The death of the West

R. R. Reno over at First Things really knocked it out the ballpark with this new article, 'Return of the Strong Gods.'

Check this out:

Our political struggles over nations and nationalisms are best understood as referenda on the West’s meta-politics over the last three generations, which has been one of disenchantment. The rising populism we’re seeing throughout the West reflects a desire for a return of the strong gods to public life. 

Or this:

[After WW2] many political and cultural leaders assumed that restoration of a more humane way of life in the West would require softening and weakening. 

And this:

Our present-day view of the good life “has the features of lightening.” All of this is summed up in his catchphrase the “weakening of Being,” which he sees as a happy unburdening of the West, for weakening promotes tolerance, peace, and freedom. If there are no strong truths, nobody will judge others or limit their freedom. If nothing is worth fighting for, nobody will fight. 

But do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. It is well worth your time.

No justice for Christians in Pakistan

America, UK, Europe, get ready. This is your future as you continue to import large numbers of Muslims.

From Christianity Today:

The ruling comes less than a month after the court acquitted more than 100 Muslims for rampaging through another one of Lahore’s major Christian communities in 2013 over one man’s alleged blasphemy. 

The 42 Christians were roughly half of those accused of murder and terrorism after two Muslim men suspected of bombing Sunday services in Youhanabad were killed. The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), an initiative of Pakistan’s Catholic bishops, told Fides that they were disappointed that the church attackers have not been punished. 

Also left unpunished were the approximately 112 Muslims who were arrested for ransacking, looting, and setting fire to more than 100 homes in Joseph Colony in 2013. The court found them innocent despite eyewitnesses and videos of the attack, reported World Watch Monitor.

For shame, Pakistan. A nation built on injustice and oppression. Jesus Christ is your king, though you refuse to know either justice or mercy.

On President Trump's recent order to stop immigration from Muslim-majority countries

I was recently chatting with a friend on Facebook, a mature Christian with a lot of experience working with Muslims and a history in the Middle East. 

The question we were discussing was, what do you think about the recent order to stop immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days.

I thought his answer was thoughtful and worth sharing with you all. So, with his permission, here is his response, with slight edits for the sake of clarity:

I think the ruler of this age is clouding hearts and minds. People don't realize that this isn't high school debate with your teacher. Using bogus rationale and facts just to prove your point is going to cost the USA dearly with stuff like this in the real world.

Obviously secularism and Islam have one major thing in common: the hatred of the Church. What's troubling to me is Chrisitans, even Christians who are well-versed in the evils of Islam, are shoving their heads in the sand and pretending like jihadism is some sort of anomaly.
I often have wondered which snake would eat the other when their borders expanded into each other's territory. I always thought secularism would overturn Islam as money and education grew in the Middle East. But it's turning out to be quite the opposite.

Obviously people operate on a spiritual level more so than an intellectual one, so what I see makes sense. 

But it never ceases to amaze me that there is no limit to which people are willing to go in order to look the other way with Islam. While at the same time holding Chirstianity accountable for the most trivial and non-offenses imaginable. How bizarre.

Islam: A Religion, and an Empire too! Part 2

Islam: A Religion, and an Empire too! Part 2
by Abu Daoud

In Part IV of this series I established that Islam is more than just a religion, according to Western standards, which allow for a separation of religion and state. Islam contains within its teaching regarding the relations and duties of man before God a very specific political order. What is it?

It is the caliphate. The Arabic word xalifa (caliph) means “successor [of the Prophet].” When God appointed Mohammad to be the Prophet who would bring the incorrupt and incorruptible revelation from God, he also chose him to be a ruler over the Umma. The caliphate existed in one form or another through the 20th century (1924), lastly within the Ottoman Empire (whose successor is Turkey). Devout Muslims therefore long for and must work for the restoration of the caliphate. This was precisely the desire of Abu Mussab al Zaraqawi (a Jordanian mujahid), recently deceased. He was a devout and good Muslim. This may seem like a troubling statement, but in reality his devotion to his religion extended far beyond my own devotion to my religion, and probably yours as well. He was working to restore the caliphate, to unite all Muslim people into one Umma that would unite all the nation states of Islam. In his willingness to use violence as a means of ushering in God's gracious and righteous reign he was following Muhammad's pattern of life (sunna).

