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http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2834/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012

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Qatar, the most fraudulent "moderate," is "sparing no effort" to spread Wahhabi Islam across "the whole world," discouraging integration, encouraging jihad.

The Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar says it plans to invest €50 million ($65 million) in French suburbs that are home to hundreds of thousands of disgruntled Muslim immigrants.

Qatar says its investment is intended to support small businesses in disadvantaged Muslim neighborhoods. But Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, subscribes to the ultra-conservative Wahhabi sect of Islam, and critics say the emirate's real objective is to peddle its religious ideology among Muslims in France and other parts of Europe.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who has long cultivated an image as a pro-Western reformist and modernizer, recently vowed to "spare no effort" to spread the fundamentalist teachings of Wahhabi Islam across "the whole world."

The promotion of Islamic extremist ideologies -- particularly Wahhabism, which not only discourages Muslim integration in the West, but actively encourages jihad against non-Muslims -- threatens to further radicalize Muslim immigrants in France, analysts say.

The Qatari investments are being targeted in blighted French suburban slums known in France as banlieues, where up to one million or more mostly unemployed Muslim immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East eke out an impoverished existence.

The banlieues are already being exploited by Islamist preachers from countries such as Morocco and Turkey, which are leveraging the social marginalization of Muslim immigrants in France to create "separate Islamic societies" ruled by Islamic Sharia law, according to a recent study which examines the rise of Islam in France.

The 2,200-page report, "Banlieue de la République" (Suburbs of the Republic) -- commissioned by the influential French think tank L'Institut Montaigne, and directed by Gilles Kepel, a well-known specialist on the Muslim world -- describes how Muslim immigrants are increasingly rejecting French values and identity in favor of Islam.

The report shows how Sharia law is rapidly displacing French civil law in many parts of suburban Paris and warns that France is on the brink of a major social explosion because of the failure of Muslims to integrate into French society.

France, which has between five and six million Muslims, has the largest Muslim population in the European Union.

The study says that Muslim religious institutions and practices are increasingly displacing those of the state and the French Republic, which has a strong secular tradition.

Among other findings, the report describes the proliferation of mosques, Koranic schools and makeshift prayer rooms in the banlieues. The religious orientations of these mosques are heavily influenced by the national origin of the founder or president of a given mosque.

This is contributing to a "new sociology of Muslim believers" composed mainly of undereducated low-income immigrants who depend on financial support from countries such as Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia -- and now Qatar -- all of which are pursuing their own objectives in France.

Nabil Ennasri, the president of a Muslim activist group called the Collectif des Musulmans de France (CMF), says Qatar is keen to exert its influence over the Muslims in France. He says: "France has a large Muslim population of Arab heritage, which will one day, whether it is welcome or not, play an important role in French politics. Investing in this population is a way of recruiting supporters who will -- consciously or unconsciously -- further Qatari interests."

With less than 100 days to go before the presidential elections in France, the phenomenon of foreign Muslim governments competing for influence over Muslim immigrants in France has become a campaign issue.

Marine Le Pen, who leads the right wing National Front party, recently warned that Qatar's influence over French Muslims was growing. She also said that, if elected, she would defend French sovereignty from the meddling of Islamist governments that support political religious movements in France and threaten to "destabilize our country."

"The massive investments which Qatar has made in suburbs are made because of the very high proportion of Muslims who are in the French suburbs," Le Pen said. "We are allowing a foreign country to choose its investments on the basis of the religion of this or that part of the French population or of French territory. I think this situation could be very dangerous."

Le Pen also said Qatar was "playing a double game" by presenting itself as an "enlightened" country to Western democracies while at the same time supporting Islamist groups in the Middle East and North Africa.

"I say solemnly, the Qataris are financial supporters of Islamic fundamentalists, madmen of Sharia. The French have a right to know that, especially in Libya, the jihadists who are now in power and whose first action was to apply Sharia, were financed and armed by Qatar," she said.

Qatar played a key role in the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya by providing the insurgents with money, weapons and hundreds of troops. But Qatar has also been criticized for undermining Libya's new interim government by continuing to arm militant Islamists.

More recently, an army of Wahhabi fighters armed and funded by Qatar has reportedly amassed on the Turkish-Syrian border with the intent of removing Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, presumably with the objective of importing Wahhabi Islam to a post-Assad Syria.

Qatar has also provided aid to Hamas terrorist groups, offered support to the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, and reached out to Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan who has been indicted for war crimes in Darfur.

Qatar also hosts the controversial Al-Jazeera television network, which includes among its presenters Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has praised suicide bombings and is banned from entering Britain and the United States.

Back in Europe, Qatar is also building a multi-million euro mega-mosque on the southern Italian island of Sicily. Supporters of the mosque -- to be built in the medieval town of Salemi in southwestern Sicily -- hope it will become a reference point for all of the 1.5 million Muslims in Italy.

Some 60% of the mosques in Italy are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is heavily influenced by the Wahhabi ideology subsidized by Qatar as well as Saudi Arabia.

In Ireland, Qatar recently donated €800,000 to build a mega-mosque in the city of Cork. Ireland's Muslim population has grown tenfold in 20 years, making Islam the fastest-growing religion in the country. According to the Irish Times, "the Muslim Brotherhood influence constitutes one of the strongest elements of Islam in Ireland."

In Spain, speculation is rife that the massive bullfighting ring in Barcelona known as La Monumental is about to be converted into a mega-mosque. Bullfighting has been outlawed in Barcelona effective January 1, 2012 and rumor has it that the 20,000-seat stadium is about to be sold to Qatar's rival, the Emir of Dubai, who wants to convert La Monumental into the third-largest mosque in the world.

Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.

Related Topics: Soeren Kern

Muslim Persecution of Christians: January, 2012
"Good Muslims Cannot Convert to Christianity"

by Raymond Ibrahim
February 9, 2012 at 4:30 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2832/islamists-tyranny

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She was flogged -- given 40 lashes as hundreds of Muslim spectators jeered -- for embracing a "foreign religion."

The beginning of the New Year saw only an increase in the oppression of Christians under Islam, from Nigeria, where an all-out jihad has been declared in an effort to eradicate the Muslim north of all Christians, to Europe, where Muslim converts to Christianity are still hounded and attacked as apostates. According to the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, "The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it's increasing year by year"; in our lifetime alone, he predicts Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.

An international report found that Muslim nations make up nine out of the top ten countries where Christians face the "most severe" persecution. In response to these findings, a Vatican spokesman said that, "Among the most serious concerns, the increase in Islamic extremism, merits special attention. Persons and organizations dedicated to extremist Islamic ideology perpetrate terrible acts of violence in many places throughout the world: the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is but one example. Then there is the climate of insecurity that unfortunately in some countries accompanies the so-called "Arab spring"—a climate that drives many Christians to flee and even to emigrate."

Categorized by theme, January's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity.

APOSTASY

Iran: A Christian convert who was arrested in her home has been sentenced to two years in prison. Previously, she endured five months of uncertainty detained in the notorious Evin prison, where the government hoped she would come to her senses and renounce Christianity. She was convicted of "broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, insulting sacred figures and action against national security."Likewise, Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani continues to suffer in prison. Most recently, he rejected an offer to be released if he publicly acknowledged Islam's prophet Muhammad as "a messenger sent by God," which would amount to rejecting Christianity, as Muhammad and the Koran rejected it.

Kenya: Muslim apostates seeking refuge in Kenya are being tracked and attacked by Muslims from their countries of origin: An Ethiopian who, upon converting to Christianity, was shot by his father, kidnapped and almost killed, is now receiving threatening text messages. Likewise, a Ugandan convert to Christianity is in hiding, his movements severely restricted since "the Muslims are looking to kill me. I need protection and help."

Kuwait: A royal prince who openly declared that he has converted to Christianity, confirmed the reality that he now might be targeted for killing as an apostate.

Norway: While out for a walk, two Iranian converts to Christianity were stabbed with knives by masked men shouting "Infidels!" One of the men stabbed had converted in Iran, was threatened there, and so immigrated to Norway, thinking he could escape persecution there.

Somalia: A female convert to Christianity was paraded before a cheering crowd and publicly flogged as punishment for embracing a "foreign religion." Imprisoned since November, "the public whipping was meant to mark her release." She received 40 lashes as hundreds of Muslim spectators jeered. An eyewitness said: "I saw her faint. I thought she had died, but soon she regained consciousness and her family took her away." Similarly, "Somali Islamists arrested a Muslim father after two of his children converted to Christianity" and fled. He is accused of "failing to raise his sons as good Muslims, because "good Muslims cannot convert to Christianity."

Zanzibar: After being robbed, a Muslim convert to Christianity called police to his house; they discovered a Bible during their inspection. The course of inquiry changed from discovering the thieves to asking why he "was practicing a forbidden faith." He was imprisoned for eight months without trial, and, since being released, has been rejected by his family and is now homeless and diseased.

CHURCH ATTACKS

Azerbaijan: A pastor has been threatened with criminal proceedings following a raid on his church during Sunday service. Earlier, he was told that "a criminal case had been launched over religious literature arousing incitement over other faiths," and was pressured by authorities to leave the area, which he did, traveling great distances each week to lead church services.

Egypt: Before a bishop was going to inaugurate the incomplete Abu Makka church and celebrate the Epiphany mass, a large number of Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood members entered the building, asserting that the church had no license and no one should pray in it. One Muslim remarked that the building would be suitable for a mosque and a hospital.

Indonesia: A sticker on the back of the car of a member of the beleaguered Yasmin church saying "We need a friendly Islam, not an angry Islam," distributed by the family of the late Muslim president, prompted another Muslim attack on the church: scores of Muslims "terrorized the congregation and attacked several church members." Since 2008, the congregation has been forced to hold Sunday services on the sidewalk outside the church and then later in the home of parishioners. Not satisfied, hundreds of Muslims later searched and found the private home where members were congregating and holding service and prevented them from worshiping even there: "It crosses the line now. The protesters now come to the residential area, which is not a public place." A new report notes that anti-Christian attacks have nearly doubled in the last year.

Nigeria: Soon after jihadis issued an ultimatum giving Christians three days to evacuate the region or die, armed Muslims stormed a church and "opened fire on worshippers as their eyes were closed in prayer," killing six, including the pastor's wife. Then, as friends and relatives gathered to mourn the deaths of those slain, Muslims shouting "Allahu Akbar" appeared and opened fire again, killing another 20 Christians. Several other churches were bombed, and seven more Christians killed.

Pakistan: Enraged by the voices of children singing carols at a nearby church, Muslims praying in a mosque decided to silence them—including with an axe: "The children were preparing for mass to be celebrated the next day which was a Sunday. The loud cheers became terrified whimpers when suddenly four men, one of them with an axe, barged into the church. The men slapped the children, wrecked the furniture, smashed the microphone on to the floor and kicked the altar. "You are disturbing our prayers. We can't pray properly. How dare you use the mike and speakers?" (Islam forbids Christians from celebrating loudly in church, banning bells, microphones, and other aids). Also, a center owned by the Catholic church for 125 years, and used for "charitable purposes"—it housed a home for the elderly, a girls' school, a convent and chapel for prayer—was demolished, after it was discovered that its land was worth a considerable amount of money; in the process, demolition workers destroyed Bibles, crosses, and a statue of Our Lady.

Zanzibar: Muslims destroyed two churches: one was torched, while the other demolished—all to shouts of "Allahu Akbar."

DHIMMITUDE

[General Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression of non-Muslims as "Second-Class Citizens"]

Denmark: In Muslim majority Odense, an Iranian Christian family had two cars consecutively vandalized—windows smashed, seats cut up, and set ablaze—because the cars had crucifixes hanging in them; the family has since relocated to an undisclosed location. Likewise, "Church Ministry" will change its name to "Ministry of Philosophy of Life" to accommodate Muslims.

Egypt: In the latest round of collective punishment, a mob of over 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians in a village because of a rumor that a Coptic man had intimate photos of a Muslim woman on his phone (denied by the man). Coptic homes and shops were looted before being set ablaze. Three men were injured, while "terrorized" women and children who lost their homes stood in the streets with no place to go. As usual, it took the army an hour to drive 2 kilometers to the village and none of the perpetrators was arrested.

Nigeria: Boko Haram Muslims set ablaze a Christian missionary home. Occupants of the home, mostly orphans and the less-privileged, were rendered homeless as a result. Meanwhile, a top officer allowed the mastermind behind the Christmas Day church bombings to escape, indicating how well entrenched Islamists are in government.

Pakistan: A judge has denied bail to the latest Christian charged with desecrating the Koran, under Pakistan's blasphemy laws, despite the lack of evidence against him: according to Sharia, the word of a Christian is half that of his Muslim accuser – in this case, his landlord.

Saudi Arabia: Officials strip-searched 29 Christian women and assaulted six Christian men after arresting them for holding a prayer meeting at a private home. Imprisoned last month without trial, they have not been told when or if they will be released. Authorities conducted the strip searches of the women, who insisted they had committed no crime, in unsanitary conditions. As a result, some of the women have experienced physical pain and illnesses, but authorities have provided no medical treatment.

Sudan: Authorities threatened to arrest church leaders if they engage in "evangelistic activities" and fail to comply with an order for churches to provide names and identification: "The order was aimed at oppressing Christians amid growing hostilities toward Christianity… Sudanese law prohibits missionaries from evangelizing, and converting from Islam to another religion is punishable by imprisonment or death in Sudan, though previously such laws were not strictly enforced." Accordingly, shortly after, two evangelists were arrested on spurious charges and beaten by police.

Turkey: A Christian asylum seeker who fled from Iran because of his faith "was brutally assaulted by his employer with hot water, and his body was severely burned," due to "the extreme religious views" of his Turkish Muslim employer, who "told him he had no rights and that he would not pay him any money," after the Christian asked for his agreed wages. He "is just one example of hundreds of Iranian Christian asylum seekers who are living in such situations in Turkey."

ABDUCTIONS, RANSOM, MURDER

Egypt: The abduction of a 16-year old Christian girl, who disappeared over a month ago, has become a "tug of war between the Christian family and Muslim lawyers." The court sided with the Islamists, ordering the girl to be held in a state-owned care home until she turns 18—the legal age of conversion—instead of returning her to her family. Coptic activists argue that the decision "encourages Islamists to continue unabated the abduction of Christian minors for conversion to Islam."

Pakistan: A Christian girl who was abducted in 2001 when she was 15 and forced to marry a Muslim, returned to her Catholic family after 10 years. Her case is not an isolated one: "there are at least 700 cases a year of Christian girls kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim." In the same vein, "within the past three months, nine women have been abducted and forcibly converted to Islam."

Sudan: After a large truck smashed through the gates of a Catholic Church compound, Muslims affiliated with Sudan's Islamic government kidnapped two Catholic priests, "severely beat" them and looted their living quarters, stealing two vehicles, two laptops and a safe. Later, the kidnappers forced the priests to call their bishop with a ransom demand of 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US$185,530).

Switzerland: A Muslim man hacked his daughter to death for dating a Christian: were they dating in a Muslim country, the Christian, as so often happens, would have likely received similar treatment.

Syria: The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians were killed since the anti-government unrest began; "Children were being especially targeted by the kidnappers, who, if they do not receive the ransom demanded, kill the victim, including some who are "cut into pieces and thrown in a river." These latest reports are reminiscent of the anti-Christian attacks that have been commonplace in Iraq for a decade.

Tajikistan: A young man dressed as Father Frost—the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas—was stabbed to death while visiting relatives and bringing gifts. The Muslim mob beating and stabbing him screamed "You infidel!" leading police to cite "religious hatred" as motivation.

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death to those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum

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Related Topics: Raymond Ibrahim

Islamists Do Not Flee Tyranny, They Bring It With Them

by Manda Zand Ervin
February 9, 2012 at 3:30 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2831/turkey-intel-chief-a-suspect-in-terror-case

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Radical Islamists claiming to be moderates are energetically inverting for Americans who are the victims and who are the bullies.

The film The Third Jihad has become another excuse for the mainstream media, especially the New York Times, to show yet again just what Cultural Imperialists they can be. Once more, these self-proclaimed moral authorities have taken it upon themselves to stand with the Muslim "victims" against the so-called "bullies," unwittingly inverting who are the victims and who are the bullies --and as if we cannot fend for ourselves and need the protection of their Cultural Imperialist Censorship.

American Muslims are largely made up of immigrants from 57 different Muslim-majority countries –- every one of which discriminates against all other religions, and whose leaders and clergy call for all non-Muslims, the "infidels," to be killed, as prescribed by Sharia law. In recent months we have witnessed the ever-increasing attacks on, and persecution of, Christians in Muslim countries.

In these very Muslim-majority countries, even Muslims of different sects are discriminated against and abused. In Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, Shia Muslims are treated as second-class citizens (or Dhimmis) and kept separate from the Sunni majority; and Christians, hired to work, are kept inside the walled communities.

The Shia Islamic regime in Iran has, in turn, been killing the Sunni Muslims, persecuting the peaceful Sufis, and tearing down their Mosques and meeting halls. This religious discrimination, practiced under Sharia law for 1400 years, is now the culture that Islamists are propagating and spurring on in the Muslim world.

Most American Muslims have run away from the political and radical Islamism that has now begun to spread like wildfire here in America. We non-Islamist Muslims came to live not only in prosperity, but also in freedom, equality and in a democratic society – not a single one of which is provided under the regimes of our native countries which we were forced to leave behind.

Here in America the Sunnis, Shiites, Sufis, even Wahhabis and all other sects of Islam live without discrimination. We live in freedom, and those people who practice have even learned to share Mosques. We have learned to respect not only all other Muslims but all other people as well, no matter what their religious beliefs.

Although our adopted country has been attacked by Radical Islamists, we have never been blamed for their violence by our non-Muslim compatriots.

A small number of these same Radical Islamists who discriminate against us in our countries of origin are now in America armed with petrodollars, and falsely claiming to be "moderate," and to represent this highly diverse group of Americans; they are also crying crocodile tears of discrimination against Muslims in America.

The problem is, these Radical Islamists and their allies and supporters among America's mainstream media, as well as academia and ideological elite who are being used by the Islamists, and in turn, are using the Islamists to wreak their own political ideological havoc.

In the middle of this culture stand American Muslims, the "silent majority," living in the society of their dreams and minding their own business, but who are worried about the consequences of this thickening alliance between Islamists and well-intentioned -- but woefully misguided -- Liberals whom we are forced to suffer.

The story of The Third Jihad, which the silent majority is happy to see, is a fair and true account of the issues of today's Islamism. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, an observant Muslim, narrated the film because it was not about his religion, Islam; it was about an ideology called Political Islamism that is in the business of terrorizing Muslims and non-Muslims alike. These Islamists did not come here to escape tyranny; they brought it with them.

The mainstream media, however, are opposing this short film to further their political agenda by attacking the New York Police Department [NYPD], who lost so many of its members trying to save people from the burning towers of the World Trade Center 11 years ago -- the same NYPD they will harshly criticize if they are not as quickly responsive to the next Islamist terrorist attacks.

Worse, the mainstream media are criticizing the NYPD for merely watching the film – the media could not even bestir themselves to do the most minimal due diligence about the contents of the film or to address its contents.

One of the treasured freedoms we came here for, which exits nowhere else, is freedom of speech: Why should the NYPD not watch this documentary? It often appears to us that the Islamists and the Liberals do not want people to hear any version but their own.

We, the American Muslims, refuse the interference of these political ideologies in our religion. We refuse to become a political tool for the Islamists and American cultural imperialists.

We stand by the The Third Jihad, the NYPD's watching it, and the priceless freedom of speech.

Related Topics: Manda Zand Ervin

Turkey's Intel Chief a Suspect in Terror Case
And more from the Turkish Press

by AK Group
February 9, 2012 at 3:00 am