Christian Filmmaker aims to raise awareness about Muslim Persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

�The ethnic and religious purging of Christians today is exactly like Hitler�s ethnic cleansing of Jews in WWII,� [film director Peter] Spencer said. �True Christians are today obligated to rescue the perishing from the blades of [the Islamic State].�


Brave and bold words, and all too rare in America these days. The film, 'Return To The Hiding Place', and the 'Orange Resistance Movement' seem like a strong and creative response to Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa. Judging from the endorsements on Mr. Spencer's site, the message seems to be catching on among Christians and Jews. I see no reason why Orthodox parishes should not host screenings of this important film. 


Related:

• What Every Christian Needs To Know About All Of The Christians Who Saved Jews In The Holocaust
• 400 Syrian Churches Destroyed, Christianity Nearing �Extinction� in Mideast � Russian Orthodox Patriarch
• The New Exodus: Christians Flee ISIS in the Middle East
• All Posts related to Muslim Persecution of Christians

Filmmaker�s �Chilling� Warning About the Islamic State and His Message to �True Christians� About Why They Must Fight Back

by Billy Hallowell, The Blaze, via Pravoslavie � September 17, 2015

The writer and director of a feature film about a group of young people who fought to save the innocent during the Holocaust has unveiled a new movement aimed at raising awareness about the dire religious persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Peter Spencer, director of �Return to the Hiding Place� � the sequel to Billy Graham�s �The Hiding Place� � exclusively told TheBlaze about his new Orange Resistance effort to rescue Christians being harmed by the Islamic State, and the �chilling similarities� that he sees between what�s happing now and the horrors that unfolded during the Holocaust.

�The ethnic and religious purging of Christians today is exactly like Hitler�s ethnic cleansing of Jews in WWII,� Spencer said. �True Christians are today obligated to rescue the perishing from the blades of [the Islamic State].�

The Orange Resistance movement is named for the both the color of the jumpsuits worn by victims of Islamic State extremists and for the Netherlands� historic association with orange; the setting of the �Return to the Hiding Place,� which is based, in part, on Dutch Christian Corrie ten Boom�s heroic acts to save Jews in the Netherlands.

Spencer said that the campaign will employ a number of tactics to get the word out about the plight of Middle Eastern Christians.

�We are working with denominations across the country to schedule screenings of our film followed by a panel discussing the terrifying parallels between Nazi Germany�s extermination of the Jews and the current hate-onslaught of [the Islamic State] and their mission to liquidate Christians, starting in the Middle East,� he said. �Groups won�t even need to sell tickets to the event.�

�Return to the Hiding Place,� which is based on a true story, tells of ten Boom�s refuge for Jews, as well as an �army of untrained teenagers� who helped rescue the most vulnerable from the horrors of the Holocaust.

�We know viewers, often intimidated and discouraged by today�s frightening news will see this film and be mobilized, encouraged that there is hope,� Spencer told TheBlaze. �Resistance is not futile � even one person can make a revolutionary difference.�

Spencer will also be selling Orange Resist shirts and bracelets in an effort to raise money to help organizations that are actively working to rescue Christians from the region, while also featuring these organizations in special video posts that will be distributed via social media.

The goal, Spencer said, is to cause �America to become aware and involved in politically vocalizing the need to intervene on behalf of Christians and Jews worldwide experiencing a second holocaust.�

�The only hope for coping is by taking action. The only way we can cope is if solutions are at hand,� he said. �These solutions will not present themselves � we have to stand and fight, get behind the cause, and put our resources into saving lives today.�

Spencer invited people to learn more about Orange Resistance here, and to purchase copies of �Return to the Hiding Place� here.

Watch the trailer for 'Return To The Hiding Place' here:

TheBlaze

17 / 09 / 2015

Islamic State is 'beheading, raping, and selling' Christians while Obama does nothing, asserts Justice Group

The American Center for Law and Justice is pressing the Obama Administration to act swiftly to stop the genocide of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East, highlighting the administration's inaction on several fronts. But action is unlikely to be forthcoming. 

