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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Muslim Persecution of Christians — Call it what it is: GENOCIDE

Dec 10, 2015 11:59 pm By Ralph Sidway

While I prefer to speak of our age as the New Era of Christian Martyrdom, by the secular definition, the global Muslim persecution of Christians, especially that perpetrated by the Islamic State in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, clearly should be classified as genocide.

Observers have been calling it genocide for years now, including the highly respected Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), head of the Department of External Church Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, and Pope Francis I of Rome.

Now the issue is front and center in a unique way, as the U.S State Department is set to release its findings on whether ISIS is indeed committing genocide against minority groups in the Middle East. This report will influence U.S. policy on everything from refugee issues, to immigration, to the war against ISIS, to aid to Middle East and African nations, and so on.

Kirsten Powers, in an important article in USA Today, emphasizes the urgency of the genocide ruling:

Invoking the “g word” to recognize this fact is not just a matter of semantics. “Groups that have been designated as genocide victims are much more likely to receive military protection, including arming and training their militias for self-defense, which is always the best defense against genocide,” Gregory Stanton, the former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, told me. “Members of such groups are also much more likely to receive preferential treatment as bona fide refugees under the U.N. convention and protocols on the status of refugees.”

An article in CRUX sets out the concerns many Christians have that the Obama administration is preparing to exclude Christians from its category of groups suffering genocide:

A group of 30 Christian leaders, including Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, has asked for a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry in advance of the State Department’s declaration of genocides taking place around the world.

The group believes Middle East Christians should be included in any listing of genocide victims based on their treatment by the Islamic State, commonly called ISIS.

“We recently learned that a State Department finding is imminent that ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidis,” an Iraqi ethnic group that traces its origins to biblical times, said the Dec. 4 letter to Kerry. “We would wholeheartedly endorse that finding, but we are deeply troubled by the prospect that the department’s statement will either omit or reserve judgment on whether ISIS is committing genocide against Christians” in the Nineveh area since summer 2014.

The State Department seems to be paving the way for exclusion of Christians from its findings through a series of statements and press reports. The CRUX article continues:

One reason given for the State Department not counting Christians as genocide victims, according to the letter, is that it “lacks sufficient information about the experience of the Christian communities in Nineveh during that time to conclude that genocide took place.” […]

Another reason is a press report indicating that “unlike Yazidis, ISIS gives Christians a ‘choice’: They can convert to Islam, pay an Islamic tax, or be killed, enslaved, tortured, or held hostage. The implication is that ISIS abides by traditional Islamic sharia, under which other ‘people of the book’ — Christians and Jews — pay a tax in exchange for protection by their Muslim rulers,” the letter said. “We would like the opportunity to explain why this is emphatically not the case.”

Note the naked hypocrisy here. The Obama administration steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the Islamic State as “Islamic,” yet when it comes to the question of whether ISIS is committing genocide against Christians, the State Department presents ISIS’ application of the terms of the dhimma contract in offering Christians the classic three choices mandated by Islamic law, as evidence that ISIS is not committing genocide against Christians, but showing them tolerance.

Only the devil himself would make such an argument.

The letter from the Christian leaders goes on to say:

“The world recoiled when it learned that ISIS jihadis had stamped Christian homes in Mosul with the red letter ‘N’ for “Nazarene” in summer 2014, but the elimination of Christians in other towns and cities in Iraq and Syria began long beforehand. ISIS genocidal campaign against Christians continues today, with hundreds of Christians remaining in ISIS captivity, and with summary executions, including by beheadings and crucifixions, occurring as recently as only a few months ago.”

It added, “Pope Francis has called ISIS’ crimes against Christians by their proper name: ‘genocide.’ The US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Christian leaders in the Middle East have done so as well. We agree, and are hopeful that, once you have seen the evidence, you will, too.”

In arguing for a meeting, the letter said it was “critically important that the State Department consider the best available evidence before making any official pronouncement that rejects allegations that Christian are, along with Yazidis, targets of ongoing genocidal acts.”

In a similar effort reported on by the Daily Signal, a conference of academic, religious and media experts urged Secretary of State John Kerry to include Christians in the genocide ruling:

Last week, at a panel organized by The Heritage Foundation to discuss modern Christian martyrs, academic, religious, and media leaders discussed the persecution–as well as the inattention being paid to the issue by developed nations including the United States.

“I am always struck by how utterly abandoned the patriarchs and church leaders [in the Middle East] whose lives are on the line every day … how utterly abandoned they feel by the West, and particularly the United States,” said Kathryn Jean Lopez, a senior fellow with the National Review Institute and one of the event’s co-hosts.

According to recent estimates, the Christian population in Iraq has dropped to roughly 260,000, down from 1.5 million a decade ago.

The shift likely reflects continuing forced expulsions of Christians from northern Iraq and Syria, as well as abductions and murders by extremist leaders who, earlier this year, declared the coexistence of Muslims with Jews and Christians impossible according to the Quran.

