Christianity, Other Religions, Islam and Terrorism

A most passionsate response to 'Burn a qur'an day.' A church in Florida wants to burn qur'ans on September 11th. As much as I would like to condone this, I cannot. Hitler banned and burned books and those who oppose islam, those of us who have read the qur'an, who are aware of the horrible things it exorts those who believe in what is written in qur'an, hadith and sira, we must stoop to this level. Bill Muehlenberg has expressed what Jesus would have wanted us to do. It can be a most fine and difficult line to walk.


"Islamist terrorism and expansionism needs to be resisted, and that I shall continue to do. But I will also continue to pray for Muslims, and seek out opportunities to share with them about my Saviour. As in all these matters, we need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.


Getting the balance right will not be easy. But we must seek to reflect who God is in all these situations. That means we will fearlessly and unflinchingly proclaim Christ as the one and only saviour. And it may mean we will also work politically, even militarily, to seek to stop jihadist violence.


But it also means seeking to love our Muslim neighbours, properly representing the living Lord to them. This is true in plenty of other situations of course. For example, we can and should love the alcoholic, and seek to set him free, while hating and working against the alcoholism which is destroying his life.


As I said earlier, living a Christian life in a non-Christian world is never going to be easy. And at times tensions and conflicts may be unavoidable, as we seek to pursue a number of important goods at the same time. This is certainly true here: opposing Islamist jihad while loving Muslim neighbours."

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Christianity, Other Religions, Islam and Terrorism
By Bill Muehlenberg


Christianity, Other Religions, Islam and Terrorism

It is hard to love them

Living the Christian life in a non-Christian world is always tricky business. We must navigate our way through life, avoiding various extremes. We are called to confront the world, while we are also called to interact with the world. We are called to remain unspotted from the world, yet called to make an impact on the world.

How the people of God live in relation to other religions is also ambiguous and a bit of a juggling act. Two clear teachings run throughout the Bible concerning this relationship. On the one hand God’s people are to withstand and reject false religions and gods, and proclaim the one true God.

On the other hand, God’s people are always called to be a missional people. It is our job to reach our pagan and unbelieving neighbours with the truth claims of our faith. Trying to confront other religious traditions while seeking to reach people in those religions is always a complex and difficult task.

Yet we are called to do this very thing. How it works out in detail and in practice is not so easily come by. Indeed, it is somewhat amiss of me to seek to explain all this in a short article. Plenty of book-length studies on this topic have appeared, and even they cannot readily cover all the necessary ground to properly treat this issue.

I raise this topic because of a recent news item which has caused a bit of a stir. It seems that a church in Florida wants to have a ‘Burn a Koran Day’ on September 11 in remembrance of all those who died at the hands of Muslim terrorists in 2001. It is also doing this, its website says, to stand against the evil of Islam.

So what are Christians to make of this effort? One way to respond is to place this activity within the dual framework I have just outlined: to confront non-Christian religions while seeking to win individuals within those faith traditions.

Certainly in regard to the second biblical emphasis of reaching out to non-believers, this book-burning approach is unwise and unnecessary. It will alienate those we are seeking to reach. To desecrate the Koran is probably far more serious amongst Muslims than is desecrating the Bible amongst Christians.

Sure, there were many biblical confrontations between God’s people and false prophets and those who worshipped false gods that can be appealed to, chief of which being found in 1 Kings 18 (the confrontation between Elijah and the Baalists). That was a real power encounter indeed, with quite severe consequences for the false prophets.

And one might even find a biblical precedent for book burnings. In Acts 19:19-20 we read of one such public book burning. But in this case it was the book owners themselves (recent converts who came to see the evil of sorcery and magic) who burned their own books in Ephesus.

And with memory of recent activities in Nazi Germany, it is certainly not a good image to convey to the watching world. But concern about political Islam is a legitimate thing. Indeed, this is another balancing act which believers need to negotiate.

As I have written in other places on this site, when it comes to Islam, believers need to be doing at least two things simultaneously, as kkklio76hyggggggggdifficult as that might be. On the one hand, none of us should be ignorant or uninformed about the truth that Islam is not only a false religion which denies the very heart of Christian truth claims, but it is also an expansionist faith as well.

