Muslim cleric on refugee influx: 'We shall conquer their countries'

"No force is more powerful than the human force of us Muslims... We shall conquer their countries � whether you like it or not, oh Germans, oh Americans, oh French, oh Italians, and all those like you. Take the refugees! We shall soon collect them in the name of the coming Caliphate."

Al-Aqsa Mosque Address: Europe Wants the Muslim Refugees as Labor; We Shall Conquer Their Countries

MEMRI, via Jihad Watch � September 11, 2015:

In an address delivered at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Ayed said that the European countries are not motivated by compassion toward the refugees, but by their need for labor. �We shall conquer their countries,� he declared in the address, which was posted on the internet on September 11, 2015.

Sheikh Muhammad Ayed: 

�(The infidels) want us to be tormented. They want us to be humiliated. (The Quran) says: Tthe [sic] Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you,� but we will never follow their religion. This dark night will be over, and soon, we will trample them underfoot, Allah willing.  

Germany is not a compassionate country that wishes to absorb refugees from Syria and Iraq, and Palestinian refugees in the Levant and elsewhere. Europe has become old and decrepit, and needs human reinforcement. 

No force is more powerful than the human force of us Muslims. Oh Muslims, the Germans say, in their economic reports, that they need 50,000 young workers. Now, they have got 20,000, and they want another 30,000 and more, to work in their factories. They are not motivated by compassion for the Levant, its people, and its refugees. Throughout Europe, all the hearts are infused with hatred toward Muslims. They wish that we were dead. 

But they have lost their fertility, so they look for fertility in their midst. We will give them fertility! We will breed children with them, because we shall conquer their countries � whether you like it or not, oh Germans, oh Americans, oh French, oh Italians, and all those like you. 

Take the refugees! We shall soon collect them in the name of the coming Caliphate. We will say to you: These are our sons. Send them, or we will send our armies to you.�

The Migrant Crisis: Compassion and Common Sense

"The big picture is that we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of Europe. Historians and journalists have been writing about the coming Islamization of Europe for some time now, but as years pass, the timeline keeps moving up... Now, with the new flood of migrants, another revision may be in order."

by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine � September 17, 2015

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)

Other than the large numbers involved, one of the most striking features of Europe�s migrant crisis is the level of discourse surrounding it. There is an emotionalism about the subject which doesn�t seem quite appropriate to the gravity of the situation. Momentous issues are being decided on the basis of what Peter Hitchens calls �an emotional spasm.�

That�s not to say the plight of refugees shouldn�t call up emotions. The problem comes when news analysts, government officials, and church representatives present the situation as a Dickensian dilemma which leaves one with no choice other than to side with Scrooge or with Tiny Tim.

The clinching argument for many was the image of a drowned Syrian child that went viral. There should, of course, be no doubt about what to do if you spot a drowning boy in the water, or if a hungry person shows up at the door. But the photo tells us absolutely nothing about what sort of immigration policies governments should adopt. It could be argued that if European immigration policy were less liberal, and its welfare allowances less generous, fewer people would risk their lives to get there.

And what about the images we don�t see�images of the European victims of ill-considered immigration programs? Right now I�m looking at a photo of an 87-year-old Dutch man lying in a hospital bed, his face beaten black and blue. He and his 86-year-old wife, both of them Holocaust survivors, were attacked in their apartment by two men of Moroccan descent who threw them on the floor, kicked them repeatedly, and shouted: �Dirty Jews! From now on, your property is ours.� The husband and wife, who had been living independently, are now confined to wheelchairs at a rehabilitation center.

Such photos aren�t featured on the evening news. Nor are the photos of bruised and bloodied rape victims in Sweden�which, thanks to Muslim immigration, is now the rape capital of the Northern Hemisphere. In Rotherham, England, Pakistani gangs raped 1,400 teenaged girls over a fifteen-year period�but you would have to do some searching before you�d find any stories about the plight of the victims. That�s because the story doesn�t fit the standard narrative about peaceful Muslims seeking a better life and good schools for their children.

There are many such people, of course. But, as is now clear, the great majority within the current wave of migrant-refugees are young, single men. The media still favors close-ups of Madonna-like women with children, but the wide-angle lens presents quite a different view.

The big picture is that we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of Europe. Historians and journalists have been writing about the coming Islamization of Europe for some time now, but as years pass, the timeline keeps moving up. The original forecasts predicted the Muslim takeover of the continent would happen sometime within this century; next, the day of reckoning was moved up to the mid-century mark; and then, as the picture became clearer, to circa 2030. Now, with the new flood of migrants, another revision may be in order. Michel Houellenbecq�s new novel, Submission, forecasts the election of a Muslim president in France in 2022.

Though the media tends to treat the immigration crisis as something from out of the blue, it has been building for years. When combined with high birth rates for Muslims and collapsing birth rates for native Europeans, it spells a massive transformation of European culture. Some would say that the transformation is intentional. In their 2009 book, Modern Day Trojan Horse: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration, Sam Solomon and Elias Al Maqdisi point out that, historically, Muslims have used migration as a tool of conquest. In a 1974 speech at the United Nations, former Algerian president Houari Boumedienne predicted:

One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere.� And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it.

In light of the threat to European civilization, it is strange that so many commentators see the crisis mainly as an opportunity for welcoming the Other, overcoming irrational fears, and proving one�s compassion. Unfortunately, Catholic leaders seem to have joined this one-sided chorus of voices. Take, for example, comments by Fr. Matthew Gardzinski, who is in charge of the migrants� section for the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. In an interview with Catholic News Agency, Fr. Gardzinski expresses a rather rosy view of migrants. �While one country loses the persons who migrate,� he notes, �the receiving country gains their ideas and creativity.� He seems, however, to have a less sanguine view of Europeans. According to the article, he is concerned about �xenophobic, restrictive, or fearful attitudes.� What stands behind the fear? �Is it really something objective,� he asks, �or is it something more subjective, because I feel threatened, or challenged?�

�Is it really something objective?� Fr. Gardzinski might try asking the rape victims in Rotherham or Sweden. His concern, however, is not with existential realities, but with psychological states. He sees Europe�s migration crisis as being more in the nature of an identity crisis��the challenge to build your own identity� along multicultural lines. Presumably, that�s to be done by overcoming one�s irrational fears (�Islamophobia� in the lingo of psychology). The point he misses is, that this is not a crisis of identity for Europe, it�s a crisis of survival�a crisis that could very well result in the end of Christianity on the continent.

Many Catholic leaders have cast the refugee situation as a case of compassion versus intolerance. It�s much more complicated than that. But just as it�s difficult to ignore the image of the drowned boy, it�s difficult to argue with reminders that the Holy Family were refugees in Egypt, that the Jews were admonished to love the foreigner �because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt,� and that Christ told his disciples that in welcoming a stranger they were welcoming him.

But what if there are 44 million strangers in the land? That�s the estimated number of Muslims living in Europe (including Russia) as of 2010. Some of them are well-integrated into European society, but many others are not. They live in �no-go� zones; their women wear burqas; they speak Arabic, or Farsi, or Turkish; and their first allegiance is not to Germany or France, but to the ummah (the global Muslim community). Though they may have lived in Europe for years, they are still, in effect, strangers. Many seem unacquainted with Western standards of right and wrong�like the Muslim man in the UK who, after raping a thirteen-year-old girl, was spared a prison sentence when he explained to the judge that he didn�t know it was illegal.

