Free Republic

Fringes of the jihadist movement already active in 16 provinces in the Indonesian archipelago. Thousands of people have sworn allegiance to the fundamentalist leader Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi. Most are veterans of the jihad with extensive experience in Afghanistan or, on the domestic front of the Moluccas. Jakarta: some areas are "fertile ground" for enrollment. Jakarta (AsiaNews) - It has yet to make any startling conquests in the Asian nation, but the Indonesian section of the Islamic State (formerly ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) has already started mass recruitment - as recently reported- in over 16 provinces of...

BEIRUT (CNS) -- The memory of that brutal June evening in his home near Mosul, Iraq, brought 48-year-old Joseph, now a refugee in Lebanon, to tears. "These people know no limits of humanity, decency, or respect for human life," he said of the Islamic State fighters. Meeting with Catholic News Service Aug. 8 at the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center in Beirut, he and other Catholic Iraqi refugees asked that their real names not be used to protect their identities as they shared the traumatic experiences that led to their exodus. Joseph recalled how his wife and their teenage son, Bachar,...

Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta warn that followers of the Islamic State are ready to strike their countries of origin. Governments, public places and other sensitive spots are their main targets. The goal is to erase secular and pluralist constitutions in order to introduce Sharia-inspired rules. At least 20 Malaysian nationals are in Syria to fight the jihad. The first recruits from the Philippines are reported.Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Anti-terrorism experts from Malaysia and Indonesia have reported that several Malaysians and Indonesians have recently joined the Islamic State terror group (formerly known as ISIS), which is active in Iraq and Syria,...

As we predicted. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the presidential election with 52 percent of the vote, according to early results. Thus, Erdogan has become the country’s first popularly-elected head of state. He appears triumphant with the crowds of millions carrying fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow flags. (Revelation 19:17)  With 98.75 percent of the ballots counted, Erdogan leads with 52 percent, the Hurriyet Daily reports. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, former Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has received 38 percent of the votes. Selahattin Demirtas, head of the leftist pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, is in third place with just...

'I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.[1] It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor.[2] The dialogue...

Lord Byron’s poem The Destruction of Sennacherib begins with the line, “The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.” My friend Paul Thigpen makes the link between the warlords of the Islamic State (IS) and their historic predecessors, the warlike Assyrians.

Rome, Italy, Aug 8, 2014 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A priest hailing from what used to be Iraq’s largest Christian city has lamented the exodus of over 100,000 Christians from the city, many of whom are fleeing on foot with no food, money or water. “Today the story of Christianity is finished in Iraq,” said a priest who identified himself as Fr. Nawar. “People can’t stay in Iraq because there is death for whoever stays,” told CNA Aug. 8. A priest who has been living and studying in Rome for the last three years, Fr. Nawar is originally from...

Flag flown outside housing estate on Poplar High StreetA black flag with white Arabic writing, similar to those flown by jihadist groups, was flying at the entrance of an east London housing state near Canary Wharf. In a highly provocative gesture, the emblem was planted on top of the gates of the Will Crooks estate on Poplar High Street, and is surrounded by flags of Palestine and slogans. The flag bears similar writing to the jihadi flags that have been flown by the extremist group in Iraq and other jihadi groups since the 1990s. When the estate was approached last...

Pope Francis has renewed his appeal to the Church to intercede for the persecuted Christians of Iraq. “The Holy Father is following with deep concern the dramatic news reports coming from northern Iraq, which involve defenseless populations,” Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, said in a statement issued August 7. “Christian communities are particularly affected: a people fleeing from their villages because of the violence that rages in these days, wreaking havoc on the entire region.” “At the Angelus prayer on July 20th,” Father Lombardi recalled, “Pope Francis cried with pain: ‘[O]ur brothers and sisters...

Two churches in Thonon-les-Bains, a city of 30,000 in eastern France, were desecrated on August 5, according to Le Messager, a newspaper based in Chablais. A man in his thirties entered St. Hippolytus Church and the Basilica of St. Francis de Sales and destroyed or damaged altars, stained glass, statues, candelabras, and a bronze cross. He also tore open a tabernacle and trampled on the Eucharist. The man suspected in the desecration is a “young Muslim,” a local priest said. Additional sources for this storySome links will take you to other sites, in a new window. Thonon-les-Bains: crise de vandalisme...

Islamic State jihadists who took over large areas of northern Iraq overnight have forced thousands of Christians to flee and occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako has said. “(The Christians) have fled with nothing but their clothes, some of them on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region,” Patriarch Sako told AFP.

