Anglican Mainstream

From Jihad Watch

Al-Haqiqa has learned from church sources in Homs that the city has been emptied of almost 90% of its Christians. It is expected that a complete "cleansing" of buildings owned by Christians will occur within a matter of days or weeks by armed men from the Wahhabi "Faruq Brigade." A source in the Orthodox metropolitan's office told al-Haqiqa that armed men from the Faruq Brigade went to the homes of the Christians, house by house, in the neighborhoods of Hamidiya and Bustan el-Diwan, informing them that they must immediately leave their homes and the city of Homs. The source revealed that the lastest [sic] attempt to expel Christians by force of arms occured [sic] yesterday. It included Dr. Taleb Mashhour Gharibeh, professor of mathematics at Baath University in Homs, his brother the musician Marwan Mashhour Gharibeh (a musician in Sabah Fakhri's group), both of whom live in the Hamidiya neighborhood, their sister Marie Mashhour Gharibeh, who lives in the Bustan el-Diwan neighborhood, as well as their father and his wife the schoolteacher Maha Habou, who live in the new neighborhood el-Wa'ar. This wave of expulsions also included the residents of a six-story building in Hamidiya, whose residents include eighteen families, almost all of whom are from the village Uyoun el-Wadi.

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By Michael Carl, World Net Daily

Members of the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram are vowing to “eradicate Christianity” in Nigeria.

Reports coming out of Nigeria over the past several days show that the group whose name means “Western education is evil” is launching a new terror campaign aimed at killing Christians and Jews in northern Nigeria.
 
The Nigerian news site Bikya Masr reports that the jihadi group has declared war on all Christians living in northern Nigeria.

Human-rights group International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho confirms the reports and says the news is “alarming.”

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By Janet Daley, Telegraph

Francis Maude is scheduled to give a speech tonight to Policy Exchange in which he will contend that if the Conservatives fail to advocate gay marriage, they will be unelectable. I happen to think that this is factually wrong – simply because for most voters, the issue of gay marriage will not be the deciding factor at the next general election. But even if we don't take Mr Maude's view absolutely literally: if we assume that he means that without embracing a more socially liberal attitude toward homosexuality, the party will be locked into an ultimately untenable position, there is still a problem.

One of the major tenets of the Tory modernisers' campaign has been that the party's social attitudes are archaic and that an unfashionable intolerance of alternative lifstyles is a totemic example of this. Which may be true, especially among urban intellectuals. But another fundamental proposition of the modernisers has been that the party must appeal more to ethnic minorities. For the Conservatives to remain a bastion of white, middle-class, suburban values (or prejudices, depending on your point of view) would put it out of step with the future of the country. So which is it?

Because, you see, a choice will have to be made. There are few groups in Britain today who are more inclined to outright homophobia than devout Muslims, and the strong contingent of African Christians in the UK, who are now making their voices heard in the Anglican Church, are utterly opposed to gay marriage.

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From Christian Today

There are unconfirmed reports that the Iranian authorities have decided to go ahead with the execution of a pastor.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for apostasy and has been in prison for several months as he awaits the outcome of his appeal.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, his lawyer is trying to confirm reports that the Iranian authorities have decided to uphold the death sentence.

CSW is concerned that Nadarkahni will be executed at any time without prior notification and that the authorities will merely announce it later, a practice the organisation says is not uncommon in Iran.

The sentence has been condemned by the UK and US governments but Pastor Nadarkhani has won the admiration of the international Christian community because of his refusal on at least four occasions to recant his faith in exchange for freedom.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas called upon the international community to put pressure on the Iranian government to release Pastor Nadharkani.

"CSW is deeply concerned at the very real possibility that Pastor Nadarkhani’s death sentence could be carried out at any time, despite the fact that there is no legal basis for this sentence," he said.

"We urge the Iranian authorities to follow due process, and ensure respect for the right to freedom of religion.”

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From AAC

The following is part of a pastoral letter from Bishop Dobbs to the members of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a branch of the Anglican Church of Nigeria and the Anglican Church in North America.

Thousands of Christians are fleeing their homes in the Muslim-dominated northern states of Nigeria following a New Year ultimatum — from the murderously militant Islamist para-military group Boko Haram — for Christians: ‘leave or die.' According to the Barnabas Fund, the terrorist group executed a series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks on churches and the security services. Many of our Anglican churches have been closed and our brothers and sisters killed or injured as a result of these and subsequent attacks.

