A pastor of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) King James Dapar, has raised alarm that Christians in Jos, Plateau State, are fleeing their homes out of fear of attacks by Hausa-Fulani Muslim militants.
The Christian leader, according to allAfrica.com, raised the alarm when The Middle Belt Dialogue (MDB), an NGO, presented donations of relief materials to the church whose members have been affected by the ongoing crisis in Jos, Nigeria.
The pastor, while receiving the materials, said the Christian community was besieged by Hausa-Fulani Muslim militants who attack at the slightest provocation. The pastor said Christians in the Chwalnyap area live constantly in fear of Hausa settlers, and many were relocating to safer zones and selling their homes to Hausa buyers:
"We are surrounded by the Hausa people and they harass and intimidate us at will. At the slightest provocation, they will just start attacking us. But God has been helping us. Many people have relocated from Chwalnyap. Our people are relocating and selling their houses to the Hausa people. But our fear is that once the Hausa people buy the houses at the strategic route that is serving as escape route for us during crisis, we are finished."
The pastor called on wealthy Christians and the state government to buy the houses relocating Christians were abandoning rather than allow the houses to be bought by their "Hausa oppressors." The pastor said the Plateau State government, intending to set up security outposts in the area, had bought some of the houses Christians left. The state government, according to the pastor, has, however, so far not done anything to establish the security outposts.
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Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Shar'ia advances as Sudan's constitution is rewritten
WORTHYNEWS
Sudanese leader Omer Hassan Al-Bashir is rewriting his country's constitution in order to implement shar'ia (Islamic) law.
"This new law is going to affect a significant number of Christians who live in places like Khartoum," said Jonathan Rach, International Christian Concern's North Africa specialist. "There are still a significant number of Christians in Sudan ... If Al-Bashir introduces this shar'ia law and if he's going to go ahead and adopt an entirely Islamic constitution, Christians and other non-Muslims who live in Sudan will be treated like second-class citizens; they will be dhimmis and they will not have full rights in the freedom of religion."
Racho said Al-Bashir's move towards shar'ia shows that the government of Sudan hasn't learned anything from its recent loss of the South.
"The government of Sudan should realize that the reason the South seceded ... was because of the shar'ia law, and now they're repeating the same mistake."
"Bashir has always embraced shar'ia as good government," said Global Response Network Founder and President Tom Zurowski. "Shar'ia has been the very ethos of Bashir and the North for a long, long time. People on the ground in the South have known this right along (that) the Islamization of Sudan has been the goal of Bashir's government for years."
Zurowski said al-Bashir is now facing the realities of having a new Christian neighbor while having to deal with its other African Islamic countries.
"If Bashir wants the backing of neighboring Arab nations, he must fully embrace shar'ia, or be seen as a weak leader among other Arab countries," he said. "His ego and arrogance will not allow for that."
South Sudan's independence took a major portion of Sudan's oil revenues, so Al-Bashir is now facing a new economic reality. The Sudan Tribune reported Al-Bashir told government officials that spending reductions are now a priority so as to relieve mounting economic pressures, but Racho is asking the international community to put even more pressure on Sudan to ensure safety for its Christians.
"We (ICC) want the international community to put pressure on Sudan," he said. "One of the important things about Sudan is its reliance on the international community. We also want the American Christian community to know that the secession of the South doesn't end the plight of Christians, so they should continue to advocate on behalf of the Christians in Sudan."
Sudanese leader Omer Hassan Al-Bashir is rewriting his country's constitution in order to implement shar'ia (Islamic) law.
"This new law is going to affect a significant number of Christians who live in places like Khartoum," said Jonathan Rach, International Christian Concern's North Africa specialist. "There are still a significant number of Christians in Sudan ... If Al-Bashir introduces this shar'ia law and if he's going to go ahead and adopt an entirely Islamic constitution, Christians and other non-Muslims who live in Sudan will be treated like second-class citizens; they will be dhimmis and they will not have full rights in the freedom of religion."
Racho said Al-Bashir's move towards shar'ia shows that the government of Sudan hasn't learned anything from its recent loss of the South.
"The government of Sudan should realize that the reason the South seceded ... was because of the shar'ia law, and now they're repeating the same mistake."
"Bashir has always embraced shar'ia as good government," said Global Response Network Founder and President Tom Zurowski. "Shar'ia has been the very ethos of Bashir and the North for a long, long time. People on the ground in the South have known this right along (that) the Islamization of Sudan has been the goal of Bashir's government for years."
Zurowski said al-Bashir is now facing the realities of having a new Christian neighbor while having to deal with its other African Islamic countries.
"If Bashir wants the backing of neighboring Arab nations, he must fully embrace shar'ia, or be seen as a weak leader among other Arab countries," he said. "His ego and arrogance will not allow for that."
South Sudan's independence took a major portion of Sudan's oil revenues, so Al-Bashir is now facing a new economic reality. The Sudan Tribune reported Al-Bashir told government officials that spending reductions are now a priority so as to relieve mounting economic pressures, but Racho is asking the international community to put even more pressure on Sudan to ensure safety for its Christians.
"We (ICC) want the international community to put pressure on Sudan," he said. "One of the important things about Sudan is its reliance on the international community. We also want the American Christian community to know that the secession of the South doesn't end the plight of Christians, so they should continue to advocate on behalf of the Christians in Sudan."
Monday, June 27, 2011
Egyptian Muslims torch 8 Christian homes on rumor of church construction
AINA
A mob of nearly 200 Muslims torched eight Christian homes on Saturday morning in the Upper Egyptian village of Awlad Khalaf. The attack was initiated by a rumor that a house which is being built by Wahib Halim Attia will be turned into a church. Two Christians and one Muslim were injured, no fatalities were reported.
Wahib Halim Attia obtained a license to build a house in the village on a 95 square meter plot. The house grew to an area of 350 square meters but was still on agricultural land that he owns. This gave rise to the rumor that he intended to build a church instead.
Father Weesa Azmy, the priest at St. George Church in the neighboring village of Negou Madam East, said that someone went to the City Council in Dar es Salam and told them about the irregularities in the house construction, and Wahib was ordered to remove the excess by June 24. "Instead Wahib carried on with the construction, which angered the Muslims, who decided to play God and take the law into their own hands; they attacked the construction site and other Christian homes."
According to Father Weesa, Muslims broke into the home of Ihab Tamer, who defended himself with a rifle. A Muslim who was there to help Ihab was injured by a bullet in his leg from Tamer's rifle. The matter was explained and resolved with the family of that Muslim.
According to eyewitnesses the Muslims, mostly Salafists and some youngsters, looted and torched eight homes belonging to Wahib Halim Attia and his two brothers, his three cousins and two other Copts, including Ihab Tamer.
The police arrived three hours after the looting and torching had ended.
Father Weesa said Ihab Tamer, who was in hiding after the shooting incident, contacted him and he advised him to give himself up to the police as he was acting in self-defense. "If someone sees people breaking into his home, surely he has to defend his family and himself."
The police told father Weesa, who did not witness the incident himself, that most of the attackers were teenagers between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. This was refuted by eyewitnesses. However, he said "if it is true that there were children and teens, then definitely someone else has sent them." He added he will not attend any reconciliation meetings and the rule of law must be upheld, on the Copt if found guilty and the attackers. Most of the teens and children were arrested by the police but no adults were arrested.
Police and security are now present in Awlad Khalaf village and the 30 Christian homes are being guarded, the Security Chief said tonight on the Egyptian State TV.
A mob of nearly 200 Muslims torched eight Christian homes on Saturday morning in the Upper Egyptian village of Awlad Khalaf. The attack was initiated by a rumor that a house which is being built by Wahib Halim Attia will be turned into a church. Two Christians and one Muslim were injured, no fatalities were reported.
Wahib Halim Attia obtained a license to build a house in the village on a 95 square meter plot. The house grew to an area of 350 square meters but was still on agricultural land that he owns. This gave rise to the rumor that he intended to build a church instead.
Father Weesa Azmy, the priest at St. George Church in the neighboring village of Negou Madam East, said that someone went to the City Council in Dar es Salam and told them about the irregularities in the house construction, and Wahib was ordered to remove the excess by June 24. "Instead Wahib carried on with the construction, which angered the Muslims, who decided to play God and take the law into their own hands; they attacked the construction site and other Christian homes."
According to Father Weesa, Muslims broke into the home of Ihab Tamer, who defended himself with a rifle. A Muslim who was there to help Ihab was injured by a bullet in his leg from Tamer's rifle. The matter was explained and resolved with the family of that Muslim.
According to eyewitnesses the Muslims, mostly Salafists and some youngsters, looted and torched eight homes belonging to Wahib Halim Attia and his two brothers, his three cousins and two other Copts, including Ihab Tamer.
The police arrived three hours after the looting and torching had ended.
Father Weesa said Ihab Tamer, who was in hiding after the shooting incident, contacted him and he advised him to give himself up to the police as he was acting in self-defense. "If someone sees people breaking into his home, surely he has to defend his family and himself."
The police told father Weesa, who did not witness the incident himself, that most of the attackers were teenagers between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. This was refuted by eyewitnesses. However, he said "if it is true that there were children and teens, then definitely someone else has sent them." He added he will not attend any reconciliation meetings and the rule of law must be upheld, on the Copt if found guilty and the attackers. Most of the teens and children were arrested by the police but no adults were arrested.
Police and security are now present in Awlad Khalaf village and the 30 Christian homes are being guarded, the Security Chief said tonight on the Egyptian State TV.
Senegalese youths burn church, destroy bar
Hundreds of Muslim protesters descended on a Jehovah' Witness temple and a bar in a conservative Muslim neighborhood of the Senegalese capital on Sunday, setting the buildings on fire in a rare instance of religious extremism in this normally moderate Islamic republic.
Thierno Mbeugne, spokesman for the local imam association, said the head imam in the conservative Yoff district of Dakar had asked the youth to march on Sunday against what they considered as "acts of aggression against their faith." They were targeting the temple because they claim its members were proselytizing, and the bar because it was selling alcohol.
He said the Islamic religious leaders did not endorse the violence, "but they do think that the youth were right" to destroy the church and the bar.
MORE
Thierno Mbeugne, spokesman for the local imam association, said the head imam in the conservative Yoff district of Dakar had asked the youth to march on Sunday against what they considered as "acts of aggression against their faith." They were targeting the temple because they claim its members were proselytizing, and the bar because it was selling alcohol.
He said the Islamic religious leaders did not endorse the violence, "but they do think that the youth were right" to destroy the church and the bar.
