Saturday, June 14, 2008

Another Ancient Tradition of Oppression and Torture

[NB: There is a trojan virus on the watani page I linked to here. Fortunately, it was caught and fed to the cat for entertainment. However, if you’re not absolutely sure about your own virus protection, don’t open the page. It is for that reason I am putting up the whole story rather than excerpting from it. Thus, you have here what you’d get if you opened the page]

From Watani, “Back to the Middle Ages”, written by Nader Shukry-Emad Khalil.

This seems to be a weekend for stories about the Copts, and the millennial-long oppression and torture they continue to endure in Muslim Egypt. This story is more disgusting than usual, and — as usual — will never make it to the MSM. It bleeds enough, but hey, these victims are left-over anachronistic Christianists, so who cares? Certainly not those in charge of what information gets into the mainstream.

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Abu-Fana MonasteryThe fourth century monastery of Deir Abu-Fana (St Epiphanius) lies in a desolate spot amid the sand dunes of the Western Desert 30km south of Minya, Upper Egypt. A number of monks live there, while the cells of hermits are scattered in the desert around the central monastery compound, which includes the ancient church and communal buildings. The monks farm the land around the monastery, producing crops, mushrooms, and honey to provide for the monastery and their upkeep.

[Note: the single hermits “scattered around in the desert” are called “eremitic” monks, while those who live communally are called “cenobitic.” Egypt is considered the birthplace of Christian monastic life, which was originally an eremitic tradition only. You can google on Saint Pachomius, considered the founder of communal monastic life in Egypt. St. Benedict would come along several centuries later and modify Pachomius’ rules, thus founding the Western Christian “Benedictine Rule” on which most monasteries in the West depend. The Western tradition is customarily cenobitic, but one modern eremitic exception was Thomas Merton — D]

The rampage

The peaceful monastery was the target of an atrocious attack by a group of some 70 “Arabs”, as tribal communities that live in the desert are called, armed with automatic weapons, on Saturday 31 May. At 5:00pm, the attack started at the farmlands surrounding the monastery buildings. The plants and fields were destroyed, and the monks and workers assaulted. The gas-fired irrigation pumps were broken and the gas used to torch the monastery buildings and cells. The attack converged on the central compound; three cells were burnt and the mushroom produce building destroyed, as well as a tractor owned by the monastery. The tractor is a major means of transport for the monks among the sand dunes.

The attackers set the Church of the Pope Kyrillos on fire, destroyed the altar, tore and torched the bibles and icons, and ruined the wire fence recently built to protect the monastery.

Father Bakhoum, 35, was shot in the shoulder and leg, Father Fini was injured in the arm, and the two cadets Brother Sawiris, 30, and Brother Michael, 25, were injured in their arms and legs. One of the attackers, Khalil Ibrahim Mohamed, 39, was killed.

When they finally left, the attackers abducted three monks, Fathers Youa’nnis, Maximous, and Andrawes, as well as Ibrahim Taqqi who is the brother of one of the monks and was incidentally visiting the monastery at the time.

Rushing to Minya

The injured-two of them in critical condition-were moved to Minya hospital in a small truck used by the monastery for its farm animals since, despite repeated calls by the monastery to the police and the ambulance, neither arrived at the scene of the attack before 8:30pm. The Qasr Hur police station is a mere two kilometres away from the monastery.

Anba Dimitrious, Archbishop of Mallawi to which the monastery is affiliated, rushed back home from Cairo where he had been attending the annual celebration of the entry of the Holy Family in Egypt, held at the church of the Holy Virgin in Maadi, Cairo. Halfway through the celebration he was informed of the situation at Abu-Fana, and directly left.