The ultimate goal of the Islamic faith is to see everyone submit to Allah, to see a universal caliphate installed, with everyone under sharia law. And military and political means to achieve this are fully condoned by the Koran, the Sira and the hadith.

This of course must be resisted. The free West has every reason to defend itself against the spread of totalitarian Islam, and to reject moves to see the West come under further sharia compliance. We have an obligation to see this threat for what it is, and resist it accordingly.

But on the other hand, Christians know that Christ came to die for the sins of everyone, including our Muslim neighbours. Jesus loves the Muslim, just as he loves the atheist, or the Hindu, or the Buddhist. But God’s love for them means wanting to see them set freed from the false gods and idolatry which they are enslaved to.

We are called to share God’s love to everyone, Muslims included. They need to hear the gospel message just as much as anyone else. We need to pray for our Muslim contacts, love them, and show them the liberating power of Christ’s love. This of course may well seem to conflict with the first duty of resisting Islamist tyranny.

Indeed, it will always be a bit of a juggling act. Thus I can share with an individual Muslim the good news of the Christian faith, but also affirm political measures to prevent Islamists from overtly or covertly undermining the God-given gifts of liberty, democracy and religious freedom.

Indeed, even if one decided to become completely non-political, and never even speak out about things like 9/11, or the threat of Islamist expansionism, one will still find that simply standing up for the claims of Christ will cause offense.

A Muslim regards the Christian teaching that Jesus is God’s son as blasphemous. Yet no decent Christian would ever stop proclaiming that truth simply in the name of being tolerant or inclusive. To proclaim the truth of Christianity is in fact to be exclusive, and will result in people of other faiths getting upset and going on the defensive.

That cannot be helped. Indeed, Paul often speaks about the offense of the gospel. Simply telling a Muslim that he needs to repent and receive Christ as saviour will seem offensive and insensitive. But the proclamation of the gospel will always offend sinners and always appear restrictive to those who reject Christian truth claims.

While we cannot avoid the offence of the gospel, we can avoid unnecessary offence. Thus the Koran-burning exercise seems to be one of those things we should forego, in the interest of reaching Muslims for Christ. And to say that does not mean for a moment that we minimise the horror and evil which occurred nine years ago.

Islamist terrorism and expansionism needs to be resisted, and that I shall continue to do. But I will also continue to pray for Muslims, and seek out opportunities to share with them about my Saviour. As in all these matters, we need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Getting the balance right will not be easy. But we must seek to reflect who God is in all these situations. That means we will fearlessly and unflinchingly proclaim Christ as the one and only saviour. And it may mean we will also work politically, even militarily, to seek to stop jihadist violence.

But it also means seeking to love our Muslim neighbours, properly representing the living Lord to them. This is true in plenty of other situations of course. For example, we can and should love the alcoholic, and seek to set him free, while hating and working against the alcoholism which is destroying his life.

As I said earlier, living a Christian life in a non-Christian world is never going to be easy. And at times tensions and conflicts may be unavoidable, as we seek to pursue a number of important goods at the same time. This is certainly true here: opposing Islamist jihad while loving Muslim neighbours.

A tough ask you might say, but one which we must seek to get the right mix on.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/07/fla-church-to-host-a-burn-a-koran-day-on-sept-11/1

Link to original article can be found here

NOvember: 13 Weeks

13 Weeks from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

A reminder to vote in NOvember. I do not consider myself a Republican
or Democrat. Color me a Constitutional Conservative.

The New York Mosque Proceeds

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


Now that the commission in charge of buildings in New York has ruled 9-0 not to give landmark status to the building at the proposed mosque site, the way is clear to demolish the site in preparation for that 15-story Cordoba House (mosque and Islamic center). It appears that there is only one entity that can stop this idea and unfortunately that is the group wanting to build it.