MORE
Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists 'bomb Maiduguri drinkers'
A bomb attack in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri has killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens, security sources say.
They say they believe the attack, which occurred in a beer garden, was carried out by the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
The group wants to establish an Islamic government in Nigeria.
It has carried out a number of bombings in north-eastern Nigeria, as well as an attack on police headquarters in the capital Abuja earlier this month.
Gunmen on two motorcycles attacked a packed beer garden late on Sunday, officials said.
MORE
They say they believe the attack, which occurred in a beer garden, was carried out by the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
The group wants to establish an Islamic government in Nigeria.
It has carried out a number of bombings in north-eastern Nigeria, as well as an attack on police headquarters in the capital Abuja earlier this month.
Gunmen on two motorcycles attacked a packed beer garden late on Sunday, officials said.
MORE
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Treatment of Christians around the world
British MP, David Simpson, says the UK has a duty to use "all of our influence" to help those who suffer injustice around the world.
As one of the great economies of the world we have a duty to use all of our influence to help those who suffer injustice around the world.
In parts of Africa Christians are facing very real and intense violent persecution. This can be seen write large in countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia and Somalia.
MORE
As one of the great economies of the world we have a duty to use all of our influence to help those who suffer injustice around the world.
In parts of Africa Christians are facing very real and intense violent persecution. This can be seen write large in countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia and Somalia.
MORE
The 'Arab Spring' has brought the dark days of winter to Christians
ISRAELTODAY
The last few months have seen an historical earthquake, or volcano if you will, in the Middle East. Islamic countries, some with sizeable Christian minorities are witnessing revolutions which on the surface seem to display a desire by the peoples of the these countries for genuine democracy, something only to be found outside of the Middle East, except for Israel.
The story begins with an economic trigger of $147 a barrel for oil in 2008, leading to the near collapse of the world economy. With this near collapse of the world economy, the barrel of oil dropped back to $30, even if for only a few days, and then slowly began to climb back, hovering now around the $100 dollar mark.
Whether or not the world economy recovers or not, we all know that food prices have gone through the roof as a result of this greed. Higher oil prices mean higher food prices. Food prices will continue to spiral upwards and starvation will increase in many more places.
When a Tunisian fruit and vegetable vendor self-immolated himself after a humiliating arrest that included being slapped in the face by a female officer and having his produce confiscated, ostensibly for not having a license (or paying a bribe), the word got out quickly thanks to mass online media like Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and massive riots ensued. The corruption, the lack of employment, the lack of freedom and democracy led these people in the Middle East to want and demand more, primarily what is to be found in the West where there is work, democracy and food.
These revolutions spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and other countries, and threaten to spread elsewhere as well, such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and perhaps even Iran.
The Egyptian Revolution is a case in point. Christians and Moslems demonstrated together in Tahrir Square and other places calling for the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in hope of a better future. The Mubarak regime suffered from the same corruption and elitist domination of the economy by certain chosen groups. US President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the “democratic revolution” in Egypt as they are now doing in Libya.
When the US Administration was warned of the dangers of the Moslem Brotherhood, Secretary Clinton’s response was: “They are only a 30% minority.”
The problem is that throughout the Middle East, the governments are usually controlled by the minority, not the majority. By the way, Hitler came to power in Germany in January of 1933 with only 30% of the German democratic vote. Khomeini in Iran came to power in 1979 leading a wall-to-wall coalition of democratic forces, but in the end it was his fanatic group of fundamentalist Shi’ites that eliminated all the other groups leaving only Khomeini’s group in power.
So today, the Egyptian Army in partnership with the Moslem Brotherhood are now the ruling forces. And there should be no doubt that the agenda in Egypt has never been for democracy, nor is it now. On the contrary, the Islamic motto is: We kill the Jews on Saturday, and we kill the Christians on Sunday.
Now that there are no more Jews in Egypt (Saturday people), the Moslems say: “We will go for the Sunday people” (the Christians).
There is no doubt that the condition of the Coptic Egyptian minority is indeed dire. Woman are being kidnapped, raped and forced to marry Moslem men who can anyway have multiple wives. When Christians protest about this, the Moslems riot and kill the Christians. Churches are being burned down and Christians gunned down. My fear is that the Egyptian Coptic community faces imminent and massive ethnic cleansing if not outright Holocaust at the hands of the Moslems.
When the Egyptian Christian community is terminated, the economy will completely collapse and Egypt will become a desolation with tens of millions of Egyptian Christians and Moslems fleeing to the West were the grass is greener and there is food, employment and freedom, at least for now.
In Syria, another country ruled by a minority, this time a pro-Iranian 10% Alawite minority, another volcano is about to explode.
The Sunni population of 80% is seeking “democracy” or rule of the majority of the people. The Christian population is about 10%, and until now has been protected by the Alawites. But if Bashar Assad and his regime fall from power, the Sunnis, led by the same Moslem Brotherhood as in Egypt, will decimate both the Alawites and the Christians, thus terminating the Christian presence in Syria, and by extension the Christians in Lebanon as well.
We already have seen how the Sunni/Shi’ite struggle in Iraq killed Christians and forced them to flee to Syria. Now this is about to happen in Syria and, by extension, in Lebanon.
Unfortunately, the Christian world in the West is silent about this as are most of the churches and denominational leadership. No one in the Christian world is saying or doing anything about the slaughter of Christians in Africa. And, of course, as the fundamentalist Moslem Brotherhood takes over in Egypt and Syria as it already has in Turkey and Gaza, I believe we are witnessing the creation of a Sunni Caliphate that will soon be surrounding Israel as well.
Could this be a Gog and Magog scenario in the making? Will the world do anything about the Christians of Egypt and Syria? Will the world do anything to stand by Israel at that time?
It is time for Jews and Christians to awaken and unite in an alliance for the defense of Christians, Jews, and all of Western Civilization threatened by this rising tide of Sunni Moslem Brotherhood fundamentalism.
The last few months have seen an historical earthquake, or volcano if you will, in the Middle East. Islamic countries, some with sizeable Christian minorities are witnessing revolutions which on the surface seem to display a desire by the peoples of the these countries for genuine democracy, something only to be found outside of the Middle East, except for Israel.
The story begins with an economic trigger of $147 a barrel for oil in 2008, leading to the near collapse of the world economy. With this near collapse of the world economy, the barrel of oil dropped back to $30, even if for only a few days, and then slowly began to climb back, hovering now around the $100 dollar mark.
Whether or not the world economy recovers or not, we all know that food prices have gone through the roof as a result of this greed. Higher oil prices mean higher food prices. Food prices will continue to spiral upwards and starvation will increase in many more places.
When a Tunisian fruit and vegetable vendor self-immolated himself after a humiliating arrest that included being slapped in the face by a female officer and having his produce confiscated, ostensibly for not having a license (or paying a bribe), the word got out quickly thanks to mass online media like Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and massive riots ensued. The corruption, the lack of employment, the lack of freedom and democracy led these people in the Middle East to want and demand more, primarily what is to be found in the West where there is work, democracy and food.
These revolutions spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and other countries, and threaten to spread elsewhere as well, such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and perhaps even Iran.
The Egyptian Revolution is a case in point. Christians and Moslems demonstrated together in Tahrir Square and other places calling for the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in hope of a better future. The Mubarak regime suffered from the same corruption and elitist domination of the economy by certain chosen groups. US President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the “democratic revolution” in Egypt as they are now doing in Libya.
When the US Administration was warned of the dangers of the Moslem Brotherhood, Secretary Clinton’s response was: “They are only a 30% minority.”
The problem is that throughout the Middle East, the governments are usually controlled by the minority, not the majority. By the way, Hitler came to power in Germany in January of 1933 with only 30% of the German democratic vote. Khomeini in Iran came to power in 1979 leading a wall-to-wall coalition of democratic forces, but in the end it was his fanatic group of fundamentalist Shi’ites that eliminated all the other groups leaving only Khomeini’s group in power.
So today, the Egyptian Army in partnership with the Moslem Brotherhood are now the ruling forces. And there should be no doubt that the agenda in Egypt has never been for democracy, nor is it now. On the contrary, the Islamic motto is: We kill the Jews on Saturday, and we kill the Christians on Sunday.
Now that there are no more Jews in Egypt (Saturday people), the Moslems say: “We will go for the Sunday people” (the Christians).
There is no doubt that the condition of the Coptic Egyptian minority is indeed dire. Woman are being kidnapped, raped and forced to marry Moslem men who can anyway have multiple wives. When Christians protest about this, the Moslems riot and kill the Christians. Churches are being burned down and Christians gunned down. My fear is that the Egyptian Coptic community faces imminent and massive ethnic cleansing if not outright Holocaust at the hands of the Moslems.
When the Egyptian Christian community is terminated, the economy will completely collapse and Egypt will become a desolation with tens of millions of Egyptian Christians and Moslems fleeing to the West were the grass is greener and there is food, employment and freedom, at least for now.
In Syria, another country ruled by a minority, this time a pro-Iranian 10% Alawite minority, another volcano is about to explode.
The Sunni population of 80% is seeking “democracy” or rule of the majority of the people. The Christian population is about 10%, and until now has been protected by the Alawites. But if Bashar Assad and his regime fall from power, the Sunnis, led by the same Moslem Brotherhood as in Egypt, will decimate both the Alawites and the Christians, thus terminating the Christian presence in Syria, and by extension the Christians in Lebanon as well.
We already have seen how the Sunni/Shi’ite struggle in Iraq killed Christians and forced them to flee to Syria. Now this is about to happen in Syria and, by extension, in Lebanon.
Unfortunately, the Christian world in the West is silent about this as are most of the churches and denominational leadership. No one in the Christian world is saying or doing anything about the slaughter of Christians in Africa. And, of course, as the fundamentalist Moslem Brotherhood takes over in Egypt and Syria as it already has in Turkey and Gaza, I believe we are witnessing the creation of a Sunni Caliphate that will soon be surrounding Israel as well.
Could this be a Gog and Magog scenario in the making? Will the world do anything about the Christians of Egypt and Syria? Will the world do anything to stand by Israel at that time?
