasement, and accusations of “Islamophobia” against all and sundry.  If there weren’t any spectacular terror attacks on the level of 9/11, young Muslim men were quietly enlisting and training in the jihad—or in western parlance, “radicalizing.”  Al-Qaeda went from being an “organization” to a “movement”—international “radicalization.”  Most importantly, Iraq, as the world now knows, certainly did become the “center for all global operations” with an “army” of jihadis set up there.</p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The Third Phase</i></b><i> This is described as “Arising and Standing Up” and should last from 2007 to 2010. </i><b><i>“There will be a focus on Syria,” prophesies Hussein</i></b><i>, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and </i><b><i>some are in Iraq</i></b><i>. Attacks on Turkey and—even more explosive— in Israel are predicted. Al-Qaeda’s masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Much of this third phase as described and transpired seems to have been an extension of phase two.  In retrospect, there certainly appears to have been a focus on Syria, even if the jihad started there one year behind schedule (2011).  And many of the jihadis were “already prepared” and “some are in Iraq.”   None of this was a surprise, of course, as U.S. intelligence always indicated that if American forces withdrew from Iraq, the jihadis would take over.</p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The Fourth Phase</i></b><i> Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that </i><b><i>al-Qaeda will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments</i></b><i>. The estimate is that “the creeping loss of the regimes’ power will lead to a steady growth in strength within al-Qaeda.” At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>This is immensely prophetic.  Recall that the timeline given (2010-2013) coincides remarkably well with the so-called “Arab Spring,” which culminated with Islamic terrorists and their allies taking over the leadership of several Arab countries formerly ruled by secularized autocrats: Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (which <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/islams-good-copbad-cop-routine/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">plays Dr. Jekyll to al-Qaeda’s Mr. Hyde</span></a>); Libya, al-Qaeda/Islamic jihadis; ongoing Syria, al-Qaeda/Islamic jihadis (or their latest manifestation, the Islamic State, al-Qaeda’s “second generation”), etc.  It should be remembered that in each of these nations—Egypt, Libya, Syria—the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/world-leaders-lambast-obamas-failures-in-the-middle-east/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Obama administration played a major role in empowering the jihadis, though in the name of “democracy.” </span></a></p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The Fifth Phase</i></b><i> This will be the point at which an </i><b><i>Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared</i></b><i>. The plan is that by this time, </i><b><i>between 2013 and 2016</i></b><i>, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaeda hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Again, right on time: the “Islamic State” declared itself the “caliphate” in 2014, with many Muslim organizations and persons around the world pledging their allegiance, if not imitating their slaughter, with inspired “lone wolves” already beheading “infidels” in Western nations.   And if the administration helped empower jihadis during the “Arab Spring” and in the name of “democracy” in Egypt, Libya, and Syria, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/other-matters/how-obamas-arab-spring-created-the-islamic-state/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">it helped the creation of the Islamic State by withdrawing U.S. military forces that were keeping al-Qaeda at bay</span></a> in Iraq.  Recall that in 2007 George W. Bush said that “To begin withdrawing [military forces] before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States.  It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda.  It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale.  It would mean we allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.  It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.” All of these predictions have proven remarkably prescient—not because Bush was a prophet but because U.S intelligence clearly understood the situation in Iraq, and briefed Obama on it just as it did Bush. Yet, in 2011, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/14/barack-obama-iraq-war-success"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Obama declared the Iraq war a success</span></a> and pulled out American troops, leaving the way wide open for the jihadi master plan of resurrecting the caliphate to unfold.</p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The Sixth Phase</i></b><i> Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of “total confrontation.” As soon as the caliphate has been declared the “Islamic army” it will instigate the “</i><b><i>fight between the believers and the non-believers</i></b><i>” which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>This needs clarification.  While many assume that the “fight between the believers and the non-believers” is between Muslims and non-Muslims, this is not always the case.  Soon after the announcement of the caliphate, the Islamic State <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/new-islamic-caliphate-declares-jihad-on-muslims/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">made clear that it was in the phase of waging jihad on “apostates” and “hypocrites,”</span></a> meaning all the “apostate” or “infidel” Arab leaders like Bashar al-Assad, as well as Muslim populations that are insufficiently “Islamic.”  It is for this reason that the new caliph took on the name of “Abu Bakr”—the name of the first historic caliph (632-634) whose caliphate was characterized by fighting and bringing back into the fold of Islam all those Arabs who broke away after Muhammad died.   Afterwards, when all the Arab tribes were unified under the banner of Islam, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-historical-reality-of-the-muslim-conquests/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the great historic conquests</span></a>, or jihads against neighboring “infidels,” took place.</p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>•The Seventh Phase</i></b><i> This final stage is described as “definitive victory.” Hussein writes that in the terrorists’ eyes, because </i><b><i>the rest of the world will be so beaten down by the “one-and-a-half billion Muslims</i></b><i>,” the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed. This phase should be completed by 2020, although the war shouldn&#8217;t last longer than two years.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Phase seven remains to be seen, as it is has another five years to go.  As for the world being “so beaten down by the one-and-a-half billion Muslims,” actor Ben Affleck <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/other-matters/ben-affleck-portrait-of-islams-clueless-apologetics/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">reflected this sentiment recently</span></a> when he kept apologizing for Islam by saying Muslims “are a billion and a half.”   At any rate, considering that the preceding phases have all largely come to pass—with a passive West doing nothing to prevent them, that is, when not actively aiding them—there is certainly no good reason to think Western leadership will stop the final phase from occurring: a unified, aggressive, expansionist, and eventually possibly even nuclear armed caliphate preparing to terrorize its neighbors on a grand scale—just like its historic predecessor did for centuries.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Raymond Ibrahim</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing</em><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title long-title " dir="ltr" title="The Glazov Gang-Raymond Ibrahim on ISIS's Islamic Inspirations."><em><strong> ISIS&#8217;s Islamic Inspirations</strong>:</em> </span></p>