Unfortunately, they show no signs of having any regard whatsoever for the sensitivity of building that center in the shadow of the World Trade Center. Daisy Khan, the wife of Imam Faisel Abdul Rauf, is now telling us that it will include a memorial to the 9-11 victims and that they want to be part "of the healing process".

Nonsense. They are ripping the scab open. I can't speak for anyone else, but I suspect most Americans would tell them to stuff that "memorial to the 9-11 victims."

But public opinion be damned. It's a freedom of religion, freedom of speech issue; they have the ACLU behind them and their message is;

"We're here. Deal with it."

Meanwhile, White House press spokesman and noted comic Robert Gibbs told reporters today that the White House has no interest in getting involved in a "local matter."

I have news for Mr Gibbs; 9-11 is not a local matter anymore than Pearl Harbor was a local matter.

Let us say that Imam Rauf truly intends to build an edifice devoted to peace, interfaith harmony and reconciliation. That goes out the window the first time he stands up in that mosque and repeats statements he has already made about the US becoming "shariah compliant" and US policies bringing on 9-11. Remember this is a guy who has refused to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization. Furthermore, he still won't own up to where all the money is coming from to build it.

Update: Now, this evening, comes the head of CAIR, Nihad Awad, who tells Bill O'Reilly on The Factor there is no connection between Islam and 9-11, and that the opposition to the mosque is simple bigotry. He would not address O'Reilly's question about respecting the feelings of 9-11 families and others who object to the mosque so close to the World Trade Center site. I trust this guy Awad as far as I can throw him.

In the end, this mosque will be a bad thing for US Muslims because it is reviving the anger of 9-11 and will continue to revive anger every time visitors to the area pass by.

On a more positive note, this quote comes today at the University of California Irvine (where I teach). It was made today by an Arab (Muslim) student studying at UCI who just returned from New York and is very angry over the mosque issue. He says, "that mosque should not be built. I want those buildings back" (WTC).

The plain and simple truth

Desecration of the American Flag

I just cannot comment on this except to say that these are the illegal, legal
aliens or brainwashed morons we need OUT of our country. Seething!

Women of the Storm: Responding to rumors about their campaign to restore the gulf

Women Of The Storm has a response to the rumors and attacks they the organization has taken money from the oil companies or America's Wetland Foundation. Seems to me that this is a very solid organization that is truly trying to make a difference and has been doing so since 2006.

Women of the Storm Responds to Rumors
About the Restore the Gulf Campaign

NEW ORLEANS -- There are a few rumors circulating about the Women of the Storm campaign to restore the Gulf. The rumors misrepresent facts and bring up two issues that we would like to clarify:

•the funding source for Women of the Storm and the Restore the Gulf campaign, and
•the idea that this campaign is an attempt to shift Gulf Coast restoration costs from oil companies to American taxpayers.

Here are the facts:

Women of the Storm funded the Restore the Gulf initiative independently, using no money from America’s Wetland Foundation or any oil companies. Women of the Storm is supported through contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations. The organization has never received direct funding from any oil company or from America’s Wetland Foundation. While America's Wetland Foundation is a strategic partner, it has no influence on development of Women of the Storm’s strategy, content, publications or projects. We simply share the goal of drawing attention to coastal restoration.

Women of the Storm is not asking for, nor does it expect, American taxpayers to pay for damage caused by other parties to the Gulf, its coastline or wetlands. Our petition does not specify a public or private funding source, only that we request a restoration plan to be funded and implemented. It will ultimately be up to Congress and the White House to determine how the plan for restoration is fully funded. However, nothing in our campaign is intended to absolve any entity from its responsibility for funding restoration of the damages it has caused.

Celebrity participation in the Restore the Gulf campaign does not imply support for, or endorsement of, any organization or of any other message than as expressed in the Restore the Gulf public service announcement.

Women of the Storm, founded in January, 2006, is a non-political, non-partisan group of diverse women from metropolitan New Orleans and south Louisiana. The common bond among these women is their passion to rebuild their homes, businesses and communities. Women of the Storm operates under the umbrella of a 501-c-3 organization; it is managed by a 13-member executive committee.

