Free Republic

Doha — Qatar has invited the radical preacher Dr. Zakir Naik, infamous for his endorsing views on suicide bombings, to teach the FIFA fans about Islam. The famous ScreenMix entertainment magazine tweeted on Saturday, “Qatar invited the famous Islamic preacher Dr. Zakir Naik to deliver religious lectures during the 2022 World Cup

In a recent article, the Pakistan-based Urdu-language pro-Taliban daily Roznama Ummat examined the Qatari government's preparations for da'wa ("preaching," "invitation to Islam") at the FIFA World Cup beginning on November 20, 2022. Da'wa is an important part of Islam whereby Muslims are expected to invite non-Muslims to embrace the religion. The article, titled "FIFA World Cup And Da'wa Of The Religion," and written by Islamic religious scholar Zia Chitrali, explains various media activities and events planned to explain Islam to non-Muslim spectators and to try to persuade them to convert. As part of these events planned by Qatari officials, thousands...

I received an email this week from Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church. “Halloween,” he said, “is a huge opportunity … to be a light for Christ on a dark night.” Indeed, he explained, “you’ll have the MOST contact with families in your community than any other day of the year.” So Pastor Rick asked members of the Southern California megachurch to do the following for Halloween: Buy a package of the biggest candy bars we can find and tape “Trick-or-Treat invitations” to next weekend’s services at Saddleback. And stay home on Halloween night and turn on the lights so...

STAGE 1: INFILTRATIONMuslims begin moving to non-Muslim countries in increasing numbers and the beginning of cultural conflicts are visible, though often subtle. - First migration wave to non-Muslim “host” country. - Appeal for humanitarian tolerance from the host society. - Attempts to portray Islam as a peaceful & Muslims as victims of misunderstanding and racism (even though Islam is not a ‘race’). - High Muslim birth rate in host country increase Muslim population. - Mosques used to spread Islam and dislike of host country & culture. - Calls to criminalize “Islamophobia” as a hate crime. - Threatened legal action for...

The triumvirate imposing man-made global warming on civil society as the 21st century’s top issue may have started at the United Nations, but it picked up steam with President Barack Obama somewhat, then surrealistically moved on to include the Vatican through Pope-Gone-Activist-Francis-Bergoglio. The climate change movement has long dictated what the masses could eat and wear, what they could drive and where they would live. They are now dictating to the masses what religion to practice, and their green religion is not Christianity. The hierarchy of the global warming/climate change movement pay loyal allegiance to the pagan religion of Gaia...

Mormons are known for proselytizing other faiths, rather than being the subject of being proselyted. I hadn’t considered why Protestants get upset at Mormon missionaries, or even why Mormons get so upset when evangelicals try to proselyte during General Conference weekend. I also hadn’t considered Mormons proselyting or getting upset as being a double standard. There was an interesting exchange in Season 3 of Sister Wives. (I know that there are at least 6 seasons, but I don’t have cable and have refused to pay for episodes when I have Netflix already. Netflix has recently added season 3, so I...

Did the Pentagon bar Christians from talking about their faith while serving in the military? Not exactly, but a new push to aggressively stop proselytizing has chaplains nervous, according to the Deseret News: The latest salvo came this week when conservative blogger Todd Starnes wrote on Fox News and the Christian Post that the Pentagon confirmed that “religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense.”The regulation is not new. In August, the Air Force issued a policy telling its chaplains that they must balance an airman’s right to religious exercise with a prohibition against government establishment of religion....

Religious liberty groups have grave concerns after they learned the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to “rape” and advocated that military personnel who proselytize should be court martialed. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling on the Air Force to enforce a regulation that they believe calls for the court martial of any service member caught proselytizing. President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished –...

Religious liberty groups have grave concerns after they learned the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to “rape” and advocated that military personnel who proselytize should be court martialed. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling on the Air Force to enforce a regulation that they believe calls for the court martial of any service member caught proselytizing. President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished –...

Four foreigners have been arrested in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on suspicion of being Christian missionaries and printing books about Christianity, a security official said on Saturday. "They were arrested on Tuesday at a publishing house where they were printing thousands of books that called for conversion to Christianity," security official Hussein Bin Hmeid said. "Proselytizing is forbidden in Libya. We are a 100 percent Muslim country and this kind of action affects our national security." Hmeid said the government-affiliated security apparatus called the Preventative Security, for which he is a spokesman, had arrested an Egyptian, a South...