It is time for Jews and Christians to awaken and unite in an alliance for the defense of Christians, Jews, and all of Western Civilization threatened by this rising tide of Sunni Moslem Brotherhood fundamentalism.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Ethiopian disease
Reader's post: L. Kavakos
Some things in history are just amazing to me, among them is the survival of a Christian Ethiopia that was completly cut off from the rest of Christianity for over a milennium and was compleetly surrounded by muslims (who had a special religious interest in Ethiopia, because Muhammad himself ordered the king of Axum to submit and because a rouge Ethiopian general suposedly dared to ATTACK THE BLACK STONE (pbui) ITSELF!!!!! (and even draged an elephant through the sands of half Arabia (and fed and drank it on the whole way). But this small people on the fringe of (at that time broad) Christian world did not only refused to submitt, it also withstood one muslim invasion after the other. Sadly the complete hostility of the surrounding world has taken a toll on this once very civilized people (who took much from the greek colonys on the cost of whats now Eritrea, who were subjects to the Axumite king). Despite keeping their Christianity, European travelers who came to Ethiopia in the 18th century saw the large difference between the old Ethiopian civilisation they read about in books and the much harsher reality. Constant struggle for survival as well as little trade and contact with Christians outside of Ethiopia (while a lot of "contact" with Muslims and pagans) has barbarized the Ethiopians. It is sad to see how the Islamic ounslaught that mostly reduced Christianity to Europe crippled and hurt even thous who were able to survive it. What was crippled ruined and closed minded Byzantion compared with Justinians splendid, multiethnical Roman empire, what was the Kilikian rump state created by a rag tag bunch of imigrants, compared to the splendid Armenia that as the first country in the world compleetly embraced Christianity, what was Ethiopia of the 1500s or even the 1800s compared to the great Axumite kingdom.....
I look at it and get such a feeling of overwhelming sorrow, how much has Asia and Africa (and Europe too) lost because a tribal warlord from Asias most barbaric region unleashed Islam on the world and while truly great even the achievments of thous few Christians who survived Jihad seem so small compared to what they COULD have been if the unity of the Mediteranian world, if the great Christian and Hellenistic Euro-Asian-African unity would not have been destroyed by Islam. As great as european civilisation has become this united hellenistic civilisation that would have spread deeper into Asia and Africa had the potential to become even greater (I can bring just such names as Alexandria and Antiochia were so many inventions and great Christian ideas came from before Islam obliterated them and what about the old Roman frase (more or less) "From Africa allways comes good" showing the wealth and the high culture of Roman north Africa and Egypt)......the advance of Islam and the inability of Christians (especialy us, Orthodox Christians) to stop it is one of the greatest tragedys in the history of mankind. I pray for the Ethiopians but I fear the wound inflicted on them by Islam will never heal, it is sad that an act of kindness (An Axumite king allowed most of Islams core comunity to take refuge in his country) had such tragic consequences.
Some things in history are just amazing to me, among them is the survival of a Christian Ethiopia that was completly cut off from the rest of Christianity for over a milennium and was compleetly surrounded by muslims (who had a special religious interest in Ethiopia, because Muhammad himself ordered the king of Axum to submit and because a rouge Ethiopian general suposedly dared to ATTACK THE BLACK STONE (pbui) ITSELF!!!!! (and even draged an elephant through the sands of half Arabia (and fed and drank it on the whole way). But this small people on the fringe of (at that time broad) Christian world did not only refused to submitt, it also withstood one muslim invasion after the other. Sadly the complete hostility of the surrounding world has taken a toll on this once very civilized people (who took much from the greek colonys on the cost of whats now Eritrea, who were subjects to the Axumite king). Despite keeping their Christianity, European travelers who came to Ethiopia in the 18th century saw the large difference between the old Ethiopian civilisation they read about in books and the much harsher reality. Constant struggle for survival as well as little trade and contact with Christians outside of Ethiopia (while a lot of "contact" with Muslims and pagans) has barbarized the Ethiopians. It is sad to see how the Islamic ounslaught that mostly reduced Christianity to Europe crippled and hurt even thous who were able to survive it. What was crippled ruined and closed minded Byzantion compared with Justinians splendid, multiethnical Roman empire, what was the Kilikian rump state created by a rag tag bunch of imigrants, compared to the splendid Armenia that as the first country in the world compleetly embraced Christianity, what was Ethiopia of the 1500s or even the 1800s compared to the great Axumite kingdom.....
I look at it and get such a feeling of overwhelming sorrow, how much has Asia and Africa (and Europe too) lost because a tribal warlord from Asias most barbaric region unleashed Islam on the world and while truly great even the achievments of thous few Christians who survived Jihad seem so small compared to what they COULD have been if the unity of the Mediteranian world, if the great Christian and Hellenistic Euro-Asian-African unity would not have been destroyed by Islam. As great as european civilisation has become this united hellenistic civilisation that would have spread deeper into Asia and Africa had the potential to become even greater (I can bring just such names as Alexandria and Antiochia were so many inventions and great Christian ideas came from before Islam obliterated them and what about the old Roman frase (more or less) "From Africa allways comes good" showing the wealth and the high culture of Roman north Africa and Egypt)......the advance of Islam and the inability of Christians (especialy us, Orthodox Christians) to stop it is one of the greatest tragedys in the history of mankind. I pray for the Ethiopians but I fear the wound inflicted on them by Islam will never heal, it is sad that an act of kindness (An Axumite king allowed most of Islams core comunity to take refuge in his country) had such tragic consequences.
1,000 Muslims attack non-Muslim village in Nigeria
CCO
Armed with machetes and guns, 1,000 militants attacked the village of Bar Arewa in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi on April 7. “Almost every home in the village was destroyed, and some elderly people were reported to have been burnt to death in their homes,” according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The group is part of a larger band of 2,000 militants that has been attacking non-Muslim villages.
Armed with machetes and guns, 1,000 militants attacked the village of Bar Arewa in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi on April 7. “Almost every home in the village was destroyed, and some elderly people were reported to have been burnt to death in their homes,” according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The group is part of a larger band of 2,000 militants that has been attacking non-Muslim villages.
Ivory Coast resolution turns into Neo-Colonialism
Gbagbo arrest sends 'strong signal' to dictators ... The capture of Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo sends a strong signal to dictators that they cannot ignore the will of their people, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) said Monday. Clinton told reporters his arrest "sends a strong signal to dictators" in the region and beyond that they "may not disregard" the voice of their own people in free and fair elections. – AFP
Dominant Social Theme: Africa is a better place with one less tyrant and such individuals have got to respect the will of the electorate.
Free-Market Analysis: Now that former president Laurent Gbagbo has been captured by his rival Alassane Ouattara, the mainstream media is predicting a return to normalcy for the Ivory Coast. It is no doubt hoped by many in the West that Hillary Clinton's specific warning shall encourage democracy throughout the continent, as there are supposedly some 30 elections to be held in that vast region in the near future. The question emerges however as to whether Gbagbo's removal was done in such a way as to enforce the message that the West and the UN wanted to send or detract from it. This is the issue we examine below.
Start with a summary. The recognized story is that Ouattara – as we've written previously – won the Ivory Coast election but his rival Gbagbo refused to step down. Now some five months later, Ouattara has captured Gbagbo and proposes to put him on trial for what turned into a violent confrontation between the two leaders and their respective armed backers.
It's been a tragedy for Ivorian citizens. Perhaps a million or more have been displaced and thousands killed during the struggle between the two men. What was an election in a somewhat impoverished, tiny country has become world news; its resolution officially been turned into a larger object lesson: Respect the UN and its mandate. And listen to your wiser, Western elders.
Yet there are other interpretations as well. An analysis by CNN, no less, in an article entitled "Civil war may continue despite Gbagbo's arrest," points out there are reasons to wonder whether real peace shall return to the Ivory Coast anytime soon. "Ouattara takes over a deeply divided country," writes CNN's Amar C. Bakshi, "and accusations that his forces committed serious crimes while advancing towards Abidjan will complicate any reconciliation effort."
Bakshi explains that even U.N.-certified results show that 46 percent of the population voted for Gbagbo, and therefore the Ivory Coast, a small nation that produces much of the world's cocoa, is fairly evenly divided over the results. Not only that, but in removing Gbagbo and eventually placing him on trial, the opposition risks creating further divisions. The reports of atrocities cut both ways. Bakshi adds the following:
Human Rights Watch said forces loyal to Ouattara had killed hundreds of civilians, raped over 20 women and girls perceived as belonging to Gbagbo's camp and burned at least 10 villages in western Ivory Coast ... Religious and tribal faultlines in the West mirror the divide between Gbagbo, whose traditional powerbase is in the Christian and animist south, and Ouattara's Muslim, northern-based forces.
"The conflict in Cote d'Ivoire is not simply one between two presidential candidates, but between two entrenched ethno-political factions which won't be ended simply because Gbagbo gives up," said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, managing director at DaMina Advisors. Bottom line: the world should not take its eye off Ivory Coast just because Gbagbo has been detained.
Even Baskshi's post doesn't explore the full ramifications of what has just taken place. As we've reported previously, what continues to be left out of this story by the mainstream media reporting on it (thousands of articles by now) was that Gbagbo questioned the initial results of the election in a legal manner, or at least one that observed the niceties of Ivory Coast judicial process.
The query was brought before the Ivorian Supreme Court which threw out certain results and declared Gbagbo the winner. It was at this point that the UN stepped in and declared that Ouattara was the winner nonetheless. In doing so, the UN nullified Gbagbo's complaint to the Ivorian Supreme Court and the decision of the Court itself. (Even if the court was corrupt, it would seem that this would have been the place to begin an inquiry.)
Gbagbo's refusal to abide by the UN's decision is what eventually set off the bloodshed. But Gbagbo, a history professor by training who supposedly reads classics in the original Latin and Greek, may have had other more personal reasons to confront Ouattara. The two men have a history going back several decades. They have been political rivals but also they embody, as the CNN article points out, the larger schisms of Ivory Coast society.
Ouattara was not apparently born in the Ivory Coast and constitutionally was barred from running for over a decade. Somehow, eventually, he ran anyway, as the recent election shows. In power previously, as the result of an appointment, he (or his regime) had Gbagbo and his wife arrested and tortured – or so we've read in several news articles. This could explains some of the bad blood between the two men as Gbagbo blames Ouattara directly for his plight and the attacks on his wife.
Having decided that Ouattara had won the election, the UN and the French who initially colonized the Ivory Coast had a fine line to walk. For four months, outside forces negotiated with Gbagbo asking him to step down. But eventually Ouattara had had enough. With the help of French troops and UN forces, he fought back from the hotel where he had taken refuge and managed to gain control of most of the important cities.
Unfortunately, Ouattara's forces including mercenaries left behind a string of murders and rapes that are now being investigated. (Gbago's troops are accused of atrocities as well.) Additionally, these forces had difficulty making the final attack to bring Gbagbo and his family out of the presidential palace where they hiding. Ultimately, it took the combined massed might of both French and UN troops to excavate Gbagbo. The French have claimed that they did not set foot in the presidential palace and that Ouattara's forces handled the final assault.
