Free Republic

The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 per cent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said to UK daily the Telegraph that the decline of Christianity is “inevitable.” “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” he said.

This past week we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. (And, given my mention of Fatima, you may wonder why I have Our Lady of Guadalupe pictured here, but more on that in a moment). But as for Fatima, with all the emphasis on the magnificent teaching and prophetic fulfillment of that apparition, something that has always intrigued me is that she would appear of all places in a town called Fatima. Why Fatima, a town that recalls the daughter of Mohammed?Indeed, I have often heard that Muslims hold our Blessed Mother Mary in high regard. This reverence...

The memorable play of Irish author and playwright Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot," has become a metaphor for situations in which people wait for someone unlikely to come, or do not even know what they are expecting. They just keep waiting and waiting. The handful of Orthodox Greeks left in Turkey appear to be waiting for Godot, too, caught in a very typical Turkish situation. The Theological School of Halki, which is attached to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has been closed down since 1971. Almost every day for the past 42 years, the Orthodox community has been anticipating the news of...

Pope Francis set a record by canonizing 800 15th Century laymen that refused to convert to Islam and brutally died because of it. It is a story of faith and strength in the face of death, death from a brutal and barbaric people. But NBC is worried for poor Pope Francis. They are worried that acknowledging that these 800 heroes died true martyrs death and thus are assured of heaven, that the Pope may have hurt Islam's feelings. But no worries, there is someone more evil than the Pope to blame. But the choice to highlight their sacrifice may put...

An official says Turkish authorities have tightened security for the Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarchate following allegations of a plot to attack the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians. Unconfirmed local media reports said Friday police briefly detained a man following a tip that he planned to assassinate Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Haberturk newspaper said prosecutors in Ankara were investigating the alleged plot. Police wouldn't confirm the reports, and the prosecutor's office did not immediately return calls.

How did scholars of the Middle East and those engaged in moonlighting (non-specialists who write about the region) react to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013? Before the smoke cleared, some were predicting that the perpetrators would be "right-wingers" who sought to "disrupt tax day," "neo-Nazis," or "lone wolves." Given that Muslims constitute 30 of 32 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of most wanted terrorists, this represents either wishful thinking or willful blindness.Accordingly, after brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the perpetrators, scholars resorted to apologetics and obfuscation to explain away Islam's role: the...

Christians are being persecuted all over the world.  Churches are being burned and destroyed, girls are being raped and ancient Christian communities reaching back 2,000 years are being obliterated.  And the world yawns.  Most shockingly, many Christians in the West, worse than yawning, look away and in some cases embrace the perpetrators and blame our allies.This begs the obvious question:  Why do so many Christians in America and Europe seem to not care about what is happening around the world to their fellow disciples of Jesus?  Why are we looking the other way while the brutal murder, persecution, rape and...

<p>On Wednesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama needed to clear up and "renounce" the "un-American" and "amoral" reports from the Pentagon that U.S. soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their Christian faith. She called on Obama to do so "today, right now."</p>

The Otranto Cathedral was consecrated in 1088. In August 1480, clergy and survivors of the Ottoman siege of Otranto took refuge in the cathedral – the Ottoman force eventually broke in and killed those inside, turning the church into a stable or a mosque and destroying its 13th century frescoes. After Otranto was retaken in 1481 by a force under Alfonso V of Aragon it was turned back into a church and heavily rebuilt to house the relics of the Martyrs of Otranto, who had been executed after the 1480 siege. Behind the chapel’s altar is the ‘stone of martyrdom’,...

Via Deacon Greg Kandra comes this story of a tiny community of Trappist nuns living in civil war-torn Syria. Despite the danger and mounting tensions in the region, the five nuns are determined to stay in their monastery, which was founded in 2005. From an interview conducted with one of the nuns, who is Italian, for an Italian news site: So you deliberately chose to live in a place where Christians are in the minority?Exactly. Here the population is mostly Shiite Muslim, but there are also Sunnis and Alawites; geographically we are at a crossroads. How do you try to...