Peter Hitchens recently observed that many of Europe�s �most influential people are set on committing a sentimental national suicide.� European and American elites seem to think that the only question at issue in the current crisis is �Will Europeans be compassionate?� But other crucial questions need to be asked, such as �Will Europe survive as Europe?�

Another question to ask is this: �Will Christianity in Europe survive the combination of Muslim immigration and European na�vet�?� It�s true that the Church has a duty to remind Christians of their obligation to help the needy, but is there a Christian duty to collaborate in the destruction of Christianity? To ask whether European Christianity can survive might seem to be an overly alarmist question. Yet it was a question that was ever present to Europeans in past centuries�particularly those who lived on the southern and eastern borders.

It�s no coincidence that Eastern Europeans are more resistant to Islamic immigration than those living in the West. Poles, Slovaks, and Hungarians have a long history of struggle with Muslim invaders. It�s estimated, for example, that Muslims enslaved a million persons from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

If that seems like ancient history, consider that it was only twenty-five years ago that the East Europeans broke free of Communist rule. Having recently been enslaved by one totalitarian ideology, they are not anxious to repeat the experience with another oppressive system. As the Poles and Hungarians understand, caliphs and commissars can be equally unpleasant. Their recent subjugation by Communist overlords has no doubt refreshed their memories of earlier invaders.

One wonders what it will take to remind the Catholic Church of its own centuries-long struggle with Islam. The modern Church was quick to understand the totalitarian nature of communism. Catholic clergy, academics, and journalists were, on the whole, much more astute about the Communist menace than their secular counterparts. Yet they have been painfully slow in awakening to the dangers inherent in Islam. Let�s hope that will soon change.

_______

William Kilpatrick taught for many years at Boston College. He is the author of several books about cultural and religious issues, including Psychological Seduction; Why Johnny Can�t Tell Right From Wrong; and Christianity, Islam and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Catholic World Report, National Catholic Register, Aleteia, Saint Austin Review, Investor�s Business Daily, and First Things. His work is supported in part by the Shillman Foundation. For more on his work and writings, visit his website, turningpointproject.com

Muslim Migrants Converting to Christianity to Improve Asylum Chances

[Lutheran Pastor Gottfried] Martens asked Iranian refugee Mohammed Ali Zonoobi: �Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds? Will you break away from Islam?� To which Zonoobi fervently responded: �Yes�. Martens then baptised him �In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.� Mohammed renamed himself Martin.

A seldom reported aspect of the Migrant Invasion of Europe. Let us hope and pray that a great many Muslims, finally freed from their native culture and the threat of death for apostasy, may be emboldened to leave Islam behind and turn to Jesus Christ.


Muslim Migrants Converting to Christianity to Improve Asylum Chances
by Nick Hallett, Breitbart London � September 8, 2015

Muslim migrants in Germany are converting to Christianity �in droves� in the hope it will improve their chances of winning asylum.

Hundreds of Iranians and Afghanis have been baptised at Trinity Church, a Lutheran church in Berlin, where Pastor Gottfried Martens offers a three-month �crash course� for new converts.

AP reports on one baptism where Martens asked Iranian refugee Mohammed Ali Zonoobi: �Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds? Will you break away from Islam?� To which Zonoobi fervently responded: �Yes�.

Martens then baptised him �In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.� Mohammed renamed himself Martin.

Martin Zonoobi, a carpenter from Iran, arrived in Germany with his wife and children five months ago. He is one of many who have converted, with many claiming true belief has prompted them.

However, Pastor Martens admits that some convert just to improve their chances of winning asylum in Germany � as Christians who have apostatised from Islam they are likely to suffer heavy persecution if they are sent home.

Martens says motive is not important, however. �I know there are � again and again � people coming here because they have some kind of hope regarding their asylum,� he said.

�I am inviting them to join us because I know that whoever comes here will not be left unchanged.�

Many are so taken by the Christian message that they end up genuinely changing their beliefs anyway, Martens says. He adds that of those who have converted, only around one in ten stop attending church afterwards.

Although being Christian alone does not mean they will automatically win asylum � Merkel has even said that Islam �belongs in Germany� � many hope this will be enough to sway authorities.

None will openly admit converting just for asylum purposes as it could lead to them being deported as Christian coverts, possibly facing the death penalty when they return home.

Martens�s church is now reporting a surge in the congregation from 150 two years ago to more than 600 now. Some of the migrants coming to be converted are travelling from places as far afield as Rostock on the Baltic coast.

There no official figures on how many Muslims have converted to Christianity in Germany over the past few years, and the number is still tiny compared to the country�s four million strong Muslim population. Nonetheless, Martens describes the rate of conversions as a �miracle�.

He also claims to have at least 80 people, mostly migrants, waiting to be baptised.

Zonoobi�s wife Afsaneh, now known as Katarina, said the Christening marks a new beginning.

�Now we are free and can be ourselves,� she said.

�Most important, I am so happy that our children will have a good future here and can get a good education in Germany.�

Western European vs. Eastern European Responses to Mass, Unvetted, Muslim Immigration

"Eastern Europeans are responding very differently to the mass migration of Muslims into Europe than are Western Europeans... Poles are understanding their stance against mass, unvetted immigration as comparable to their stand against the Nazis and past totalitarian and genocidal invaders..."

Here is a very thoughtful article, with a long view of history, which considers the Eastern European Christian response to the Migrant Crisis and Islam.


Western European vs. Eastern European Responses to Mass, Unvetted, Muslim Immigration

By Danusha V. Goska

Frontpage Magazine via AINA � September 15, 2015

The sign reads "Kosciol Walczacy, Nie Kapitulujacy."
That means: "The Fighting Church, not the Surrendering Church."

Eastern Europeans are responding very differently to the mass migration of Muslims into Europe than are Western Europeans. Westerners who encourage mass, unvetted Muslim immigration insist that they are compassionate, tolerant, and ethical. They insist that Eastern Europeans and anyone else who resists immigration are bigots, xenophobes, without compassion and unethical, if not outright Neo-Nazis. Westerners are stereotyping Eastern Europeans as bigoted thugs whose opinions must be demonized, whose choices must be overruled, whose borders must be penetrated and whose demographics must be altered through coercion.

In this article I focus on three signs at the Warsaw anti-immigration rally of Saturday, September 12, 2015. Full understanding of these protest signs illuminates how many Poles and other Eastern Europeans view the current immigration. These protest signs will help to illuminate why many people, not just Eastern Europeans, oppose this immigration for and against mass Muslim immigration. The press estimates several thousand people took part in an anti-immigration demonstration in Warsaw. An estimated one thousand people marched in favor of immigration.

In August, 2015, Slovakia announced that it would accept only Christian, not Muslim, migrants. Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, has been outspoken in his resistance to mass Muslim immigration. "Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims ... This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity," Orban wrote in a commentary for Allgemeine Zeitung.

Western elites have an easy explanation for Eastern European resistance to mass Muslim immigration. Eastern Europeans have long been depicted as primitive, thuggish Neanderthals. Think of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire or the butt of any given Polak joke.

On September 12, 2015, The New York Times published an article by Rick Lyman entitled, "Eastern Bloc's Resistance to Refugees Highlights Europe's Cultural and Political Divisions."

