Free Republic

SAIMA KHAN wants to die a martyr. Life is transient, she told her father in a telephone call last week, and the real glory is to sacrifice it for Allah. Her statement would be alarming at any age, but Saima is only 10. As she spoke, rifle shots rang out, the acrid smell of tear gas drifted over Islamabad and hundreds of troops surrounded the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, a religious school complex in the heart of Pakistan’s capital where Saima was among hundreds of children being held as virtual hostages in a stand-off between militants and the government. Saima and...

The Russian Orthodox Church is deeply grieved to learn about the terrible terrorist action in a college in the state of Oregon in the United States, in which peaceful people were killed. What makes the tragedy even graver is that the killer consciously chose to victimize young people who confess Christianity. This glaring inhuman act confirms once again that Christianity has become the most persecuted religion in the world. Extremists in various parts of the world increasingly seek to provoke hatred and enmity among religions and nations, for which they are ready to commit the most inhuman evil deeds. The...

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear told Casey County Clerk Casey Davis on Thursday that Davis should issue marriage licenses to every qualified person or resign. The governor also said he won't call a special legislative session to address same-sex marriage issues. Some legislators and county clerks have called for a special session. Beshear met privately for an hour with Davis, who objects on religious grounds to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples The governor later released a statement saying he advised Davis that he respects his personal beliefs but he took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. The U.S....

ISIS Muslims are right now surrounding a 4th century Christian monastery, called St. Matthew’s Monastery. Although the Muslim terrorists are armed with machine guns and knives, the Christians inside the church — three monks and six students — are not afraid, declaring: “We of course are not scared. God protects us” Sahar Karaikos, one of six students in the monastery, said We are not scared, because our teachers give us a feeling of peace here, but we know we are on the front lines, and in seconds the Islamic State could be here… I don’t even want to think or...

I'm not usually one to share my blog on FR (I haven't FReeped regularly in a long time), and I wasn't sure if this should be posted in Bloggers or Religion. But I wanted to share my thoughts on the Charleston shooting, how it pertains to media coverage, homosexuality, and Christianity in current events, and what the Bible has to say about persecution in the end-time hour. Drunken with the Blood of the Saints: By Philip Cottraux So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full...

It has become a common occurrence over the years for Muslims in the Middle East who have converted to Christianity to claim to have been compelled to do so after dreaming of a person who they believe is Jesus Christ. Now, one militant belonging to the brutal Islamic State that has massacred Christians has converted to his victims' religion after dreaming of "a man in white" with a startling message, according to one missionary's account. "One of our YWAM workers in the Middle East was contacted by a friend earlier this year and they met up and he was introduced...

A computer expert testifying for the defense in the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev says his brother Tamerlan’s wife did research on her computer to try to find out what the rewards would be for the wife of someone who dies as a martyr fighting in a holy war. Mark Spencer testified Tuesday that Katherine Russell’s computer showed search terms more than a year before the bombings that included: “rewards for wife of mujahedeen” and “if your husband becomes a shahid what are the rewards for you?” …

Temptation as a Form of Martyrdom – A Meditation on a Writing of St. Ambrose By: Msgr. Charles PopeTemptation is a universal human experience. And because it’s so directly associated with sin, many too easily equate being tempted with sinning. But temptation is not the same as sin. If it were, how could the Scriptures say to us that Jesus was tempted in every way we are and yet was without sin? (Heb 4:15) Hence, the simple experience of temptation is not sin. It is true, however, that our past indulgence in sin can make us more susceptible to temptation.However, properly understood,...

It's almost become a part of the weekly news cycle: American citizens publicly tarred and feathered for professing their sincerely held religious beliefs. Just this month, we watched a family-owned pizzeria close its doors after its owners received hate mail and death threats from around the country. Their offense? Giving the wrong answer to a question about whether they'd cater a gay wedding. Keep in mind that the restaurant had never actually turned down a gay customer. They were hammered for holding the wrong beliefs about a hypothetical scenario! Major corporations are getting into the bullying act, as well. At...

Al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadist group responsible for yesterday’s deadly attack on a prominent Mogadishu hotel, has released a graphic new video showing executions of unarmed civilians – identified as Christians by the AhlulBayt News Agency – at an unnamed location on the Somali coast. Some of victims in the video titled ‘In Remembrance 2,’ are forced to kneel at the ocean’s edge before being shot to death from behind. Others are marched out into the sea, with jihadists standing on an elevated sand dune at the beach’s edge firing automatic weapons at them in the distance. Water splashes as bullets...

