When person abusing your faith turns out to be a co-religionist: Social media's illusions and internet crimes

The person abuses your faith online, posts objectionable messages and shares photographs that are so inflammatory that it is not proper to describe them.

You get angry and disturbed. You may write angry comments to him, argue, tell him to stop or shut up.

But did you ever imagine that he also belongs to your own faith? And that he is still doing it because he had a purpose!

May be, he has certain psychological issues or wants to defame someone and hence assumed a false identity.

So he is using it to post objectionable things to defame that person. Did  you consider this option?

And when you know the truth, do you realise you were unnecessarily spending energies and were getting mad at 'people of other religion'. That's the online world.

On internet, especially, social media, there is no dearth of people who suffer from 'attention deficit disorder' or who just love to 'irk others'. Such mischief-makers feel its a prank but don't they realise consequences!

For them, perhaps, it's a spectacle to watch when others keep fighting on their Facebook wall over a photo or message, as they themselves watch with glee, and perhaps pat themselves on their back for making others fight.

Man who caused communal riots, arrested

This is a real story and has lessons for all. A morphed photograph was circulated on social media by a person, which led to riot.

Then, there was a second round of rioting. There were deaths during the violence and the victims were both Hindu and Muslim.

The person who was behind the post, used a Hindu ID to post against Muslims, and then used Muslim ID to circulate messages against Hindus. For weeks, the entire town remained on edge.

The man used a BJP leader's ID on Facebook to post, anti-Muslim message. It is so easy in those days, you can create a leader's page or fan page yourself. But that's criminal act.

The law-and-order situation was such that police from adjoining places had to be called. There was widening communal divide and tension.

Arrested

Finally, the police and cyber experts, managed to trace him. It was found that he was ordinary youth. He was Nitesh Verma, a simply, guy next door--who was doing post-graduation in computer applications (PDGCA).

On internet, he used 'Hindu ID to abuse Muslims' and 'Muslim ID to abuse Hindus'. Why he did it? The investigators found that he had very few friends. He didn't come out of his house. He lacked self-confidence.

*On July 2, he used Naved Khan's id to post photo that hurt Hindu sentiments
*On July 19, he hacked Anurag Soni's id to upload photos that hurt Muslims
*On July 30, he hacked Altaf Abbai's photo and posted BJP leader's photo to make hateful comments against Muslims
*Earlier, he  had hacked Sagar Verma's id to upload objectionable content

His brother had committed suicide and he blamed certain youths of the locality. He was angry with them and as he felt he was not strong enough to take on them, he planned 'the revenge' in this way. He thought he would hack their IDs or create their fake IDs for spreading messages that would hurt them badly.

The results were too serious: Communal violence and deaths. Verma is in jail now. It can be any one, a Nitesh Verma or a Naeem Khan. Just that we need to learn the lessons right from this episode. Cyber safety, understanding online behaviour and the need for spreading awareness about it.

One hopes that in coming years, people will learn cyber etiquette. However, what one must do right now. First, stop getting irritated.

If the posts are incendiary, 'report' the person. You can also ignore or block them on Facebook. If there is a fear that communal harmony can be disrupted, inform the authorities. They generally take care of the rest.

LINK TO DAINIK BHASKAR REPORT

1. Youth behind inflammatory messages, posts arrested
2. Nav Bharat Times report on communal violence, curfew, death
3. Riot leaves one dead, six injured in Khandwa over Facebook comment

[This happened just a few months back--in July/August 2014]

Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into a mosque in Turkey

Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey continues its push to eliminate all traces of Orthodox Christianity and literally recapture its supposed former glory of the Ottoman period. 

Pravoslavie - September 25, 2014

Muslim prayers are being performed in another ancient Orthodox Church, reports AgionOros

The Hagia Sophia Church in Eregli (the Greek form is Heraclea) has become the ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into a mosque by Turks over recent years.

The Orthodox Church was given a new name by the Turkish authorities � the Orhan Mosque, in honor of the Turkish Sultan Orhan I (who reigned from 1326 till 1359).

The Turkish historian Recep Cetin, speaking at the unveiling of the new mosque, noted the �historic significance of the event�: �Hagia Sophia in Eregli is already the ninth church with such name, converted into a Muslim mosque�.

Earlier the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Trabzon (Trebizond) and the Hagia Sophia Church in Nicaea (it was the very church where the Seventh Ecumenical Council was held) had been given to [that is, seized by] the Muslim community. The importance of this event can scarcely be overestimated, since the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Heraclea is more ancient than the famous Hagia Sophia Church in Constantinople. According to the historians� information, it was built under the Roman Emperor Theodosius II, that is, between 408 and 450 AD.

