Monday, November 17, 2014

Woman interrupts Muslim service at National Cathedral: 'Jesus Christ is Lord'
Posted By Leo Hohmann On 11/14/2014 @ 8:38 pm In Faith,Front Page,U.S. | No Comments
American Muslims were invited to offer prayers to Allah inside the nation’s most iconic Christian church Friday in Washington, D.C., but the intended message of peace, harmony and tolerance isn’t so well received in Muslim countries, according to Christian leaders contacted by WND.
The Washington National Cathedral, which earned the title “America’s House of Prayer” for its hosting of presidential funerals and inauguration-related prayer services, was turned into a virtual mosque in which Muslims bowed toward Mecca and shielded their eyes from the Christian cross.
Prayer carpets were arranged diagonally, to the side of the sanctuary, so worshipers could face in the direction of Mecca without seeing crosses or other Christian symbols. Muslims are not supposed to pray in view of sacred symbols “alien to their faith,” the Voice of America reported.
The Episcopal cathedral becomes the first church in America to host a Muslim-led prayer service. And this isn’t just any church. Famous people are buried there, including President Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller and Admiral George Dewey, and it is perhaps the most recognizable Christian sanctuary in the nation with its soaring Gothic architecture and grand entrance hall.
A receptionist at the cathedral told WND Friday the event was not open to the public but it was live-streamed on the cathedral’s website. Attendance was by invitation only, and the invite list came from the South African ambassador, who helped plan the event. She said she did not know if any Christians were invited to the service or how many may have attended.
Christian woman stands up, speaks out
The cathedral has hosted Muslims at interfaith services in the past. But this is the first time the cathedral has invited Muslims to come and lead their own prayers there.
But just as the Imam was about to give the Muslim call to prayer, a Christian woman, who apparently sneaked into the service, stood up, pointed to the cross and shouted “Jesus Christ died on that cross. He is the reason we are to worship only Him. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. We have built enough of your mosques in this country. Why don’t you worship in your mosques and leave our churches alone? …America was founded on Christian principles…Leave our church alone!”
She was immediately grabbed by the arms and forcibly led out of the church by two men. The unidentified woman’s interruption of the service was captured on video by one of the attendees and posted online at PamelaGeller.com.
Planners of the event said in a news release that they hoped “people around the world will take note of this service and the welcome extended by the Cathedral so that Muslims everywhere will adopt a reciprocal welcome of Christians by Muslims.”
WND asked for and was provided a recorded video of the service (see below). But the cathedral’s video of the event did not show the Christian woman standing up, walking to the front of the church and proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then rebuking the Muslims.
Christian leaders react
The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, said in a Facebook post Thursday that the Muslim prayer service at the National Cathedral is “sad to see” because the church should only open its doors for worship of “the One True God of the Bible.”
Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, said, “Tomorrow, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. – one of the most prominent Episcopal churches in America – will host a Muslim prayer service to Allah.”
“It’s sad to see a church open its doors to the worship of anything other than the One True God of the Bible who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from our sins,” said Graham. “Jesus was clear when He said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ (John 14:6).”
The cathedral’s press release said the goal was to encourage greater acceptance between Christians and Muslims, calling the Islamic Jumma prayers a “powerful symbolic gesture.”
“Leaders believe offering Muslim prayers at the Christian cathedral shows more than hospitality,” representatives for the National Cathedral said about the event. “It demonstrates an appreciation of one another’s prayer traditions and is a powerful symbolic gesture toward a deeper relationship between the two Abrahamic traditions.”
The event was planned by the Rev. Gina Campbell, the cathedral’s director of liturgy, and South African Ambassador to the United States Ebrahim Rasool, who is a Muslim.
Campbell spoke at the service and said a prayer “in the name of God” but did not mention Jesus Christ. She told her Muslim guests that “we approach the same God.”
Watch video of Friday’s entire Muslim prayer service below:
A statement by Rasool called the service “a dramatic moment in the world and in Muslim-Christian relations.”
“This needs to be a world in which all are free to believe and practice and in which we avoid bigotry, Islamaphobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Christianity and to embrace our humanity and to embrace faith,” Rasool added.
But Christian convert and former Muslim Dr. Mark Christian said the gesture will never be reciprocated by Muslims. They would never allow Christians into a mosque sanctuary to hold a Christian-led prayer service.
“No, not ever. They can let Christians and Jews only in the U.S. and West sometimes into their mosques, because they have an agenda, but they will let them in the basement or another room, not in the main sanctuary and certainly not to say a Christian prayer. That would make it unclean. That would defile their sanctuary in their eyes,” said Christain, who lives under a fatwa placed on his life by Muslims in his native Egypt.
The Washington Post quoted a local Muslim spokesperson who said: “We want the world to see the Christian community is partnering with us and is supporting our religious freedom in the same way we are calling for religious freedom for all minorities in Muslim countries. Let this be a lesson to the world.”
Sponsors of the event included the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and the Islamic Society of North America, also called ISNA.
CAIR and ISNA are known front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood. The groups in question have been named as unindicted co-conspirators in the largest terrorism funding trial in U.S history. ISNA and CAIR were directly involved in laundering money through fake charities to fund Hamas operations as documented in court records related to the 2009 Holy Land Foundation trial.