In fact, the existence of nation states is reprehensible to devout Muslims. They run against a central tenet of Islam: that there are only two religious-political entities in the world: Dar al Islam (House of Islam) and Dar al Harb (House of War). The vision of conservative Muslims (it is an error to call them fundametalists) is to bring all Muslim peoples into one entity. The combined power would be capable of completing the effort (jihad) of making the peoples of the world submitters (muslims) to God’s rule.

In other words, God’s grace is manifest not in bread and wine and water and oil (as in our religion), but in political rule. Political-religious rule is how God reveals his grace and goodness to the world. It is how he works to restore justice and peace and order to the world. Until that rule of God is completely restored, the Ummah must continue to exert effort (jihad) to work for that restoration and submission and surrender.

This is the good and glorious vision of Islam for the world. I do not agree with it, of course, which is why my family is devoted to evangelizing Muslims. My family and I want then to understand that true submission (islam) to God means submission to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the image (iconos, in Greek) of the glory of God, as Paul said. If one rejects the Son, how can one say he accepts the Father? "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."

Islam: A Religion (and an Empire too!), Part 1

Islam: A Religion (and an Empire too!), Part 1
by Abu Daoud

There are two central aspects of Islam that folks in the West tend to misunderstand. Because of these two flaws in our understanding we continue to make decisions and take actions that are ineffective or counterproductive in the Dar al Islam.

The second thing is the relation of power to grace. But the first thing, which is related to the second, is that Islam, properly speaking, is not simply a religion, but an entire civilization. Islam is a holistic and organic system of life that includes very specific regulations and laws regarding everything from inheritance to divorce, investing to commerce, and—here is sticking point—regulations regarding government.

Muhammad was the civil and religious ruler of the Umma (the Islamic nation) at the time of his death. Since a prophet gains immunity against sin once he has been called by God, he can do no wrong. This certainly gets around the messiness of dividing and distributing power, which the founders of the USA attempted to do. But there is a problem: original sin. For all have sinned! There is not one righteous, no not one!  

Christianity has flirted with the union of all civil and religious power under one person, specifically in the idea of the Holy Roman Emperor, who was considered by some to be rex et sacerdos—King and Priest. But overall we have tended to separate the two spheres in some way or another.

For traditionally-minded Muslims, the idea of separating the two kinds of authority is unnatural and an affront to the human person, who is at once a political and religious being. Before you dismiss this insight, let me point out that the so-called alternative (secularism) is running into great problems nowadays. The reason for this is that it is very difficult to figure out where to draw the line between the religious person and the political person—as Islam rightly argues. Does the line exclude a prayer before Congress meets? Does the line exclude students from bringing Bibles into public schools? Does the line exclude atheists from holding public office? What about Satan worshippers? My point is simply that Islam has a good point here: the human being is at once political and religious, reflecting the unity (tawheed, wahda) within God. So any attempt to divide the two spheres must be, to some extent, artificial, mutable, and provisional.

But what is a religion? This might seem like a simple question, but in fact it is very difficult to answer. Christians in the USA these days like to say that Christianity is a relationship (with Christ), not a religion. I appreciate the sentiment behind that statement, but it is in reality totally false. A religion, speaking generally, is any system of beliefs and practices that teach people(s) how to relate to Ultimate Reality (what we call God). So the very idea that Christianity is relational is a very religious idea: we should relate to God personally, not impersonally; or personally, and not communally. Some people say they are spiritual and not religious—I used to say that. Now I say I am very religious. Let people draw their own conclusions.