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		<title>ISIS Snuffs Out Ancient Christianity</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2014 05:30:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Churches burned, Christian “apostates” and “blasphemers” slaughtered.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/christians.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244404" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/christians-450x300.jpg" alt="christians" width="318" height="212" /></a><strong><em>Originally published by the </em></strong><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4817/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june"><strong><em>Gatestone Institute</em></strong></a>.</p>
<p>During the Islamic State’s June invasion and consolidation of Mosul, Iraq–where Christians have been present since the first century—numerous atrocities against them were committed. Accordingly, the region is now reportedly empty of Christian presence.</p>
<p>Among other things, the Islamic State reinstituted the collection of jizya, the tribute conquered Christians (and Jews) were historically required to pay in order not to be killed in accordance with Koran 9:29. In one instance, three Islamic State members burst into the home of a Christian family, demanding the jizya-money. When the father of the house pleaded that he did not have the money, the intruders <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20140621123203.htm">raped his wife and daughter in front of him</a>. The man was reportedly so traumatized that he committed suicide. Four other Christian women were <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20140623185542.htm">killed for not wearing the Islamic veil</a>.</p>
<p>Soon after taking over Mosul, the Islamic State also announced that it would destroy all Christian places of worship. <a href="http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/71713.htm">Several churches were burned</a>, including the Armenian church near the Al Salam hospital and the Church of the Holy Spirit, which was first looted and desecrated. A large Virgin Mary statue disappeared.</p>
<p>Among the many Christians missing are two nuns from the Daughters of Mary Order, who managed an orphanage for girls in Mosul. <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20140630153011.htm">It is believed they have been kidnapped</a>.</p>
<p>The rest of June’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.</p>
<p><strong>Church Attacks and Slaughters </strong></p>
<p><strong>Indonesia</strong>: Another Catholic community was attacked in the world’s largest Muslim-population country. The Parish of the Sacred Heart in Pugeran, in the South of Yogyakarta, was targeted by three different groups of unknown assailants riding motorcycles during the first morning Mass. The incident coincided with the start of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, which <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/ramadan-islams-holy-month-of-christian-oppression/">often sees a rise in hostility for religious minorities</a>. The attackers, who were dressed in black and covered their faces with masks, broke through the parish gates shouting “Allah is great,” Islam’s historic war-cry. They <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Yogyakarta,-to-cries-of-Allah-is-great-unknown-assailants-attack-Sacred-Heart-parish-31488.html">attacked some Christian objects and posters</a> placed by members of the local Catholic community. Weeks earlier, on May 30, “Islamic extremists attacked a group of Catholics gathered in prayer, beating up the community leader; a week later, Pastor Niko, leader of the Protestant Christian community, was targeted by extremists ‘accused’ of having set up an ‘illegal’ house of prayer without permission,” reports Asia News: “Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world. Increasingly however, it has become the scene of attacks or episodes of intolerance against minorities, whether they are Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or belong to other faiths.”</p>
<p><strong>Kenya</strong>:Approximately 50 militants from Somalia’s Islamic Al Shabaab (“the youth”) network attacked two hotels, a police station and other buildings in Mpeketoni, a predominantly Christian town on Kenya’s coast during the night of Sunday June 15. They chanted “Allahu Akbar” and <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/christians-targeted-in-massacre-by-al-shabaab-in-kenya/">killed whoever could not recite verses from the Koran</a>. The militants reportedly also went door-to-door asking residents their religion and killed them if they answered “Christian.”More than 57 people were killed. Among them were six children of church pastors.</p>
<p><strong>Nigeria</strong>:Suspected <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/scores-dead-from-attacks-on-church-christian-areas-in-northeast-nigeria/">Boko Haram jihadis killed nine Christians during June 1 Sunday church service</a>, hours before a bombing of a Christian area in neighboring Adamawa state resulted in nearly 50 deaths.At least 10 gunmen attacked the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria during worship in Attagara village. The jihadis killed nine Christian members who were volunteering as security for the rest of the congregation during service.Another <a href="http://www.agi.it/flash-news/articles/201406112012-cro-ren1069-nigeria_8_christians_killed_and_church_in_flames">Christian church in Central State Plateau was set ablaze</a> by armed men who also killed at least eight Christian worshippers. According to the Italian news agency, AGI, “The police made their statement, saying that for now they have not assigned the blame for the action, even though the MO and the aims of the attack lead to presuming it was the work by the Boko Haram Islamic Fundamentalists, who have killed thousands of people since 2009.” Speaking about the June 1 church attack, one area Christian leader said the attackers were a small part of 200 assailants who have invaded Attagara and other predominantly Christian villages around Gwoza the past two weeks, destroying homes and churches:“Our church in Attagara was attacked also on Sunday,” said Dr. Rebecca Dali. “There have been 24-hour-a-day attacks on Christian communities of Attagara, Hawul, and Gwoshe around the Gwoza mountains…. <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/scores-dead-from-attacks-on-church-christian-areas-in-northeast-nigeria/">The Boko Haram Islamists have destroyed 36 churches in Gwoza area</a>, including that of Attagara attacked on Sunday. We now have only two churches that have not been affected.”</p>
<p><strong>Sudan</strong>: Authorities in North Khartoum <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/sudanese-authorities-demolish-another-church-building/">demolished another church building</a>, that of the Sudanese Church of Christ. Bulldozers came and demolished the church just one day after authorities gave verbal notice of the decision during the congregation’s Sunday worship service the previous day.   Congregation members stood by watching their church razed to the ground. About 70 security personnel armed with guns and tear gas stood by threatening anyone who dared to interfere or protest.   “They wanted to beat us or throw tear gas on us,” said one congregation member. Authorities gave no clear reason why the church, which has stood since 1983 and which has all the legal paperwork, was being destroyed. According to Rev. Kwa Shamal, the church’s pastor who questioned the commissioner, “They did not want us to ask many questions on why they were demolishing our church.” Because the government refuses to grant the church any compensation, “We will have to pray in a makeshift tent next Sunday” along the road, said the pastor.</p>
<p><strong>Attacks on Christian Freedom: Apostasy and Blasphemy</strong></p>
