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The girl’s Muslim parents forced her into the marriage when she was fourteen. Her mother tried to put a good face on a bad situation, enticing the girl with a picture of marriage as a never-ending party: her husband, she said, would treat the girl to ice cream and lollipops and take her to movies and amusement parks. Reality turned out to be a bit different: her husband imprisoned her inside their home and forced her to watch violent videos featuring jihad attacks against soldiers from Western countries. He also raped her and beat her frequently. The girl went to...

The canonization ceremony should take place in 2015, a century after the massacre of 1,5 million Christians which was never recognised by the Turkish government “In a move that has surprised Turkey, the Armenian Church is going to proceed with the canonization of the victims of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish State in 1915, using Kurdish labourers for the massacres. The scientifically perpetrated genocide by, is described by the Turkish historian Taner Akcam as "A shameful act" (the title of his book ) . But the Ankara government has never recognized it and rejects the definition of "genocide”,”...

A city mayor in Spain has refused to bow to intimidation by Muslims in response to the breaking up of property illegally being used as a mosque. The city offered another property to Muslims for religious properties, but was refused."The rules of the city and the country are mandatory for everyone, and Mollet del Vallès will be uncompromising toward any kind of radicalism or blackmail." — Josep Monràs, Mayor of Mollet del Vallès, Spain Police in Spain have forcibly removed Muslim activists from an illegal mosque in a small town in Catalonia, an autonomous region in northeastern Spain that is...

It is almost a quarter of a century since she first sang Like A Prayer. But it seems the intervening years have done little to help Madonna decide exactly who she’s praying to. For it appears the queen of re-invention may be on the verge of one of her most startling changes yet, after she revealed she was studying the Koran. The 55-year-old was raised a Roman Catholic, but for the past 17 years she has been a devout follower of Kabbalah, a mystical offshoot of Judaism. Now the singer, whose current partner is a Muslim, has begun investigating Islam....

Moscow, October 2, Interfax - Grand Mufti of the Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah's idea to destroy all churches in the Arabian Peninsula shows "the extreme degree of Wahabi impudence," the expert on Islam, Roman Silantyev said. The first person of "the most peaceful trend in Islam" again urged to aggressive actions against Christians. It evidently proves that official Wahhabism-Salafism is identical to the ideology of terrorists, who are in fact destroying Christian churches and their parishioners from Pakistan to Nigeria, working especially hard in Syria," Silantyev told Interfax-Religion. He reminds that a Russian Orthodox church was opened in...

Moscow, October 2, - Deputy Chairman of the Russian Muftis Council Rushan Abbyasov has spoken with representatives of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom about the problems of Muslims in Russia. He expressed concern over the fact that the mass media often associated extremists with Islam, the press service of the Council reported on Tuesday. "It is precisely for this reason that in this country, like they are in the West, people are scared by the construction of new mosques. The local authorities also sometimes demonstrate a lack of understanding. As a result of this media policy, people are...

In classrooms where Catholic girls once studied the Bible and prayed the Our Father, young Muslims now study the Quran and pray in Arabic. The girls no longer wear uniforms of skirts and blazers, but traditional Muslim floor-length dresses called jilbabs, with hijabs covering their heads. Boys are neatly attired in light blue dress shirts and navy blue pants. They are the 265 students of MDQ Academy, Suffolk County's first and only Islamic school, which for the third year is calling the majestic Academy of St. Joseph its home. The former all-girls Catholic high school in Brentwood closed five years...

In the first communication between the leaders of the United States and Iran since 1979, President Barack Obama on Friday spoke to President Hassan Rouhani by phone and called for the release of American Pastor Saeed Abedini, who is in an Iranian prison because of his Christian faith and has been tortured. Obama, the first American leader to speak with an Iranian president since the Islamic revolution, noted the nation's concern about three American citizens who have been held within Iran in his 15-minute conversation with the Iranian president. The three include the missing U.S. citizen Robert Levinson, Pastor Saeed...

Local Mosque in the Hyde Park area of Leeds, England. The UK’s official religion is dwindling at a record speed, with the decline of the Church “approaching rock bottom,” experts warn. While Christian congregations age, most British mosques are bringing more and more young people on board. Public mosque services attract thousands of British Muslims, but when you check out a church, there are hardly a dozen participants at Sunday morning worship, RT’s Polly Boiko reports from London. “The decline of churches in the UK is long term, now it just happens to be approaching rock bottom. So 95...

