Naughty Riba

Riba is the receiving, paying or charging of interest on loans or deposits, something forbidden by Islam. Islam, in addition to being a religion and system of civil and martial law, also contains many elements of economic policy, this being one. But do you want to know how bad Riba is? Check this out:

Muslim (1598) narrated that Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him)said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) cursed the one who consumes riba and the one who pays it, the one who writes it down and the two who witness it, and he said: they are all the same.

And he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A dirham of riba that a man consumes knowingly is worse before Allaah than committing zina thirty-six times.”

Narrated by Ahmad and al-Tabaraani; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’ no. 3375.

Church planting in France

I am always glad to read about various new missionary endeavors. One that I just learned about is an American family moving to France with the goal of planting churches and reaching the unevangelized and unchurched. Here is a summary of the work they hope to do from their website:

Anticipated Ministry Focus The Butchers’ vision is to creatively communicate the gospel to start churches through new technologies and meaningful relationships.
The People The unchurched population in and around Paris: French people, refugees and immigrants of all ages.
Ministry Experience Blaine and Abigail have been involved in various ministries: drama, youth, children, refugees, construction, medical missions, evangelism, discipleship, preaching and choir. They’ve been on several mission trips to places like Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Brazil, and Ecuador. Abigail helped start a ministry in San Antonio developing friendships with women from Iran and other countries from that area of the world. Blaine served as a youth pastor for four and a half years. He also spent a year working with college students in Slovenia. He volunteered in church ministries for 13 years.
Prayer Focus Pray for the Butchers to have unity, learn to use their God-given gifts in ministry and to grow stronger in their walk with the Lord.

This young family (and I have met Abigail personally, though it was many years ago) is in the exciting phase of raising support for their mission. This is an excellent time for building bridges between Catholics/Orthodox and evangelicals like the Butchers. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they received a gift from a Catholic parish with a note saying that they will be in their prayers?

While many of the unchurched in France are nominally Catholic they never attend church, read the Bible and rarely pray. Their life choices are not informed by Christian ethics and Biblical virtues. Many of the immigrants there are Muslim, something the Butchers are well aware of, making this an important missionary effort in the heartland of Eurabian Islamdom.

I will commit to supporting the mission of the Blutcher family with $30/month or $360/year. It is not much, but many grains of sand make a great beach. It can be done easily through their website at WorldVenture.

Conceptual Terrorists Encase Sears Tower In Jell-O

From The Onion:

CHICAGO—In what is being called the first conceptual terrorist attack on American soil, the landmark Sears Tower was encased in 18 million tons of strawberry gelatin early Monday morning, leaving thousands shocked, angry, and seriously confused.

Authorities called to the scene of the senseless attack said they could do little to control the large crowds of dangerously bewildered citizens, many of whom searched desperately for some semblance of meaning in what had just taken place. As of press time, 11 night security guards were still trapped inside the famous structure, their rescue unlikely until the Jell-O melts.

[...]

"Your outdated ideas of what terrorism is have been challenged," an unidentified, disembodied voice announces following the video's first 45 minutes of random imagery set to minimalist techno music. "It is not your simple bourgeois notion of destructive explosions and weaponized biochemical agents. True terror lies in the futility of human existence."

Tribal Revolt pushes Pakistan to brink

I have been saying for a few months now that Pakistan is ripe for a coup, or perhaps more likely, a protracted and violent civil war. For example:

Tribal revolt pushes Pakistan to brink

by Saeed Shah from The Scotsman

In the North West Frontier Province last week, bombs have been placed in record shops and barbers, despised by Islamic extremists who regard music and clean-shaven men as Westernised heresy. They espouse the obscurantist creed of Wahhabi Islam preached by Osama bin Laden ... In the valley of Swat, in the North West Frontier Province, a religious fanatic, Maulana Fazullah, has taken over the area. The police are too afraid to patrol and the local administration has gone into hiding. Pakistani army battalions have been sent to the area but as yet they are still in camp, awaiting instructions to deploy. Fazullah issues decrees over his own FM radio station, and his men have even taken over traffic control duties. Analysts point out that the same Pushtun tribesmen are settled in Karachi, the massive port city in the south of the country.

(Hat tip to Wahaudi)

Global Christianity in 2007

Well, I am posting ONE item today (Sunday the 14th) and it is this link to Intentional Disciple which contains some very excellent information on world missions and the state of Christianity today. This info is must-read for all Christians, really.

Please read it, there are also several very helpful graphs and the layout is very easy to understand:

Global Christianity in 2007

Advice from a Martyr

From Christian History and Biography. Great quotes from a very early Christian leader, it is likely that he knew some of the Apostles personally. Note how he emphasizes authority of the bishop. Clearly the early church was not following a congregational model like in many evangelical churches today. Here you go:

Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 — c. 107) was so eager to be martyred for Christ's sake that he even begged the Roman church not to prevent his death. Before his death, Ignatius wrote to seven churches instructing them to be unified, to trust their leaders, and to be steadfast in the faith.

Ignatius has long been esteemed as one of the church "fathers." His lifetime even overlapped with Christ's disciples and he was purportedly a disciple of the Apostle John himself. Here are some excerpts from Ignatius's letters to the Ephesians and to the Romans.

Worship Together
Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when ye assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith. Nothing is more precious than peace, by which all war, both in heaven and earth, is brought to an end.
—Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 13

Be Silent Witnesses
It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not to be one. It is good to teach, if he who speaks also acts. … There is nothing which is hid from God, but our very secrets are near to Him. Let us therefore do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples, and He may be in us as our God, which indeed He is, and will manifest Himself before our faces. Wherefore we justly love Him.
—Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 15

Pray Unceasingly
And pray ye without ceasing in behalf of other men. For there is in them hope of repentance that they may attain to God. See, then, that they be instructed by your works, if in no other way. Be ye meek in response to their wrath, humble in opposition to their boasting: to their blasphemies your prayers; in contrast to their error, be ye steadfast in the faith; and for their cruelty, manifest your gentleness. While we take care not to imitate their conduct, let us be found their brethren in all true kindness; and let us seek to be followers of the Lord (who ever more unjustly treated, more destitute, more condemned?), that so no plant of the devil may be found in you, but ye may remain in all holiness and sobriety in Jesus Christ, both with respect to the flesh and spirit.
—Letter to the Ephesians, 10

Respect Church Leaders
We ought to receive every one whom the Master of the house sends to be over His household, as we would do Him that sent him. It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord Himself. And indeed Onesimus himself greatly commends your good order in God, that ye all live according to the truth, and that no sect has any dwelling-place among you. Nor, indeed, do ye hearken to any one rather than to Jesus Christ speaking in truth.
—Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 6

Avoid False Teachers
For some are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practise things unworthy of God, whom ye must flee as ye would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom ye must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can scarcely be cured. There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God … ,—even Jesus Christ our Lord.
—Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 7

Be Steadfast
Stand fast, brethren, in the faith of Jesus Christ, and in His love, in His passion, and in His resurrection. Do ye all come together in common, and individually, through grace, in one faith of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son, and "the first-born of every creature," but of the seed of David according to the flesh, being under the guidance of the Comforter, in obedience to the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote which prevents us from dying, but a cleansing remedy driving away evil, [so] that we should live in God through Jesus Christ.
—Letter to the Ephesians, 20

Dying for Christ
Now I begin to be a disciple, and have no desire after anything visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let breakings, tearings, and separations of bones; let cutting off of members; let bruising to pieces of the whole body; and let the very torment of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ …

All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to die in behalf of Jesus Christ, than to reign over all the ends of the earth. "For what shall a man be profited, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?" Him I seek, who died for us: Him I desire, who rose again for our sake. This is the gain which is laid up for me. Pardon me, brethren: do not hinder me from living, do not wish to keep me in a state of death; and while I desire to belong to God, do not ye give me over to the world. Suffer me to obtain pure light: when I have gone thither, I shall indeed be a man of God. Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God.
—Letter to the Romans, Chapters 5, 6

Al Qaeda Mastermind Becomes Christian?

From Here, hat tip to Jihadwatch.org:

THE mastermind of the first terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Centre claims to have converted from Islam to Christianity.

Ramzi Yousef, a self-proclaimed Muslim extremist with past links to al-Qaeda, plotted with others to blow up the twin towers in lower Manhattan. Six people died in the February 26, 1993, bombing.

Yousef was sentenced to life in prison plus 240 years for the New York bombing and another on a Philippines Airlines plane in 1994 in which a Japanese man died.

A report to be broadcast on 60 Minutes in the US this weekend claims Yousef has now converted to Christianity but the former warden of the supermax prison in Colorado has scoffed at the claims....

Robert Hood, its warden from 2002 to 2005, told 60 Minutes Yousef was a special case.

He never left his cell because he did not want to face the indignity of a strip search required for recreation, he said.

When told that Yousef had begun leaving his cell and now claimed to be a Christian, Mr Hood said: "He's playing a game with someone. If he's doing that, he's doing it for the reaction ... he is the real deal.

As a Muslim, Yousef prayed almost every hour, Mr Hood said.

Shadows of the Swords

From Here:

The tradition has been narrated on the authority of 'Abdullah b. Qais. He heard it from his father who, while facing the enemy, reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Surely, the gates of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords. A man in a shabby condition got up and said; Abu Musa, did you hear the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) say this? He said: Yes. (The narrator said): He returned to his friends and said: I greet you (a farewell greeting). Then he broke the sheath of his sword, threw it away, advanced with his (naked) sword towards the enemy and fought (them) with it until he was slain. Sahih Muslim Book 020, Number 4681

This quotation from the Sahih Muslim hadith afford us a look into the mindset of a person who desired his own death in Allah's Cause.

1. He trusted the words of Muhammad implicitly.
2. He was motivated by a promise of an eternal heavenly Paradise.
3. He reassured himself that he heard correctly by asking Abu Musa. We see that he was very careful not to make a mistake, since his own life and eternal destiny were at risk. He wanted to make sure that Paradise would be achieved.
4. He said his final farewell greeting to his friends. He did not rush to death because he had no friends. He had friends who understood his motivation.
5. He unsheathed his sword and threw the sheath away, because he was resolved not to return from the battle alive. He chose to die in battle as a martyr in Allah's Cause. Casting aside his sword's sheath strengthened his resolve to bring about his own martyrdom.
6. He fought the enemy fearlessly until he was slain.
7. Finally, we see that Muhammad's objectives were achieved, because his followers were utterly fearless with their lives in Allah's Cause. This fearlessness struck terror in the hearts of those they attacked.

Steeds of War

And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war (tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.) to threaten the enemy of Allâh and your enemy, and others besides whom, you may not know but whom Allâh does know. And whatever you shall spend in the Cause of Allâh shall be repaid unto you, and you shall not be treated unjustly.

Qur'an 8:60

Beautiful Preaching

“Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious..." -- Qur'an 16:125

Scary Comments

But she's an ex-Muslim, though not a Christian, and I think this is representative of the kind of talk that will become more common the coming years:

Reason: [When you say that Islam has to be defeated] Don’t you mean defeating radical Islam?

Hirsi Ali: No. Islam, period. Once it’s defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It’s very difficult to even talk about peace now. They’re not interested in peace.

Reason: We have to crush the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims under our boot? In concrete terms, what does that mean, “defeat Islam”?

Hirsi Ali: I think that we are at war with Islam. And there’s no middle ground in wars. Islam can be defeated in many ways. For starters, you stop the spread of the ideology itself; at present, there are native Westerners converting to Islam, and they’re the most fanatical sometimes. There is infiltration of Islam in the schools and universities of the West. You stop that. You stop the symbol burning and the effigy burning, and you look them in the eye and flex your muscles and you say, “This is a warning. We won’t accept this anymore.” There comes a moment when you crush your enemy.

Reason: Militarily?

Hirsi Ali: In all forms, and if you don’t do that, then you have to live with the consequence of being crushed.

Reason: Are we really heading toward anything so ominous?

Hirsi Ali: I think that’s where we’re heading. We’re heading there because the West has been in denial for a long time. It did not respond to the signals that were smaller and easier to take care of. Now we have some choices to make. This is a dilemma: Western civilization is a celebration of life—everybody’s life, even your enemy’s life. So how can you be true to that morality and at the same time defend yourself against a very powerful enemy that seeks to destroy you?

Reason: George Bush, not the most conciliatory person in the world, has said on plenty of occasions that we are not at war with Islam.

Hirsi Ali: If the most powerful man in the West talks like that, then, without intending to, he’s making radical Muslims think they’ve already won. There is no moderate Islam. There are Muslims who are passive, who don’t all follow the rules of Islam, but there’s really only one Islam, defined as submission to the will of God. There’s nothing moderate about it.

Reason: So when even a hard-line critic of Islam such as Daniel Pipes says, “Radical Islam is the problem, but moderate Islam is the solution,” he’s wrong?

Hirsi Ali: He’s wrong. Sorry about that.

[…]
Reason: In Holland, you wanted to introduce a special permit system for Islamic schools, correct?

Hirsi Ali: I wanted to get rid of them. I wanted to have them all closed, but my party said it wouldn’t fly. Top people in the party privately expressed that they agreed with me, but said, “We won’t get a majority to do that,” so it never went anywhere.

Reason: Well, your proposal went against Article 23 of the Dutch Constitution, which guarantees that religious movements may teach children in religious schools and says the government must pay for this if minimum standards are met. So it couldn’t be done. Would you in fact advocate that again?

Hirsi Ali: Oh, yeah.

Reason: Here in the United States, you’d advocate the abolition of—

Hirsi Ali: All Muslim schools. Close them down. Yeah, that sounds absolutist. I think 10 years ago things were different, but now the jihadi genie is out of the bottle. I’ve been saying this in Australia and in the U.K. and so on, and I get exactly the same arguments: The Constitution doesn’t allow it. But we need to ask where these constitutions came from to start with—what’s the history of Article 23 in the Netherlands, for instance? There were no Muslim schools when the constitution was written. There were no jihadists. They had no idea.

[From Here, Hat tip to Brusselsjournal.com)

2000 Converts to Christianity in Yemen?

Now I've heard it all (but I hope the part about Christianity spreading is true):

Yemeni clerics are warning that Christianity is spreading in the country and called on President ‘Ali ‘Abdallah ‘Salih to stop this phenomenon, the Yemeni weekly Al-Ghad reported, according to UPI.

One hundred Muslim clerics convened in the capital, Sana’a, over the weekend. They claimed that approximately 2,000 Yemeni citizens from the old city of Sana’a have recently converted to Christianity as a result of the cooperation of the local citizens with foreigners in executing terror attacks.

The clerics also warned of the spread of dangerous phenomena of deviations and sinful activities.

(Hat tip to Armies of Liberation)

Abu Daoud in the Lone Star State

Well here I am in the Lone Star State for some teaching and meetings and preaching and so on. If anyone hereabouts wants to see about meeting or just chatting on the phone let me know. I am available (sometimes) to share with churches about Islam and missions.