Last January the monastery was also the scene of an attack by the same group of men, who claim rights to part of the monastery land. None of the attackers was prosecuted. And even though a decree was issued last April by the then Minya governor Fouad Saad Eddin to build a wall around the monastery grounds, the monastery has not been allowed to do so.
- - - - - - - - -
Gross injustice

Father Antonious, a monk at Deir Abu-Fana, told Watani that the security officials knew who had conducted the “barbaric” attack-they were the same people who had attacked the monastery several times before-but did nothing at all to bring them to justice. Instead, “the chief investigator treated us very badly, and the police detained Rifaat Fawzy, the contractor who is building the fencing wall around the monastery grounds, and accused him of killing Mohamed even though Mr Fawzy had not been present when the attack took place,” Fr Antonious said.

Ibrahim Fawzy asserted that his brother Rifaat had nothing to do with the murder of Mohamed. “If the police insist on fabricating the case,” he said, “it would be gross injustice and would moreover create a vendetta between us and the Arabs, a problem which might take a lifetime to resolve.”

Father Kyrillos Ava Fana bitterly lamented what he described as the collaboration between the police and the criminals. He rejected the statement uttered by Minya governor Ahmed Diaa’ Eddin, in which he stated that the incident was an “exchange of fire” between the two parties “over a land dispute”, an expression which put the victim and attacker on the same standing. “What weapons?” Fr Kyrillos said. “Our only weapon is the Cross.”

As to the so-called “dispute over land”, Fr Kyrillos said, the monastery had all the documents to prove ownership of the land, and had moreover the approval of the previous governor Fouad Saad Eddin to build a fencing wall around the land.

Moved to Cairo

On Monday, Anba Dimitrious ordered that the injured, who were treated very poorly at Minya hospital, should be moved to the Cairo hospital of Burg Mina for treatment. Brother Sawiris, whose arm injury was in a critical state, narrowly escaped an amputation. He underwent a seven-hour surgery that saved his arm. “I thank God and the doctors at Burg Mina for saving me,” he said. “And I thank Anba Dimitrious for moving us from Minya where we were treated without the least rudiments of human dignity. We were humiliated, and I was denied any pain killer and callously told to ‘go to sleep’ instead. It was more like a concentration camp not a hospital.”

Anba Dimitrious has been constantly visiting the monks at the hospital, offering support and comfort.

Harrowing tales

The three monks who were abducted, but not Mr Taqqi, were returned on Sunday in a distressing condition, and were immediately moved to hospital. The security officials had ordered Samir Abu-Louli, the chief of the attackers, to bring back the abducted monks, which he did.

The returned monks had stories to tell that seemed to come straight out of a medieval horror tale.

Fr Youa’nnis told Watani that he was threatened with a gun and kidnapped. He was blindfolded and moved, along with two other monks behind a nearby hill where they were savagely beaten with sticks and clubs. They were then moved to a house where they were again beaten with clubs, cables and water hoses, and cruelly tortured. “One woman took part in the torture. She kept on hitting me with a big stone on the face and eyes. The men broke my leg, and cut off part of my ear,” he said, “I fainted.” The following day Fr Youa’nnis was stripped [sic] to a donkey’s back and taken out in the desert where he was cast down and ordered to “walk back to your monastery. It’s not too far away,” they mocked. “I remained there till the police picked me up hours later,” he said

Fr Andrawes said he was tortured, together with Fr Maximous, from 7:00pm till dawn of the following day. Apart from the beatings, they were both tied to a tree and flogged. A cross was drawn on the ground and the two monks were ordered to mock it and pronounce the Islamic testimony. In the morning, the monks were thrown in the desert where Abu-Louli later picked them up and handed them over to the police.

Coptic anger

On Sunday, a number of monks demonstrated peacefully before Minya hospital because they were prevented by the security officials to visit the injured monks.

Thousands of young Copts demonstrated in Mallawi, before the bishopric, Minya governorate headquarters, and the public hospital, protesting the security authorities’ failure to protect the monastery, and accusing security officials of collaborating with the attackers.

Seven Copts were injured when the security forces attempted to disperse the crowd.

