Free Republic

Recounts latest attacks on ChristiansROME — Pope Francis on Sunday, March 16, condemned the bombings of two Churches in a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, Pakistan. The twin bombings — at one Catholic and one Protestant church —came as local Christians were attending Sunday Mass and services. The deadly blasts left 14 people dead and 78 wounded. The attack followed last December's Peshawar school massacre, when 7 gunmen — including one Chechen, two Arabs and two Afghans — entered the Army public school in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar and opened fire on staff and children, killing 145, including 132...

Mainstream Muslim website makes official announcement It’s not only evangelical Christians who are sensing that something has changed in the world, and that we may be entering the very last days. Muslims are also eagerly awaiting their messiah. In the latest evidence of this messianic fervor, a mainstream Sunni Muslim website has decreed that the Islamic messiah, called the Mahdi, will appear this year or in 2016 and that the Muslim Jesus will return in 2022 to conquer the world for Islam. DiscoveringIslam.org and the End Times Research Center have calculated that the “first phase” of the end of time...

Prince Charles has a new obsession as strong as his passions for ecology and architecture. He is refusing to stand idly by as Christians are driven out of the Middle EastWho is the most formidable defender of persecuted Christians in the world today? Many would nominate Pope Francis, who has offered thunderous denunciations of attacks on the faithful ever since his election. But another candidate is emerging: the surprising figure of the future king of England. The media have barely noticed that the Prince of Wales has a new obsession, as powerful as his passions for architecture and the environment:...

The recent bulldozing by the Islamic State of the ancient cities of Nimrud, Hatra, and Korsabad, three of the world’s greatest archaeological and cultural sites, is just this group’s latest round of assaults across the large area under its control. Since January 2014, the flamboyantly barbaric Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has blown up Shiite mosques, bulldozed churches, pulverized shrines, and plundered museums. Worse, the ISIS record fits into an old and common pattern of destruction of historical artifacts by Muslims. Some attacks target the works of other, rival religions, such as Orthodox churches in northern Cyprus (since 1974),...

On March 22, CBS' 60 Minutes provided a report on Iraq's ancient Christian community that is under attack by ISIS.You can watch the segment here. The Overtime segment included a striking profile of a Catholic U.S. vet, Brett Felton, age 28, who has returned to Iraq to help train outnumbered, outgunned and underfunded Christian militias fighting ISIS north of Mosul. "I'm not here serving my country. I'm here serving Christians," Brett Felton told 60 Minutes. He returned to his cradle-Catholic faith during a previous tour with the U.S. Army in Iraq and then went back as a volunteer to train...

Vatican City, Mar 20, 2015 / 11:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead of Pope Francis’ Mass commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, newly released historic documents confirm the Holy See’s broad commitment to helping the Armenian people at a time when few others would. The Italian Jesuit-run magazine La Civiltà Cattolica stressed that newly published documents “prove how the Holy See, always informed about events, had not remained passive, but was strongly committed to face the issue” of the Armenian Genocide. “Benedict XV was the only ruler or religious leader to voice out a protest against the ‘massive crime’.”...

President Obama again called on Iran to release U.S. Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been in a jail for his Christian faith for nearly two-and-a-half years, as the Middle Eastern nation celebrates the Nowruz holiday, a festival of spring and the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. "Today, as families across the world gather to mark this holiday, we remember those American families who are enduring painful separations from their loved ones who are imprisoned or went missing in Iran," Obama said in a statement. "Saeed Abedini of Boise, Idaho has spent two and a half years detained...

These guys are not kidding. And the media is also going ballistics (see Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post and Turkish Today’s Zaman, also here). The media explosion started when the head of a provincial branch of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has stirred the pot by tweeting that the country should “get ready for the caliphate” of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A caliph is a spiritual leader of Islam who claims succession from Prophet Muhammad. The word, stemming from the Arabic khalifa meaning “successor,” has been the focus of much debate since being claimed by the Islamic State...

An Iraqi bishop says waging war against ISIS fighters is the only way to save the Christian Church in IraqThe leader of one of Christianity's oldest communities reluctantly says that waging war against ISIS - killing their fighters - is the only way to stop the radical Islamists from destroying Christianity in Iraq. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil speaks to Lara Logan for her report on the plight of thousands of Christians forced to flee ancestral homes from ISIS. Her story will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, March 22 AT 7 p.m. ET/PT. The situation with ISIS in Northern...

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah says Christian religious sites in Arabian Peninsula must be razed in accordance with Muslim lawSaudi Arabia’s top Muslim cleric called on Tuesday for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula after legislators in the Gulf state of Kuwait moved to pass laws banning the construction of religious sites associated with Christianity. Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, who serves as the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, said the destruction of churches was absolutely necessary and is required by Islamic law, Arabic media reported. Abdullah, who is considered to...