The political world is astir. Economies are faltering. Public trust is waning. Individuals feel vulnerable. And social cohesion wears thin. Meanwhile, stories of rage and agitation fill our airwaves, streets and town halls. Where are the voices of balance and moderation in these extreme times? During a recent address given in an interfaith setting, Church President Thomas S. Monson declared: "When a spirit of goodwill prompts our thinking and when united effort goes to work on a common problem, the results can be most gratifying." Further, former Church President Gordon B. Hinckley once said that living “together in communities with...

Comic books as a method of missionizing for Islam (da'wa)?Yes. One year ago, Harvard University hosted a workshop to teach comic book artists how to address Americans' "unease with Islam and the Middle East." And later this week, Georgetown University will air a PBS documentary, Wham! Bam! Islam! celebrating a comic book called The 99. Wham! Bam! Islam! The 99 sounds innocuous. Adweek describes its topic as "a team of multinational superheroes [who] band together to fight the forces of evil." The American children's network Hub more fully explains that, "Created by noted Middle East scholar and clinical psychologist Dr....

In the small city of Sammamish, WA is an Islamic worship center that most people wouldn’t even recognize as a mosque or anything other than a residential house in just another normal neighborhood. But what is being taught about Islam at the Sammamish Mosque should be brought to attention, not just in this small community, but on the national stage. When I decided to research this mosque I was ready to find the ordinary and mundane, although as a self-taught student of Islam, I was prepared to find some things of concern and perhaps the truly hair-curling. What I discovered...

 From media inquiries about controversial topics, like same-sex marriage, to blogs about whether Mormons are Christians, we can stay on message, keep it simple and avoid contention. Stay on messageWhen the young men and young women of one stake donated many hours of community service to beautify public areas, a leader responded to a reporter’s query: "As members of the Mormon church we believe in serving others."Though accurate, the response wasted an opportunity to promote our central message: We do what we do because we love Jesus. Because we love Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, we love our...

On Fox News' #1 rated cable news program The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly interviewed guest journalist Brit Humes regarding his controversial remarks about Tiger Woods switching to Christianity made just the day before on Fox News Sunday... Bill O'Reilly played that tape, then immediately asked Hume "Is that proselytizing?" To which Brit replied "I don't think so ..." ... By definition, proselytizing is "To induce someone to convert to one's own religious faith. To induce someone to join one's own political party or to espouse one's doctrine." ... Perhaps it is the word "proselytizing" and the possible negative connotations...

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20 The last words Jesus spoke to His disciples before He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father would become the clarion call for thousands of Christians missionaries throughout the years. Many, like Stephen, would die a martyr's death while others would work...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2009 – A report broadcast by the Arab news network Al Jazeera about U.S. servicemembers proselytizing in Afghanistan is just plain wrong, Pentagon officials said today. The Al Jazeera story showed an evangelical religious service on Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan and a discussion about distributing Bibles that had been translated into Dari and Pashtu – the two major languages of Afghanistan. “American servicemembers are allowed to hold religious services,” a Defense Department official speaking on background said. “The clip shows one of those services with an American chaplain leading a religious service for American servicemembers. In it,...

If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus. That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring. Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts. "We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive...

The Hard Sell Jews consider proselytizing to fight assimilation. BY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY It is one of the most commonly understood notions about Judaism that its adherents do not proselytize. And yet there in the Boston Globe last week was the headline: "Conservative Jews Set a Conversion Campaign." What was going on? As it happened, Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, the head of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, had set a somewhat limited campaign. At the group's convention he had urged: "We must begin aggressively to encourage conversions of potential Jews who have chosen a Jewish spouse." Such a desire...

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - The Air Force Inspector General's office has cleared a top Air Force Academy general of proselytizing non-Christian cadets, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said Wednesday. Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida had faced seven allegations that he improperly shared his faith. The inspector general in June cleared him of six of the seven allegations, including his June 2003 "guidance" to cadets that said they are "accountable first to your God." He also urged cadets and staff to pray. The academy said the final allegation of which he was cleared Wednesday was "using a...