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Last week, TheBlaze reported that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan invited the father of one of the radical Islamist activists killed on the 2010 Gaza flotilla to join the official entourage on his visit to the U.S. last week. And while sources familiar with lat weekÂ’s visit told TheBlaze that the father did not enter the White House or meet President Obama to deliver a personal letter about his son, according to the Turkish foreign ministerÂ’s Twitter account Secretary of State John Kerry did meet with the father and even posed for a photo with him. The Turkish news...

AMMAN — Syrian opposition campaigners said at least 20 bodies of young men shot by security forces were found on Sunday in a small waterway running through the contested city of Aleppo. It was the largest number of bodies lifted in a single day from what became known as "the river of martyrs", after 65 bodies turned up in late January. An average of several bodies a day have been appearing in the river since, several activists in the northern city, which is near Turkey, told Reuters. Most bodies found so far floated down the River Queiq to the opposition-held...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Alabama Men Arrested on Terrorism Charges U.S. Attorney’s Office December 11, 2012 Southern District of Alabama MOBILE, AL—U.S. Attorney Kenyen R. Brown of the Southern District of Alabama and Stephen E. Richardson, Special Agent in Charge of the Mobile Division of the FBI, announced that Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, 25, and Randy Wilson, also known as Rasheed Wilson, 25, both U.S. citizens living in Mobile, were arrested today on terrorism charges filed in the Southern District of Alabama. A criminal complaint signed on December 10, 2012, charges Abukhdair and Wilson with conspiring to...

Martyrs: St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his 116 companion martyrs of Vietnam  Icon: martyrs undergoing torture for Christ. VietnamVietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The traditional religion of Vietnam is Buddhism, along with elements of Taoism, Confucianism and local ancestors’ cult.First martyrsPortuguese Dominican missionaries began to arrive in Vietnam in the early 16th century and there must have been conflict with local power groups from the very beginning. The mission had some success when the Jesuits joined the Dominicans. Among the earliest martyrs were Spanish Dominicans, Francisco Gil de Federich, who had a fruitful apostolate...

BEIRUT -- A Greek Orthodox priest has been found slain after being kidnapped near the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Syrian government and the Vatican news service reported Thursday. The body of the Rev. Fadi Jamil Haddad, pastor of St. Elias Church in Qatana, outside Damascus, was discovered in the Jaramana district of the capital, reported Agenzia Fides, the Vatican news service. The site was not far from the area where he was kidnapped by an “unidentified armed group" last Friday, the agency said. The Vatican agency quoted a colleague saying the priest had been “horribly tortured.” The official Syrian...

BEIRUT -- A Greek Orthodox priest has been found slain after being kidnapped near the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Syrian government and the Vatican news service reported Thursday.The body of the Rev. Fadi Jamil Haddad, pastor of St. Elias Church in Qatana, outside Damascus, was discovered  in the Jaramana district  of the capital, reported Agenzia Fides, the Vatican news service. The site was not far from the area where he was kidnapped by an “unidentified armed group" last Friday, the agency said.The Vatican agency quoted a colleague saying the priest had been “horribly tortured.” The official Syrian news service...

I learned at Mass today, Father in his homily said Nagasaki was the historical center for Catholicism in Japan. I did know St. Maximillian Kolbe's monastery at Nagasaki was not destroyed by the A-Bomb~!! Here's a short Youtube on St. Maximillian Kolbe.

Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on "Egypt Today," airing a video of Muslims slicing off a young man's head off for the crime of apostasy -- in this instance, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it. The video—be warned, it is immensely graphic—can be seen here (the actual execution appears from minute 1:13-4:00). For those who prefer not to view it, a summary follows: A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his...

Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on "Egypt Today," airing a video of Muslims slicing off a young man's head off for the crime of apostasy -- in this instance, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it. The video—be warned, it is immensely graphic—can be seen here (the actual execution appears from minute 1:13-4:00). For those who prefer not to view it, a summary follows

We all know that Obama re-evolved to his 1996 stance in favor of gay marriage. We also all know that he came out for gay marriage again 12 years later (with a slight devolutionary back-step in 2008 when he felt marriage was a man-woman thing ). We also all know that he did it pure and simple for the money and donors. One out of six of his bundlers are homosexual. I happen to think that Obama knows that coming out openly for gay marriage puts the lid on his election chances. But I also think that after the West...