As Raymond Ibrahim has shown, reporting of Muslim persecution of Christians does not fit "The Narrative" which the Obama Administration holds to, that Islam is innocent and there is no religious dimension to the strife in the Middle East and Africa. Therefore the plight of Christians will likely continue to be ignored by the U.S. government as a matter of Obama's anti-Christian, pro-Islam policy.

Such is the political dimension of this new age of martyrdom in which we live. 


ISIS is 'beheading, raping, and selling' Christians while Obama does nothing, Justice group asserts
by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News, August 21, 2015

The American Center for Law and Justice is urging President Barack Obama to defend Christians who are suffering intense persecution from Islamic State terrorists, especially by naming an ambassador to fill the vacant mission of Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.

The ACLJ has drafted a petition appealing to the Obama Administration to act swiftly to stop the genocide of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. The petition has already garnered more than 93,000 signatures.

The organization reminds the administration that ISIS is �beheading, raping, and selling Christians� and that hundreds of thousands of Christians have been forced to flee or die. But while ISIS tracks down Christians for sale and slaughter, the Obama Administration and other Western leaders stand by idle.

For more than a year, the justice group states in an article on Thursday, �President Obama has failed to appoint an Ambassador to lead a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.�

�While Christians and other religious minorities are decimated in that region, the Obama administration leaves this vital position unfilled. This is why the ACLJ has urged them to fill this spot and will continue to do so,� it said.

Just this week, in fact, the Catholic relief agency Aid to the Church in Need announced that �Christians have become a form [of] currency in this tragedy.� They report that many Arab Christians are being abducted and held for ransom as a means of funding ISIS.  One priest�s family managed to scrape together the $120,000 ransom put on his head, but once they paid the sum, they were mailed his cut-up body parts in a box, the ACLJ notes.

The Islamic State has seized significant territory across Iraq and Syria, and for more than a year now has been heavily targeting Christians and other religious minorities.

�Despite President Obama�s insistence that there is no need for greater U.S. involvement with ISIS,� the letters states, �these jihadists continue to gain more influence, money, and power.  Every day, we see new accounts of Christians & Yazidis begin captured, women being enslaved, and mass murders being committed by ISIS.�

�If this is not the kind of evil that our government is established to stop, then one must ask what is,� the ACLJ said. �This evil must be stopped.�

When the Obama Administration when it intended to appoint a special envoy to protect religious minorities in the Middle East and South Central Asia�even though Congress passed legislation over a year ago creating the post�the White House responded that it does not know.

�We have no personnel announcement to make at this time,� said Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the White House�s National Security Council told CNSNews.com in response to queries as to when the post will be filled and why there has been such a long delay in filling the position.

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.]

Raymond Ibrahim: Christian Carnage and Western Indifference - Muslim Persecution of Christians, April 2015

The sheer breadth of global Muslim persecution of Christians, and the depths and variety of the depravity involved, which Raymond Ibrahim dutifully reports month after agonizing month, is beyond horrifying, beyond anything we have seen in history.  There is an infernal spirit behind the resurgence of Islam in our age.

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute � June 22, 2015

Note: The following represents some of the persecution Christians experienced at the hands of Muslims during the month of April, 2015 alone.   After reading this, ask yourself how Western media, politicians, and other foolish talking heads would react if Muslims experienced the same sort and amount of persecution at the hands of Christians or in Western nations in just one month.

Islamic State Slaughters 30 Christian Ethiopians

Approximately two months after the Islamic State published a video depicting its members slaughtering 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, on Sunday, April 19,  the Islamic jihadi organization released another video of more Christians in Libya, approximately 30 Ethiopians�derogatorily referred to by an IS spokesman as �worshippers of the cross��being butchered for not paying jizya, extortion money demanded of the �People of the Book� who refuse to convert to Islam, according to Koran 9:29.

One group of Christians were shot execution style to the back of their heads, the others had their heads carved off, like the Copts before them.