“Forcing a population to leave [its homeland] is one of the five tests, and they don’t all need to be met, but it’s one of the tests for genocide,” said Patrick E. Kelly, executive director of the St. John Paul II National Shrine and a member of the Knights of Columbus. Kelly was referring to the five tenets of qualifying characteristics that constitute Article II of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention definition of genocide.

Those qualifying characteristics include murder, causing serious harm, imposing conditions of life that attempt to destroy, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children outside a specific national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

“I think we have a tendency to think governments always know what’s going on on the ground,” Kelly continued. “They don’t always have the best information. But churches often do, because of the grassroots, with-the-people nature of parishes and ministries. If governments say they don’t have the evidence, they can do more to get the evidence, but they should be listening to the faith communities as well.”

As of this week, according to sources, the State Department does not plan to include Christians in a statement to be released on the status of victims of ISIS-inflicted genocide in the region. The statement will include Yazidis, the Kurdish religious minority.

Carey Lodge, writing in Christianity Today, reports on the efforts of the European Syriac Union (ESU) to influence the Obama State Department’s findings:

“It is our moral and historical duty” to acknowledge that “Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people face another genocide in the Middle East and existential threat,” a statement from the ESU said.

“Commemoration of Victims of Genocides and Crimes against Humanity is [an] essential responsibility to the humanity and international community. Commemoration [of] past atrocities around the world is [a] strong sign of remembrance of the victims and solidarity with the current threatened groups, ethnic and religious communities.”

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom on Monday called for groups systematically persecuted by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — Christians, Yazidis, Shi’as, Turkmen and Shabaks — to be recognised as victims of genocide.

“The hallmark of genocide is the intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic, or religious group, in whole or in part,” said USCIRF chairman Robert George.

“ISIL’s intent to destroy religious groups that do not subscribe to its extremist ideology in the areas in Iraq and Syria that it controls, or seeks to control, is evident in, not only its barbarous acts, but also its own propaganda.”

The population of Christians in the Middle East has fallen “in an incessant way” over recent years, the ESU said.

The fall of Mosul, once considered the heartland of Iraq’s Christian population, and the occupation of the Ninevah plains by ISIS has led to a mass exodus of Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian people, the union added. They face “annihilation and destruction” under ISIS, it said…

In a statement to Christian Today, spokesman for the ESU David Vergili said:

“Christians face another genocide with a non state actor which aggravate and complex the situation. In this regards, the rapid action by the international community is vital in order to stop metastasising of the harm inflicted in these ancient communities.

Although the U.S. State Department has been seeding its reasons for probable exclusion of Christians from the genocide ruling through its various statements, they are not fooling anyone. Some Christian leaders, such as Chaldean Bishop Francis Kalabat of Michigan, sharply criticize the Obama administration for its persistent refusal to acknowledge Muslim genocide of Christians:

The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church for Michigan and the eastern half of the U.S. sharply criticized the Obama administration Wednesday, saying it has largely ignored the suffering of Christians displaced by war in Syria and Iraq and should do more to protect and resettle them.

Testifying before a U.S. House subcommittee, Bishop Francis Kalabat of Southfield said while the State Department may soon declare that the Yazidi people, a religious minority in Iraq, face genocide at the hands of the Islamic State or ISIS, it leaves unaddressed problems faced by other religious minorities.

“There are more than 150,000 Iraqi Christians who are now displaced in northern Iraq or are refugees in other countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey,” Kalabat said. “There are countless Christian villages in Syria that have been taken over by ISIS and have encountered genocide, and the Obama administration refuses to recognize their plight. … I say, shame on you.”

Most likely, the Obama administration will not label Muslim persecution of Christians genocide, as it would be in direct conflict with Obama’s narrative, that there is nothing inherently Islamic about the Islamic State. Admit genocide against the Yazidis, by all means. Give up a few points there to provide the appearance of action and toughness. But to acknowledge that the Islamic State is committing genocide against Christians would be to admit that there is a specifically religious dimension to the persecution, thus immediately bringing Islam itself under even greater scrutiny.

Too late, Mr. President. More and more people are waking up and coming to realize that there is something very dark and sinister at the core of Islam.

Islam is the problem. It mandates jihad and persecution against Christians, Jews and all non-Muslims. The Koran says what it means and means what it says:

Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [i.e. Islam] among the people of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Sura 9:29)

Why don’t you repent, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, and join us? Call Muslim persecution of Christians by its name: Genocide. Your conscience will thank you for it. So will Christians the world over. The Islamic State will continue committing genocide regardless of what you do, unless Putin stops them.

_______

Ralph Sidway is an Orthodox Christian researcher and writer, and author of Facing Islam: What the Ancient Church has to say about the Religion of Muhammad. He operates the Facing Islam blog.

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Muslim persecution of Christians Tagged With: genocide, John Kerry, Obama administration


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Comments

  1. Mo says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 1:18 am

    The man Obama LOATHES Christianity and Christians. And he will always side with Muslims – even as they are slaughtering Christians.

    He’s proven that by his actions and words from the time he first came to power.