Lyman's use of the anachronistic term "Eastern Bloc" consigns Eastern Europeans to membership in the long dead Warsaw Pact. The article raised the alarm against allegedly racist and intransigent Eastern Europeans, ghosts of the bad old days of the Cold War, who threaten the bright, new European order with their atavistic bigotry.

The Times acknowledged that mass Muslim immigration to Europe is a problem. The problem is not, however, that a staggering number of defiant illegal migrants committed to a very different culture, acknowledged by security experts to include an unknown number of potential terrorists, had overwhelmed Europe's ability to respond. No. the problem was Eastern European backwardness.

"The main impediment" to a successful response to mass Muslim migration is Eastern European's "rising xenophobia." "Powerful far right movements, nationalism, and racial and religious prejudice" are proof of "stubborn cultural and political divides that persist between East and West." "Sluggish," "corrupt" Eastern Europe betrays its "pledge of support" to "European values" like "cultural diversity, protection of minorities, and a rejection of xenophobia," according to The New York Times. Eastern Europeans are "wary of accepting racial and religious diversity." In contrast to tolerant and diverse Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans' "tradition of accepting culturally different refugees is very weak." Also, Eastern Europeans are whiners who see themselves as victims. They resent others who may have "suffered more than" they have.

Lyman's very brief, 1,500 word article struck a nerve. By Sunday evening it inspired 1,164 reader comments.

Comments that The New York Times selected as worthy of attention tended to agree with the Times' assessment: backward, bigoted, bad, old Eastern European Neanderthals were the problem. One of The New York Times highlighted reader comments condemned Poland as a land of "endemic bigotry and intolerance."

A very different story was to be found among the comments that readers themselves had voted for. In that section, one found voices contesting the Times' entire narrative.

One reader, Alexandra Ares, wrote,

"Former CIA Joshua Katz said today that the US should not agree to a quota for security reasons; that there must be a very thorough process of vetting; this takes time since many have burned their documents and bought fake passports; that we shouldn't bump up quotas because of political pressure. Even so Katz said we should expect that some of the Syrians we admit into the US might become terrorists in the long run. If our own CIA experts oppose quotas, why pressure less prepared Eastern Europe to take risks and act against their national interests and capacity of absorption? ... Unlike Western Europe, the Eastern bloc suffered hundreds of years of Muslim occupation and persecution of Christians and Jews. In Romania our Independence Day is when we kicked out the Ottoman Empire."

While writing the book, Bieganski, the Brute Polak Stereotype, I walked a tightrope. My thesis was that the West tends to stereotype Poles and other Eastern Europeans as racist thugs. I had to make this point while acknowledging that there are indeed some real racist thugs in Eastern Europe, as there are anywhere else.

The group hosting the several-thousand-strong, anti-immigration demonstration in Warsaw was the Oboz Narodowo Radykalny or National Radical Camp. The ONR is indeed a far-right organization. The contemporary ONR claims its descent from the pre-war ONR, founded in 1934 and banned by the Polish government. The original ONR supported anti-Jewish boycotts. One of the ONR's founders, Jan Mosdorf, was imprisoned by Nazis in Auschwitz and was murdered for helping Jews. That the leader of an overtly anti-Semitic group would be murdered by Nazis for helping Jews indicates how difficult it can be for outsiders fully to understand Polish history and politics.

I am not a supporter of the ONR. I am a supporter of the expansive Poland that embraces and celebrates Jews and other minorities. I live in the US and I cannot assess to what extent the participants in recent demonstrations were ONR supporters or merely opponents of mass immigration who had no other outlet for their concerns. I have watched raw footage of the demonstrations on YouTube posted by the ONR, who, one would expect, would want to boost their own presence. The vast majority of protestors who carry any sign are carrying Polish flags, not racist signs or the distinctive green flag of the ONR that features an upraised arm wielding a sword. I can report that the content on three of the signs tells me much about the hearts and minds of the Poles who oppose immigration. These signs are not racist. They must be understood.

First, it must be pointed out that those Westerners who support mass, unvetted Muslim immigration to Europe are not models of compassion, ethics, or tolerance. They have utterly cynical and selfish reasons for their support of this immigration.

One reason nations want desperate immigrants: workers to support extensive government welfare programs. On September 8, 2015, the Washington Post's Rick Noack attempted to explain why some European countries accepted, and others rejected, mass Muslim migration. In an article entitled "This map helps explain why some European countries reject refugees, and others love them," Noack employed a demographic map depicting birth rates. Some European nations are aging and losing population; some nations are young and their populations are increasing. The European nations whose populations are aging and shrinking tend to offer generous cradle-to-grave welfare benefits. Someone needs to work and pay into this system for the governments to continue to provide benefits. These European nations want desperate immigrants. Some European nations have steady birthrates, and, by comparison, don't provide such generous state-mandated welfare. These European nations don't want unvetted immigration.

Another reason some nations want immigrants: to improve their reputations. Those who embrace the current immigration believe that doing so broadcasts and certifies their status as secular saints. In the Guardian, Jonathan Freedland writes, "Mama Merkel has consigned the ugly German to history ... If history can offer a more dramatic turnaround in the perception, and perhaps reality, of a nation, then it's hard to think of it. Seventy years ago Germany was a byword for tyranny and murderous violence: the land of racial supremacism and unending cruelty ... Hitler, the Nazis and the apparatus of the Holocaust remain lodged in the global folk memory ... But now it will be remembered too as the place where in 2015 uniformed police greeted a trainload of exhausted Syrian children with soft toys."

There is a third reason that many Europeans interpret a Muslim immigration as to their benefit. Europe had been a predominantly Christian continent. Unvetted Muslim immigration will inevitably vitiate Europe's Christian character. Many ideological opponents of Christianity, from New Atheists to Marxist, see that as a good thing. See David Horowitz's 2006 book, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left.

Just as it is not true that Western Europeans who embrace unvetted immigration are saints, it is also not true that Eastern Europeans are primitive racist thugs and traitors to "European" ideals. A few signs at Saturday's rallies speak volumes.

One sign reads "Kosciol Walczacy, Nie Kapitulujacy." That means: "The Fighting Church, not the Surrendering Church." This sign is deeply resonant to me as a Catholic and as a Polish-American. My deep understanding of this sign, and my awareness that no Americans or Western Europeans I know would understand this sign without my explaining it to them, reveals a great gulf between how many in the West understand Christianity, and how many Eastern Europeans do.

People in the West have adopted secular, Christophobic interpretations of Christianity. Christians in the West hang their heads in shame and say, "Oh, I am so ashamed to be Christian. The Crusades ... the Inquisition ... so bad."

Western Europeans may look at Muslim immigrants and say, "These are the poor, sad victims we colonized. Let's prove how multicultural and compassionate we are by letting them in."

None of these approaches to Christian faith resonate for me as an American of Polish and Slovak descent.

The Inquisition? Poland's significant role during the Inquisition was as a tolerant "state without stakes" who invited in Jews, heretics, and indeed Muslims who had been exiled from other lands.

