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Eyes shining with excitement, the nine-year-old English boy in a dark Parka jacket holds up a certificate showing he has just converted to Islam. ‘You’re a Muslim, Rudi!’ cheers the imam as he hugs the child In his piping voice, the youngster has just recited the words of the Shahada, a strict Islamic creed pledging that there is ‘nothing worthy of worship but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger’. The mantra means he must now wash before praying five times a day, never eat pork and — when he is grown up — shun Western habits including drinking alcohol or...

"What do we do about our kids?" The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes. I'm a high school pastor, but for once, they weren't talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. Each had a story to tell about a "good Christian" child, raised in their home and in our church, who had walked away from the faith during the college years. These children had come through our church's youth program, gone on short-term mission trips, and served in several different ministries during their teenage years. Now they didn't want anything to do with it anymore. And,...

The director of the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Bryan/College Station, Texas has resigned her job. Abby Johnson had worked at the clinic for eight years, but departed from the facility following a profound change of heart about abortion. The Planned Parenthood clinic was the location of the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign in the fall of 2004, and the prayer and fasting initiative has been held outside the doors of Johnson's former workplace five additional times since 40 Days for Life began its rapid spread to 282 cities across all 50 states and several other countries.

Belgium's dwindling churches to be converted into mosques By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Last Updated: 12:38AM BST 09/06/2008 Churches in Belgium are to be turned into mosques as Christian congregations decline while Muslims demand more places to worship. Philip Heylen, Antwerp's deputy mayor, has called on the city to "break the taboo" over the many empty and unused churches. "It's a looming issue yet it seems impossible to have a debate about this," he said. "Churches were built as places of worship and they should not be used as shopping malls. We've had a positive response from members of the...

Pinocchio and friends converted to Islam Malcolm Moore in Antalya (Filed: 31/08/2006) Pinocchio, Tom Sawyer and other characters have been converted to Islam in new versions of 100 classic stories on the Turkish school curriculum. "Give me some bread, for Allah's sake," Pinocchio says to Geppetto, his maker, in a book stamped with the crest of the ministry of education. "Thanks be to Allah," the puppet says later. In The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan is told that he cannot visit Aramis. The reason would surprise the author, Alexandre Dumas. An old woman explains: "He is surrounded by men of religion. He...

WHO WILL SAVE ABDUL RAHMAN? By Michelle Malkin   ·   March 21, 2006 01:31 PM Italy and Germany have raised their voices: Italy has joined with Germany in protesting a death threat reportedly hanging over an Afghan who became a Christian in Germany and is now charged under Afghanistan's religious laws . The sharia laws, which rule many Muslim countries, forbid conversion to other religions on pain of death . Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini on Tuesday said Italy would raise the case of Abdul Rahman with the Afghan ambassador in Rome, European Union diplomatic representatives in Afghanistan and EU human...

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<p>KIMBALL, Nebraska (AP) -- In an era of rainbow-colored terror warnings, the underground home of Don and Charlene Zwonitzer makes duct tape and plastic sheeting seem like the first little pig's house of straw.</p> <p>The Zwonitzers figure they could hold out a year without having to leave their home in an Atlas E missile silo.</p>