Christians Burn While Pope Worries about "Worldly" Matters
Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2015

by Raymond Ibrahim • August 2, 2015 at 5:00 am

Although the Egyptian constitution stipulates equality before the law, the judiciary refuses the testimony of Christians against Muslims in courts. Islamic law maintains that the testimony of an "infidel" cannot be accepted against a Muslim.
Al Azhar University in Egypt continues to incite Egypt's Muslims against Christians. Most recently, the university was exposed distributing a free booklet dedicated to discrediting Christianity. It is full of direct attacks on Christianity in general and the nation's Coptic Christians in particular. Islam is hailed as the true and superior religion. No mention of violent Islamic conquests is made.
More than 200 girls, mostly Christian, remain missing in Nigeria after Boko Haram kidnapped them in 2014. Escapees testify that some were told to slit the throats of Christians and to carry out suicide attacks. Girls who cannot recite the Koran are flogged.
The "lawyers" of a Christian man imprisoned in Pakistan on the charge of desecrating the Koran last May are actually working against him. Faisal's lawyers officially canceled the request for bail, previously submitted by other lawyers.
Christians and others in the southern Philippines say they fear that legislation meant to create an Islamic sub-state -- legislation meant to appease Islamists -- will only create more extremism against Christians. Critics say it would render the federal government powerless to redress human rights abuses under Islamic law. In some areas, violence has been increasing, including trademark Islamic attacks on churches and nuns.

The Syriac Orthodox Church of St. Ephrem in Mosul, Iraq, before if the captured by the Islamic State (left), and after.

In June, Pope Francis released his first independent encyclical. It merely served to highlight the indifference to the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.

The Pope warned about issues dealing with the environment, but he did not once mention the plight of persecuted Christians -- even though he is well acquainted with it, and even though previous popes mentioned it when Christians were experiencing far less persecution than they are today.

Encyclicals are formal treatises written by popes and sent to bishops around the world. In turn, bishops are meant to disseminate the encyclical's ideas to all the priests and churches in their jurisdiction, so that the pope's thoughts might reach every church-attending Catholic.

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Jihad on Non-Muslim Places of Worship in Turkey

by Uzay Bulut • August 2, 2015 at 4:00 am

"Peaceful coexistence," it seems, is a concept truly foreign to Islamic supremacists. Many pious Muslims seem to think that if Islam is the only true religion, why should one need the immoral, untrue religions or philosophies that lead people astray?
Turkey also has an Alevi community, estimated in the tens of millions, but the number is only approximate. Alevis in Turkey (and Catholics, Protestants and others) are legally "non-existent." And as you cannot conduct a census on a group of people who are legally "non-existent," you just count them as "Sunni Muslims."
"As far as the legislation is concerned, worshipping in a building that does not have legal status or calling a building a cem house, church or similar may lead to prosecution." -- Mine Yildirim.
One hears that "Islam is a religion of peace." But what many Westerners fail to understand is that this "peace" takes place only after everyone has converted to Islam. No other ideology has enjoyed the luxury of being praised as the "religion of peace" while providing exactly the opposite.

The Hagia Triada Church in Istanbul, pictured here in 2009, was recently set aflame by an arsonist. (Image source: Darwinek/Wikimedia Commons)

Once upon a time, Asia Minor, now called Turkey, as well as the rest of the Middle East, was for centuries a real cradle of civilization, where many different religions and cultures flourished. But today these tiny, dwindling communities are not able to enjoy any freedom of religion or conscience.

"Peaceful coexistence," it seems, is a concept truly foreign to Islamic supremacists. It is this missing concept that keeps them in dark ages. They might still go to shopping malls, or use mobile phones, computers and other technological devices, but their minds and souls are trapped in dark ages. Ironically, most of the high technology and science they utilize was invented by the people whose places of worship they like to destroy.

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