<p><strong>Afghanistan</strong>: The <em>New York Times</em> told the story of “Josef,” a Muslim convert to Christianity who is on the run from Afghani family members looking to slay him.   The apostate from Islam lives in a 10-by-10 dilapidated room, his few worldly possessions a tattered Bible and wooden cross with the Sermon on the Mount written on it: “Josef’s brother-in-law Ibrahim arrived in Kabul recently, leaving behind his family and business in Pakistan, to hunt down the apostate and kill him. Reached by telephone, Ibrahim, who uses only one name, offered a reporter for <em>The New York Times</em> $20,000 to tell him where Josef was hiding.‘If I find him, once we are done with him, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/world/asia/afghanistan-a-christian-convert-on-the-run.html?_r=1">I will kill his son as well</a>, because his son is a bastard,’ Ibrahim said, referring to Josef’s 3-year-old child. ‘He is not from a Muslim father.’” Earlier, when Ibrahim first discovered Josef’s conversion to Christianity, he and his family attacked the convert, tied his hands and feet and were going to slaughter him until the father intervened calling for time to investigate matters, which Josef used to escape. Having had a long spiritual journey and closely studying all religions, the Christian convert says that “Even if I get killed, I won’t convert back.”</p>
<p><strong>Egypt</strong>: Islamic vindication against Coptic Christians accused of “blasphemy” and “apostasy” was in the air all throughout the month of June in President Sisi’s not so “new” Egypt. First, Kerolos Shouky Attallah, a young Coptic Christian man accused of blaspheming Islam for simply “liking” an Arabic-language Facebook page administered by an anonymous group of Christian converts, was <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/copt-convicted-of-blasphemy-in-egypt-for-liking-facebook-page/">sentenced to six years in prison</a>.   According to Attallah’s attorney, the Copt did not make any comments on the site, share any of the postings or upload anything to it, and removed his name from the page once he realized that it might offend Muslims. In the hours preceding the sentencing, <a href="http://www.worthynews.com/14842-islamists-torch-christian-owned-shops-in-southern-egypt">a rioting mob burned down several Christian-owned shops</a> in the area near Luxor. Safwat Samaan, chairman of Nation Without Borders, a human rights and development group headquartered in Luxor, said “The sentence today was a shock not just to Kerolos but to everyone who uses Facebook in Egypt. Any person who uses Facebook in Egypt and presses ‘Like’ on any page … can be put into prison for six years.” Also, An Egyptian appeals court upheld a blasphemy conviction against Dimyana Abdel-Nour, a Coptic Christian teacher, and <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/christian-teacher-jailed-for-blasphemy-1.1712054#.VEafKfnF9qV">sentenced her to six months</a>, overturning an earlier ruling that only imposed a fine. The appellate court in Luxor ruled that the elementary school teacher had insulted Islam in front of her pupils. Last year, three 10-year-old Muslim children complained to their parents that the Coptic teacher showed disgust for Islam when discussing it in class.And Bishoy Armia Boulous—more notoriously known as Mohammed Hegazy, the first Egyptian ever to try legally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his official ID—<a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/noted-convert-in-egypt-formerly-known-as-hegazy-sentenced-to-five-years-in-prison/">was sentenced to five years in prison</a>. (Years earlier, when he first tried to change his ID, he was also imprisoned and tortured.) The judge cited “disturbing the peace by broadcasting false information” as the reason for sentencing the apostate, who in the weeks before was documenting political unrest in Egypt brought on by numerous Muslim extremist attacks on Christians. The exact section of the nation’s criminal code that Boulous allegedly violated was not released. According to Boulous’ lawyer, the real reason he was charged and sentenced is because he abandoned Islam and became a Christian: “The officer who arrested him, when he found that he hadn’t committed a crime, made up things to keep him in prison so he could be sentenced,” said the lawyer.</p>
<p><strong>Uganda</strong>: After Muslim family members tried to poison a relative who converted to Christianity, and failed, he was attacked again by <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/daughter-of-poisoned-christian-in-uganda-strangled-to-death/">Muslims who killed his young daughter</a>. On June 16, four men barged into the home of Hassan Muwanguzi—a former sheikh who converted to Christianity in 2003—with one shouting, “Today we shall kill you—you have been a trouble-maker and are not respecting our prophet’s religion.” He fled into a room, thinking they would not hurt his daughter, Grace Baruka. But then he heard the 12-year-old girl’s cries, as the Muslim invaders were strangling her. When he came out of the room they seized him: “They hit me with a blunt object, and I fell down. I just woke up and saw neighbors surrounding me while wailing, saying that my daughter is in critical condition.” Neighbors took Grace to a clinic but she was declared dead upon arrival. Muwanguzi has suffered greatly for embracing Christianity: first he lost his wife and job as a schoolteacher after his conversion; then an aunt tried to poison him by putting insecticide in his tea; and now his 12-year-old daughter has been killed. Lamented the former Muslim in tears to Morning Star News: “I am regretting why I survived the poisoning. God could have allowed me to die. My daughter has died, and I am now mourning for her death as well [as] have pain all over my body.”</p>
<p><strong>Dhimmitude</strong></p>
<p><strong>Lebanon</strong>: The Abra Municipality, a predominantly Christian suburb in the coastal city of Sidon, released a memo urging all citizens—the majority of whom are Christian—to respect observant Muslims during<a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Jun-18/260627-abra-requests-citizens-to-respect-fasting-muslims.ashx?#ixzz3GnyJKU2A"> Ramadan and abstain from eating in public.In his memo, Mayor Walid Nico</a>las al-Mchantaf stressed the importance of showing consideration during the holy month and refraining from dining at restaurants and cafes during the fasting period, which begins at sunrise and ends at sunset. A large Muslim community exists in the town and has been in the spotlight since last year’s violent clashes between Islamic gunmen and the Lebanese Army.</p>
<p><strong>Germany</strong>: Muslims were granted their own section at the cemetery in the Hessian town of Seligenstadt. And they have been allowed to conduct Islamic ceremonies, in which the corpse is wrapped in cloths and buried facing Mecca. Now these same Islamic communities, including Ahmadiyyas, are <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/06/germany-islamic-organisation-demands-crosses-be-covered-during-muslim-burials">demanding that Christian symbols and crosses in the cemetery be removed or covered</a> up during Islamic funerals.</p>
<p><strong>United Kingdom</strong>: The National Health Services <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10933206/NHS-worker-who-bullied-Muslim-by-praying-for-her.html">suspended a Christian health worker on full pay for nine months for praying with a Muslim colleague</a>. Victoria Wasteney, a senior occupational therapist, was also accused of “bullying” the colleague after giving her a book about a Muslim woman who converts to Christianity. According to Wasteney, her relationship with the Muslim woman was friendly and sometimes intimidate, as the Muslim female often came to her for support; the Christian health worker did not think that she was behaving coercively or disrespectfully.   Andrea Williams, the chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said the case demonstrated that “the NHS is increasingly dominated by a suffocating liberal agenda that chooses to bend over backwards to accommodate certain beliefs but punishes the Christian.”</p>
<p><strong>About this Series</strong></p>
<p>The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “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:</p>
<p>1)    To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>2)    To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.</p>
<p>Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of <em>jizya</em> (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed <em>dhimmis</em>, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.</p>
