Free Republic

Within Islam, the world is divided into a zone of war and a zone of peace. Those who are in the zone of war or sympathize with it are enemies who deserve death. Firefighters carry a victim on a stretcher at the scene of a shooting at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, Jan. 7. (CNS photo/Jacky Naegelen, Reuters) “An aspect of the attack (in Syria) that was not often reported in the media was the way the Islamist invaders tried to remove not only the Christians but the Christianity from the town, a phenomenon that is...

More Americans say that self-described-Muslims who commit violence in the name of their religion are real Muslims than say that self-described-Christians who commit violence are real Christians. Eighty-three percent said violent people who claim to be Christian are not true Christians while only 48 percent said violent people who claim to be Muslim are not true Muslims. Religious Violence A Public Religion Research Institute survey asked 2,450 Americans two questions: "When people claim to be Christian and commit acts of violence in the name of Christianity, do you believe they really are Christian, or not?" "When people claim to be...

How about a true act of solidarity for your fellow journalists. How about all USA "journalists" concerned with free speech send out an email to every publisher and weekly in the country and they all agree to publish one page of the slain french cartoonists work all on the same day. Every ordinary citizen can also email or post one to. Arrange for it to happen on January 15, 2015. They cant intimidate everyone. This would be a true act of courage and faith. Get enough people and we can shame the rest into acting or better yet see the...

Bill Donohue comments on reactions to his news release from yesterday [click here] on the murder of 12 people in Paris: Being misrepresented is commonplace for public figures. Sometimes it reflects an honest misreading; other times it is a willful distortion. I don’t have the time now to address all of these instances, but I am hardly going to run from my position. My position is this: the murderers are fully responsible for what they did and should be treated with the full force of the law. Nothing justifies the killing of these people. But this is not the whole...

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has attended the Coptic Christmas mass to mark the first attendance ever made by an Egyptian president to the religious occasion. El-Sisi arrived at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district during the mass and gave a brief speech before leaving instantly. He said that both of Egypt's Muslims and Christians are celebrating this occasion, asserting that they are "one entity" in the world's eyes. He added that he had to come to congratulate the Coptic community and then apologised for interrupting the mass. Video footage broadcast by State TV – covering the full...

Brethren, Peace be with you. Today's Islamofascist terrorist attack in Paris, France must remind us that vigilance for the defense of liberty is no vice, but a virtue. However, the virtue will soon be under attack, not only by the Islamofascists themselves, but by domestic voices in Europe and in America seeking to limit our freedom of expression at the expense of Muslim susceptibilities here and over there. Like my freedom to state that God is Great, yes, but that Muhammad is not his prophet, that Islam is humanity's one unnecessary religion, that the Koran is no more inspired than...

Ankara (AFP) - Turkey's Islamic-rooted government has authorised the building of the first church in the country in nearly a century, officials said Saturday. The church is for the tiny Syriac community in Turkey and will be built in the Istanbul suburb of Yesilkoy on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, which already has Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches. The announcement came after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met Turkey's religious leaders in Istanbul on Friday and said no faith that has lived in the country could be regarded as foreign. "It is the first (new church) since the...

Cathedral dean says he wants to make marchers 'stop and think'Cologne Cathedral will turn off its lights on Monday evening in protest against an anti-Islamic march in the German city. A group called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida) is organising the march, which is the latest in a series of demonstrations in Germany. A recent march in Dresden attracted an estimated 17,000 people. Fr Norbert Feldhoff, dean of Cologne Cathedral, told Reuters: “Pegida is made up of an astonishingly broad mix of people, ranging from those in the middle of society to racists and the extreme...

Refugees flee Syria and Iraq to Midyat, Turkey, which clings to its diminished role as the heartland of the ancient Orthodox faith.MIDYAT, Turkey—On most afternoons, Mor Barsaumo, a honey-colored, fifth-century stone church nestled in a warren of slanted streets, draws a crowd. In the narrow courtyard, old men smoke cigarettes and drink coffee, while children kick a soccer ball across the stone floor. In a darkened classroom, empty except for a few desks, a teacher gives private lessons in Syriac, derived from Aramaic, the language of Christ. And now, the refugees also come. Advised by relatives or other refugees, newcomers...

Faisalabad, Pakistan, Dec 28, 2014 / 06:03 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- The brutality of the act can hardly be surpassed: in early November, a Christian couple was beaten and burned to death in the Pakistani province of Punjab. Both were in their early 30s, the wife was pregnant. The charge: desecration of the Quran. The background: Article 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the blasphemy law, which does more to promote than prevent the arbitrary use of power against persons of different religions. The act put the spotlight on the situation of minorities in the Islamic Republic...