MORE
Dominant Social Theme: Africa is a better place with one less tyrant and such individuals have got to respect the will of the electorate.
Free-Market Analysis: Now that former president Laurent Gbagbo has been captured by his rival Alassane Ouattara, the mainstream media is predicting a return to normalcy for the Ivory Coast. It is no doubt hoped by many in the West that Hillary Clinton's specific warning shall encourage democracy throughout the continent, as there are supposedly some 30 elections to be held in that vast region in the near future. The question emerges however as to whether Gbagbo's removal was done in such a way as to enforce the message that the West and the UN wanted to send or detract from it. This is the issue we examine below.
Start with a summary. The recognized story is that Ouattara – as we've written previously – won the Ivory Coast election but his rival Gbagbo refused to step down. Now some five months later, Ouattara has captured Gbagbo and proposes to put him on trial for what turned into a violent confrontation between the two leaders and their respective armed backers.
It's been a tragedy for Ivorian citizens. Perhaps a million or more have been displaced and thousands killed during the struggle between the two men. What was an election in a somewhat impoverished, tiny country has become world news; its resolution officially been turned into a larger object lesson: Respect the UN and its mandate. And listen to your wiser, Western elders.
Yet there are other interpretations as well. An analysis by CNN, no less, in an article entitled "Civil war may continue despite Gbagbo's arrest," points out there are reasons to wonder whether real peace shall return to the Ivory Coast anytime soon. "Ouattara takes over a deeply divided country," writes CNN's Amar C. Bakshi, "and accusations that his forces committed serious crimes while advancing towards Abidjan will complicate any reconciliation effort."
Bakshi explains that even U.N.-certified results show that 46 percent of the population voted for Gbagbo, and therefore the Ivory Coast, a small nation that produces much of the world's cocoa, is fairly evenly divided over the results. Not only that, but in removing Gbagbo and eventually placing him on trial, the opposition risks creating further divisions. The reports of atrocities cut both ways. Bakshi adds the following:
Human Rights Watch said forces loyal to Ouattara had killed hundreds of civilians, raped over 20 women and girls perceived as belonging to Gbagbo's camp and burned at least 10 villages in western Ivory Coast ... Religious and tribal faultlines in the West mirror the divide between Gbagbo, whose traditional powerbase is in the Christian and animist south, and Ouattara's Muslim, northern-based forces.
"The conflict in Cote d'Ivoire is not simply one between two presidential candidates, but between two entrenched ethno-political factions which won't be ended simply because Gbagbo gives up," said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, managing director at DaMina Advisors. Bottom line: the world should not take its eye off Ivory Coast just because Gbagbo has been detained.
Even Baskshi's post doesn't explore the full ramifications of what has just taken place. As we've reported previously, what continues to be left out of this story by the mainstream media reporting on it (thousands of articles by now) was that Gbagbo questioned the initial results of the election in a legal manner, or at least one that observed the niceties of Ivory Coast judicial process.
The query was brought before the Ivorian Supreme Court which threw out certain results and declared Gbagbo the winner. It was at this point that the UN stepped in and declared that Ouattara was the winner nonetheless. In doing so, the UN nullified Gbagbo's complaint to the Ivorian Supreme Court and the decision of the Court itself. (Even if the court was corrupt, it would seem that this would have been the place to begin an inquiry.)
Gbagbo's refusal to abide by the UN's decision is what eventually set off the bloodshed. But Gbagbo, a history professor by training who supposedly reads classics in the original Latin and Greek, may have had other more personal reasons to confront Ouattara. The two men have a history going back several decades. They have been political rivals but also they embody, as the CNN article points out, the larger schisms of Ivory Coast society.
Ouattara was not apparently born in the Ivory Coast and constitutionally was barred from running for over a decade. Somehow, eventually, he ran anyway, as the recent election shows. In power previously, as the result of an appointment, he (or his regime) had Gbagbo and his wife arrested and tortured – or so we've read in several news articles. This could explains some of the bad blood between the two men as Gbagbo blames Ouattara directly for his plight and the attacks on his wife.
Having decided that Ouattara had won the election, the UN and the French who initially colonized the Ivory Coast had a fine line to walk. For four months, outside forces negotiated with Gbagbo asking him to step down. But eventually Ouattara had had enough. With the help of French troops and UN forces, he fought back from the hotel where he had taken refuge and managed to gain control of most of the important cities.
Unfortunately, Ouattara's forces including mercenaries left behind a string of murders and rapes that are now being investigated. (Gbago's troops are accused of atrocities as well.) Additionally, these forces had difficulty making the final attack to bring Gbagbo and his family out of the presidential palace where they hiding. Ultimately, it took the combined massed might of both French and UN troops to excavate Gbagbo. The French have claimed that they did not set foot in the presidential palace and that Ouattara's forces handled the final assault.
MORE
UN-backed Muslim forces slaughter Christians in Ivory Coast
Backed by French and United Nations military forces, and approved by President Barack Obama, Muslim militias loyal to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara are on a rampage in the Ivory Coast that, according to news reports and officials, has left over a thousand Christians dead so far in an effort to oust current President Laurent Gbagbo.
Though conflicts have been a regular occurrence in recent decades, the current civil war engulfing the West-African former French colony stems from a contested presidential election held in November. The original vote count indicated a narrow victory for Ouattara, a U.S.-educated Muslim from the largely Islamic Northern part of the country who has worked at the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States.
But after the nation’s Constitutional Council discovered evidence of alleged voting fraud and ballot stuffing, it nullified the results, re-counted the votes, and declared Gbagbo the winner. Gbagbo, who has ruled the Ivory Coast since 2000, is a leftist Catholic from the largely Christian Southern part of the country. He is claiming to be the legitimately elected President and is refusing to leave power.
The UN, Obama, and the French government, however, maintain that Gbagbo should step down and allow Ouattara to assume the presidency. And at least the French and the UN are using armed force to make sure that happens, providing military support to Islamic militias loyal to Ouattara while bombing the Ivory Coast’s soldiers and equipment from the air.
Reports of brutal massacres have been pouring out of the country, intensifying in recent days as the struggle becomes more violent. One of the most barbarous attacks left around 1,000 civilians dead in Duékoué at the hands of Ouattara supporters as they advanced on the capital. Even Ouattara’s international supporters blasted the slaughter.
The victims, members of a pro-Gbagbo Christian tribe, were reportedly fleeing their homes to a nearby Catholic mission. But according to news reports, they were mowed down or hacked to death with machetes shortly before arriving at the compound.
"I can't go home, the rebels have guns. I don't have a gun," 25-year-old refugee Djeke Fulgence told the U.K. Guardian from a camp across the border, where he fled with his wife and children. "They kill people and rape women. They can kill children and then they take the small children to go and fight. It's impossible. I can't go back."
Over 30,000 civilians are estimated to be taking refuge at the mission to escape the violence. But reports indicate that food and water supplies are running low. Meanwhile, up to a million refugees have reportedly fled their homes, with an estimated hundred thousand crossing the border into Liberia.
As both sides blame each other for human-rights abuses, even the UN has now jumped in and urged Ouattara’s forces to show “restraint” after reports of looting, abductions, and ill-treatment of civilians by his supporters went public. Talk of prosecuting those responsible for the atrocities at the International Criminal Court is already making headlines.
But as the UN helicopters were bombarding Gbagbo forces earlier this week, critics of the international body’s military support for Ouattara blasted the campaign. The Russian government, for example, said the UN and the French government had no right to intervene on one side in the dispute.
“The UN peacekeepers and supporting French forces in Ivory Coast have started military action taking the side of Ouattara, carrying out air strikes on the positions held by supporters of Gbagbo. We’re now looking into the legality of this situation because the peacekeepers were authorized to remain neutral — nothing more,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “An emergency briefing in the UN Security Council has been held upon our request, but we have not received any concrete answers. We will keep looking into the matter.”
In the United States, conservative critics of the international intervention have also attacked efforts to oust Gbagbo. World Net Daily described the situation as “the forced Islamist takeover of [the Ivory Coast] government.” It also noted that UN and U.S. government leaders were “ignoring the nation's own procedures that determined Laurent Gbagbo, a Christian, legitimately was re-elected president.”
WND also compared the situation to another recent “Muslim-Christian battle” in Africa. In 2007, Obama backed Kenyan Muslim Raila Odinga, a socialist currently serving as Prime Minister following a power-sharing agreement. After Odinga lost the election and accused his opponent of rigging the vote, his Islamic supporters went on a rampage that included burning churches, hacking more than a thousand Christians to death with machetes, and eventually displacing an estimated 500,000 people. To placate the rioters, an agreement eventually allowed Odinga to serve as Prime Minster.
In another recent foreign dispute, Obama backed socialist Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya. The leftist Hugo Chavez ally was lawfully removed from office through established constitutional procedures for violating the law. But Obama demanded that he be reinstated.
In the Ivory Coast conflict, like in the Kenya dispute, Obama also expressed support for the Muslim candidate. And despite the Ivory Coast Constitutional Council’s ruling, which is supposed to be the final word on election results, Obama demanded that Gbagbo leave power.
"Tragically, the violence that we are seeing could have been averted had Laurent Gbagbo respected the results of last year's presidential election," Obama said on April 5, without mentioning the Constitutional Council’s ruling. "To end this violence and prevent more bloodshed, former President Gbagbo must stand down immediately, and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms.”
But despite the administration’s declared support for Ouattara, prominent U.S. lawmakers blasted the international intervention and criticized Obama’s choice of sides. In an interview with the U.S. government-funded Voice of America news service, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma said it was clear that Ouattara was chosen by the French government and that “quite frankly, they rigged the election.” Inhofe also said the original election results purportedly showing that Ouattara won were statistically impossible.
Citing the massacre in Duékoué, Sen. Inhofe called the situation “a reign of terror by Ouattara” that was being “supported by the French.” He also said the Obama administration “had it wrong” and that letters he had sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the matter were ignored.
Inhofe accused the UN of violating its charter, too. “They went in and immediately assumed that it was a legitimate election and, yet, we have all the evidence to the contrary,” he told VOA. “By the way, there are a lot of people in Africa who agree with me.”
MORE
Though conflicts have been a regular occurrence in recent decades, the current civil war engulfing the West-African former French colony stems from a contested presidential election held in November. The original vote count indicated a narrow victory for Ouattara, a U.S.-educated Muslim from the largely Islamic Northern part of the country who has worked at the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States.