    • mortimer says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 1:59 am

      Obama is a sincere Christian, but you should remember he has siblings and cousins and aunts who are Muslim. Complicates his ability to make statements. A large group of Muslims and former Muslims who hide their apostasy are actually against jihad.

      Though they are technically ‘hypocrites’ or non-practicing Muslims (though openly appearing to practice), they are still counted as Muslims. There are countless Muslims who want to SEEM to be modern, but are unable to simply leave this Death Cult because like Germans under Hitler, they don’t want to know what is in Islamic doctrine.

      Only 15% of Muslims are actually trying to practice Islam.

      • ? says

        Dec 11, 2015 at 2:47 am

        “Obama is a sincere Christian”
        That has yet to be proven.

        ” A large group of Muslims and former Muslims who hide their apostasy are actually against jihad.“

        I invoke the phrase “seeing is believing.” And with six words for deception how can a Muslims word be taken seriously? Do you have hard documents to prove this?

        “Only 15% of Muslims are actually trying to practice Islam”

        Again, can you prove this? By providing a percentage you must have some basis for your statement.

        • Mikelets456 says

          Dec 11, 2015 at 11:03 am

          Even if it’s 15%, that’s over 200 MILLION radical Islamist! That’s a crazy amount of people—the numbers are more like 19% to 25% which is over 300 million radicals. Also, a PEW research showed that most Muslim nations believe in Sharia law—average of 52% to 87% and as high as 99% and low as 11%, once again, that’s a crazy amount that believes in stoning, killing, etc.
          Obama is not a Christian and I agree with you on that as well.

        • ? says

          Dec 13, 2015 at 8:57 am

          Exactly. I have noticed when presenting evidence people love to say how small the percentage is, but never mention how large the demographic really is. When you put things into real perspective the truth starts showing.

      • Christianblood says

        Dec 11, 2015 at 5:04 am

        Don’t blame it all on Obama. Obama is by product and true reflection of the American society as America elected Obama TWICE as its president. American pro islamic problem is far deeper than Obama. America and the Western world have turned their backs on Christianity and replaced it with destructive atheistic doctrines of postmodern moral relativism while they are also backing, enabling and arming the genocidal islamic jihadists worldwide that are massacring Christians and other minorities across the M.E. and beyond. For example, three decades ago, in Afghanistan, America supported and armed the Taliban, Bin-Laden and Alqa’ida and paid them fight against Russia. In the Balkans, America bombed Christian Serbia and formed two islamic states (Bosnia & Kosovo) in the heart of Europe. In Libya, America supported and fought on the side of the barbaric islamic jihadists who deposed Qaddafi. In Egypt, America backed Muslim Brotherhood and turned their backs on Gen. Mubarak, their long time ally. In Syria, America is currently allied with the evil Saudi Arabia, with Turkey and with other barbaric Arab states that are backing ISIS, the ‘free Syrian army’ jihadists, Alnusra jihadists and many other barbaric jihadists that are fighting Assad who is a secular leader who is protecting Christians and other minorities in Syria. I could go on and on. And these situations tell us that America and the West are nothing but anti-Christian islamo-phylic hellholes run by crazed, pro-LGBT postmodernist fascists.

        • duh_swami says

          Dec 11, 2015 at 6:25 am

          Don’t blame Obama??? PHHHY…what a bunch of bilge…

        • Christianblood says

          Dec 11, 2015 at 8:26 am

          duh_swami

          American society ELECTED Obama as their President not once but TWICE. Obama is the genuine reflection and the PURE manifestational by product of the American society. Blame the forces of the postmodernist moral relativist curse that are at the root societal decadence which will only increase their evil grasp on the American/Western psyche in the coming years.

        • duh_swami says

          Dec 11, 2015 at 11:32 am

          Irresponsible people called liberals elected Obama, along with a few million Republicans who sat it out rather than vote for a Moran…You can go away now…I’m not really interested in what you think about America…..

        • Christianblood says

          Dec 11, 2015 at 6:03 pm

          duh_swami

          America has approximately 330 million people, around 85 percent of them (and growing) follow liberal (the fast-growing) postmodernist value system. It is not just some “some irresponsible liberals” that elected Obama but the overwhelming American and other Western societies are strictly following moral relativist postmodern belief system in their worldview and it is going to be over 100 percent soon.

        • Ben says

          Dec 12, 2015 at 11:38 am

          I think Obama is still trying to figure out the motive for all of these Muslim love bombs directed at Christians. When he does figure it out he will, no doubt, side with the Muslims.

      • Mo says

        Dec 11, 2015 at 10:45 am

        @ mortimer

        “Obama is a sincere Christian, ”

        You’re joking, right?

        No follower of Christ would mock Scripture openly, attend a racist, blasphemous church for 20 years, or vote TWICE to let babies who survive an abortion attempt die without medical care!

        And those are just some of the things we knew BEFORE he came to power!

      • peter says

        Dec 11, 2015 at 9:30 pm

        I find that he appears not to be a sincere anything. Certainly not Christian/

      • gina says

        Dec 12, 2015 at 1:20 am

        He is NOT a christian nor has he ever said he was. His self selected name is Islamic/muslim. His history is that of islam.

