Category Archives: World Religions

The Istanbul Process,and A Reminder to Pray for Those Who Are Being Persecuted

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The Obama Administration continues to push Islam-why ? The President does not call on Muslim countries to stop the persecution of Jews and Christians ,he will not take a firm stance against Iran with an embargo that has real teeth,and he continues to undercut Israel. The fact that this administration supports the Istanbul Process should be a major wake up call to anyone who believes in freedom of speech.

 

From the Stonegate Institute -

The explicit aim of the Istanbul Process — currently backed by the Obama administration — is to make it an international crime to criticize Islam.

A Muslim fundamentalist group is organizing a conference focused on turning Austria and other European countries into Islamic states.

The “Caliphate Conference 2012” will be held on March 10 in the Austrian town of Vösendorf, situated just south of Vienna. The main theme of the event will be “The Caliphate: The State Model of the Future.”

The conference is being organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir [Party of Liberation], a pan-Islamic extremist group that seeks to establish a global Islamic state, or caliphate, ruled by Islamic Sharia law.

Hizb ut-Tahrir — which is banned in many countries, including Germany, but is free to operate in Austria — is virulently opposed to Western capitalism and democracy and seeks to extend the future caliphate to Europe and the United States.

According to a promotional video (in German) for the conference, “the Islamic Caliphate is the only social and political system that has the right solutions to the political, social and economic problems of humanity.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned from holding a similar conference in Belgium that had been scheduled for March 4. The group also organized a Caliphate Conference in Amsterdam last July, 2011, and well as a year earlier inChicago in June, 2010.

Analysts say the open nature of the conference in Vienna indicates that Hizb ut-Tahrir is enhancing its recruiting efforts among European Muslims.

According to Steven Emerson, a leading authority on Islamic extremist networks, Hizb ut-Tahrir is emulating the three-stage process by which Muslims established the first Islamic caliphate after the death of the Islamic Prophet, Mohammed, in the year 632.

During the first stage, Hizb ut-Tahrir builds a party by cultivating a small number of supporters to engage in recruitment and propaganda. In the second stage (which Hizb ut-Tahrir is now entering in Europe and the United States), the group educates Muslims in order to recruit a larger group of people to join Hizb ut-Tahrir and support its revolution. Finally, having won the support of Muslims, Hizb ut-Tahrir moves to establish a Sharia-ruled Islamic government.

While Muslims are busy working to Islamize the West from within, they simultaneously insist that Westerners should not be allowed to criticize these efforts.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a group of 57 Muslim countries that purports to be the collective voice of the Muslim world, sponsored an anti-Islamophobia symposium in Brussels on February 15 and 16, 2012.

The first-of-its-kind event was entitled “Smearing Islam and Muslims in the Media,” and was “aimed at establishing information mechanisms to face up to the slanderous campaigns against Islam in the media.”

The workshop was part of the so-called Istanbul Process, an aggressive effort by Muslim countries to make it an international crime to criticize Islam.

The explicit aim of the Istanbul Process is to enshrine in international law a global ban on all critical scrutiny of Islam and Islamic Sharia law.

Based in Saudi Arabia, the OIC has long pressed the European Union and the United States to impose limits on free speech and expression about Islam.

But the OIC has now redoubled its efforts and is engaged in a determined diplomatic offensive to persuade Western democracies to implement United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) Resolution 16/18, which calls on all countries to combat “intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of … religion and belief.” (Analysis of the OIC’s war on free speech can be found here and here.)

 

Rest of the article here – http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2866/caliphate-conference

 

A timely reminder from a friend on the importance of remembering our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted-

 

Definitions:

· Restricted Nation – This includes situations where Christians are kept from obtaining bibles or other Christian literature by government policy or practice. Also included are government-sanctioned ordinances where Christians are harassed, imprisoned, killed, or deprived of their possessions or liberties because of their faith in Jesus.

· Hostile area – This includes large areas in nations where governments consistently attempt to provide protection for the Christian population, but Christians are victims of violence because of their witness.

Christians throughout the world in restricted and hostile countries know well the great cost and actual implications of Jesus words to His disciples…

 

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. (John 15:18-20)

 

Teachings about a pre-tribulation rapture may offer some sort of temporal comfort to some, but Christians in North Korea, Colombia, India, China, Indonesia, Iran, Sudan, and dozens of other countries are presently suffering and proving that “through much tribulation we shall enter into the kingdom of God.”

What’s my point? We who are privileged (or maybe cursed… “only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven”) to be American’s should understand that while the knife is at our brothers throat in other countries it is our duty to…

 

1. Remember them

· VERSE: Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also. (Hebrews 13:3)

· QUESTION: How often during the day, week, month, year do we contemplate the reality of God’s persecuted church?

2. Pray for them

· VERSE: Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. (Acts 12:5)

· QUESTION: How often during the day, week, month, year do we pray for God’s persecuted church?

 

Pray for Youcef Nadarkhani and his family

· An Execution Order has been issued for Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

 

· Sentenced to death for becoming a Christian and departing Islam and refusing to recant

· He has a wife and a 9 year old and a 7 year old.

· Illegally Imprisoned, 863 days

· Could be pardoned if he would recant or affirm that Mohammad is God’s prophet

 

You can read about Youcef Nadarkhani here…

http://aclj.org/Nadarkhani

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. (Revelation 6:9-11)

Want to discover more about the persecuted?

http://www.persecution.com

An Orwellian Veil of Silence: The United States Government and Islam

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Here is a post from a Christian brother whom I respect very much. He does solid research,and when he says that -

the government of the United States has become an ally of the radical Islamic Movement, under the careful guidance of Muslim Brotherhood agents in the US. The first victims of this alliance are secular and liberal activists all across the Middle East, whose bodies are being broken and voices silenced because of official American engagement with and support for the cause of radical Islam.

He has research and observations to back it up. Mark Drurie – http://markdurie.blogspot.com/

For years now I have been visiting the US regularly, and usually make my way to Washington DC, where I have had many opportunities to meet with journalists, politicians, lobbyists and other experts who are paying attention to the course of Islam in the US. These conversations, and a whole host of reports from a wide variety of sources, including White House official statements, have made it obvious to me that there is increasing trend for US government agencies to align with and empower radical Muslim agendas. At the same time, American elites are being cowed into silence. If anything, they seem less capable of critiquing radical Islam than they were a decade ago. An Orwellian veil of silence through control of public discourse is being pulled over eyes of many in the Land of the Free.
To put it bluntly, the government of the United States has become an ally of the radical Islamic Movement, under the careful guidance of Muslim Brotherhood agents in the US. The first victims of this alliance are secular and liberal activists all across the Middle East, whose bodies are being broken and voices silenced because of official American engagement with and support for the cause of radical Islam.
I was discussing this observation with friends who had made their way to Australia from the former Soviet Union decades ago. Their comment was: “In Russia we just called people like that saboteurs.” They were referring to the present US administration. This view may seem absurd, but the evidence is clear enough.
In the light of these troubling thoughts, I was startled to come across the following recent article by Essam Abdallah, a prominent Egyptian liberal intellectual. He claims that radical Islam is winning in the Middle East because of carefully targetted support for the Islamic Movement by the US.
Interested readers may also wish to follow the commentary – and follow upcoming discussion of this issue – at the Investigative Project. Other articles http://markdurie.blogspot.com/-

 

From Doug Ross- (added 2-19-2012)-http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

Dan from NY:

A sobering thought: The legacy media’s decision to protect Obama at all costs means they are willfully keeping the American public in the dark, suppressing vital information and debate about the steady growth of the Islamists’ influence over Obama’s foreign policy and his administration in general. We should thank Heaven for the work-around made possible by the Internet. If we can keep the regulators’ hands off, it may eventually save us. But if Barack Hussein Obama gets another four years to tinker with our nation, gornischt helfen, nothing will save us.

A note from Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson:

Please take the time to read this very important story written by a courageous Egyptian liberal intellectual about the Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood lobbies in Washington and the Obama Administration’s secret collaboration with these pro-terrorist, anti-Western, anti-women, anti-American and anti-Semitic organizations. This is one of the most important articles I have read in years.

It was just revealed two days ago that FBI Director Mueller secretly met on February 8 at FBI headquarters with a coalition of groups including various Islamist and militant Arabic groups who in the past have defended Hamas and Hizballah and have also issued blatantly anti-Semitic statements. At this meeting, the FBI revealed that it had removed more than 1000 presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that was deemed “offensive.” The FBI did not reveal what criteria was used to determine why material was considered “offensive” but knowledgeable law enforcement sources have told the IPT that it was these radical groups who made that determination. Moreover, numerous FBI agents have confirmed that from now on, FBI headquarters has banned all FBI offices from inviting any counter-terrorist specialists who are considered “anti-Islam” by Muslim Brotherhood front groups.

The February 8 FBI meeting was the culmination of a series of unpublicized directives issued in the last three months by top FBI officials to all its field offices to immediately recall and withdraw any presentation or curricula on Islam throughout the entire FBI. In fact, according to informed sources and undisclosed documents, the FBI directive was instigated by radical Muslim groups in the US who had repeatedly met with top officials of the Obama Administration to complain, among other things, that the mere usage of the term of “radical Islam” in FBI curricula was “offensive” and ‘racist.” And thus, directives went out by Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Mueller to censor all such material. Included in the material destroyed or removed by the FBI and the DOJ were powerpoints and articles that defined jihad as “holy war” or presentations that portrayed the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization bent on taking over the world—a major tenant that the Muslim Brotherhood has publicly stated for decades.

 

 

As the Obama administration continues it’s weak kneed response to the Iranian push for nuclear weapons,it is worth reminding ourselves of the evil of the Iranian government. Amil Imani is an Iranian who no longer lives in Iran,and thus can speak the truth about what is happening over there.

http://amilimani.com/

killed-protestor-taraneh-mousavi

Rape is a cruel violation of a helpless victim. In addition to the physical torment involved, rape reduces the victim to subhuman status. Under the barbaric rule of the Mullahcracy in Iran, however, sexual assaults have become instruments of policy for extracting false confessions, satisfying the boundless sadisms and sexual perversities of the jailers, punishing the helpless victim and leaving each of them with a sense of dehumanization. These horrors keep playing out, unabated, in the streets, prisons and dungeons of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Read the rest of this entry »

http://amilimani.com/

 

As the Weekly Standard points out -

Even the Los Angeles Times notices that President Obama has gone soft on Iran:

Despite the Obama administration’s vows to cripple Iran with economic sanctions, it is leaders in Congress and Europe who have seized the lead in the West’s long-running campaign to punish Tehran for its suspected nuclear weapons program.
In recent months, the toughest moves to deter Iran from pursuing its presumed nuclear ambitions have come from a bipartisan group in Congress and European allies, especially Britain and France. The White House at first resisted these steps before embracing them as inevitable.
The administration has imposed dozens of sanctions on Iran since 2009, but it has carefully calibrated their effect. Officials fear that too powerful a blow to the world’s third-largest oil exporter could cause an oil price increase, damaging the global economic recovery, undermining international support for the sanctions campaign and creating political trouble in an election year.

Rest of the article – http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-goes-soft-iran_630065.html

Even the liberal Guardian in Great Britain has noticed that sanctions are bound to fail against Iran -

Officials in key parts of the Obama administration are increasingly convinced that sanctions will not deter Tehran from pursuing its nuclear programme, and believe that the US will be left with no option but to launch an attack on Iran or watch Israel do so.

The president has made clear in public, and in private to Israel, that he is determined to give sufficient time for recent measures, such as the financial blockade and the looming European oil embargo, to bite deeper into Iran’s already battered economy before retreating from its principal strategy to pressure Tehran.

But there is a strong current of opinion within the administration – including in the Pentagon and the state department – that believes sanctions are doomed to fail, and that their principal use now is in delaying Israeli military action, as well as reassuring Europe that an attack will only come after other means have been tested.

Rest of the article – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/17/us-officials-iran-sanctions-military-action

Obama’s Middle East policies are undermining our ally Israel,undercutting what few Muslim moderates exist,and emboldening our enemies,including the Iranian mullahs.

Lastly,some subtle sarcasm from Weasel Zippers – http://weaselzippers.us/

Good News: Syrian Rebels Flying Black Al-Qaeda Flag…

We’ve also seen the al-Qaeda flag openly flown in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.