Originally posted at: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/73914.htm

Anti-Muslim ads could threaten lives

All New Yorkers of good will should be disgusted by Pamela Geller�s decision to plaster city buses with Islamophobic tripe effectively smearing all Muslims as being in league with ISIS, Hamas and even Hitler.

I say this not as a Muslim American, but as a Sikh who has strong differences of opinion with devout Muslims about theology and lifestyle choices.

But the fact is, my family owes its very survival to the tolerance of Muslims, and I feel I owe it to them to speak out on their behalf.

When the Indian subcontinent was divided between India and the new Muslim nation of Pakistan in 1947, fanatics in the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities used religion as an excuse to attempt genocide against each other.

Hundreds of thousands of people died. Millions were turned into refugees and driven to opposite sides of the border based on their religion.

During this upheaval, a devout Muslim protected my paternal grandparents and their children, providing them food and shelter for several months at considerable risk to his own life. He was a colleague of my grandfather at the china factory where they both worked. Sensing that my family�s life was in danger, he hid them in a barn on his property out of view of rampaging mobs. When the violence subsided, he delivered my family to safety.

It is convenient to blame all Muslims for uprooting my family from its ancestral home � just as it would be easy for Muslims to blame all Hindus and Sikhs for doing the same on the other side of the border � but nuance matters. My father was a year old, and the fact is that his life was saved by a Muslim. If his life had been cut short, my own life would not have been possible.

What makes Geller�s ads so troubling is not simply that they are juvenile and intellectually dishonest but that they dehumanize Muslims. In fact, they could even incite bigots to lash out against our fellow Americans.

These are not theoretical concerns. Earlier this month, Linda Sarsour � an American civil rights activist who wears a headscarf and happens to be Muslim � and one of her colleagues were accosted by a man in Brooklyn, who threatened to behead them.

In the last year, three turbaned Sikh Americans � Prabhjot Singh in Harlem, Sandeep Singh in Queens and Jaspreet Singh Batra on Roosevelt Island � experienced brutal physical assaults after being subjected to epithets, such as �terrorist� and �Osama Bin Laden.�

In December 2012, Sunando Sen � a Hindu American � lost his life after being shoved in front of a moving subway train in Queens by an assailant who declared that she hated Muslims and Hindus.

The First Amendment protects Geller�s right to be obnoxious, but she should be shamed for trying to combat anti-American extremists by publicly stereotyping entire groups of people and creating a climate of fear that could endanger the lives of innocent people.

There are fringe extremist groups in many religious communities throughout the world. ISIS, Al Qaeda and others are real threats to Americans. But they constitute a tiny fraction of the total population � which, in the case of Muslims, totals up to 1 million in New York City and more than 1 billion globally.

Nor is it the case that moderate Muslims are failing to condemn extremists. The devout Muslims I know are disgusted with these groups.

By pandering to the lowest common denominator, Geller is failing to acknowledge the devout Muslims who are working full-time to combat extremism and promote secular, pluralistic democracies in Muslim-majority countries.

A Muslim stood up for my family two generations ago and made it possible for us to thrive. Now, all of us should stand up for our Muslim brothers and sisters so that they can live in peace.

Singh is director of law and policy at the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh American civil rights organization in the United States.

Source

Mark Durie: Fear and the rhetoric of 'unprecedented' barbarity

Context and analysis from one of the foremost Christian writers on Islam.

By Mark Durie, September 26, 2014

Many leaders have been stating that the Islamic State�s actions are �unprecedented�, �extreme�, �unique�, or even �eccentric�.  Western leaders who are intervening in the Syria-Iraq conflict justify their actions by declaring the Islamic State to be uniquely evil.  In announcing military action and increased security measures, Australian Prime Ministry Tony Abbottsaid of the Islamic State that �To do such evil � and to revel in doing such evil � is simply unprecedented�. David Cameron stated that �ISIL is a terrorist organisation unlike those we have dealt with before.�  Barack Obama claimed �these terrorists are unique in their brutality.�

The actions of Islamic State�s adherents are morally repugnant in the extreme, but only by applying historical amnesia and selective vision could one claim that their evil is unique or unprecedented.

In recent decades, not dissimilar horrors have regularly been reported from around the world, for example the abuses of the �Lord�s Resistance Army�, or the genocide pursued by the government of  Sudan against the Christians and traditional believers in the Nuba mountains and  the Blue Nile region, and before that against tribal Muslims in the Dafur region.  Indeed for decades the Sudanese government has unleashed jihad � with all the atrocities of the Islamic State � against its own (black African) citizens, often assisted by jihadis from all over the Arabic world, just like in Syria and Iraq today. 