Atrocities by the Islamic State (ISIS) are softening the hearts of Muslims to Christianity, and evangelistic techniques and technologies are proving effective, but locally-based missionaries say the main reason for the spike in conversions in the Middle East is simply that former Muslims are finding God is real. In war-torn areas of Syria and Iraq where ISIS is fighting to establish a caliphate, Muslim refugees to neighboring countries, Internally Displaced People and people remaining at home are learning about Christ from native aid workers, podcasts and broadcasts. Tent churches among refugees are sprouting like mushrooms. For people who have suffered...

An arsonist set fire to a mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna on Thursday, injuring five people, police said, an incident which comes amid an intense debate over immigration. The immigration debate has pitted the far right, which wants to cut the number of asylum seekers allowed into Sweden by 90 percent, against mainstream parties intent on preserving the Nordic country's liberal policy.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an op-ed in The New York Observer entitled “B’nai Jeshurun: Do Jewish Lives Also Matter?” I noted that “high-profile Upper West Side Jewish temple B’nai Jeshurun led a protest after the tragic death of Eric Garner at the hands of the New York Police Department. Then, there was a pre-scheduled event at BJ honoring Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, and the attendees included such luminaries as Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Congressman Jerry Nadler and others.” Multiple rabbis and liberal Jewish communal leaders were arrested in acts of civil disobedience during...

"It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain ... For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines.”These were the chilling words German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer heard from an Islamic State militant during his recent, stunning visit behind those “front lines,” in Iraq and Syria. The militant was himself a German, one of hundreds of sympathizers joining the Islamic State’s ranks from Europe and the United States. Todenhöfer, 74, who has been reporting from war zones for 50 years, got...

The Islamic State is turning Christian churches in Iraq and Syria into dungeons and torture chambers after stripping them of priceless artifacts to sell on the black market, according to reports. Ancient relics and even entire murals are being torn from the houses of worship and smuggled out through the same routes previously established for moving oil and weapons in and out of the so-called caliphate, a vast region the jihadist army has claimed as sovereign under Sharia law. "ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice and the...

STANBUL — John Chryssavgis is an author and theologian born in Australia. He received his degree in Theology from the University of Athens. He also received a diploma in Byzantine music from the Greek Conservatory of Music during those years. He completed his doctoral studies in Patristics at the University of Oxford. He has lived in the United States for 20 years now, has worked in several universities and written a number of books. But he is also an active clergyman of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He received the title of Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Throne from Patriarch...

* Hundreds of displaced Iraqis, forced to evacuate their towns, will celebrate Christmas in this refugee camp in Erbil * They represent a tiny fraction of over three million Iraqi people 'internally displaced' - many of them in Kurdistan * The autonomous region in Northern Iraq is being pushed to breaking point by sheer number of new settlers * Families are safe, for now, from any immediate danger but dropping temperatures pose another serious threatThese beautiful pictures of Christmas prayers and glowing nativity scenes hide a much darker reality. Hundreds of Iraqi Christians, who now occupy these makeshift tents in...

MADRID (AP) -- A regional government in southern Spain has filed a complaint with Roman Catholic Church authorities over what it believes are church moves in recent years to blot out the Islamic past of Cordoba's ancient mosque-cathedral, one of the country's leading tourist attractions. The Andalusia region's tourism department said Monday the practice by church authorities who own the complex of calling it simply "The Cordoba Cathedral" on its website and on pamphlets and tickets could hurt tourism and confuse the 1 million-plus tourists who annually visit the "mezquita" (mosque), as it is known popularly. Tourism chief Rafael Rodriguez...

The much-touted harmony is fragile: Austria's Muslims are increasingly on a collision course with the Federal Government and its draft for the new Islamic law. On Monday, the Supreme Council, the highest governing body of the Islamic Community in Austria (IGGiÖ) made a statement - with a protest against the decision. They were disappointed with the approach taken by the government, was stated in a joint press release of the Supreme Council and the IGGiÖ President, Fuat Sanac.

A march against "Islamisation of the West" is due to take place in Dresden, with turnout expected to reach about 10,000 in the eastern German city. A big counter-demonstration is also being organised, similar in size. Dresden is the birthplace of a movement called "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West" (Pegida), which staged a big rally a week ago. Justice Minister Heiko Maas called Pegida's protests "a disgrace". But the Eurosceptic party AfD is sympathetic. "Most of their demands are legitimate," said Bernd Lucke, leader of the conservative Alternativ fuer Deutschland (AfD), which has campaigned for a tougher...