Pope Francis is preparing to canonise an estimated 800 Italian laymen killed by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century. The canonisation service will be on May 12 in St Peter’s Square and it will be the first carried out by the Pontiff since he was elected in early March. The killing of the martyrs by Ottoman troops, who launched a weeks-long siege of Otranto, a small port town at the most eastern tip of southern Italy, took place in 1480. When Otranto residents refused to surrender to the Ottoman army, the soldiers were ordered to massacre all males over the...

It is time for Catholic leaders to update their thinking on Islam.In his Sunday homily the week after the Boston Marathon bombing, Cardinal Sean O’Malley said that the action of the bombers was a “perversion of their religion.” We have grown accustomed to hearing such statements from prelates, as well as from presidents and prime ministers. Terrorist have “perverted” their religion or “distorted” it or “misinterpreted” it. But how accurate are such assessments? On one occasion, Muhammad ordered the beheading of more than 700 Jews who had surrendered to him. On another occasion, when a severed head was tossed at...

Ministers have been forced to suspend plans to open a high profile Muslim free school amid allegations of links to “extremist” views.The Department for Education has launched an urgent investigation into concerns surrounding the Northern Lights Free School in Halifax, West Yorks, which had been due to open in September his year. It follows claims that Muslim families were coming under pressure to enrol their children at the new Islamic-led primary following a leaflet circulated in the area suggesting that they would go to Hell if they did not participate. The local MP, Linda Riordan, and the local authority Calderale...

If a Catholic really had done that, there would have been an international uproar. But no one will take much notice of this. "Saudi Wahhabi Sheikh Calls On Iraq's Jihadists to Kill Shiites," by Haytham Mouzahem for Al-Monitor, April 28: On April 23, Saad al-Durihim, a Saudi Wahhabi sheikh, posted a tweet on Twitter in which he said that jihadist fighters in Iraq should adopt a "heavy-handed" approach and kill any Shiites they can get their hands own, including children and women. This is so that the "rawafid" — a term used by Wahhabi Salafists to refer to Shiites —...

Everyone knows that Europe is Islamophobic, but for some reason it’s also Buddihiphilic*. Maybe the French actually judge religions based on their behavior. Or maybe, like everyone else, they’re irrationally afraid of being murdered by Muslim terrorists even though there is no reason for them to be because that never happens. Almost three French people in four (73%) say that they have a negative image of Islam, while other religions enjoy the approval of a clear majority, according to a poll published on Tuesday. Questioned by the agency Tilder and the Institut Montaigne, in the context of the program “Place...

Moscow, April 29, Interfax - Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X has urged the world community to end the violence in Syria and help free the two abducted Orthodox leaders of Aleppo. "I take this opportunity to extend, on your behalf, in the motherlands and abroad, an appeal to the international community, urging it to do everything it can toward the release of hostages whose absence affects us deeply," John X said in a message "To the Shepherds of the Holy Church of Antioch." "The speedy closure of this issue is extremely important in order to avert...

What really happened on Sunday, April 7, 2013, during the St. Mark Cathedral attack in Cairo, where two Christians were killed and dozens wounded by Egyptian forces? As usual, different reports gave different versions, but now that the smoke has settled, the truth as first asserted during the attack by Coptic activists has been confirmed.Back during the conflict, when state security was actually besieging the St. Mark cathedral—the most sacred building for millions of Coptic Christians and the only apostolic see serving the entire continent of Africa—Amir Ramzi, a Coptic man who managed to escape the compound where hundreds of...

It looked like the backlash was starting even before the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing were identified as Muslim. Hours after the explosions, a Bangladeshi man told police he was dubbed an "Arab" and beaten in New York. A veiled Muslim woman in a city near Boston said she was struck in the shoulder and called a terrorist. When the public learned days later that the FBI was pursuing two Muslim men of Chechen descent, American Muslims feared the worst. But the worst didn't happen....

