Islamist militants bomb Nigerian Churches on Christmas

"The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which aims to impose sharia law across the country, claimed responsibility for the three church bombs, the second Christmas in a row the group has caused mass carnage with deadly bombings of churches. Security forces also blamed the sect for two other blasts in the north."

This is a major violation of the Qur'an, I would say.

Christmas festivities in Gaza a taboo

"Since the Palestinian Authority left the Gaza Strip, festive celebrations and displays of crucifixes have become taboo.

Christians in Gaza say they face intimidation and arrest over Christmas celebrations since Hamas took charge in 2007.

...Of the 1.5 million Palestinians now living in the Gaza Strip, fewer than 1,400 are Christian and those who can are leaving. The church hopes reconciliation will bring them back.

There hasn't been a Christmas tree in Gaza City's main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday."

I wonder if Hamas is violating the Qur'an by doing this. According to the Qur'an, Muslims must respect Christians.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks Bruno for sharing.

Can't convert to Christianity in Iran

"Government officials in Iran are trying to convince a jailed pastor to return to Islam as he waits for the nation’s supreme leader to decide whether he should be executed for converting to Christianity, sources close to the case told FoxNews.com."

Most Americans don't know Obama is Christian

USA Today: "Not only do most Americans fail to identify President Obama as Christian, three in four don't know Mitt Romney is a Mormon, according to a new survey."

11 die in Cairo in Muslim-Christian clashes

It started over a Muslim-Christian love affair!

"Muslim-Christian clashes in the Egyptian capital Cairo have killed 11 people and wounded more than 90, security and hospital officials said on Wednesday.

The clashes broke out Tuesday night when a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Christians protesting against the burning of a Cairo church last week. Muslims torched the church amid an escalation of tensions between the two religious groups over a love affair between a Muslim and a Christian that set off a violent feud between the couple's families.

The officials said Wednesday that the killed were six Christians and five Muslims, all died from gunshot wounds. They said 94 people were wounded - 73 Muslims and 21 Christians."

Thanks Fayrouz for posting on fb.

Liberal Pakistani minister murdered

NYT: "The only Christian minister in the Pakistan government was shot dead on Wednesday morning as he left his home in the capital to attend a cabinet meeting, an attack strikingly similar to the killing two months ago of another senior politician holding liberal views.

Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister of minorities, was shot eight times by gunmen who ambushed him as he stepped into his car, police officials said. A pamphlet written by a group of Taliban from the province of Punjab was found near the scene in a middle-class residential neighborhood, the officials said."

It looks like the NYT is wrong. There is another Christian minister in Pakistan's parliament, a woman: "And then there was one. Of the three brave Pakistani politicians who stood up for Aasia Bibi, an embattled Christian woman flung on to death row last year, just one is still alive: Sherry Rehman. The liberal parliamentarian from Karachi, known for her glamorous style and outspoken views, spearheaded efforts to reform the much-abused blasphemy law after Bibi, a mother of four, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad."

Also the NYT article says "The [blasphemy] law, introduced in the 1970s, calls for the death penalty for those accused of speaking against the Prophet Muhammad." According to this article, the blasphemy laws were introduced in the 80s, not the 70s: 'Section 295C was introduced into the Pakistani legal system in the 1980s by the military dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq as part of his broader effort to Islamize laws in Pakistan. It stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly … shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." '

It should be noted, in defense of the NYT, that Zia-ul-Haq, the schmuck who introduced the blasphemy laws, put himself in charge of Pakistan in 1977, and I'm sure the schmuck began his Islamization policies immediately: "General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد ضیاء الحق ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976. After widespread civil disorder, he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a bloodless coup d'état on 5 July 1977 and became the state's third ruler to impose martial law. He initially ruled as Chief Martial Law Administrator, but later installed himself as the President of Pakistan in September 1978."

I did not know that Zia-ul-Huq had a role in the Black September massacre until I read the above. More on that:

On September 15, King Hussein declared martial law. The next day, Jordanian tanks (the 60th Armored Brigade of the Jordanian Army) attacked the headquarters of Palestinian organizations in Amman; the army also attacked camps in Irbid, Salt, Sweileh, Baq'aa, Wehdat and Zarqa. Then the head of Pakistani training mission to Jordan, Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (later Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan), took command of the 2nd division.[13][14] However the Jordanians could not devote all their attention to the Palestinians. The 3rd Armoured Division of the Iraqi Army had remained in Jordan after the 1967 war. The Iraqi regime sympathised with the Palestinians, and it was unclear whether the division would intervene on the part of the Palestinians. Thus the 99th Brigade of the Jordanian 3rd Armoured Division had to be retained to watch the Iraqi division.

