Soon after Sunday’s Maspero massacre, where the Egyptian military slaughtered Christians demonstrating over the destruction of their churches—including by running them over with armored vehicles—some Egyptian media began reporting that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, having seen enough, declared that the U.S. plans on directly intervening in Egypt. Of course, Hillary said no such [...]
An especially busy month in the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world, September also witnessed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton release the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. Ironically, aside from Iran and Sudan, none of the countries that habitually appear in this series were designated as “countries of particular concern,” defined by the [...]
Sunday, the Egyptian military opened fire on thousands of Christians protesting in Maspero, Cairo. In the words of one Christian eyewitness, armored vehicles “came at great speed and drove into the crowds, going backwards and forwards, mowing people under their wheels. The most horrible scene was when one of the vehicles ran over a Copt’s [...]
What clearer sign that Egypt is turning rabidly Islamist than the fact that hardly a few weeks go by without a church being destroyed, or without protesting Christians being attacked and slaughtered by the military? The latest chaos in Egypt—where the military opened fire on unarmed Christians and repeatedly ran armored vehicles over them, killing [...]
As one ponders the fate of Yousef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor on death row for refusing to renounce Christianity, it is well to reflect that, for all the talk that Islam is perpetually “misunderstood,” it is actually immensely predictable and consistent; not only do its patterns cross time and space, but their manifestations are often [...]
Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization. Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with ample precedents. Indeed, from its inception, most of those who [...]
Historically, non-Muslims whose lands were seized by the jihad had three choices: conversion, dhimmitude, or death. Today, however, they have a fourth option largely unavailable to their forbears: quit their lands of origin—emigrate—the latest testimony to the nature of Islam. A recent report indicates that unprecedented numbers of Copts, Egypt’s indigenous Christian population, are emigrating [...]
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Raymond Ibrahim | September 28, 2011 |
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Earlier this month in the West Bank, “settlers attempted to burn two mosques, and vandalized an IDF base as part of the latest ‘price tag’ attacks. The attacks came in response to the demolition of three buildings earlier this week in the West Bank settlement outpost Migron, 14 kilometers north of Jerusalem.” Accordingly, on September [...]
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Raymond Ibrahim | September 23, 2011 |
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In a globalized world where debate and diplomacy predominate, there is one sure way to discern the sincerity of any particular government: see how it behaves at home, where it is in power; see especially how it treats its minorities. Consider the government of Iran. Gearing up for the Durban III Conference, supposedly against racism, [...]
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Raymond Ibrahim | September 21, 2011 |
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Cases dealing with apostasy in Islam—whereby Muslims who convert to other religions are tortured and executed—are on the rise and need to be acknowledged for what they are: one of Islam’s most visible attempts to suppress the human conscience—a phenomenon that has dire implications beyond religious freedom. Consider these two recent stories. First, from Somalia: [...]
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Raymond Ibrahim | September 19, 2011 |
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Some are asking why my new monthly series, “Muslim Persecution of Christians,” wherein I collate and assess some of the atrocities committed by Muslims against Christians, does not include the persecution of other religious minority groups; others are suggesting I broaden my scope to include all minorities, for instance, homosexuals. Of course other minority groups—essentially [...]
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Raymond Ibrahim | September 13, 2011 |
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This series was developed in order to collate some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes: 1) Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians. 2) Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is [...]
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Raymond Ibrahim | September 9, 2011 |
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When reading Western reports dealing with Islam, one must learn to read between the lines. Many of these reports do state the actual facts; but without providing proper context, Western readers are often left to interpret the information according to their own understandings. One example: the ubiquitous term “sectarian strife” to describe Muslim-Christian clashes in [...]
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is endemic, on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, I begin with this article a new series called “This Month in Muslim Persecution of Christians,” wherein some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of persecution that surface each month will be collated and assessed. The purpose [...]
Few things in Islam are as liable to provoke passion and violence as the issue of conversion. The health hazards involved in converting out of Islam—apostatizing—are well known. But even the issue of converting to Islam is fraught with drama. Consider Egypt alone: in recent months, wild rampages, burned churches, and murdered Christians have resulted over [...]
To anyone familiar with Muslim doctrine, Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo’s actions—from refusing to deploy to Afghanistan lest he kill fellow Muslims, to plotting a terror attack to kill fellow Americans—make perfect sense and accord especially well with Islam’s dichotomous doctrine of wala wa bara, often translated as “loyalty and enmity.” Built atop numerous Koran verses and [...]
American TV network TLC recently announced that it is making a reality series following the lives of Muslims living in America. The programme—called “All American Muslim”—will follow five Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan hoping to expose the “misconceptions and conflicts” they face “outside and within” their own community. In a statement, TLC’s general manager Amy Winter [...]
In light of the Norway terrorist attack, and as expected, the hail of religious relativism has begun—the idea that, if a “Christian,” such as Breivik, commits terrorism, then it is folly to assert that certain Muslim doctrines inspire violence and terror: all becomes relative. A recent AP report titled “‘Christian terrorist’? Norway case strikes debate,” [...]
Muslim “child-marriage”—euphemism for pedophilia—is making headlines again, at least in Arabic media: Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, just issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.” Appearing in [...]
Earlier this month I participated in Coptic Solidarity’s Second Annual Conference in Washington D.C., titled: “Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the ‘Arab Spring’?” Panelists included Middle East specialists, prominent members of the Coptic community, and other minority leaders from the Muslim world, including Kurds, Berbers, and Sudanese animists. Held at the [...]