A piece of footage in an Al-Jazeera English segment showing Free Syrian Army fighters showed a black-and-white flag similar (but not the same) as that used by the Islamic State of Iraq and Somalia’s Al-Shabab. The footage also shows a banner reading, “Al-Bara’ bin Malik Brigade,” named after a prominent Companion of the Prophet Muhammad who is renowned for his bravery and military prowess. This historical personage is popular. Al-Qa’ida in the Land of the Two Rivers (Iraq) named its martyrdom brigade after him

The Obama Administration:Willfully or Ignorantly Blind to the Nature of Islam ?

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The parable of the blind

U.S. National Intelligence Director Cites Muslim Brotherhood As Bulwark Against Al-Qaeda- http://globalmbreport.org

 

 

 

In his statement for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appears to endorse the concept Muslim Brotherhood involvement in the Mideast political process will serve as some kind of bulwark against Al-Qaeda and other such groups. He writes:

If, over the longer term, governments take real steps to address public demands for political participation and democratic institutions—and remain committed to CT efforts—we judge that core al-Qaeda and the global jihadist movement will experience a strategic setback. Al Qaeda probably will find it difficult to compete for local support with groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that participate in the political process, provide social services, and advocate religious values. Nonviolent, pro-democracy demonstrations challenge al Qaeda’s violent jihadist ideology and might yield increased political power for secular or moderate Islamist parties.

In February 2011, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter Ian Johnson published an article titled “Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood” in which he reviews the history of the US relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and should serve as a cautionary note regarding the policies implied above. The piece begins:

As US-backed strongmen around North Africa and the Middle East are being toppled or shaken by popular protests, Washington is grappling with a crucial foreign-policy issue: how to deal with the powerful but opaque Muslim Brotherhood. In Egypt, the Brotherhood has taken an increasingly forceful part in the protests, issuing a statement Thursday calling for Mubarak’s immediate resignation. And though it is far from clear what role the Brotherhood would have should Mubarak step down, the Egyptian president has been claiming it will take over. In any case, the movement is likely to be a major player in any transitional government.Journalists and pundits are already weighing in with advice on the strengths and dangers of this 83-year-old Islamist movement, whose various national branches are the most potent opposition force in virtually all of these countries. Some wonder how the Brotherhood will treat Israel, or if it really has renounced violence. Most—including the Obama administration —seem to think that it is a movement the West can do business with, even if the White House denies formal contacts.If this discussion evokes a sense of déjà vu, this is because over the past sixty years we have had it many times before, with almost identical outcomes. Since the 1950s, the United States has secretly struck up alliances with the Brotherhood or its offshoots on issues as diverse as fighting communism and calming tensions among European Muslims. And if we look to history, we can see a familiar pattern: each time, US leaders have decided that the Brotherhood could be useful and tried to bend it to America’s goals, and each time, maybe not surprisingly, the only party that clearly has benefited has been the Brotherhood.

Read the rest here.

 

Report: Taliban poised to retake Afghanistan following NATO withdrawal

It won’t be the Afghan government that fills the security vacuum. As became the template for the decade to follow in other countries, the U.S. greatly underestimated the Afghan population’s support for the Taliban, for Sharia, and for jihad for the sake of imposing it. That is in large part because the U.S. greatly underestimated the content of Sharia, accepting a sugar-coated, vapor-ware Sharia — what is at best an academic, drawing-board conception of what Sharia, could, would, or should be according to agenda-driven apologists, and at worst an outright lie — as what it really has been in practice all these centuries.

“Taliban “poised to retake Afghanistan” after NATO,” by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni for Reuters, February 1:

KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. military said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the existence of the document, reported on Wednesday by Britain’s Times newspaper and theBBC.

But he said it was not a strategic study.

 

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that prior to any negotiations, confidence building measures must be completed, putting pressure on Washington to meet demands for the release of five Taliban in U.S. custody.

The hardline Islamist movement also said it had no plans to hold preliminary peace talks with Afghanistan’s government in Saudi Arabia, dismissing media reports of talks in the kingdom.

The U.S. military said in the document that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) security agency was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces.

Reasserting control over the country would be more difficult a second time for the
Taliban, however, with Afghan police and soldiers expected to number about 350,000 beyond 2014 and some foreign troops likely to remain, including elite forces.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/

Christ or Krishna ?

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Men are apt to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine and deceived by seducing spirits. One can be a “Christian” with his feeling and a heathen with his head. ( Lit-sen Chang,Zen-Existentialism,)

Here is a story from the blog of Joe Carter about a Reformed philosopher who has had a spiritual experience and become a devotee of Krishna.

The Story: Philosopher of religion Michael Sudduth recently announced in an open letter that he has undergone a surprising religious conversion: “Despite my long-standing adherence to the Christian tradition, my spiritual journey has now moved me eastward and outside the framework of Christian theism.”

In a lengthy explanation—which philosopher William Vallicella posted on his website— Sudduth says that for the past twenty-five years he has been “an adherent of the Reformed theological tradition.” But last September he underwent a religious experience that led him to embrace the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism:

Around 4:20am (Friday morning) September 16th, I woke suddenly from a deep sleep to the sound of the name of “Krishna” being uttered in some way, as if someone was present in my room and had spoken his name out loud. Upon waking I immediately had a most profound sense of Krishna’s actual presence in my bedroom, a presence no less real than the presence of another living person in the room, though I was alone at the time. I responded to this felt presence, first through my thoughts that repeated Krishna’s name (and inquired of his presence), and then verbally out loud by uttering Krishna’s name twice: Krishna, Krishna. I was seized at this moment with a most sweet feeling of completeness and joy. I felt as if Krishna was there with me in my room and actually heard my voice, and that my response had completed a process that began with his name within my mind. I pondered this experience for several minutes, while at the same time continuing to experience a most blissful serenity and feeling of oneness with God, not unlike I had experienced on many occasions in the past in my relationship with the Lord Jesus. It was a most profound sense of both awe and intimacy with God in the form of Lord Krishna.

Rest of the story here – http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/01/22/from-john-calvin-to-hare-krishna/

Krishna

Just a few observations.

  • Sudduth has been an “adherent of the Reformed theological tradition”. Has he ever been born again ? Has he ever repented of his sins and received the new life of Jesus Christ? Was he a follower of Christ, or a follower of the Reformed traditon?
  • After reading Sudduth’s “testimony” it was obvious that he was being drawn deeper and deeper into Eastern religious thought. The Bible’s claim is not that a person cannot have spiritual experiences that flow out of other religious traditions,but that these experiences are counterfeit experiences from the realm of darkness.

12 And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.(II Corinthians 11:12-15)

  • Spiritual warfare is real-the key is discerning whether one’s spiritual experiences are from God or not. Feelings of blissfulness,serenity,and oneness “with God” can be duplicated by drugs as well as by spiritual beings who are attempting to seduce one away from Jesus Christ.
  •  There is a tremendous movement in the world today to equate all religions as being one and the same. Krishna and Jesus Christ are not one and the same,and they are not spiritually or morally equivalent. Krishna is not another manifestation of God,or on the same level as Christ.

The Word Became Flesh- John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Wordwas God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were madethrough him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In himwas life,and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as awitness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world didnot know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receivehim. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave theright to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said,‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side,he has made him known.

 

 

Who has believed what he has heard from us?And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,and like a root out of dry ground;he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,and no beauty that we should desire him.3 He was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.(Isaiah 53:1-3)

 

For more information on the topic of Krishna and Christianity check these sites out :

http://kingdavid8.com/Copycat/JesusKrishna.html

http://thedevineevidence.com/jesus_similarities.html

http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/krishna02.html

http://www.christianlibrary.org.au/cel/documents/cults/13.html

Obamic Change You Can Count On,Saudi Totalitarianism,and Epigenetic Keys

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Four more years of this ??

Obama Economic Record November 2011

Saudi Security Forces Arrest 42 Ethiopian Christians For Praying…HT-http://weaselzippers.us/2011/12/18/saudi-security-forces-arrest-42-ethiopian-christians-for-praying/

The Wahhabi crime fighters strike again.

Washington, D.C. (December 17, 2011) — International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Saudi security forces arrested 42 Ethiopian Christians at a prayer gathering in Jeddah on Thursday. The location of the detained Christians is unknown.

On December 15, Saudi police and security officers raided an evening prayer meeting at the home of an Ethiopian Christian in the Al-Safa district of Jeddah. Those attending the service were reportedly beaten and threatened before being arrested.

“Security officials broke [into] the house and captured . . . beat and threatened them for death. . . They divided the men and the women and they are torturing them [in prison],” an Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian immigrant community living in Europe wrote in an urgent appeal for help to the ambassadors of European embassies in Riyadh on Friday.

Two Ethiopian fellowships in Saudi Arabia informed ICC that they will temporarily postpone services until the situation calms. Christians in Saudi Arabia, most of who enter the country as foreign workers, are not allowed to practice their faith openly. Saudi police have been known to raid private worship gatherings in homes, arrest and deport congregants, and confiscate Christian materials, including Bibles.

Respect !!

 

By the way,for all of you in the Tampa,Florida area,here is a heads up for what looks like a great conference –

 

 

For more information – http://www.apologetics.org/

Dhimmis in the West Curtail Freedom of Speech

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Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Winston writing, Part 1, Chapter 7.

The ruling elites have redefined the right to the freedom of speech as to what fits their politically correct agenda. Criticizing Islam doesn’t fit the agenda so the criticism becomes a crime.Here are some articles that illustrate the extent of the problem.

My name is Paul Derengowski, and I was hired by Tarrant County College in 2008 to teach Great World Religions, Bible History I & II, and Introduction to Philosophy.

On November 8, 2011, I gave the second of a two-part lecture on Islam, as I’ve been doing Spring, Fall, and sometimes twice in the Summer, dealing with Islamic history and doctrine, and more particularly Muhammad’s move to Medina. A question had been raised by two Muslim students in the previous the lecture concerning the sources I used to discuss the raid at Nakhlah. At the start of the second lecture I provided my sources (The Life of Muhammad by Haykal and the Qur’an), which included reading Sura 2:216-217. That is when all hell broke loose.

Both Muslim students, for an hour, berated me, my sources, and my credentials. When other students in the class attempted to ask questions or make comments, then the Muslim students would interrupt them as well. Finally, toward the end of the class period, a student made a comment on how “scary” the person of Muhammad seemed to be. That’s when the male Muslim blurted out “you ought to be scared,” and then bolted for the door in a fit of outrage. I subsequently filed a campus police report on him out of concern for the safety of students and myself. The female followed suit as well, claiming later in a libelous email she passed around unbeknownst to me—that is, until one of the students forwarded the diatribe to me later—that she was not going to sit there and listen to me slander her religion, even though all I did was quote from Islamic sources.

Rest of the article here- http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/muslim-students-threaten-force-resignation-of-prof-who-quoted-from-islamic-texts.html

 

In Great Britain the problem is even worse. An article by Daniel Greenfield recounts the Emma West saga -

The Prisoner

Posted: 10 Dec 2011 07:43 PM PST

Few other places turn out dystopian fantasies quite like the United Kingdom and if the United States has never quite become the chrome skyscraper and flying car utopian wonderland of its utopian fantasies, with its ubiquitous cameras and DNA banks, the United Kingdom seems well on the way to its dystopian destination.

 

1984, The Prisoner and V for Vendetta are all a train ride away nowadays. Say the wrong thing and you can expect to be wearing a prison suit and nominated for a national run on Two Minute Hate.
Towards the end of last month, the UK launched a nationwide manhunt or woman hunt, in coordination with online activists, Labour politicians and the police to bring the most feared criminal in the islands to justice. The lady, whose last name is appropriately enough West, will be spending Christmas in prison away from her three children. Her crime was to engage in some abrasive taunts with the denizens of the New Britain complete with obscenities and be videotaped doing it.
West was hunted down, tips were solicited from the public, Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour opposition, who always manages to wear the face of a well-meaning idiot, retweeted the “important appeal” to track down a woman who was threatening the nation by shouting on a tram that the Poles, Nicaraguans and Blacks should go back where they came from.
Needless to say the charming fellows from Hizb-Ut-Tahir, Islam4UK, Muslims Against Crusades or their associated groups rarely have to spend Christmas or Eid in prison no matter how many poppies they burn or how many slurs they shout. Anjem Choudary is not likely to touch off any morality mobs on Twitter. The same people who desperately sought Emma would sneer at the Daily Mail mentality for even acknowledging good old Anjem.
And around a week or so later the very generous Judge Robert Brown freed four Muslim women who beat a native British woman senseless while shouting racial slurs at her, judging that it was only their inexperience with alcohol that led them to misbehave. The Romans used to say In Vino Veritas, but in New Britain if you’re Muslim and drunk you get a free pass on assault.

Rest of the article here – http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

In an ominous move,the Obama administration is playing footsie with an Islamic group that loves to curtail criticism of Mohammed and Islam.

 

From Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch-

Irony meter melts into a puddle; White House janitorial staff working overtime as Obama admin to welcome OIC to discussion on “tolerance”

When fascism comes to America, it will be waving a “Co-Exist” bumper sticker and telling you to “be nice.”

Which is more disturbing: the notion that the administration is overrun with gullible idealists lost in politically correct fantasies, or that they know exactly what they are doing? Either way, the outcome threatens to be disastrous.

While the Organization Formerly Known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, long committed to crushing free speech, suffered a setback in achieving an international ban on “religious defamation” (or defamation for me, but not for thee) in March, the Obama administration has gone in hook, line, and sinker for the OIC’s game.

Hillary Clinton announced her intentions to coordinate a meeting on religious “defamation” and “stereotyping” in July. At a meeting she co-chaired with the OIC’s secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the OIC, US, and EU agreed to “take concrete steps” to combat “intolerance” and “negative stereotyping.” The measure is supposedly taken in the name of all religions, but would be used as a club by the OIC with which to beat other nations into submission against criticism of Islam. But Clinton also said in mid-July that she believes the US and OIC can come to an agreement on “tolerance.”

The White House is now gearing up for the next round. Even if the OIC does not get exactly what it wants just yet, it will have moved the ball down the field toward the goal line by having its agenda dignified with a response other than “No. We’re on to you, and we refuse to play along.” “Obama Administration Welcoming Islamic Group to Washington for Discussion on ‘Tolerance’,” by Patrick Goodenough for CNSNews, December 9: Rest of the article here – http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/irony-meter-melts-into-a-puddle-white-house-janitorial-staff-working-overtime-as-obama-admin-to-welc.html

Just a few examples of what is happening. It would help if we would start thinking about important issues. One of those important issues is whether we have a real relationship with the Lord.

13But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.

15Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.(Ephesians 5:13-15)

What Does Mitt Romney Think About Islam ?

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Since Mitt Romney is running for president it might be nice to know what he thinks about jihad and Islam. We certainly don’t need four more years of aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Pam Geller did an interview with Romney several years ago. Here is the gist of it-

Mitt Romney: Jihadism Is Not Part of IslamWith Obama’s big speech to the Muslim world in the offing, I asked Mitt Romney in an interview yesterday about a major speech on national security that he gave on Monday at the Heritage Foundation (see above video). In it, Romney referred to Islam only insofar as he referred to “jihadism,” a term he used four times in the address, and to “mullahs” and “ayatollahs.”

I asked Romney how he’d respond to Muslim complaints that his speech characterized Islam in entirely sinister terms. His response surprised me:

I didn’t refer to Islam at all, or to any other religion for that matter. I spoke about three major threats America faces on a long term basis. Jihadism is one of them, and that is not Islam. If you want my views on Islam, it’s quite straightforward. Islam is one of the world’s great religions and the great majority of people in Islam want peace for themselves and peace with their maker. They want to raise families and have a bright future.

There is, however, a movement in the world known as jihadism. They call themselves jihadists and I use the same term. And this jihadist movement is intent on causing the collapse of moderate Muslim states and the assassination of moderate Muslim leaders. It is also intent on causing collapse of other nations in the world. It’s by no means a branch of Islam. It is instead an entirely different entity. In no way do I suggest it is a part of Islam.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/07/why-romney-wont-be-president.html

 

Well, that certainly sounds like an Obama quote doesn’t it. It also betrays a staggering ignorance about Islam,(at the very least).

The other day Romney again was asked about Islam. Surprisingly he hasn’t flip flopped,which is a shame as it would have showed he had studied and learned.

 

 

Here is a brief blogging article about what Romney said -

Cedar Rapids, Ia. – Mitt Romney responded today to a call for a tougher stance against Muslims by saying that most Muslims are peaceful people who deserve respect.

The issue came up during a question-and-answer session at a campaign stop here this morning. A man rose from the audience, claimed he had many Muslim friends, but said, “I have never heard one Muslim condemn Islamic jihad or terrorism. I see Islamic jihad as one of the greatest threats to America and the western world. Are you going to continue to give Islam and Islamic jihad in this country a pass like everybody before you continues to do? The only people that call Islam a religion of peace are the Muslims, and they are the most violent religion in the world.”

Romney said radical, violent Islamists pose a threat to Americans and others around the world. However, he said, “they take a very different view of Islam than the Muslims I know.” He noted that he was raised in the Detroit area, which has a large Muslim population. “They are peace-loving and America-loving individuals. I believe that very sincerely. I believe people of the Islamic faith do not have to subscribe to the idea of radical, violent jihadism.”http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/09/mitt-romney-islam-is-not-an-inherently-violent-faith/

 

 

Obviously this is the politically correct answer to give. But his answer begs the question in numerous ways. Santorum,Bachmann,and Gingrich are all far ahead of Romney in their understanding of the nature of Islam and their willingness to speak out about it.

For those of you who need a quick education on the true nature of Islam and Jihad check out the articles in the Islam category of this blog for a start,and follow the links given-it will be an education.I know Muslims,and although they are not violent Jihadists,they are willing to help the spread of Islam in other ways,and they are willing for Sharia Law to replace the Constitution. Dearborn (Detroit area) Michigan has become synonymous with Muslim intolerance and American dhimmitude. Mitt would be a dhimmi president if his current beliefs were not to change.

 

The Islamic Center of America,Dearborn Michigan

 

Here is an article written by a man who knows Islam,Amil Amani-

Islam And The West Are Incompatible

Western policymakers and elites in government, academia, and the media suffer from an extraordinary ignorance about the true nature of Islam and regrettably, Islam enjoys a large and influential ally among non-Muslims. This ignorance was on display following the murder of thirteen American troops at Fort Hood, Texas by Major Nidal Hasan, a devout Muslim who held the rank of Major in the U.S. Army. Hasan is said to have shouted Allah o Akbar “Allah is Greatest” in Arabic as he gunned down his unarmed fellow troops.
The Muslim population is rapidly burgeoning in America by high birth rate as well as successful extensive conversion in prisons. Even by the rules of probability, a fraction of these Muslims may be deeply influenced by the Jihad preachers and take upon themselves Islamist missions of various severity and destruction. How many Jihadists did it take to pulverize the NY Trade Centers? It took one Maj. Nidal Hasan to take the life of 13 and injure 29 others in an outburst of Islamic peace making. Rest of the article -

http://amilimani.com/2011/12/islam-and-the-west-are-incompatible/

Workplace Violence,Bad Tempers,and Islamic Extremists

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“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Special Edition

 

Check out this surrealistic exchange from Wednesday’s hearing, between Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., and Paul Stockton, Assistant Defense Secretary for Homeland Defense:

REPRESENTATIVE DANIEL LUNGREN (R-CA): Secretary Stockton, are we at war with violent Islamist extremism?

MR. STOCKTON: No, sir. We are at war with al-Qaida, its affiliates –

REP. LUNGREN: OK, I understand that. My question is, is violent Islamist extremism at war with us?

MR. STOCKTON: No, sir. We are being attacked by al-Qaida and its allies.

REP. LUNGREN: Is al-Qaida — can it be described as being an exponent of violent Islamist extremism?

MR. STOCKTON: They — al-Qaida are murderers with an ideological agenda –

REP. LUNGREN: No, I — that’s not my question. That wasn’t my question. My question was, is al-Qaida acting out violent Islamist extremism?

MR. STOCKTON: Al-Qaida is a violent organization dedicated to overthrowing the values that we intend to advance –

REP. LUNGREN: So is it yes or no?

MR. STOCKTON: Can I hear the question again? I’ll make it as clear as I can. We are not at war with Islam. And it is not –

REP. LUNGREN: I didn’t ask that — I did not ask that, sir. I asked whether we’re at war with violent Islamist extremism. That’s my question.

MR. STOCKTON: No, we’re at war with al-Qaida and its affiliates.

REP. LUNGREN: Well, al-Qaida — how does al-Qaida define itself? Are they dedicated to violent Islamist extremism?

MR. STOCKTON: Al-Qaida would love to convince Muslims around the world that the United States is at war with Islam.

REP. LUNGREN: I didn’t say that.

MR. STOCKTON: That’s a prime propaganda tool.

REP. LUNGREN: Sir –

MR. STOCKTON: And I’m not going to aid and abet that effort to advance their propaganda goal.

REP. LUNGREN: No, no, my question is, is there a difference between Islam and violent Islamist extremism?

MR. STOCKTON: Sir, with great respect, I don’t believe it’s helpful to frame our adversary as Islamic with any set of qualifiers that we might add, because we are not at war with Islam.

REP. LUNGREN: I understand that. I never said we were at war with Islam. One of the questions we’re trying to deal with is the radicalization of Islam, is the radicalization of Islamic youth. And if we can’t distinguish between violent Islamist extremism and Islam, then all this stuff about behavioral indicators doesn’t mean anything.

Keep reading…

http://weaselzippers.us/2011/12/09/obama-dhs-official-not-helpful-to-frame-our-adversary-as-islamic-with-any-set-of-qualifiers-because-we-are-not-at-war-with-islam/

 

Politically correct thinking is what has led to this-

During a joint session House and Senate Homeland Security Committees on Wednesday, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins blasted a letter by the Department of Defense labeling the Fort Hood Massacres carried out by Major Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, who was station at Fort Hood at the time as a case of workplace violence. Major Hasan currently stands accused of carrying out the massacre that killed 13 people (12 of his fellow soldiers, 1 civilian and one unborn child) as well as wounded 29 others on November 5th 2009

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn), who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, states that. “The U.S. Military has become a direct target of violent Islamist extremists based here in the United States.”

In a interview with Fox News before the joint committee meeting, Senator Lieberman went on to further state that the U.S. military services member was increasingly under the scope of terrorists not only just overseas, but within the United States as well.

http://biggovernment.com/kmartin/2011/12/08/obama-administration-labels-the-fort-hood-massacre-as-a-case-of-work-place-violence/

When there is a pattern of behavior by an individual,or by many individuals world wide,or by a particular religion over thousands of years one should take note – it could save lives.

From Daniel Greenfield

Down a wooded stretch of road in Walla Walla, Inmate number 337762 sleeps the long nights away at Washington State Penitentiary. WSP offers educational programs in graphic design, bookkeeping and IT as well as a program to raise pheasants. The Eid feast took place in the dining hall and it’s likely that Inmate 337762 stopped by for a bite.

If some nights when the wind blows cold, Inmate 337762 dreams it is likely that he dreams of his day of glory when he shot six women at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

Naveed Afzal Haq, known in Walla Walla as Inmate 337762, is not the only Muslim serving time at WSP, but he is probably the only successful Jihadist there. Mikhail Jihad, also known as Michael McCright, passed through there after trying to attack a car carrying military personnel. Mike Jihad was in contact with Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh who were planning to storm the South Seattle military processing station with automatic rifles and grenades hoping to kill as many recruits as possible. But while Jihad, Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh unsuccessfully went after the military, Naveed Haq picked a softer target: a Jewish community center.

While Naveed Haq sleeps in Walla Walla, Pamela Waechter rests in Givaot Olam Cemetery, on her recessed stone is a single carved flower. Pamela was not Naveed Haq’s only victim, but she was the only who didn’t survive his shooting spree.