<p>Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—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.<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong>Previous Reports</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2014/">May, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2014/">April, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2014/">March, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/">February, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/">January, 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/">December, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/">November, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">October, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">September, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/">August, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/">July, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/">June, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/">May, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/">April, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/">March, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/">February, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/">January, 2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/">December, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/">November, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/">October, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/">September, 2012 </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/">August, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">July, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012">June, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012">May, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012">April, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012">March, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012">February, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012">January, 2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011">December, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011">November, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011">October, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011">September, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011">August, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/">July, 2011</a></li>
<li></li>
<li><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li>
<li></li>
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		<title>Islam’s ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ Routine</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/islams-good-copbad-cop-routine/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islams-good-copbad-cop-routine</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al-Baghdadi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243865</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the leader of ISIS was a Muslim Brotherhood member.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/qw.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243972" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/qw-450x275.jpg" alt="qw" width="321" height="196" /></a><strong><em>Originally published by</em> <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/isis-leader-was-member-of-moderate-muslim-brotherhood/?singlepage=true">PJ Media</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Yet one more piece of evidence tying the United States to the Islamic State recently came to light. In a new video interview, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most authoritative clerics in the Muslim community who has his own program on Al Jazeera and is chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, asserted that the leader of the head-chopping, infidel-crucifying Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was once a member of the Brotherhood, which the U.S. government, especially <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obamas-secret-directive-supporting-global-islamism/">the Obama administration</a>, has been allied with.</p>
<p>Indicators of a U.S./Brotherhood alliance are too many to list here and have been on open display from people like <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/did-the-muslim-brotherhood-really-win-egypts-presidency/">Hillary</a> <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/morsis-wife-threatens-to-expose-hillary-clintons-special-relationship-with-muslim-brotherhood/">Clinton</a>, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/obama-to-egyptian-christians-dont-protest-the-brotherhood/">Anne</a> <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/u-s-ambassador-to-egypt-muslim-brotherhoods-lackey/"> Patterson</a>, and <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/john-mccain-proves-u-s-leadership-allied-to-muslim-brotherhood/">Sen. John McCain</a> (who may have taken pictures not only with known Islamic terrorists, but with <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/other-matters/mccain-and-the-caliph/">al-Baghdadi himself</a>).</p>
<p>According to Sheikh Qaradawi, “this youth [al-Baghdadi] was from the start among the top ranks of the Brotherhood, but he was inclined to [positions of] leadership and so forth… Then, after he spent years in prison [for Brotherhood activities] he came out and joined with them [nascent Islamic State],” eventually rising to be its “caliph.”</p>
<p>Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Gom‘a said that “Qaradawi’s confession [concerning al-Baghdadi] confirms that the Brotherhood is the spiritual father to every extremist group.”</p>
<p>Even so, Qaradawi’s revelation was not meant to cast aspersions on the Brotherhood, especially as he is one of its spiritual fathers. More likely he was invoking the idea that imprisoning and suppressing “moderate Islamists,” namely the Muslim Brotherhood—most recently in Egypt’s last revolution—only leads to their “radicalization” and turn to violence.</p>
<p>This is a widely accepted meme, especially in the West. Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Zawahiri is another former Brotherhood member who is regularly portrayed as turning to “radicalism” and jihad after being imprisoned in Egypt in 1981—though any <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/ayman-zawahiri-and-egypt-a-trip-through-time/">evaluation of the facts of his life</a> demonstrate that he was a “radical” well before he was incarcerated, that he was imprisoned precisely because he was radical.</p>
<p>The idea that it is best to cooperate and ally with the “moderate” and “nonviolent” Muslim Brotherhood lest, aggrieved, it turns to “extremism, radicalism, and terrorism” has been swallowed by many Western academics and politicians hook line and sinker.</p>
<p>To understand this phenomenon, one need only turn to the “good cop, bad cop” routine and see how it captures U.S. behavior towards “moderate/nonviolent Islamists” (“good cops”) on the one hand, and “radical/violent Islamists” (“bad cops”) on the other.</p>
<p>According to the <em>CIA Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual</em> (<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EQEVAgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA204&amp;dq=Social+Protest+in+Contemporary+China,+2003-2010:+good+cop&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=2WxFVMqrPML2iQL75YDQAg&amp;ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Social%20Protest%20in%20Contemporary%20China%2C%202003-2010%3A%20good%20cop&amp;f=false">as cited</a> in the book <em>Social Protest in Contemporary China, 2003-2010</em>),</p>
<blockquote><p>Good cop/bad cop, also called joint questioning and friend and foe, is a psychological tactic used for interrogation. “Good cop/bad cop” tactics involves a team of two interrogators who take apparently opposing approaches to the subject. The interrogators may interview the subject alternately or may confront the subject at the same time. The “bad cop” takes an aggressive, negative stance toward the subject, making blatant accusations, derogatory comments, threats, and in general creating antipathy between the subject and himself. This sets the stage for the “good cop” to act sympathetically, appearing supportive, understanding, in general showing sympathy for the subject. The good cop will also defend the subject from the bad cop. The subject may feel he can cooperate with the good cop out of trust or fear of the bad cop. He may then seek protection by and trust the good cop and provide the information the interrogators are seeking.</p></blockquote>