  2. mortimer says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 1:53 am

    Orthodox and Coptic Christians have been the principle Christian victims, both through the martyrdom of death and the martyrdom of the living hell of life under Islamic persecution.

    The Assyrian Christians have been dubbed ‘The Martyr Church’ due the vast numbers of martyrs that were killed under Islamic SUPREMACISTS.

    Islam is the greatest of all persecutors of Christians. Islamic persecution of Christians is based upon the Koran, the traditions of Mohammed, Sharia law, the Pact of Omar and the traditions of Islamic history.

    Muslims have solid reasons within Islam to hate, persecute, extort, deceive and exterminate Christians.

    The UN should accept the word ‘GENOCIDE’ in the treatment of Christians by Muslims and implement the UN’s protocols to stop the genocides. (‘S’…yes, these genocides are in the plural.)

  3. Baucent says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 2:01 am

    Much as I despise Islamic State and all it stands for, when it comes to “genocide” we need to be precise. “Ethnic cleansing” meaning driving out a ethnic group from a region for political or religious reasons, is not the same as genocide, which is the complete extermination of that group. What Christians have suffered for the most part in Syria and Iraq is “ethnic cleansing”, not genocide. True, groups of Christians have been beheaded but these have largely been for terror purposes for cowering them into a submissive position in the Caliphate.

    Christians have not been subjected to the genocidal attacks launched on the Yazedi and Shi’ite population. These peoples are massacred on sight and the mass graves are now turning up. At Mosul the Christians were told to leave, pay the infidel tax or convert to Islam. Yazidis were killed or sold in slavery. All Shi’ites captured are killed.

    So why the different treatment of Christians? ISIS does actually follow the Koran, they regard Christians as people who can be a dhimmis population within the Caliphate as long as they pay the tax, obey and don’t complain. This is because they are “people of the Book” unlike the Yazidis who they regard as pagans or the Shiites who they regard as heretic, both worthy of death.

    That’s not to minimize the suffering of Christians, they are truely a persecuted church, but they are not in a Ruwanda style genocide. Imprecise use of important terminology does not help.

    • neversink says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 9:20 am

      You are wrong, and you are playing with semantics and are being extremely imprecise and not helpful. Jihadists are wiping out Christians where they are, but they would love to create a global caliphate and rid the world of all infidels. That is genocide. Wiping out a group of people from a certain area is both ethnic cleansing (if we are talking about ethnicity,) and genocide as in Rwanda (correct spelling,) but wiping out Christians is not ethnic cleansing as Christians are made up of many races and ethnicities.

      So get off your pedantic high horse please. Thanks.

      • neversink says

        Dec 11, 2015 at 9:22 am

        So, in conclusion, ISIS is committing genocide against Christians.

        • Baucent says

          Dec 11, 2015 at 9:03 pm

          Read the definition of Genocide. What is happening in Syria and Iraq is not what happened to the Armenians. That was a genocide.
          It’s not semantics at all, the issue is being truthful and factual, something you obviously don’t consider is important.

    • Evolution says

      Dec 12, 2015 at 11:59 pm

      Baucent…
      Where do you suppose these minorities in Iraq and Syria will go when all their homes were destroyed, all their belongings taken, and their children captured for ransom, rape and torture ?

      No one is accepting them as refugees, they can’t cross the border over to Turkey.
      The only choice they have is to sit there and die.
      It’s genocide.

      It is genocide because these are actually races of people who were labelled as Christians, but have their own identities, language, culture, traditions, and distinct homogenous DNA.
      The “ethnic cleansing” is occurring in what was once their one and only homeland.
      It IS genocide.

  4. somehistory says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 2:03 am

    Jesus Christ said His followers, His disciples, would be hated, persecuted and killed and that some would even claim or *imagine* that the killing is pleasing to God.
    If the state department or o declared the slaughter genocide, they might be expected to then help the Christians escape the area and give asylum in the U.S. To them, this is not acceptable. They have the same hatred for Christians that moslims who are killing have.

    The Day of Judgment is coming, rapidly. All the souls slaughtered, who are crying out to God, will be avenged and assisted by God.

    • Joseph says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 2:37 am

      Amen

  5. Matthieu Baudin says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 2:51 am

    Thankyou Ralph Sidway for bringing this to the fore. ISIS must be obliterated as an entity.

    It was Hitlers obsession with the purity of blood lines and his horror of the idea of contamination, expressed extensively in Mein Kampf and his numerous oratorical rants, that led to us being saddled with this unsatisfactory term ‘genocide’.

    European Jewry had a long history of inter marriage and rates in Germany approaching the outbreak of war were close to 50%. As for middle eastern Jews, in terms of genetic profiling, it probably was and remains difficult to tease out much difference between their genetic make up and that of neighbouring groups.

