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Compiled by Steve Jalsevac
See also Rapid Spread of Islamic Terror Sects
ISLAMIST VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS
Prominent Editor in Egypt: ‘I Accuse!’ – American Thinker
Two days after the bombing, on January 3, Hani Shukrallah, the editor of the Cairo daily Al Ahram, who is a Copt by family origin, published an English-language editorial titled “J’Accuse!” This is an extremely important development. It is the enlightened half of Egyptian society finally speaking out loud against Islamic reactionary violence.
I Accuse the Host of MPs and Government Officials Who Cannot Help but [Bring] Their Own Personal Bigotries [into] Parliament. “I Accuse the Millions of Supposedly Moderate Muslims Among Us… Who’ve Been Growing More and More Prejudiced. I Accuse the Liberal Intellectuals, Both Muslim and Christian.
Hani Shukrallah’s courageous editorial in Al Ahram may be that crack in the wall of fear and intimidation that has ruled the Islamic world since reactionary Khomeinism took over Tehran thirty years ago. Muslim modernists defeated reactionaries in the early 20th century, in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. But in the last thirty years, the United States has kowtowed to the most reactionary and backward elements in Muslim society.
Egyptian security guards withdrew an hour before jihad bombing at church – Jihadwatch
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials hastily blamed either Al-Qaida or the Israeli Mousad of being behind the blast, but none of them mentioned the Egyptian state security which is viewed by Copts as the real culprit.
Egyptian Government to church: You can’t do that – WorldNetDaily
High placed sources told WND that Pope Shenouda III, the leader of the Coptic Christian community, had planned to go into seclusion this week with other senior priests in protest of Islamists targeting Christians in the country.
However, this week the Egyptian government interfered and asked Shenouda not to go into seclusion for fear the act would be seen as a protest against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The sources said it was the first time the Egyptian government had acted to officially prevent Shenouda from carrying out his religious practices or going into seclusion.
Iran Has Arrested 60 Christian Leaders Since Christmas – CNS
The Greatest Story Never Told by Gary Bauer – Human Events
Christian persecution has been on the rise for years, but it seemed to reach a new level of intensity in 2010. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that Christians in countries such as Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt now confront the prospect of extinction at the hands of radical Islam.
A comprehensive Pew Forum report earlier this year found that 70 percent of the world’s people live in countries where religious freedom is severely restricted, and that a disproportionate share of religious persecution happens in Muslim-majority countries.
Nowhere are Christians suffering more than in Iraq. The worst attack since the war’s inception took place in late October when an al Qaeda-affiliated group invaded a Catholic church during Mass, killing 58 people and injuring scores more.
Killing Christians, in the name of the Prophet By Michael Coren
It is almost impossible to overstate the degree of paranoia among many Muslims concerning Jews and Christians. One of the accusations made against the slaughtered Christians in Egypt this week was that they were building up arms dumps in their churches, and that they were agents of the United States and Israel. Iraqi Christians fleeing to Syria are not trusted because they are seen as being pro-Western.
In truth, Christianity is far more Middle Eastern than North American. Egypt, Syria, Palestine and North Africa was the heartland of Christianity. The fact that conquering Muslim cavalry armies forced people to embrace Islam does not change the fact that Christianity pre-dates Islam and that Arab Christians were there, obviously, long before Arab Muslims.
Islamic preachers will describe Christians and Jews as children of pigs and monkeys, young Muslims will be told that it is impossible to be a good Arab and a Christian, and the millions of Egyptian Christians who have served their country loyally and faithfully, and were especially appreciated by Gamal Abdel Nasser, will feel alone, despised and desperate
Christians may need to start fighting back – Father Raymond J. de Souza
…what if those who hate Christians are not interested in reconciliation? I can lay down my life in the face of such hatred, as the martyrs of every generation have done. Yet can I lay down the lives of others? Do the Christian leaders in such places have a duty to protect their communities — even by recourse to force? It is a terribly difficult question, especially because any resistance might provoke still further massacres.
The Nigerian Christian response to Muslim violence was not of the turn-the-other-cheek variety.The Nigerians — where Christians and Muslims have had some success in making a common stand against radicalism — may have something to teach us.
The stakes are high. Christians and Muslims cannot afford an all-out inter-religious conflagration — aside from being an offence against God, the killing would be immense. Still, the question must be asked: Against the sword of Islam, does the path to peace require unsheathing a defensive sword, or at least raising a shield?
POPE, VATICAN AND ISLAM
Islamist violence increasingly taking aim at Christians and their defenders by Sandro Magister
The latest deadly attacks in Baghdad, Alexandria, and Lahore. The “rational” proposal of the pope to Muslims continues to go unheeded. In short, recent events confirm the basic judgments of pope Joseph Ratzinger on Islam, on its unresolved relationship between faith and reason, from which emerges the violence against infidels and apostates. The current anti-Christian “strategy of violence” is the proof that when it comes to this illuminist revolution called for by Pope Benedict, the Islamic world has a very long way to go.
Pope to hold peace summit with religious heads – Reuters
Pope Benedict, worried over increasing inter-religious violence, will host a summit of world religious leaders in Assisi in October to discuss how they can better promote peace, he announced on Saturday.
Europe and Islam in the wake of attacks against Copts in Alexandria – Asia News
Absurd accusations against the Coptic community of keeping two women who converted to Islam captive. The psychosis of a country that prohibits changing of religion. Islamic attacks against Shenouda, the criticism of the imam of Al-Azhar against Benedict XVI. Europe must open up channels for cultural dialogue with Islamic countries, rejecting secularism and fundamentalism. Just like the pope said.
Italy’s ambassador to the Holy See has said that “Europe could do more” to protect Christians from religious violence.
Vatican responds to Egyptian imam: ‘No war may be waged in God’s name’ – CWN
OBAMA AND ISLAMISM
Outsiders trying to install Ivory Coast Muslim in power – WorldNetDaily
Obama’s African buddy working to arrange departure of Ivory Coast president. The Ivory Coast is on the verge of civil war over an attempt by a Muslim to unseat a Christian president who was ruled the election winner by a constitutional council after it determined there was vote-rigging in the Muslim-dominated regions of the African nation
Now a compatriot of Barack Obama, who the then-senator stumped for during his own 2007 campaign in nearby Kenya, is stepping in to hold talks that are aimed at removing the Christian president from office – and possibly even the country. It was Obama who barnstormed on behalf of Raila Odinga, the socialist who hails from the same tribal heritage, the Luo, as Obama, when Odinga was seeking the presidency in Kenya.
When Muslims kill Christians – Washingtom Times
Radical Muslims detonated a car bomb outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, on Saturday, killing 21 and wounding many others. The White House condemned the attack as a “barbaric and heinous act” but – true to form – remained silent on the jihadist motives of its perpetrators. The White House further watered down the impact of the attack in Egypt by combining that condemnation with another denouncing a same-day terror attack on a military barracks in Abuja, Nigeria.
Enthralled with visions of an ideal world of religious peace, the president cannot face the growing signs of religious war. Every day Mr. Obama ignores reality, the terrorists grow stronger.
The global Muslim holiday jihad on Christians — and more Obama moral equivalence By Michelle Malkin