The police detained 11 Arabs but according to lawyers Ayman Rafiq and Ihab Ramzy, who represent the bishopric, they are all underage and had nothing to do with the attack. This is a standard ploy the security forces use so that all the detainees may be later released because they are minors and due lack of discriminating evidence. The lawyers demanded that Samir Abu-Luli and his group should be arrested, but there was no response from the security authorities. Instead, nine Copts from among the villagers of Qasr Hur were detained and charged with possession of unlicensed weapons, and seven of them were released Thursday evening. Other Copts were haphazardly detained, including the operator of a public telefax and telephone exchange office through which many Copts sent messages to officials or friends asking for urgent help or protesting the events. The operator was charged with inciting sectarian struggle. Sameh Shehata, who is the brother of Father Makarius of Mallawi bishopric, was visiting his brother while a video was being taped of the unrest in Mallawi. He was later detained and will be tried before a military court on charges of taking part in demonstrations.

Untruths

Anba Dimitrious told Watani that what was being propagated by Minya governor, some officials, and the media about there being a dispute over land was absolutely untrue, since the bishopric possessed all the documents to prove its ownership of the land, including the purchase documents and the real estate taxes it annually pays for the land. He condemned the propagation of such untruths since they go nowhere towards solving the problem, while they obscure the truth.

Anba Dimitrious also expressed his deep concern at the detention of Copts, and said this was a practice used by the security forces to pressure Copts into an official reconciliation where they would have to renounce their rights. “Copts have had to do that countless times before in order to rescue their sons, but the outcome was that culprits were never brought to justice. In case of Deir Abu-Fana, it is unacceptable that the people who savagely attacked it three times this year have not been caught. We demand that the culprits be caught and tried, and that the innocent Copts, especially the Fawzy brothers who were not even present when Mohamed was killed, be released.”

Condemnation

In Samalout, Minya, some 200 Copts demonstrated following the murder of a 25-year-old Copt, Milad Ibrahim, who was stabbed to death by Khamis Abdel-Hamid. The police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. Even though the murder probably had no sectarian overtones since neighbours said that Ibrahim and Abdel-Hamid had an ongoing dispute, it is obvious that the sectarian inflammation is spilling over to several places.

The last incidents of violence against Copts-the last 10 days alone saw the murder of the Coptic jeweller in Zeitoun, the armed attack against a Coptic-owned jewellery shop in Alexandria, and the Deir Abu-Fana attack-came under fire from rights activists. Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination (MARED) issued a declaration condemning the rampant fanaticism and the notorious security deficiency in dealing with the sectarian issues, “a deficiency which borders on collaboration,” the declaration stated. MARED demanded that the culprits should be caught and tried according to the criminal law.

Heaven’s comfort

On Friday morning, Pope Shenouda III who had been in Canada when the attack on the monastery occurred and who came back home on Wednesday, paid a visit to the monks at the hospital on Cairo. He stayed with them for some 15 minutes and expressed his grave concern over the incident, but declined to talk to the media.

In Deir Abu-Hennes, a Minya village a few kilometres away from Deir Abu-Fana, the villagers reported seeing halos of light as well as white pigeons flying from the tower of the church of the Holy Virgin in the village to that of the church of St George, also in the same village. The apparition continued from 9:00pm to 11:00pm, and the villagers interpreted it as an apparition of the Holy Virgin who is famous for appearing in the form of a pigeon. Father Timotheus of the Holy Virgin’s church directly informed Anba Dimitrious, and asked him to send over a fact-finding committee to verify the apparition. If true, which people strongly believe it is, it would be “Heaven sending us its comfort,” they say.

And so where is Amnesty International? This has been going on long enough to get even their attention. Unfortunately for the monks, they don’t fit AI’s agenda, which focuses its hypervigilance on the West.


Hat tip: Insubria

18 comments:

Zenster said...

