What a myopic view the Western media and its array of “experts” have concerning the so-called “Arab Spring” — a myopia that naturally metastasizes among the general public. Consider the Libyan crisis. As usual, the focus is entirely on the individual, on the tangible — the now dead Gaddafi — whom all the blame can [...]
Last week, “Saudi Arabia’s religious police arrested an Indonesian housemaid for casting a magic spell on a local family and ‘turning its life upside down.’” The maid “confessed” to using sorcery, and “commission experts took the magic items to their office and managed to dismantle and stop the spell.” Far from being absurd aberrations to [...]
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 [...]
What are the differences between the traditional Muslim and the so-called “Islamist”? As words dealing with Islam continue to morph and multiply, it is important to differentiate, for there are real, if subtle, differences. A recent Arabic talk show on Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak’s trial sheds some light. The question was whether Mubarak, in [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Among other qualities, a good presidential candidate must be knowledgeable and able to think outside the box; equally important, he must not be naïve or gullible — certainly not swallow everything the enemy says hook, line, and sinker. During the recent Republican candidate debate, Congressman Ron Paul exhibited his ignorance and gullibility when the panel [...]
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: [...]
So long as the West focuses on names and faces in the so-called “war on terror”—as opposed to focusing on ideas and motivations—so long will it possibly win battles, even as it slowly loses the war. As we approach the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, we win another battle with the recent slaying of al-Qaeda’s number [...]
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 [...]
To develop a thorough understanding of Islam, one must learn to “connect the dots.” For instance, Muslims who adhere to non problematic aspects of Islam, indirectly indicate their acceptance of problematic aspects of Islam—such as enmity for infidels, death for apostates, subjugation for women, and so on. Consider the Muslim beard. Because Muhammad wanted his [...]
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 [...]
Because the phrase “Muslim radicalization” has become increasingly popular in American discourse, it behooves us to establish once and for all what it means. Without an agreed upon definition, it may be that we are each talking about different things—or worse and more likely, nothing at all. Most dictionaries define “radicalization” and “radicalize” as “to [...]
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 [...]
