Free Republic

Violence in camps has intensified as the country expects 800,000 people this yearChristian and Muslim refugees should be housed separately to prevent the escalation of religious violence, one of Germany’s leading policeman has said. Jörg Radek, deputy head of Germany’s police union, told the German newspaper Die Welt that “I think housing separated according to religion makes perfect sense.” On Sunday there were two separate fights between refugees at a temporary migrant shelter in Kassel-Calden in northern Germany, which left 14 people injured. The second involved almost 400 people. Earlier on Thursday a fight broke out between 200 Syrians and...

More than three decades on from the events that shot him to fame, Lech Walesa, the co-founder of Solidarity, is enjoying himself as Poland’s ‘enfant terrible.’GDANSK – It was difficult to know whether Lech Walesa was cynical, joking or dead serious. Maybe all of the above. His direct approach to, and simplistic views of, a complicated international reality can embarrass the listener. Nevertheless, it is clear that the former president of the Polish Republic – a Nobel Prize laureate, who co-founded Solidarity, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet bloc and became an icon of liberty and freedom – can...

  Making Haj may be one of the deadliest things for a Muslim to do. The latest "stoning the devil" accident, in which Muslim pilgrims to Mecca reenact an ancient pagan ritual involving Mercury, has led to a huge death toll that currently stands at 717 dead and 863 wounded. "Stoning the devil" has been a killer for Muslims before. 23 May 1994: About 270 people die in a stampede at the "Stoning of the Devil" ritual. 9 April 1998: On the third and last day of the Haj pilgrimage, a stampede at Jamarat Bridge kills at least 118...

"Comforting the people and encouraging them to persevere has become an indispensable effort. Helping the faithful in their distress has become a priority for me"Here is a letter from Aleppo, written by the archbishop of the city, Jean-Clément Jeanbart, reflecting on his 20 years of service here, as he now fights for his faithful to stay in Syria. The letter is made available by Aid to the Church in Need.* * * It has been 20 years, exactly. On Sept. 16, 1995, the Church saw fit to appoint me to lead the Diocese of Aleppo. It was a solemn day...

One of the biggest mosques in Russia will finally open in Moscow on Wednesday after a decade of construction work, with President Vladimir Putin and foreign dignitaries attending the ceremony. The new place of worship — built on the site of the city's original mosque — will be able to accommodate more than 10,000 people, about 10 times more than its predecessor, Rushan Abbyasov, deputy chairman of Russia's Council of Muftis, told The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Moscow's new mosque will be on a par with two enormous mosques in Russia's North Caucasus region: the Heart of Chechnya in Grozny,...

Thousands of Christians are being persecuted by the Islamic State (Isis) who use churches as torture chambers where Christians are forced to convert to Islam or are killed, a faith-based human rights group said. The report published in Express.co.uk, noted that a Christian is killed every five minutes in Iraq by Isis and other terror groups. "Islamic State Militants in Iraq are using Christian churches as torture chambers where they force Christians to either convert to Islam or die, " Jim Jacobson, the president of the faith-based human rights group said. Since taking over large swathes of area in Syria...

In Germany, hundreds of Muslim refugees are turning to Christ at a Berlin church. The Evangelical Trinity Church has swelled from 150 to 600 members in just two years, and many are Muslims fleeing Iran and Afghanistan. Mohammed Ali Zonoobi, an Iranian asylum seeker, was recently baptised. "I feel like I am born again", he sobbed. Many of the refugees are seeking asylum in Germany and converting to Christianity can increase their chances of staying. If they're sent home, converts can be persecuted -- even put to death -- for leaving Islam. The church's pastor said he believes the power...

The head of the Syriac Catholic Church said that the support of Syrian rebels by the United States, Great Britain, and France was tantamount to “fomenting the violence” in Syria “under the pretext of a kind of Arab Spring,” Canadian Catholic News reported. Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, who was making a pastoral visit to Ottawa, charged that the Western view of “modernized, civilized rebels” opposing the Assad regime was a “fantasy.” Paraphrasing the Patriarch’s remarks, the report continued: These rebels were supplied with arms, he said. Thus, it is up to the West to take measures to stop Daesh...

During the last week of August, two Protestant churches in Turkey — one in the Mediterranean city of Antalya and the other in Istanbul — received emails with a message that read, “You apostate, perverted infidels, you’ve rejected the truth despite the laws of Allah and chosen the path of infidelity. You’ve not only put faith in idolatry, but you’ve dragged along others with you. For a long time, we waited for you to return to the true religion. You [only] increased your perversion and fooled other ignorant people. Be assured that Allah will deliver your heads in our hands....