 In January, CANA hosted the Most Reverend Benjamin Argak Kwashi, Archbishop of Jos, capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria's volatile Plateau State. His Grace spoke at the Church of the Apostles, Fairfax, Virginia; addressed members of Congress on Capitol Hill; and later strove to communicate the dire conditions of Christians in Muslim-dominated areas of Nigeria with Suzan Johnson Cook, President Obama's Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom. Underscoring the growing militancy of Islam in West Africa, Archbishop Kwashi reported that since the 1980s in Plateau State alone – once known as Nigeria's ‘place of peace and tourism' – 30,000 Christians have been killed by those seeking to impose totalitarian Islamist rule on the region.

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By Michael Carl, World Net Daily

Islam will overwhelm Christendom unless Christians recognize the demographic realities, begin reproducing again, and share the gospel with Muslims.

By Bruce Walker, The New American

Catholic bishops are warning that if the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria falls to Islamists, there may well be a mass genocide of Christians, such as seen in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Though Christians cannot support the brutality of the Assad dictatorship, few believe that rule by Muslim extremists will be any better.

Syria — home to Damascus, one of the most important cities of the ancient world and of special religious significance to Christians — has long had a tolerant attitude toward religious minorities. Syria's Christians — estimated to be about 10 percent of the population, or 2.5 million — cherish this tradition of non-religious government. The Ba'athist Party of Syria had a counterpart in the Ba'athist Party of Iraq, whose last leader was Saddam Hussein. The party was actually founded by Michael Aflaq, a Syrian Christian, and although there are many objectionable features to its politics (it is, for example, overtly socialist), people of all faiths were able to live in relative safety even in a Syria in which the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are Muslims.

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From Cranmer

[...]  There have been numerous recent court judgements along the lines of Britain being multi-faith and the law not favouring one religion over another. Lord Justice Laws is of the opinion that Christianity deserves no protection in law above other faiths and to do so would be ‘irrational’, ‘divisive, capricious and arbitrary’. He said: “The precepts of any one religion – any belief system – cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other.”

Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson went further, declaring: “We sit as secular judges serving a multi-cultural community of many faiths. We are sworn (we quote the judicial oath) to ‘do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will’. But the laws and usages of the realm do not include Christianity, in whatever form. The aphorism that 'Christianity is part of the common law of England' is mere rhetoric; at least since the decision of the House of Lords in Bowman v Secular Society Limited [1917] AC 406 it has been impossible to contend that it is law.”

It is as if there were no Constitution, no Established Church, no Head of State who is Supreme Governor, and no Oath of Allegiance whereby people swear by Almighty God that they will ‘be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law.’ If, in our pluralist, multi-faith, multicultural, politically-correct, non-discriminatory culture, all religions are equal, then it follows (‘logically’) that the general power of competence in the Localism Act may be used by any faith group which constitutes a council majority to include prayers to their particular god as part of that council’s formal business.

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By Cole Moreton, Telegraph

Muslims are taking their worship on to streets, as Christians vow to battle a ban on praying in the council chamber. What is the future for faith in Britain?

They knelt in the road to pray, despite the cold. Four or five hundred young men had left their offices in City law firms and banks on Friday lunch time to come hurrying through the streets of Spitalfields for the salaat al-jumma, the most important prayer of the Muslim week.

Shoes slipped off, they had nothing to protect their pinstriped knees but a tarpaulin.

"We are not trying to prove anything," said Adam, an IT worker in his twenties.

"We come here because it is the closest mosque to our offices and we pray in the open air like this because there is not enough room inside."

The mosque is a rented room in a community centre that can only hold a hundred people at most, so the service is broadcast through tinny speakers to the street outside.

The sight of so many young men shoulder to shoulder, bent towards Mecca in a public show of devotion among the parked cars and washing lines of a council estate, was actually quite touching, although some non-Muslims have found it challenging.

"The other mosques around here are too big. I prefer to pray this way," said Adam.

"I feel closer to nature, and maybe to God, under an open sky. This is not a show of strength."

It is, however, a sign of Islam's growing confidence – and a contrast to the identity crisis being suffered by the state faith, Christianity.

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By Ruth Dudley-Edwards, Independent

In the UK last year, there were 2,823 victims of 'honour-based' violence, a figure revealed by (limited) UK police statistics for 2011 obtained by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation through a freedom of information request: about a dozen killings happen every year.

Apologists wish us to lump honour killings in with domestic violence, to avoid having to ask any awkward questions about other people's values, but they are, in fact, very separate. In domestic violence, an individual (mostly men) batters or murders another individual. Honour killings and honour violence are a family matter.

These crimes are under-reported but annually the killings run into many, many thousands worldwide. From an in-depth academic study of 172 honour killings, based on information obtained from English-language media world wide, here are some striking statistics and conclusions.