On a bitterly cold and snowing afternoon in Aberdeen, the doors of St John's Episcopal Church are open to hundreds of Muslim worshippers, arriving for daily prayers. The familiar sounds of Christian hymns have been replaced with Islamic prayer in the chapel this Friday lunchtime and the church priest with the imam from the neighbouring mosque. Muslims from the Syed Shah Mustafa Jame Masjid mosque next door share this church with Christian worshippers up to five times a day. Church leaders believe this may be the only place in the country where Christian and Muslim worshippers pray side by side....

Moscow, April 25, Interfax - The wearing of hijabs to school is not traditional even in ethnic regions of Russia, President Vladimir Putin said, answering a question in the Direct Line on Thursday. "There is nothing good about it. True, there are peculiarities in ethnic republics but what you speak about is not an ethnic peculiarity but a demonstration of the known attitude to religion," Putin said. "There has never been such a tradition in our country, in Islamic regions," he said. The wearing of hijabs is prohibited by law in certain Islamic countries," Putin said. "I believe that our...

When it comes to the persecution of Christians, President Obama appears to have a tin ear. The question is: why? Why would a president who claims to be a Christian seem to deliberately help install and collaborate with an Islamist government in Egypt? Many highly-placed Egyptian leaders have revealed that his collaboration with the Muslim Brotherhood began long before President Mubarak’s fall. Why would Mr. Obama remain silent after being informed again and again of the atrocities committed against Christians in Egypt—atrocities committed by the very government he helped bring to power? The answer to the question of “why” can...

Police are investigating an anonymous forum poster who praised Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and later made a threat against a Catholic high school in Fairfax, Virginia. The online poster goes by the handle “Prophet Muhammad” and has made several disturbing statements on the Fairfax Underground website in the last month. On Friday, he posted a threat against Paul VI Catholic High School: “Inshallah, Paul VI High School will be the scene of another massacre. Allahu akbar!” “Inshallah” is an Arabic phrase that means “God willing.” “Allahu akbar” means “God is the greatest.” Both sayings are commonly associated...

The controversial imam of a prominent mosque in Arlington, Va., has urged immigrant Muslims in the United States to wage war for Islam. “The enemies of Allah are lining up. The question for us is, are we lining [up] or are we afraid because they may call us terrorists?” Shaker Elsayed told a crowd of Ethiopian Muslims during a lecture at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. “Let me give you the good news: they are already calling us terrorists anyway. Whether you sitting at home, watching TV, drinking coffee, sleeping or playing with your kids, you are a...

Robert Spencer has written a dozen books on Islam, as well as thousands of pages of commentary on Islamic law, scripture, and tradition, but this may be his most significant book yet because of its potential to alert Christians to a dangerous gap in their knowledge of Islam. Christian leaders are badly in need of a wake-up call about Islam and this is a wake-up call that is hard to ignore. Not Peace but a Sword asks questions about the relationship between Christianity and Islam that few others are asking, even though they are questions that beg for answers....

Often, we pray for goodness in the world but usually do so off the cuff, quickly, and in an all too generic way. We pray for the end of conflict. We pray for reconciliation. We pray for peace. But when it comes to terrorism, we need also to pray that evil, occult tendencies, and arrogance be purged from religions that spawn vehemence and destruction. The Church militant must rise when his faith is under attack, and the Church militant not only prays for a shield but also actively seeks (in prayer) to "deliver us from the evil one."

Mahatma Gandhi is quoted in his book, Gandhi: The Power of Pacifism, by Catherine Clement, as follows: "While Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsees and Jews, along with several million adherents of an animistic religion, all coexisted in relative harmony, one religion that would not accept compromise stood out from the rest: Islam." Gandhi was referring to the experience during his lifetime in the Indian sub-continent, but the growth of Wahhabism and the current resurgence in Islamic triumphalism since Gandhi's death in January 1948 now poses an increasingly existential threat to the West, to Judeo-Christian civilization, as well as to Hindus, Buddhists,...