This is not the first time the National Cathedral has delved head first into controversial territory. In June, it celebrated “Gay Pride Month” by allowing a transgender priest to preach a sermon from its pulpit.
Making ‘tolerance a god’
Joel Richardson, a Christian filmmaker and author of “The Islamic Antichrist,” said the hypocrisy of the Muslim world is “beyond words” when it comes to interfaith programs like the one held Friday at the National Cathedral. The Christians who host such events have made “tolerance” a god, he said.
“We as a Christian nation are called to love Muslims in our midst but that does not mean we allow ourselves to be subjugated in their presence,” he said.
Not only would such a prayer service by Christians not be allowed in a mosque in Islam’s home country, Saudi Arabia, he said, but Christians would not even be allowed to build a church there.
“Why don’t they allow churches in Saudi Arabia? Because that’s a sign of subjugation,” Richardson said.
The message being sent from Washington to Muslim countries around the world is not one of tolerance but one of subjugation, Richardson said.
“To them, they are sending a sign that they have defeated us, that they’re conquering us. There’s conquest and occupation,” he said.
To find an example of how tolerant Muslims are of Christians and Jews in their “holy places,” one should look at Istanbul, Turkey, and Jerusalem, Israel, Richardson said.
In Istanbul, one of the oldest, most famous Christian churches, the Hagia Sophia cathedral, has recently been turned into a museum by the Turkish Islamic government and is in the process of transitioning into a mosque.
Richardson visited there last year and said Christians were not allowed to pray overtly Christian prayers in the former church. The same is true on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, which Arabs call al-Aqsa and guard closely for any sign of Jews or Christians uttering prayers.
“The Temple Mount was Jewish, but Muslims conquered it so the idea of them allowing Christian prayers was out of the question,” Richardson said. “They view it as their conquest of us, and to them once something has been conquered it’s considered Islamic from there on forward, and they’re allowed to wage jihad to maintain it. The hypocrisy of the Islamic world is beyond words on these matters.”
Islam as the ‘perfect’ conquering religion
Mark Christian, whose father and uncle are Muslim Brotherhood members and whose great-uncle was one of its co-founders in Egypt during the 1960s, also cited a “conquering mentality” that is dominant among Muslim Brotherhood organizations.
He said Islam has a “supremacy problem” based upon the idea that Islam has perfected the religions practiced by Jews and Christians.
“In Islamic tradition, supremacy is demonstrated to all by practicing Islam where Christianity or Judaism once reigned,” he said. “This is what animates the building of mosques on the holy sites of other religions. It is a conqueror’s philosophy.”
The decision to allow a Muslim imam to conduct an Islamic service from the altar of the National Cathedral in Washington is to Muslims the functional equivalent of Islam standing supreme atop Christianity in America “in our own house,” said Christian, who founded the Global Faith Institute in Nebraska and has been confronting an interfaith project in that city.
Dr. Mark Christian grew up in a prominent Muslim family in Egypt and converted to Christianity as an adult. He has been disowned by his family.
While America’s interfaith community may be well-intentioned, they are more often than not used by radical Islamists as a method of appearing “mainstream,” he said. The Islamists gain legitimacy while the Christians are left holding a watered down gospel message.
According to Pew Research Center, Muslims make up just under 1 percent of the U.S. population.
“CAIR and ISNA are known fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood. Is there really any doubt as to how they will present the National Cathedral event to their followers?” Christian asks. “Perhaps as a reciprocal gesture, the rector of the National Cathedral can offer communion at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem? I won’t hold my breath.”
Todd Nettleton, director of media and public relations for Voice of the Martyrs, an organization that advocates for persecuted Christians around the world, many of them in Islamic countries, said the event sends a chilling message that was perhaps not intended by its Episcopal organizers.
“I can’t think of a country where Muslims would willingly and openly allow a Christian prayer service to take place inside of a mosque,” he told WND. “We have on occasion seen some pretty amazing things. I recall some of my co-workers in Sudan wanted to show ‘The Jesus Film,’ and the best screen available was the side of a mosque so it was used for that purpose, but not a prayer service or evangelistic service inside of a mosque – that would likely never happen.
“And this is the National Cathedral here, a national symbol of Christianity, so you would not see something at a prominent level like a grand mosque in Cairo opening up to a Christian prayer service. That would never happen.”
Sending the wrong message
The message received by Muslims around the world will be clear, Nettleton said.
“I think of the pictures that will be seen across the world of Muslims praying and holding an Islamic prayer services in the National Cathedra. People will think, ‘Wow, more people must be becoming Muslims in America,’ and, ‘They’re taking over Christian churches now in America.’ Frankly, I wish more churches would allow Muslims in to hear the gospel message because that is what they need to hear. It’s disappointing to see this. It seems like a compromise that doesn’t necessarily send the right message.”
Richardson said tolerance is a Christian virtue that can be counterproductive when taken to extremes.
“Although tolerance is a good principle that’s built into who we are, that tolerance has become the national idol of our time and our country to the point where issues such as freedom, liberty and really just rational thought have been subordinated on that great altar of tolerance,” he said. “We’ve literally become suicidal as a nation. When we welcome in those that are foundationally opposed to who we are as a nation and our Constitution, that’s called suicide. When someone says ‘I’ll eat anything’ and someone hands them a gallon of antifreeze, that’s suicide. We reach out in tolerance, but we actually welcome in that which is hyper intolerant.”

Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com
URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2014/11/christians-muslims-conquering-washington-national-cathedral/

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Dr. Mark Christian

Dr. Mark Christian was born and raised in an upscale Cairo suburb known as “Heliopolis.” His father was a Lieutenant General in the Egyptian military and the personal family physician of then-President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. From a very young age Mark was the constant companion of his father, growing up to become his closest confidante as well.
Following in his footsteps, Mark too became a physician – an Obstetrician and Gynecologist – but his emulation of his father didn’t end there. Dr. Christian’s father was a very well-known religious leader and Imam, and Mark longed to travel that path. Mark was teaching in the Masjid by the age of thirteen.
Dr. Christian was a very devout Muslim. He learned Islamic theology and tradition at an unusually young age, devoting himself to memorizing and learning the Quran, ultimately serving at mosques in the role of an Imam.
However, after years of extensive theological and historical study, Dr. Christian began to question some of the fundamental tenets of Islam. He began to search for the underlying truth of the Islamic religion, the foundation upon which his life, and the lives of millions of others had been built, and all too often, also lost.
This search, this inner struggle to find solid ground beneath his spiritual feet was vehemently opposed by… well, everyone around him.
His original quest was to solidify the foundation of his faith, to discover the immutable truths that would inexorably lead him to forever follow Allah and his Prophet. Instead, where spiritual bedrock should’ve been, Dr. Christian found only sand.
He searched through history to find others like himself – those who had questioned their Islamic faith, and discovered the answers that laid their questions to rest.
He found no one. Anyone who had sought confirmation, anyone who questioned the “why” of Islam found the razors edge of a sword as their answer.
Mark had discovered the truth behind the Islamic myth, and walked away from Islam.
Later, after nearly 10 years of “spiritual wandering,” he would come to discover Jesus Christ and commit his life to Him. Still in Egypt, he struggled to worship secretly for a long time, always fearing the knock on the door, wondering when he would be found out and beheaded as an apostate.
Mark had diverted destiny and ditched Islam for good, undergoing a conversion which would ignite a murderous hatred from his own father and family. He lives under that threat even today.
Mark came to America in 2005, and soon discovered the shocking extent of Islamic infiltration in his adopted country. To Mark, a man steeped in both religious and political Islam, a man who grew up amidst the planning and scheming of the Muslim Brotherhood, the recognition of their agenda at work in the United States was almost immediate. Mark had grown up watching his father and uncle as they, with their Brotherhood associates, had planned it all some three decades earlier.
Recognizing the urgency of this grim threat and informed by his unique upbringing, he responded with the formation of the Global Faith Institute as a way to protect his cherished American freedoms from the sickness he thought he had left behind in Egypt.
Dr. Christian’s great-uncle is one of the founders of the original Muslim Brotherhood, and Mark’s father, (who became a member in his teens) remains a highly-respected advisor for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to this day.
In 1965 the Egyptian government imprisoned a great many members of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of whom was Mark’s uncle, who shared his cell with Sayyid Qutb, the infamous ideological “godfather” of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Over the years, Mark’s father and uncle moved up in the organization, and through this high-level access Mark was afforded unparalleled exposure to the ideology and objectives of radical Islam, the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the stringent creed of Sharia law.
Though Dr. Christian was never a member himself, his daily interactions with the Muslim Brotherhood through his father and uncle gave him a direct view of their machinations and motivations.
Most instructively, his exposure was centered around their “re-grouping” period, beginning in the 1970’s. It was during this time that the Brotherhood made and launched their plans for their infiltration of the West.
Before Dr. Christian’s conversion to Christianity, he served as a military physician for several years at El-Maadi Military Medical Center in Cairo, a prestigious hospital providing exceptional medical care to VIP’s and other high-ranking military and government officials.
El-Maadi is to Egypt what Bethesda Naval Hospital, or Walter Reed Medical Center is to America. Former patients include former Egyptian leaders Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak.
It was during his tenure at El-Maadi that Dr. Christian met and came to know Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the current President of Egypt.