The Islamic State's actions are also not unique in history.  Quite apart from the horrors of Nazism and Communism, Andrew Bostom has rightly pointed out that the atrocities of the Ottoman Caliphate in exterminating Christians under their rule were greater in magnitude than what is currently being experienced in Syria and Iraq. He writes:

�Notwithstanding the recent horrific spate of atrocities committed against the Christian communities of northern Iraq by the Islamic State (IS/IL) jihadists, the Ottoman jihad ravages were equally barbaric, depraved, and far more extensive. Occurring, primarily between 1915-16 (although continuing through at least 1919), some one million Armenian, and 250,000 Assyro-Chaldean and Syrian Orthodox Christians were brutally slaughtered, or starved to death during forced deportations through desert wastelands. The identical gruesome means used by IS/IL to humiliate and massacre its hapless Christian victims, were employed on a scale that was an order of magnitude greater by the Ottoman Muslim Turks, often abetted by local Muslim collaborators (the latter being another phenomenon which also happenedduring the IS/IL jihad campaign against Iraq�s Christians).�

Bostom also points out that the Yazidi�s recent sufferings at the hands of the IS are nothing new, but are consistent with a pattern of genocidal assaults against them which stretches back to Ottoman times.

What is so disturbing to Western people about the Islamic State is not the extremity of the barbarity, which is far from unprecedented, but the fact that so many Western citizens have been signing up with IS, and the psychological warfare being directed by IS against the outside world, including the West, manifested, for example, in the videos of beheadings, and the way some enslaved, raped women have been forced to phone their families to tell them about their abuse, even while it is going on. 

What is unique for us in the West is the way the fear is now upon our doorstep: this is the fear that what is happening there will come back home to haunt us.

The challenge facing the West now is not simply stopping the Islamic State � as important as that is � but what to do about the fear.

Dropping bombs on the Islamic State will not do it.

Mark Durie is the pastor of an Anglican church, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Founder of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness.  His book The Third Choice explains the implications for Christians of living under Islamic rule.

Originally posted at: http://blog.markdurie.com/2014/09/fear-and-rhetoric-of-unprecedented.html

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Amvrosios: 'Your children will surely be slaves of Muslims'

More clear-headed warnings about Islam by another revered hierarch in a traditional Orthodox nation. The Greek people suffered for centuries under brutal Muslim tyranny during the Ottoman period. Numerous Ecumenical Patriarchs, bishops and priests were among the countless thousands martyred by the Turkish Muslims (not counting the Armenian and Orthodox Christian Genocide, which spread from 1894 to 1922, and claimed over 3.5 million lives). The warnings about Islam from Metropolitans Amvrosios and Anthimos (see my recent post) should be taken very seriously by Orthodox Christians everywhere.

Pravoslavie - September 23, 2014

(Athens) Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta and Aigialeia has spoken out against the �Anti-racist law� passed in Greece.

�With the entering into force of the anti-racist bill, all who talk about the motherland and patriotism will risk jail.

�A priest who will speak up against Jehovah�s Witnesses and other religions from the ambo, may be declared a racist and imprisoned,� said the hierarch, cited by AgionOros with the reference to Rua.gr (�Russian Athens�).

�Soon we will become aliens in our own home country. I do not know whether I will live to see these times, but your children will surely be slaves of Muslims. Greece is disappearing, faith is disappearing� Keep the flame of the motherland and faith. Globalization is not knocking at our doors any more � it has already entered our home,� he added.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/73925.htm

ISIS kills Iraqi woman activist in Mosul

 

Militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group publicly killed a rights lawyer in the Iraqi city of Mosul after their self-styled Islamic court ruled that she had abandoned Islam, the U.N. mission in Iraq said Thursday.

Samira Salih al-Nuaimi was seized from her home on Sept. 17 after allegedly posting messages on Facebook that were critical of the militants' destruction of religious sites in Mosul.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, al-Nuaimi was tried in a so-called "Sharia court" for apostasy, after which she was tortured for five days before the militants sentenced her to "public execution."

She was killed on Monday, the U.N. mission said. Her Facebook page appears to have been removed since her death.

"By torturing and executing a female human rights' lawyer and activist, defending in particular the civil and human rights of her fellow citizens in Mosul, ISIL continues to attest to its infamous nature, combining hatred, nihilism and savagery, as well as its total disregard of human decency," Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. envoy to Iraq, said in a statement, referring to the group by an acronym.

The militant group captured Iraq's second largest city Mosul during its rapid advance across the country's north and west in June, as Iraqi security forces melted away. The extremists now rule a vast, self-declared caliphate straddling the Syria-Iraq border in which they have imposed a harsh version of Islamic law and beheaded and massacred their opponents.