But after the nation’s Constitutional Council discovered evidence of alleged voting fraud and ballot stuffing, it nullified the results, re-counted the votes, and declared Gbagbo the winner. Gbagbo, who has ruled the Ivory Coast since 2000, is a leftist Catholic from the largely Christian Southern part of the country. He is claiming to be the legitimately elected President and is refusing to leave power.
The UN, Obama, and the French government, however, maintain that Gbagbo should step down and allow Ouattara to assume the presidency. And at least the French and the UN are using armed force to make sure that happens, providing military support to Islamic militias loyal to Ouattara while bombing the Ivory Coast’s soldiers and equipment from the air.
Reports of brutal massacres have been pouring out of the country, intensifying in recent days as the struggle becomes more violent. One of the most barbarous attacks left around 1,000 civilians dead in Duékoué at the hands of Ouattara supporters as they advanced on the capital. Even Ouattara’s international supporters blasted the slaughter.
The victims, members of a pro-Gbagbo Christian tribe, were reportedly fleeing their homes to a nearby Catholic mission. But according to news reports, they were mowed down or hacked to death with machetes shortly before arriving at the compound.
"I can't go home, the rebels have guns. I don't have a gun," 25-year-old refugee Djeke Fulgence told the U.K. Guardian from a camp across the border, where he fled with his wife and children. "They kill people and rape women. They can kill children and then they take the small children to go and fight. It's impossible. I can't go back."
Over 30,000 civilians are estimated to be taking refuge at the mission to escape the violence. But reports indicate that food and water supplies are running low. Meanwhile, up to a million refugees have reportedly fled their homes, with an estimated hundred thousand crossing the border into Liberia.
As both sides blame each other for human-rights abuses, even the UN has now jumped in and urged Ouattara’s forces to show “restraint” after reports of looting, abductions, and ill-treatment of civilians by his supporters went public. Talk of prosecuting those responsible for the atrocities at the International Criminal Court is already making headlines.
But as the UN helicopters were bombarding Gbagbo forces earlier this week, critics of the international body’s military support for Ouattara blasted the campaign. The Russian government, for example, said the UN and the French government had no right to intervene on one side in the dispute.
“The UN peacekeepers and supporting French forces in Ivory Coast have started military action taking the side of Ouattara, carrying out air strikes on the positions held by supporters of Gbagbo. We’re now looking into the legality of this situation because the peacekeepers were authorized to remain neutral — nothing more,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “An emergency briefing in the UN Security Council has been held upon our request, but we have not received any concrete answers. We will keep looking into the matter.”
In the United States, conservative critics of the international intervention have also attacked efforts to oust Gbagbo. World Net Daily described the situation as “the forced Islamist takeover of [the Ivory Coast] government.” It also noted that UN and U.S. government leaders were “ignoring the nation's own procedures that determined Laurent Gbagbo, a Christian, legitimately was re-elected president.”
WND also compared the situation to another recent “Muslim-Christian battle” in Africa. In 2007, Obama backed Kenyan Muslim Raila Odinga, a socialist currently serving as Prime Minister following a power-sharing agreement. After Odinga lost the election and accused his opponent of rigging the vote, his Islamic supporters went on a rampage that included burning churches, hacking more than a thousand Christians to death with machetes, and eventually displacing an estimated 500,000 people. To placate the rioters, an agreement eventually allowed Odinga to serve as Prime Minster.
In another recent foreign dispute, Obama backed socialist Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya. The leftist Hugo Chavez ally was lawfully removed from office through established constitutional procedures for violating the law. But Obama demanded that he be reinstated.
In the Ivory Coast conflict, like in the Kenya dispute, Obama also expressed support for the Muslim candidate. And despite the Ivory Coast Constitutional Council’s ruling, which is supposed to be the final word on election results, Obama demanded that Gbagbo leave power.
"Tragically, the violence that we are seeing could have been averted had Laurent Gbagbo respected the results of last year's presidential election," Obama said on April 5, without mentioning the Constitutional Council’s ruling. "To end this violence and prevent more bloodshed, former President Gbagbo must stand down immediately, and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms.”
But despite the administration’s declared support for Ouattara, prominent U.S. lawmakers blasted the international intervention and criticized Obama’s choice of sides. In an interview with the U.S. government-funded Voice of America news service, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma said it was clear that Ouattara was chosen by the French government and that “quite frankly, they rigged the election.” Inhofe also said the original election results purportedly showing that Ouattara won were statistically impossible.
Citing the massacre in Duékoué, Sen. Inhofe called the situation “a reign of terror by Ouattara” that was being “supported by the French.” He also said the Obama administration “had it wrong” and that letters he had sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the matter were ignored.
Inhofe accused the UN of violating its charter, too. “They went in and immediately assumed that it was a legitimate election and, yet, we have all the evidence to the contrary,” he told VOA. “By the way, there are a lot of people in Africa who agree with me.”
MORE
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Ivory Coast: Islamic takeover
Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing an Islamic takeover of the Ivory Coast. And the French (and the UN, US, and Europe)are helping them. We are witnessing one of those watershed moments in history: Ivory Coast is about to toggle from a (mostly) Christian country to a Muslim country. The winner of the election is a Muslim — the head of the Muslim rebel forces in the north of the country — and the loser is a non-Muslim. Ivory Coast is on the verge of officially joining the Ummah.
What made this possible for Mr. Ouattara’s victory are illegal immigrants from Ivory Coast’s Muslim neighbors.
Muslims do not need to be in the majority to force Islamic rule on a country. They simply need to be present in numbers sufficient to terrorize, threaten, bribe, and defraud their way into power. The exact percentage varies according to circumstances, but absent intervention from an external force, full Islamization can be expected by the time a country becomes 40% Muslim.
Like Sudan and Nigeria, Ivory Coast sits atop a volatile ethnic-religious fault-line. Whilst the less-developed North has long been predominantly Muslim, the South -- Ivory Coast's economic and political engine -- has historically been predominantly Christian and African Traditional Religion (ATR). Decades of mass immigration (1960-1993) from the neighboring Muslim states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea might have been great for the economy, but they have tipped the demographic balance so that Ivory Coast -- officially about one-third Muslim -- is actually majority Muslim.
The nation’s thriving cocoa industry has created one of the highest living standards in the West African region, so people from neighboring countries, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, migrated there to earn their living and benefit from the thriving economy. Some of these people shared ethnic ties to those living in northern Ivory Coast and like them were mostly Muslim. Some southerners, encouraged by populist politicians, began to resent the influx and demanded action to protect the country's "Ivoirite (Ivorian-ness)".
After being portrayed as not being real Ivoirians, northerners [Muslims] started to complain that they were being discriminated against. Mr. Ouattara, a Muslim, who was a former Prime Minister, is a prime example. He was banned from standing for president in previous elections because it was said his parents came from Burkina Faso. Similarly, many northerners said they were being refused national identity cards and the right to vote.
The civil war that erupted in September 2002 was portrayed by the international media as a crisis of democracy and human rights caused by Southern xenophobia and Islamophobia. In reality, Ivory Coast's crisis is the consequence of decades of mass Muslim immigration coupled with political ambition and an internationally-sponsored Islamic agenda. The civil war was fought essentially between those who want all Ivory Coast's Muslim immigrants naturalised -- giving Ivory Coast a Muslim majority overnight -- and those who do not. Though he denies it, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, a Northern Muslim, was doubtless behind the September 2002 failed coup that triggered the war. Ouattara and his party, the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), have been playing the race and religion cards for political gain. Ouattara's intent has been to have all the Muslim immigrants naturalised (over 4 million: estimated to comprise between 30 and 40 percent of the total population) so that he (their champion) can dragnet the Muslim vote. Ouattara has long had his eye on the presidency.
The civil war left Ivory Coast totally polarized, split between a virtually ethnic-religiously cleansed, rebel-controlled Muslim North and a government-controlled predominantly Christian, non-Muslim South. Since the war the North has been in serious decline with AIDS, poverty and lawlessness increasing exponentially. In November 2004 Ivory Coast's Christian president, Laurent Gbagbo, launched surprise airstrikes against rebel positions in the North in an attempt to reunify the country. However, former colonial power France (which backs the rebels for economic gain) intervened, razing all IC's airforce planes, destroying runways and sending tanks against the Presidential Palace, around which loyalists formed a human shield.
About four million of the 21 million people now living in Ivory Coast are illegal immigrants, and almost all of those immigrants are Muslims. It has changed the electoral balance, because many of them register to vote, especially in the north of the country where they speak the same languages as the local citizens. Southerners are afraid that they will lose control, and so they back Gbagbo.
The West had insisted that Ivory Coast could be reconciled, reunified and essentially saved by means of democratic elections, such is their faith in 'democracy' and the inherent goodness of man. In reality, the divisions are so profound and the stakes are so high that, unless genuine reconciliation occurred first, elections could only trigger conflict. Elections were held on 28 November 2010, with both Gbagbo and Ouattara claiming victory. The US, European Union and African Union have recognised Ouattara as the winner and called for Gbagbo to respect democracy and step down. Russia meanwhile is blocking a UN statement that would recognise Ouatarra, saying that this is not the UN's role. Ivory Coast's non-Muslims are traumatised, fearing that their homeland -- once the most prosperous 'Christian' nation in West Africa, home to the region's largest cathedral, home-base to most of West Africa's regional Christian ministries -- is about to come under Muslim political domination.
What made this possible for Mr. Ouattara’s victory are illegal immigrants from Ivory Coast’s Muslim neighbors.
Muslims do not need to be in the majority to force Islamic rule on a country. They simply need to be present in numbers sufficient to terrorize, threaten, bribe, and defraud their way into power. The exact percentage varies according to circumstances, but absent intervention from an external force, full Islamization can be expected by the time a country becomes 40% Muslim.
Like Sudan and Nigeria, Ivory Coast sits atop a volatile ethnic-religious fault-line. Whilst the less-developed North has long been predominantly Muslim, the South -- Ivory Coast's economic and political engine -- has historically been predominantly Christian and African Traditional Religion (ATR). Decades of mass immigration (1960-1993) from the neighboring Muslim states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea might have been great for the economy, but they have tipped the demographic balance so that Ivory Coast -- officially about one-third Muslim -- is actually majority Muslim.
The nation’s thriving cocoa industry has created one of the highest living standards in the West African region, so people from neighboring countries, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, migrated there to earn their living and benefit from the thriving economy. Some of these people shared ethnic ties to those living in northern Ivory Coast and like them were mostly Muslim. Some southerners, encouraged by populist politicians, began to resent the influx and demanded action to protect the country's "Ivoirite (Ivorian-ness)".