The Crusades? We were not major players in the Crusades. In fact, there was a Crusade against us, the Wendish or Slavic Crusade. I recently mentioned to a Catholic Facebook friend that images of crusading knights swinging their swords above their heads did not really excite or inspire me. I associate such images with the Teutonic Knights, whom the Poles had to fight for their own survival. I am mindful that Sergei Eisenstein exploited long Slavic memories of being attacked by the Teutonic Knights in his anti-Nazi propaganda film, Alexander Nevsky. Germans have long memories, too, and when they invaded Poland, they dismantled Krakow's Grunwald memorial to our defeat of the Teutonic Knights.

Colonization? We Eastern Europeans were significantly the colonized, not the colonizers.

A shamefaced, apologetic, hesitant Christianity? This has not been my experience of Christianity during my many visits to Eastern Europe from the 1970s to the 2000s. Rather, I have experienced something deeply beautiful and unforgettably inspirational to me: the fighting church, a church that stands shoulder to shoulder with people defending their home.

On my first visit to my mother's natal village in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, I met a Catholic priest who had been tortured by the Communists. In Poland, priests were tortured and murdered by the Nazis. Twenty percent of Polish priests were killed. Polish convents played a key role in saving Jewish children. Polish priests risked and often lost their lives to save Jews. Poles remember Stefan Wyszynski, a cardinal, who had been imprisoned by Communists. Solidarity priest Jerzy Popieluszko was tortured and murdered by the Communists in 1984. I lived in Poland 1988-89 and participated in anti-Communist protests. I witnessed unarmed Catholic priests, with nothing but their courageous presence, protect demonstrators from aggressive riot police.

Poles and other Eastern Europeans have needed a "fighting church" because they have been embattled for so very long. Poles have long seen themselves as the Christ of Nations. We suffer and others benefit. Not so long ago, others acknowledged Eastern Europe's role in bearing the brunt of unending invasions from the east.

The fourteenth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica reads: "It is to the Slav colonization of the Russian plains and to the long Slav struggle with nomadic invasions from Asia that Western Europe owes her comparative freedom to develop a certain cultural unity. The role of buffer state was not voluntary, but the debt is nonetheless great, and the heroic struggle of the Slav races against repeated invasions, in hard climactic conditions, should command the respect and admiration of the world."

Eastern European nations, by necessity, had to take on invaders from the East. While we were fighting, dying, and facing enslavement, Western Europe benefitted from the bulwark we provided.

Poland was repeatedly attacked from the east, often by Muslims, including Turks and Tatars. Poles fought significantly in historic battles against Muslims, including the Battle of Varna, the Battle of Khotyn and the Battle of Vienna. These battles took place in Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Austria. Poles did not travel to Muslim lands to attack Muslims. Muslims traveled into Eastern European for their jihad. Malcolm X famously said of the African American experience, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock landed on us." Eastern Europeans might say, "We didn't land on the Ummah -- the worldwide Muslim population. The Ummah landed on us."

Poles were among many Slavic people enslaved by Muslims. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, Muslims from the Crimea enslaved perhaps one million persons from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth -- as many as 20,000 human beings per year. The last major Muslim slave raid on these Slavic people occurred in 1769. Poles enslaved by Muslims did hard labor, or served as sex slaves.

1769 is a long time ago, you say. Poles should get over it. My friend John Guzlowski is the son of two slaves. His parents were enslaved by Nazis, not Muslims, but iconography on protest signs makes clear that Poles see resistance to one totalitarian invader as analogous to resistance to another. ISIS brags of taking Christians as slaves, while the world waits in vain for significant Muslim protest of ISIS atrocities.

Poles are not the only Eastern Europeans whose cultures enshrine unpleasant encounters with Muslims. Serbs once had to give their seven-year-old sons to Muslims for forced conversion -- the practice of devsirme. The Slovak poem Turcin Ponican by Samo Chalupka records Turks invading Slovakia. Perhaps my favorite cultural legacy of the constant wars between jihadis and Slavs is the 1880 Ilya Repin painting, "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire." More famous, of course, is Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian leader dedicated to protecting Christians against Muslims, who gave his name to Bram Stoker's Dracula.

There is more to the sign reading "Fighting Church." During the Nazi occupation, the Polish Resistance called themselves "Polska Walczaca" or "Fighting Poland." Please note the similarity of vocabulary and construction between the anti-Nazi resistance "Polska Walczaca" and the anti-immigration sign "Kosciol walczaca." Poles are understanding their stance against mass, unvetted immigration as comparable to their stand against the Nazis and past totalitarian and genocidal invaders.

That understanding is echoed in the visual imagery of the flags many protestors carried: flags with an anchor formed by the letters P and W. This anchor was a symbol of the World War Two resistance.

These Poles, agree or disagree, see their church as a church that resists Western orders to capitulate -- to surrender -- to Islam. And they are placing their church in the tradition of those who fought the Nazis.

Another image draws in Poland's long history of resistance: the image of Jan Sobieski and the words "Przyszlismy, ujrzelismy, a bog zwyciezyl." This quote is attributed to Jan Sobieski. It is his Christian rewrite of Julius Cesar's famous quote, "Vini, vidi, vici." Cesar said, "I came; I saw; I conquered." Sobieski, a true Pole, was mindful of classical history. He was also a devout Christian. He said, "We came; we saw; God conquered," of his victory against jihadis at Vienna in 1683.

Poles have lived through much more history than many luckier peoples. As such, they are often difficult. They are not, though, especially intolerant, unethical, or lacking in compassion. They merely see the obvious problems with the current mass, unvetted migration. Few realize that Poland has hosted its own Muslim population for hundreds of years without major incident. The mainstream media outlets that are depicting Poles and other Eastern Europeans as intolerant Neanderthals are doing a grave disservice. The readers' favorite comments at the New York Times site suggests that they are fooling fewer and fewer people.

'To remain Christians, if we can manage...' - Igumen Daniel (Irbits) on the new 'migration of peoples'

We are commanded by Christ in the Gospels to care for the sick, the imprisoned, the displaced, even to love our enemies. The challenge of the mass migrations of Middle Eastern peoples into Europe and Western nations is as much a challenge for us, as Christians, "to remain Christians",  as it is a logistical, cultural and national security challenge for Western governments.

More posts to follow on the Migrant Crisis...


'To remain Christians, if we can manage...'
Igumen Daniel (Irbits) on the new 'migration of peoples'
Interview by Peter Davydov, Pravoslavie � September 14, 2015

The arrival of thousands of refugees, migrants and settlers from Africa and Asia to �the Old World� is already being interpreted by many Europeans as a catastrophe, a curse, and a real challenge not only to the culture, economy, and the Christian faith of the continent (which is still alive, though is becoming very weak), but, therefore, to the very existence of the continent and its native inhabitants. Judging by the comments in the social networks and media reports, an undisguised panic, provoked by the new �Great migration of peoples� has begun. Beyond a doubt, there is a cause for fear and concern. But fear is alien to Christianity. It was not in vain that Christ said these words many times to His disciples: �Do not be afraid!� How not to be afraid, how to remain Christians in these disturbing, alarming times? What should Europe do not to be afraid? Igumen Daniel (Irbits), Abbot of the St. George�s Monastery in G�tschendorf (Brandenburg state, Germany), who is in charge of relations between the Berlin Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with the German government and the public and is a member of the integration committee at the Federal Office of the Chancellor of Germany, answers these questions in his interview with Pravoslavie.ru.