BILL MAHER CRACKS MEDIA-NARRATIVE FOUNDATION

Bill Maher, comedian and talk-show provocateur, is no friend of Christianity or Judaism. In fact, Maher considers all religion to be “a bureaucracy between man and God that I don’t need.”
Maher is essentially an atheist, although not a particularly militant one. He describes himself as an “apatheist,” which means an atheist who just really doesn’t care about the whole thing.
So, given these facts, Maher’s recent statements on Islam are not nearly as surprising as the charges of hypocrisy Maher has leveled against his fellow leftists for their apologetics on behalf of throat-slitters.
It truly speaks to the state of Western society when an atheist, anti-religion talk-show host is the most forceful proponent of the truth about Islam among the major elite media.
Maher’s simple declaration that Islam “is the only religion that kills you if you disagree with them,” has caused liberal heads to swell and explode like the final scenes of the movie “Mars Attacks!”
[Note: Video contains inappropriate language.]
Amidst shrieking denunciations of his comments, Maher has remained consistent in saying that, “You know, it’s like if dad is a violent drunk and beats his kids. You don’t blame the kid because he set dad off. You blame dad because he’s a violent drunk.”
Of course, this sort of necessary and overdue criticism of Islamic culture has no place in the present media narrative that insists we have more to fear from tea party folks than from ISIS.
Indeed, actor Ben Affleck (a recent guest on Maher’s show) almost immediately went to the equivalence argument – which erroneously claims that all religions have violence and extremists in them – when Maher broached the subject of Islam’s problem with playing well with others.
Operating some sort of perverse casualty-vs-casualty calculator, Affleck summed up his entire argument by stating irrelevantly, “We’ve killed more Muslims than they’ve killed us by an awful lot.” Aside from a crime of grammar, Affleck’s statement reveals the flaw in leftist thinking vis-à-vis the United States and well … everyone else.
According to the Afflecks of the world, the U.S. is just getting what we deserve, and apparently, until ISIS catches up to us in terms of numeric lethality, we should just quit bitching and take our decapitations with a smile.
Affleck went on to trot out the tired canard of Islamists being only a sliver of Islam itself, not at all representative of mainstream Islamic thinking. Maher set his trap.
MAHER: But you’re saying the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the Islamic religion is just a few bad apples?
AFFLECK: The people who would actually believe in that you murder someone if they leave Islam is not the majority of Muslims at all. …
Maher sprung his trap, citing the Pew Research Center poll that shows nearly 90 percent of Egyptians, by no means a frothing hotbed of ISIS members, support death for those who leave Islam.
Affleck (by now reduced to a palsied, spittle-flecked screamer) tried to accuse Maher of racist generalizations, not unlike declaring all young black men to be gang members.
Maher was having none of it and called out Affleck for his hypocrisy, stating “If 90 percent of Brazilians thought that death was the appropriate response to leaving Catholicism, you would think it was a bigger deal.”
The boom fell on Ben Affleck. His world of neatly ordered biases fell apart before the viewer’s eyes. Fellow leftist, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, tried to bolster his fellow traveler’s failing sanity by insinuating that Maher was in fact a closet racist, but even Kristof failed to speak with any real conviction.
They were beaten, and they knew it. They had a credit card from the Bank of Racist, Sexist and Islamophobe that had no limit but wasn’t accepted at “Chez Maher.” They went home hungry and embarrassed.
For those of us who have been fighting the battle over Islamic reform for many years, it was encouraging to see a media figure from the left finally recognize the fallacy that is the moral equivalence argument.
There is a distinct difference between the violence described in the Bible and the violence prescribed in the Quran. One talks about what has happened while the other declares what must happen, if one wishes to be faithful to Allah.
While Maher’s stand is a good thing for the side of intellectual honesty in our media culture, it is important to remember that this is only a hairline crack in the massive media monolith. But like a crack in a house’s foundation, the freeze-thaw cycle can, over time, bring the whole thing down.
So I lift my cup for a toast. Here’s to a little more water seepage, and a really cold winter. Keep it up, Bill Maher.

Mark Christian was born and raised a devout Sunni Muslim, with strong ties to the Egyptian military and The Muslim Brotherhood, but later ditched Islam and followed Jesus Christ. He is the founder of theGlobal Faith Institute.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Dr. Mark Christian....His Journey and the current battle against the Muslim-Brotherhood


The Glazov Gang-Dr Mark christian Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood



An Islamic ‘Council of Nicea’

An Islamic ‘Council of Nicea’
Posted By Joe Herring and Dr. Mark Christian On October 14, 2014 @ 12:25 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 
Christianity and Judaism have a great deal in common, not the least of which is compassion for their fellow man and the institutional capacity to take the steps required to express that compassion in daily life.
It is this reverence for the individual that led both traditions to reform themselves over the centuries, eliminating anachronistic practices while maintaining fidelity to their faith. It is an ongoing process, obviously, but it is a process to which both religions are fully committed – and have been for more than a thousand years.
Islam in this regard is an outlier. In the 1400-odd years of Islam, there has never been a “reformation.” The religion forbids it. It is no accident that the oft-touted contributions of Islam to the world mostly came before Islam demanded dominance in all things.
After the Mongol sacking of Baghdad, Islam reacted by retrenching inwardly. Science was no longer science, it was only Islamic science. Economics became Islamic economics, as rules proliferated for everything in order to demonstrate adherence to the faith and resistance to the infidel.
Truthfully, Islam was better off in practice in the 10th Century than it is today. It is clear that Islam, like cigarettes, stunts your growth.
Now, adherence to tradition is not a bad thing on its own. In fact, tradition is the repository of the world’s “institutional knowledge,” enabling successive generations to build on the work of their predecessors.
Sometimes, though, new information is discovered and it becomes necessary to revisit those traditions to re-evaluate their utility for present and future generations. The idea of self-government is one such example.
Tradition held that some people had the right to rule other people, and this tradition was accepted and enforced for millennia until the radical experiment of individual sovereignty, which found its greatest expression in our own United States.
So it is with religious tradition as well. Christianity is built upon Judaism — indeed it wouldn’t exist without it — but it isn’t opposed to Judaism for those who wish to practice it. Many centuries ago, the enmity between Jews and Christians began fading with the passing of each successive generation until today it exists only as an aberration to be ridiculed and denounced whenever it appears.
This illustrates the internal narrative of the Western psyche. Our minds operate in a manner consistent with liberty because our minds have been developed in the presence of liberty, both political and religious.
We are capable of reform, because we are always seeking the better mousetrap. We look at life as a challenge, not just to survive it, but to improve it. To leave it better than we found it.
A mind shaped by Islam generally finds such attitudes to be anathema. Islam is in continual conflict because Islam is possessed of an impossible idea – to preserve all of creation as it existed in 632 A.D., the year Mohammed died.
Given the changes that have wracked the earth since that date, is it any wonder Islam is “out of sorts”? Ask yourself, how difficult would it be to conduct your daily business if you had to reconcile your actions with the cultural norms of the early Middle-Ages?
In Christianity, the Church has held ecumenical councils, realigning Church doctrine with new information and greater understanding of both the natural world and the people who inhabit it. These councils also addressed heresies that had sprung up in the Church, definitively establishing what is canonical and what is apocryphal.
In Catholicism, the Council known as Vatican II was the most recent “re-founding” of the Church. Pope Paul VI described the need for the Council in this way –
“…the problems of the 1960s stemmed from the Church holding to the best values which had come to maturity over the previous two centuries, despite the fact that these values were born outside the Church, yet they could find their place – after being purified and corrected – in the Church’s view on the world.”
The Pope was referring to the Enlightenment philosophies of science and reason. In the previous two centuries, Man had slowly crawled out from the cave of mysticism to stand blinking in the sunlight of a world he previously had only seen through the stained-glass windows of the Church.
Reason would emerge as a complement to Scripture – and vice-versa – while the understanding of oneself and one’s role in the world evolved into an individual pursuit, rather than a purely collective one directed by religious tradition.
Faith made peace with reason and a careful balance was struck between secularism and religion, between the sovereignty of God over all, and the sovereignty of Man over himself. A difficult balance to be sure, but one that is essential to the survival of both Church and individual liberty.
There is no such mechanism for a similar introspection in Islam, and the resultant calcification of the religion has rendered it incapable of peaceful coexistence in the modern world.
Pope John XXII called this process of re-evaluation aggiornamento – the adjustment of religion according to the facts of the world in which it lives. This is not to be confused with secularizing the Gospel or the elevation of humanism above God as many opponents of Vatican II charged, but rather represented recognition that immutable truths can arrive from sources beyond the Church, and that God doesn’t restrict the delivery of His wisdom only to men in robes and sashes.
Throughout, Islam has held a fierce resistance to all things non-Islamic. Around the time of the Western Enlightenment, Muslims’ brutal practices had rendered them largely unwelcome anywhere in Europe (certainly not in any significant numbers), and their incessant raiding necessitated their subjugation by the more developed and cosmopolitan powers of the earth.
Islam now appears to have reached a point in history where it has been behind for so long adherents can’t bring themselves to admit it. Sort of like the guy who trips over his own feet, then tries to pass it off by saying, “I meant to do that.”
Islam needs a Vatican II. Actually, Islam needs a Council of Nicea (the 4th Century meeting in what is now modern-day Turkey) that codified Christian doctrine. Islam has never convened anything like a Council of Nicea. Indeed, Muslims have never really admitted to having a problem, which we all know is the first step in finding a solution.
Whether the Islamists themselves or their mewling apologists among the liberal intelligentsia care to admit it, Islam must reform, or be subjugated yet again.
Instead of apologizing for Islam, it is time for our leaders to demand of Islam that which we ourselves have already done – aggiornamento – the adjustment of our religion according to the facts of the world in which it lives.
Dr. Mark Christian MD was born and raised a devout Sunni Muslim, with strong ties to the Egyptian military and The Muslim Brotherhood, but later ditched Islam and followed Jesus Christ. He is the Co-founder of the Global Faith Institute.
Joe Herring is a writer and analyst who frequently advises policy makers at all levels of government.  He is the Press/Public Relations Director for Global Faith Institute and the host of Abraham’s Tent radio show.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Advice to Republican Voters; RINOs are not the problem, We Are.



By Nonie Darwish
 
Time for Republican voters to stop whining over the so-called RINO (Republicans In Name Only) in congress when in fact it is we, Republican voters, who have failed our congressional leadership over and over again. How can we expect the republican leadership to stand up strong to the liberal agenda, media abuse, and entrapment, when we the voters, who should be their back bone, do not show up to vote in decisive election years. 