After being portrayed as not being real Ivoirians, northerners [Muslims] started to complain that they were being discriminated against. Mr. Ouattara, a Muslim, who was a former Prime Minister, is a prime example. He was banned from standing for president in previous elections because it was said his parents came from Burkina Faso. Similarly, many northerners said they were being refused national identity cards and the right to vote.
The civil war that erupted in September 2002 was portrayed by the international media as a crisis of democracy and human rights caused by Southern xenophobia and Islamophobia. In reality, Ivory Coast's crisis is the consequence of decades of mass Muslim immigration coupled with political ambition and an internationally-sponsored Islamic agenda. The civil war was fought essentially between those who want all Ivory Coast's Muslim immigrants naturalised -- giving Ivory Coast a Muslim majority overnight -- and those who do not. Though he denies it, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, a Northern Muslim, was doubtless behind the September 2002 failed coup that triggered the war. Ouattara and his party, the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), have been playing the race and religion cards for political gain. Ouattara's intent has been to have all the Muslim immigrants naturalised (over 4 million: estimated to comprise between 30 and 40 percent of the total population) so that he (their champion) can dragnet the Muslim vote. Ouattara has long had his eye on the presidency.
The civil war left Ivory Coast totally polarized, split between a virtually ethnic-religiously cleansed, rebel-controlled Muslim North and a government-controlled predominantly Christian, non-Muslim South. Since the war the North has been in serious decline with AIDS, poverty and lawlessness increasing exponentially. In November 2004 Ivory Coast's Christian president, Laurent Gbagbo, launched surprise airstrikes against rebel positions in the North in an attempt to reunify the country. However, former colonial power France (which backs the rebels for economic gain) intervened, razing all IC's airforce planes, destroying runways and sending tanks against the Presidential Palace, around which loyalists formed a human shield.
About four million of the 21 million people now living in Ivory Coast are illegal immigrants, and almost all of those immigrants are Muslims. It has changed the electoral balance, because many of them register to vote, especially in the north of the country where they speak the same languages as the local citizens. Southerners are afraid that they will lose control, and so they back Gbagbo.
The West had insisted that Ivory Coast could be reconciled, reunified and essentially saved by means of democratic elections, such is their faith in 'democracy' and the inherent goodness of man. In reality, the divisions are so profound and the stakes are so high that, unless genuine reconciliation occurred first, elections could only trigger conflict. Elections were held on 28 November 2010, with both Gbagbo and Ouattara claiming victory. The US, European Union and African Union have recognised Ouattara as the winner and called for Gbagbo to respect democracy and step down. Russia meanwhile is blocking a UN statement that would recognise Ouatarra, saying that this is not the UN's role. Ivory Coast's non-Muslims are traumatised, fearing that their homeland -- once the most prosperous 'Christian' nation in West Africa, home to the region's largest cathedral, home-base to most of West Africa's regional Christian ministries -- is about to come under Muslim political domination.
Ivory Coast: The next Rwanda?
Thousands of refugees from the Ivory Coast in Liberia are reporting that the the pro-Quattara Muslim rebels are killing people and raping women. They are killing “everyone and anyone.” There are even rumors of cannibalism.
A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.
Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict − those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.
Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.
Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.
More than 5000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus sheltering in the Roman Catholic church at Nyarubuye were massacred by Hutu militiamen on April 12, 1994. Nyarube became the supreme symbol of the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people were murdered in just a hundred days.
The Duekoue massacre seemed to have stiffened the resistance, at least temporarily, of Gbagbo. His 10-year grip on power in Ivory Coast looked as though it was in its final hours on Friday after Outtara’s New Forces (NF) northern army encircled both his residence and the presidential palace, battling to unseat the man who has refused to recognise his defeat in last year’s election.
But yesterday forces loyal to Gbagbo – a southern Roman Catholic who has vowed not to step down in spite of being narrowly defeated by Outtara in a presidential election last November – put up stiff resistance to the New Forces and re-established control of the headquarters of the state TV station, RTI. It went off the air for 24 hours after it fell to Outtara’s soldiers, but by yesterday was again broadcasting pro-Gbagbo propaganda, calling on people to “resist the enemy”.
With control of RTI back in the hands of Gbagbo and updated reports being received intermittently from Duekoue, human rights organisations raised fears of widespread killings in a situation described in a United Nations document obtained by Reuters as “one of generalised chaos”.
Corinne Dufka, senior Africa researcher of Human Rights Watch, said: “We’re extremely concerned about the potential for mass atrocities.” She added: “Given Gbagbo’s prominent use of violent militia groups and the state-controlled media’s incitement to violence, we are asking UN peacekeepers to do everything in their power to protect non-combatants.”
However, the early evidence reported by Italian media from Duekoue suggests the Saint Teresa mission massacre was carried out by Outtara’s NF forces. “The incident is particularly shocking by its size and its brutality,” said Dominique Liengme, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ivory Coast.
“Red Cross representatives themselves have seen a huge number of bodies [at the mission station],” said ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva. “There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information. Everything indicates that this was inter-ethnic violence.”
Duekoue was one of the many centres overwhelmed by the NF as its soldiers, wearing “magic” amulets, neckbands and masks, swept through the country last week in a well-organized assault, bringing more than 80% of Ivory Coast under fragile control.
For days the national army, under Gbagbo’s control, put up almost no resistance and its head, General Phillippe Mangou, fled to the home of the South African ambassador with his wife and five children. However, after several days of easy progress, the NF is now facing Gbagbo’s most reliable fighters, the roughly 2500-strong elite Republican Guard, clustered in Abidjan along with remaining regular army troops.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting around Duekoue and Oxfam reports more than 120,000 people from the area have crossed the nearby border with Liberia in the last week-and-a-half.
MORE
A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.
Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict − those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.
Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.
Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.
More than 5000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus sheltering in the Roman Catholic church at Nyarubuye were massacred by Hutu militiamen on April 12, 1994. Nyarube became the supreme symbol of the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people were murdered in just a hundred days.
The Duekoue massacre seemed to have stiffened the resistance, at least temporarily, of Gbagbo. His 10-year grip on power in Ivory Coast looked as though it was in its final hours on Friday after Outtara’s New Forces (NF) northern army encircled both his residence and the presidential palace, battling to unseat the man who has refused to recognise his defeat in last year’s election.
But yesterday forces loyal to Gbagbo – a southern Roman Catholic who has vowed not to step down in spite of being narrowly defeated by Outtara in a presidential election last November – put up stiff resistance to the New Forces and re-established control of the headquarters of the state TV station, RTI. It went off the air for 24 hours after it fell to Outtara’s soldiers, but by yesterday was again broadcasting pro-Gbagbo propaganda, calling on people to “resist the enemy”.
With control of RTI back in the hands of Gbagbo and updated reports being received intermittently from Duekoue, human rights organisations raised fears of widespread killings in a situation described in a United Nations document obtained by Reuters as “one of generalised chaos”.
Corinne Dufka, senior Africa researcher of Human Rights Watch, said: “We’re extremely concerned about the potential for mass atrocities.” She added: “Given Gbagbo’s prominent use of violent militia groups and the state-controlled media’s incitement to violence, we are asking UN peacekeepers to do everything in their power to protect non-combatants.”
However, the early evidence reported by Italian media from Duekoue suggests the Saint Teresa mission massacre was carried out by Outtara’s NF forces. “The incident is particularly shocking by its size and its brutality,” said Dominique Liengme, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ivory Coast.
“Red Cross representatives themselves have seen a huge number of bodies [at the mission station],” said ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva. “There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information. Everything indicates that this was inter-ethnic violence.”
Duekoue was one of the many centres overwhelmed by the NF as its soldiers, wearing “magic” amulets, neckbands and masks, swept through the country last week in a well-organized assault, bringing more than 80% of Ivory Coast under fragile control.
For days the national army, under Gbagbo’s control, put up almost no resistance and its head, General Phillippe Mangou, fled to the home of the South African ambassador with his wife and five children. However, after several days of easy progress, the NF is now facing Gbagbo’s most reliable fighters, the roughly 2500-strong elite Republican Guard, clustered in Abidjan along with remaining regular army troops.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting around Duekoue and Oxfam reports more than 120,000 people from the area have crossed the nearby border with Liberia in the last week-and-a-half.
MORE
Nigerian Muslims kill Christians
DAILYTRUST
Youths in Iraqi area of Sokoto metropolis yesterday sparked a violent protest over an alleged defilement on the Holy Qur'an.
The incident, according to eyewitnesses, came when a boy (name withheld) was discovered to have urinated on a copy of the holy around book the area. Some youth who saw the unholy act were said to have descended on the boy and severely beat him up before he was rescued by security men attached to the Sultan of Sokoto's palace and later taken to the police for protective custody.
However, the youths was said to be still unsatisfied by the boy's rescue and later staged a violent protest against the palace guards who had saved him....
Attackers stormed three villages in Bauchi State ahead of elections, killing at least two people and setting a number of houses ablaze, police said yesterday....
A group of attackers stormed three predominately Christian farming villages in the Bogoro area, state police spokesman Mohammed Barau said.
Youths in Iraqi area of Sokoto metropolis yesterday sparked a violent protest over an alleged defilement on the Holy Qur'an.
The incident, according to eyewitnesses, came when a boy (name withheld) was discovered to have urinated on a copy of the holy around book the area. Some youth who saw the unholy act were said to have descended on the boy and severely beat him up before he was rescued by security men attached to the Sultan of Sokoto's palace and later taken to the police for protective custody.
However, the youths was said to be still unsatisfied by the boy's rescue and later staged a violent protest against the palace guards who had saved him....
Attackers stormed three villages in Bauchi State ahead of elections, killing at least two people and setting a number of houses ablaze, police said yesterday....
A group of attackers stormed three predominately Christian farming villages in the Bogoro area, state police spokesman Mohammed Barau said.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Slavery in Islam
Slavery, making one human the property of another, was widely practiced in the past by many societies. Regrettably, even in the 21st Century, the horrid practice continues in certain areas, most notably among Muslims.
Islam’s genesis was the Arabian peninsula of the seventh century AD, known for its primitive beliefs and savage practices. So, it is of no surprise that Islam incorporated slavery and much of the ethos of the culture of its birthplace.
Is discussing slavery beating a dead horse? Regrettably, it is not. The Anti-Slavery Society has documented numerous contemporary instances, most of them from Islamic countries. The repugnant practice of slavery presents a real threat to human dignity as Islamic fundamentalism is surging. The Islamic law—the Shariah—is based on the provisions of the Quran.