I dread to think that only after a far less tolerant country like China glasses over the MME (Muslim Middle East), will the rest of the world come to realize how delinquent it was in not having brought Islam up short many decades ago. It is nothing but an ongoing crime against humanity and deserves no lenience of any sort.

"What weapons?" Fr Kyrillos said. "Our only weapon is the Cross."

Before this is all over, that will probably need to change.

Hesperado said...

In the story there's a typo -- correct in brackets and caps:

"The following day Fr Youa’nnis was stripped [STRAPPED] to a donkey’s back and taken out in the desert..."

If this was taken from another source, perhaps the Gates of Vienna people could put a "[sic]" after it.

(sorry, I'm just a stickler for details)

Hesperado said...

An interesting detail in the story has roots in Islamic law:

"even though a decree was issued last April by the then Minya governor Fouad Saad Eddin to build a wall around the monastery grounds, the monastery has not been allowed to do so."

Note the first provision of the Pact of Umar (7th century), which dictated obligations that the dhimmi populations under Islamic rule had to follow under pain of penalties:

"We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims."

http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-kills-pact-of-umar.htm

Baron Bodissey said...

Erich --

That was a good idea; I put in a [sic] where appropriate.

Dymphna did indeed quote the entire article, so the error is in the original.

Darrin Hodges said...

Zenster said -
"What weapons?" Fr Kyrillos said. "Our only weapon is the Cross."

Before this is all over, that will probably need to change.


There no greater "weapon" than the cross Zenster, none.

randian said...

Surely Amnesty International is not the only NGO who should be loudly publicizing and condemning this attack.

Zenster said...

Darrin Hodges: There no greater "weapon" than the cross Zenster, none.

Much as I'd like to agree with you, Islam certainly does not and, right now, they seem to be setting the pace. I don't see Christians aggressively conquering Muslim lands so things appear to be rather grim right now. If all the rumors about Muslim conversion are true, then things may not be so bad, I just don't happen to be very optimistic right now (and I'm an eternal optimist).

Western nations need the courage to demolish places like Al-Azhar "University" and other citadels of Islamic supremacism. If they cannot find the courage to do so, then mountains of skulls await their demurral.

The West's survival hinges upon a basic and elementary choice. Islam must be assailed in one of two ways. Top down or bottom up.

Either we find the courage to begin scraping away the uppermost echelons of Islam's totalitarian filth, or we confront the sickening necessity of committing genocide on a previously unknown scale.

The reluctance and hesitation of the West's Vulture/Traitor/Vampire Elite to do anything of substance about Islam's threat literally ensures a Muslim holocaust.

Hesperado said...

I agree with zenster. It's all well and good for Christians to cultivate their higher spiritual plane with regard to the problem of Islam -- but while doing so, I say just don't get in the way of what we need to do to defend our men, women and children, our infrastructure, and our cultures, from this metastasizing threat.

There seems to be a rather limpwristed tendency among 21st century Christians, when compared with the valor of medieval Christians who did not tangle themselves up in handwringing knots of misplaced conscience worrying about being "loving" and "kind" when the barbaric Muslims were attacking: they fought back violently, and more often than not decisively, to protect what was worthwhile. Indeed, medieval Christians were able to do what 21st century Christians seem to have forgotten how to do: they could pat their heads and rub their stomachs at the same time: i.e., they could pray for the souls of their enemies, and aggressively fight against their attacks, at the same time. Wow, what a concept!

Paul said...

Zenester:

Concerning the power of the cross in this matter, it seems to me the authority behind the cross is holding back, watching to see how men respond to consequences of the crosses rejection in society after benefiting from it's blessings for generations.

Now that our nations have officially thrown the cross in the trash, how do we like the alternative? Fascinating that liberalism hasn't adequately filled the void. Now we get to watch the dark extremes of malice inherent in Islam sweep in to take up the remaining positions.

And how does modern western man like the new choices? Seems liberalism is totally incompetent to stand off the virulent challenge of Islam.

