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At sundown each day during Ramadan, which ended on 17 July with the Eid-al-Fitr celebrations, observant Muslims customarily broke their fast at their evening iftar meal by eating dates. A week prior, on the evening of 10 July, 16-year-old Fawzi Osama was on the street in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, handing out dates to those hurrying home before sundown. In a country that is 90 per cent Muslim, nearly every passer-by was, almost by definition, Muslim. Osama, however, is a Coptic Christian, and in each small plastic bag of dates he also had included a slip of paper...

595—Mahomet was without authority. His reasons, then, should have been very strong, having only their own force. What does he say, then, that we must believe him? 596—The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world. Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires His own testimony to be as nothing. The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone. 597—Against Mahomet.--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry,...

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, 1. I am pleased to send you, in the name of all the Catholics around the world and in my name as well, best wishes for a peaceful and joyful celebration of ‘Id al-Fitr. You exercise during the month of Ramadan many religious and social practices, like fasting, prayer, almsgiving, help to the poor, visits to family members and to friends. I hope and pray that the fruits of these good deeds may enrich your life. 2. For some of you and also for others from other religious communities, the joy of the feast is...

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad has issued a new appeal for protection of Iraqi Christians. The plea comes after four Christians were kidnapped in Baghdad in the past two weeks, and two of them killed. “It is unfortunate that the security situation continues to deteriorate,” the Chaldean Patriarchate says; “and that some individuals and groups exploit it to carry out the kidnapping of innocent people in order to gain sums of money and terrorize civilians.” The statement goes on to say that Christians have been the targets of other predatory schemes. Some Christian homes have been seized by unscrupulous...

Islam and Catholicism are the two religions that have seen rapid growth among the Chinese who are under 30 years old, according to a new study. Of the said age bracket, 22.4 percent are Muslims while Catholics follow very closely at 22 percent, according to the China Religion Survey 2015 as released by the National Survey Research Centre at Renmin University of China. "Islam tends to have a younger demographic," said Wei Dedong, a professor of Buddhist studies at the School of Philosophy at Renmin, who was part of the research. "Most believers of Islam belong to ethnic minority groups...

He called out to me as I walked by the pool. “Hey, what’s going on? Do you want a beer?” I politely declined, telling him that I did not drink. “Really? I’ve never met an American who didn’t drink. I have a soda. Do you want a soda?” It was late, and I have never been a very social person, but with my wife and children in South America waiting on my wife’s green card, I had been spending my evenings alone. So I sat down and talked to him. We will call him Ali. He told me he was...

"We must take these threats seriously. It would be enough that three young fundamentalists, armed with knives, attack a Christian home to cause panic in the Christian community."JERUSALEM—A group calling itself "Islamic State in Palestine" last week distributed leaflets ordering Christians to leave the city by the end of Ramadan, July 18. Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate, urging the faithful to be vigilant, said that “we must take these threats seriously. It would be enough that three young fundamentalists, armed with knives, attack a Christian home to cause panic in the Christian community.” The message on the...

An Islamic theologian responsible for teaching ISIS militants "jihad 101" has turned to the Bible after growing "sick of the killing" and finding himself yearning for something "better," according to a Christian missionary who works in the Middle East. The Christian missionary, introduced as just "Julian" during a recent interview on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio program, believes "ISIS is being used to reveal something of the dark heart of Islam." "As I say that I feel a bit reticent because I know that many, many Muslims want to distance themselves and are embarrassed by it and are great...

Police in Pakistan saved a Christian couple from a Muslim mob who were attempting to lynch them for allegedly committing blasphemy, and later arrested a cleric for inciting the violence, a senior officer said Thursday. The incident, which took place in the village of Makki in Punjab province on Tuesday, represents a rare successful intervention by authorities in a country where even unproven allegations of blasphemy can result in a bloody death at the hands of vigilantes. Sohail Zafar Chattha, the district police chief, told AFP the illiterate Christian couple had obtained an old panaflex advertisement awning which contained the...

Interview with the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, Aphrem II: martyrdom is not a human sacrifice offered to God in order to obtain his favour. This is why it is blasphemous to call suicide bombers “martyrs”When we look at martyrs we see that the Church is not just one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Throughout its journey through history the Church has also been a suffering Church.” According to the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, martyrdom reveals an essential element of the nature of the Church. A connotation that could be added to those professed in the...

Nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition protesting a proposal to turn a Catholic hospital chapel into a Muslim prayer room.