Yes, it's a cultural rather than a religious thing, stemming from some nasty tribal customs of South Asia and the Middle East, but though Hindus, Sikhs and the odd Christian might be perpetrators, the blunt truth is that honour killings are mainly Muslim-on-Muslim (91 per cent worldwide, 84 per cent North America, 96 per cent Europe).

Worldwide, two-thirds of victims (93 per cent women) were killed by their families of origin: 49 per cent in North America, 66 per cent in Europe and 72 per cent in Muslim countries. More than half the victims died in agony, having been either gang-raped or burned or stoned or beheaded or stabbed many times.

Being 'too Western' did for 58 per cent: this includes being insufficiently subservient, rejecting Islamic dress, wanting a career, having non-Muslim friends or boyfriends, rejecting an arranged marriage or leaving an abusive husband. This criterion covers 91 per cent of North American murders, 71 per cent of European and 43 per cent in the Muslim world. Offences against sexual propriety (eg being raped or accused of adultery) were the justification for the other murders.

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By Ed West, Telegraph

From Christian Concern

Girls as young as nine are being forced to marry in mosques in Islington, according to the findings of a leading women’s rights group.

The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) has reported that at least 30 forced marriages took place in the borough in 2010, involving at least three 11-year old and two 9-year old girls.

Similarly, the Ministry of Justice revealed details of over 30 applications for Forced Marriage Protection Orders in 2011, of which “five or fewer” were made to protect children aged 9 to 11.

IKWRO has warned that child marriages in Britain could be on the increase, with hundreds of Muslim girls facing physical, sexual and emotional abuse as a result.

Dianna Nammi, director of IKWRO said:

“They are still attending schools in Islington, struggling to do their primary school homework, and at the same time being practically raped by a middle-aged man regularly and being abused by their families. So they are a wife, but in a primary school uniform.

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by George Conger, Get Religion

A jury has convicted three members of the Shafia family — father, mother and son of an Afghan family living in Ontario — of murder in what has become Canada’s most notorious “honor killings” case. There has been some great crime and court reporting in the Shafia case, and the articles in the major newspapers are really quite good.

From Jihad Watch

From the NSS

Children & Families Minister Tim Loughton MP has said that he is not convinced there is any need to regulate Britain's madrassas, despite clear evidence of abuse.

The Minister was responding to concerns expressed by the National Secular Society about child protection in Islamic schools. This followed a BBC investigation which revealed that over 400 allegations of physical abuse (and 30 of sexual abuse) were made at Britain's madrassas in the last three years. Only 10 cases went to court, and of these only two apparently led to convictions.

A senior prosecutor has suggested that these figures were likely to represent only the 'tip of an iceberg'. Nazir Afzal, the chief crown prosecutor for the North West of England, has commented that the figures represent "a significant underestimate".

UK madrassas are attended by more than 250,000 children from Muslim backgrounds every day for lessons on the Quran and Islamic culture.

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Evangelicals Now February 2012

Latest research on the numbers of Christians in the world by the Pew Centre (December 2011) finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the centre of global Christianity.

A century ago, this was not the case. In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.2 Today, only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). More than a third are in the Americas (37%). About one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one-in-eight is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%).

Of those who live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 80 million, that is 3.7 per cent of the world’s 2.18 billion Christians live in Nigeria, the country with the worlds sixth largest Christian population who account for half the population.  There are twice as many Protestants in Nigeria as there are in Germany.

Muslims make up one quarter of the world’s population. It has long been remarked that a line starting in Nigeria and working its way in a crescent shape through Africa up to the Nile and then around the Middle East to Turkey represents the front line between the Christian Faith and Islam.

On that fault line many dangers exist.

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By Ioannis Gatsiounis,The Washington Times

A Pentecostal preacher who has converted thousands of Muslims to Christianity was disfigured when men shouting “God is great” in Arabic threw acid in his face in a Christmas Eve attack that has stoked religious tensions here.

The victim, Umar Mulinde, is a Muslim convert to Christianity and now a vocal critic of Islam. He is also a key figure in opposing the establishment of Islamic civil courts in this majority Christian country.

Christians say the attack on Mr. Mulinde is symbolic of the government’s failure to protect Christians from Muslim extremists, even in a country whose population is 85 percent Christian. They say Muslims refuse to accept the concept of religious freedom, especially the right to choose how one worships.

Mainstream Muslims say they practice a tolerant version of Islam and that violent thugs like the ones who attacked Mr. Mulinde do not represent them.

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From Jihad Watch