<p>Consider how this definition applies to the U.S. government’s approach to the supposed Islamist dichotomy of “violence” and “nonviolence.”</p>
<p>The violent jihad—whether under the rubric of “al-Qaeda,” “Islamic State,” etc.—like the “bad cop” “takes an aggressive, negative stance towards the subject [U.S./“infidels”], making blatant accusations, derogatory comments, threats, and in general creating antipathy between the subject and himself.”</p>
<p>Thus the violent jihadis become the “feared enemies” who cannot be reasoned with.</p>
<p>This of course sets the stage for the “good cops,” the purportedly nonviolent Islamists, namely, the Muslim Brotherhood, to step in</p>
<blockquote><p>appearing supportive, understanding, in general showing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathy">sympathy</a> for the subject. The good cop [“moderate” Brotherhood] will also defend the subject [U.S. interests] from the bad cop [Islamic jihadis]. The subject [U.S.] may feel he can cooperate with the good cop [“moderates”] out of trust, or fear of the bad cop [terrorists].</p></blockquote>
<p>This in fact is the idea long spearheaded by Mideast academics and talking heads—that there are “nonviolent” Islamists and “violent” Islamists, and that the best way to weaken the appeal of the latter is to cooperate with the former, which, after all, shouldn’t be too hard, since the “good cop moderates” come in suits, smile, and shake hands over cups of coffee.</p>
<p>For instance, CDR Youssef Aboul-Enein, an Obama advisor, argues in his book, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/other-matters/obama-terrorism-advisors-book-confuses-and-distorts/"><em>Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat</em></a>, published by the Naval Institute Press (2010), that “It is the Militant Islamists who are our adversary. They represent an immediate threat to the national security of the United States. They must not be confused with Islamists.” Aboul-Enein, like many before and after him, argues that U.S. leadership should work with the nonviolent Islamists in order to weaken the appeal of the militants.</p>
<p>And yet, just as the “good cop/bad cop” is a false dichotomy in that the both “cops” are working together and for the same goal, so too is the “nonviolent Islamist/violent Islamist” a false dichotomy in that both groups of Islamists are working together and for the same goal—the resurrection of a Sharia-enforcing caliphate, which the Islamic State (“violent Islamist”), led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a former Muslim Brotherhood member (“nonviolent Islamist”), recently accomplished.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Raymond Ibrahim</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing</em><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title long-title " dir="ltr" title="The Glazov Gang-Raymond Ibrahim on ISIS's Islamic Inspirations."><em><strong> ISIS&#8217;s Islamic Inspirations</strong>:</em> </span></p>
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		<title>Islam and the Mafia: ‘Making An Offer You Can’t Refuse’</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/islam-and-the-mafia-making-an-offer-you-cant-refuse/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islam-and-the-mafia-making-an-offer-you-cant-refuse</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2014 04:49:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coercion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death threats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jizya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MAFIA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243861</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Coercion and death threats.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mgf.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243928" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mgf-450x253.jpg" alt="mgf" width="270" height="152" /></a><em>Editor’s note: The following is Part Three a three-part series examining the many parallels between Islam and the mafia following Bill Maher’s recent exclamation </em><em>that Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.” </em><em>Click the following for </em><a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/islam-more-like-the-mafia-than-bill-maher-knows/"><em>Part One</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/loyalty-and-enmity-parallels-between-islam-and-the-mafia/"><em>Part Two</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p><strong>Coercion and Death Threats</strong></p>
<p>Although the novel turned movie, <em>The Godfather</em>, is fictitious, it also captures much of the mafia’s modus operandi. Consider, for example, that most famous of lines—“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeldwfOwuL8&amp;spfreload=10">I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse</a>”—spoken by the Godfather to one of his “godsons,” an aspiring actor and singer, who, after being turned down by a studio director for a role that he desperately wanted, turns to his Godfather for aid.</p>
<p>As the movie progresses, we discover that the offer that the director can’t refuse is nothing less than violence and the threat of death: after the Godfather’s messenger to the director asking that the actor be given the role is again rejected, the studio head awakes to find the bloodied and decapitated head of his favorite stallion in bed with him. The godson subsequently gets the movie role.</p>
<p>Throughout the context of the entire <em>Godfather</em> trilogy—and indeed, in the context of the mafia—making someone “an offer they can’t refuse”—comes to mean “do as I say or suffer the consequences,” possibly death.</p>
<p>Compare this to Islam’s threefold choice. On Muhammad’s orders, whenever Islamic jihadis conquer a territory, they are to give the non-Muslim inhabitants three choices: 1) convert to Islam, 2) maintain your own religion (an option technically only available to Christians and Jews) but pay tribute and live as a subdued third-class citizen, a “dhimmi,” or 3) die.</p>
<p>Not only do the primary historical texts written by authoritative Muslims record this aspect of Islam, but to this very day, Islam’s threefold choice is making headlines, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/western-ignorance-of-the-conditions-of-omar/">most recently at the hands of the Islamic State</a>.</p>
<p><strong>The ‘Protection Racket’</strong></p>
<p>Once the mafia gains a “territory,” one of the primary ways it profits is by collecting “protection money” from the inhabitants. While the protection racket has several faces, one in particular is akin to an Islamic institution: the idea of coercing people in the mafia’s territory to pay money for “protection,” ostensibly from outside forces, when in fact the protection bought is from the mafia itself—that is, extortion money, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzo_(extortion)"><em>pizzo</em></a>. Potential “clients” who refuse the mafia’s “protection” often have their property vandalized and are routinely threatened and harassed.</p>
<p>Compare <em>pizzo</em> with the Islamic concept of jizya: The word jizya appears in Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and his Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth, <em>until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued</em> (emphasis added).”</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/muslim/019-smt.php#019.4294">hadith</a>, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad—in our analogy, the “underboss”—regularly calls on Muslims to demand jizya of non-Muslims:  “If they refuse to accept Islam,” said the Islamic prophet, “demand from them the jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay jizya, seek Allah’s help and fight them.”</p>
<p>The root meaning of the Arabic word “jizya” is simply to “repay” or “recompense,” basically to “compensate” for something.  According to the <em>Hans Wehr Dictionary</em>, the standard Arabic-English dictionary, jizya is something that “takes the place” of something else, or “serves instead.”</p>