And the Quran explicitly and implicitly condones slavery in dozens of suras (chapters). Muhammad himself took numerous slaves, mostly women, as spoils of war. Some of the women Muhammad took for himself he called concubines, hardly a consolation to the helpless enslaved women.
Documents show that in the heyday of slavery, Muslims took just as many slaves from East Africa as did the Christians from West Africa.
Slavery is a matter of degrees. On one extreme is the absolute right of the owner to do whatever he wishes to the slave. This form of slavery is no longer prevalent. Yet disenfranchising people from any provisions of the Charter of Human Rights constitutes a form of enslavement.
Slavery seamlessly became a part of Islam, since it was widely practiced by the Arabs. Slavery is repeatedly approved in the Quran. The Old Testament also sanctioned slavery. Yet, Jewish and Christian societies have long banned slavery while the Muslims consider every verse and word of the Quran as those of Allah that can never be revised, discarded or violated. Therefore, with the resurgence of Islam, more and more Islamic laws and ethos, including slavery of various types and degrees, are implemented. One clear validation of the practice of slavery is the sura below:
[Q 16.75] Allah sets forth a parable: (consider) a slave, the property of another, (who) has no power over anything, and one whom We have granted from ourselves a goodly sustenance so he spends from it secretly and openly; are the two alike? (All) praise is due to Allah!
Slavery, discrimination, exclusivity and many more unjust provisions are systemic to Islam without any possibility for reformation. Muslims revere the Quran as the eternal immutable words of Allah. They accept the Hadith, Muhammad’s sayings, as further elucidation of their faith and emulate the Sunna the way Muhammad, the perfect practitioner of Allah’s teachings, conducted his life.
Muslims believe that Allah himself is the author of the Quran, that he wrote each chapter himself and had the angel Gabriel deliver it to Muhammad, who was illiterate. Muhammad must have been endowed with perfect memory in order to transmit each verse of the Quran exactly as written by Allah. What Muhammad revealed bit-by-bit over twenty years, not a voluminous work by any measure, was recorded by various people on all manner of bones, parchments, and bark. At least four major versions of the Quran eventually emerged. So, Allah’s words were revealed by a perfect unerring messenger and were recorded by a number of imperfect humans in different versions. It remained for other imperfect humans, the Caliphs, to choose the one version they believed to be the literal perfect words of Allah and ordered the rest destroyed.
Based on the Quran itself, a number of Islamic precepts and practices clearly violate the provisions of human rights, institutionalize discrimination, and constrain liberty. A partial list of these violations is supplied below:
Freedom of assembly, expression, and worship is either denied or severely restricted in every Islamic country.
Women are relegated to a second class status, depriving them of many rights enjoyed by men.
Religious minorities are often harassed, their properties are confiscated, their holy places destroyed, their cemeteries leveled, and even their persons harmed without receiving justice.
"People of the book," Jews and Christians, are treated as "tolerable," since they together with Muslims are considered to be followers of the only three divine religions, while members of other religions, or no religion at all, are deemed ineligible for fair treatment under the law. Egypt, for instance, requires its citizens to obtain identity cards to be eligible for all the rights of citizenship, such as education, employment and medical care. Yet, gallingly, the same government denies these rights to those who are not members of the three divine religions or those who have no religious affiliation at all.
The Islamic Republic of Iran officially bars its largest non-Muslim minority, the Baha’is, from many rights of citizenship, including access to higher education solely for the "sin" of practicing a different faith.
Censorship of all sort are systemic to Islam. It is its way of mind control: an atrocious practice of keeping the mind in bondage. The press is required to parrot the approved line, and the violators are shut down and their staff imprisoned; Internet access to undesirable sites is routinely blocked; and, book publications pre-screened, and much much more.
Women, by the very nature of their second class status expressly stipulated in the Quran, are occasionally allowed a token high position in government, while non-Muslim minority citizens are virtually barred from securing any positions at all.
To better understand Islam, a brief reference to its birth may be helpful. The founder of Islam, Muhammad, worked for and married a wealthy woman many years his senior named Khadija. One day, alone in a secluded place, Muhammad had a revelation and reported the experience to Khadija. Khadija assured him that he had been chosen by Allah as his messenger. From that point on, Muhammad proceeded to reveal the Quran and the carved-in-granite Islam and its dogma was born.
Presently, with each passing day Islam is making inroads into both the traditionally Muslim lands as well as much of the non-Muslim world where Islam is beginning to run deep roots and vie with the laws and cultures of its hosts. Muslims are taking advantage of the freedom that democracies grant. They use the same provisions of the law that are intended to protect and enhance liberty to subvert democracy and freedom.
Islam is indeed a dangerous comprehensive form of slavery. Its very name, Islam, means submission or surrender. True to its name, Islam strives for nothing short of enslavement of the body of humanity as well as the bondage of its mind.
Complacency and appeasement on the part of free people can only serve Islam. There is no chance for co-existence with Islam. All one needs to know is to see what is happening in Islamic countries. That is exactly what is in store for the presently free people of the world if Islam is not held in check.
There is a hope that Muslims themselves may leave this Bedouin slaveholder religion. Yet, the hope is slim. Islam has a stranglehold on its slaves and will neither let them go, nor do the Muslims seem to have the insight or the will to leave it in large numbers. But hope, as slim as it is, keeps me sounding the alarm before the fire of Islam engulfs us all.
Warning to free people: Don't bank on the politicians, the master practitioners of the art of the politically correct, to protect liberty. Politicians must be urged by the citizens to safeguard liberty, scrutinized closely that they do the work, and be held accountable if they fail to do so. You, a citizen, also have a job to do. Take a few minutes a day and do what you can to protect freedom. "Freedom is not free," may be a cliché. Yet, it is the most profound four-word sentence in the lexicon of the free.
Islam’s genesis was the Arabian peninsula of the seventh century AD, known for its primitive beliefs and savage practices. So, it is of no surprise that Islam incorporated slavery and much of the ethos of the culture of its birthplace.
Is discussing slavery beating a dead horse? Regrettably, it is not. The Anti-Slavery Society has documented numerous contemporary instances, most of them from Islamic countries. The repugnant practice of slavery presents a real threat to human dignity as Islamic fundamentalism is surging. The Islamic law—the Shariah—is based on the provisions of the Quran.
And the Quran explicitly and implicitly condones slavery in dozens of suras (chapters). Muhammad himself took numerous slaves, mostly women, as spoils of war. Some of the women Muhammad took for himself he called concubines, hardly a consolation to the helpless enslaved women.
Documents show that in the heyday of slavery, Muslims took just as many slaves from East Africa as did the Christians from West Africa.
Slavery is a matter of degrees. On one extreme is the absolute right of the owner to do whatever he wishes to the slave. This form of slavery is no longer prevalent. Yet disenfranchising people from any provisions of the Charter of Human Rights constitutes a form of enslavement.
Slavery seamlessly became a part of Islam, since it was widely practiced by the Arabs. Slavery is repeatedly approved in the Quran. The Old Testament also sanctioned slavery. Yet, Jewish and Christian societies have long banned slavery while the Muslims consider every verse and word of the Quran as those of Allah that can never be revised, discarded or violated. Therefore, with the resurgence of Islam, more and more Islamic laws and ethos, including slavery of various types and degrees, are implemented. One clear validation of the practice of slavery is the sura below:
[Q 16.75] Allah sets forth a parable: (consider) a slave, the property of another, (who) has no power over anything, and one whom We have granted from ourselves a goodly sustenance so he spends from it secretly and openly; are the two alike? (All) praise is due to Allah!
Slavery, discrimination, exclusivity and many more unjust provisions are systemic to Islam without any possibility for reformation. Muslims revere the Quran as the eternal immutable words of Allah. They accept the Hadith, Muhammad’s sayings, as further elucidation of their faith and emulate the Sunna the way Muhammad, the perfect practitioner of Allah’s teachings, conducted his life.
Muslims believe that Allah himself is the author of the Quran, that he wrote each chapter himself and had the angel Gabriel deliver it to Muhammad, who was illiterate. Muhammad must have been endowed with perfect memory in order to transmit each verse of the Quran exactly as written by Allah. What Muhammad revealed bit-by-bit over twenty years, not a voluminous work by any measure, was recorded by various people on all manner of bones, parchments, and bark. At least four major versions of the Quran eventually emerged. So, Allah’s words were revealed by a perfect unerring messenger and were recorded by a number of imperfect humans in different versions. It remained for other imperfect humans, the Caliphs, to choose the one version they believed to be the literal perfect words of Allah and ordered the rest destroyed.
Based on the Quran itself, a number of Islamic precepts and practices clearly violate the provisions of human rights, institutionalize discrimination, and constrain liberty. A partial list of these violations is supplied below:
Freedom of assembly, expression, and worship is either denied or severely restricted in every Islamic country.
Women are relegated to a second class status, depriving them of many rights enjoyed by men.
Religious minorities are often harassed, their properties are confiscated, their holy places destroyed, their cemeteries leveled, and even their persons harmed without receiving justice.
"People of the book," Jews and Christians, are treated as "tolerable," since they together with Muslims are considered to be followers of the only three divine religions, while members of other religions, or no religion at all, are deemed ineligible for fair treatment under the law. Egypt, for instance, requires its citizens to obtain identity cards to be eligible for all the rights of citizenship, such as education, employment and medical care. Yet, gallingly, the same government denies these rights to those who are not members of the three divine religions or those who have no religious affiliation at all.
The Islamic Republic of Iran officially bars its largest non-Muslim minority, the Baha’is, from many rights of citizenship, including access to higher education solely for the "sin" of practicing a different faith.
Censorship of all sort are systemic to Islam. It is its way of mind control: an atrocious practice of keeping the mind in bondage. The press is required to parrot the approved line, and the violators are shut down and their staff imprisoned; Internet access to undesirable sites is routinely blocked; and, book publications pre-screened, and much much more.
Women, by the very nature of their second class status expressly stipulated in the Quran, are occasionally allowed a token high position in government, while non-Muslim minority citizens are virtually barred from securing any positions at all.
To better understand Islam, a brief reference to its birth may be helpful. The founder of Islam, Muhammad, worked for and married a wealthy woman many years his senior named Khadija. One day, alone in a secluded place, Muhammad had a revelation and reported the experience to Khadija. Khadija assured him that he had been chosen by Allah as his messenger. From that point on, Muhammad proceeded to reveal the Quran and the carved-in-granite Islam and its dogma was born.
Presently, with each passing day Islam is making inroads into both the traditionally Muslim lands as well as much of the non-Muslim world where Islam is beginning to run deep roots and vie with the laws and cultures of its hosts. Muslims are taking advantage of the freedom that democracies grant. They use the same provisions of the law that are intended to protect and enhance liberty to subvert democracy and freedom.