In the once-diverse city of Mosul, the group has forced religious minorities to convert to Islam, pay special taxes or die, causing tens of thousands to flee. The militants have enforced a strict dress code on women, going so far as to veil the faces of female mannequins in store fronts.

In August, the group destroyed a number of historic landmarks in the town, including several mosques and shrines, claiming they promote apostasy and depart from principles of Islam.

Among Muslim hard-liners, apostasy is considered to be not just conversion from Islam to another faith, but also committing actions that are so against the faith that one is considered to have abandoned Islam.

The Gulf Center for Human Rights said Wednesday that al-Nuaimi had worked on detainee rights and poverty. The Bahrain-based rights organization said her death "is solely motivated by her peaceful and legitimate human rights work, in particular defending the civil and human rights of her fellow citizens in Mosul."

In the nearby town of Sderat, militants on Tuesday broke into the house of a female candidate in the last provincial council elections, killed her and abducted her husband, the UN also said. On the same day, another female politician was abducted from her home in eastern Mosul and remains missing.

The ISIS extremists' blitz eventually prompted the United State to launch airstrikes last month, to aid Kurdish forces and protect religious minorities in Iraq.

This week, the U.S. and five allied Arab states expanded the aerial campaign into Syria, where the militant group is battling President Bashar Assad's forces as well as Western-backed rebels.

Nearly a dozen countries have also provided weapons and training to Kurdish peshmerga fighters, who were strained after months of battling the jihadi group.

In other developments Thursday, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited northern Iraq for talks with Kurdish leaders about the fight against ISIS extremists and Berlin's efforts to help with arms deliveries.

Thursday also marked the start of German arms deliveries to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, with the ultimate goal of supplying 10,000 Kurdish fighters with some 70 million euros ($90 million) worth of equipment.
Source

Muslim Beheads Woman in Oklahoma: A Sign for Muslims as well as Christians

Islam's mask is slipping. And in spite of absurd denials by presidents and prime ministers, bishops and priests, more and more Christians are waking up to the truth about the "religion of peace":

• Islam is a false religion, and Muhammad was a false prophet;
• Islam is innately violent and supremacist, and has been so from its creation fourteen hundred years ago, as evidenced by the Quran, the Sira, and hadiths about Muhammad;
• Islam is dangerous, and has become a global threat to all non-Muslims;
• Islam especially targets Christians and Jews, as evidenced in the Quran, etc.
• The Islamic State is drawing large numbers of Muslims to its ranks from all around the globe, including from Europe and North America, due to its adherence to pure,  orthodox Islam, and especially due to its apocalyptic, eschatological orientation. (See articles by Timothy Furnish.)

While it is perhaps easy for Christians to see the resurgence of pure Islam as a sign of the dark times we have entered into, I believe it is also a sign for those Muslims who are shocked and fearful to discover through such horrific headlines just what their religion and prophet really teach.

Here are just a few current headlines:

• Oklahoma: Muslim Beheads Co-Worker, had tried to convert colleagues to Islam
• Italy: Imam gets prison for jihad terror plots
• Spain, UK, Morocco: 11 Muslims arrested for jihad terror plots

That such pure evil is unleashed upon the world is indeed a sign of the end times. But what are we to do? What does this sign mean?

Clearly it is a call to repentance, for Christians first but also for Muslims.

Christians, and especially Orthodox Christians who have received the fullness of the apostolic faith, are being called to repent and live an authentic Christian life in Christ and His Church. If we are friends with the world, then we are at enmity with God. In the words of Fr Seraphim Rose:

"Now one cannot be a half-hearted Christian. Only entirely, or not at all."

Put in its apocalyptic context, the beheading of Christians by the Islamic State is a sign and a warning to us to strive to be faithful witnesses and confessors of Jesus Christ, in all our deeds, words and thoughts, that we may be found worthy of Him at His Return. 

But the meaning of this sign for Muslims is also a call to repent. 

Just as we Christians must repent of our lukewarmness and our easy friendship with the world, so Muslims who in their heart of hearts long to know the truth and honor God must repent of their false religion and false prophet, and turn to the True God, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to restore us to the Father, granting us to be co-heirs with Him, even co-reigning with Him, even unto becoming partakers of the divine nature. Muhammad and Allah lower you to the level of mere slave. But in Christ we are no longer enslaved,  but are set free, becoming children of God. This is the high calling that is offered to everyone who turns to Jesus Christ.

To Muslims and Christians alike, the Lord calls us to Himself, that He may save us and strengthen us for the horrific tribulations yet to come, and grant us eternal life.

Let us all run to an Orthodox Christian church, turn to the priest, confess our sins, and prepare for trials, for it is coming quickly...