Clergy accuse vicar of holding ‘illegal’ Islamic prayer service in landmark London churchA Church of England vicar is facing a storm of protest from traditionalist Christians after allowing a Muslim prayer service to be held in his church. Dozens of Muslims took part in the “Inclusive Mosque” event at St John’s church, Waterloo in central London, in what is thought to have been the first time a full Islamic prayer service has been held within the Church of England. The vicar, the Rev Canon Giles Goddard, a prominent liberal cleric, joined in the event, reading a passage from the Bible...

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Bombs outside two churches in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed 14 people and wounded nearly 80 during Sunday services, and witnesses said quick action by a security guard prevented many more deaths. A Pakistani Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility. Islamist militants in Pakistan have attacked Christians and other religious minorities often over the last decade or more. Many Christians, who make up less than two percent of Pakistan's population of more than 180 million, accuse the government of doing little to protect them, saying politicians are quick to offer condolences after an attack but slow...

From MEMRI, the video clip below shows Kuwaiti researcher Abdulaziz Al-Qattan making an appearance on Al-Mayadeen TV on March 3. MEMRI’s Counter-Radicalization Initiative report on the appearance highlights the following quotes from Al-Qattan, each of which would get a person branded an Islamophobe in the West: Abdulaziz Al-Qattan: “ISIS did not come out of nowhere. It’s not an aberration. By no means. ISIS adopts the Salafi-Wahhabi ideology of Al-Qaeda. If you look at Durur Al-Saniyah by Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, you will see that ISIS is implementing the ideas of that book to the letter. They are doing it...

Mustafa Khayat The Islamic State group's attempt to erase any culture but its own continues apace. It now has blown up a 10th century Chaldean monastery north of Mosul and bulldozed a nearby graveyard, according to several reports. The Mar Gorgis or St. George monastery has been "wiped out" by ISIS militants, Nineveh Yakou , Assyrian Archaeologist and Director of Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Affairs at A Demand for Action, told IBTimes UK. The building, located on the Ba'werah neighbourhood on a hill north of Mosul on the other side of the Tigris river, was founded by the Assyrian Church of the...

Last summer, ISIS militants drove this little Christian girl, Myriam, and her family from their home in Qaraqosh, Iraq. A reporter found her residing in a refugee camp in Kurdistan — and her answers to his questions brought him to tears.Her words are proof that the faith is still strong in the Middle East. Please continue to pray for all Christians persecuted by Islamic militants – including Myriam and her family – that they will continue to be an example of courage and faith to the world.“Sometimes I cry because we left our home, and Qaraqosh. I’m not angry at God...

Two of the Assyrian Christian hostages released by ISIS have spoken to the mediaTwo of the Assyrian Christian hostages released by ISIS have spoken to the media about their ordeal. Some 200 Christians were taken by the Islamist group on February 23 after they stormed a number of villages in the north-east of the country. One of the hostages, going by the name ‘Peter’, told the Times: “They entered our village at five in the morning, while everyone was sleeping. Some of them were Syrians, some were Chinese, some Russian – people who didn’t speak Arabic. They took 17 men,...

The Anti-Defamation League condemned Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as the “leading anti-Semite in America” after a speech in which he blamed “Israelis and Zionist Jews” for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “At a time when anti-Semitic attitudes are at historic lows, Farrakhan’s unabashed promotion of anti-Semitism is a throwback to the intolerance of another era,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement issued Thursday. Farrakhan, who has a long history of anti-Semitic remarks, delivered his speech Sunday in Chicago as part of his Saviors Day 2015 sermon. “It is now becoming apparent that there...

Tony Blair’s sister-in-law announced her conversion to Islam last weekend. Journalist Lauren Booth embraced the faith after what she describes as a ‘holy experience’ in Iran. She is just one of a growing number of modern British career women to do so. Here, writer EVE AHMED, who was raised as a Muslim before rejecting the faith, explores the reasons why. Much of my childhood was spent trying to escape ­Islam. Born in London to an English mother and a ­Pakistani Muslim father, I was brought up to follow my father’s faith without question. But, privately, I hated it. The minute...

Dr. Elie Wiesel, left, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Senator Ted Cruz at Rabbi Boteach’s panel discussion.An array of Jewish groups condemned an ad by a foundation associated with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach that accused National Security Adviser Susan Rice of turning a blind eye to genocide. “Susan Rice has a blind spot: Genocide,” said the advertisement, which appeared in Saturday’s New York Times, touting a talk on Iran in Washington hosted by Boteach, the Englewood-based author and pro-Israel advocate. As soon as Shabbat ended, Jewish groups rushed to condemn the ad by This World: The Values Network. The American Jewish Committee...

(See Introduction here [1].)The Fatiha (Opening) is the first sura (chapter) of the Qur’an, and most common prayer of Islam. If you’re a pious Muslim who prays the five requisite daily prayers of Islam, you will recite the Fatiha seventeen times in the course of those prayers.According to an Islamic tradition, the Muslim prophet Muhammad said that the Fatiha surpassed anything revealed by Allah (“the God” in Arabic, and the word for God used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews, as well as Muslims) in the Torah, the Gospel, or the rest of the Qur’an. And indeed, it efficiently and...