The first thing that caught my eye was the Rock Cairn with NO CHRISTIAN CROSS.

As the media were blanketing airwaves and newspapers with nonstop coverage of old controversial religion-related remarks by Rick Santorum, something happened that compelled the media to also raise questions about a far more controversial remark that President Obama had made regarding religion. Did you miss the widespread news coverage these past days in which that really odd comment that Obama made about religion came back to embarrass him and embroil him in great controversy? Yes, you missed it -- such coverage never occurred. It should have -- and the fact that it didn't tells yet another distressing story about the...

Let us invoke St. Agnes, virgin and martyr. O glorious Agnes, chosen by God, though weak, to make His own might manifest in your martyrdom, together with the Apostles intercede before the throne of our Our Father in heaven and beg strength for the bishops of the Church in the United States so that they will in a timely manner, and with no uncertain words and actions, stand up for religious freedom in the face of attacks by the Obama Administration. I have posted this in times past, but it bears repetition:Here is something I have posted in the past…...

Iran state media put out a stunning report Saturday claiming that imprisoned Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is facing the death sentence for rape and extortion, not for apostasy and refusing to renounce his religion, as his lawyer, human rights groups and Western news media have reported. "His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity," the deputy governor of the Gilan province, Gholomali Rezvani, told Fars, the semi-official state news agency. "He is guilty of security-related crimes." The Fars comments were part of a larger Iranian media push to counter reports that Nadarkhani was facing execution for refusing...

Three Catholic martyrs executed under the Nazi regime were beatified in Germany today, June 25. The event was also noteworthy for its rememberance of their Lutheran companion.Fathers Hermann Lange, Eduard Müller and Johannes Prassek, along with Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, were guillotined in a Hamburg prison in November 1943. The Nazi regime found them guilty of “defeatism, malice, favoring the enemy and listening to enemy broadcasts.” At a ceremony in the northern German city of Lubeck, Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared the trio of Catholic clergy to be ‘blessed.’ He...

ISLAMABAD, (SANA): Although Public opinion is divided on the Abbottabad Incident however more than two third of Pakistanis (68%) believe the sovereignty of their country was severely compromised in the American operation and about half of population are sad and 44% consider Osama bin Laden a Martyr. Findings of a study released by Gilani Foundation and carried out by Gallup Pakistan during May 7-10, less than a week after the death of Osama Bin Laden, shows the mixed emotions of Pakistani people about the life and death of Osama bin Laden. When asked, in a in a poll, whether they...

A profoundly disturbing report issued brazenly by a Taliban commander under the noses of our "Afghan ally": "Kabul- The Afghan Taliban have created a special unit to avenge the killing of Al-Qaeda's leader by US special forces in Pakistan on Monday, a commander in eastern Afghanistan has told Al-Jazeera. 'We have created a special unit to avenge the martyr Sheikh Osama Bin Laden,' Dawran Safi told the Qatar-based Arabic satellite TV channel. 'We will take forward his standard and wage war against foreigners and their agents,' Safi said in an interview from the Afghan capital, Kabul." As Diana West observes,...

Senator Barack Obama has said that Osama bin Laden should be brought to justice in a way that would prevent the terrorist leader becoming a martyr. Seeking to portray himself as tough enough to be commander-in-chief, the Democratic presidential candidate warned that there was an executive order dating back to Bill Clinton's presidency that allowed the CIA to kill bin Laden if capture was not an option. "If I'm president, and we have the opportunity to capture him, we may not be able to capture him alive," he said. Though he refused to detail what approach he would take to...

Rome Circa 66 AD Dear Christian Recruit, Thank you so much for your interest in joining the Church. Your letter was forwarded to me by the former head of the evangelization and recruiting department. Unfortunately, he met a similarly grisly fate as his predecessor. They were both beheaded and stoned (though not in that order ;) You asked about the benefits of being a Christian; well things have been a bit dodgy for this young Church. I’m sure that in the future things will get a lot better for Christians throughout the world but for now… As you might already...

Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, Pakistan Lahore, Pakistan, Mar 8, 2011 / 05:56 am (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Pakistan will consider a proposal to ask the Vatican to declare assassinated Pakistani minister Shahbaz Bhatti a martyr.“Bhatti is a man who gave his life for his crystalline faith in Jesus Christ,” Bishop Andrew Francis of Multan, who drafted the proposal, told Fides news agency. “It is up to us, the Bishops, to tell his story and experience to the Church in Rome, to call for official recognition of his martyrdom.”The country’s bishops’ conference will consider the proposal during its...

In a recent interview, the federal minister of minorities in Pakistan, Shahbaz Bhatti, declared himself ready to die for their principles and the defense of persecuted Christians despite threats by Muslim extremist groups.

An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity. Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards. Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees. He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan. He claims he was visited by a...

On that tragic day, "three-year-old Adam witnessed the horror of dozens of deaths, including that of his own parents. He wandered among the corpses and the blood, following the terrorists around and admonishing them, 'enough, enough, enough.' According to witnesses, this continued for two hours until Adam was himself murdered." That is all I know about Adam, but I cannot get his story out of my head. I believe Adam gave us a message for the whole world.

‘Modern day martyr’ studied to evangelize his home country JACKSONVILLE — Michael Loua was a passionate Christian — he loved his family, he loved his home country of Guinea, West Africa, but most importantly, he loved his God. This weekend, Michael was killed because of his passion to lead those in his home country to his Lord. “He was a preacher; he was an evangelist, so he loved to evangelize people and to lead people to the Lord,� said Michael’s widow, Elisabeth Loua. Elis-abeth said now her children are uncomfortable with the idea of going back to Guinea. “When I...

Child-Preacher Ammar: “A child must be raised on the love of jihad, and on the desire to be martyred for the sake of Allah. The tree of Islam is irrigated with blood, not with water. Embedding the spirit of Jihad within the soul of the child is one of the most important things educators should deal with, especially in this day and age, when the law of Islam is absent from the Islamic countries, a time when the sun of the glory of Islam has set, a time when sovereignty is in the hands of tyrants, when the Islamic Caliphate...

To continue living a Christ-like life in this kind of environment is to practice the martyrdom of witness. Why witness? Because it means giving testimony to our deep religious convictions although all around us others are giving their own example to the contrary. It means giving witness twice over: once on our own behalf as the outward expression of what we internally believe and once again on behalf of others whose conduct is not only different from ours but contradicts it. Wherein lies the martyrdom? It lies in the deprivation of good example to us on the part of our...

SEOUL, South Korea -- Like most North Koreans, Son Jong Nam knew next to nothing about Christianity when he fled to neighboring China in 1998. Eleven years later, he died back in North Korean prison, reportedly tortured to death for trying to spread the Gospel in his native land, armed with 20 bibles and 10 cassette tapes of hymns. He was 50. [snip] He served in the presidential security service for 10 years until his discharge as a master sergeant in 1983. In those years, he was ready to dedicate his life to fighting the “American imperialists,” his brother says....

www.catholicnewsagency.com Shrine of Ugandan martyrs visited by 500,000 for feast day Catholic bishops and lay faithful participate in the celebration of the Ugandan martyrs. Credit: ACN. Moroto, Uganda, Jun 30, 2010 / 02:54 am (CNA).- Earlier this month over 500,000 people gathered in northeastern Uganda to celebrate the feast day of Saint Charles Lwanga and companions, who are known as the Uganda Martyrs.Catholic faithful from around Uganda as well as Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo gathered at the shrine of the Uganda martyrs in the Diocese of Moroto on June 3 as part...

St. Margaret is considered the first woman martyred under Queen Elizabeth's religious suppression. Margaret was raised a Protestant but converted to Catholicism about two to three years after she was married. According to her confessor, Fr. Mush, Margaret became a Catholic because she "found no substance, truth nor Christian comfort in the ministers of the new church, nor in their doctrine itself, and hearing also many priests and lay people to suffer for the defense of the ancient Catholic Faith." Margaret's husband, John Clitherow, remained a Protestant but supported his wife's decision to convert. They were happily married and raised...

Anne was born during the reign of King Henry VIII to an honoured knight, Sir William Askew. Anne was described as attractive in form and faith, a beautiful and high-spirited young woman, well educated, with unusual gifts, and “very pious.” Her father arranged that she should be married to the son of a friend, Thomas Kyme, to whom her deceased sister had originally been promised. Anne endeavored to be a faithful wife, and bore her husband two children. However, despite an initially happy marriage, her husband, Kyme, threw her out of the home because of her Protestant Faith. Anne had...

