islam

Understanding Muslim Obsession With Israel

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If you have ever wondered why the Arab world is obsessed with destroying Israel, even at the expense of its own people, this article by Melanie Phillips will turn on the lights for you. It is all driven by honour and shame, and in particular the role the Jews had in being suitable victims of shame to enhance the honour of Arabs. She quotes at length an article by Professor Richard Landes. A long article but worth reading.

Fatah, headed by Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, has called for a “day of rage” tomorrow.

This is ostensibly to protest against the metal detectors which the Israeli government has installed at Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That was in response to last Sunday’s attack there by two Israeli Arabs. Already armed, they burst from the compound and murdered two Israeli Druze police officers, leaving a third officer injured.

Dozens have already been hurt overnight in violent demonstrations against the police in both the Temple Mount area and in east Jerusalem, with Arab youths throwing stones at officers and setting dumpsters on fire. According to Jerusalem’s police commissioner Yoram Halevi, many of those who took part in the rioting were encouraged to do so by the provocative statements being made by the Palestinian leadership.

You don’t say.

It’s the usual story. Arabs are incited to attack Jews by mendacious claims (made by Abbas, amongst others) that the Jews are attacking Muslim holy site; Arabs launch murderous attack on Israelis from said Muslim holy site; Israelis take security measures around said Muslim holy site to defend against further such attacks; Arabs claim these defensive security measure are further attack on Muslim holy site; Arabs incite further attacks on Israelis in protest at presumed attack on holy site; and on and on.

The Israelis’ real crime, in the Arabs’ eyes, is to assert control of any kind on Temple Mount. The Arabs have threatened to unleash world war if Jews were ever to have free access to it or in any way alter the status quo. That status quo means Jews have their access to Temple Mount heavily restricted and are not even allowed to pray on it.

This despite the fact that, as the site of the original Jewish Temple, it is the holiest place of all for religious Jews. The Arab and Muslim belligerency over Temple Mount is not just an attack on Israel but on Judaism itself.

Read the full article here

Intolerance Growing in Indonesia

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This is a very worrying trend in a nation which has, in the past, been verytolerant of diverse beliefs.

From persecution.org

Survey Finds 59% of Respondents Carried Out Acts of Intolerance Toward Non-Muslims

ICC Note:

The Wahid Foundation, an organization that promotes tolerance in Indonesia reports on acts of sectarian violence. The former first lady of Indonesia, Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, cited some alarming statistics from the Foundation’s research saying that, “Only 11 per cent of respondents expressed strong rejection of the idea of establishing an Islamic nation,” and adding that, “59 per cent of Indonesians who responded to the survey carried out acts of intolerance towards non-Muslims.” Indonesia has been under the growing influence of conservative Islam which is resulting in more acts of intolerance against non-Muslims.

4/25/2017 Indonesia (Asia News) – Sectarian acts against non-Muslims are rising fast, this according to a study by the Wahid Foundation, an organisation that promotes a tolerant and multicultural society in Indonesia.

The Wahid Foundation was set up to support the humanitarian vision of Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), a moderate Muslim intellectual and a former president of Indonesia, who, during his political career, promoted an inclusive version of Islam. As president, and as leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama, a Muslim movement, he promoted the rights of minorities, non-Muslims and Indonesian Chinese.

His widow, Sin Nuriyah Wahid, raised the issue of intolerance during a television interview on 10 April. The former first lady cited the Foundation’s study to warn her fellow citizens and her words continue to echo. The results of local elections in Jakarta on 19 April, which saw the victory of Anies Baswedan and radical Islamist groups, re-ignited the debate.

…

[Full Story]

Easter Means We Don’t Need A “Prayer Room”

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Stephen McAlpine writes:

Christian: We Don’t Need No Prayer Room

The decision by the Royal Adelaide Hospital to build a prayer room for Muslims, but no dedicated chapel for Christians, merely a multi-faith room instead, has drawn predictable ire from the likes of Australian Conservatives leader Senator Cory Bernardi.

The Australian newspaper today reported Bernardi  saying he is “sick and tired” of the constant accommodation to a minority group in Australia, to the detriment of Australia’s historical faith.