Islam teaches that part of the relationship between the political ruler and the religious ruler is all encompassed within the submission, yielding, sublimination, or surrender (various translations of the Arabic word islam) that must characterize the community and person before God and his Prophet. So to those who say that Christianity is a personal relationship, not a religion, the traditional Muslim replies that Islam is a political relationship, not just a religion.

Why the Morocco Declaration on Christianity is not as good as it sounds

The folks at Christianity Today are falling all over themselves explaining how great the recent Morocco Declaration on Christian rights is. This should give you an idea:

In particular, the declaration references the charter’s “principles of constitutional contractual citizenship” and “freedom of movement, property ownership, mutual solidarity and defense, as well as principles of justice and equality before the law,” in regards to Muslims and non-Muslims.

I'm just not convinced. The declaration needs to explicitly claim that Christians who at one time in the past were Muslims are also included and should be afforded the same legal rights as folks born in Christian families.

And plus, Morocco doesn't even have an indigenous Christian population, aside from a couple hundred converts from Islam, and those have mostly been hounded and persecuted until they left the country.

I hope I'm worn to be so cynical about this, but we saw this back in the time of the Ottoman Empire with the hat-i humayun. At that time (1850's) Protestant missionaries were overjoyed because they thought these lofty statements about rights meant that Muslims could legally convert to Christianity. But nope. 

So...very nice words. But in the end, dust in the wind. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Again, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see that this is much more than a pretty piece of PR fluff which will enable the sheeple of Europe and North America to keep repeating to themselves 'religion of peace, religion of peace...' while their neighbors continue to be killed and their daughters raped.

The Origin of the Islamic State

Here are two (rather academic) lectures on the genesis and origin and nature of the Islamic State, aka ISIS, aka ISIL, aka Daesh (good grief). The last of which is especially stupid for Americans to use because in Arabic it simply stands for Dawl Islamiyya fi Iraq war Sham, which is Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Duh.

But take the time to watch both lectures. Note that you need to click on Del 2 at the bottom of the screen, not Del 1. Not sure why Del 1 is even there...but it is.

In any case, watch and learn: http://play.ht.lu.se/media/c29c7ddd

A prayer for Salman, the new king of Saudi Arabia

TIME has a nice (if brief) article about the new monarch in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human rights records in the world, especially when it comes to freedom of religion. And just to think that British gold in the hands of the Christian man, Lawrence of Arabia, was so instrumental in building its independence!

But let us hope and pray for a new day for Arabia.

Lord, in your mercy we ask of you:

Peace and justice in Saudi Arabia
Freedom for all people there to worship and live according to their conscience
Wisdom for the Salman, the new king
To confound the plans of the wicked, and deliver the righteous
Strength and power for your holy Church

And we thank you:

For a great increase in the number of people leaving Muhammad for Jesus in KSA
That even in this closed kingdom you have ambassadors from your greater and eternal Kingdom
For the faithful witness of martyrs who loved Christ more than life itself

Amen.

Please do share this far and wide, and use this prayer in your small group, home church, or cathedral, or personal devotions. The power of prayer is not to be underestimated.

New research on contextual theology and Christian converts from Islam

Hi All,

Well, it's not light reading, but here is a new doctoral dissertation about Christian converts from Islam. The focus is on field studies of some Arab believers in the Middle East, and some Iranian congregations in the West.

The title is Living among the Breakage: Contextual Theology-making and ex-Muslim Christians, from the University of Edinburgh by Dr. D A Miller.

Download the PDF from his academia website, HERE.

"The sun of jihad has risen..." A new caliphate is born!

A letter written to Muslims around the word from the new Caliphate, just proclaimed!

“The sun of jihad has risen … The glad tidings of good are shining. Triumph looms on the horizon. The signs of victory have appeared. Here the flag of the Islamic State, the flag of tawhīd (monotheism), rises and flutters. Its shade covers land from Aleppo to Diyala.