<p>Simply put, conquered non-Muslims were to <em>purchase their lives</em>, which were otherwise forfeit to their Muslim conquerors, with money. Instead of taking their lives, they took their money.  As one medieval jurist succinctly puts it, “their lives and their possessions are only protected by reason of payment of jizya” (<em>Crucified Again</em>, p. 22).</p>
<p>Interestingly, just as the mafia rationalizes its collection of “protection money” by portraying it as money paid to buy mafia protection against “outsiders”—when, as mentioned, the money/tribute serves only to protect the client from the mafia itself—so too do <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islamic-jizya-protection-from-whom/">Islam’s apologists portray the collection of jizya</a> as money meant to buy Muslim protection from outsiders, when in fact the money/jizya buys protection from Muslims themselves.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion: Mafia—What’s In a Word?</strong></p>
<p>What accounts for all these similarities between Islam and the mafia? It is further telling that the word mafia itself,which means “hostility to the law, boldness,” is believed to be derived from the Arabic slang word, <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mafia?s=t"><em>mahya</em></a>, which in translation means “bragging, boasting, bravado, and swaggering.”</p>
<p>This etymology is a reminder that Sicily, birthplace of the mafia, was under Arab/Islamic domination for over 200 years. Aside from a borrowed etymology, could much of the mafia’s modus operandi also have been borrowed from Islam? Could native Sicilians, over the centuries, have co-opted the techniques of social controls that they had lived under and learned from their former overlords—albeit free from its Islamic trappings?</p>
<p>Either way, when HBO personality Bill Maher recently proclaimed that Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book”—he was barely touching the tip of the iceberg of similarities between Islam and the mafia.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Raymond Ibrahim</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing</em><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title long-title " dir="ltr" title="The Glazov Gang-Raymond Ibrahim on ISIS's Islamic Inspirations."><em><strong> ISIS&#8217;s Islamic Inspirations</strong>:</em> </span></p>
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		<title>Loyalty and Enmity: Parallels between Islam and the Mafia</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/loyalty-and-enmity-parallels-between-islam-and-the-mafia/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=loyalty-and-enmity-parallels-between-islam-and-the-mafia</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:40:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[betrayal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[loyalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MAFIA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243435</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The deadly price of betrayal. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5339316755_050f27b80b.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243443" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5339316755_050f27b80b.jpg" alt="5339316755_050f27b80b" width="333" height="250" /></a>Editor’s note</i></b><i>: The following is Part Two of a three-part series examining the many parallels between Islam and the mafia following Bill Maher’s recent exclamation that Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”  Click the following for </i><em><span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/islam-more-like-the-mafia-than-bill-maher-knows/">Part One</a></span> and <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/islam-and-the-mafia-making-an-offer-you-cant-refuse/">Part Three</a>.</em></p>
<p><b>Death to Traitors (AKA “Apostates”)</b></p>
<p>Once a Mafioso takes the oath of loyalty to the mafia—including the Omertà code of silence and secrecy—trying to leave the “family” is instantaneously seen as a betrayal and therefore punishable by death.  Any family member, great or small, is given authority to kill the traitor, the “turncoat.”</p>
<p>Compare this to Islam.  To be born to a Muslim father immediately makes the newborn a Muslim—there are no oaths to be taken, much less an option in the matter.   And, according to Islamic law, if born Muslims at any point in their lives choose to leave Islam, they are deemed “apostates”—traitors—and punished including by death.   Any zealous Muslim, not just the authorities, is justified in killing the apostate (hence why Muslim families that kill apostate children are rarely if ever prosecuted).</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/084-sbt.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">words</span></a> of Muhammad—the messenger (underboss) of Allah (godfather):  “Whoever leaves his Islamic faith, kill him.”</p>
<p>The charge of “traitor” is especially applicable when the Muslim converts to another religion—most frequently Islam’s historic competitor, Christianity—as opposed to simply losing faith in their hearts.  Put differently, the very recent plight of Meriam Ibrahim—a Sudanese Christian wife and mother who, while pregnant, was imprisoned and sentenced to death for “apostasy”—is the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/sudan-mothers-case-tip-of-the-iceberg-on-islamic-persecution/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">tip of the iceberg of the plight of apostates under Islam</span></a>.</p>
<p><b>Loyalty and Enmity</b></p>
<p>Loyalty is an absolute prerequisite of the mafia.  Following elaborate rituals of blood oaths, mafia members are expected to maintain absolute loyalty to the family, on pain of death.</p>
<p>Compare this with Islam’s “Loyalty and Enmity” doctrine, which calls on Muslims to be loyal to each other and their appointed emirs, even if they dislike them.</p>
<p>For example, Koran 9:71 declares that “The believing [Muslim] men and believing [Muslim] women are allies of one another” (see also 8:72-75). And according to <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=dw6cy47129bc1931b4316a01ad6ded5a45ff0#bookmark=http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/muslim/032.smt.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muhammad</span></a>, “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim. He neither oppresses him nor humiliates him nor looks down upon him…. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother in faith: his blood, his wealth, and his honor”—precisely those three things of a Mafioso that are inviolable for his mafia “brother.”  (This is why Muslims like U.S. Army Major Nidal Hassan, whose “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/nidal-hasan-and-fort-hood/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">worst nightmare</span></a>” was to be deployed to fight fellow Muslims, often lash out.)</p>
<p>Aside from loyalty to the family, mafia members are also expected not to befriend or associate with too many “outsiders”—who by nature are not to be trusted, as they are not of the “family”—unless such a “friendship” helps advance the family’s position.</p>
<p>Similarly, the second half of the doctrine of Loyalty and Enmity—the enmity—calls on Muslims to maintain distance from and have hate for all non-Muslim “infidels.”</p>
<p>Thus Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and Christians as friends and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely one of them.” According to the mainstream Islamic exegesis of al-Tabari, Koran 5:51 means that the Muslim who “allies with them [non-Muslims] and enables them against the believers, that same one is a member of their faith and community,” that is, an outsider and enemy.</p>
<p>Similar scriptures include Koran 4:89, 4:144, 5:54, 6:40, 9:23, and 58:22; the latter simply states that true Muslims do not befriend non-Muslims—“even if they be their fathers, sons, brothers, or kin.” Koran 60:1 declares, “O you who believe! Do not take my enemy and your enemy [non-believers] for friends: would you offer them love while they deny what has come to you of the truth [i.e., while they deny Islam]?”</p>