Allah SWT Is Merciful

ALLAH swt is so merciful. We do not see how He helps us in so many ways. we often complaint about life and how it is unfair to us. we, in fact, have so much to be sad about that we miss the main point. But there is so much to be thankful for.

The biggest blessing of ALLAH swt is the oxygen we are breathing. imagine, if all of a sudden, you don't get any more air to breath oxygen from!!! even the thought of it made it difficult for me to breath.

ALLAH swt has appointed for us two angels for our safety. wait, there is more to it. we are protected by angels , two at a time, their duties change at time of Asar every day. and they save us from those things we can't even imagine.
ever came across a situation where you were about to meet a horrible accident but you were saved?

ALLAH swt has created us and He has all the power over us, STILL He has permitted us to ask and He listens to us and gives us what we desire. AND the best thing is, He likes hearing from us.

ALLAH swt gives us so many things daily that we cannot even count them or imagine them being there for us . for example; the daily meals, the tea, the milk, that coffee... we don't even think of them but still we are provided with them on time. just imagine, tomorrow morning when you wake up and you find nothing to eat and no money to buy your breakfast.

ALLAH swt loves us so much that even if we are hurt from a needle, He removes a sin from our account. and He loves us so much that even if we think of doing a good thing, He writes it as a good deed done in our accounts. who does that except for the one who really loves you?

ALLAH swt is so merciful that He saves us from those bad people and bad situations before they happen. how? have you ever wished for something which you did not get but some one else got it and was hurt from it?? thats how.

and then, here we are, sad and down for those few things we think we don't have, or can't get. we feel sorry that somethings for which we constantly pray for, we don't get them on time or we don't get them at all. praying is not bad, ALLAH swt likes it when we talk to Him, but disappointment is bad. forgetting the countless mercies and blessings of ALLAH is bad. feeling alone and stranded is bad. our faith does not allow us to think like that. we belong to the most optimistic religion.

The Crisis of ISIS: A Prophetic Prediction | Sermon by Hamza Yusuf

Please think...

Beaten by IDF & Cousin Murdered by Israeli Radicals: American Teen Seeks Justice

Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki: 'We are against the presence of Islam in our city'

AXIOS! Bold words from a righteous hierarch, right up there with Archbishop Mark of Germany.

Pravoslavie � September 23, 2014

Thessaloniki, September 22, 2014 � In his interview with the Greek television, one of the most authoritative hierarchs of the Church of Greece made a number of tough statements, reports AgionOros:

�We are against the presence of Islam in Thessaloniki. We have already lost so much� When the Turkish minister entered the Church of Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki in our city, he announced at once: 'Here is a suitable mosque for Turks'. Another Turkish official came to the historical Greek province of Thrace and called this region �a severed hand of Turkey�.�

According to the Metropolitan, �Thessaloniki has received considerable support from Russians. Over recent years, numerous pilgrims from Russia have been coming to venerate the shrines and relics of our city.�

Metropolitan Anthimos also commented on the recent visit to Holy Mount Athos of leader of the Greek opposition, socialist Alexis Tsipras.

He expressed his disagreement with accusations against the politician of populism and insincerity: �I liked this step. I am against the personal initiatives of this or that political leader immediately being subject to criticism and doubt. He was right to visit Mt. Athos.�

Peled: Burden For Peace Rests With Israel

FOX13 News, WHBQ FOX 13

ISIS�s Cruelty Toward Women Gets Scant Attention

 

Tucked away in a recent New York Times story on military operations against ISIS by Iraqi special forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga was a brief description of what these troops discovered when they entered a village in Iraq that had been occupied by ISIS fighters. A naked woman, tied to a tree, who had been repeatedly raped by ISIS fighters. Another woman was discovered in a second village, similarly naked, tied down and repeatedly raped. The fighters, it appears, are �rewarded� by being allowed to have their way with captured women.

 ISIS has received considerable world attention for its savage beheadings, executions of captured soldiers and men in conquered towns and villages, violence against Christians and Shiites, and the destruction of non-Sunni shrines and places of worship. But its barbarity against women has been treated as a side issue. Arab and Muslim governments, vocal on the threat ISIS poses to regional stability, have been virtually silent on ISIS�s systemic degradation, abuse, and humiliation of women. To the men of ISIS, women are an inferior race, to be enjoyed for sex and be discarded, or to be sold off as slaves.

From ISIS-captured territory in Syria, we saw a photograph of a line of women, covered from head to toe and tied to one another by a rope, as they were being led to a makeshift slave market. Little girls, who were going to school and playing with dolls before ISIS fighters arrived at their doorstep, were married off to men many times their age. ISIS set up marriage bureaus in captured Syrian towns to recruit virgins and widows to marry fighters, and also called on fellow jihadists in other countries to recruit brides for the fighters and send them to Syria. It is hardly likely that these �marriages� were based on consent, as is required in Islam. Where women are concerned, consent does not appear to exist in the lexicon of ISIS fighters.