"… So rush O Muslims and gather around your khalīfah [caliph], so that you may return as you once were for ages, kings of the earth and knights of war. Come so that you may be honored and esteemed, living as masters with dignity. Know that we fight over a religion that Allah promised to support. We fight for an ummah [global Muslim community] to which Allah has given honor, esteem, and leadership, promising it with empowerment and strength on the earth. Come O Muslims to your honor, to your victory. By Allah, if you disbelieve in democracy, secularism, nationalism, as well as all the other garbage and ideas from the west, and rush to your religion and creed, then by Allah, you will own the earth, and the east and west will submit to you. This is the promise of Allah to you. This is the promise of Allah to you."

Read it all HERE and thank you to TIME for a brief article on the topic.

What Abu Daoud predicted about the Arab Spring

Hi All,

I was recently going over this interview I did with Don Warrington at Positive Infinity for another interview I'm doing right now, and I was struck by how I nailed the Arab Spring all the way back in January of 2012. Check this out:

6) Where do you see MENA going, especially in view of events such as the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the Arab Spring?

This is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? First, the people who protested didn’t take political control, so as much as they wanted freedom and democracy, they just won’t get it, I’m sorry to say. The Egyptian elections were demonstrably corrupt, though the international press has not said so—I have no idea why. The Islamists will take power and they will not let it go. And why is this surprising? That is precisely what Muhammad did—engaged in diplomacy and compromise and so on, but once he had power he was ruthless. In the end, an Islamic society cannot be a free society. Islam and freedom are mutually exclusive.

The question I have is this: will it be like Iran? After the revolution in `79 Islam had a chance to prove itself in the political arena, and Islam, unlike Christianity, makes substantial guarantees in this area. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have concluded that Islam failed—it did not deliver politically so it must be false in terms of its religious and spiritual claims too. They have turned to Christianity some of them, and some to secular humanism or atheism. Will this happen in these newly Islamist states? Perhaps. I pray it will. Islam’s love of political power may well be its Achilles’ heel. Meanwhile, that means the native Christians need to stay as long as they can, and foreign missionaries like me need to stay no matter what. I will do it. Maybe the kids and wife need to go back to the US, I will do everything I can to stay here even if all hell breaks loose.

Anyway, if you didn't read the interview when it came out, I think it contains a good summary of my own philosophy of mission and opinions regarding the Arab world today: here are Part 1 and Part 2.

How the US attacking Syria could plunge the region into war

So 90% of the American people want NO military action in Syria, but President Obama, it seems, is intent on doing just this. This will be very bad for the whole region, though. Here is a likely scenario:

In fact, it is being reported that cruise missile strikes could begin "as early as Thursday".  The Obama administration is pledging that the strikes will be "limited", but what happens when the Syrians fight back?  What happens if they sink a U.S. naval vessel or they have agents start hitting targets inside the United States?  Then we would have a full-blown war on our hands.  And what happens if the Syrians decide to retaliate by hitting Israel?  If Syrian missiles start raining down on Tel Aviv, Israel will be extremely tempted to absolutely flatten Damascus, and they are more than capable of doing precisely that.  And of course Hezbollah and Iran are not likely to just sit idly by as their close ally Syria is battered into oblivion. 

We are looking at a scenario where the entire Middle East could be set aflame, and that might only be just the beginning.  Russia and China are sternly warning the U.S. government not to get involved in Syria, and by starting a war with Syria we will do an extraordinary amount of damage to our relationships with those two global superpowers. (From HERE)

Grim stuff. Instability is already spilling from Syria into Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. But that can be contained. This, however, would be a game changer, and certainly not in a good way. America needs to stay out of Syria. Totally and completely. Just send tents and food for women and children refugees (not men), and don't resettle ANY of them in North America or Europe. That is my advice.

Quotes from the brilliant Bernard Lewis

I really love Bernard Lewis, the great orientalist. I was just reading one of his books and thought I would share with you some of great, insightful quotes I found:

Lewis, Bernard. 1993. Islam and the West. Oxford.