Some republican voters and activists seem unable to not get off their high horses, when in the 2012 election, they refused to elect one of the most decent and competent Americans running for president, Mit Romney. Their stubborn reasoning was “I would not vote for a Mormon”, or “he is not conservative enough.” Thus Barak Obama and Harry Reid, were both re-elected.

Some republican voters would rather shoot themselves in the foot than realize that politics is a game of compromise and strategy. Even after the great disappointment with the re-election of Obama, many continue to complain about the party leadership and how Boener, McConnel and Graham, are not pushing a more conservative agenda. Few realize and verbalize the fact that when we failed to elect Romney and kept the senate in the hands of democrats, we have sucked the power out of republican leadership. 

Not only are they not getting the support they need to push the conservative agenda, but also they must survive the cut throat environment in Washington D.C. where, as is often said, a ham sandwich can be indicted.

The brazen violations by the IRS and Department of Justice against conservatives and tea party activists does not go unnoticed by politicians who could be dragged through the mud by the democratic party machinery and the one sided media. Just ask Sarah Palin, Michelle Backman, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, etc.

And now many republicans, including those who were reluctant to vote for Romney, are singing the same tune before the coming elections: “we are fed up with the republican party” or “I will change to independent.” Such people are harming the conservative cause that they claim they love, more than any liberal action. Such republicans have a misguided, punitive attitude and instead of voting wisely, they would rather throw the baby with the bath water. They spread defeatist propaganda among other less informed republicans, which could cause a split in republican ranks that could bring us a repeat of the Ross Perot fiasco that contributed to the election of Bill Clinton. But this time, it could be Hillary.

Republican and independent voters must wise up this time and understand what is at stake with the rise of Islamic State while America is under the most incompetent and paralyzed presidency in its history. If we shoot ourselves in the foot again, we have no one to blame but ourselves and we might not be able to stand up on our feet once again.

Democrats are good at closing ranks and keeping their representatives in power, even those who are embarrassingly incompetent, such as Nancy Palosi, Harry Reid etc.

No democrat in power today can hold a candle to the many great republicans we have in office today; governor Scott Walker, Congressman Paul Ryan, Senator Marco Rubio, governor Rick Perry, Senator Rand Paul, governor John Kasich, governor Jan Brewer and former governor Jeb Bush.

The next republican president of the US will hopefully undo the damage Obama has done to this nation both internally and externally. But if Republicans don’t show up in massive numbers to vote then we should not complain if Hillary takes the mantle from Obama. In that case, it is not the RINO republicans’ fault, but the RINOs would be us.

Nonie Darwish, author “The Devil We Don’t Know”

The Notion of ‘Sin’ in Islam and Christianity

This week’s Glazov Gang was guest-hosted by Nonie Darwish and joined by Dr. Jim Tolle, the Senior Pastor at El Camino Metro Church in Los Angeles.
Pastor Tolle joined the show to discuss The Notion of “Sin” in Islam and Christianity, analyzing how the stark contrast in two religions’ values fosters peace and forgiveness in one — and violence and killing in the other:


Originally posted HERE.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The Islamic Terror Orchestra