A case of mistaken identity in Iran. Remembering Neda Soltan

This is an article about a lady in Iran who was mistaken for Neda Soltan. Neda was the young lady murdered by Iranian security forces during the protests last year. Zahra Soltani was later almost forced into saying that Neda was alive and the story about her being killed was a lie. Zahra looks alot like Neda as the picture shows. Zahra was under so much pressure from the Iranian government that she fled from Iran. This most likely save her life. It was bad enough that Neda Soltan was gunned down in cold blood by the Iranian government. Here is Zahra's story, which was almost was another death at the hands of the Iranian government. Article below is from the Bend Bulletin. Story originally ran in the NYT.


Mistaken as an Iranian Martyr, Then Hounded
By Souad Mekhennet

Zahra Soltani

FRANKFURT, Germany — Zahra Soltani, whom everyone calls Neda, will never forget the day she saw her death announced on television, accompanied by the picture she had posted on her Facebook page.

“They said that I was killed during the protests against the presidential elections,” she said, shaking her head.

In fact, it was another Iranian woman with a similar appearance and name, Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot and killed during a demonstration in Tehran in June 2009. Her death was captured on video and posted on the Internet, becoming a symbol of the fight against the repressive government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Soon, Soltani found herself swept up in the government’s efforts to counter any suggestion that its security forces had been involved in the shooting — and to deny that the woman in the video had died. Iranian intelligence officials, Soltani said, pressured her to come forward to show that she was alive and denounce the shooting as faked, and threatened her when she did not comply.

advertisement:Before the demonstration, Sol-tani, a 33-year-old English-literature teacher at a campus of Islamic Azad University who had not been active in politics, had been preparing for a presentation at a conference in Greece. Just days after the protest march, she fled Iran, ending up as a refugee in Germany, where she was granted poolitical asylum in March after the authorities investigated her story.

“I never planned to leave my country and my family, but I was forced to,” Soltani said. She consented to an interview, her first with an English-language media organization, on the condition that some details about her new life be concealed because she fears the Iranian security services.

The upheaval in Soltani’s life began June 20, 2009, when a video appeared on YouTube showing a young dark-haired woman who was shot during the demonstration. As she lay dying, with blood running from her mouth, an older man (some reports said it was her father, others said her music teacher) shouted the name “Neda.”

Journalists worldwide tried to find out who the dying woman was; the video image of her was not entirely clear, and she was wearing a veil. At some point she was identified as Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old student at the Tehran campus of Islamic Azad University, the school with which Soltani was affiliated.

Neda Soltan

Someone came across Soltani’s profile on Facebook under the name Neda Soltani and copied her photo, which soon appeared all over the world in newspapers and TV broadcasts and on websites.

“I was very surprised when I opened my e-mail account on June 21 and found over 60 people from all over the world who had added me on Facebook” as a friend, Soltani said. That number kept growing, puzzling Soltani and her mother, until they saw her picture on television, cast as a victim of Iranian security forces.

She said she and her friends started to contact media outlets to tell them that she was not the woman in the YouTube video. Even when the family of the slain woman released photos of her on June 23, Soltani’s pictures were still used in news reports.

By June 24, the Iranian intelligence service started looking for her, Soltani said. Panicked, she contacted Amnesty International in London. “She was very afraid and scared, and did not know what to do,” said Ann Harrison, an Iran researcher for Amnesty.

Agents from the intelligence service picked her up from her home outside Tehran and took her for questioning, Soltani said.

“They asked me to say on camera that I was still alive, and that the Greek Embassy in Tehran had leaked my picture to the media, and that the story was wrong,” Soltani said. (Her Facebook picture was identical to the one that she had given to the embassy weeks before in seeking a visa to the academic conference.)


“They wanted to use me to denounce Neda’s death,” she said. They also wanted her to blame conspirators from the West for the episode.

Soltani said some of the men, who were armed, threatened her. “They said it would be better for my safety if I did what they wanted me to do,” she said.


On July 1, the intelligence service confronted Soltani about the phone calls she had made to Western countries — to media outlets, friends she had enlisted for help, and Amnesty International — and accused her of spying, she said.