The stunning icon here depicts the martyrs and was created by Egyptian American artist Tony Rezk. It appears on the website for the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles. From Vatican Radio:  The Coptic Orthodox Church has announced that the murder of the 21 Egyptian Christians killed by the so-called Islamic State in Libya will be commemorated in its Church calendar.Pope Tawadros II announced that the names of the martyrs will be inserted into the Coptic Synaxarium, the Oriental Church’s equivalent to the Roman Martyrology. This procedure is also equivalent to canonization in the Latin Church.According to terrasanta.net, the martyrdom of the...

The High Price of the Faith, and Gratitude That Someone Paid That Price By: Msgr. Charles Pope I wonder if many of us have considered the true cost of the faith that has been delivered to us. We so easily complain if the Church is not air-conditioned, or the P.A. system is poor, or the service too long.But have you or I ever really considered the difficulties endured by those who went before us and labored to hand down the faith to us? Every time you read the Creed, consider that martyrs died for the truths we so easily declare.This Sunday, at the...

I obviously think the relentless captioning of the Joe Biden window photo is humorous. I wonder if anyone else has noticed what to me was the main feature of the picture. Joseph Biden is the first Catholic occupant of the White House since JFK, 51 years and a couple weeks ago. And here he is being presented with an image of St. Peter's Cross. That's a Catholic symbol. Protestants don't use it at all; they either think it's satanic or Catholic. So I think that it is significant enough for a sort of meditation. I imagine that Simon Peter had...

As it is believed that many jihadists fear that being killed by a woman would cost them their promised "paradise" in the afterlife, it is worth noting that a Kurdish female is one of two commanders leading the resistance against the Islamic State's quest to capture the strategic Syrian border town of Kobane. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Agence France Presse that a female commander, going by the pseudonym of Narin Afrin, is co-commanding the Kurdish peshmerga forces that have been defending the key border town since the beginning of ISIS' assault on the city Sept. 16. Although...

President Barack Obama addressed Americans Wednesday night increasingly concerned about the threat Islamic State militants are posing in the Middle East and about their commander in chief's ability to face it. In his prime time address, the president reminded people of the uniquely brutal character of ISIS. "They execute captured prisoners," he said. "They kill children. They enslave, rape and force women into marriage. They threaten a religious minority with genocide." Despite the militant's name, the president told Americans, "ISIL is not 'Islamic.' No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim."...

The Harvard Law professor who mentored President Obama and the first lady during their time in Cambridge has compared the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, Charles Ogletree also compared the police shooting of 18-year-old Brown to the 1955 killing of Emmett Till. “Looking at what’s happened, this is just like the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, when everybody was very upset trying to figure out what was going to happen,” he said. “It’s like the killing of Trayvon Martin two years ago. “This is...

FERGUSON, Mo. — It was 1 a.m. and Michael Brown Jr. called his father, his voice trembling. He had seen something overpowering. In the thick gray clouds that lingered from a passing storm this past June, he made out an angel. And he saw Satan chasing the angel and the angel running into the face of God. Mr. Brown was a prankster, so his father and stepmother chuckled at first. “No, no, Dad! No!” the elder Mr. Brown remembered his son protesting. “I’m serious.” And the black teenager from this suburb of St. Louis, who had just graduated from high...

Christians have fled en masse from Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, abandoning communities that date back to the first centuries of Christianity. Islamic extremists who now control the city gave Christians until midday Saturday to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death. According to MidEast Christian News, the IS rulers ordered hospitals to dismiss Christian doctors and female employees. The report says extremists also marked the houses of Christians as "Property of the Islamic State". By the time the deadline imposed by the Islamic State expired, most Christians were gone. Mosul, where Christianity has existed for nearly 2,000 years,...

Pregnant woman to be flogged, hanged for marrying Christian By Post Wire Report May 15, 2014 | 9:19am KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Sudanese woman doctor who married a Christian man and who was convicted earlier this week on charges of “apostasy” was sentenced to death on Thursday, judicial officials said. According to the Sudanese officials, 26-year-old Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim, was convicted on Sunday and given four days to repent and escape death. She was sentenced after that grace period expired, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

From an account of the martyrdom of Saint Paul Miki and his companions, by a contemporary writer The crosses were set in place. Father Pasio and Father Rodriguez took turns encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behaviour was wonderful to see. The Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated: “Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our Father and Hail Mary. Our brother, Paul...