Hadith on urination

Some of you are perhaps familiar with the prohibition regarding urinating facing Mecca. Here is a hadith upon which this is based:

From al Bukhari

Volume 4, Book 53, Number 334 :

Narrated by 'Abdullah bin 'Umar

Once I went upstairs in Hafsa's house and saw the Prophet answering the call of nature with his back towards the Qibla and facing Sham.

Demographic Winter, Part I

Watch it all. I was impressed by the big names and the quality of this video. Much better than that crappy "Muslims are taking over the world" video from some time ago. I do think this also tells only half the story, since many countries (including lots of, but not all of, Muslim countries) have birthrates way above replacement level. But then again, this is only part i so maybe that will be addressed in part ii. Anyway, do let me know what you think an pass it on.

The heavens declare his glory

Amazing video here.

Marian imagery in Muslim visions

It is interesting to see how often the Virgin Mary features in dreams and visions that Muslims have which then contribute to the religious conversion. I posted on one instance of this HERE, some time ago. And I just found another one today, this time from an Iranian man named Ali Majidian:

When I finished at the university and graduated in solid-state physics, I began to study Aerospace engineering. Sometimes I went to church and studied more about Christians. 

One night I had a nightmare that I was in a desert trying to find gold. Suddenly it started to rain. I found a cave and went in. There were antique statues. Among them I found a statue of Mary, Jesus’ mother, but I saw drops of blood in her eyes. At once I understood that she cries for our sins. Suddenly I ran away and fell. Before me, I saw myself in an antique mirror. I saw myself bloody, dirty and dreadful. 

I realized that only - only - only Christ can save people. Jesus is the bridge between earth and heaven. 

I decided to become a Christian, so I went to church again for this purpose, but for some reason, the  priest there doesn’t do that.

Read his whole testimony HERE if you are interested. Also note how the priest in Iran (I guess) would not allow him to convert. This is a big problem with the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in the Muslim world. One which prompted me to write my Open Letter to the Pope on Catholic Witness to Muslims. If you haven't read it yet please do. And if you agree with, print it an post it to your local Catholic bishop.

What is modernity?

Great quote here:

The essence of modernity, according to Kirk and Niemeyer, is the denial that man can know and conform to the transcendent order, and that he must therefore construct his own order, as an extension of his mind. The motto of the modern project was first uttered by Francis Bacon, who said that "knowledge is power." Later, Karl Marx would proclaim: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." The political expression of modernity, of course, is the ideological regime, founded on a rigid system of abstractions which are imposed on society by force.

--Gregory Wolfe, "Beauty will save the World"

When Muslims may lie

Narrated in Sahih Muslim (English version), Chapter MLXXVII, v4, p1373,
Tradition #6303:

     Humaid b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf reported that his mother Umm Kulthum
     daughter of 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ait, and she was one amongst the first
     emigrants who pledged allegiance to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon
     him), as saying that she heard Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon
     him) as saying: A liar is not one who tries to bring reconciliation
     amongst people and speaks good (in order to avert dispute), or he
     conveys good.  Ibn Shihab said he did not hear that exemption was
     granted in anything what the people speak as lie but in three cases:
     in battle, for bringing reconciliation amongst persons and the
     narration of the words of the husband to wife, and the narration of
     the words of a wife to her husband (in a twisted form in order to
     bring reconciliation between them).

Azeri Muslim song-writer turned Orthodox monk

Ran across this fascinating vignette of Onegin Yusif Gadzhikasimov. I always like finding obscure stories about converts from Islam to Orthodox Christianity. I should note that Islam for Onegin was probably more of a sociological category than a real lived faith, given the time period he was living in.

Anyway, read it all here in Russian or just use Google Translator to get it in English (or whatever language you like):

About Monk Simon Gadzhikasimova

Why the West should support al Assad

I have been sad to see the lame propaganda in Western media (BBC, CNN, you know) which portrays the 'freedom fighters' as great heroes. This is ridiculous. Many of them are indeed intolerant, ideological terrorists. Yes, they want to get rid of Al Assad who is a tyrannical autocrat. But he is a secular tyrant who has, more or less, let the Christians live in peace. What is the option? A nice democracy with human rights? Ah yes, like the one that Bush built in Iraq, right? I think not...

Here is the way the Middle East works folks: there is only tyranny. You can choose between secular tyranny, or Islamist tyranny. Enjoy. There is not third choice. 