"Christians and Muslims had always lived in an atmosphere of mutual trust; the attack on Maaloula has created a lot of distress." Islamists have invaded homes and continue to threaten the village, site of ongoing clashes between rebels and the army. The families who fled to Damascus and Beirut tell their story. The goal is to drive out Christians in order to eliminate Christianity.Beirut (AsiaNews) - According to families who fled Maaloula (Syria), some of their Muslim neighbours were involved in the attack that devastated their village located about fifty kilometres from Damascus, dispersing its residents. Perceived as a betrayal...

“We now possess deterrent weapons that are more important and more sophisticated than chemical weapons,” Syrian President Bashar Assad told visitors to his palace in Damascus on Thursday. He emphasized that he had no need for chemical weapons. According to the report, which was carried by Hezbollah’s paper Al-Akhbar, Assad said this was because the situation in Syria “has never been better,” as “we created chemical weapons in the ’80s as a deterrent against Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Today, it is no longer a weapon of deterrence. We have weapons that are more important and more sophisticated to challenge Israel, which...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finalized a contraception mandate that ignores the fact groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor are religious organizations, according to a lawsuit filed to protect them against fines for refusing to comply with an Obamacare mandate. "We cannot violate our vows by participating in the government's program to provide access to abortion-inducingdrugs,” Sister Loraine Marie said of a class-action lawsuit filed against the mandate on behalf of multiple religious organizations that provide health benefits.

When the defense attorney for a raped Saudi Arabian woman appealed a Sharia Court decision that the 90-lash sentence against his client was unjust, all that was succeeded was the more than doubling of the punishment meted out to the woman who was raped and beaten by seven men, as reported by the women’s rights-centered news portal The Clarion Project on Sept. 22, 2013. WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTO

Mourners carry the coffins of three men into a church for their funeral in Damascus, Syria, Sept. 10. The Christian men were killed during a raid by opposition fighters on Maloula village northeast of Damascus. (CNS photo/Khaled al-Hariri, Reuters) I recently asked an anonymous, young, Syrian Christian studying in America what he thought the best solution for Syria was. “The foreign fighters are bad, but so is Assad,� he said, “Nevertheless, there is hope among the youth that somehow political change will be better than what we have had in the past.� Yet he could not articulate what that...

In Pakistan, suicide bombers in Peshawar killed 60 Christians in their local church. In Nairobi, gunmen shot 69 (and counting) shoppers at a mall — but freed the ones who could name the Prophet's mother. What these two tragedies have in common is that the killers were Muslim and the victims, Christian. The other similarity will be the response of the West: gentle reproaches followed by… nothing. Being a Christian, in some parts of the world, carries a death sentence. It carries little weight — and attracts a lot of opprobrium — in this part of the world. Having done...

Moscow, September 23, Interfax - The Council of Muftis of Russia has sharply criticized the decision made by the Novorossiysk Oktyabrsky District Court to ban the book entitled Notional Translation of the Holy Koran into Russian by Azerbaijani philosopher Elmir Kuliyev. The Council of Muftis said in a statement quoted by its press service that, by banning the main written source of the second largest, most widespread religion in Russia, the court "breaches the Russian Constitution and the norms of international law on freedom of religion and undermines Muslims' faith in Russian law, the Russian judicial system, and the justice...

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A blast at a Protestant church in northwest Pakistan killed at least 72 people and wounded more than 120, a local hospital said Sunday. The attack took place at the All Saints Church of Pakistan, in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad. Witnesses told CNN affiliate Geo News that at least one suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar near the church entrance as crowds of worshipers were leaving a Sunday morning service. Some of the victims were children, the witnesses said. The outside of...

Christians in Syria are continuing to be targeted by outside fundamentalist groups who have joined the country’s long civil war, the head of the Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem has said. Bishop Boutros Melki, Syriac Catholic patriarchal vicar, said Christians feared the situation in Syria will become like that in Iraq, where half the Christian population has fled since the American-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In an interview with the American Catholic News Service, the bishop said the historic city of Maaloula, with its ancient churches and monasteries, became the site of fighting between rebel and government forces. Attacks against...

The University of Regina is going to great lengths to help its Muslim students avoid doing the same when washing for on-campus prayer sessions. The university has installed “foot-baths” in a public washroom at its Riddell Centre, in order to allow Muslim students — many of whom pray numerous times a day, and wash themselves beforehand — to clean their feet in a way that isn’t awkward and difficult through a use of regular sinks. “I’ve seen them do it. It’s tough for them,” Nathan Sgrazzutti, president of the U of R Students Union, said on Tuesday of the troubles...

In 1991, 75% of Adjarians in Georgia were Muslims. Today, they have become 75% Orthodox Christians. How can these conversions be explained, which is apparently unique in the world? “What time do services begin at Saint Nicholas in Batumi on Sunday morning?” The question embarrasses the employee of the President Plaza, one of the largest institutions in the city, a seat of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the Iranian consulate. It is true that in the province of Georgia, washed by the Black Sea, the population speaks little English. All signs, such as signs in the streets, are in...

Video Description: "Video: Saudi Cleric Shanqiti: Muslim Men May Enjoy the Company of up to 19,604 Women in Paradise"

The wife of an imprisoned Iranian-American pastor has stated that her husband has been bringing fellow inmates to Christ and that his time in an Iranian prison is "not in vain." Naghmeh Abedini, wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini, told those gathered at Liberty University on Monday that though imprisoned in the infamous Evin Prison, her husband continues to evangelize. "He's been asked and tortured to deny his Christian faith and return to Islam and he has not," said Abedini, who said around 30 inmates have converted to Christianity due to Abedini's witness. "For me to know that so many of...

A BBC correspondent in Syria has said the battle for an ancient Christian town is continuing, despite reports that government forces had retaken it. Jeremy Bowen said that a heavy gunfight with rebels was continuing in Maaloula, with smoke rising into the sky. He added that he had not seen evidence confirming religious sites had been damaged by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists. Then on Sunday, activists said government soldiers and pro-government militiamen had been forced to pull back to the outskirts following a fresh rebel assault. Fighting over the town, 55km (34 miles) north of Damascus, began last week after rebels attacked...

A new report has exposed the West’s blindness to the persecution of Christians around the world; it highlights how the “lion’s share” of this is done by Muslims, whom the media do not want to criticise over misplaced fears of “racism”. the West’s blindness to the persecution of Christians around the worldWorld, January 09, 2013: Christianophobia, which was published last month, written by journalist Rupert Shortt for Civitas, argues that “Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers.” He quotes research by the Pew Forum and the World Evangelical Alliance, which estimates that 200 million Christians (ten per...

Christians in Syria were fleeing one of the oldest Christian towns in the world on Sunday, after regime forces failed to win it back from Islamist rebel fighters.Rebel groups, including a branch of al-Qaeda, have taken control of Maaloula, one of the few remaining villages where the language of Christ is still spoken, residents and activists reported. “Our army, the Syrian army, has failed us,” said Sister Antoinette, a nun from Maaloula, claiming the regime had forsaken control of the town. “We called the army, we begged them to come inside Maalouola and save us but they stayed outside. They...

Moscow, September 9, Interfax - Mass attacks against Christian minority in Syria and desecration of shrines venerated all around the world puts on the agenda Russia's active participation in the conflict, religious expert and head of the Human Rights Center of the World Russian People's Council, Roman Silantyev said commenting terrorist capture of the Christian town Maaloula. "I admit that Russian direct military participation in Syrian conflict is pointless, however what can prevent us from sending volunteers in the country? Orthodox volunteers could come and help Syrian Christians and Ramzan Kadyrov can help enlist Muslims who will protect mosques and...

Moscow, September 6, Interfax - The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed concern over the attempts made by the armed opposition in Syria to take over the city of Maalula, a symbol of the Christian presence in Syria. "Moscow is deeply concerned over the fact that terrorist attacks in Syria have affected Maalula, a symbol of the Christian presence in this country. Its residents speak the Aramaic language, which is almost extinct and is the language in which Jesus Christ preached, and the churches located in this city are among the oldest and most honored churches of Christians," the Russian Foreign...

An interview with Robert R. ReillyRobert R. Reilly is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. He has taught at the National Defense University and has written for the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Claremont Review of Books, and the Washington Post. He has served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President (1983-85) and was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (2002-06). He is a former director of the Voice of America and is a member of the board of the Middle East Media Research Institute. Mr. Reilly...

Tyrants have always wanted to control the minds of their subjects, which is why the schools are so important for the future of liberty.  Once the state gets its claws on the schools, it imposes texts and curricula that enhance its power and advance its ideology.  The advocates of statism understand this well, and they are willing to fight violently to maintain and extend their control. The Europeans are a tempo ahead of us in this very nasty business, but our guys are doing their best to catch up.  A recent story deals with American injustice working in tandem with...

Syrians fleeing violence in their country wait to cross the border into the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq Aug. 25. (CNS photo/Azad Lashkari, Reuters) In a region that has seen increasing threats to ancient Christian communities, the Catholic Church is helping many of the two million refugees of Syria’s civil war. Besides physical aid, Church workers offer the Syrians the simple truth that they haven’t been forgotten—that they are loved and will be cared for. Most refugees are Muslim, children Sean Callahan, the Chief Operating Officer for Catholic Relief Services (CRS)—the humanitarian arm of the United States Conference of...

An interview with Robert P. George, new chairman of US International Freedom CommissionRobert P. George is the new chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel on which he has served as a commissioner since 2012. Though he has a personal interest in religious freedom—his father’s family is Syrian Orthodox, and some of his relatives have fled Syria due to religious persecution—his outlook is global, overseeing research and reports on limitations on religion worldwide, involving Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. The longtime McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, George is a visiting professor at Harvard...

Tbilisi, August 29, Interfax - A group of Orthodox Christians blocked a road in Georgia on Thursday to prevent the return of the metal skeleton of a minaret to the village from where it had been removed for an alleged customs formality. The metal frame was made in Turkey, imported last month and installed in a mosque that was opened recently in the private house of Jambul Abuladze in the village of Chela, near the town of Akhaltsikhe. On Tuesday, the Revenue Service had it dismantled it and taken to Tbilisi for a formality that had allegedly not been performed...

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The concern for the fate of Christians in Syria , where " extremist forces aim to completely destroy Christianity ", the signs of a possible "normalization of worship for Orthodox believers in China " ; dissatisfaction in the field of theological dialogue with Catholics, but the "amazing results " in the common work on moral and the social values ​​. In an interview with AsiaNews , Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk , Head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Relations, tackles the main "foreign policy" themes of the Russian Orthodox Church and also focuses on the internal...

MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) – Mobs attacked offices of two leading Russian cell phone operators in Chechnya, pelting them with eggs in protest against alleged fraud at an online voting contest for best national landmark where a Chechen mosque was denied victory. Attacks on Friday targeted the offices Megafon and Beeline, two of Russia’s “big three” of cell phone operators, in Grozny, the capital of the North Caucasus republic. Footage of at least one attack was available on YouTube, the video showing dozens of young men energetically throwing eggs and other objects at a closed office building, while others...

Eyewitnesses told Turkish media this week that a portion of the Temple Mount platform near the Al Aqsa Mosque has collapsed, creating a serious safety hazard and a possible threat to the stability of the Islamic structure. If the report is accurate, it would be the second serious collapse on the Temple Mount in the past five years. Palestinian officials claim that the collapses are caused by deliberate Israeli action to bring down the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock so that the Jewish Temple can be rebuilt. But archaeologists and engineers have been warning for...

(CNN) -- There have been Christians in the Middle East since the time of, well, Christ. Now that two millennium-long history could be in danger. Islamist thugs have attacked dozens of churches across Egypt in the past few days, burning many of them down. The attacks seemed to be protests against the brutal military government crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood that killed many hundreds of Egyptian Islamists over the past week. Pope Tawadros II, the leader of Egypt's Christian Copts, met publicly with top military officers as they announced the coup that removed President Mohamed Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood...

In 717–18, Western civilization was hanging by a thread.Today, August 15, marks the anniversary of Constantinople’s victory over Muslim invaders in what historians commonly call the “Second Siege of Byzantium,” 717–18. Prior to this massive onslaught, the Muslims had been hacking away at the domains of the Byzantine empire for nearly a century. The Muslims’ ultimate goal was the conquest of Constantinople — for both political and religious reasons. Politically, Islam had no rival but the “hated Christians” of Byzantium, known by various appellations — including al-Rum (the Romans), al-Nassara (the Nazarenes), and, most notoriously, al-Kilab (the “dogs”). The eastern...

Never has a pope been so clear and courageous in unveiling the roots of violence in Islam, before Benedict XVI. And not afterward, either. Two obligatory rereadings, to decipher the Egyptian crisisROME, August 20, 2013 – In a few days many dozens of churches, convents, homes of Christians in Egypt have been attacked or burned. A tragedy within the tragedy, after the coup d'état that has plunged the nation of the Nile into a civil war with hundreds if not thousands of victims. In covering the news of the numerous appeals for the cessation of violence, “L'Osservatore Romano” of August...

Minya churches canceled on Sunday the second mass, holding only a brief one. Meanwhile, prayers did not take place at other churches which were attacked. Priest Selwanes Lotfy of the Virgin Mary and Priest Ibram monastery in Degla, south of Minya, said, “We did not hold prayers in the monastery on Sunday for the first time in 1,600 years.”

Franciscan School looted and classrooms burned to the ground Nuns subjected to abuse as they were paraded through the streets Two Christians killed since government moved against protesters Dozens of churches, homes and businesses owned by Christians attacked A mob marched nuns through the battle-torn streets of Cairo ‘like prisoners of war’ in the latest outrage against Egypt’s Christian minority. Sister Manal, principal of a Franciscan school in suburban Cairo, watched for six hours as a mob looted the building, knocked the cross off the gate and replaced it with a black banner resembling the flag of Al Qaeda. The...

CAIRO (AP) — After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war" before a Muslim woman offered them refuge. Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob. In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism. Christians...

Female cartoon superhero "Burka Avenger", who is set to debut on Pakistani television next month, has become a controversial figure in a country reeling from the effects of religious extremism over the past decade.

What do Muslim Brotherhood members do when Egyptian Security Forces launch a forewarned operation to clear them from Cairo tent cities? Attack Christians. That's right.Morsi supporters responded with a monumental attack--unprecedented in modern times--on churches throughout Egypt. The torching and destruction of churches occured within six hours of the start of the military crackdown. Many Muslims opposed the violent response against Christians. Some Salafists urged the Brotherhood to halt the attacks, and even some Muslims in Upper Egypt reportedly helped Christians defend churches.One destroyed church in Upper Egypt was built in the fourth century.Here's the list of burned churches and...

Syria's Christians belong to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, but chased away by the threat of violence some are heading for neighbouring Turkey, where they have been greeted with considerable enthusiasm. Driven by a deep and humble faith, Father Joaqim is a young man with a sense of destiny. He has returned from 11 years in Holland to revive his dying community in eastern Turkey. We are standing together on the terrace of his newly restored monastery, high on a remote escarpment near Nusaybin, looking south over the Mesopotamian Plain. "Thank God our community is alive...

Professor Richard Dawkins, known as the world’s most famous atheist, has risen to rock star status for his attacks on God and religion, in particular, his attacks on the God of the Bible. But when he recently criticized Muslims, he was in for a surprise. Before looking at Dawkins’ rather mild criticism of Muslims, let’s remember the depth of his vitriol against Christians and the Bible, most of which has only enhanced Dawkins’ reputation. In an April interview aired on the Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera, Dawkins railed on the Catholic Church, saying that, as “Horrible as sexual abuse no...

Eastern Michigan University hosted a day-long conference Saturday that dared to ask the question: “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” Leaders of the state’s Muslim community apparently didn’t care to hear the answer because they tried mightily to get the conference cancelled. “We respect the freedom of speech,” claimed Victor Begg, senior advisor of the Michigan Muslim Community Center. “However, denying the Holocaust, yelling ‘fire’ in a theater, or glorifying Hitler would not constitute freedom of speech.” In other words, anyone who wonders aloud whether Islam truly is the peaceful religion its adherents claim is on a moral par with...

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U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama sent their warmest greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr around the world, calling it "part of a great tapestry of America's many traditions." "Michelle and I send our warmest greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid-al-Fitr in the United States and around the world," Obama said in his message. "For millions of Americans, Eid is part of a great tapestry of America's many traditions, and I wish all Muslims a blessed and joyful celebration. Eid Mubarak," Obama said. Eid is being celebrated on Thursday in the Arab world and most of the East...

Events in one Syrian town cast light on the nation’s strifeIlyas was, he told me, the very last Christian to flee Qusayr. He had been one of just a handful in the town to join the revolution — an odd thing for a Christian to do because the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were and are mostly Sunnis, and the Christians mostly sided with Assad. Still, it didn’t save him. One day he heard banging on the door and saw men with Kalashnikovs standing there. There were familiar faces, some he had known for years. He said: ‘They told me: “You’re...

Scarcely a day goes by now where we do not read of yet another in a constellation of initiatives being undertaken by both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere in the world. For instance, on July 31 it was announced that a charitable drive launched at the end of June by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had raised US$1.3 Million to assist victims of the Syrian armed conflict. That these funds will be distributed through the auspices of both Orthodox Christian Patriarch John...