England: 'Islamic extremists want to establish independent states with sharia law'

From the UK's Daily Mail:

Under the heading 'Muslims should set up Islamic emirates in the UK', MAC [Muslims Against the Crusades] says: 'We suggest it is time that areas with large Muslim populations declare an emirate delineating that Muslims trying to live within this area are trying to live by the sharia as much as possible with their own courts and community watch and schools and even self sufficient trade.

Read it all HERE.

Augustine: "To Thee [O God] there is no such thing as evil..."

Augustine on evil as lack of being:

To thee there is no such thing as evil, and even in thy whole creation taken as a whole, there is not; because there is nothing from beyond it that can burst in and destroy the order which thou hast appointed for it. But in the parts of creation, some things, because they do not harmonize with others, are considered evil. Yet those same things harmonize with others and are good, and in themselves are good. And all these things which do not harmonize with each other still harmonize with the inferior part of creation which we call the earth, having its own cloudy and windy sky of like nature with itself.

Confessions 7:13

What a fount of comfort and wisdom is this great African saint.

Augustine on the bankruptcy of Western academia

Academics are hard to deal with for the most part. They tend to think their learning makes them superior to the common man. Well, Augustine disagrees (and he is smarter than they are, I know).

But those who strut in the high boots of what they deem to be superior knowledge will not hear Him who says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls."

Confessions 7:9

Abu Daoud and the 'Arab Spring'

My personal interpretation of why the Arab Spring is happening, and why it will fail:

Muslims want the benefits of Christendom without the Christianity of Christendmom.

Feel free to quote me on that.

--Abu Daoud

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.

Shifting ground in Australia

Australia is undergoing a huge demographic shift. The numbers and trends in this article indicate an Australia that will be very different in 30 or 40 years. But it does not mean, necessarily, an Islamized Australia. Lots of the immigrants are from Vietnam and India. The former are not Muslims, the later may or may not be Muslims. What is clear is that Australia, in a few decades, will no longer be part of the West. That may not be such a bad thing, but meritocracy and rule of law will certainly suffer, as the country's Judeo-Christian foundations continue to erode.

Australia is undergoing its fastest population boom since the end of World War II, with a growth rate that peaked in late 2008 at double the world average – rather than where they are coming from.

“The angst is really about population growth above race or ethnicity,” says Ms. Betts. “Over the past couple of years Australians have really become pretty distressed about the rapid growth in immigration, particularly in the major cities. They see that infrastructure has not kept up. They see clogged highways, overcrowded hospitals, public transport under pressure, and rising housing costs and there is a lot of concern about that.”

From CS Monitor.

Ramon Llull: Muslims honor Muhammad more than Christians honor Jesus

I recently went on a one-day retreat to spend some time in prayer and reflection, and during that time I read (most of) Ramon Llull's mystical reflections in his Book of the Lover and the Beloved, can be downloaded HERE. It is about 50 pages long and contains a short introductory essay from one of the foremost translators and scholars of Llull, E. Allison Peers.

Most of the meditations (366 of them) are on the nature of love and how the love of God is tied to grief and tribulation. From time to time he gets autobiographical and addresses missionary topic explicitly, in terms of how he has traveled far and wide to defend the honor of his beloved's name, and also his disappointment with the mediocrity of the average Christian of his medieval day.

But there is one verse that explicitly mentions Islam, and I wanted to share that with you:

The Lover (Llull) reproached Christian people, because in their letters they put not the name of his Beloved, Jesus Christ, to do Him the same honour that the Saracens do to the false prophet Mahomet, when they honour him by naming him before everything in their letters. v. 149

Presumably he is referring to a custom of writing the shahada at the beginning of any official communication, which does indeed name Muhammad.

You can find some other of my posts on Llull here, here, and here. A list of all the links is here.

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.

Patron Saint of Muslim converts to Christianity?

Ok, ok, so a lot of you don't believe in patron saints. The idea behind a patron saint is that certain saints have such an affection for certain kinds of people or people in certain situations that they intercede for the before God. If this is indeed the case, then Joseph, patron of travelers, has been interceding for me and my family for years. Also Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries. Also, Aquinas, who is a patron of scholars has been interceding for me. Lots of intercession there! Also, our city in the Middle East has a patron, and presumably that patron prays for us as residents of said city.

Which got me thinking--is there a patron for Muslims who convert to Christianity? I figured there was not, but that Bl Ramon Llull would make a fine patron, should he be recognized as a full-fledged saint some day (which he should).

But alas, it appears that there is a contender for Muslim converts to Christianity: St Casilda of Toledo (died c. 1050).

Augustine: ...in love with love

I was looking for something to love, for I was in love with loving, and I hated security and a smooth way, free from snares.

-Augustine, Confessions 3:1.

Kenneth Cragg on Mission to Muslims

The question about mission can never be 'whether': it can only be 'how.'

2000. ‘Being Made Disciples—the Middle East’ in The Church Mission Society and World Christianity, 1799-1999. Kevin Ward and Brian Stanley eds. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Pp 120-143.

Nikides and the Bible and the Qur'an

I really enjoyed reading Bill Nikides' recent, and very critical, evaluation of the popular book by Mark Siljander, A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide.

I have not read Siljander's book, but I have read material by Nikides in the past and find him to be a competent and fair scholar. One quote from his article that I really liked follows:

The Qur’an is often unfathomable to Christian readers, just as the opposite is true, because it has no narrative, redemptive story organizing the text. With the exception of its first sura, it is simply organized from longest to shortest suras. It lacks the kind of logical flow we find in the Bible. This makes it difficult for Christian readers to understand the Qur’an, but it also makes it difficult for Muslim readers to adjust to the Bible’s underlying structure and logic.

Nikides' review of Siljander's book can be found HERE, in the April issue fo St Francis Magazine.

Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1697

Thanks be to God for books.google! What a treasure trove of information that is :-)

My never-ending research into the history of Christianity in the Middle East brought me to this book, which was footnoted in a book by Kenneth Cragg, if I recall).



This is the account of one English pilgrim, Henry Maundrell, visiting Jerusalem in 1697 for Easter.