Read all about it here at the IHT:

Saving Syria’s Christian community is coherent with Western strategic interests. If the experiences of Iraq and Egypt are any indication, religious intolerance breeds insecurity and volatility. The Syrian case is no different. Assad’s opponents on both sides of the Atlantic must prevent radical Islamists from embedding themselves in the Syrian opposition and should adopt a firm stance against their patrons in the Gulf.


Here is the link, read it all, and weep.

St Francis Magazine, Volume 8/3

The new SFM has just recently been published and our intrepid editor, John Stringer, asked me to write the comment from the editor for the issue, as he was a) recovering from a hangover after drinking too much Arak, b) in prison, or c) busy handling snakes. Here is what I wrote, and I just inserted the links in there, read, click, and enjoy:

Dear Readers,

Over my years in the Arab world I have noted that it seems like from time to time someone comes up with the Next Big Idea. The Next Big Idea is accompanied by seminars, conferences, books, mp3’s, material on YouTube (maybe), and articles in any number of journals (and perhaps in this one). You already know some of them: CAMEL, BAM, Kingdom Circles, person of peace, friendship evangelism, IM, CPM’s, NRM, and so on.

In their own ways they may, sometimes, contribute to real breakthroughs in relation to the Church’s witness in the places where we live. But what about the context of the early Church? Sporadic government-sponsored persecution; travel, migration, and translation issues; a small and often poor Christian population surrounded by a large non-Christian population which thinks it gets Christianity, but is terribly misinformed—do these sound at all familiar to you?

Yet the early church grew, both within the setting of the Roman Empire, and outside of it as well, in places like Armenia, Axum (Ethiopia), India, and Persia. This historical reality led us to the conclusion that we should look more closely at the parallels between the life and ministry of the Early Church in relation to what we are doing today.

So we have articles on Augustine and the Letter to Diognetus and, patron saint of evangelicalism, Saint Paul himself. We are also proud to present an Orthodox perspective on St Constantine, so often maligned (and misunderstood) in the evangelical world. One of the strongholds of Christianity used to be North Africa, and we are glad to include an article on St George’s Anglican Church there today.

Perhaps the next big idea will not be something new at all, but recapturing something old and good, something venerable and wise but forgotten. Messiah said, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” We evangelicals are quite good at the new treasures, but if we are instructed about the kingdom, then we will not abandon the old ones.

Peace be with you,

Abu Daoud
Contributing Editor

Population Collapse in Europe

Did you know there are 20 countries in the world with (naturally) shrinking populations? And that they are all in Europe (except for Japan)? And that they are all (minus Japan) majority-Christian countries? Note the 8% increase in the population for Austria. All that will come from immigration, a lot of it Muslim.

Here are the figures:

Ukraine: 0.8% natural decrease annually; 28% total population decrease by 2050
Russia: -0.6%; -22%
Belarus -0.6%; -12%
Bulgaria -0.5%; -34%
Latvia -0.5%; -23%
Lithuania -0.4%; -15%
Hungary -0.3%; -11%
Romania -0.2%; -29%
Estonia -0.2%; -23%
Moldova -0.2%; -21%
Croatia -0.2%; -14%
Germany -0.2%; -9%
Czech Republic -0.1%; -8%
Japan 0%; -21%
Poland 0%; -17%
Slovakia 0%; -12%
Austria 0%; 8% increase
Italy 0%; -5%
Slovenia 0%; -5%
Greece 0%; -4%


From HERE.

Catholic Bishop Paul Hinder: "...we would not dare accept a Muslim's conversion to Christianity."

From an interview with Bishop Mgr Paul Hinder, Auxiliary Bishop of Arabia. Here is a snippet from a journalist who wrote about ministry in Arabia:

Is he an optimist or a pessimist? Bishop Hinder at least does not sweep the problems under the carpet. For instance, what pushes a Christian to embrace Islam? "Not so much conviction," he says, "as a desire to get a job, a promotion, a higher salary, or even to marry a Muslim woman. When it does happen it becomes front page news. By contrast, we would not dare accept a Muslim's conversion to Christianity. It would just be too dangerous not only for the person involved but for the Church as such."

Read it all HERE if you like. Sad to see this sort of thing. Thank God Jesus and Mary and Paul and Peter weren't worried about doing dangerous things.

Why Europe Won't Be Running the 21st Century

Archived-Articles: Why Europe Won't Be Running the 21st Century

Update on Qatar

Some time ago I posted a bit on the good news from Qatar, a small country which is actually allowing for churches to be built for all the Christian expats there. Here is a nice film showing what is going on at the Anglican church there: