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#Post#: 998--------------------------------------------------
Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Piper Date: April 9, 2015, 1:25 pm
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[font=arial]Is the World 'Looking Away'?[/font]
[font=times new roman]As Pope Francis devoted his address Monday
to a very sombre subject, the atmosphere at St. Peter's Square
changed. Slowly, but deliberately, he said, "Our brothers and
our sisters . . . are persecuted, exiled, slain, beheaded,
solely for being Christian."
"There have been more 'martyrs' for Christianity in recent years
than in the early centuries of the faith."
"I hope the international community doesn't stand mute and inert
before such unacceptable crimes, which constitute a worrisome
erosion of the most elementary human rights. I truly hope that
the international community doesn't look the other way."
His speech on Sunday referenced the attack on Garissa University
College in eastern Kenya last week, in which al-Shabab militants
killed at least 148 people, singling out non-Muslims. He
referred also to "absurd bloodshed" and "barbarous acts of
violence" in Libya, where 21 Egyptian Christians were beheaded
by the Islamic State in Feb.
David Curry is president of the nonprofit Open Doors USA,
advocating for persecuted Christians worldwide. He believes the
world, for the most part, is choosing to "look away" while
Christians are killed: "We see a continued pattern in many of
these regions of violence and persecution against Christians.
But the West and Western governments, including the U.S., when
they conflict-map these issues, they refuse to address the fact
that Christians are being targeted." He believes that people do
not wish to admit that religion is a part of the overall
conflict, and do not wish to say that Christians are directly
targeted, out of fear of fueling Islamophobia. Obama, for
example, made no mention of religion when he made a statement
concerning the attack at Garissa University. What we're really
talking about, Curry says, is "identifying the ideology of
extremists."
Open Doors reports that 2014 saw a huge increase in violence
against Christians. Researchers found that 4,344 Christians
were killed for faith-related reasons between Dec.1, 2013 and
Nov. 30, 2014. This exceeds twice the number killed during the
same period the year before.
In its World Watch report, it is said that the past year "will
go down in history for having the highest level of global
persecution of Christians in the modern era" and it is suggested
that "the worst is yet to come."
Christians are being forced to flee from places such as Mosul.
Dozens of Assyrian Christians were abducted in eastern Syria
earlier this year. Iraqi churches stand empty, because so many
have had to flee the persecutions.[/font]
~Condensed and adapted from an article in the The Washington
Post, by Sarah Kaplan
#Post#: 2488--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Kerry Date: July 9, 2015, 5:57 pm
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I see it as more than a Christian problem. Muslims are
suffering too. The refugee problem caused by the conflict in
Syria is the worst in this generation. Estimates are four
million refugees with another seven and a half displaced inside
Syria. From Al Jazeera
HTML http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/unhcr-syrian-refugees-4-million-150709033023489.html:
The number of people fleeing the civil war in Syria has now
passed four million, according to the UN refugee agency.
An overwhelming majority of the refugees have fled to
neighbouring countries, with Turkey hosting nearly two million
alone, UNHCR said in a report released on Thursday.
The conflict in Syria has led to what UNHCR described as the
world’s single largest refugee crisis in almost a quarter of a
century under the agency's mandate.
UNHCR said a surge in new refugee arrivals in Turkey had pushed
the total number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries to
over 4,013,000 people. An additional 7.6 million people are
displaced inside Syria, the report said.
The more than 1.8 million Syrians in Turkey have made the
country the biggest host of refugees in the world.
Nearly 249,726 refugees have been sheltered in Iraq, while
Jordan hosts 629,128 and Egypt and Lebanon are home to 132,375
and 1,172,753 respectively.
#Post#: 2491--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Piper Date: July 9, 2015, 7:28 pm
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[font=trebuchet ms]^ The pope was specifically addressing the
persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters, but, yes, of
course suffering is universal. Very disturbing estimates in
your post. [/font]
#Post#: 2494--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: bradley Date: July 9, 2015, 11:15 pm
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It only puts Islam in a further bad light. Not only do the
persecute christians, murdering them for their faith, but they
murder their own of the Islamic faith for not being the kind of
Islamic faith they prefer. Sounds a lot like fallen angel's
children. The set on slaying each other shortly before the
great flood. But there is always more who will join in the
hatred and killing and murder, they need not worry about losing
too many recruits for the war thats coming.
#Post#: 2496--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Piper Date: July 10, 2015, 9:02 am
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[font=trebuchet ms]Christians have murdered other Christians,
too, Catholic vs Protestant.
God is good. People are crazy. :'(
When will we stop killing each other?[/font]
#Post#: 2499--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Kerry Date: July 10, 2015, 2:38 pm
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[quote author=Piper link=topic=114.msg2496#msg2496
date=1436536920]
[font=trebuchet ms]Christians have murdered other Christians,
too, Catholic vs Protestant.
God is good. People are crazy. :'(
When will we stop killing each other?[/font]
[/quote]When we see everyone else as people first instead of
labeling them and thinking if they're in our group, they must
be good and if they aren't, they are bad? Time and again, we
see how leaders have manipulated people by the old divide and
conquer method. There are people who try to gather together,
and then there are those who enjoy scattering.
Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
If you study politics and religion, you can see the same
principle at work: Divide and conquer -- gaining power by
setting one group against another and then claiming you can
protect your group or defeat the other group.
I'm still confused why people with different beliefs feel they
can't share a church. Why do people need a new church just
because they don't agree with everything in the one they're in
already? Why do we get angry when others don't agree with us
or think they must hate us if they disagree?
Yet in persecution, Christians do sometimes find unity; but I'm
not sure the kind of unity the five Patriarchs of Antioch found
is the right kind. Yes, there are five people who all claim
to be the legitimate Patriarch of Antioch; but they finally did
agree on something. From Christianity Today
HTML http://www.christiantoday.com/article/antioch.patriarchs.tell.christians.dont.leave.you.belong.in.the.middle.east/56077.htm,<br
/>June 12, 2015:
Catholic and Orthodox church leaders are calling on Christians
in the Middle East to remain steadfast in their faith and to
stay in the land of their birth, reaffirming that Christians
have a place in the Muslim-dominated region.
The five Christian patriarchs of the Church of Antioch, one of
the five major churches that composed the Christian Church
before the East-West Schism, met in the Syrian capital of
Damascus on Monday in a show of Christian unity and
steadfastness.
They met at the headquarters of the local Greek Orthodox
archdiocese in Damascus, a break from their usual meeting in
Lebanon, to reassure all Christians of the region, the Catholic
News Agency reported.
"We do not condemn those that choose to leave, but we remind
Christians that steadfastness in faith often entails a great
deal of tribulation," they said in a joint statement after their
meeting.
"We call on everyone who claims to have an interest in our fate
to help us to remain," said the leaders, namely Gregory III
Laham (Melkite Greek Catholic), Bechara Rai (Maronite), Ignatius
III Younan (Syriac Catholic), John X Yazigi (Greek Orthodox),
and Ignatius Aphrem II (Syriac Orthodox).
They described themselves as the authentic people of the land
who are "deeply rooted in its earth that was watered by the
sweat of our fathers and grandfathers, and we confirm more than
ever that we are staying."
The apostolic nuncio to Syria also attended the meeting.
Why, why, why? Why tell Christians to stay if they can get out?
My guess is they think they may lose their leadership spots
if they left and told other people to leave. I could be wrong;
but it seems it would make more sense for Christians to leave if
they can and let everyone else kill each other if that's what
they want to do.
#Post#: 2500--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Kerry Date: July 10, 2015, 3:04 pm
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[quote author=bradley link=topic=114.msg2494#msg2494
date=1436501720]
It only puts Islam in a further bad light. Not only do the
persecute christians, murdering them for their faith, but they
murder their own of the Islamic faith for not being the kind of
Islamic faith they prefer. Sounds a lot like fallen angel's
children. The set on slaying each other shortly before the
great flood. But there is always more who will join in the
hatred and killing and murder, they need not worry about losing
too many recruits for the war thats coming.
[/quote]Is that really what Islam is about? I don't think so.
Muslims are supposed to tolerate Christians. Mohammed said so,
and most have done that for centuries. These people are not
Muslims at all. The Quran says religion should not be a matter
of compulsion.
They've crucified people for eating during the day during
Ramadan. Whoever heard of such a thing? Including two
children! I've never heard of such a thing. From the
Independent
HTML http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-crucifies-children-for-not-fasting-during-ramadan-in-syria-10338215.html:
According to the Muslim Council of Britain, the requirement for
Muslims to abstain from taking food, water of sexual relations
from sunrise to sunset during the month does not apply to
children, pregnant women, the ill, elderly or people who are
travelling.
It is not the first time children have been killed or crucified
by Isis - in February, a UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
report recorded “several cases of mass executions of boys, as
well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and
burying children alive”.
I don't know exactly how old the children were; but in the Gulf
states, the teaching is that children who haven't reached
puberty don't need to observe it.
HTML http://gulfnews.com/leisure/health/initiating-your-child-into-ramadan-fasting-1.846649<br
/> And it's certainly not the death penalty for it for anyone!
ISIS is also destroying mosques as well as churches. From
rudaw.net
HTML http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/060320151:
ISIS militants have used explosives to demolish a much-loved
19th century mosque in Mosul city, deeming it sacrilegious, a
Kurdish official has said.
“Last night ISIS militants blew up the Hamo Mosque at the city
center of Mosul. It was the shrine of some revered clerics and
local residents used to visit it every Thursdays and Friday,”
Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdistan Democratic Party official in Mosul,
told Rudaw on Friday.
In the Islamic State’s brand of radical Islam shrines such as
Hamo Mosque are believed to contradict with sharia law.
Not their kind of mosque, so blow it up -- despite what the
Quran says about not starting violence in mosques.
And in Kuwait too -- from CBS
HTML http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-claims-bombing-in-kuwait-city-mosque-targeting-shiites-during-ramadan/:
A deadly explosion ripped through a Shiite mosque in a busy
neighborhood of Kuwait's capital after Friday prayers, witnesses
said.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed
responsibility for the attack, which Kuwait's Interior Ministry
said killed at least 27 people and wounded 227.
Mohammed al-Faili, 32, told The Associated Press that his 70
year-old father was killed in what appeared to be a bombing
attack. Two of his brothers were also wounded by the explosion.
Speaking to the AP by telephone, he said he was not at the
mosque at the time of the explosion but was heading to the
morgue to identify his father's body.
They wrecked what is believed to be the tomb of Jonah. From
First Things
HTML http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2014/07/why-did-isis-destroy-the-tomb-of-jonah:
An Assyrian church stood over the tomb for centuries. After the
Muslim conquest, the church became a mosque; the structure that
ISIS destroyed last week dated to the 14th century. In addition
to the tomb, the mosque once held the supposed remains of the
whale that had swallowed Jonah, including one of its teeth. At
some point, the tooth disappeared. In 2008, the U.S. Army
presented the mosque with a replica.
Last week, ISIS closed the mosque and prevented worshipers from
entering. Then it wired the structure with explosives and
reduced it to rubble. You can see a video of the explosion here,
taken by a Mosul resident, who mutters, in Arabic, “No, no, no.
Prophet Jonah is gone. God, these scoundrels.”
If all these buildings have been around for centuries and in
Muslim hands, why weren't they destroyed long ago if that is
what sharia law dictated? Obviously, the Muslims of the past
were not the intolerant fanatics we see around today with their
new fangled ideas about things.
In Africa we saw something similar when extremists from Mali
invaded Timbuktu in 2012 and wrecked all kinds of destruction.
From the Christian Science Monitor
HTML http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2012/0702/Mali-Islamists-vow-to-destroy-every-mausoleum-in-Timbuktu:
Islamists in northern Mali have drawn both domestic and
international condemnation after they destroyed seven historic
tombs and the door to an ancient mosque in Timbuktu over the
weekend. The shrines to the saints are important to local Sufi
Muslims, but Mali’s Islamists say that such religious landmarks
constitute idolatry.
Mali has been unstable since a military coup sparked fighting in
March. Much of the country is still in grave turmoil, with
Islamist group Ansar Dine now in control of the north. In the
face of such an uncertain future, the United Nations’ cultural
agency just last week listed Timbuktu as an endangered world
heritage site.
If you ask me, they don't believe in any God at all. They seem
to hate anything and everything and want to kill and destroy
things.
#Post#: 2501--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: Piper Date: July 10, 2015, 5:10 pm
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[font=trebuchet ms]I once read about how every virtue lies in
the middle ground between two extremes. The extreme in either
direction becomes a perversion of the virtue. (For example,
courage lies between cowardice and recklessness.) We hope for
simple, God-given common sense in society, in people around us,
but the world is made hostile by the perverted extremes of
virtue. Good becomes evil, evil becomes good.[/font]
#Post#: 2503--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: bradley Date: July 11, 2015, 12:33 am
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[quote author=Piper link=topic=114.msg2496#msg2496
date=1436536920]
[font=trebuchet ms]Christians have murdered other Christians,
too, Catholic vs Protestant.
God is good. People are crazy. :'(
When will we stop killing each other?[/font]
[/quote]
Yep, and christian infighting only makes our faith look more
false to those watching. The problem in Islam is currently a
lot bigger than anything currently between the many christian
sects, times past it was bad though.
#Post#: 2504--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is the World 'Looking Away'?
By: bradley Date: July 11, 2015, 12:45 am
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Islam is being proclaimed by these people. You would call them
false Islam, but Islam like any faith is capable of change,
evolution. We shall see if the real Islam stands up to reject
the violence or lies back and accept it if in the end, it brings
more of the world into Islam and sharia law. They may not like
their methods, but may be okay with the massive change and then
hope to bring change to those left over to their way of Islam.
Who can say this will be the new Islam or not.
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