Free Republic

Mosul, Iraq’s second city, is now free of Christians for the first time in 1,800 yearsWar in Iraq has returned with dramatic speed, with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, a group extreme even by jihadi standards, having taken Mosul. Just 100 kilometres from Baghdad, ISIS also threatens the major city of Kirkuk and so bringing the Kurds into a wider war. Aid to the Church in Need is reporting that Mosul’s Christian population, which had declined from 30,000 to 3,000 in the years following the 2003 US invasion, is now down to virtually nothing. They fled, along...

Notes Uncertainty About Those Responsible; What We Do Know Is That the Attackers Are ExtremistsA graphic account of the Islamist take-over of Mosul and the people’s desperate struggle to flee to safety has come from the city’s Chaldean bishop. Speaking today to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Amel Nona said he thought Mosul’s last remaining Christians had left now a city which until 2003 was home to 35,000 faithful. The Christians are among 500,000 thought to have fled Mosul, which was overthrown Tuesday. That event is now followed by news today of militant attacks on the...

Msgr. Nona appeals urgently for aid because supplies of food and water are running scarce. The Islamists have taken control of the city. Police and military have abandoned their weapons. Faithful, priests and nuns have left the area, the churches are closed. The prelate prays for a "strong state" that is a guarantor of peace and unity. Premier Al-Maliki declares a state of emergency.Mosul (AsiaNews) - The situation is "very difficult". First of all, there "is an urgent need to help these people who have fled" from the city, because "within two or three days supplies of food and water...

Frightening article in the Telegraph: Gay Danish couples win right to marry in church. The country's parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages. .... Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church. I am sure at first most Catholic clergy will refuse and bishops will not comply but down the line, in two or three years, what will happen, and if this law were introduced into England, or the...

For the first time in history, Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran will be heard at the Vatican on Sunday, in a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Francis issued the invitation to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit last week to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Abbas, Peres, and Francis will be joined by Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders, a statement released by Peres’s spokesperson said, according to the Times of Israel. Holy See officials on Friday said the evening prayers would be...

Satisfied With Pope's Efforts, Wants More Action From International CommunityA Syrian bishop has issued a worldwide appeal to Christians and men of good will to preserve Christian Arab culture and for the international community to do more to end the war in the country. Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, who is president of Caritas Syria, said the Pope's immediate focus on Syria's conflict during his Holy Land trip was significant, according to a report in Avvenire. “When Pope Francis went to the Holy Land, we were waiting for his word of peace in Syria. The Holy Father spoke of...

Just a week after a scandal was sparked by a preacher slating Islam as "satanic", a second preacher has launched a broadside against the faith. The minister at Lord Bannside's former church, Martyr's Memorial Free Presbyterian in east Belfast, has blasted Islam as a "violent intolerant wicked religion". The Rev Ian Brown was speaking at a recent Sunday evening service in defence of Pastor James McConnell, whom he described as a "prophet". The Free Presbyterian minister told his flock last Sunday evening he felt the situation had become "thoroughly ridiculous". In an sermon posted on the Martyr's Memorial website, Rev...

Bradford’s acting bishop has spoken out against the “disgraceful behaviour” of a far-right group at mosques in the district and at the Keighley home of the Lord Mayor. Britain First members entered the places of worship on March 10, handing out Bibles and urging worshippers to renounce Islam, as well as visiting the home of the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Khadim Hussain. Bishop Tom Butler, Acting Bishop of Bradford, has condemned the group’s actions. He made the comments at a special civic service at Bradford Cathedral, attended by Coun Hussain. In his address, Bishop Butler said: “Mr Lord Mayor,...

(Reuters) - It has served as the exalted seat of two faiths since its vast dome and lustrous gold mosaics first levitated above Istanbul in the 6th Century: Christendom's greatest cathedral for 900 years and one of Islam's greatest mosques for another 500. Today, the Hagia Sophia, or Ayasofya in Turkish, is officially a museum: Turkey's most-visited monument, whose formally neutral status symbolizes the secular nature of the modern Turkish state. But tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers gathering there on Saturday hope it will again be a mosque, a dream they believe Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan can fulfill. There...

"The enormity of the slaughters of the "religion of peace" are so far beyond comprehension that even honest historians overlook the scale. When one looks beyond our myopic focus, Islam is the greatest killing machine in the history of mankind, bar none."

The Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, has confirmed that both sides have decided on Pentecost Sunday as the meeting date. The meeting will take place in the afternoon in the Vatican. "We will soon decide on a date and then we’l discuss the content," the Custodian of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, had told SIR, the Italian Episcopate’s religious information service. Francis asked Pizzaballa to organise the prayer meeting in the Vatican, which he announced at the end of the mass he celebrated in bethlehem last Sunday. The official date has now been set and was announced by the Vatican spokesman,...

Yesterday’s dark fantasy is now coming to pass Exactly one century ago, the renowned British writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), called by his admirers the greatest writer and thinker of the 20th century, published a curious novel titled “The Flying Inn.” On the cusp of World War I, he imagined the Ottoman Empire conquering Great Britain and imposing Shariah law. Chesterton rides this implausible scenario as a vehicle to ridicule progressivism — that same arrogant, “scientific,” top-down, and leftist approach to government that characterizes the age of Obama. “The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes,” Chesterton rightly explained,...

“May Allah accept this from me.”“I’m doing it in the name of Allah.”“To establish Islamic law—Allah’s law on earth.”The above are statements made by would-be and successful jihadists to explain their motivations for planning or executing acts of terror in America. Jihadists in other parts of the world say much the same thing. Where, then, do they get the idea that this is what Allah wants them to do?Jihadists usually cite the Koran as the source of their motivation. For example, Terry Lee Loewen explained his planned jihad attack on Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport last December as follows:I don’t understand...

LAHORE: In an apparent 'honour killing', a 25-year-old pregnant woman was brutally beaten and stoned to death on Tuesday outside the high court here by her father and brothers for marrying the man of her choice. Police said Farzana Parveen, resident of Faisalabad, had married Mohammad Iqbal of Jaranwala a few months ago against the wishes of her family. The incident happened as the couple reached the court premises to record Farzana's statement to defend her husband against allegations by her family that he kidnapped her and forced her to marry him. Initially, the family members fired shots in the...

In an interview with the Milanese newspaper Il Giornale, the Vatican’s Secretary of State discussed Pope Francis’s decision to invite the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to the Vatican to pray for peace. “We have experienced the power of prayer in the initiative of the Pope for Syria,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin. “Prayer is capable of transforming hearts and then transforming history.” The Pope designated September 7 a day of prayer for peace in Syria, a week after President Barack Obama had sought congressional approval for military intervention there. On September 9, President Obama decided to delay pursuing military action. Cardinal...

Pope Francis left a note at the Wall in accordance with Jewish tradition. Below, he embraces his two friends (Photo: PA) On his last day in the Holy Land, Pope Francis prayed at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, before an emotional hug with two old friends – a Muslim leader and a rabbi.Francis stood at the Wall for more than a minute and a half, most of the time in silent prayer, before reciting the Our Father. Then he followed custom by leaving a written message inside a crack between two blocks. He was accompanied by his...

SO IT SEEMS THAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOW DECIDING THE TRUTHS OF ISLAM! When we note the claim that the kidnapped children had accepted Islam, it seems that Mr. Jackson has failed to understand that “all people” does not appear to include those that agree with the groups religious views, especially regarding war against infidels. Senator Rubio seems to be overly fixated on trying to pin the unpinnable and slides right by this global question of true belief. The State Department responds automatically without fear of questioning with what has become common a knee-jerk reaction to a legitimate question. Why...

In an address to Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem since 2006, and other Muslims gathered Jerusalem, Pope Francis reflected on the figure of Abraham and implored, “May no one abuse the name of God through violence!” The meeting took place in the building of the Great Council on the Esplanade of the Mosques at the beginning of the final day of the Pontiff’s three-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land. “Following in the footsteps of my predecessors, and in particular the historic visit of Pope Paul VI fifty years ago, the first visit of a Pope to the...

Apostasy is not just something that scandalises people in far off lands. Harriet Alexander hears the story of a British woman whose life was turned upside down when she left Islam - echoing the plight of Meriam Ibrahim, who awaits a death sentence in Sudan for the same "crime" If Amal Farah were not living in Britain, she believes she might well be dead. For the 33-year-old financial manager had carried out an act so heinous, her family felt she deserved to die. Her crime? She had renounced her Islamic faith – “and within my community, that’s a capital offence,”...

We all know the Muslim world is a political and cultural disaster zone.All you need to know is the spectacularly low level of book sales in the Arab world, and a similarly miserable record in winning Nobel prizes, whether in literature or hard science. A dozen years ago, a group of Arab scholars did a report for the United Nations [1] that ascribed the failure of Arab society to a lack of freedom, knowledge and womenpower. And things have gotten considerably worse since 2002; the authors could write that there were no ethnic conflicts then. That’s long gone.Never mind...