    The mass extermination of Jews (and on a smaller scale Gypsies) was really a ‘holocaust’ along specific cultural/religious lines. Similarly, the organised mass slaughter within Kampuchea under the Pol Pot faction of the Khmer Rouge, though often referred to as a genocide, was in fact a type of ‘holocaust’ against social classes within Cambodian society, reminiscent of the slaughter of the Kulaks and other class enemies within the Soviet Union earlier in the century.

    The genocide term is now used to refer to any state sponsored attempt to enslave and eradicate a whole category or class of people within a nation or territory. In this sense the actions of the Islamic State fits squarely within the common usage definition of ‘genocide’ that we have in place today.

  6. Charli Main says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 3:17 am

    Obama is a Muslim sock puppet ( as is David Cameron) and will do as his masters in Saudi Arabia direct. Saudi Arabia now control the UNHRC after buying their way onto the commission, with the covert aid of these two completely despicable pseudo Christians.

  7. Matew Solo says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 3:40 am

    ISIS members may soon be absorbed by a much larger Regional Caliphate…even under this Regional Caliphate…Muslim Persecution of Christians in an Islamic saturated Middle East may finally meet its end in a relatively short while…the winds of change are still blowing.

    Is a Middle Eastern Caliphate Possible for the region.

    Mohamed Bouazizi was trying to support his family as a street vendor when Tunisian police confiscated his vegetable cart and produce…In protest…he burned himself to death in an act that sparked a wave of protests leading to the toppling of Tunisia’s 26-year-old Ben Ali regime…so the story goes.

    This set off a series of further protests across the Middle East in what some have called the Tunisian Wind…Did the Tunisian Wind become a Storm of Radical Islamism that will change the political and social landscape of the Middle East…Commentators struggle to find a context.

    But do they recognize the likelihood…the danger…that more Islamist governments may be on the horizon…Islamist political philosophy advocates the rule of nations (and eventually the whole world…through conversion or conquest) by the many centuries of Sharia law built on the foundation of the Muslim holy book…the Qu’ran.

    Frequently…when Muslim-majority nations have the opportunity to hold democratic elections to choose their government…they elect Islamist candidates…even when those candidates oppose the very democracy that allowed their election.

    When voters in the Palestinian Authority territories chose members of the Palestinian Legislative Council…A plurality voted for Hamas…Since then…Hamas has gained strength among Palestinians…few believe that the organization is truly committed to democracy…Votes or not…it is assumed…Hamas will continue to press its agenda of Islamist theocracy and Sharia law…a Caliphate in miniature.

    Iran is an Islamic republic…with an Islamic constitution…It wasn’t until the impeachment of secular President Abulhassan Banisadr…that clerical dominance in the Iranian regime became clear…Iran Strongly Influences Iraq…Syria…and Lebanon…and anywhere it can.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan…currently Prime Minister of Turkey…a radical Islamist…He once quipped (Democracy is like a streetcar…You ride it until you arrive at your destination and then you step off).

    In Egypt…95 percent of Muslims said that it is good for Islam to play a large role in politics…80 percent said that it would be bad for Islam to play a small role in politics…It is little wonder that Muslims frequently vote for Islamist parties when they are permitted a choice.

    Saudi Arabia…Kuwait…Bahrain…Yemen…the United Arab Emirates…Are Islamic Governments and have regional influence.

    The term Caliphate means the dominion of a Caliph and refers to the system of government originally established under Islam…Under the Caliphate…the head of state is the Caliph who governs in accordance with Islamic law…also known as Sharia…a major event or personality may reveal an overall leader for the position of Caliph.

    So…will the Tunisian Wind gain force and become an Islamist Storm…is it a major step to go from dictatorship to Sharia law…and an even to go from Sharia law to a Caliphate…but support for such a development seems widespread across the Middle East…Middle East use of democracy…is leading some in the West to envision Western-style democracies taking root…However…we should remember that under Sunni Islam…the Caliph is elected…A democratic restoration of the Caliphate may now be thinkable.

    Many people today are unaware of the long history of violent conflict between Europe and the Islamic Caliphate.

    If a regional Caliphate is established in the Middle East…it can have an effect on the collective identity of the Europeans…The trauma of those wars lies deep in the conscious of Europe’s history…It has been less than 300 years since Europe last faced the threat of Muslim invasion…a threat that was instrumental in the formation of a shared European identity throughout the Middle Ages…Now there is again a perceived and stated threat from Islamists…as Muslim extremists call for holy war and restoration of the Caliphate.

    Hassan al-Banna…the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood…wrote (Andalusia [the Muslim name for Spain]…Sicily…the Balkans…south Italy…and the Roman sea islands were all Islamic lands that have to be restored to the homeland of Islam…it is our right to restore the Islamic Empire its glory)…If the Islamic Caliphate is restored…it can have an effect on Europe…The religious winds that are blowing across the Middle East can blow across Europe as well.

    For more than 30 years…an uneasy peace has been maintained between Egypt and Israel…But has it been a popular peace…We should remember that…because of his efforts for peace…Egypt’s Sadat was assassinated…by a group of Islamist nationalists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood…who are kept out of power…for now…by the Military leadership imposed on the country.