A new ministry partnership has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the fact that an estimated 176,000 Christians around the world were martyred – killed for their faith – in a one-year period from the middle of 2008 to the middle of 2009. That's 482 deaths per day, one every three minutes. Martyrdom didn't go away with the Middle Ages, according to reports from Open Doors USA, which now has combined efforts with actor Kirk Cameron of "The Way of the Master" ministry as well as evangelist Ray Comfort of Living Waters ministry to focus on those who are...

The persecution of Christians in Pakistan is becoming very brutal and very deadly. The truth is that it is no longer safe to be a Christian in Pakistan anymore. A Christian man in Pakistan's Punjab province is literally fighting for his life after radical Muslim leaders, backed by police, burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam while his wife was raped by police officers. This incident, which took place on March 19th, is just the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Christians in Pakistan. The name of the man is Arshed Masih, and according to reports...

The silence from Pakistani authorities is deafening. An update on this story. "Punjab: Christian burned alive dies, Christian community calls for justice," by Fareed Khan for Asia News, March 23: Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Arshed Masih died last night in hospital from the serious injuries - burns covering 80% of his body - which the 38 year old Pakistani Christian suffered when he was set on fire because he refused to convert to Islam. The funeral of man, who died after three days of agony, should take place in the late afternoon, but the family has asked that "before an autopsy...

Pakistani Christian burned alive dies, Christian community calls for justice Arshed Masih, a 38 year-old Pakistani Christian, died yesterday evening at 7.45 from his very serious injuries. The family requests that an autopsy is performed before the funeral. Christian associations and human rights activists demonstrate outside the hospital. Catholic leaders: the federal and provincial government do not punish the guilty. Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Arshed Masih died last night in hospital from the serious injuries - burns covering 80% of his body – which the 38 year old Pakistani Christian suffered when he was set on fire because he refused...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. healthcare even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue's massive role in this election year. Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program "This Week." "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people."

LONDON – Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up. Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers....

One year ago today, China kidnapped my husband. I don't know where he is. I don't know what is being done to him. The only thing I know is why he disappeared: My husband, Gao Zhisheng, defied Beijing by representing people the government finds threatening. As a leading human rights lawyer in China, he fought for those who had been abused by police, those who had their land stolen by the government and those who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. And now my husband is one of those persecuted people he so vigorously defended. Chinese authorities abducted Zhisheng on...

Video shows fighter jets shooting down US missionaries Anne Barrowclough An extraordinary video has emerged showing a bungled CIA operation that led to the shooting down of a light plane carrying American missionaries in Peru. The dramatic footage taken from a CIA surveillance plane, which has been shown on America's ABC News, shows Peruvian fighter jets opening fire on the missionaries' seaplane even as its pilot screamed for help. Although the Peruvian pilots issued a warning first, the pilot of the missionaries' plane was on a different frequency and could not hear it. The Peruvian jets shot down the missionaries...

On November 19, 2000 a ceremony held in Poznań, Poland, honored the grandfather of Redeemer member Andre Manitius, Pastor Gustaw Manitius (1880-1940), a Lutheran pastor and bishop who was martyred by the Nazis. A city park was dedicated in honor of Pastor Manitius, and a cross which had belonged to him was returned to his church. (See photograph in the online photo Gallery). Pastor Manitius was honored for the courage and dedication of his service to the Lutheran community in Poznań, and for the faith that empowered him to resist the Nazis regardless of the cost to himself of doing...

The Irish missionary priest savagely murdered in Kenya was due to retire home to Co Limerick next year. Shocking details of the murder of Fr Jeremiah Roche have emerged, as police in Kenya concentrate their investigations on two suspects. It is understood the priest was stripped naked, tied to a chair and was then stabbed in the throat and hit on the head with a blunt object. The robbers left the scene with Fr Roche's blood-stained clothes, a CD player and two mobile phones. His clothes were recovered a kilometre away. The killing took place close to Kericho, in the...

In two separate incidents near Bukavu, a priest and a nun were murdered in a growing wave of anti-Christian violence. Aid to the Church in Need reported today that the Catholic Congolese are "in shock" after the "brutal" killings. Father Daniel Cizimya Nakamaga, 51, was shot in the head on Sunday when gunmen stormed his home in Kabare, smashing a window to enter the presbytery. Monsignor Pierre Bulambo, vicar general of the Bukavu Archdiocese, affirmed that "the archdiocese has fallen victim to an act of barbarism." He continued: "The people have been traumatized and are very afraid. The Congolese are...

It’s no wonder we haven’t heard this story from the Democrat controlled media, but a new group of anti American Black Muslims calling themselves the National Black Foot Soldiers actually celebrated what they call the BOW Black on White “martyrdom” of Police murderer Maurice Clemmons.

Islamic Extremists Execute Young Convert in Somalia Christian accused of trying to convert Muslim teenager found shot on Mogadishu street. NAIROBI, Kenya, November 23 (CDN) — Islamic extremists controlling part of the Somali capital of Mogadishu this month executed a young Christian they accused of trying to convert a 15-year-old Muslim to Christianity. Members of the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab had taken 23-year-old Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf into custody on Oct. 28 after the 15-year-old boy reported him to the militants, an area source told Compass. Yusuf’s body was found on Nov. 14 on an empty residential street in Mogadishu,...

In my homilies to you over the years, I’ve often spoke of our Catholic Faith, and sometimes of our Byzantine Tradition; but I have rarely spoken of the particular Church to which we belong, and of it’s history in Eastern Europe. Our Metropolitan Church is located entirely in the United States; and, the further you travel outside of Pennsylvania, the less you see of any ethnic identity among the members of our parishes; but, as you know, the ancestors of our Church’s original members came from an Orthodox Church which came into union with Rome in 1646 at the Union...

Somalia: Christian Leader Killed On Sept. 28 an Islamic extremist shot and killed Mariam Muhina Hussein, an underground church leader, after discovering six Bibles in her possession, according to Compass Direct News. The day before the shooting, a leader of the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab reportedly sent his wife to visit Hussein's home in Marerey villange. She pretended she was interested in learning about Christianity. During the visit, Hussein read passages of the Bible and told the woman that she could visit regularly to discuss God's Word, according to Compass. The following day, the al Shabaab leader, identified as...

Colombia: Pastor Martyred On Sept. 21, Pastor Manuel was shot and killed by The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. FARC guerrillas made an appointment with Pastor Manuel and his family. “He thought they were going to authorize him to have a church officially, which he had discuss[ed] and asked [for] before,” said VOM contacts. “One of them came in [the house] with the pastor’s wife, Gloria, and his daughter while the pastor was outside. He was shot five times.” A FARC guerrilla who was...

Let us suppose that Manuel Zelaya, the ousted former president of Honduras, is a intelligent man with a good understanding of how politics works. Then the question is: what is his game? Because he started all this. He was removed from office three months ago in circumstances of doubtful legality. Both the Supreme Court and the Congress had demanded his removal for "repeated violations of the constitution and the law," but the way it was done - woken up by soldiers and hustled out of the country by plane - smelled more like an old-fashioned military coup. A member of...

Mourners Protest Islamic Attacks on Copts in Egypt Muslim assailant gruesomely slays Christian, attacks two others with knife. ISTANBUL, September 23 (CDN) — A funeral for a Coptic Christian gruesomely killed on a village street north of Cairo by a Muslim assailant last week turned into a protest by hundreds of demonstrators in Egypt. Galal Nasr el-Dardiri, 35, attacked 63-year-old Abdu Georgy in front of the victim’s shop in Behnay village the afternoon of Sept. 16, according to research by a local journalist. Other Copts watched in horror as El-Dardiri stabbed Georgy five times in the back, according to interviews...

Motive Sought for Slaying of Church Worker in Bangladesh Police, wife doubt student attackers’ story of cell phone theft. DHAKA, Bangladesh, September 24 (CDN) — Authorities are investigating possible motives for the vicious killing of a church worker by students at Dhaka University. A management student at the university and his friends are accused of torturing and killing Swapan Mondol, 35, on Sept. 12 in Suhrawardy Park, adjacent to the university. Mondol, a convert from Hinduism, was supervisor of youth mission for Free Christian Church of Bangladesh (FCCB). The primary suspect’s friends claim they came to his aid after Mondol...