The next day, Soltani fled Iran.

“All I had was my rucksack, my laptop and a small handbag,” she said. She stayed in Turkey for nine days, then traveled to Greece and on to Germany, where she arrived in mid-July 2009.

A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Germany disputed Soltani’s story, but declined to comment further.

Soltani, who is living in a town outside Frankfurt, is unemployed and looking for work. She said she missed her family and her life as a teacher.

“I am very homesick,” she said. “... Both sides have destroyed my life — the Western media and the Iranian intelligence. But I still have the hope that at least the media will realize what they have done.”

Original article can be found here

USA - Shocking: This is in NYC on Madison Ave., not in France or the Middle East....

This is from Jan who does AmericanCrisis and AfricanCrisis. Not used to seeing this in the United States. This is what is to come if we do not stand firm and take actions that are needed against islam and those mulsims that have been brainwashed by this ideology still stuck in the seventh century. This is why I am here, doing what I do. Are you alarmed? If not, you should be. I using smaller pictures so they load faster. Link to original article is at the end of the post. Jan is currently working on a trip to the States. He has had some really interesting conversations with the U.S. Consulate in order to obtain his visa, which he did receive this past week.

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Islam in NYC. Is this what you want?
By Jan Lamprecht


I received this from a friend who once was in the Rhodesian Special Branch of the Police. They did Covert ops and fought Mugabe. Below are his comments regarding my trip to America and whether I would get a visa or not. After some delays the US Consulate did in fact grant me a visitor's visa. I will write up some of the questions they asked me when I applied. That in itself makes for a fascinating discussion.

As I view these photos below, and the protests in New York against Musllims (which the American media SUPPRESSED COMPLETELY)... I must admit, I would have liked to spend some time in New York. But at this stage I only have made plans for a one night stay in New York to meet up with Frank of Queens of The Right Perspective. But it appears to me, there is much more in New York worth seeing. It would have been nice to make some contact with locals in New York and maybe to have made better arrangements. I am going to schedule my trip for October 2010. I would have liked, especially, to also observe these Muslims in New York for myself - and if possible, even surreptitiously engage some of them in discussion. I am really curious about them. They appear to *ME* to be a national security threat to the USA. It is from these same people that multiple types of terrorist activities have occurred - other than just 9/11.

Another American friend actually wrote to the Mayor of New York city, and I have yet to publish his email response. That's also an eye opener.

Jan]

The former Rhodesian Special Branch officer wrote this to me:- If you application for a visa is denied.....the pictures below will help explain why! You are not the current flavour Jan, you are the wrong colour and come from completely the wrong background!

This is in NYC on Madison Ave., not in France or the Middle East -


Not just London, Paris and Barcelona


MADISON AVENUE, NY

Link to original article is here.

Ethics? What Ethics? Let's Have a Party!

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk



"Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday, dear Hermann,
happy birthday to you
..and many more (hee, hee)


Talk about timing. No sooner does the House of Representatives announce an ethics trial for Charlie Rangel, then it is announced there will be a lavish birthday bash for Charlie on August 11.

"It's a big f-----' deal!"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/01/home-state-democrats-reportedly-plan-lavish-birthday-party-rangel/

Here's another interesting side note; the party is being held on August 11 even though Charlie's birthday was June 11. What's that all about? And the Plaza Hotel? That ain't the Motel 6, folks.

I guess any day now, the Dems will announce a big birthday bash for Maxine Waters-also pending trial on House ethics charges. Maybe her personal banker, Barney Frank, can dip into some TARP funds to put on a monster bash for her and her "businessman" hubby Sidney Williams.

Doesn't House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who promised to "drain the swamp" see what this looks like in the public eye? Now the Washington Post is reporting today that the loopy Pelosi is saying she "was out of the loop" in the Rangel investigation.



Is this what President Obama meant when he said this week that he hopes Rangel can end his career with "dignity"?

Dignity.

Talk about "in-your-face", "rub their noses in it" politics.