    God prophesied that in the decades just prior to Christ’s return…the Jews will have returned to Judea and Jerusalem…where they will be opposed by the surrounding nations… “In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:6)…
    In past decades…this remarkable prophecy has been fulfilled before our eyes.

    The Bible reveals that later in this same time period…a great religio-political power will arise…in Europe….the same Europe (North of Jerusalem) that was threatened by attacks from the Caliphate for more than a thousand years…This power will be an alliance of nations or groups of nations…(Daniel 2:31–46)…This power will be involved in a covenant that will allow the Jews to resume their sacrifices somewhere at or around the Temple Mount (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 2 Thessalonians 2:4).

    Such a revival of this Jewish practice would galvanize Muslim opposition…yet preparations for those sacrifices are being made today by Orthodox Jews familiar with the ancient rituals.

    Biblical prophecy also reveals that a power will arise…to the south of Jerusalem ( either Saudi Arabia or Egypt will have this caliph leadership which controls the whole region )…that will “push at” or provoke this powerful king of the north…The northern power will defeat this king of the south powerfully…and in the process Jerusalem will be overrun and occupied (Daniel 11:40–45).

    Finally…when the Temple Mount sacrifices are stopped…the prophesied Great Tribulation will begin…culminating with the return of Jesus Christ.

    So a Caliphate will form in the region…it will cause a serious conflict…with a power far greater than its own…it will be completely defeated…so says the Bible.

    Personally…I am Going with What the Bible says.

  8. Mathew Solo says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 3:56 am

    The ISIS affiliates may soon find themselves absorbed into a Regional Caliphate…and Muslim persecution of Christians in this Islamic saturated part of the world ended…the winds of change are blowing.

    Is a Middle Eastern Caliphate Possible for the region.

    Mohamed Bouazizi was trying to support his family as a street vendor when Tunisian police confiscated his vegetable cart and produce…In protest…he burned himself to death in an act that sparked a wave of protests leading to the toppling of Tunisia’s 26-year-old Ben Ali regime…so the story goes.

    This set off a series of further protests across the Middle East in what some have called the Tunisian Wind…Did the Tunisian Wind become a Storm of Radical Islamism that will change the political and social landscape of the Middle East…Commentators struggle to find a context.

    But do they recognize the likelihood…the danger…that more Islamist governments may be on the horizon…Islamist political philosophy advocates the rule of nations (and eventually the whole world…through conversion or conquest) by the many centuries of Sharia law built on the foundation of the Muslim holy book…the Qu’ran.

    Frequently…when Muslim-majority nations have the opportunity to hold democratic elections to choose their government…they elect Islamist candidates…even when those candidates oppose the very democracy that allowed their election.

    When voters in the Palestinian Authority territories chose members of the Palestinian Legislative Council…A plurality voted for Hamas…Since then…Hamas has gained strength among Palestinians…few believe that the organization is truly committed to democracy…Votes or not…it is assumed…Hamas will continue to press its agenda of Islamist theocracy and Sharia law…a Caliphate in miniature.

    Iran is an Islamic republic…with an Islamic constitution…It wasn’t until the impeachment of secular President Abulhassan Banisadr…that clerical dominance in the Iranian regime became clear…Iran Strongly Influences Iraq…Syria…and Lebanon…and anywhere it can.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan…currently Prime Minister of Turkey…a radical Islamist…He once quipped (Democracy is like a streetcar…You ride it until you arrive at your destination and then you step off).

    In Egypt…95 percent of Muslims said that it is good for Islam to play a large role in politics…80 percent said that it would be bad for Islam to play a small role in politics…It is little wonder that Muslims frequently vote for Islamist parties when they are permitted a choice.

    Saudi Arabia…Kuwait…Bahrain…Yemen…the United Arab Emirates…Are Islamic Governments and have regional influence.

    The term Caliphate means the dominion of a Caliph and refers to the system of government originally established under Islam…Under the Caliphate…the head of state is the Caliph who governs in accordance with Islamic law…also known as Sharia…a major event or personality may reveal an overall leader for the position of Caliph.

    So…will the Tunisian Wind gain force and become an Islamist Storm…is it a major step to go from dictatorship to Sharia law…and an even to go from Sharia law to a Caliphate…but support for such a development seems widespread across the Middle East…Middle East use of democracy…is leading some in the West to envision Western-style democracies taking root…However…we should remember that under Sunni Islam…the Caliph is elected…A democratic restoration of the Caliphate may now be thinkable.

    Many people today are unaware of the long history of violent conflict between Europe and the Islamic Caliphate.

    If a regional Caliphate is established in the Middle East…it can have an effect on the collective identity of the Europeans…The trauma of those wars lies deep in the conscious of Europe’s history…It has been less than 300 years since Europe last faced the threat of Muslim invasion…a threat that was instrumental in the formation of a shared European identity throughout the Middle Ages…Now there is again a perceived and stated threat from Islamists…as Muslim extremists call for holy war and restoration of the Caliphate.