Thousands of Iraqi Christians are fleeing after Islamic State militants seized the minority’s biggest town in Iraq, according to reports. The Islamic State, formerly ISIS, captured Qaraqosh in Nineveh province overnight after Kurdish forces withdrew from the town. The French Christian organisation Fraternite en Irak said in a post on Facebook that a majority of those living in Nineveh left after militants took over Qaraqosh, known as the Christian capital of northern Iraq, and surrounding towns. “It’s a catastrophe, a tragic situation: tens of thousands of terrified people are being displaced as we speak,” said Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop...

Not Christians or Shi’ites this time, but the Yazidis, whose numbers reach as high as 600,000 in Iraq — and dropping, especially in Sinjar. The sacking of Sinjar has forced the Yazidis to flee to nearby Mount Sinjar to escape brutal execution. What they face on the mountain is a death just as certain, though, and perhaps as torturous: Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst. Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between...

In a letter to Pope Francis, eastern patriarchs and the presidents of bishops' conferences around the world, Mar Sako calls on the international community to come to grips with the situation and take "concrete actions". The survival of the Christian minority is at stake and a strong stance is needed, even by Muslims. He appeals for help and solidarity.Baghdad (AsiaNews) - The international community and the world's superpowers must realise the need for "concrete actions of solidarity" for Iraqi Christians because the "very survival" of the minority in the country and in middle East is at stake, said Raphael Louis...

As rival militias battle for control of Libya, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, Bishop Giovanni Martinelli, has pledged to remain in the North African nation “even if only one Christian remains.” Islamist militias have held sway in some areas of the country since NATO’s 2011 military intervention helped lead to the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. “The Christian community in Libya is now reduced to a minimum, but I intend to stay here even if only one Christian remains,” the Italian Franciscan bishop told the Fides news agency.

The jihadists of Islamic State have seized their first territory inside Lebanon, a long-feared strike that threatens the country's uneasy sectarian balance. A Syrian rebel group which has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State's leader has set up check-points in the Lebanese town of Arsal on the two countries' border, though it has stopped short of declaring it part of the IS's "Caliphate". Lebanese army troops have moved up to attack the town, pouring in shells and putting at risk not only the 40,000 local inhabitants but the estimated 120,000 Syrian refugees who have taken shelter there. The crisis brought...

From the Quran: “The punishment of anyone who fights against Allah and His apostle and do mischief in the land is to be killed or crucified or to have their hands and feet from opposite ends or be banished from the land.” (Quran: The table spread – Sura 5:33) Won’t convert?  Won’t pay your fine for being an infidel? You have 4 punishments options: public execution (Qatl), crucifixion (Salb) and amputation of one hand and one foot from opposite sides (Yuqata’ Aydihim wa-Arjulihim) or exile (Nafy).At Christian Post: Christians ‘Crucified Again’ for Refusing IslamTo the awe of its readership, a...

Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. He is also openly gay. Akersim, 26, is part of a small but growing number of American Muslims challenging the long-standing interpretations of Islam that defined their parents’ world. They believe that one can be gay and Muslim; that the sexes can pray shoulder-to-shoulder; that females can preach and that Muslim women can marry outside the faith—and they point to Quran passages to back them up. The shift comes as young American Muslims work to reshape the faith they grew up with so it fits better with their complex, dual...

BEIRUT: The Syriac Orthodox bishop of Mount Lebanon and Tripoli George Saliba Wednesday denounced Muslims as enemies of Jesus, accusing them of a history of violence and oppression against Christians. “What is happening in Iraq is a strange thing, but it is normal for Muslims, because they have never treated Christians well, and they have always held an offensive and defaming stand against Christians,” Elnashra.com reported Saliba as saying in a radio interview. “We are not calling for armament and war; we don’t have the capacities,” Saliba said. “We used to live and coexist with Muslims, but then they revealed...

Due to the false videos, false rumors of destroyed churches, false rumors of invasion that cause great fear among an already frightened people, the Archbishop of Mosul (Syriac Catholic Church), published the following open letter. Open Letter of His Excellency Youhanna Boutros (John Peter) Moshe,  Syriac Catholic Archeparch of Mosul and Qaraqosh Sunday, July 27, 2014 To All Priests, to all Monks and Nuns, to all Deacons, and to all those who have faith in Jesus Christ: May the peace and love of God come upon you, your homes, and your families, and upon all those who have come...