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an inter-denominational student ministry that builds communities across campuses in the U.S., revealed that one of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing was involved with their organization. Chinese national Lingzi Lu, 23, was one of the three people who lost their lives in last week's twin blasts that rocked the Boston Marathon, which also injured more than 170 others. "(Lu) was involved with the international student ministry we have at Boston University. She attended a retreat that we sponsored last fall. She was friends with people in the InterVarsity International Student ministry with the graduate and...

"The bishop urged residents to treat neighbors and strangers from different traditions with 'respect and try to understand the differences.' 'If we allow differences to cause suspicion among us, we’re not helping to create a social contract in which people can live together harmoniously.'"

There are plenty of psychiatrists / psychologists hired by the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy, and all sorts of competing agencies of other Federal organizations, not to mention all kinds of military and paramilitary and other kinds of actionable groups.One of their jobs is to profile the psychology of a terrorist.But these shrinks are missing the forest for the trees, indeed, for getting caught up in the moss on this or that tree.Proof of this is their pitiable descriptions of depression, or anger, or...

The Western media is using an centuries-old playbook in its treatment of Iraqi, Syrian and Egyptian Christians.In 2010 an al-Qaeda front group attacked one of Baghdad's main cathedrals during Sunday mass. More than 50 people were slaughtered. The militants had a clear and simple explanation for this atrocity: "All Christian centres, organisations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the muhajideen wherever they can reach them. We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood." In this environment, it’s no wonder that Christianity is dying in the land of its birth. What’s more puzzling...

Motive still a giant incomprehensible mystery. But there are suspicions that he was one of those Tea Party NRA type of people. Certainly his peaceful tolerant religion notorious for its love of kites, puppies, infidels and women had nothing to do with it. NPR has done some background on Tamerlan Tsarnaev who, it turns out, was surprisingly Muslim. (Not that NPR can say so.) His Islamic attitudes extended to his treatment of American women. LAURA SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Well, these women were close friends and roommates of Tamerlan’s girlfriend, Katherine Russell, and they knew him for several years while they...

Katherine Russell is believed to have married and had a daughter with Tamerlan Tsarnaev three years ago, having become a Muslim following her freshman year at Suffolk University in Boston. Ms Russell, 24, was escorted by investigators to her parents' house in Rhode Island on Friday night, where she covered her face and refused to talk about her husband, who was shot dead by police. Neighbours said they woke on Friday morning to find four FBI and police vehicles parked outside the house in North Kingston belonging to Ms Russell's parents Judith, 56, a nurse and Warren, 55, a doctor....

The ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Italy, Salh Mohammad Al Ghandi, delivered a message from King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud to Pope Francis. Saudi Arabia is one of the eight countries without diplomatic ties with the Vatican, Rome Reports reported. The cordial meeting took place in the study of Paul VI Hall, where the Pope and the ambassador were able to exchange gifts. Though there are no official diplomatic relations between the two states, there have been a series of semi-official meetings. The countries' relationships are difficult because Christians have no right to worship freely or...

Makhachkala, April 18, Interfax - A cache containing arms, ammunition and dual-purpose items was discovered on Tuesday during a special operation in the village of Gimry, Interfax was told at the Interior Ministry press service for Dagestan. A press officer said that village law enforcement removed an assault rifle, a pistol, an air gun, a grenade, machinegun magazines, large quantities of cartridges, 27 walkie-talkies of various models, several dozen car alarms, instructions for making home-made bombs, maps of the locality, and over 200,000 rubles in cash from the cache in the central mosque of the village. Operatives say the cache...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) After two explosions claimed multiple lives and injured more than 100 people at the Boston Marathon Monday, Muslims around the world took to Twitter — some to express their sympathies, others to express their hope that the perpetrator of the attack not be a Muslim. Libyan Twitter user Hend Amry appears to have been the one to start the thread with her tweet: “Please don’t be a Muslim.” Her post was retweeted by more than 100 Twitters users including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Jenan Moussa, a journalist for Dubai-based Al-Aan TV also retweeted Amry’s message, adding...