“The imported idea of ethnic and territorial nationhood remains, like secularism, alien and incompletely assimilated.” (p 136) 

“Since for Muslims Islam is, by definition, superior to all other faiths, the failures and defeats of Muslims in this world can only mean that they are not practicing authentic Islam and that their states are not true Islamic states.” (p 136, 7) 

“…many of the extremist organizations tend to be Christian, for in the radical extremism that they profess, Christians still hope to find the acceptance and equality that eluded them in nationalism.” (p 144) 

“After a long period of secular, liberal, and nationalist ideologies and programs, the non-Muslim minorities are no longer conditioned to revert to their former position of inferiority. Some have sought a solution to their problem in emigration; some have resorted to radical politics; and some look anxiously, with decreasing confidence, for saviors from outside.” (page 146) 

“Humiliation and privation, frustration and failure have so far discredited all the imported solutions and made increasing numbers of Muslims ready to believe those who tell them that only in a return to their own true faith and divinely ordained way of life can they find salvation in this world and the next.” (153)

Zakaria Boutros: 'Islam is not just a religion, it's a state.'

Islam is not just a religion; this is a misunderstanding in the West. You think that Islam is like Judaism or Buddhism, so we give Islam lots of opportunities to grow in the West. No, Islam is a State, and religion is a factor to establish this state. It is a Kingdom, the Kingdom of Islam. Non-Muslims in their country are invaders. The invaders brought missionaries with them.

From Bob Blincoe's interview with Father (Abouna) Zakaria Boutros (or Botros), my favorite Coptic priest out there :-) This is from the third post on Blincoe's blog containing his interview.

I have written about Fr Boutros HERE and HERE, if you care to learn more about this impressive man. The second link there is one of the most commented-on posts I've ever have, if I'm not mistaken. Also, I develop a similar concept to what Fr Boutros said HERE: Islam, Religion Plus.

Pray for facility in travel for me and my family, please. --AD

Politics and mission to Muslims

Great quote from an article on the present-day reality regarding mission to Muslims:

The mere fact of one's citizenship affects the reception of one's message. A Western Christian worker in the twenty-first century cannot assume that he or she is bringing the message of the Gospel as Paul did, for Paul was a Roman citizen, traversing the provinces of an empire is which his language, his ethnicity, and even his views were given a fair and legal hearing (e.g., as in Acts 22). He was free to travel and speak as he saw fit. The situation is different today for Western missionaries.

from David Grafton's article in IBMR 31:3, 'The Legacy of Ion Keith-Falconer'

T.S. Eliot and the danger of democracy

G. K. Chesterton defined tradition as "democracy extended through time," and for Eliot, tradition offered the advantages of democracy -- diverse viewpoints and a protection against tyranny -- nestled in the cocoon of time. Apart from tradition, democracy could too easily degenerate into hysteria. Eliot saw this as a particular danger in industrial society, which creates "people detached from tradition, alienated from religion, and susceptible to mass suggestion: in other words a mob. And a mob will be no less a mob if it is well fed, well clothed, well housed, and well disciplined" (Idea, p. 21) To guard against these moblike tendencies, Eliot lent his support to a class system.

Philip Yancey writing on Eliot. Read it all here.

And this is what the West wants for the Arab world? Say it ain't so...

Al-Azhar's Grand Imam declares support for a constitutional, democratic state

Al-Azhar's Grand Imam declares support for a constitutional, democratic state

From Ahram.org:

The document stressed its support for universal democratic rights such as free and democratic elections where the citizens as a whole constitute the sole and legitimate source of legislation.

The Grand Imam said that striving towards social justice needs to be a basic component in any future economic arrangement in Egypt. He stressed that affordable and decent education and health care services must become a right for all citizens.

The document was explicit in its support for freedom of expression in the arts and literary fields within the accepted boundaries of Islamic philosophy and moral guidelines. It highlighted the need for expanded scientific and popular campaigns to combat illiteracy and advance economic progress.

“We need a serious commitment to universal human rights, the rights of women and children,” El-Tayeb said.