Seems there's more to this struggle than force of arms. Though, to be sure, before this chapter is ended the struggle will involve armed conflict. By the way, how's the conflict going in Iraq, in
Afghanistan? Turkey? London? Malmo? Tehran????? Brussels?

How can the leaders in Brussels or Washington even begin to fight the battle when they don't understand the underlying struggle in the spiritual realm? Get ready, because this isn't going away.

Paul said...

Oh, and by the way, the Coptics in Egypt have been living with this a long while.

In the days after 9/11 a Coptic professional colleague educated a bunch of us on Islam. What he had at his fingertips was something I had never seen before, and was totally ignorant of. He had a compilation, with references, of verse after hateful, murderous verse from the Koran. Unbelievable to actually read the bloodthirsty, wicked malice that the Koran teaches. (And to think the Canadian pea-brain thought police took action against Mark Steyn for telling the truth.)

He had story after story of living in Egypt as a child about Muslim oppression and hate. Especially on Fridays, after the Imams fed their people full of hateful speech against the Christians, the Muslim mobs would go on a burning and destroying rampage against the Christians.

This is the reality of Islam.

Zenster said...

Paul: … it seems to me the authority behind the cross is holding back, watching to see how men respond to consequences of the crosses rejection in society after benefiting from it's blessings for generations.

Now that our nations have officially thrown the cross in the trash, how do we like the alternative? Fascinating that liberalism hasn't adequately filled the void. Now we get to watch the dark extremes of malice inherent in Islam sweep in to take up the remaining positions.

[emphasis added]

Well now, isn't that just chockablock with Christian compassion and decency? "Do unto others …" and all that with a nice malicious twist, eh? "You guys were mean, so I'm taking my ball (or cross), home with me!" More like, a case of biting off one's nose to spite one's face, if you ask me.

Either the church raises a clarion call to arms against Islam or it can kiss its sorry @ss (or scapular), goodbye. I'll not argue that liberalism has done its best to poison Christianity in the eyes of man, but that in no way unburdens the church of its mission to save mankind's soul.

Surrendering up unbelievers to the Muslim sword reeks a bit much of Islam's own policy, now doesn't it? I think that the Church can do better than that, especially if it wants to continue claiming the moral high ground.

This is not a situation where anyone with survival in mind has the luxury of sitting back to wait and see which way the chips will fall. So-called "moderate" Muslims are already doing that and, by default, have allied themselves with our radical Islamic enemy. The West’s traitor elite are actively abetting our Islamic foe and damning themselves in the process. How is it that a once powerful institution like the Church can allow itself to withdraw from the fray and not be tainted with cowardice?

Please do tell how it is possible for a vindictive Church that withholds all moral authority so it can teach its backslidden flock a lesson—even as Church, Christian and unbeliever alike are all being put to the sword—to emerge unsullied much less without any blood on its own hands? As Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing". Certainly, the Church cannot be exempt from that admonition, can it?

Such petulance is not only unbecoming, it is totally childish and unworthy of an institution dedicated to saving mankind. Yet, from all appearances, that is exactly what the modern Church is doing with its "Inter-Faith Dialogues" and endless Muslim-appeasing balderdash. Even were the Church entitled to spank its slacking parishioners, now is the absolute worst possible time for such a spiteful display of wrath.

With his 2006 Regensburg address and sojourn into the Turkish lion's den, Pope Benedict had given me some hope that the Church might take a similar tack against Islam that John Paul had taken against communism. Whatever impetus there was seems to be lost even as ever-greater pressure is being applied to Christian and heathen populations alike.

As Erich duly noted, this is no time for the Church to play eloi to Islam’s morlock. Moreover, should Christianity intentionally fail to rally Western civilization against its collective Islamic foe, that can only be taken as a fundamental abdication of the exact duties it is so bitterly lamenting the absence of in its unheeding strays. Stridently demanding a return to worship automatically mandates that a house be worthy of worshipping in.