Five Christians shot to death by muslims in Pakistan

As the global community just waits for Israel to defend itself, and then attacks Israel as a rabid mob, the global violence of islam and muslims, brainwashed by 1400 years of being raised under an ideology that embraces violence, persecution and death to any and all who oppose islam, comes this 'loving' story about the religion of peace. Remember this; islamists and islamist apologists will lie to you how tolerant islam is to other religions. Here is more proof of that.

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Suspected Islamists Shoot Five Christians to Death in Pakistan
Muslim extremist groups had threatened church for two years.

SUKKUR, Pakistan, July 29 (CDN) — A dozen masked men shot five Christians to death as they came out of their church building here on July 15, two months after a banned Islamic extremist group sent church leaders a threatening letter, relatives said.

Pastor Aaron John and church members Rohail Bhatti, Salman John, Abid Gill and Shamin Mall of Full Gospel Church were leaving the church building after meeting to discuss security in light of the threats they had received, said the pastor’s son, Shahid John.

“As we came out of the church, a group of a dozen armed gunmen came and opened fire at us,” said Shahid John, who survived a bullet in his arm. “Fear struck the area. The police arrived 45 minutes after the incident, and we waited for over 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.”

Besides Shahid John, five others were wounded in the attack.

In May church leaders received a letter from Islamic extremist group Sip-e-Sahaba (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba until it was banned) warning the Christians to leave the area, said Kiran Rohail, wife of the slain Rohail Bhatti.


“It said to vacate the land, Christians are not welcomed here, they are polluting our land,” Kiran Rohail said.

The Sip-e-Sahaba and Sunni Tehrik extremist groups are both linked with an area madrassa (Islamic school) whose students had been threatening the church since 2008, Christian sources said.


“In 2008 a group of Muslim students started making threats for the church to vacate the land, as there are only 55 Christian families living in the area,” said the pastor’s widow, Naila John, who also lost her son Salman John in the attack.


The masked gunmen of July 15 had young physiques like those of students, Christian sources said, and their manner of attack indicated they were trained extremists.

The madrassa students that have threatened the church since 2008 belong to the Sunni Tehrik extremist group, the sources said.

Pastor John and Bhatti had reported the threats of the past two years to police, but officers at the local station did not take them seriously, said Naila John.

When they received the threatening letter in May, Pastor John, his son Salman, Bhatti, Gill, Mall and another member of the church, Arif Gill, went to the police station to register a First Information Report (FIR), according to Shahid John.

“Police just took the application but didn’t register the FIR,” he said. “The station house officer just provided two police constables for security.”

On the evening of July 15, the pastor called a meeting to discuss needed security measures, his widow Naila John said. The meeting ended around 7:30 p.m., when they left the building and were sprayed with gunfire.

“No FIR has been registered due to the pressure from the local Islamic groups,” said Kiran Rohail, referring to Sunni Tehrik, Sip-e-Sahaba and the local mosque. “The police came and took our statements, but they didn’t show up again.”

An independent government source confirmed the shooting deaths of the Christians, adding that local Islamist pressure had prevented media from reporting on it.

The church began in 1988, and Pastor John had been leading it since 2001.

Sukkur, in southwest Pakistan’s Sindh Province, has been the site of previous violence against Christians. Last June or July, area Christians said, students from the local madrassa beat Pastor Adnan John of Multan, severely injuring him, after they saw him walking in front of the mosque wearing a cross and holding a Bible. In another instance, the Muslim students prevented Christian students from holding a Christmas program at a park.

In 2006, some 500 Muslims burned down two churches in Sukkur and a convent school on Feb. 19, reportedly over rumors that a Christian threw a copy of the Quran into a trash can. A crowd wielding gasoline bombs torched St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Savior’s Church of Pakistan after media and government sources floated the rumor, but local sources said the violence occurred after a Muslim was arrested for burning pages of the Quran and trying to frame his Christian father-in-law, Saleem Gill, with the deed.

After torching the inside of St. Savior’s, the mob turned on Pastor Ilyas Saeed Masih’s home, then went five minutes away to destroy the 120-year-old St. Mary’s edifice.

Link to original article can be found here
Compass Direct News