Very interesting. No wonder the US was cool with the Jordanian king and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Gunmen kidnapped Christian near Kirkuk

'Unidentified gunmen on Sunday kidnapped a Christian citizen in front of his house southwest of the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk on Sunday, according to a police official.

“Iyad Dawoud Salman, a Christian citizen, was kidnapped Sunday evening (Feb. 13) by unidentified gunmen in front of his house in the area of Dor al-Zira’a, near al-Ihtifalat square, southwestern Kirkuk,” Lt. Colonel Kamil Ahmed, the assistant director of al-Muqdad police department in Kirkuk, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.'

I like it

My Egyptian American friend Khalid posted on fb a few minutes ago: "Muslim Brotherhood were protecting the churches in Egypt during the chaos."

I liked that! The brothers who protected the churches must have known that the Qur'an says Muslims must treat the "people of the book" (Christians and Jews) with the utmost respect.

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Coptic Christians not worried about democracy in Egypt

Nicholas Kristof about his experience in Cairo: 'I constantly asked women and Coptic Christians whether a democratic Egypt might end up a more oppressive country. They invariably said no — and looked so reproachfully at me for doubting democracy that I sometimes retreated in embarrassment.

“If there is a democracy, we will not allow our rights to be taken away from us,” Sherine, a university professor, told me (I’m not using full names to protect the protesters). Like many, she said that Americans were too obsessed with the possibility of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood gaining power in elections.

“We do not worry about the Muslim Brotherhood,” Sherine said. “They might win 25 percent of the votes, but if they do not perform then they will not get votes the next time.”'

Baghdadi Christians selling homes

I spoke to my mother today. My parents want to sell their home in Baghdad, but she said this is not a good time to sell because so many Iraqi Christians have put their Baghdad homes on the market and thus inventory in Baghdad is high.

Last Christian man in town

NYT: "The last Christian man in town goes to church each morning to clean the building and to remember the past. Romel Hawal, 48, was born in this town in Anbar Province back when most of the population was Christian. Now, he said, his 11-year-old son knows no other Christians and has no memory of attending a church service.

“When my son swears, it is on the Koran, not the Bible,” Mr. Hawal lamented.

His wife wants to leave town or leave the country, joining what is becoming an exodus of Christians from Iraq and throughout the Middle East. But Mr. Hawal said he felt an obligation to stay. And he found support from an unlikely source.

“What gives me courage,” he said, “is that my Muslim brothers say, ‘Don’t leave.’ ”

Ezekiel's Tomb in Iraq

Muslims, Jews, and Christians share a lot in Iraq. It is very sad that all Iraqi Jews left Iraq, and now Iraqi Christians are escaping too.



You can probably tell that I've been watching the New York Time's collection of videos about Iraq. Very interesting.

Salafi Muslims taint Islam

"The U.S. condemned attacks yesterday against Christians in Iraq, calling on the Iraqi government to redouble its efforts to protect the religious minority.

Bombs and rockets hit at least four homes of Christians in Baghdad last night, killing at least two people and injuring 13 others, according to the Associated Press. The violence followed a deadly Oct. 31 siege at Our Lady of Salvation Church in the Iraqi capital, and a declaration by al-Qaeda that it was waging war upon the minority group."

Sentenced to death for blasphemy

America should invade Pakistan and help the Salafi slime meet Allah.

"Asia Bibi's case has exposed deep rifts in Pakistan over the blasphemy law, seen by some as an appropriate measure to defend the tenets of Islam, but viewed by others as a dangerous tool easily abused in a society that is a volatile patchwork of ethnicities, religions and sects.

The nation's Shiite Muslim minority has been victimized by extremist Sunni Muslim groups for years. Members of the smaller Ahmadi sect, viewed by most Pakistanis as traitors to Islam because they revere another prophet in addition to Muhammad, have been frequent victims of suicide bombings, kidnappings and other attacks. Last year, in the central Punjab city of Gojra, a mob of 1,000 Muslims set fire to more than 40 Christian homes, killing seven people.

Asia Bibi's case gained notoriety because it involved capital punishment. There have been other controversial blasphemy cases since. Accused of burning pages from the Koran, Imran Latif was charged with blasphemy in Lahore but then released on bail Nov. 3 after questions arose about the veracity of the charges. Eight days later, two men shot him to death in an attack police believe was linked to the blasphemy case.

This month in the southern city of Hyderabad, a Shiite Muslim doctor was arrested on blasphemy charges after police received a complaint that he had maligned the prophet Muhammad. His crime? He tossed out the business card of a pharmaceutical company representative whose first name, Muhammad, was printed on it. The doctor belongs to the smaller Shiite sect known as Ismailis."