New York Times best-selling author Robert Spencer investigates areas where Christians and Muslims fundamentally disagree. Do Christians and Muslims agree on the issue of abortion? Many Christians know they have some theological differences with Muslims, but still look at Islam as a valuable ally in a world increasingly threatened by secularism and immorality. Sure, we may not agree on every detail, they think, but isn’t it better to focus on what we have in common, so that we can fight moral and cultural battles together? This idea may be more popular than ever, but it is a “dangerous illusion,” says...

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is updating its 2010 study, "“Toward an Understanding of Christian-Muslim Relations,� which was prompted by "alarming anti-Muslim statements and actions." The 2-million member church partnered with Islamist groups for the project and its website promotes U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities as interfaith partners. The listed advisors for the study include Naeem Baig, president of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Farhanahz Eliz of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, a mosque led by the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo lists ISNA and ICNA...

More Muslims than Jews. A nondenominational frenzy. A city brought up on Catholicism and the Lutheran way is reinterpreting its relationship with God.At noon, cars begin rolling into the parking lot behind the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, a plainly clad building at South 13th Street and Layton Avenue. Women wearing flowing jilbab clothes and hijab head coverings enter through the far-right door at the entrance to the ISM and climb a staircase to a balcony looking out over the mosque’s white-walled prayer hall. Men, some wearing ornate taqiyah hats and crochet skullcaps, enter to the left, walk into the hall...

CAIRO (AP) — The leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church on Tuesday blasted the country's Islamist president over his handling of recent deadly sectarian violence, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo. The remarks by Pope Tawadros II underscore rising Muslim-Christian tensions in Egypt. They were his first direct criticism of President Mohammed Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt's Orthodox Christians. They are also likely to fuel political turmoil that has been roiling the country since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak two years ago. Egypt is already divided between two...

One person has been killed in clashes outside Cairo's main cathedral following the funerals of four Coptic Christians killed in religious violence on Saturday. Mourners leaving St Mark's Cathedral clashed with local residents. Police fired tear gas to break up the violence. More than 80 people were injured, the state news agency said. The health ministry said one Christian man was killed. The ambulance service said he was struck with birdshot. Mourners inside the church had earlier chanted slogans against Egypt's Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi. Witnesses told local TV stations that the violence started when a mob attacked mourners as...

"In Spain there are signs that Islam will dominate once again." — Hizrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Spiritual Leader, Ahmadiyya Community, SpainFrom Belgium to Greece and Spain to Germany, 2013 is shaping up to be another banner year for the construction of mosques in Europe. In Belgium, work is about to begin on the construction of a mega-mosque in Liège, the third-largest city in the country. The largest mosque in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium) will be built on an 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²) plot and will consist of a main building with a capacity for 1,000 worshippers, a...

On hill over the Bosphorus, highest minarets in the world(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, APRIL 3 - Polemics, accusations, and sarcasm have failed to put a damper on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans to build an enormous mosque towering over the Bosphorus. The mosque will be gigantic, covering a surface area of some 15,000 square meters on the Camlica hill on Istanbul's Asian side, with another 250,000 square meters housing a park, museum, bar, restaurants, amusement park, and a terrace with a breathtaking view over the Bosphorus and Byzantine and Muslim Istanbul. Erdogan had announced the project a year ago,...