When ISIS moved into Iraq, a similar set of atrocities followed. In ISIS-conquered towns, reports of women and girls having to undergo female genital mutilation spread like wildfire, until denied by ISIS�s savvy social media. Iraqi NGOs reported that scores of women of the Yezidi sect�an amalgam of Zoroastrianism and Islam�were taken captive. The older women were sold off as slaves and the young ones were kept as brides for the ISIS fighters. The nature of these forced marriages remains obscure.

Zakia Hakki, an Iraqi judge and a woman herself, says that the fighters leave behind pregnant women who, as �soiled goods,� are ostracized by their own societies, while their children are treated as illegitimate. These raped women become targets for honor killings in their own families and communities. The governments of Iraq and Syria have also failed to protect these women and give them any assistance; nor have Western NGOs been effective in looking after these abandoned women and children. ISIS�s men not only leave behind dead bodies in their wake but also women and children who are scarred for life.

In its propaganda, ISIS emphasizes women�s modesty and piety. It created the al-Khansaa female brigade to protect the morality of women and to ensure they appear totally veiled in public. The irony will not be lost on anyone.

Volunteer fighters from around the world, including from Western countries, who have joined ISIS are complicit in these crimes against women. These young men who grew up in Western cultures seem to have absorbed nothing regarding the value of human life and respect for women. Why are there are no demonstrations in Western and Muslim societies against this barbaric onslaught on women and girls? How much longer will the Muslim and Arab world watch these horrors against women and children before speaking out and acting forcefully to protect them and rid the region of the ISIS calamity?

Source

Our Future as Muslims in the West - Br. Nouman Ali Khan

Hajj 2014 Photos Wallpapers

As we know Hajj is pilgrimage to Makkah Saudi Arabia and one of the 5 basic pillars of Islam. It is considered a Islamic duty for every Muslim who has enough wealth to travel to Makkah. Over 3 million people goes for Hajj every year from every corner of the world.

Hajj changes the life of many people forever and they come back as completely different persons who are God fearing, Kind and gives Importance to rights of Allah SWT and rights of other humans.

Lets see some Photos and Wallpapers of Hajj as Hajj 2014 is almost coming:

Hajj Step by Step Guide

Hajj Is the fifth pillar of Islam after Shahada, Salah, Fasting and Zakat. Every Muslim who is capable financially as well as physically must perform Hajj at least once in his life time. In Hajj Millions of Muslims from across all continents travels to Makkah were they perform certain worships that is known as Hajj. every Muslim keeps dream of going for Hajj in his eyes at least once before dying.

Hajj 2013 is not far away now. In fact it is one and a half week away. People are already reaching Saudi Arabia.

If you want to Know how the Hajj is performed then here is Step by Step detail:

Arrival

People starts reaching Makkah many days before the Hajj from throughout the world. special preparations are done by Saudi Govt for the massive event.

8th of Dhul-Hijjah

It is considered the first day of Hajj when people enter the state of Ihram. People gathers In Mina from Makkah where they pray.

9th of Dhul-Hijjah

It is second day of the Hajj on which people goes to Arafat from Mina. Prayers of Dhuhr and Asr are offered together. In the evening people goes to Muzdalifah from Mina were Magrib and Isha are offered together. night is also spend there.

10th of Dhul-Hijjah 

after offering the Fajr Salah In Muzdalifah people goes back to Mina. In Mina first of all stone pelting is done at Jamrat Al-Aqaba On Shaitan. Animals sacrifice is also done on this day.  Now men gets their head shaved.  On the same Day Muslims throughout the world celebrated the Eid Al Adha. after performing these duties a Haji can leave now Ihram and wear normal dresses.

Tawaf

the next step is going to Makkah and doing Tawaf of Kaaba.

11th and 12th of Dhul-Hijjah

next step is again going to Mina and spending the nights of 11th and 12th Dhul Hijjah there. Stone pelting is also done there. now return can be made to Makkah. In Kaaba farewell tawaaf will be made. farewell tawaaf means going around Kaaba seven times. Now all the steps of Hajj are complete.

Return

Many people also visits Masjid Al Nabawi In Madina after completing the Hajj. approx after staying for a month in Saudi Arabia people start returning to their countries.

Watch Hajj 2014 Live Streaming

Watch Hajj 2014 Live Streaming on our Site in the coming days in good quality. Hajj is one of the five basic pillars of Islamic which is obligatory for every rich Muslim to do at least once in life. For Hajj every year Millions of Muslims flies to Saudi Arabia.

Hajj is performed in Makkah and areas around it according to Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him. this year's Hajj is just around the corner and Millions of Muslims from around the world including Pakistan are already arriving in Saudi Arabia to perform the holy duty. It is considered the largest gathering of human beings anywhere in the world. approx 3 million people gets together at one place to say Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik.


You can watch the Live streaming of Hajj 2014 here:

The Scandal of the Cross for Islam

The Leavetaking of the Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Lifegiving Cross is tomorrow, Sunday September 21. On this solemn occasion it is essential to revisit Islam's vehement and violent stance against Christianity.

The Universal Exaltation of the Cross, and its Scandal for the World

by Fr. Steven C. Kostoff � Orthodox Christian Meditations

September 13, 2014

As we behold the Wood of the Cross exalted on high, let us magnify God who in His goodness was crucified upon it in the flesh.  (Small Vespers of the Feast)

We are approaching the Feast Day of The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross - to give the Feast its full title � this coming Sunday, September 14. This is the day that we liturgically commemorate and venerate the Cross that will be placed in the middle of the church toward the end of Great Vespers on Saturday evening.   The Feast will then have a full "octave" for its celebration � thus making it an eight-day Feast which serves to stress the importance of the Cross in the life of the Church and in our personal  lives.  To further turn our attention toward the Cross, we recall the Third Sunday of Great Lent - the Adoration of the Cross; and the less well-observed Feast of the Procession of the Cross on August 1.  And, importantly, every Wednesday and Friday is a day of commemorating the Cross, one of the reasons that we fast on those two days on a weekly basis.

Prominent though that the Cross may be for Christians, it is the Apostle Paul who very succinctly and profoundly captured the unbelieving world's attitude toward the Cross in his well-known text:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  (I COR. 1:23-24)

This leads the Apostle to one of his most astonishing and paradoxical insights:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  (I COR. 1:26)

The "scandal" for the unbelieving Jew would be the claim that the Messiah was crucified.  The "folly" for the Greek/Gentile would be the claim that the divine would even enter the realm of flesh and blood and "become" human, let alone suffer death on a cross.  Yet God, in and through Christ, transformed what is shameful, weak, lowly and despised - a crucified man - into "our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (I COR. 1:30)  The entire passage of I COR. 1:18-31 deserves careful, close and constant study. 

It remains fascinating, and highly instructive, that even non-Christians who profess to have a great respect for Jesus Christ, struggle terribly with the scandal of the Cross.   This is clearly the case with Islam.  Jesus is treated with great respect in many passages in the Qur'an:  even to the point of acknowledging His virginal conception in a passage that clearly resembles the Annunciation form the Gospel According to St. Luke! (Qur'an, 3:45-47)  However, the Crucifixion is treated in a way that bears no resemblance to the Gospel accounts:

"yet they did not slay him, neither crucify him, only a likeness of that was shown to them." (Qur'an 4:156-159)

The Muslims believe that someone else - a figure unidentified by the Qur'an - was crucified in the place of Christ, but not Jesus Himself.  The Muslim scholar Dr. Maneh Al-Johani wrote:  "The Qur'an does not elaborate on this point, nor does it give any answer to this question." 

Clearly, the "scandal" of the Cross is too much for Muslim sensibilities, since Jesus is for them a great prophet sent by God.  Muslims further believe that Jesus was raised to Heaven, yet before He died, clearly an odd teaching that again is meant to completely distance Jesus from His crucifixion.  If there is anything that is agreed upon today among New Testament scholars - believers and skeptics alike - it is that Jesus of Nazareth was put to death by crucifixion by orders of Pontius Pilate in the early 30's of the Christian era.  This lends a certain fantastic quality to these claims of the Qur'an.

There is a close resemblance here with an early Christian heresy known as docetism from the Gk. word meaning "to appear."  In other words, it only "appeared" that Christ was actually crucified and died on the Cross.  St. Ignatius of Antioch (+c. 110) vehemently rejected this heresy in its initial inception, early in the 2nd c.

Be deaf, then, when anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, who was of Mary, who was truly born, ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died ... He was also truly raised from the dead, when His Father raised Him up ...  (Epistle to the Trallians, 9)

St. Ignatius very poignantly asks: what is the purpose of suffering martyrdom for the Lord (as he did in the Roman arena) if the sufferings of Christ were an illusion?   Should a Christian suffer in the flesh if his Lord did not?