The report states:

Senator Bernardi said the new hospital’s arrangement was “everything that’s wrong” with the approach to integrate other cultural groups, and the prayer room was “clearly designed for Islam”.

Separate washing areas were “all the symbolism I need that this is tailor-made to accommodate to a tiny minority’’, he said yesterday. “We’re bending over to ­appease a minority for fear of causing offence while undermining our tradition and heritage.

is Bernardi right?  Is that what is happening?

Perhaps.  It’s not beyond the realms of possibility in our secular context, in which Anything But Christianity is viewed ironically, as sacrosanct, that that is the case.

But it’s not the only reason, perhaps not even the primary one.  Other faiths are less demarcated in our culture in the sense that Islam has strong parameters about what it can and cannot do; what it can and cannot abide in the public square.  Provisions need to be made.  Dedicated prayer rooms need to be available.

A multi-faith room for everyone else seems somehow reasonable because no one else seems to care too much about separatism in the way Islam still does.  And let’s face it, the anaemic version of Christianity in the public setting today has been at pains to show how much it is the same as everything else.  Islam, to its credit, is not making that mistake.

Perhaps too Bernardi, for all his railing against the secular system, misses the radical point of Christianity.  For if he understood it rightly he’d realise, we don’t need no prayer room at all!

Read the rest here

PROCLAIM HIS NAME Into the Atmosphere! by Jacqueline McKool

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PROCLAIM HIS NAME Into the Atmosphere! by Jacqueline McKool

Recently, as I thought about the Islamic influence that has quickly and resolutely infiltrated our nation, I asked the Lord how to specifically pray about it.

The Lord spoke and said that five times a day the Islamic prayers and declarations released into the atmosphere are in agreement with the enemy, giving him legal ground to advance his evil plan on this nation. The consistent, unified Islamic prayers and the declarations of special interest groups, whose agenda is contrary to God’s Word, currently outweigh the voices of the people of the Kingdom of God.

The Lord also said that if His Remnant would declare aloud that He is the one true God even just once a day, then an acknowledgment of His sovereignty would be released into the airways EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY! 

An example of a declaration:

Yahweh God, the great I Am, He alone is God, there is none beside Him. Jesus, His only begotten Son is our Savior, the Lord of lords, and King of kings, the One who was, who is and is to come. All glory, praise, honor, majesty, splendor and dominion is His forever and ever.

It is time that we, the Remnant, the called out ones of the Body of Jesus Christ, release our voice, the breath of our Creator, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and declare who the one true God is over this nation. Our collective voice has more power than any other and will supersede the voices aligned with the enemy.

Father God has spoken;  we can take back the airways over this nation that belong to us by the victory of the cross of Christ Jesus. Airways that are permeated with ungodly chants, statements, decrees, invocations and threats. We must mobilize and use our most powerful weapon, the Word of God, and by our spoken word, nullify the decrees of darkness and take back our nation in the name of our redeemer Jesus, the King and Lord of America!

I call you, brothers and sisters, to take the Lord God at His word; declare Him as the one true God and fill the atmosphere with His praise at least once a day. Ask the Holy Spirit to remind you or set a reminder on your smart phone. 

Together, the gates of hell will not prevail against us! (Matthew 16:18)

Sing out the honour of His name; make His praise glorious! Say to God, how awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies will submit themselves to You! (Psalm 66:2-3)

Was Muhammad a False Prophet?

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Steven Kilpatrick asks the question many in the church are afraid to contemplate. Was Muhammad a false prophet in the sense of  deliberately setting out to lead people away from Christ? In our culture of relativism and general disdain for religion, this is a question all christians need to ask.

Was Muhammad a False Prophet?

WILLIAM KILPATRICK

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Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Mt. 7:15).

Would “false prophets” include Muhammad? It’s an impolitic question to ask in these politically correct times, but, thanks to political correctness these are also highly dangerous times. Since a good deal of the danger emanates from the religion Muhammad founded, it seems reasonable to ask if he was a false prophet. And if he was, does that mean that Islam is a false religion?  And if it is, why are Catholic leaders so keen on declaring their solidarity with Islam?

It’s a case of either/or. Either the New Testament account of Jesus is true or Muhammad’s account is true. Since they contradict each other, they both can’t be true.