nj

By Nonie Darwish

It has been 13 years since 9/11 and the West is still reluctant to link the non-ending parade of jihad groups with Islam. The West is also in denial about the similarities all radical Islamic groups share. It is important for the West to realize that there is a natural division of labor between the different terror groups. Some groups specialize in terror against non-Muslims and Western governments while others specialize in terrorizing Arab governments that refused to follow Sharia. But the truly sophisticated groups are those who reside in the West, calling themselves ‘moderate’ while at the same time defending and controlling the direction of Islamist goals through advocacy, diplomacy, negotiation and PR.
All of the above types of Islamist groups work together in perfect harmony like an orchestra that sings to the tune of “Allahu Akbar.” And when Islamic terrorism and beheadings anger the world and turn public opinion against Islam, that orchestra starts playing a different tune to confuse and prevent the world from uncovering their coordinated handy work. While one group proudly takes credit for the terror, another publicly denounces it. But most groups, while enjoying the power and attention the terrorists have bestowed on them, stand by with a look of victimhood saying: “I am a victim too because you condemn me and my peaceful religion when I did not do anything. That is not Islam and you are an Islamophobe.”
The West was told the MB and Fatah were now the moderate and humanitarian face of Islam that could be counted on and that could run Islamic government. Islam will present itself as working with the rest of the world only for the sake of establishing the Kalifate. The West has been only too happy to welcome the new face of the old terror groups to the camp of moderation. But the new face of evil after the MB became Al-Qaeda.Not only is there division of labor amongst Islamist groups, but these groups also often change roles, tactics and appearances — after birthing other more radical terror groups to do the dirty work of terror. Because the West and some Arab governments refuse to deal with terror organizations, these organizations play a game of presenting a face of rehabilitation and moderation, while delegating the terror and assassinations to newer groups. Old guard terror groups like the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and Fatah were able to change color and they assumed a new, but only cosmetic, appearance of moderation, but not before birthing the more violent Al-Qaeda and Hamas.
When the MB won the Egyptian elections, Islamists believed the Kalifate could be achieved through elections, avoiding the usual violent jihad. But when Egyptians realized they had made a mistake by electing the MB and 35,000,000 Egyptians revolted against Islamist rule, the dreams of a Kalifate through peaceful elections were defeated. The only solution for Muslims to achieve their Kalifate is the old fashioned way of 7th century Islam: pure violence, savagery and terror; thus the rise of the newest Islamist terror group, ISIS, while the MB takes a back seat.
When Al-Qaeda’s reputation tanked after 9/11, even inside the Middle East, the terror jihadists were forced into working under a new name — same goals, but with a more ferocious appetite for terror and torture. After the defeat of the budding Islamist State through elections in Egypt in 2013, the restrained beast of public beheadings hidden in the Islamic genie bottle finally exploded for the world to see in the form of ISIS; an organization that declared itself as the true long-awaited Islamic State. Force became the only choice. Coincidentally, this follows the example of Mohammed who tried to peacefully Islamize Mecca for 13 years but failed and could only Islamize Arabia by force, terror and the sword when he became a warrior in Medina.
ISIS rushed to declare itself as the Islamic State even before finishing the job of conquering all of Iraq and Syria. It was flaunting its savagery to the world in the hope of giving the message to reluctant Arab countries that they will be next. The plan is very similar to what Mohammed and his followers did in the 7thcentury: conquer Arabia quickly by force so they could move to more important goals of taking over the outside world, now the West and Israel. By doing that they are confirming to Muslims around the world that terror works and that their prophet Mohammed was correct when he said: “I have been victorious through terror.”
Bottom line: What legitimate Islamic organizations must adhere to is obeying Islamic commandments to conquer the world for Islam, defeat and humiliate non-Muslim nations and establish the Kalifate — to be ruled by sharia. That is the plan. It is not the opinion of the writer of this article, but it is the basic objective of Islamic law books, scriptures and preaching, which explicitly define jihad as a war with non-Muslims to establish the religion of Islam. To facilitate this mission, Islamic law freed Muslims from any restrictions on their behavior; they can wage offensive wars, kill, terrorize, behead, lie, deceive, humiliate, slander, use corporal punishment on women and children, and sacrifice the well being of the family, all for the purpose of the empowerment of Islam.
But instead of properly facing the 21 Century Islamic challenge, the West has chosen denial. Obama is being criticized for resorting to golf in a time of trouble, but that is perhaps his only outlet when he feels paralyzed, because what he believed and advocated Islam to be and what it is turned out to be polar opposites.
Also, instead of facing the incompetence and many obvious weaknesses of Islamic terror groups, the West has chosen to appease an enemy that only respects power. Thus, the Obama administration decided to be more concerned with appearances and saying instead of doing the right thing. For example, Obama likes to correct Americans on the proper pronunciation of Arabic names and expressions such as Pakistan and ISIL instead of ISIS, etc. But when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was declared the West was too embarrassed to call it what it called itself, the Islamic State, and found the English abbreviation ISIS more appropriate than the Arabic name that linked the new terrorist state to Islam.

Obama insists on presenting himself as more of an expert on Islam than the founders of ISIS when he stated, “ISIL speaks for no religion.” It is not appropriate for the US government or media to define what is or what is not Islam to Muslims who are reading from their books statements that command them to kill infidels. All we should do is take them for their word.I was recently asked by visitors from Egypt, “What is ISIS?” My answer was, it is the preferred name the US administration and media use to refer to the newly declared Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Their response was, “Why? In Arabic they call themselves ‘The Islamic State?’” I told them it is a long story, but the West does not want to offend Muslims who believe that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, tyranny and hatred.
Both the US government and media have decided, long before Obama, that it would be the wise thing to do to keep US citizens uninformed about the true goals of Islam. The goal of this policy was partially to convince Islamic terror groups to leave the West alone and perhaps in the long run Islam will reform on its own one day. But unfortunately history was not on the side of this theory. Appeasement did not work for Coptic Christians in Egypt nor for Zoroastrians in Persia when in the 7th century the two ancient civilizations fell to the Arab Islamic invasion in the same year. Both Egypt and Persia tried to appease but failed to win hearts and minds of the Muslim invaders who used the most barbaric forms of terror and tyranny to Islamize and Arabize both civilizations. Both Egypt and Persia never saw their glory days again and today they are incapable of ruling themselves without the usual Sharia-enforced oppression and tyranny.
What everyone misses here is the right of the American people to know the full truth about their new enemy directly and honestly from their politicians and media. By caring about the feelings of Muslims more than American citizens’ right to the truth, and without naming Islam by name, the US government and media will usher America into a dark phase marking the beginning of tyranny and the end of liberty.


Originally posted HERE.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Why I Support ISRAEL?