    Hassan al-Banna…the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood…wrote (Andalusia [the Muslim name for Spain]…Sicily…the Balkans…south Italy…and the Roman sea islands were all Islamic lands that have to be restored to the homeland of Islam…it is our right to restore the Islamic Empire its glory)…If the Islamic Caliphate is restored…it can have an effect on Europe…The religious winds that are blowing across the Middle East can blow across Europe as well.

    For more than 30 years…an uneasy peace has been maintained between Egypt and Israel…But has it been a popular peace…We should remember that…because of his efforts for peace…Egypt’s Sadat was assassinated…by a group of Islamist nationalists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood…who are kept out of power…for now…by the Military leadership imposed on the country.

    God prophesied that in the decades just prior to Christ’s return…the Jews will have returned to Judea and Jerusalem…where they will be opposed by the surrounding nations… “In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:6)…
    In past decades…this remarkable prophecy has been fulfilled before our eyes.

    The Bible reveals that later in this same time period…a great religio-political power will arise…in Europe….the same Europe (North of Jerusalem) that was threatened by attacks from the Caliphate for more than a thousand years…This power will be an alliance of nations or groups of nations…(Daniel 2:31–46)…This power will be involved in a covenant that will allow the Jews to resume their sacrifices somewhere at or around the Temple Mount (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 2 Thessalonians 2:4).

    Such a revival of this Jewish practice would galvanize Muslim opposition…yet preparations for those sacrifices are being made today by Orthodox Jews familiar with the ancient rituals.

    Biblical prophecy also reveals that a power will arise…to the south of Jerusalem ( either Saudi Arabia or Egypt will have this caliph leadership which controls the whole region )…that will “push at” or provoke this powerful king of the north…The northern power will defeat this king of the south powerfully…and in the process Jerusalem will be overrun and occupied (Daniel 11:40–45).

    Finally…when the Temple Mount sacrifices are stopped…the prophesied Great Tribulation will begin…culminating with the return of Jesus Christ.

    So a Caliphate will form in the region…it will cause a serious conflict…with a power far greater than its own…it will be completely defeated…so says the Bible.

    Personally…I am Going with What the Bible says.

  9. Kepha says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 5:01 am

    A large part of the problem with protesting the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere is that many “respectable” so-called “Christian” leaders in fact believe that their mission is to give the Christian religion a decent burial. It’s why they’ve signed on to the various “progressive” (read: all power to anyone ruthless enough to make himself supreme in a revolutionary moment) causes launched by people who hate Christ and everything he stands for. Mainline “Protestant” leaders, for example, are more concerned with making the world safe for their gay friends to buy kids to bu%%er than about the extinction of a Christian presence in the lands of the Bible.

    If the salt has lost its savor, it is fit for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under foot.

    • Christianblood says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 5:07 am

      Kepha

      So true. God bless you!

    • Emmanuel Bassil says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 3:06 pm

      Fortunately for Middle Eastern Christians, the heresy of Protestantism isn’t present.

    • Mathew Solo says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 4:26 pm

      So what Modern views do We place any hope in…
      Seminaries (cemeteries) places where they bury the Bible…teaching their particular Doctrine of Men
      Instead of the word of God…is Man’s Progressive Education Working…Offering Answers to Life’s Biggest Problems…The school of hard knocks is open to all interested or not.

      The bible reveals that God has not left human beings to flounder without Fundamental guidelines…or without important answers to life’s big questions…God has inspired and preserved the Bible in a way that no other book has been preserved…He has filled Scripture with hundreds of prophecies that accurately predict the future…setting the Bible apart from all other religious books on earth…The discoveries of archaeology and the facts of history continue to confirm the validity of Scripture…even though it was written thousands of years ago…These facts are simply astounding and cannot be brushed aside.

      When You weigh critics’ claims about the Bible against the tremendous evidence of the Bible’s divine
      Inspiration…You are left with a clear choice…You can choose to believe that critics’ theories might
      have some foundation in fact…while waiting for the next theory to change and assumptions to be revised…Or You Can Trust The Evidence From Archaeology…History…Fulfilled Prophecy…which Clearly Reveals that the Bible Is The Inspired Word Of GOD…it most certainly up to us isn’t it.

      • Kepha says

        Dec 11, 2015 at 6:50 pm

        Matthew, I got a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (under my real name), and it was no cemetary. Sure, we didn’t shake the booty and yell gibberish in chapel, but our professors all held to the full inspiration and authority of the Old and New Testaments. I don’t know one of its professors or faithful alumni who would dream of making excuses for Muslim persecution of Christians; and suspect they may even be doing some lobbying of the government about Christian persecution.

  10. Mark Bennett says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 5:29 am

    I am Jewish and spent my early childhood in an ethically Jewish neighborhood. Around me were people with a faraway and deeply pained look coupled with an emotional numbness. They all had numbers on their arms. Later I learned that they were Holocaust survivors. Their images have never stopped haunting me. To see this repeated again in my lifetime brings forth a pain that’s sometimes just inexpressible.