In the gospel accounts, Jesus is rather insistent that he is the Son of God, and the Koran is rather insistent that he is not.

Read the full article here

Will Our Elites Wake Up Now?

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At least 160 people dead in multiple terrorist attacks in Paris.

Six terrorists have been killed, but we don’t know how many others were involved. They can’t blow this one off as a “lone wolf” attack.

Our leaders need to start speaking the truth about what is happening in every Western country. The truth is that there is something very nasty about the so-called religion of peace. It is a violent political-religious ideology that is utterly at odds with everything a civilised society stands for.

The leaders of our nations- politicians, media and academics- have been trying to say that attack after attack has nothing to do with Islam. They pretend to be mystified by the motives of people who shout “Allahu Akbar” before blowing up/ shooting/ beheading a bunch of innocent people.

We need to recognise that multiculturalism is problematic when people come to the West in large numbers and refuse to take on board the values that actually make us what we are.

We need to recognise that the open borders policy that the EU has been promoting for so-called refugees, and which the Greens and Labor think are a wonderful plan for Australia, allow unfettered access by jihadists and terrorists.

We need to put away the stupid name calling that shuts down debate every time these things happen. Stop calling the people who criticise Islam racist or Islamophobic.

Islamic community leaders need to recognise that this is their problem. They could start by appointing a “Grand Mufti” who can actually speak English and articulate a plan or a desire to ensure that Australia is not likely to become the target of such an attack- preferably without demanding Government funding.

It’s time for us to get real about Islam. It’s time to get real about the motivations of those who perform these acts of terror. It’s time to get real about the extremists and the jihadists who seem to have free access to mosques to spread their poisonous ideas.

This is not an attack on individual Muslims. I’ve met many Muslims who are fine and wonderful people- genuine, sincere, caring, happy. The ideology of Islam is what needs to be attacked, not individual Muslims.

Muslim student finds Jesus at Islamic school

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Awesome news in Iraq and Syria in the midst of terrible suffering.

From My Christian Daily:

bible

Muslim student finds Jesus at Islamic school

As battles continued in Syria and Iraq between flesh and blood, Christian workers watched in awe as the gospel advanced “nearly unopposed” on the spiritual front lines of the same region.

Christian workers in northern Iraq could barely keep up with people’s desire to learn more about Jesus and the Bible, according to a report by Christian Aid Mission. Residents in northern Iraq’s largely Muslim, autonomous region of Kurdistan have been more open to Christianity than other Iraqis and have shown heightened interest in response to the advance of ISIS.

“They’re just sick of Islam,” one ministry director told Christian Aid Mission. “People are very hungry to know about Christ, especially when they hear about miracles, healing, mercy and love.”

The ministry leader said that administrators at a sharia (Islamic law) college recently made contact with him after they learned he was giving away Bibles. They requested 21 Bibles for a comparative religion class so they could equip Muslims with ammunition to defeat the Bible and proselytize Christians.

“In a couple months, after they took that class going through the Bible, five of the students got saved,” the ministry leader said. “They called me and said, ‘Hey, we’re done with Islam.’”

The Muslim teacher reported the conversions to authorities, who demanded the ministry director come in for questioning. A policeman asked him if he had tried to convert the students, and he replied that he had never even met the students.

When the officer asked him why he gave them Bibles, he said the instructor had requested them. The officer confirmed this with the teacher and asked the students why they converted to Christianity.

One student said, “The Bible is strong, powerful; it changed our lives.”

Then the policeman said, “Okay, then go, there is no case here; I can’t do anything.”

As they were walking away the policeman turned to the ministry leader and asked, “Is it true that the Bible has the power to change lives?”

“Yes, of course. It’s been changing lives everywhere,” the man replied.

“Can I have a copy?” the policeman asked quietly.

The ministry leader gladly complied with his request.

In numerous testimonies heard from Kurds every day, the ministry leader cited an “awakening” among Muslims in northern Iraq, according to the report by Christian Aid Mission.

No one refused a Bible or passed up an opportunity to hear the gospel, he said, even if not everyone came to faith overnight. He recounted the story of a Muslim who received aid – and a new Bible.