The victims were all women, some Jewish, some not. Cheryl Stumbo, the center’s marketing director, stepped out of her office when she heard a disturbance. Naveed Haq had put a gun to her fourteen year old niece and forced her to use the intercom so he could enter the building. He shot Cheryl in the stomach. Shards of the bullet pierced her large and small intestine and lodged in her uterus. When she asked him why he was doing this. Naveed Haq identified himself as an angry Muslim and shouted something about “You Jews”. Cheryl was not Jewish, she just worked there. Rest of the story here-

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/08/in-the-face-of-evil/

 

http://www.amazon.com/Never-Ending-War-Michael-Cappi/dp/142513081X

The Muslim Brotherhood: Masters of the World Wannabe’s

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Since the Muslim Brotherhood has been all over the news lately it’s time for a refresher course in what they believe in and want. HT to Jihad Watch for the following-http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/egypt-book-by-1996-2002-muslim-brotherhood-leader-says-muslims-are-masters-of-the-world.html

Egypt: Book by 1996-2002 Muslim Brotherhood leader says Muslims are “masters of the world”

Mustafa Mashhur was in charge only 15 years ago, so this work cannot be written off so easily as an alleged relic of the Ikhwan’s “past.” Nonetheless, the Brotherhood, which railed against corruption in Mubarak’s regime, is already putting its own inclination to lie and defraud on full display. If this work attracts sufficient attention now, will they throw it under the bus?

The title of Mashhur’s book, by the way, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” PMW provides the full translation in .pdf format and at the link immediately below. Their summary and significant quotations are reproduced here.

The translation of this work is a tremendous service by PMW. “Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Ideology: PMW translation of “Jihad Is the Way’,” by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, December 4:

Central messages:
1- Muslims are “masters of the world”
2- Islamic nation’s “rightful position… the teachers of humanity”
3- “There is no other option but Jihad for Allah
4- Fighting Israel is “Jihad against the criminal, thieving gangs of Zion”
5- Has the [Muslim] Brotherhood grown weary of the challenges, thrown down their guns and abandoned Jihad?!! No!”

The Muslim Brotherhood took first place in Egypt’s first round of elections last week with 40% of the vote and the Salafist Islamists received 20%. In order to understand the implications, Palestinian Media Watch is redistributing our translation of the book Jihad Is the Way, written by Mustafa Mashhur, who was the official leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt 1996-2002. The book is the fifth volume of his work called The Laws of Da’wa (Islamic missionary activity).

In the book Jihad Is the Way the fundamental concepts of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology are explained, including, the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal of establishing an Islamic state, world domination under Islam, the public and personal religious duty of military Jihad, and the necessity of timing the ultimate Jihad properly. The book warns Muslims not to rush to Jihad until Jihad is prepared and timed fully for maximum benefit. The current period is seen by the Muslim Brotherhood as one of obligatory preparation for that coming Jihad.

PMW has selected the following quotes from Jihad is the way to illustrate central ideas of Muslim Brotherhood ideology. PMW’s translation of the book follows below

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/egypt-book-by-1996-2002-muslim-brotherhood-leader-says-muslims-are-masters-of-the-world.html

 

Also check out Raymond Ibrahim’s article – http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10824/muslim-brotherhood-confessions

The online version of the long-running Arabic journal Ruz al-Yusif carries an exclusive interview with Sheikh Osama al-Qusi entitled, “Former Salafi: Salafis Have Distorted Islam.” In the interview, Qusi discusses the “true thoughts” of the various Islamic groups, which “they conceal under a political mask”; he insists they have “distorted and exploited” Islam.

Osama Qusi: 39 years of Brotherhood experience.

What he says concerning the Muslim Brotherhood and its methods of indoctrination and subversion are particularly noteworthy—notwithstanding Obama’s Director of National Intelligence’s assurances that the Brotherhood is a “largely secular” organization.Rest of the article here – http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10824/muslim-brotherhood-confessions

Remember,there have been at least three members of the Muslim Brotherhood appointed to positions within the current administration by the White House. As Cal Thomas says,

Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?

By: Cal Thomas | 02/18/10 4:00 AM
Examiner Columnist

President Obama’s appointment of Rashad Hussain, his deputy associate counsel, as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference — the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations, charged with safeguarding and protecting “the interests of the Muslim world” — should be of serious concern to Congress and the American public.

Especially because Hussain, a devout Muslim, has a history of participating in events connected with the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Chicago Tribune, “the world’s most influential Islamic fundamentalist group” whose goal is to create Muslim states throughout the world.

In 1991, a memo written by Mohamed Akram for the Shura Council of the Muslim Brotherhood spelled out the objective of the organization. Akram said the Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

I am unable to find any “revelation” that has repealed that objective. Quite the contrary. Terrorists seem on track for implementing it

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/node/118586#ixzz1flFpc98U

Two Perspectives on Mormonism: Richard Mouw and Ed Decker

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Richard Mouw is the President of Fuller Theological Seminary.

Mormonism: Not a cult, not a problem
Richard J. Mouw (“Los Angeles Times,” November 20, 2011)

USA – Some voters are convinced that if Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination, we run the risk of ending up with a member of a “cult” in the White House. Many of my fellow evangelicals are especially concerned about this possibility. Some are unhappy with me because I have gone on record as saying that Romney’s church, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is not a cult.

It’s not that these folks believe that Mormons are unfit for any public office. Many evangelicals voted for Romney as governor of Massachusetts — and in earlier days Mitt’s father, George Romney, got strong evangelical support as Michigan’s governor.

The presidency, though, is seen as a special case. John F. Kennedy discovered that when he ran for president in 1960. People who had lived contentedly under Catholic mayors and senators suddenly began weaving conspiracy theories about a president who — so the stories went — would have a direct line to the pope in Rome.

The fact that I’m not worried about the possibility of a Mormon in the White House does not mean that I think religious affiliation has no relevance to the question of fitness for office. Religious convictions have political implications. I would have a difficult time voting for candidates with certain religious perspectives that might preclude them from open and self-examining conversations, or from a commitment to scholarship and the pursuit of truth, working alongside those of other traditions.

Most scholars who study religious movements have long abandoned the use of the “cult” label with reference to Mormonism. With about 14 million adherents around the world, the church has moved into the religious mainstream. Mormons are outstanding business leaders, world-class academicians, novelists, authors of bestselling leadership manuals, influential members of Congress and much more. Not the kind of community we ordinarily associate with a cult.

This is not convincing, though, to some of my fellow evangelicals who are writing critical emails to me. Yes, they say, Mormonism has become quite sophisticated. But a sophisticated cult is still a cult. I am naive to think otherwise, they tell me. I am urged to read books that will provide me with the truth about Mormonism.

