Sharia forbids the construction of new churches. Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Indonesia: "Catholics in Bogor (West Java) not allowed to celebrate Christmas Mass," by Mathias Hariyadi for Asia News, December 20 (thanks to C. Cantoni):
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Bogor authorities have banned all public activities or celebrations associated with Christmas, including Christmas Mass, at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung, Tulang Kuning, Bogor Regency (West Java Province). The official ban was issued in a letter that restated the usual reasons, namely the lack of a building permit for a place of worship (Izin Mendirikan Bangunan in Indonesian). Without it, even praying on Church-owned land is prohibited.In Indonesia, permits are required for any type of building, but when it comes to Christian places of worship, they are issued only after 60 residents living near the would-be church have agreed in writing to the project and the local Inter-faith Dialogue Group has given its approval.
In this particular case, because the application has not yet been approved after a long period of time, worshippers have taken to meeting under a tent or in a restaurant. Complicating matters, local authorities have interpreted the law very restrictively, going so far as to prevent Christians from even meeting in public. Now local Catholics are at a loss because they cannot figure out how to interpret the ban....
The situation is particularly worrying because of past episodes of violence. Some parishioners, who asked their names be withheld, told AsiaNews that the ban was preceded by repeated threats from local Muslim extremists, who are bent on preventing any Christian ceremony in a public place.
The fear is that radical groups might take advantage of the ban to carry out violent acts in case Catholics hold celebrations in a public place, under a tent for example, or in a restaurant in neighbouring villages, which they have done in the past.
In 2005, local hard-line Muslim groups disrupted Easter celebrations. More problems arose in 2008, when hundreds of radical Muslims blocked access to church-owned land. On that occasion too, Easter celebrations were interrupted. Nonetheless, Good Friday and Palm Sunday services were successfully pulled off without an incident.
Parung is home to at least 3,000 Catholics. The local diocese owns 7,500 m2 of land where it wants to build a church. However, Muslim extremists have tried to prevent them....
World Jihad III in in full swing, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference wants full religious rights and protections for Muslims.
Meanwhile, here in Dar al-Harb, the Ikhwan, their dhimmi Quislamist collaborators, shills, and recruits want to Establish Islam and shari'ah.
". . . [With] their dhimmi Quislamist collaborators, shills, and recruits want . . . ."
" Complicating matters, local authorities have interpreted the law very restrictively, going so far as to prevent Christians from even meeting in public. Now local Catholics are at a loss because they cannot figure out how to interpret the ban...."
As if the bombings, assasinations, arsons, kidnappings, extortions, intimidations, rapes, demands for jizyah payments, home invasions, armed assaults, thefts, destruction of Church possessions and relics, false accusations of blasphemy, kangaroo courts, lies, discrimination, frivilous lawsuits, and other Muslim activities haven't offered a clue....
Someone should inform the local Catholics that Islam doesn't want to allow you to pray, own property, repair your property, celebrate you religion in any way, minister to those in need, support your people, decorate for any religious holiday, display any act of kindness, talk about your religion, act in humane ways, and any other display of being civilized...
Islam is procuring a religious war and you are the target...
Given the breadth and range of Islamic juridical thinking that exists, it simply isn't accurate for JW to flatly declare that Sharia law forbids the construction of new churches.
While there are certainly many thinkers and jurists who hold such a strict, and deplorable, position, such as Ebrahim Desai and Zakir Naik, others such as Yusuf Qaradawi and the folks at Al Azhar in Cairo hold that construction of new non-Muslim houses of worship is permissble.
Interestingly enough, in a recent Al Azhar statement on such matters, they claimed that applications to build new mosques in Egypt now have more extensive regulations and requirements to be met for approval than new churches there now do.
Observe that 'fairuzfan', who has pretended in many a posting in this forum to be an oh-so-devout strictly-old-fashioned Catholic, says diddly-squat about the dreadful plight of his fellow Catholics in Indonesia - in Indonesia, which is usually seen as more lax and relaxed about its Islam than Egypt, but in which, interestingly enough, the Shafiite school of sharia predominates, just as it does in Egypt - but instead spends a whole posting essentially obfuscating and denying and lying in defence of ...Islam and Muslims.
Yes, what she said!
Debating the fine points of islamic bullshit jurisprudence doesn't solve the problem these people are experiencing, or the plight of the Christians in Iraq, Pakistan, and Egypt, where muslims are killing them, blowing up their churches, and driving them out of their homes. What would you suggest, that they all apply for permits to build new churches to test the law? If they're all dead, they won't need churches and that's the plan---drive them away or kill them.
This is tolerant islam in action and the war against Christians is being waged in every islamic country and every Western country---by MUSLIMS. Oblivious to their blatant hypocrisy, muslims demand the 'right' to invade our lands, practice their vile religion, and build as many mosques as Saudi Arabia will finance, where evil clerics will teach hate, sedition, and jihad under our noses. They demand tolerance of islam and respect for their filthy prophet or they will retaliate against us in our own country! Go defend this unspeakable obscenity somewhere else.
DDA,
One cannot help but marvel at the ongoing blustering nonsense that perversely amuses you. 'Lying'? Really? You don't even prove any objective falsehood stated on my part, let alone show the malevalent intent intrinsic to lying.
And my comments are generally within the context that, as I recall, Mr. Spencer has called for regarding those who have differences with aspects of Jihad Watch's work, not pertaining to those areas where there would be agreement. You could ask me about my views regarding Islamic misconduct toward Catholics, but you don't because you really don't care.
You suggest that you know my religious affiliation better than I know it myself. Can there be a more cogent example of your liberal delusional debased grandiosity and intellectually primitive enfeebled existence than this?
You are the consummate unprincipled liberal, increasingly bereft of any residual meaningful regard for truth and honor. The classical pissant who, all too often, has reduced life to shooting his mouth off when the gratification from any idiocy that has biochemically bubbled up among his synapses exercises a physiological coursing sensation to be satiated.
Let's be clear: for all the errors, problems, and injustices in Islam and for all the armed threats posed to the West by some Muslim fanatics, the gravest threat to the West comes from liberals like you, who have gutted our home with their trash talk, their sliding-scale moral and religious relativism, and their amoral disregard for the sanctity and holiness that makes the ultimate claim on us.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
I think I must have hit a nerve.