    • Kepha says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 6:52 pm

      There were lots of Jews where I grew up, too–and I had classmates who had parents or other relatives who were survivors. When I was in the Foreign Service, I dealt with the aftermath of the Cambodian horrors in interviewing DP’s for humanitarian parole into the USA, and then in Washington digested and regurgitated for the higher-ups the reporting out of Rwanda in 1994 (sickening). I hear you loud and clear, Mark.

  11. duh_swami says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 6:43 am

    The State Dept is in Rasool O’s back pocket. Ir’s easy to see what he is actually supporting and it’s not Christianity or Christians. Glenn Beck is doing more for ME Christians than the US, which is doing next to nothing….

    • Jay Boo says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 8:45 am

      Obama insists that his advisor’s advice is first vetted to avoid any un-Islamic conclusions.
      In addition, his MSM collaborators are giving him cover. Just a few days ago NPR/BBC put out a sympathy story about the recently pushed back Islamist rebels against Assad in Syria. NPR/BBC will support anyone who shouts Allahu acbar the loudest.

  12. C Ward says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 7:22 am

    I am writing because I woke from a nightmare an hour ago. My daughter has a religious goods store.. with a big sign that advertises baptism and communion goods…. In my dream, a woman in a full [what ever you call muslim dress]… walks in… opens her dress and she’s wearing a bomb vest… THAT is when I woke up and thought OMG…. We could be killed next!

    I’m not subject to fantasy nightmares… I can’t remember the last time I had something like this.

    • Shmooviyet says

      Dec 11, 2015 at 2:47 pm

      I’m sorry you had such a terror and know you’re not alone…
      Our “leaders”, their spokespeople and the media with their Poor Pitiful Pearl stories about muslims this, muslims that; the American president who cheerleads for CAIR every time he opens his mouth, and thinks the country he leads/hates should ‘feel some of the rest of the world’s pain’ for a change; the SoS who sucks up to Iran, etc., etc.— it truly is enough to give much of the population nightmares.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Dec 12, 2015 at 5:51 am

      The dream didn’t end with the explosion?
      No.
      Maybe…maybe the thing that would have happened next is the woman’s exorcism and deliverance.
      Reread Ephesians 6: 10-18. Reread the book of James, 5, 16b-20. Remember that our Lord told his disciples he was giving them power to cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the *dead*, and proclaim the kingdom of God.
      So…pray for the conversion of Muslims to Christ…because if ever anything could be described as deliverance from demons, healing of the sick, and raising of the *dead*, *that* is.

      Pray!
      And act.

      Join ACT for America (I assume you’re an American) – that covers the political/ practical side of things.

      Look up “The Barnabas Fund” and donate to their “Operation Safe Havens” which is helping to get at least *some* Syrian Christians out of danger.

  13. David, Thailand says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 8:01 am

    Christians asking the Muslim in the White House to protect them from Muslims…couldn’t make it up.

    Obama’s final act in office will be to give himself a pardon.

  14. Jay Boo says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 8:34 am

    Christians have a right to live anywhere they want in the Middle East don’t they?
    Just wait until BBC and all the big mouth liberal politicians hears about this.
    Just hold your breath a moment — and wait.

    Yet, Trump calls for a temporary ban on importing these same kill-crazy Muslims and the MSM imply he is a NAZI. Go figure.

  15. Truth Seeker says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 11:37 am

    Seems Persons who call Genocide, Killing of Christians, do not know the Butchers are doing their Duty to get Visa into Jannah (Islam’s Paradise).

  16. Angemon says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 12:21 pm

    Muslim Persecution of Christians — Call it what it is: GENOCIDE

    Indeed.

  17. lee blank says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 12:25 pm

    rev. j. manning thinks we should ashamed of ourselves for not helping these christians for fear of importing a muslim terrorist.

    what do you think?

  18. gravenimage says

    Dec 11, 2015 at 8:23 pm

    Muslim Persecution of Christians — Call it what it is: GENOCIDE
    …………………………

    Kudos to Ralph Sidway for calling this what it is.

    And great to see mainstream media figures like Kirsten Powers doing the same.

    But all too many–including our government under Obama–are ignoring this atrocity.

    A recent article noted that of the number of Syrian ‘refugees’ allowed into the US since the Paris attacks, that *only one* was Christian.

    “1 Christian: 236 of 237 Syrian refugees admitted to US since Paris jihad murders are Muslims”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/12/1-christian-236-of-237-syrian-refugees-admitted-to-us-since-paris-jihad-murders-are-muslims

    Unconscionable.

  19. Linda Rivera says

    Dec 12, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    Rabid Christian-hater Obama and his rabid Christian-hater regime recently deported several Chaldean Christians who had fled Muslim terror seeking a place of refuge in America.

    The Obama regime want Christians to suffer to the utmost – to suffer an agonising death at the hands of Muslims.

    CHRISTIAN REFUGEES DESPERATE to ESCAPE SEVERE MUSLIM PERSECUTION are NOT WELCOME in AMERICA. Only Muslims who are NOT persecuted are desired.

    Are the deported Christians still alive?

    How long will it be before persecuted Christians are fleeing persecution in America?

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