I have read most of those books, and I have studied and taught about cults for many years. I have also spent the last dozen years meeting with Mormons — scholars and church leaders — to engage in lengthy theological discussions. These dialogues have included several other prominent evangelical Christian leaders.

Based on these conversations and my own careful study, I do not believe Mormonism is a cult. However, I am not convinced that Mormon theology deserves to be classified as Christian in the historic sense of that word. I have serious disagreements with my Mormon friends about basic issues of faith that have eternal consequences. These include issues regarding the nature of God, the doctrine of the Trinity and the character of the afterlife. But I have also learned that in some matters we are not quite as far apart as I once thought. In any case, such theological differences don’t preclude a Mormon from being a viable presidential candidate, in my view.

From a historical perspective, the evangelical antagonism toward Mormons is understandable. The two groups got off to a rocky start in the 19th century. Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, claimed to have it on divine authority that the professions of faith of the historic churches were “an abomination.” And evangelical Christians responded in kind, characterizing Mormonism as Satan-inspired.

As Mormonism moved into the 20th century, however, Mormons began to show a friendlier face. In recent years this has meant a willingness to engage in give-and-take dialogues, cooperative enterprises and explorations of common ground with those of other faiths. We evangelicals, however, have not always responded in kind.

The seminary that I lead is the largest evangelical graduate theological school in the world. The Bible is for us the supreme authority on matters of faith and life. We care deeply about theology, and we worry when groups depart from biblical authority. But we also know that the Bible tells us to be truth-tellers. In one of the Ten Commandments, God warns us not to “bear false witness to our neighbor.” That truth-telling obligation applies to our Mormon neighbors as well.

We evangelicals should cast aside old suspicions and hostilities and listen carefully during this campaign. I believe we should make our voting decisions on the basis of what a Mormon candidate — or any candidate — actually has to say about the values and issues we all care about as citizens.

 

Ed Decker was a Mormon for 20 years (and a Temple Mormon at that) – He now has a ministry that provides information on Mormonism and other cults. Here is his response to Joel Osteen after Osteen said that Mitt Romney is a Christian. Osteen went further than Mouw,but Mr. Decker’s response has some applicable points for Richard Mouw as well.

See what you think !

Dear Pastor Joel Osteen, Shame on You!

I have just watched your remarks regarding Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith, recorded on video.http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=1465166
Shame on you! You have given the enemies of the Cross a great victory. Either through sheer ignorance of the Word or your apparent desire to never offend anyone, regardless of their sins, you have handed the Mormons a huge PR gift. You have insulted and denigrated the many former Mormons like me who have spent their lives bringing Mormons the truth and to the Real Jesus, who died for their sins on Calvary. You have defined our ministries and my life’s work as worthless.
You emphatically state: The Mormons are Christian. Are you completely ignorant of the fact that the Mormons have taught as a foundational doctrine that the creeds of all the Christian churches are abominations in the Mormons’ god’s sight?
What kind of research or study did you undertake before you made this foolish and unbiblical utterance? Did you check with Pastor Jeffress, a godly, Christian pastor? Or with Mitt Romney, a man working out his own godhood? Or did you just toss this out from your own lack of knowledge or as some sort of sweet sound bite?
Are you totally unaware that they have taught in their sacred temples for over a century that you and all other Christian pastors are corrupt hirelings of Satan, that you and your church are part of the great and abominable church and the whore of all the earth?
Did you not know that Mormonism teaches a restorationist theology, stating that the gates of hell did prevail against the Church and teaching that all power and authority were lost until God chose Joseph Smith to be his holy prophet to restore all things and lead this last dispensation of time?
Did you not know that the LDS church teaches they have the only true church, the only true prophet, the only true priesthood, and the only true scripture? That all others are false? That there is NO personal salvation outside their church?
Didn’t you know that the god of Mormonism is an exalted man-god who once lived on another planet in some other galaxy? That he earned his godhood through his good works and now lives on a planet near the great star Kolob with a harem of his many goddesses, making spirit babies to come to this earth to earn [their own] godhoods?
You say you “heard Romney say that Jesus is the Son of God and is his Savior — and that is one of the “core issues.”
You announced to the world, with a broad smile, that the Mormon Church and Romney are Christian and that the differences between Mormonism and orthodox Christianity are simply the same as the differences between Baptists and other denominations. How could you, as the pastor of one of our largest churches, say that so glibly?
Don’t you know that Mitt Romney is a man who is earning his own godhood and plans to people his own planet? That Romney is a Mormon High Priest in the Melchizedek priesthood? That the Mormons have usurped that holy priesthood as their own?
To pronounce them Christians, do you then agree with the Mormon doctrine that the Mormon Jesus is the brother of Lucifer? That he became ‘savior’ by a vote of a council of gods? That He is not the Word become flesh, not God come in the flesh, but was conceived through an act of sex by the Mormon god and one of his own daughters, Mary?
To have publicly accepted their Christianity, you must apparently concur that Jesus did not die as ransom for our sins on the Cross, but suffered for us in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, placing our personal salvation as conditional upon our works and our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Mormon gospel. That Jesus’ death on Calvary merely gives us all resurrection so that we may be judged for our works and obedience.
Why do you think that the Mormons have over 50,000 missionaries out, primarily targeting Christians weak in the faith? If they are Christians, why do they target other Christians?
It is because they have success in seducing people who have not been taught biblical truth and discernment by pastors more eager to fill pews and sell books than guard their people from the ravening wolves who circle the flocks.
I am sorry, Pastor Osteen, but you have disgraced the Cross of Christ and bowed to some vile, politically correct dogma and publicly pronounced these doctrines of demons to be Christian.
These are not the quaint differences you alleged in your book tour interview. These are lies from the pit of hell. There are irreconcilable differences between orthodox Christianity and these antichrist teachings and doctrines.
The true Christian Church can never accept the Mormons as Christians until they confess these lies as sins and repent from them publicly. If a Mormon can attend your church and be openly accepted as a Christian brother or sister without being called to the Cross and repentance, then you are teaching a false faith and need to repent and ask forgiveness from the Church and Pastor Jeffress, the pastor you have just defamed in your foolish utterances.
Ed Decker
President
Saints Alive in Jesus
www.saintsalive.com
ed@saintsalive.com