- Did you know about this?
But how many people heard about the recent arrest and jailing in Saudi Arabia of a group of Filipino guest workers for holding Christian prayer services in the privacy of their home? Or who knows about the three Sunday School teachers charged in Indonesia last year with the crime of “Christianization” and summarily sentenced to three years in prison?
The story is similar wherever Sharia — orthodox Islamic law — reigns supreme. From Pakistan to Darfur, Christians have become regular targets for Islamic gangs who shoot at worshipers, then torch their houses of worship.
Even in Islamic countries not strictly run by Sharia law, pressures mount on local Christians to leave the homes they’ve known for centuries. Iraq’s Christian sects, among the oldest Christian communities anywhere in the world, have been directly targeted by terrorist bombs, and Christians are now high on the list of those fleeing Iraq’s sectarian strife. Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian. Since then, an estimated 3.5 million Christians have emigrated, reducing the country’s Christian population percentage to barely 25%. And in the Palestinian territories, direct and indirect pressures have also led to an increasing Christian exodus. One striking result: Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and once a predominantly Christian Arab community now has an overwhelming Muslim majority.
Where is the media on this?
Islam
Didn’t He Know the Risk?!
From The Washington Times this story of commitment:
A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for “mocking religion” after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.
Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students.
He was charged with promoting a “dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer,” the newspaper said.
I wonder what this man’s testimony is.
Oh, and before anyone goes off on what the “religion of peace” does to its opponents, wait.
Remember the Crusades. Remember the Catholic-Protestant battles of not so long ago.
That said, I do believe there is a substantial spiritual and moral difference between genuine Islam and genuine Christianity.
The question for me is simple: Is my faith (and subsequent life) an accurate reflection of the Lord Jesus?
Ignoring a Certain Common Thread
OK, so a bunch of “youths” have been busy burning cars and buildings in France.
Agence France Presse offers us this update:
More vehicles were set alight in suburban violence in France after President Jacques Chirac said the country needed to learn lessons from two weeks of unrest.
Rioters torched 463 cars in France overnight and police made 201 arrests, figures nearly identical to the previous night, the national police said Friday.
Overnight Thursday 482 cars were torched and 203 people arrested.
At the peak of the trouble on Sunday night some 1,400 vehicles had been torched and 395 people arrested across the country.
Wow!
I suppose I shouldn’t be in this day and age, but I continue to be amazed at stories like this that not once mention the religious-cultural element that many of these “rioting youth” seem to have in common.
Islam.