But if, as some godless men - that is, unbelievers - say, his suffering was only apparent (they are the apparent ones), why am I in bonds, why do I pray to fight wild beasts?  Then I die in vain.  Then I lie about the Lord.  (To the Trallians, 10)

[Islam has throughout the centuries referred to Christians in a derogatory manner as "cross-worshippers." The below paragraph seems to be responding specifically to this epithet.]

We do not "worship" the Cross.  We worship the One Who was crucified upon the Cross for our salvation.  Indeed, with the Apostle Paul we call Him the "Lord of glory." (I COR. 2:8)   Jesus Christ was not merely a prophet in a chain of prophets sent by God.  He is the fulfillment of the prophetic testimony to His coming, as He is the fulfillment of the Law.  (MATT. 5:17) There are no prophets to follow Him with any further additions to the Christian revelation.  We believe, as we chant in the Second Antiphon of the Liturgy, that He is the "Only-begotten Son and immortal Word of God ... Who without change didst become man and was crucified."  The Cross remains "an unconquerable token of victory," and  "an invincible shield."  In fact, it is for this reason that in our practice, we,

kiss with joy the Wood of salvation, on which was stretched Christ the Redeemer.  (Small Vespers)

Christianity does not exist because of what it holds in common with other great world religions, but because of what is unique and distinctive about it, primarily the Incarnation, redemptive Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is because of our love for Christ that beginning on the personal level, we must promote and practice mutual respect, tolerance and peaceful co-existence with sincerely believing people of other religions.  I see no other way for those who claim to follow the crucified Lord of glory.  However, this should in no way undermine our sense of Christian distinctiveness - "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (ACTS 4:12) - but actually demonstrate our loyalty to Christ Who never compels but invites - with outstretched arms upon the Cross. 

_______

Fr. Steven Kostoff's closing paragraph is essentially the same position I have taken in my book and this blog and in speaking about Christianity and Islam. I speak of it in the form of dichotomy: our stance against the heresy of Islam, as distinguished from our approach to individual Muslims, whom we invite to "repent and believe the Good News," the Gospel of Jesus Christ as lived for nearly 2000 years in the Orthodox Church.

In closing, it is highly instructive for us to consider how the Scandal of the Cross compels Islam to strive to destroy Christianity, as seen in its views of the end times, when it believes that Isa (Jesus) will return:

In Islam, Prophet Isa is expected to return, but to condemn the Christians� misunderstanding of him as divine and to literally destroy Christianity and judge all non- Muslims; the Koran universally brands all unbelievers as �the vilest of creatures� (Sura 98:6). 

The Prophet Isa will be a �good Muslim,� and will direct his followers to the Mahdi, the Muslim messiah, before taking a subservient position somewhat behind the Mahdi. Isa will �fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill the swine and abolish jizya� and establish the rule of Allah throughout the world (Hadith from Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Battles, 37:4310).  �Facing Islam, p. 80.

ADL, Defamation, & Indoctrination of Israelis (2009)

Jihad in Australia: 600 police in huge counter-terror raid in Sydney and Brisbane

"This network was apparently connected to the Islamic State � again illustrating the appeal of the caliphate to so many young Muslims worldwide."

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Australia: 600 police in huge counter-terror raid in Sydney and Brisbane

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch � September 17, 2014

�It is believed that a terrorist network had been planning to carry out a series of attacks in Australia.� This network was apparently connected to the Islamic State � again illustrating the appeal of the caliphate to so many young Muslims worldwide.

�ASIO and hundreds of police raid Sydney and Brisbane homes in biggest counter-terrorism raid in Australia�s history� 

by Simon Benson, The Daily Telegraph, September 18, 2014:

ASIO and counter terrorism police have swooped on homes across north-western Sydney and other states this morning in what is believed to be the largest anti-terrorism bust in the nation�s history.

Several arrests have reportedly been made in the secret pre-dawn raid, which is still in progress.

The arrests follow the execution of a number of search warrants in Beecroft, Bellavista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park.

The raid is believed to have been mounted following months of surveillance of people linked to the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that an estimated 600 officers from the Australian Federal Police, NSW counter terrorism unit and ASIO launched the pre-emptive strike in the early hours of this morning.

The raids and arrests are believed to have been based on the execution of multiple ASIO and AFP warrants.

It is believed that dozens of suspects have been netted, with links to a Brisbane man who was recently arrested on suspected terrorism related charges.

It is believed that a terrorist network had been planning to carry out a series of attacks in Australia.

The raid follows the lifting of the national security alert level from medium to high last Friday by the outgoing director general of ASIO David Irvine.

It is believed the size of the raid eclipsed that of Operation Pendennis in 2005 when several hundred ASIO, AFP and NSW police arrested 13 men across Melbourne and the Sydney suburb of Bankstown, who had been planning bomb attacks in both capitals.