Tarik Shah is a formidable jazz bassist who has recorded with a number of luminaries, including Pharoah Sanders and Abbey Lincoln. He is also prisoner number 53145-054 at the medium security Federal Correction Institution in Petersburg, Virginia, where he is serving a fifteen-year sentence for plotting to provide combat training to al-Qaeda jihadists. His sad and tragic case points up again lingering questions about Islamic moderation that have never been answered. In 2004, Shah made the acquaintance of a man he thought was an al-Qaeda member, but who was actually an FBI informant. Shah, a martial arts expert as...

The Emir of Qatar, who has long cultivated an image as a pro-Western reformist, has vowed to "spare no effort" to spread Wahhabi Islam throughout Europe. Wahhabism — which not only discourages Muslim integration in the West but actively encourages jihad against non-Muslims — threatens to radicalize Muslim immigrants in Ireland.City planners in the Irish capital, Dublin, have given the go-ahead for the construction of a sprawling mega-mosque complex that will cater to Ireland's burgeoning Muslim population. The massive €40 million ($50 million) "Islamic Cultural Center" will be built on a six-acre site in Clongriffin, a new and as yet...

MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - A court in south Russia has banned as “extremist” a book entitled “How to Accept Islam,” officials said on Tuesday. The Krasnoyarsk district court ordered all copies of the book to be confiscated and destroyed. Investigators, citing linguistic experts, said the book, by Muhammad Suleiman Ashkara, encouraged religious hatred. The court said the book was discovered during a May 2011 raid at the Krasnoyarsk home of a man suspected of links to an extremist Islamic organization.

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem works to support the people and shrines of the Holy Land.Almost a thousand years after its founding, an order of crusader knights remains active in the Holy Land. Its mission is not armed battle but the carrying out of the order’s original ideals: personal holiness, evangelization, defense of the weak, and charity towards all. Its members also pledge to support the upkeep of the shrines where Christ was born, prayed, mounted his cross, and rose from the dead. Founded soon after the First Crusade, the pontifical Equestrian Order of the Holy...

A crowd of at least 30 Muslims hurled rocks at Jews touring the Temple Mount on the Passover holiday. Israel National News reported, via Religion of Peace: Once again, extremist Muslims tried but failed to prevent Jews from accessing the holiest site in the Jewish faith, with the threat of attacks. Dozens of Arab teens hurled rocks Sunday morning at groups of Jews who were touring the Temple Mount. The site was open on the eve of the final day of the Passover holiday in the morning from 7:30 a.m to 11:00 a.m and scheduled to reopen from 1:00 p.m....

When Margaret Thatcher negotiated with Communists about human rights, she had a self-imposed rule. It was to deliver the same message in private as in public. That was, and is, unusual. Politicians prefer bold and indignant speeches at home to bruising confrontations with foreign leaders face to face. But you have to do it. The reason is simple. It is because, whatever someone's ideology, he will not take you seriously as a human being if he thinks you don't really care about the causes you espouse. When the Soviet leaders understood that Ronald Reagan and Mrs Thatcher were deadly serious...

Fr Giuseppe Moretti describes Holy Week in Afghanistan's tiny Christian community. For him, the mission of the Church in Afghanistan is primarily with soldiers, the only ones who have direct contact with the Afghan population.Kabul (AsiaNews) - "In a country that seems to have no way out, let us pray that after Calvary, Resurrection will follow. Here, the Passion of Christ is represented by millions of people who suffer every day the tragedy of war, hatred and poverty," said Fr Giuseppe Moretti, a priest in charge of the parish church inside the Italian Embassy (pictured). The tiny Christian community, he...

Ecumenism is a hot topic right now, particularly dialogue with Islam. But whenever I consider dialogue and ecumenism with Islam I always come back to one question. What is the point? By this question, I don't intend sarcastic commentary that any and all dialogue is fruitless. I mean it at face value. To measure the success of any endeavor, you must know what it is we wish to achieve by it. So what do we hope to achieve with better dialogue with Islam? First, may I suggest that it is not possible to have fruitful dialogue with Islam itself, but...