<p><b>Two-Facedness</b></p>
<p>As mentioned, close relations to non-mafia individuals that prove advantageous to the mafia (for example, collaboration with a “crooked cop”) are permissible—as long as the mafia keeps a safe distance, keeps the outsider at arm’s length.</p>
<p>Compare this to Koran 3:28 which commands “believers not to take infidels for friends and allies instead of believers… unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions.” According to the standard Koran commentary of Tabari, “taking precautions” means:</p>
<blockquote><p>If you [Muslims] are under their [non-Muslims'] authority, fearing for yourselves, behave loyally to them with your tongue while harboring inner animosity for them … [but know that] Allah has forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels rather than other believers—except when infidels are above them [in authority]. Should that be the case, let them <i>act friendly</i> towards them while preserving their religion.</p></blockquote>
<p>After interpreting Quran 3:28 as meaning that Muslims may “protect” themselves “through outward show” when under non-Muslim authority, Ibn Kathir, perhaps Islam’s most celebrated exegete, quotes Muhammad saying: “Truly, we smile to the faces of some people, while our hearts curse them.”</p>
<p>And just a few years ago, Sheikh Muhammad Hassan—a leading Salafi cleric in Egypt—<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/sharias-sinister-smiles/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">asserted on live television</span></a> that, while Muslims should never smile to the faces of non-Muslims, they should smile, however insincerely, if by so doing they help empower Islam, especially in the context of <i>da‘wa</i>.</p>
<p>The idea of hating “outsiders” is so ingrained in Islam that another leading Salafi cleric insists that, although Muslim men may marry Christian and Jewish women, they must hate them in their heart—and show them that they hate them in the hopes that they convert to the “family” of Islam.</p>
<p>(For more on the doctrine of “Loyalty and Enmity,” see al-Qaeda leader Dr. Ayman Zawahiri’s comprehensive treatise by that name in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Qaeda-Reader-Essential-Organization/dp/076792262X/ref=rec_dp_0"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>The Al Qaeda Reader</i></span></a>, pgs. 63-115)<i>.</i></p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Raymond Ibrahim</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing</em><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title long-title " dir="ltr" title="The Glazov Gang-Raymond Ibrahim on ISIS's Islamic Inspirations."><em><strong> ISIS&#8217;s Islamic Inspirations</strong>:</em> </span></p>
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		<title>The Islamic State and Islam</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/the-islamic-state-and-islam/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-islamic-state-and-islam</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 04:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How Islam determines what is Islamic.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/we.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243348" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/we-450x232.jpg" alt="we" width="318" height="164" /></a><em>Originally published by <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/how-does-islam-determine-what-is-islamic/?singlepage=true">PJ Media.</a> </em></p>
<p>What relationship does the <em>Islamic</em> State have to <em>Islam</em>?</p>
<p>“Absolutely nothing” is the answer <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/robert-spencer/the-islamic-state-has-nothing-to-do-with-islam/">almost every Western politician gives</a>.   For example, U.S. President Obama adamantly stated in a televised speech that the Islamic State “is not Islamic.”</p>
<p>This begs the question: How does one determine what is—and is not—Islamic?</p>
<p>The traditional answer, the Islamic answer, has been as follows:</p>
<p>What do the core texts and scriptures of Islam say about the thing in question, call it “X”? Does the Koran, believed by Muslims to contain the literal commands of Allah, call for or justify X? Do the <em>hadith</em> and <em>sira</em> texts—which purport to record the sayings and deeds of Allah’s prophet, whom the Koran (e.g., 33:21) exhorts Muslims to emulate in all ways—call for or justify X?</p>
<p>If any ambiguity still remains concerning X, the next question becomes: what is the consensus (<em>ijma‘</em>) of the Islamic world’s leading authorities concerning X?   Here one must often turn to the <em>tafsirs</em>, or exegeses of Islam’s most learned men—the <em>ulema</em>—and consider their conclusions.  Muhammad himself reportedly said that “My <em>umma</em> [Islamic nation] will never be in agreement over an error.”</p>
<p>For example, the Koran commands believers to uphold prayers; accordingly, all are agreed that Muslims need to pray. Yet the Koran does not specify how many times. In the <em>hadith</em> and <em>sira</em>, however, Muhammad makes clear believers should pray five times. And the <em>ulema</em>, having considered all these texts, are agreed that Muslims are to pray five times a day.</p>
<p>Thus, it is most certainly <em>Islamic</em> for Muslims to pray five times a day.</p>
<p>But while both Western politicians and Islamic apologists readily accept such methodology to determining what is Islamic—prayer is in the Koran, Muhammad clarified its implementation in the <em>hadith</em>, and the <em>ulema</em> are agreed to it—whenever the thing in question deals with anything that makes Islam “look bad,” then the aforementioned standard approach to ascertaining what is Islamic is wholly ignored.</p>
<p>Let us consider some of the most extreme acts committed by the Islamic State—beheadings, crucifixions, enslavements, sexual predations, massacres, and the persecution of religious minorities—and put them to the test, see if they fill the same criteria, see if they are Islamic or not, especially in the context of jihad, which has its own set of rules.</p>
<p><strong>Beheading</strong>s</p>
<p>The Islamic State beheads “infidels,” including women and children. This aspect of the Islamic State has provoked horror around the world.</p>
<p>Is it Islamic?</p>
<p>The Koran calls for the beheading of Islam’s enemies, especially in the context of war, or jihad: “When you encounter infidels on the battlefield, strike off their heads until you have crushed them completely” (47:4). Another verse states: “I will cast terror into the hearts of infidels—so strike off their heads and strike off all of their fingertips [i.e., mutilate them]<em>” </em>(8:12).</p>
<p>As for the other criteria—the example or <em>Sunna</em> of the prophet and the consensus of the <em>umma</em>—Timothy Furnish, author of the 2005 essay, “<a href="http://www.meforum.org/713/beheading-in-the-name-of-islam">Beheading in the Name of Islam</a>,” writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The practice of beheading non-Muslim captives extends back to the Prophet himself. Ibn Ishaq (d. 768 C.E.), the earliest biographer of Muhammad, is recorded as saying that the Prophet ordered the execution by decapitation of 700 men of the Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe in Medina for allegedly plotting against him.  Islamic leaders from Muhammad’s time until today have followed his model. Examples of decapitation, of both the living and the dead, in Islamic history are myriad…<em>. </em>For centuries, leading Islamic scholars have interpreted this verse [decapitation verse, 47:4] literally…. Many recent interpretations remain consistent with those of a millennium ago.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Crucifixions</strong></p>
<p>As for crucifying people, which the Islamic State has been doing regularly, <a href="http://quran.com/5/33">Koran 5:33</a> asserts that “the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land.”</p>