Islam is indeed a dangerous comprehensive form of slavery. Its very name, Islam, means submission or surrender. True to its name, Islam strives for nothing short of enslavement of the body of humanity as well as the bondage of its mind.
Complacency and appeasement on the part of free people can only serve Islam. There is no chance for co-existence with Islam. All one needs to know is to see what is happening in Islamic countries. That is exactly what is in store for the presently free people of the world if Islam is not held in check.
There is a hope that Muslims themselves may leave this Bedouin slaveholder religion. Yet, the hope is slim. Islam has a stranglehold on its slaves and will neither let them go, nor do the Muslims seem to have the insight or the will to leave it in large numbers. But hope, as slim as it is, keeps me sounding the alarm before the fire of Islam engulfs us all.
Warning to free people: Don't bank on the politicians, the master practitioners of the art of the politically correct, to protect liberty. Politicians must be urged by the citizens to safeguard liberty, scrutinized closely that they do the work, and be held accountable if they fail to do so. You, a citizen, also have a job to do. Take a few minutes a day and do what you can to protect freedom. "Freedom is not free," may be a cliché. Yet, it is the most profound four-word sentence in the lexicon of the free.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Weapons hidden in Nigerian mosques
Numerous weapons and mercenaries point to plans awaiting a triggering incident.
Christian leaders in Bauchi state said religious violence here sparked by a row over a billiards table on Jan. 27 bore signs that Muslim extremists were prepared for a large-scale slaughter of Christians.
Initially authorities said only 18 people were killed after sectarian violence erupted in the areas of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, where there are large Christian populations in predominantly Muslim Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. Since then, estimates have ranged wildly from 25 to 96 people killed over a three-day period starting Jan. 27, with Christian leaders asserting that Muslim extremists used the billiards table incident as a pretext for unleashing attacks with a stockpile of weapons hidden in mosques.
MORE
Christian leaders in Bauchi state said religious violence here sparked by a row over a billiards table on Jan. 27 bore signs that Muslim extremists were prepared for a large-scale slaughter of Christians.
Initially authorities said only 18 people were killed after sectarian violence erupted in the areas of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, where there are large Christian populations in predominantly Muslim Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. Since then, estimates have ranged wildly from 25 to 96 people killed over a three-day period starting Jan. 27, with Christian leaders asserting that Muslim extremists used the billiards table incident as a pretext for unleashing attacks with a stockpile of weapons hidden in mosques.
MORE
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Nigerian women protest against islamic violence
CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE
The central Nigerian city of Jos was brought to a standstill yesterday as thousands of women dressed in black marched through the streets to protest the continuing violence in Plateau State.
The women, some of whom were half-dressed in a cultural sign of deep mourning and desperation, marched to the state governor’s official residence in Jishe, where they also denounced discrimination against Christians in northern Nigeria and called for the military forces stationed in Jos, which are viewed as biased, to be replaced by the mobile police.
The group’s spokesperson Rhoda Awang said, ‘Women are killed and children are killed. Pregnant women are killed and the babies cut out of their wombs. We have local chiefs in all the 17 Local Government Councils. Where are they and what are they doing? We have former governors, where are they? Where is Yakubu Gowon (the former Nigerian President who is from Plateau State)? If the people are killed in the state who will they rule over?”
The women’s anger was further fuelled by the deaths of a woman and child during an attack on a village in Vom on the previous night, and they made clear their rejection of any federally instituted state of emergency in Plateau State. They also called on Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang to relocate Jos’s Motor Park and the Vegetable Market from the Bauchi Road and Farin Gada areas, as several non-Muslims have disappeared there.
In response, Governor Jang pleaded for restraint and understanding, adding that a gradual withdrawal of troops was already underway.
CSW has also learned that a service on Sunday 30 January at the Methodist Church in the centre of Bauchi Town in Bauchi State was disrupted when a bomb, concealed in a laptop bag, was left under a pew at the back of the church by a young man who entered the building towards the end of the service, and later fled on a waiting motorcycle.
Church ushers threw the bag out of the building and called the police who, upon opening the bag, immediately cleared the area and blocked off the street. The bomb squad arrived half an hour later and defused what turned out to be a large explosive device. “They said we should thank God it did not explode because no-one would have survived”, Reverend Timothy Aneke told CSW. “I replied that God would not have allowed it to explode”.
CSW National Director Stuart Windsor said, “We give thanks for the miraculous escape of the Methodist Congregation. When viewed in light of last year’s bombings in Jos and the continuing attacks on churches in Maiduguri, this incident becomes even more worrying, and CSW is calling for increased prayer for the Church in northern Nigeria, and increased vigilance on the part of state and federal authorities. CSW also salutes the women of Plateau State, who once again have taken the lead in protesting the perplexing failure of an army so well-versed in peacekeeping abroad to protect the most vulnerable members of its own society. While it is good to learn that this failure is being addressed officially, for the sake of vulnerable communities any change must be urgent, not gradual.”
The central Nigerian city of Jos was brought to a standstill yesterday as thousands of women dressed in black marched through the streets to protest the continuing violence in Plateau State.
The women, some of whom were half-dressed in a cultural sign of deep mourning and desperation, marched to the state governor’s official residence in Jishe, where they also denounced discrimination against Christians in northern Nigeria and called for the military forces stationed in Jos, which are viewed as biased, to be replaced by the mobile police.
The group’s spokesperson Rhoda Awang said, ‘Women are killed and children are killed. Pregnant women are killed and the babies cut out of their wombs. We have local chiefs in all the 17 Local Government Councils. Where are they and what are they doing? We have former governors, where are they? Where is Yakubu Gowon (the former Nigerian President who is from Plateau State)? If the people are killed in the state who will they rule over?”
The women’s anger was further fuelled by the deaths of a woman and child during an attack on a village in Vom on the previous night, and they made clear their rejection of any federally instituted state of emergency in Plateau State. They also called on Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang to relocate Jos’s Motor Park and the Vegetable Market from the Bauchi Road and Farin Gada areas, as several non-Muslims have disappeared there.
In response, Governor Jang pleaded for restraint and understanding, adding that a gradual withdrawal of troops was already underway.
CSW has also learned that a service on Sunday 30 January at the Methodist Church in the centre of Bauchi Town in Bauchi State was disrupted when a bomb, concealed in a laptop bag, was left under a pew at the back of the church by a young man who entered the building towards the end of the service, and later fled on a waiting motorcycle.
Church ushers threw the bag out of the building and called the police who, upon opening the bag, immediately cleared the area and blocked off the street. The bomb squad arrived half an hour later and defused what turned out to be a large explosive device. “They said we should thank God it did not explode because no-one would have survived”, Reverend Timothy Aneke told CSW. “I replied that God would not have allowed it to explode”.
CSW National Director Stuart Windsor said, “We give thanks for the miraculous escape of the Methodist Congregation. When viewed in light of last year’s bombings in Jos and the continuing attacks on churches in Maiduguri, this incident becomes even more worrying, and CSW is calling for increased prayer for the Church in northern Nigeria, and increased vigilance on the part of state and federal authorities. CSW also salutes the women of Plateau State, who once again have taken the lead in protesting the perplexing failure of an army so well-versed in peacekeeping abroad to protect the most vulnerable members of its own society. While it is good to learn that this failure is being addressed officially, for the sake of vulnerable communities any change must be urgent, not gradual.”
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Somali Islamist insurgents threaten US attack
A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America during a speech broadcast Monday.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.
Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia.
MORE
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.
Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia.
MORE
Soldiers foil fresh explosions
A FRESH attempt to bomb some parts of Jos was foiled, yesterday, after the Special Task Force which is maintaining security in Jos intercepted a group of people who were trying to plant an explosive in Nasarawa Gwom area even as the death toll in the Christmas Eve multiple bomb explosions has risen to 80
MORE
MORE
Monday, December 27, 2010
'East Africa Jihad'
GAROWE ONLINE
ISomali insurgents have called on Al Qaeda terrorist network to 'come to Somalia' and join what the insurgents called 'East Africa jihad', Radio Garowe reports.
Al Shabaab insurgent spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage "Ali Dheere," told a press conference in Mogadishu on Friday that Al Qaeda fighters should come to Somalia to "expand the East Africa jihad."
"We call on our brothers [Al Qaeda] to come to Somalia and to help us expand the East Africa jihad," Ali Dheere said, who was sitting alongside former Hizbul Islam insurgent spokesman, Sheikh Abdifatah Mohamed Ali.
Last week, Somalia's two main insurgent groups, Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, declared their unity under Al Shabaab name and declared to continue the insurgency against the UN-recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the 8,000-strong African Union force (AMISOM) that projects it in Mogadishu.
Sheikh Ali, the former Hizbul Islam spokesman and now member of Al Shabaab, told reporters that Hizbul Islam "compromised" for the sake of uniting all Islamist fighters in Somalia.
"The TFG and AMISOM have failed to expel our fighters [insurgents] from Mogadishu and our unity is to prevent that," Sheikh Ali said.
Somalia's recognized TFG administration, regional powers and the international community considers Al Shabaab a terror group linked to Al Qaeda. The group is accused of hosting hundreds of foreign fighters from countries like Yemen, Afghanistan and the West.
ISomali insurgents have called on Al Qaeda terrorist network to 'come to Somalia' and join what the insurgents called 'East Africa jihad', Radio Garowe reports.
Al Shabaab insurgent spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage "Ali Dheere," told a press conference in Mogadishu on Friday that Al Qaeda fighters should come to Somalia to "expand the East Africa jihad."
"We call on our brothers [Al Qaeda] to come to Somalia and to help us expand the East Africa jihad," Ali Dheere said, who was sitting alongside former Hizbul Islam insurgent spokesman, Sheikh Abdifatah Mohamed Ali.
Last week, Somalia's two main insurgent groups, Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, declared their unity under Al Shabaab name and declared to continue the insurgency against the UN-recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the 8,000-strong African Union force (AMISOM) that projects it in Mogadishu.
Sheikh Ali, the former Hizbul Islam spokesman and now member of Al Shabaab, told reporters that Hizbul Islam "compromised" for the sake of uniting all Islamist fighters in Somalia.
"The TFG and AMISOM have failed to expel our fighters [insurgents] from Mogadishu and our unity is to prevent that," Sheikh Ali said.
Somalia's recognized TFG administration, regional powers and the international community considers Al Shabaab a terror group linked to Al Qaeda. The group is accused of hosting hundreds of foreign fighters from countries like Yemen, Afghanistan and the West.
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