By Nasir Ali

With every news of another death, Israeli or Palestinian, my very heart bleeds. I do not believe or hope in my heart of any lasting peace in Middle East, because my optimism continuously marred by false "truths" of Islamic Sharia lovers, who are openly opposed to Israel's very existence, constantly chanting, "Death to the Jews;" what if such threats were aimed at their families? The horrors of this dispute and constant war has unleashed upon the people of the region are farcical and tragic, beyond words.
In my own small way, I am trying to shed some light on the truth, not in the defense of anyone or against of anyone. So then, let me shed some light on some common misconceptions, distortions of the truth, and outright lies.
I implore Muslims to open their minds, hearts, and listen to reason for once, to gain reliable knowledge about Israel and a concise and clear understanding of this conflict instead of the gospel of catastrophe, martyrdom, death, and Jihad. This is sin even to think to kill any human being without any valid reason; rather you want to kill all Jews of this planet, why? They are also human beings, why you want to follow the barbaric Sharia Laws that openly encourage vandalism and Holocaust.
If Muslims really want ‘Peace’ then the only logical answer is to compromise on a two-state solution, but the problem can not solve because Muslims are not interested in peace, rather they want to cut down all Jews in ‘Pieces.’
This is not a really complex conflict in the world; rather I think it is the easiest conflict in the world. Because Israel recognizes the right of Palestinian that they have their own state and they live in peace and tranquility. The problem starts when not only Palestinian but the entire Muslim world does not recognize the same right of the tiny Jewish state of Israel to exist since its birth.
Israel also do not believe in imperialism because after a decade in 1978, entire Sinai Peninsula was given back to Egypt after peace agreement; a land bigger than Israel itself and with oil resources! Israel is always been willing to do the same thing with Palestinians, if Palestinians also recognize Israel as a sovereign Jewish state and promise to live in peace and harmony with it. Unfortunately, Muslims always glorify terrorism, humiliation of Jews and wants to annihilate Jews completely then of course it will turn in a complex conflict.
Very strange and inhumane, 22 Arab countries and total 56 Muslim countries, and there is only one tiny Jewish state in the world, smaller in size than El Salvador! If Israeli lay down arms, without any delay, according the beliefs and tenets of the Muslims, destruction of Israel and mass genocide of Jewish population will happen. On the contrary if Muslims and especially Arabs lay down arms against Israel, peace is guaranteed immediately.  
After the greatest atrocities of the Holocaust, Israel state was founded within the ancestral homeland of its original habitants viz the Jews; Israel was not founded on land stolen from the Palestinian people. There has never been a state in the Middle East known as Palestinian that was not Jewish state. According to the history first Kingdom: 1000 – 586 B.C, second Kingdom 538 – 63 B.C and today Israel is the third state to exist in the same land. There was never any Arab state, Muslim state and never Palestinian state. I want to ask Muslims, why can not the one Jewish state be allowed to exist in their ancestral land?
My pals, even the close ones taunt me of pro Israel and the West, that how being as a humanist and pacifist you can justify the killing of innocent people and children? I don't, I can't…. As a matter of fact, I spent 26 years of my life in Middle East and I know all Arab nationalities, their mentality, nature and hatred towards Jews; the small children are taught there to hate from the day one. This is brainwashing and entirely inhumane. When you are utilizing your own children, women and civilians as human shield then it is nearly impossible to avoid civilian causalities, remember you are in the state of war with Israel, not indulging in Picnic or love.
Israel intentionally do not target civilians or is not committing any Genocide, otherwise this conflict can be solved in a few days, this is Muslims’ good luck that Jews and rest of the world are not the follower of their barbaric Sharia laws, they are civilized people, otherwise……!
Whenever possible, Israel goes to great lengths to try and avoid civilian causalities; I admit, in war horrific and tragic mistakes happen. Please tell me honestly, what would you do in such scenario, how to deal with the people whose slogan is "We love death more than the Jews love life". 
How do you deal with the people who believe in sacrificing even their women and children as suicide bombers, strapping explosives to their bodies and seducing them to go to the area of highest civilian concentration that they can reach and kill themselves and as many around them as possible?
Dear reader, if you are not a hypocrite and a liar then tell me, what if such threats were aimed at your own family? No matter how horrible the consequences of the decision may be would you not do whatever it took to save them?   
Israel is not the only best model of democracy and freedom in the Middle East rather there is no comparison of  Israel with all 56 Muslim countries of the world; a country surrounded by 22 hostile Muslim countries, where people are able to enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Israel is a country where Israeli Muslim Arabs also share all benefits without any discrimination.
On the contrary, in oil rich Muslim countries, Arabs treat you as animals, despite believing and share the same religion, but you are not more than a slave; Modern Slavery, keep you living in fear, to horrify you, and to profit from it.!
I want to make my voice heard and spread this message of truth that the Crusades, Inquisition, the Persian and Ottoman Empires, the Holocaust, all have been trying to exterminate the Jewish nation from this planet for thousands of years. No one succeeds, the Nation of Israel lives and the Jewish people will endure.

According to the verses of the Quran regarding the Jews; Jews are people of various bad qualities, known for their loathsome characters and contemptible behavior; they are liars, ingrates, selfish, arrogant, rebels, lawbreakers, cowardly naggers and cheaters, prone to crime and aggression etc… Dear Muslims, please see your own character and your history in the light of these verses; in fact these verses fit upon you instead of Jews, you deserve wrath of the God not the Jews!