In a clear reference to the status of religious minorities especially Copts, the Grand Imam stated that citizenship must be the sole criterion by which both rights and responsibilities are administered in society.

And now, why this is not good news for the Copts: Egypt is, by a large majority, Muslim. That Muslim majority will never allow Copts to have the same rights and the freedoms that Muslims have. So the Copts have citizenship, but they don't have numbers, and thus they will not have the same rights as Muslims.

Syrian bishop says government must crush the uprising

HT to Reflecting by the Shore.

By John Pontifex

The Syrian government must resist the uprising – and has the people's backing in quelling forces seeking "destabilisation and Islamisation" – according to one of the country's most respected Catholic bishops.

In a strongly worded defence of President Bashar al-Assad's response to the protests and instability, Bishop Antoine Audo accused the media including the BBC and Al Jazeera of "unobjective" reporting, unfairly criticising the Syrian regime.

The Jesuit, who is the Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Aleppo, went on to warn that if Assad's government was overthrown, it would cause widespread instability, a breakdown of basic services such as electricity, increased poverty and a drive towards Islamisation.

Speaking from Aleppo in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Audo said: "The fanatics speak about freedom and democracy for Syria but this is not their goal.

"They want to divide the Arab countries, control them, seize petrol and sell arms. They seek destabilisation and Islamisation."

"Syria must resist – will resist. 80 percent of the people are behind the government, as are all the Christians." [...]

Read the rest of it here.

Feb 21, 2011: More reflections on the Middle East

The developments in Egypt, and now Libya are really unprecedented. There was no way for anyone to expect this.

Well, let me qualify that. It has been known for some time that there was a demographic time bomb in many of these countries. You have several factors combining to create instability and revolution: a large population of young males who are largely a) unemployed, and b) unmarried. This always leads to instability, and now we have seen that boil to the surface, though, like I said, no one saw it coming right now and in this form.

In some ways, the self-immolation of the young Tunisian fruit-vender is what occasioned this whole series of revolutions. It is one of those small, obscure acts that parlayed itself into something much larger, like the assassination of a certain arch-duke.

But the real question is what does the future hold? A couple of points follow.

1) The Western press often stresses that the movements in Egypt and Tunisia had a lot of 'modern' or 'secular' people in them. To which I respond, who cares? What matters is coordination and organization. The Muslim Brotherhood has that. In Egypt, no one else does.

2) Islam and democracy are in esse incompatible. Islam is devoted to the imitation of the Prophet, who was totalitarian in his polity without any question. He consolidated all political, military, juridical, and religious authority into his own hands. Democracy, on the other hand, is based on a Judeo-Christian anthropology, and it seeks to spread power as widely as possible because it understands that humans in their sinfulness cannot be trusted with the totality of power.

3) Turkey. Everyone points to Turkey and says, see Islam and democracy can work! Sorry, but that is not quite right. The inspiration for Turkey's democracy was nationalism, not Islam. In fact, as Turkey has grown more Islamic in its polity, it is questionable to what extent democracy there can survive. Also, Turkey has undergone reforms in order to enter the EU. Tunisia and Egypt and Libya don't have that carrot dangling in front of them.

4) The foundational problems are not with regimes, but demographics, agriculture, and Islam. Too many children (especially in Egypt), too little arable land, and an Islamic society which, for whatever reason, is often tribalistic and nepotistic. A new regime, even a secular, democratic one, will not solve these problems.

5) Freedom. Ultimately, if people want freedom, they will have to find some other religion. Pure and simple. Not very PC. But there you have it.

So what does this all lead to? A struggle between nationalist kleptocratic militaries and Islamists. Not very much fun.

But let us pray. As Martin Luther said, 'Even the devil is God's devil.'

Abu Daoud

Is Jordan falling under the control of Palestinians?

Robert Fisk has a great article here on the rising influence of Palestinians in Jordanian government. While the military leaders in the article are pretty anti-USA and anti-Israel, I think that overall they are really making a good point.

Why Jordan is Occupied by Palestinians