�Father Daniel, as a person living in Germany do you consider the current influx of refugees to this country and to the whole of Europe a big problem? Or maybe even a danger? If yes, then what, in your view, is this jeopardy connected with and what is causing it?

�It may become a danger, provided that the refugee policy is wrongly pursued. After all, among those who make decisions there are many Christians not in name only, but also true believing Christians. And many people act according to the Christian beliefs, frankly thinking that, whenever aid is needed to people in extremely difficult circumstances of life, it should necessarily be rendered. Christ said, �Give food to the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to strangers.� Or are these words of Christ no longer relevant to us? And how to do it competently depends on the professionalism of those who are in charge of this; so to say, ex officio.

The first step that should be taken is the registration of each individual arriving on the territory of Europe; this is important in order to prevent incidents like the one when a crowd of illegal immigrants got to Germany from Hungary.

�Do you believe that Germany will cope with this difficulty�financially, economically, and psychologically?

�I believe Germany has enough wisdom and strength to cope with this issue. With God�s help �since the Lord is always on the side of those who show mercy and give aid where it is needed.

Igumen Daniel (Irbits)

    �How do German people regard this: is the number of refugees, immigrants who are seeking to settle here, a critical one, exceeding the bounds of reason?

�It is not easy to answer this question right now. There are both positive and negative comments on this issue in the internet. I think we will see it with time. But, first and foremost, all depends on the desire of the migrants to integrate into our country�s life. To integrate honestly�not just declaratively, solely for the �cherished� benefits and comfort.

�Aren�t Germans afraid that they may literally �melt� into the total mass of displaced people, thus losing their own identity, which originally had strong Christian roots?

�Those who preserve the traditions of their own culture have nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, a fine opportunity to show these traditions from their better side and to become an example for many nations arises before them.

�What is the situation with Christianity in today�s Germany, in your judgment? Some people are now raising an alarm, saying that we are witnessing the decline of Christianity in Europe. Is such a phenomenon really taking place in our days?

�Christianity is currently going through a very interesting period: in my view, there is a transition from an outward observance of the tradition and ritual to a deeper understanding of their inward nature and implementation of this in all the aspects of life. Believe me, there are no fewer genuine Christians in Germany than in other countries with the Christian tradition.

Syrian Refugee Camp

    

�Against the background of the overwhelming majority of Muslim refugees, do German residents make any distinctions between them (Muslims) and, say, Christians from Syria, or, �the refugees are all alike�?

�I can paraphrase the words of Jesus: everyone is treated by the authorities the same way, and with maximum mercy, regardless of their ethnic and religious background. Among the newcomers there are not only Muslims, but also Christians, including Orthodox Christians.

�In your opinion, is the Orthodox Church in Germany capable of contributing to the improvement of the present situation in some way?

�Yes, we will do all we can. For example, early in September I had a meeting with a member of Bundestag Jens K�ppen at my monastery, where we also discussed the issues surrounding the Christian refugees from Syria.

At the present time, I cannot publicly share the details of our conversation, but I can say that we are willing to help them at any moment.

I am firmly convinced: if only we remain Christians, we will be able to save Europe. If we succeed in this, then even the influx of migrants may become a kind of a mission. If we can manage�

Peter Davydov spoke with Igumen Daniel (Irbits)
Translation by Dmitry Lapa,

Pravoslavie.ru

14 / 09 / 2015

Why Western Nations Should Only Accept Christian Refugees

Raymond Ibrahim makes a compelling case as to why Western nations should only accept Christian refugees, keying on four main reasons:

• Christians are true victims of persecution;

• Muslim persecution of Christians has been further enabled by Western policies;

• Unlike Muslims, or even Yazidis, Christians are easily assimilated in Western countries, due to the shared Christian heritage;

• Mideast Christians bring trustworthy language and cultural skills that are beneficial to the West.

Why Western Nations Should Only Accept Christian Refugees
by Raymond Ibrahim � September 16, 2015

As refugees from the Middle East flood the West, a number of countries�including Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus, and Australia�are defying political correctness by wanting to accept Christian refugees only.

While more �progressive� voices cry �racism,� the fact remains: there are several objective reasons why the West should give priority, if not exclusivity, to Christian refugees�and some of these are actually to the benefit of European host nations.

Consider:

Christians are true victims of persecution.  

From a humanitarian point of view�and humanitarianism is the chief reason being cited in accepting refugees�Christians should receive top priority simply because they are the most persecuted group in the Middle East�well before the Islamic State phenomenon came into being.  As Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop put it, �I think that Christian minorities are being persecuted in Syria and even if the conflict were over they would still be persecuted.�

Indeed.  While they are especially targeted by the Islamic State, before the new �caliphate� was established, Christians were and continue to be targeted by Muslims�Muslim mobs, Muslim individuals, Muslim regimes, and Muslim terrorists, from Muslim countries of all races (Arab, African, Asian, etc.)�and for the same reason: Christians are infidel number one.  See Crucified Again: Exposing Islam�s New War on Christians for hundreds of anecdotes before the rise of ISIS as well as the Muslim doctrines that create such hate and contempt for Christians.

Conversely, Muslim refugees�as opposed to the many ISIS and other jihadi infiltrators posing as �refugees��are not fleeing direct persecution, but chaos created by the violent and supremacist teachings of their own religion, Islam.  It�s not for nothing that Samuel Huntington famously pointed out that �Islam�s borders are bloody, and so are its innards.�  This means that when Muslims enter Western nations, chaos, persecution, and mayhem follow.  Take a look at those West European cities�for example, Londonistan�that already have a large Muslim population for an idea.

Muslim persecution of Christians has been further enabled by Western policies, especially those of the Obama administration.  

In other words, Western nations should accept Christian refugees on the basis that Western meddling in the Middle East is directly responsible for exacerbating the plight of Christian minorities.  After all, Christians did not flee from Bashar Assad�s Syria, or Saddam Hussein�s Iraq, or Muamar Gaddafi�s Libya.  Their systematic persecution began in earnest after the U.S. and others interfered in those nations in the name of �democracy.�  All they did is unleash the jihadi forces that the dictators had long kept suppressed. Now the Islamic State is deeply embedded in all three nations, enslaving, raping, and slaughtering countless Christian �infidels� and other minorities.

Vladimir Putin�s thoughts on the refugee crisis are plainly true:

This is a crisis which was absolutely expected�.  We in Russia and your humble servant said several years ago that there would be massive problems if our so-called western partners conduct what I have always called the �wrong� foreign policy, especially in regions of the Muslim World, the Middle East and north Africa, which they continue practically to this day.

The Russian leader correctly adds that �people are running away not from the regime of Bashar Assad, but from Islamic State, which seized large areas in Syria and Iraq, and are committing atrocities there. That is what they are escaping from.�

Thus if the West is responsible for unleashing the full-blown jihad on Christians, surely it is the latter that the West should prioritize, from a humanitarian point of view.

Unlike Muslims, or even Yazidis, Christians are easily assimilated in Western countries, due to the shared Christian heritage.  

As Slovakia, which prefers Christian refugees, correctly points out, Muslims would not fit in, including because there are no mosques in the Slavic nation. Conversely, �Slovakia as a Christian country can really help Christians from Syria to find a new home in Slovakia,� said an interior minister.

This too is common sense.  The same Christian teachings that molded Europe over the centuries are the same ones that mold Middle Eastern Christians�whether Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant.   As San Diego�s Father Noel said in the context of the Iraqi Christian refugees who managed to flee ISIS but are now rotting in a U.S. detention center, Mideast Christians �who come here [America] �want to be good citizens� and many who came here a decade ago are now lawyers, teachers, or other productive members of society.�

Meanwhile, Muslims follow a completely different blueprint, the Koran�which condemns Christians by name, calls for constant war (jihad) against all non-Muslims, and advocates any number of distinctly anti-Western practices.   Hence it is no surprise that many Muslim asylum seekers are anti-Western at heart, if not members of jihadi organizations.

Mideast Christians bring trustworthy language and cultural skills that are beneficial to the West.  

They understand the Middle Eastern�including Islamic�mindset and can help the West understand it.  

Moreover, unlike Muslims, Christians have no �conflicting loyalty� issues: Islamic law forbids Muslims from aiding �infidels� against fellow Muslims (click here to see some of the treachery this leads to in the U.S. and here to see the treachery Christians have suffered from their longtime Muslim neighbors and �friends�).  Indeed, an entire book about how �double agent� Muslims have infiltrated every corner of the U.S. government exists.  No such threat exists among Mideast Christians.  They too render unto God what is God�s and unto Caesar what is Caesar�s.

Finally, it goes without saying that Mideast Christians have no sympathy for the very people and ideology that made their lives a living hell�the very people and ideology that are also hostile to everything in the West.  Thus a win-win: the West and Mideast Christians complement each other, if only in that they share the same foe.

��

All the above reasons�from those that offer humanitarian relief to the true victims of persecution, to those that offer benefits to the West�are unassailable in their logic and wisdom.  Yet, because Western progressives prioritize politically correct ideals and fantasies over stark reality, there is little chance that they will be considered.

Quite the reverse: in America and Britain persecuted Christians are �at the bottom of the heap� of refugees to be granted asylum. Muslims receive top priority.  Since January 2015, the U.S. has granted asylum to approximately six Muslims for every Christian it takes in.

The reason for this is simple: for the progressive mindset�which dominates Western governments, media, and academia�taking in refugees has little to do with altruism and everything to do egoism: It matters little who is really being persecuted�as seen, the West is directly responsible for greatly exacerbating the sufferings of Christians.

No, what�s important is that we �feel good� about ourselves.  By taking in �foreign� Muslims, as opposed to �siding� with �familiar� Christians, progressives get to feel �enlightened,� �open-minded,� �tolerant,� and �multicultural��and that�s all that matters here.

Meanwhile, reality quietly marches on: The same Islamic mentality that slaughters �infidel� Christians in the Middle East is now welcomed into the West with open arms.

The New Dark Age: U.S. and West Victimize Christians Fleeing ISIS

The "Christian" West reveals its hatred of Christianity by openly persecuting Eastern Christian refugees and aiding those who murder and terrorize them. We have entered a new Dark Age in all but name. We are living in the Age of Tribulation.


U.S. and West Victimize Christians Fleeing ISIS

by Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute, September 6, 2015

Iraqi Christians demonstrate by the Otay Detention Facility, San Diego, California

Not only does the West facilitate the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, but in the West as well.

According to a recent NPR report, the U.S. supported �moderate� coalition fighting both Bashar Assad and the Islamic State in Syria �has extremists in its own ranks who have mistreated Christians and forced them out of their homes��just as IS has done.

Christian minorities forced out of their homes who manage to reach Western nations�including the United States�sometimes encounter more trouble.

Despite having family members to sponsor them, a group of 20 Christians who fled the Islamic State in Iraq have been imprisoned indefinitely at the Otay Detention Facility in San Diego, even though they have local family members and Christian leaders who vouch for them (the primary way that the majority of detained foreign nationals are released is to the supervision of American citizens vouching for them).

Activists say that the men and women in detention have been held indefinitely for too long, including by the U.S. government�s own standards. Some have been imprisoned for over seven months with no hearing date set for their release.

Mark Arabo, a spokesman for the Chaldean community in San Diego said �they are being held without a real reason�. They�ve escaped hell [IS]. Let�s allow them to reunite with their families.�

The detainees include a woman who pleaded to see her sickly mother.  The mother died before being reunited with her daughter who escaped the clutches of IS.  �She had been begging to be let out� of the U.S. detention center and see her dying mother, said a priest aware of her case.

Discussing the ongoing plight of these Iraqi Christians,  San Diego�s East County Magazine concludes:  �Why the federal government has failed to take steps to expedite such reunification in cases where family and religious leaders are willing to vouch for and help those seeking asylum here, then, remains an unfathomable mystery.�

Such �unfathomable mysteries� are reminiscent of the U.S. State Dept.�s habit of inviting Muslim representatives but denying visas to Christian representatives. Since the start of 2015, 4,205 Muslims have been admitted into the U.S. from Iraq but only 727 Christians.  For every one Christian the U.S. grants asylum, it grants asylum to five or six Muslims�even though Christians, as persecuted �infidel� minorities, are in much greater need of sanctuary, not to mention more assimilating to American culture than Muslims.

As Faith McDonnell, director of religious liberty at the Institute on Religion & Democracy, put it:

This [detainment of Iraqi Christians in San Diego] follows the disturbing pattern that we have seen from the State Department of ignoring the particular targeting of Christians by ISIS while giving preferential treatment for asylum to other groups with expedited processing�like Somalis, Iraqis, and Syrians, some of whom could very well be members of jihadist movements.

The same is happening in the United Kingdom.  Church leaders accuse David Cameron of �turning his back� on Christians facing genocide in Syria and Iraq by failing to grant them refuge in the UK�even though thousands of Muslims have been allowed entry.

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, signed a petition calling on the UK government to �welcome Christian refugees and give them priority as asylum seekers,� emphasizing that �Syrian and Iraqi Christians are being butchered, tortured and enslaved.�

Similarly, Lord Weidenfeld, 95, who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 with the help of British Quakers, said:

Why is it that the Poles and the Czechs are taking in Christian families and yet the British government stands idly by? 

This mood of indifference is reminiscent of the worst phases of appeasement, and may have catastrophic consequences. Europe must awake and the Conservative British Government should be leading from the front. 

Most European governments, especially those that are Christian explicitly or implicitly, are failing in their duty to look after their fellow Christians in their hour of need.

This is not necessarily true of central and east European nations.  Along with countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia, Slovakia recently went so far as to say it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under an EU relocation scheme.  The Slavic nation argues that �Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home,� including because there are no mosques in Slovakia.

Meanwhile, many of those Christians who are granted asylum in Western countries arrive there only to be further persecuted by Muslim asylum seekers�demonstrating, once again, who does and who doesn�t deserve asylum; who does and who doesn�t assimilate in Western culture.

Most recently in Sweden, two small families of Christian asylum seekers from Syria were harassed and abused by approximately 80 Muslim asylum seekers also from Syria.

The Christians and Muslims�described by one Swedish newspaper as �fundamentalist Islamists��resided in the same asylum house.  Among other humiliations, the Muslims ordered the Christians not to wear their crosses around their necks and not to use communal areas when in use by Muslims.

After continuous harassment and threats, the Christian refugees who had managed to escape the Islamic State left the Swedish asylum house �fearing for their own safety.� A spokesman for the government migration agency responsible for the center they had been staying in said:

They dared not stay. The atmosphere became too intimidating. And they got no help� They chose themselves to organize new address and moved away without our participation because they felt a discomfort.

Western nations are not merely ignoring Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East, they are actively supporting it by sponsoring �moderate� rebels who in reality are as �radical� and anti-Western as the Islamic State. And when these persecuted Christian minorities manage to flee the Islamic State and come to the West for asylum, they are imprisoned again. All the while, Muslims�in the Mideast and in the West�are being empowered and welcomed in the West with open arms.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury warns against 'Muslim mass immigration to Europe'

"The frustration for those of us who have been calling for compassion for Syrian victims for many months is that the Christian community is yet again left at the bottom of the heap... Britain should make Syrian Christians a priority... We are a Christian nation with an established Church so Syrian Christians will find no challenge to integration...

"There has been too much Muslim mass immigration to Europe. Isn't it high-time instead for the oil-rich Gulf States to open their doors to the many Muslims who are fleeing conflict? Surely if they are concerned for fellow Muslims who prefer to live in Muslim-majority countries, then they have a moral responsibility to intervene...

"It is, of course, quite right that Europe has woken to the sheer scale of human suffering in Syria. It is equally right that our compassionate instincts will drive us to fund-raise and campaign for the innocent victims of the conflict. But that compassion must be realistic and clear-headed." 

� Lord George Carey, Former Archbishop of Canterbury

It is reassuring to hear a Christian leader speak so forthrightly abut the dangers of Muslim Mass Immigration, and the need for the Christian West to care for the Christian victims.


Britain Has a Duty to Rescue Syria's Christians 
by George Carey, the Telegraph via AINA, September 6, 2015:

The dramatic and disturbing developments of the past few days have introduced a new, heart-rending dimension to this refugee crisis. Undoubtedly, the most disturbing aspect is just how impotent Europe is proving itself to be. If the EU is not resilient in the face of this disaster, it could be torn apart.

I can't help thinking of Corporal Jones's catchphrase -- "Don't panic!" But even the Germans are panicking as Angela Merkel, in a desperate attempt to cajole her fellow European leaders into accepting binding quotas, has declared open season for up to 800,000 Syrians to come to Germany.

Isn't it a bit rich for the Germans to criticise other nations, including Britain, for failing to accept refugees? For years, our warm-hearted land has consistently accepted more asylum-seekers than Germany.

Besides, it would be a mistake to give way to bullying calls to immediately open our doors to tens of thousands of refugees. We are a small island and recent immigration figures are highly disturbing. Last year, a net figure of 330,000 people settled among us -- more than the population of Sunderland. Imagine this continuing, year after year.

Alas, the signal that Germany is opening its doors to this influx will make Europe into an even more attractive magnet for those who are genuine refugees -- but also to floods of economic migrants, most of whom are young men travelling alone. We don't even know how many of these have been combatants in the civil war.

If some of what I say sounds harsh or, heaven forbid, a touch unchristian, let me make it clear that I welcome David Cameron's announcement to allow thousands more to enter Britain through refugee camps in Syria's neighbouring countries. In the long term, this strategy will cut out the traffickers and reduce the risk of the sea and land journeys.

But the frustration for those of us who have been calling for compassion for Syrian victims for many months is that the Christian community is yet again left at the bottom of the heap.

According to the Barnabas Fund, a charity which recently resettled some 50 Syrian Christian families in Poland, Mr Cameron's policy inadvertently discriminates against the very Christian communities most victimised by the inhuman butchers of the so-called Islamic State. Christians are not to be found in the UN camps, because they have been attacked and targeted by Islamists and driven from them. They are seeking refuge in private homes, church buildings and with neighbours and family.

They are the most vulnerable and repeatedly targeted victims of this conflict. Indeed, a hundred years after the Armenian and Assyrian genocide, in which over a million Christians are estimated to have been killed by Ottoman Muslims, the same is happening today in the form of an ethnic cleansing of Christians in the region. Christians have been crucified, beheaded, raped, and subjected to forced conversion. The so-called Islamic State and other radical groups are openly glorifying the slaughter of Christians.

Britain should make Syrian Christians a priority because they are a particularly vulnerable group. Furthermore, we are a Christian nation with an established Church so Syrian Christians will find no challenge to integration. The churches are already well-prepared and eager to offer support and accommodation to those escaping the conflict.

Some will not like me saying this, but in recent years, there has been too much Muslim mass immigration to Europe. This has resulted in ghettos of Muslim communities living parallel lives to mainstream society, following their own customs and even their own laws. Isn't it high-time instead for the oil-rich Gulf States to open their doors to the many Muslims who are fleeing conflict? Surely if they are concerned for fellow Muslims who prefer to live in Muslim-majority countries, then they have a moral responsibility to intervene.

It is, of course, quite right that Europe has woken to the sheer scale of human suffering in Syria. It is equally right that our compassionate instincts will drive us to fund-raise and campaign for the innocent victims of the conflict. But that compassion must be realistic and clear-headed.

As a European Union, we should be prepared to close the doors to large numbers of economic migrants and return them to their countries. A proper process of registration must be conducted, ideally in refugee camps on the borders of Europe. And if the numbers get too large, we should be prepared to admit refugees on a provisional and temporary basis, reviewing their status periodically until they can return home.

It's not enough to send aid to refugee camps in the Middle East. There must be renewed military and diplomatic efforts to crush the twin menaces of Islamic State and al-Qaeda once and for all. Make no mistake: this may mean air strikes and other British military assistance to create secure and safe enclaves in Syria.

Lord Carey is a former archbishop of Canterbury.

Slovakia refuses EU plan to resettle Muslim refugees, �will only accept Christians�

Wisdom and prudence from the sovereign state of Slovakia. They (and all Christian countries) should be free to flatly refuse to accept forced Muslim immigration.

Keep Slovakia jihad free!

As of 2011, Slovakia was approximately 62% Roman Catholic, 8.9% Protestant, 3.8% Greek Catholic, and .9% Orthodox Christian, a very small Jewish remnant, the rest Atheist and other; no Muslim population even registered in the survey. No doubt they would like to keep it that way, given the historic problems their neighbors have had from Muslim incursions dating back a millennium (Slovakia herself was attacked by Muslim armies centuries ago), and the current woes suffered by every European country which has Muslim populations (sharia "no-go" zones, crime, etc).

More disturbing, the Islamic State has publicly targeted Slovakia in its 5-year plan to spread the caliphate from Spain to China, no doubt relying on mass Muslim immigration as a key component of their jihad.

The EU's demands amount to civilizational jihad, and would only result in the desolation of Slovakia.

Migrants crisis: Slovakia �will only accept Christians�
Slovakia says it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under a EU relocation scheme
BBC News via Pravmir, August 20, 2015

The country is due to receive 200 people from camps in Turkey, Italy and Greece under the EU plan to resettle 40,000 new arrivals.

Interior ministry spokesman Ivan Netik said Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home.

The UN�s refugee agency (UNHCR) called on countries to take an �inclusive approach� to relocation.

But Mr Netik denied the move was discriminatory and said it was intended to ensure community cohesion.

�Not going to like it�

The number of migrants at the EU�s borders has surged in recent months, reaching a record high of 107,500 in July. Most are Syrians, Afghans, and sub-Saharan Africans, fleeing instability or poverty.

Last month, EU member states agreed to take in 32,000 asylum seekers arriving in Italy and Greece over the next two years � fewer than the 40,000 target.

The scheme was made voluntary after some nations � including Slovakia � refused to accept set quotas.

Mr Netik told the BBC: �We want to really help Europe with this migration wave but� we are only a transit country and the people don�t want to stay in Slovakia.

�We could take 800 Muslims but we don�t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?�

[No doubt they would do what they have done in France, England, Sweden, Denmark and elsewhere: create isolated Muslim enclaves, driving out native Slovakians through intimidation and crime, and eventually establishing sharia "no-go zones" where even police fear to venture.]

EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breithard said she could not comment directly on the Slovak statement, but stressed that EU states were banned from any form of discrimination.

Meanwhile Babar Baloch, Central Europe spokesman for the UNHCR, said: �Resettlement is greatly needed for many refugees who are at extreme risk among the world�s most vulnerable groups.

�We encourage governments to take an inclusive approach while considering refugees for resettlement and should not base their selection on discrimination.�

More than 240,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean already this year, arriving on the shores of Greece and Italy before travelling on to other destinations.

Germany, the biggest recipient of asylum-seekers in the EU, has said it could receive as many as 800,000 applicants this year.

The numbers are far higher than the record 438,000 asylum applications in 1992 during the Bosnian crisis.

Both the EU and the UN have called on other countries to share the burden.

But EU leaders face a public backlash amid tensions over immigration.

[No doubt those tensions have been caused by a certain specific group of immigrants, namely the ones who bring jihad with them.]

Muslims Demand 'Right of Return' to Spain

"By granting citizenship to the descendants of Muslims expelled from Spain � possibly tens of millions � Spain, virtually overnight, would end up with the largest Muslim population in the European Union."

Mass Immigration Jihad through Muslim victimhood status.

Muslims Demand 'Right of Return' to Spain
by Soeren Kern, AINA � May 3, 2015

Muslim groups are demanding Spanish citizenship for potentially millions of descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain during the Middle Ages.

The growing clamor for "historical justice" comes after the recent approval of a law that would grant Spanish citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

Muslim supporters say they are entitled to the same rights and privileges as Jews because both groups were expelled from Spain under similar historical circumstances.

But historians point out that the Jewish presence in Spain predates the arrival of Christianity in the country and that their expulsion was a matter of bigotry. By contrast, the Muslims in Spain were colonial occupiers who called the territory Al-Andalus and imposed Arabic as the official language. Historians say their expulsion was a matter of decolonization.

In any event, the descendants of Muslims expelled from Spain are believed to number in the millions--possibly tens of millions--and most of them now live in North Africa. Observers say that by granting citizenship to all of them, Spain, virtually overnight, would end up with the largest Muslim population in the European Union.

Much of the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by Muslim conquerors known as the Moors from 711 until 1492, when the Moorish Kingdom of Granada surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), in what is known as the Christian Reconquest.

But the final Muslim expulsion from Granada did not take place until over a century later, beginning in 1609, when King Philip III decreed the expulsion of the Moriscos.

The Moriscos--Moors who decided to convert to Catholicism after the Reconquest rather than leave Spain--were suspected of being nominal Catholics who continued to practice Islam in secret. From 1609 through 1614, the Spanish monarchy forced an estimated 350,000 Moriscos to leave Spain for Muslim North Africa.

Today, up to five million descendants of the Moriscos are living in Morocco alone; there are millions more living in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey.

In a recent essay published by the Morocco-based newspaper Correo Diplomático, the Morisco-Moroccan journalist Ahmed Bensalh wrote that the "decision to grant Spanish citizenship to the grandchildren of the Hebrews in Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while ignoring the Moriscos, the grandsons of the Muslims, is without doubt, flagrant segregation and unquestionable discrimination, as both communities suffered equally in Spain at that time. The decision could also be considered by the international community to be an historic act of absolute immorality and injustice...This decision is absolutely disgraceful and dishonorable."

Map of the Muslim Conquest of Spain, 711-732 A.D.

Bensalh then went on to threaten Spain: "Is Spain aware of what might be assumed when it makes peace with some and not with others? Is Spain aware of what this decision could cost? Has Spain considered that it could jeopardize the massive investments that Muslims have made on its territory? Does Spain have alternatives to the foreign investment from Muslims if they ever decide to move that capital to other destinations due to the discrimination against Muslims?"

Bensalh is one of many Muslim journalists, historians and academics who are demanding that Spain treat Moriscos the same way it treats Sephardic Jews.

Consider Jamal Bin Ammar al-Ahmar, an "Andalus-Algerian" university professor at the Ferhat Abbas University in Sétif in northeastern Algeria. Al-Ahmar has been engaged in a six-year campaign to persuade Spanish King Juan Carlos to identify and condemn those who expelled the Muslims from Al-Andalus in the fifteenth century. Al-Ahmar is also demanding that millions of descendants of the Moriscos expelled from Spain be allowed to return there.

In a letter addressed to the Spanish monarch, Al-Ahmar calls for a "full legal and historical investigation of the war crimes that were perpetrated on the Muslim population of Andalusia by the French, English, European and papal crusaders, whose victims were our poor miserable people, after the collapse of Islamic rule in Andalusia."

The letter speaks of "the injustice inflicted on the Muslim population of Andalusia who are still suffering in the diaspora in exile since 1492."

Al-Ahmar wants the Spanish monarch to apologize "on behalf of his ancestors" and to assume "responsibility for the consequences" this would entail. He says it is necessary "to identify criminals, to convict retroactively, while at the same time to identify and compensate victims for their calamities and restore their titles." This process would culminate with "a decree that allows immigrants to return to their homes in Andalusia, and grant them full citizenship rights and restoration of all their properties."

The Moroccan historian Hasan Aourid believes Spain has a policy of "double standards" vis-� -vis the Moriscos. Aourid--who recently wrote a novel, entitled "The Moriscos," to "remember the tragedy of those expelled from Al-Andalus"--told an audience at the Casablanca International Book Fair that Spain cannot become "reconciled with itself without recognizing its Moorish dimension" and asked if "the suffering was lower for Muslims than for Jews."

The Association for the Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, a group dedicated to reviving the memory of the Muslim presence in Spain, says the Spanish government should treat Muslims and Jews the same way. By failing to offer Spanish citizenship to both groups, Muslims would become victims of "selective racism," said the president of the association, Bayib Loubaris.

Spain is unlikely to concede to these demands anytime soon. While few deny there are potentially millions of descendants of Moriscos living in North Africa today, the challenge lies in reconstructing reliable genealogies to determine legitimate heirs.

The issue of who is a Morisco and who is not will be a topic for discussion at a major international conference--"The Descendants of the Andalusian Moriscos in Morocco, Spain and Portugal"--to be held in Tangier from April 4-6, 2014.

But even if such genealogies could be compiled, calls to naturalize the descendants of expelled Muslims are sure to be opposed for another reason: the fact that the expulsion of the Muslims was part of a war to end the occupation of Spain by North African invaders.

Jose Ribeiro e Castro, a Portuguese lawmaker who drafted Portugal's law of return for Sephardic Jews, puts it this way: "Persecution of Jews was just that, while what happened with the Arabs was part of a conflict. There is no basis for comparison."

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.