Jesus did not hesitate in demonstrating his wrath to the Temple’s moneylenders and dove sellers. Why does the Church fall so conspicuously silent when faced with an adversary who would like nothing more than to desecrate and demolish every single Christian house of worship? It acts as if this has not already happened in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Abandoning unbelievers into Islam’s withering embrace is hardly the way to make them see the light. There is little consolation or goodness in pointing to a mountain of skulls and saying: “Ha! I told you so!”

Paul said...

Zenster:

I agree that merely pointing out a problem and doing nothing is really empty and vacuous. Worse yet is pointing the finger later, after having done nothing. Point well made. And point taken.

I didn't really intend to whine about our woes. But since you've said it, the question remains, 'what to do?'.

I don't think the cross was intended to bang people on the head. However, I do believe Christians have an obligation to defend what is right in whatever the circumstances. Part of our current dilemma is that many, many citizens of our nations are not Christian, and do not share our idea of right and wrong. So we are fewer now than we were before. In fact, people today will argue that values are strictly relative, denying the existence of good values or bad values. Many believe there are just different values. Tell that to someone waiting in line as you push in front as the bus arrives.

As I observe that our nations have largely wandered from the basics of Christianity, we are left with a vacuum that liberalism has tried and failed to fill. And now Islam, the darker and more virulent force, is moving in to fill the remaining voids in our lands.

What to do? Do what we can in the spheres of influence we have. Be cunning as snakes, but innocent as doves.

Zenster said...

Paul: I don't think the cross was intended to bang people on the head.

Otherwise it would be shaped more like a hammer, eh wot?

However, I do believe Christians have an obligation to defend what is right in whatever the circumstances.

All humor aside, I agree with both of your important points.

Part of our current dilemma is that many, many citizens of our nations are not Christian, and do not share our idea of right and wrong.

I agree to the extent that—while not being Christian isn’t necessarily the key problem—being Muslim or part of another looting-based culture, like that of Mexico, for instance, is a major issue.

So we are fewer now than we were before. In fact, people today will argue that values are strictly relative, denying the existence of good values or bad values.

Whenever you run into those “Infinite Shades of Gray” lunatics, just ask them: “So, when is rape right? When is sexual child abuse appropriate conduct?” Then sit back and watch their hideous moral relativism collapse upon itself.

As I observe that our nations have largely wandered from the basics of Christianity, we are left with a vacuum that liberalism has tried and failed to fill.

Permit me to assume that by “the basics of Christianity”, you are referring to the Ten Commandments. As an aside, I’ll note that the Golden Rule suffices nearly as well but we’ll overlook that for now. Given the foregoing exchange, allow me to substitute the Ten Commandments with the “Social Contract”. Have Western nations “wandered from” the Social Contract? Yew betcha! Why has it happened? It has proven profitable to the elite and easy for the morally lax, a poisonous amalgam for society in general and specifically so for one confronted with an enemy like Islam.

Much as liberals must have their noses rubbed in the abject hypocrisy of furthering an Islamic agenda that would see all of them led to the chopping block first, so must Christians be taught that their sword of righteousness cuts both ways. Assuredly, that sword is able to cut through the chains of benightedness which can cloak man’s soul, but it must be equally dedicated to running through our self-declared enemies who would shroud this world in eternal darkness.

For the sake of Christians and heathen alike, the Church had damn well better begin raising an un-Holy ruckus about just how un-golden Islamic rule is. About how Islam epitomizes a lack of the same reciprocity that Christianity admirably works so hard to uphold. Furthermore, Christianity had bloody well begin toeing that same line with respect to the compassion and charity it ostensibly prizes so highly.

Go ahead and redeem as many Muslim souls as possible. But DO NOT let them cut in line with respect to those who must first be saved from Islam’s predations. Muslims have made their bed. If they wish to loaf about in their spiritual cesspool, so be it. We have no obligation to drag them out of their theocratic morass. What Christianity and ALL thinking people DO HAVE is an honor-bound duty to preserve the hard won edifice of Western civilization from Islam’s barbaric horde.