<p>Accordingly, crucifixions are common throughout Islamic history.  After Islam’s prophet died in 632, many Arabs were accused of apostasy. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, launched a jihad campaign on them, and many “apostates” were crucified as an example to the rest.  In the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Witnesses-Christ-Christian-Neomartyrs-1437-1860/dp/0881411965"><em>Witnesses For Christ: Orthodox Christian Neomartyrs of the Ottoman Period 1437-1860</em></a><em>,</em>  crucifixion is listed as one of the many forms thousands of Christians were executed by the Muslim Turks.</p>
<p>More dramatically, in her memoir, <em>Ravished Armenia</em>, Aurora Mardiganian <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/crucifixion-in-islam-christians-ascend-their-golgotha/">described </a>how in the early twentieth century she saw 16 girls crucified, vultures eating their corpses: “Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, spikes through her feet and hands,” wrote the Armenian survivor. “Only their hair blown by the wind covered their bodies.”</p>
<p>More recently, people (including children) have been crucified by self-proclaimed jihadis in the name of Islam in countries as diverse as <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/christians-crucified-again-for-refusing-islam/">the Ivory Coast and Yemen</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Slavery and Rape</strong></p>
<p>What of slavery—especially the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/syria-captive-women-herded-and-sold-in-slave-markets/">enslavement</a> of <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islamic-state-rape-just-another-form-of-warfare/">non-Muslim women for sexual purposes</a>—which the Islamic State has been engaged in?</p>
<p>Again, from the highest scriptural authority in Islam—the Koran—to the greatest role model for Muslims—Muhammad; from Islamic history to current events, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/new-fatwa-permits-rape-of-non-sunni-women-in-syria/">the sexual enslavement of “infidel” women is a canonical aspect of Islamic civilization</a>.</p>
<p>Koran 4:3 permits men to have sex with “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/are-slave-girls-in-islam-equivalent-to-animals/">what your right hands possess</a>,” a term categorically defined by the <em>ulema</em> as “infidel” women captured during the jihad.</p>
<p>The prophet of Islam himself kept and copulated with concubines conquered during the jihad.   One captured Jewish woman, Safiya bint Huyay, was “married” to Muhammad right after the prophet had tortured her husband to death to reveal hidden treasure.</p>
<p>And before this, Muhammad’s jihadis had slaughtered Safiya’s father and brothers.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, she later <a href="http://library.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?bk_no=197&amp;pid=125747&amp;hid=65">confessed</a> that “Of all men, I hated the prophet the most—for he killed my husband, my brother, and my father,” right before marrying (or, less euphemistically, raping) her.</p>
<p>Khalid bin Walid—the “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/allahs-sword-of-terror/">Sword of Allah</a>” and hero for aspiring jihadis around the world—raped another woman renowned for her beauty, Layla, on the battlefield—right after he severed her “apostate” husband’s head, lit it on fire, and cooked his dinner on it.</p>
<p><strong>Massacres </strong></p>
<p>What of <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/largest-massacre-of-christians-in-syria-ignored/">wide-scale massacres</a>? In <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/graphic-video-islamic-terrorists-executing-civilians/">this video</a>, for example, the Islamic State appears herding, humiliating, and marching off hundreds of male hostages (the number often given is 1,400) to their trenches, where Islamic State members proceed to shoot them in the head—all while the black flag of Islam waves.</p>
<p>In fact, the prophet himself ordered merciless massacres of “infidels.” After the battle of Badr, where Muhammad and the first Muslims prevailed over their enemies, Muhammad ordered the execution of a number of hostages. When one of the hostages, ‘Uqba, implored the prophet to spare him, saying “But who will look after my children, O Muhammad?” the latter responded, “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uqba_ibn_Abu_Mu'ayt#Death">Hell</a>.”</p>
<p>More famously, Muhammad ordered the execution of approximately 700 Jewish men from the Banu Qurayza tribe. According to the <em>sira</em> account, after the Jewish tribe surrendered to his siege, Muhammad had all the men marched off to where ditches were dug and promptly executed by beheading—just like the Islamic State marched off and executed its victims near trenches <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/graphic-video-islamic-terrorists-executing-civilians/">in the video</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Dhimmitude</strong></p>
<p>The Islamic State is even responsible for <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/western-ignorance-of-the-conditions-of-omar/">resurrecting a distinctly Islamic institution</a> that was banned in the 19<sup>th</sup> century thanks to the intervention of colonial powers: “dhimmitude,” that is, exacting tribute (<em>jizya</em>) from conquered Christians and Jews and subjecting them to live as third-class citizens who must embrace a host of debilitating and humiliating measures, including not to build or repair churches, not to ring church bells or worship loudly, not to display crosses, not to bury their dead near Muslims, etc.</p>
<p>These measures are also derived from the core texts of Islam. Koran 9:29 calls on Muslims to fight the “People of the Book” (interpreted as Christians and Jews) “until they pay the <em>jizya</em> with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” And the Conditions of Omar—named after one of the “righteous caliphs”—explains how they are to “feel themselves subdued,” that is, the exact way the Islamic State decreed.</p>
<p>Past and present <em>ulema</em> are <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/egypts-new-government-promotes-anti-christian-measures/">confirmed</a> that Koran 9:29 and the <em>Conditions of Omar</em> mean what they plainly say. Thus, according to Saudi Sheikh Marzouk Salem al-Ghamdi speaking during a Friday mosque sermon:</p>
<p>If the infidels live among the Muslims, in accordance with the conditions set out by the Prophet—there is nothing wrong with it provided they pay Jizya to the Islamic treasury. Other conditions [reference to <em>Conditions of Omar</em>] are … that they do not renovate a church or a monastery, do not rebuild ones that were destroyed … that they rise when a Muslim wishes to sit… do not show the cross, do not ring church bells, do not raise their voices during prayer ….  If they violate these conditions, they have no protection.</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8211;</p>
<p>Based on the above exposition, it is false to say, as President Obama does, that the Islamic State “is not Islamic.” Indeed, even in the most savage of details—including triumphing over the mutilated corpses of “infidels” and laughing while posing with their decapitated heads—the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/beheading-infidels-how-allah-heals-the-hearts-of-believers/">Islamic State finds support in the Koran and stories of the prophet</a>.</p>
<p>It is dishonest to accept the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence—is X part of the Koran, <em>hadith</em>, <em>sira</em>, and does it have consensus among the <em>ulema</em>?—but then to reject this same methodology whenever X is something that makes Islam look “bad.”</p>
<p>In the context of jihad, all that the Islamic State is doing—beheadings, crucifixions, massacres, sexual enslavements, and the subjugation of religious minorities—is Islamic.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Raymond Ibrahim</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing</em><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title long-title " dir="ltr" title="The Glazov Gang-Raymond Ibrahim on ISIS's Islamic Inspirations."><em><strong> ISIS&#8217;s Islamic Inspirations</strong>:</em> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bFkGgNsqQ_4" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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