After Boko Haram terror attacks in northern Cameroon, Catholics in the African country have formed human chains to screen off areas where Mass is celebrated outdoors, a local bishop reports. Bishop Bruno Ateba of Maroua-Mokolo told Aid to the Church in Need that he always celebrates Mass outdoors. The faithful form a ring around the area, and anyone who attends must pass through security controls. The defensive measures were adopted after suicide bombings that killed 30 people in Maroua in July. More recently, on September 3, two suicide bombers struck at a crowded marketplace; the casualty figures are unclear.

It has been fourteen years since Muslim terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the religion of Islam was made visible to the American public. At the time, there were already many small and medium-size Muslim-only enclaves in many major western European cities – places where if a non-Muslim entered, he would most likely not return. The Internet was still young and far from ubiquitous. YouTube did not exist. Neither did Facebook or Twitter. Cell phone video was still a few years off, which is why we have so little footage of the actual events of that morning. Considering the...

ISLAM'S DOCTRINES OF DECEPTION by Raymond Ibrahim Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst October 2008 To better understand Islam, one must appreciate the thoroughly legalistic nature of the religion. According to sharia (Islamic law) every conceivable human act is categorised as being either forbidden, discouraged, permissible, recommended, or obligatory. "Common sense" or "universal opinion" has little to do with Islam's notions of right and wrong. Only what Allah (through the Quran) and his prophet Muhammad (through the Hadith) have to say about any given issue matters; and how Islam's greatest theologians and jurists – collectively known as the ulema, literally, "they who...

Australia should prioritise persecuted Christian refugees over other groups fleeing the Syrian conflict, says Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher. Archbishop Fisher called on the Abbott government to increase overall refugee numbers “very substantially’’ to accommodate thousands more of the Christians fleeing Islamic State to Turkey and Europe. He told The Australian the “monumental crisis’’ justified “last resort’’ military action, including Australia extending airstrikes to Islamic State targets in Syria as well as Iraq. “There are concerted campaigns to drive Christians from the Middle East,’’ he said. “Other groups are also suffering badly and being persecuted but many Syrian Christians have...

Yes, there are true refugees. I don’t think they are all refugees. We shall see. Meanwhile, some are rejecting aid because there is a Red Cross on the packages. Video

Archbishop Charles J Scicluna and Imam Mohamed El Sadi this evening jointly took part in a wreath laying ceremony to mark the 450th anniversary of the Great Siege in Valletta. They addressed the distinguished guests at the foot of the Great Siege Monument in Republic Street and laid flowers along with, among others, the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The Imam, who was the first to deliver his speech, underscored that in any religion, there is no war that is 'holy' and the only outcome of war is destruction and death. Mgr Scicluna said the...

Mohammed Ali Zonoobi bends his head as the priest pours holy water over his black hair. "Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds?" pastor Gottfried Martens asks the Iranian refugee. "Will you break away from Islam?" "Yes," Zonoobi fervently replies.

In addition to the waves of Middle Eastern and African refugees flooding into Europe, there apparently is a smaller wave: Muslim conversions to Christianity.The Associated Press visited an Evangelical church in Berlin, Germany’s capital, to find a congregation that includes “hundreds of mostly Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers.”Most say their intentions are sincere, AP said, but others are raising doubts.“There’s no overlooking the fact that the decision will also greatly boost their chances of winning asylum by allowing them to claim they would face persecution if sent home” the wire service noted.AP pointed out that Germany treats refugees differently,...

Forty-eight Catholics were killed in Our Lady of Salvation cathedral in 2010The victims of the 2010 attack on a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad will be put forward for beatification in 2016, a Church leader has said. Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan said he planned to launch the Cause of the 48 victims next year. According to AsiaNews, he made the announcement at the beatification of Bishop Flavianus Michael Melki in Harissa, Lebanon, on Saturday. The attack, which took place October 31, 2010, led to the deaths of 48 Catholics at the Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Chaldean Catholic Cathedral. Among...

What made non-Muslims convert to Islam, leading to the creation of the Islamic world? Early historical sources—both Muslim and non-Muslim—make clear that the Islamic empire was forged by the sword; that people embraced Islam, not so much out of sincere faith, but for a myriad of reasons—from converting in order to enjoy the boons of being on the “winning team” to converting in order to evade the dooms of being on the “losing team.” Modern day Muslims and other apologists—primarily in academia, government, and mainstream media—reject this idea. They argue that the non-Muslims who embraced Islam did so from sheer...

Moscow, September 1, Interfax - UNESCO needs to consider ways to protect cultural values amid ISIL attacks on cultural monuments in Syria's Palmyra, Russian Foreign Sergey Lavrov has said. "Under these circumstances, the task of the protection of cultural values under a relevant UN convention is very topical. I think we should think about concrete steps at the UNESCO in order to provide this position of the international community," Lavrov said at MGIMO University on September 1. "The destruction of cultural monuments in Iraq and Syria's Palmyra demonstrates that these people [ISIL fighters] not only seek to grab power on...