“OK, but I’m Muslim, I can’t become Christian – I have a big family, and my father is a very extremist radical,’” the man said.

“I didn’t ask you to be Christian,” the ministry leader replied. “I’m not trying to change your religion here. I just want you to read the Bible and know who Jesus Christ is. I want you to have a relationship with God.’”

The Kurdish Muslim thought this reasonable, and he began reading the Bible with his wife and children. There were often power outages in the area, so when the ministry director visited him, often they found him reading God’s Word by candlelight.

The Muslim man presented the ministry leader with a list of questions from his study of the Bible. One day he asked the ministry leader for his perspective on Muhammad.

The surprised director, who normally does not talk about Islam, gave him a summary description of Muhammad but did not include anything offensive.

“Why do you ask me that question?” the ministry leader asked.

“You know what? I don’t like Muhammad anymore,” the man said.

Surprised by this turn, he asked the man, “What now?”

“I want to be a Christian,”

“I thought you said you didn’t want to be Christian before.”

“Oh, I changed my mind.”

As a result of the power of God’s Word and the Spirit of God opening the heart, the Muslim man prayed to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

Kurdish Muslims are discovering a sharp contrast between Christianity and Islam – especially as practiced by the radical militants. “As terrifying and horrifying as ISIS is, they did us a great favor because they came and have shown them all the killing, saying that it’s all in the Koran verses,” the ministry leader reported to Christian Aid.

“So now we don’t have to say much, we just say the truth.”

The indigenous ministry leader said the gospel continues to be well received among displaced people, with 10 house churches meeting regularly in run-down apartments in Erbil, Dohuk and surrounding areas. From time to time the fellowships vanish as displaced people leave the country in search of a better life, but others spring up in their place, he told Christian Aid.

The ministry continues to provide aid to displaced people in tents and whatever dilapidated or unfinished buildings they can find for shelter, with needs for blankets, heaters, food and diapers still being high.

First ministry members show the love of Christ by meeting physical needs, and only later do they bring Bibles, he said.

“We just help because we love them, and maybe the next time we visit we tell them about Jesus and give them Bibles,” he said. “We believe in the power of the Word of God. We don’t have many preachers. We don’t have many missionaries, but we have the Word of God that we’re able to print, purchase and deliver to the people and their children.”

Revival in the Middle East

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The news broadcasts seem to show an invincible Islamic advance throughout the Middle East, but in fact many Muslims around the world are converting to Christ in big numbers.

From World Revival Network:

The Underground Revival In The Middle-East That Might Just Take Down Islam

The churning, tempestuous world looks remarkably different than many imagine. This is undoubtedly true if you’re an average American. 

In the darkest corners of the Middle-East there’s a revival beginning that’s unprecedented in the history of world missions. I’ve previously reflected on it hereand here, but I wanted to take this amazing story further than before.

I hope that you’ll journey with me as I explore unbelievable developments in the expansion of Christianity in the Middle-East.

Reliable reports suggest more Muslims have become followers of Jesus over the last two decades than in Islam’s combined 1,500 year history. Based on the accounts of several missiologists, it has been surmised that “more Muslims have committed to follow Christ in the last 10 years than in the last 15 centuries of Islam.”[1] In spite of great difficulty and turmoil, Christianity is unquestionably expanding throughout Islamic world. God is up to something amazing in a region that many have thought was unreachable.
 
Rosenberg’s Insights Into The Middle-Eastern Revival 

Joel Rosenberg, an Evangelical researcher, author, and resident of Israel has documented the recent upsurge of Christianity in the Middle-East. Through first-hand reconnaissance, coupled with reports from Arabic nationals, Rosenberg demonstrates that Christianity is rising rapidly in the world of Islam. 

Admittedly some of the following statistics have shifted in the aftermath of the Isis and other violent demonstrations against Christians. Those who follow Jesus have been slaughtered and have experienced severe persecution in this region. Nevertheless, Joel Rosenberg’s observations provide a window into many amazing developments.

Some of the particulars can certainly be debated, but in many of the Mediterranean nations, Christianity is making extraordinary inroads. Though the subsequent conversion figures are impossible to confirm, even in their imprecision, they provide a snapshot of what’s transpiring in the Middle East.

Full article here