We have been saying for the last two years that Turkey will invade Syria and now the media is all over the issue of a serious possible invasion by the second most powerful army in NATO: Turkey. The spark and excuse for this invasion is simple. As Kurdish rebels in northern Syria rack up wins against ISIS, Turkish media is abuzz with talk of military intervention guised under the claim to push ISIS back from the Turkish border. Erdogan vowed that Turkey would not accept a move by Syrian Kurds to set up their own state in Syria following gains...

AS the Ramadan fast enters the second week, Pope Francis has sent his goodwill message to Nigerian Muslims, urging them to use the fasting period to enrich themselves spiritually, physically and morally. In his prayer, the Catholic pontiff said: “I am pleased to send you, in the name of all Catholics around the world, best wishes for a peaceful and joyful celebration of ‘Id el-Fitr. May your fasting, prayer, almsgiving, help to the poor, visits to family members and to friends enrich your lives.” In a statement signed by the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Vatican, Jean-Louis...

Happy Ramadan from you friends in the Muslim world. Just in the last 12 hours. Man decapitated as severed head is 'covered in Arabic writing' and hung on a fence next to Islamist flag at factory in France after terrorists storm building and set off 'gas bomb' explosions Tunisian officials say a gunman is still at large after a deadly attack on two hotels packed with British tourists left 27 dead. ISIS Claims Deadly Blast at Shiite Mosque in Kuwait Islam is like so totes misunderstood.

The Irish government is now in the business of trying to get an elderly Evangelical pastor, who is in ill health, in prison for simply saying that Islam is a satanic religion. His name is Pastor James McConnell. Shoebat.com commended the pastor and also posted his sermon last year:(video at link)Now the Irish government is going to be prosecuting the pastor, and will try to get him into prison. If they succeed, he may get up to six months in jail. The pastor stated: I am facing up to six months in jail and a hefty fine for saying what...

Auxiliary Bishop Yaldo of Baghdad, Speaks on Challenges of Evangelizing Amid PersecutionAn extraordinary testimony of Christian faith in a time of persecution was given at the end of the meeting “Pellegrini nel Cyberspazio” (Pilgrims in Cyberspace) (Grottammare-Ascoli Piceno, June 18-20), by Bishop Basel Yaldo, Auxiliary Bishop of the Chaldean Patriarchate of Baghdad for the past five months. The Prelate asked the journalists in the hall “to make the whole world hear the voice of a suffering Church.” He then talked about his abduction in Baghdad in September 2006, in an overheated atmosphere, following Pope Benedict XVI’s famous address, completely misunderstood...

Ulan-Ude, June 24, Interfax - Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries should understand that, if Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's regime collapses, the terrorist group Islamic State will come after them, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Yevgeny Lukyanov said. "The states of this region, like Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, and perhaps some others, should pray for Bashar al-Assad. This is the last security line for them," Lukyanov told journalists on Wednesday. "If Assad's regime collapses, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries will be the next targets for the IS," he said. "There are some 5,000 of the Saudi king's subjects fighting...

As a tall, lanky redhead born and raised in Colorado, 34 year-old Brother David Johnson definitely sticks out in Syria, the Middle Eastern country where he serves with the St. James the Persian Carmelite Monastery in Qara.He originally came as a student to study the language, but decided to stay after he fell in love with the country and felt GodÂ’s call to the religious life there.That love for language and for God would one day save Brother JohnsonÂ’s life. At a recent prayer breakfast in Denver, Brother Johnson recalled the story of Easter Monday, three years ago. He was...

Last May in Italy, a Muslim boy of African origin beat a 12-year-old girl during school because she was wearing a crucifix around her neck. The African schoolboy, who had only started to attend the school approximately three weeks earlier, began to bully the Christian girl — “insulting her and picking on her in other ways all because she was wearing the crucifix” — before he finally “punched the girl violently in the back [1].”What is it about the Christian cross that makes some Muslims react this way?The fact is, Islamic hostility to the cross is an unwavering fact of...

DEARBORN (CBS Detroit) Because it has the “greatest Arab population in the United States,” a pastor with a soft drawl, earnest delivery and alleged anti-Semitic rhetoric plans to march on Dearborn. The suburban Detroit city is the target of Steve Anderson, pastor of Faithful World Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., for a march planned for Friday, June 26. Anderson says he’s going to bring as many followers as he can plus 1,000 copies of his movie “Marching to Zion” — which has been criticized as anti-Semitic — to distribute to what he perceives as a receptive Muslim audience. He urges...