Again, Paul, with your clarifications in place, we are—as is so often the case around here at GoV—in raucous, violent agreement. I respect and admire your ability to distinguish as to exactly why I was so critical of any putative withdrawal by the Church. Now is the absolute very worst time for such worthy institutions to vacate whatever positions of prominence and power they may have rightfully earned.

As Churchill noted in “The River War”:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.
[emphasis added]

So it is with Christianity. Should the Church falter in being resolutely opposed—both spiritually and physically—to Islam’s flagrant savagery, it will have renounced all the moral authority that it might have once rightfully had. I can only believe that the urgency of this notion resonates in equal fashion with you and other Christians.

Hesperado said...

Here are the words of a great Christian theologian and Orthodox bishop 14th century, Gregory Palamas. He wrote this commentary about the premier Muslims of his day, the Ottoman Turks, while living as a captive by them in 1354:

"For these impious people, hated by God and infamous, boast of having got the better of the Romans by their love of God…they live by the bow, the sword and debauchery, finding pleasure in taking slaves, devoting themselves to murder, pillage, spoil…and not only do they commit these crimes, but even—what an aberration—they believe that God approves of them. This is what I think of them, now that I know precisely about their way of life."

Notice Palamas's words in his first sentence? Muslims are hated by God. None of this "we have to love them" or "love the sinner, hate the sin" bullcrap from 20th century American Protestantism.

Paul said...

Good stuff Zene. Food for thought. Nourishment for action.

Zenster said...

Paul: Food for thought. Nourishment for action.

I can only hope so. Please know how glad I am that we were able to reach common ground upon this issue.

ALL religions, be it Christianity, Coptic, Buddhist, Hindu, Orthodox Greek, Shinto or Animist had all damn well better begin finding common cause and military alliance against Islam's cruel totalitarianism.

If these various and worthy constituents of earth's spiritual legacy cannot attain concensus with respect to aggressively combating this Muslim onslaught, then all of them rightfully will deserve being crushed beneath the wheels of Islam's totalitarian juggernaut.

Each and every one of these theological alternatives deserve better, but only if they can find the combined moral fortitude to rise up unanimously against such a diabolical foe as Islam. Should they indulge in the same centuries-old internecine squabbling, then all of them deserve their bones to become grist for Islam's mill.

Paul said...

Zene:

"Each and every one of these theological alternatives...."

Now there's the rub. These alternatives are not equal. Buddism or any of the other isms are the not equal with Christ, his truth, or his Kingdom. And there is the rub for participating in the battles that face us. But participate we must. These words will infuriate many, and how could it not be?

In fifteen words, fifteen thousand words, how could the distinction at the depths be made?

This is a spiritual matter at the deepest level, at the level of power and truth.

And ultimately, I will leave this matter in the hands of the Head of the Lord's army whom Joshua encountered immediatately after crossing the Jordan River. Reread that account if you happen to see this before it scrolls off Baron's list of topics. It's in the book of ... I believe it was Exodus.

Zenster said...

Paul: Now there's the rub. These alternatives are not equal. Buddism or any of the other isms are the not equal with Christ, his truth, or his Kingdom. And there is the rub for participating in the battles that face us. But participate we must.

Paul, while it is your absolute privilege to hold Christendom in exaltation, I'm glad to see that you recognize how vital an alliance is among the Infidel faiths. There is so little harm to be had in such unity while a world of hurt awaits any further hesitation in thwarting Islam's pursuit of ascendancy.

PS: I have found our exchanges to be very enjoyable. As a devout agnostic, I can only hope that the worthwhile faiths of our world can band together in opposition to that which would benight us for all time. One would think that even atheists should be welcome in the forthcoming battle. All of us have so very much to lose.