AQI kills for the "Islamic cause"

AQI can't kill Egyptian Christians, so they kill Iraqi Christians. Kinda like Saddam's intelligence personnel imprisoned, killed or raped a relative of an Iraqi who defected, and send him the videotape. But in the case of Iraqi Christians, they aren't even related to Egyptian Copts. AQI apparently believes they kill Iraqi Christians for the "Islamic cause" in general.

'Egypt's Christian minority, estimated at about 10 percent of the country's 80 million people, has grown more religiously conservative over the past three decades as has the country's Muslim majority.

Egypt's Salafi movement — extreme conservative Muslims — have long accused the Coptic Church here of conspiring to "Christianize" Egypt. Though Salafis in Egypt reject violence, their doctrine is only a few shades away from that of groups such as al-Qaida. Both adhere to a strict interpretation of Islam that supposedly is a purer form of Islam said to have been practiced by Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century.

The Salafis have set up dozens of websites and Facebook groups to spread the word about the two women.

Hossam Aboul Boukhar, the founder of one of the websites, KamiliaShehata.com, said the Shehata case is not an Egyptian matter anymore but "an Islamic cause." And he listed other women in similar situations.

"It is a phenomenon. The new Muslims, our sisters, are in misery because they are being tortured and imprisoned. We don't know what is going on inside the churches," he said.

In weekly protests from August to November, bearded men in white robes gathered outside mosques in Egypt to denounce Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Christian leader of Egypt, as an "infidel." And they vowed revenge.

In one demonstration, Islamists raised a flag identical to that of al-Qaida in Iraq — a black banner emblazoned with the phrase: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is God's prophet." Two days later, al-Qaida in Iraq attacked the church.'

Iraqi Christians cancel Christmas festivities

"Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities in three cities across the country as al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege on a Baghdad church.

Church officials in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul along with the southern city of Basra said they will not put up Christmas decorations, have canceled evening Mass and urged worshippers to refrain from decorating their homes. Even an appearance by Santa Claus has been called off."

1,000 Iraqi Christian families have fled since church massacre

'They are seeking refuge in the relatively safe Kurdish-controlled region in the north.

The UN High Commission for Refugees said about 1,000 families have left Baghdad and Mosul province since an attack on a church left 68 people dead.

It said the flight of Christians to other parts of Iraq and abroad has become "a slow but steady exodus".

The UNHCR also said it was dismayed that European governments are deporting failed Iraqi asylum seekers to areas of the country it does not consider safe.'

This is very sad, and so close to Christmas.

Sweden deports 5 Iraqi Christians

"The U.N. criticized Sweden on Friday for deporting five Iraqi Christians back to their homeland as Iraq's Christian community comes under severe threat of militant attacks.

Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled abroad or to the relative safety of Iraq's northern Kurdish region since an Oct. 31 siege on a Catholic church in Baghdad that was taken hostage during a Mass service by suicide bombers who ultimately killed 68 people.

The U.N.'s High Commission for Refugees said the five deported Christians were part of a group of at least 20 Iraqis who failed to gain asylum in Sweden and were flown out on Wednesday.

In a Friday release, the refugee agency called itself "dismayed" over the deportation and called on countries to take in Iraqis from Baghdad, Kirkuk and three northern provinces that the U.N. considers unsafe because of repeated attacks, sectarian tensions and human rights violations."

More Iraqi Christians flee homes

I saw this article this morning and wanted to post it but I forgot. Thanks Faryouz for posting on facebook.

'It threatens to reduce further what Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East called “a community whose roots were in Iraq even before Christ.”

Those who fled the latest violence — many of them in a panicked rush, with only the possessions they could pack in cars — warned that the new violence presages the demise of the faith in Iraq. Several evoked the mass departure of Iraq’s Jews after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

“It’s exactly what happened to the Jews,” said Nassir Sharhoom, 47, who fled last month to the Kurdish capital, Erbil, with his family from Dora, a once mixed neighborhood in Baghdad. “They want us all to go.” '

Hundreds of Iraqi Christians attend mass 40 days after Church massacre

"Hundreds of Iraqi Christians attended mass under heavy security on Friday to mark 40 days since dozens of worshippers were killed in an Al-Qaeda siege that sparked an international outcry.

Teary-eyed parishioners, diplomats, and politicians gathered in the Sayidat al-Nejat (Our Lady of Salvation) Syriac Catholic church, seated on plastic garden chairs as priests read aloud the names of the 46 people who died, recited prayers and sang hymns.

Outside, dozens of armed soldiers, policemen and private security contractors stood guard as streets were closed off to vehicle traffic, and men and women alike were frisked on entry."