The IS spokesman further addressed �Christians everywhere�:

We say to Christians everywhere, the Islamic State will expand, with Allah�s permission.  And it will reach you even if you are in fortified strongholds.  So whoever enters Islam will have security, and whoever accepts the Dhimmah contract [subjugated, third-class treatment and social status] will have security. But whoever refuses will see nothing from us but the edge of a spear. The men will be killed and the children will be enslaved, and their wealth will be taken as booty. This is the judgment of Allah and His Messenger.

In a statement, the Coptic Christian Church of Egypt pointed out that the Ethiopian martyrs, like the 21 Copts before them, were �murdered purely for refusing to renounce their faith.�

Al Shabaab Murders 147, Separates Muslims from Christians

On April 2 in Kenya, gunmen from the Somali Islamic group, Al Shabaab��the [Islamic] youth��stormed Garissa University, singled out Christian students, and murdered them, some beheaded.  A total of 147 people were killed in the attack�making this jihad more spectacular than the 2013 Al Shabaab attack on the Nairobi mall, which left 67 people dead (then, Islamic gunmen also singled out Christians for slaughter).

Islamic gunmen were careful to separate Christians from Muslims before beginning the carnage said eyewitnesses.  (While Kenya is 83% Christian, it still has an 11% Muslim minority the jihadis are careful not to kill.)  Collins Wetangula, vice chairman of the student union, said he could hear from inside his room where he was hiding the gunmen opening doors and inquiring if the people inside were Muslims or Christians: �If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot.  With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.�

Al Shabaab has a long history of singling Christians out from among Muslims for slaughter (here are four examples).  Other jihadi groups�including Boko Haram and the Islamic State�also make it a point to distinguish between Christians and Muslims before slaughtering the former, a fact often omitted from �mainstream media� reports.

Egyptian Churches under Attack

• On Sunday, April 5, as Coptic Christians were celebrating Palm Sunday, a church was attacked in Alexandria, Egypt.   Gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on the church during the night injuring a police officer and two civilians.

• On April 12, Easter Sunday according to the Orthodox calendar, two explosions targeting churches took place in Zagazig vicinity.  One car explosion took place near a Coptic Orthodox church and another bomb exploded near the Evangelical Church in the same area.  Although no casualties were reported, large numbers could have easily resulted, based on precedent.  For example, on January 1, 2011, as Egypt�s Christians ushered in the New Year, car bombs went off near the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, resulting in 23 dead worshippers and dozens critically injured.

• Muslims rioted because President Sisi had agreed for Copts to build a church in Al-Our, where 13 of the 21 Christians who were beheaded by the Islamic State grew up and where their families still live.  Local Muslims rose in violence soon after Islamic prayers Friday, April 3.  They yelled that they would never allow a church to be built, that �Egypt is Islamic!� By night time, Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown at another Coptic church, cars were set ablaze�including one belonging to a relative of one of the those decapitated by the Islamic State�and several people were injured.[i]

• A day later, on Saturday, April 4, Muslims rioted and attacked the Christians of the village of Gala�, Samalout district.  After waiting for years to repair their dilapidated church (see pictures here) Coptic locals finally received all the proper permits to begin restoration.  Soon Coptic homes, businesses, and persons, were attacked including by hurled stones.  Christian owned wheat farms were destroyed and their potato crops uprooted.  Islamic slogans were constantly yelled, including �There is no god but Allah� and �Islamic! Islamic!�

• After waiting for 44 years, the Christians of Nag Shenouda, in Sohag City, finally got the necessary permit to build a new church.  Muslims again rioted and even burned down the tent the Christians had erected to worship under.  Denied, the Christians of Nag Shenouda celebrated Easter in the street (picture here).  And when one of them tried to hold worship service in his home, he and his household were attacked by a Muslim mob.

More Islamic Attacks on Christian Churches

Syria: The Islamic State destroyed at least three churches under its jurisdiction:

• On Easter Sunday, the Islamic State destroyed the Virgin Mary Church in Tel Nasri, northeast Syria.  The Assyrian church was built and consecrated in 1934.  Loosely translated as �Christian Hill,� Tel Nasri is an ancient Assyrian Christian village.  It is one of the dozens of Christian villages along the Khabur river that were attacked and occupied by the Islamic State in late February (more here and here).

• On April 28, the St. Odisho Assyrian Church in Tel Tal and the St. Rita Tilel Armenian Church in Aleppo, were also destroyed.

Nigeria: A Muslim mob set fire to a church in a Christian village in Nigeria�s northern Kano State on April 1.  Muslims were searching for a young man who had renounced Islam and re-converted to Christianity in order to kill him. They also attacked Christian villagers with machetes and torched the home of a pastor, killing one of his daughters.  According to General Dikko, a local official,

The church and all the properties were burnt down in the presence of the Christian community despite all pleadings for them to stop the destruction. The arsonists gathered cornstalks and put them inside the church in order to cause greater damage�.  We have the right to belong to any religion of our choice and live anywhere in this country. We call on the authorities at all levels to rise up to their responsibilities of protecting lives and properties of every citizen in this country.

Pakistan: Two assailants on motorbikes opened fire on the main gates of a church and Christian school in Lahore.  The school had just closed half an hour earlier and several students were present outdoors.  Police were present, causing the attackers to ride off.  Two passersby were injured in the crossfire.

Malaysia: On Sunday, April 19, a Muslim mob of approximately 50 people rioted and protested against a small Protestant church in Kuala Lumpur, the capital.  The object of their wrath was the cross atop the building of worship�which was removed during the Islamic protest.  Rioters exclaimed that the cross, the central symbol of Christianity, represented �a challenge to Islam� and could �influence the faith of young people.�

More Muslim Slaughter of Christians

High Seas: On April 16, police in Sicily reported that Muslim migrants hurled as many as 53 Christians overboard during a recent crossing from Libya.  The motive was that the victims �professed the Christian faith while the aggressors were Muslim.�  Another report said that the reason the Christians were thrown overboard is because a boy was seen praying to the Judeo-Christian God. Muslims commanded him to stop, saying �Here, we only pray to Allah.�  Eventually the Muslims �went mad,� in the words of a witness, started screaming �Allahu Akbar!� and began hurling Christians into the sea.[ii]

Nigeria: According to a �U.N. human rights chief � all 276 Christian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 may have been among a group of women slaughtered by Boko Haram last month [March], Nigerian media reported Monday, April 6.�[iii]

Syria: Islamic rebels fired rockets at a Christian neighborhood in Aleppo, the nation�s largest city, on the night of April 10-11.   The attack left massive destruction in the eastern section of the Sulaymaniyah district, which is predominantly Assyrian and Armenian.  At least 40 people, mostly Assyrians�including women and children�were killed.  Shells also targeted an Assyrian Catholic Cathedral, injuring three civilians. �Our Easter feast has turned to grief,� a nun in Aleppo said: �Some people woke up to find themselves without a home and others did not see the life died under the rubble because they were victims of violence.�

Egypt: A Muslim man stabbed a Christian woman with a knife multiple times and then threw her body into a canal.  The Coptic woman, Gamila Basilious, was 48-years-old and married, living in Minya.  According to police reports, the man, Mahmoud Hassan Abdulhamid, came to her door inquiring about her husband. When he discovered her husband was not present, he took advantage of the situation by attacking her with a knife, with repeated stab wounds found on her neck and chest region.  As �infidels,� Coptic Christians are regularly attacked in Egypt, including kidnapping, church attacks, and just random slaughter.

Islamic Attacks on Christian Freedom:

Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytization

Uganda: Five Muslim men gang-raped and beat the teenage daughter of a Christian pastor.  This was done in �retaliation� to the pastor�s refusal to stop Christian worship services in a Muslim-majority region.  The girl was approaching the New Hope Church building where her father serves as pastor when she was abducted and taken to nearby bushes by the rapists.  In the 17-year-old girl�s own words:

The five Muslims took hold of me, and they raped me there.  I tried to scream, but they threatened to kill me. One of them said, �Your father should stop this prayer meeting of trying to change Muslims to become Christians and close the church building�we have warned him several times.

The suspects fled when church members arrived for an all-night prayer vigil. They rushed her to a local clinic, where she was treated for serious injuries and mental trauma.  According to her father, �The girl still has problems communicating.  She just says a few words and then keeps quiet. She needs trauma counseling.�  Earlier, the father had received messages threatening him to cease holding Christian worship services.  One text message said, �Be you informed that we do not want your church in this area. If you continue worship here, then you will live to regret it.�

Bangladesh: A Muslim mob attacked a former Muslim and his wife for converting to Christianity.  The couple was attacked as they were returning home after being baptized. The man was slapped across the face by a Muslim imam in front of his two young children.  The Islamic mob further broke the fence of the new Christians� family home and said they would chase the �apostates� out of the village for leaving Islam.  The man who baptized the couple was also attacked and beat by the mob at his home and later lost his job.

Egypt: Gad Yunan,  a Coptic Christian teacher, and five of his Coptic students were arrested on the charge of �contempt of religions.�  Their crime was to have made a 30-second video on Yunan�s iphone poking fun at the Islamic State�which Egypt�s Muslims and authorities apparently equate with making fun of Islam, even as Muslims in the West insist IS has �nothing to do with Islam.�  Yunan was �banished� from his village of al-Nasriya in an effort to appease local Muslims who reacted to the video with violence, including by pelting the homes and businesses of Christians with stones.  According to Khamis, Yunan�s brother: �I don�t see any insulting of Islam in the video. They were joking and making fun of Daesh (the Arabic acronym for IS), not Islam. My brother didn�t intend to insult the Islamic religion.� [iv]

Ethiopia: Gemechu Jorgo and Sheikh Amin�two men who were distributing Bibles in Ethiopia�s Melka Belo region�were arrested.  Islamic law bans the advertisement and dissemination of any religion other than Islam.  While imprisoned, both men endured harassment and physical abuse by authorities.  At one point, Jorgo reminded District Administrator Jamal Adam of his constitutional right to practice his Christian faith freely.  In response, the Muslim administrator used Jorgo�s Bible to slap him in the face three times.  Amin, formerly a Muslim sheikh and prayer leader of a mosque, is a recent convert to Christianity.  While in prison, officials persistently pressured the apostate to renounce Christ and return to Islam.  He refused.  Both men were eventually released.  Ethiopia is a Christian-majority nation, though Muslims make for 33%, or one-third of the population.

Uzbekistan: Reports appearing in April told of the harassing, jailing and fining of several Christians for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief. One of the prisoners of conscience�Council of Churches Baptist Doniyor Akhmedov�was fined more than three years� official minimum wage after his release from 15 days in jail.  Other prisoners of conscience to be jailed for short periods include a Protestant in Bukhara, who received seven days� imprisonment for �illegal� religious activity and another Protestant who received 10 days� jail time for �teaching religion illegally.�  Their identities remain anonymous due to fears they might suffer more reprisals.  Nine more Protestants were fined for �illegally storing� Christian literature and materials. Their homes were raided earlier by police who confiscated various Christian books and CDs and DVDs.  �Religious minorities face tight scrutiny in Uzbekistan as they are unable to openly practice their beliefs without facing major penalties such as jail terms or heavy fines,� reports Forum 18 News.

Dhimmitude:

Generic Violence and Hostility against Christians

France: On April 15, 215 Christian gravestones and crosses in the cemetery of Saint-Roch de Castres (Tarn) were damaged and desecrated (pictures here).  The man responsible was later arrested.  According to Charlotte Beluet, the prosecutor: �The suspect, arrested at 12:45 on Thursday, matches the description given by a witness, a cemetery employee, who came across the man dressed in a white djellaba [Arab/Muslim garb], and followed him�  The man repeats Muslim prayers over and over, he drools and cannot be communicated with: his condition has been declared incompatible with preliminary detention.�  He was hospitalized on the assumption that he is  �mentally unbalanced.�

Iraq: Right around the same time the �mentally unbalanced� Muslim man was destroying Christian crosses and tombstones in France, the Islamic State published pictures of its members destroying Christian tombstones and crosses in cemeteries under its jurisdiction�including Mosul�s oldest Christian cemetery near the Syrian Orthodox Cathedral�and quoted Islamic scriptures justifying its actions.  Several jihadi websites posted these pictures.  Some include Islamic State members using sledgehammers to destroy gravestones and efface the crosses carved on them.

Bangladesh: On Easter day, a Catholic Christian village made up of tribal Khasia people was attacked by Muslims.  Syed Ara Begum, a Muslim owner of a tea plantation, along with a Muslim mob,  attacked the Christian village as its population was celebrating Mass.   The plantation owner reportedly seeks to seize the Christians� land.  Hearing the cries of his flock, Fr. James Kiron Rozario ran to the site of the attack.  Once there, the crowd of Muslims attacked him with a knife, seriously wounding him and threatening to kill him.  The Muslim mob went on to steal items worth almost $4,000.  They also destroyed Bibles, crosses, holy pictures, musical instruments and homes�and randomly killed goats and chickens.  According to Msgr. Bejoy N. D�Cruze OMI, Bishop of Syleht, �We live in fear�.  We want justice and security for our priests and our faithful. We hope that the government will find a peaceful solution and that our people can live free from tensions�. They [Catholic Khasia] are a very peaceful community but often fall victims of the Bengali [Muslim] majority.�

Pakistan:

• On the morning of April 17, suspected Islamic gunmen opened fire on St Francis High School, a Catholic school founded in 1842 in Lahore and long considered one of the finest schools in the city.  One student and two security guards were injured and taken to hospital.  Although the motive behind the attack has yet to be established, Christian lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill said in a statement that this �new attack witnesses the deterioration of the situation of Christians in Pakistan and spreads even more fear.�

• On March 29, Shamim Masih�a Christian reporter exposing Muslim persecution�was attacked in Islamabad by two men on a motorcycle.  According to the leader of the Pakistan Christian Congress party, Nazir S Bhatti �The motorbike riders got down from their bike and started beating Shamim Masih�. [They] broke his arm and warned him that if he did not stop reporting on Christian issues, they knew his family and home and would teach him and his family a lesson.�  As usual, police failed to register the incident.  In the words of Bhatti: �as Shamim Masih is a Christian journalist�the police and administration are not paying any attention or interest to investigate this incident.�

• On April 1, Islamic militants shot and wounded the brother of Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a prominent Christian rights official in Pakistan.  This is the latest attack on Gill and his family by Islamic militants angered at him for criticizing the controversial blasphemy laws that are routinely used to attack Pakistan�s Christian minority.  The attack occurred  in the Kasur District of Punjab province.  According to the human rights official, �Pervaiz Gill [his brother] suffered a bullet wound to his lower back, and was rushed to Jinah Hospital in Lahore [city] where it was removed.� However, �the police is not arresting the shooter� who was publicly identified as Muhammad Bilal: �Our life remains under threat if the shooter is not arrested.�  Last August, Gill�s home was sprayed with bullets in the night, for the second time.

Syria: Since the city of Idlib fell to Islamic rebels on March 28, Christian inhabitants have been attacked in various ways. A 57-year-old Greek Orthodox priest, Ibrahim Farah, head of the Greek-Orthodox parish dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was kidnapped.  Last reported, Farah, who chose to remain in the city and tend to other Christians unable to flee, was awaiting a �trial.�

Encouraging Words, No Actions

Because the Muslim persecution of Christians is growing immensely, more Christian and political leaders are beginning to mention it, though with no commensurate action.  During a Mass in April, Pope Francis said that today�s Church is a �Church of martyrs,� adding:

In these days how many Stephens there are in the world! Let us think of our brothers whose throats were slit on the beach in Libya [by the Islamic State]; let�s think of the young boy who was burnt alive by his [see above]; let us think of those migrants thrown from their boat into the open sea by other migrants because they were Christians [see above]; let us think�just the day before yesterday�of those Ethiopians assassinated because they were Christians [see above]� and of many others. Many others of whom we do not even know and who are suffering in jails because they are Christians� The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia�who once wrote a letter to Barack Obama beseeching the president to reconsider his foreign policies which enable the persecution of Christians in Syria�spoke again of the threat of Christian extinction in the Mideast:

I regularly get reports of horrible crimes that are committed there against Christians, especially in northern Iraq. I have visited those places and I remember that there were many churches and monasteries there. The city of Mosul alone had 45 churches. Now there is not a single one. The buildings have been destroyed. Four hundred churches have been destroyed in Syria� Now Christianity is the most persecuted religion. The same is happening in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Northern Africa.

According to Saudi novelist and writer, Hani Naqshabandi, �Our religious institutions do not give us room to exercise free thought.�  By way of example, he pointed out that �They [Saudi institutions] said that the Christian is an infidel, a denizen of hell, an enemy to Allah and Islam.  So we said, �Allah�s curse on them.��  He also admitted the obvious but little known fact that �Christians are in need of protection �  What happened to Christians in Iraq and Syria, and further regions like Algeria, does not receive Arabic media coverage that befits human beings, whatever their religion.�

Even United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, regularly criticized for being too soft on Islamists, said the following remarks during his Easter message:

We have a duty to speak out about the persecution of Christians around the world too.  It is truly shocking that in 2015 there are still Christians being threatened, tortured, even killed because of their faith.  From Egypt to Nigeria, Libya to North Korea.  Across the Middle East Christians have been hounded out of their homes, forced to flee from village to village; many of them forced to renounce their faith or brutally murdered.  To all those brave Christians in Iraq and Syria who practice their faith or shelter others, we will say, �We stand with you.�

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, �Muslim Persecution of Christians� was developed to collate some�by no means all�of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not �random,� but systematic and interrelated�that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who �offend� Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or third-class, �tolerated� citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales�from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East�it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam�whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Previous Reports linked here.

Christians in the Middle East: Martyred by Muslims in their Homeland, Disdained by Christians in America

In an early 2014 article by Michael Brendan Dougherty titled, 'The World�s Most Ancient Christian Communities are being Destroyed � and No One Cares', I was struck in particular by this brief quote, which sums up the problem in a memorable manner:

�The victims are �too Christian� to excite the Left, and �too foreign� to excite the Right.� �French philosopher Regis Debray

Quite so. I might amend Debray's observation to read that the Christian victims are "too Eastern" to excite American Protestant/Evangelical Christians to action. Though, as an Orthodox Christian myself, I am tempted to charge that the Christian victims of Islamic jihad are actually "too Christian" altogether.

Rod Dreher recently offered some reflections on this phenomenon following an encounter he had with a Bible-believer, which I hope American Baptists, Evangelicals and assorted others of the 33,000-or-so Protestant denominations (World Christian Encyclopedia by Barrett, Kurian, Johnson; Oxford Univ Press, 2nd edition, 2001) will ponder:

Over the weekend, I got into a brief Twitter exchange with a pastor of a nondenominational �Bible church� (as if all churches aren�t Bible churches) in Texas who said that I am not a Christian, because Orthodox and Catholics are not Christian. I pointed out to him that Christianity did not begin with the Reformation, but then decided to block the guy on Twitter, because the last thing I wanted to do was get into an exchange with a guy like that. 

An hour later, I was standing in our Orthodox vespers service, thinking about that guy and smiling. There we were, praying in a church that can trace itself in an unbroken line back to the apostles. We chanted Psalms and read passages aloud from the Old Testament. We sang hymns commemorating the Council of Nicaea (325), and its victory over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Jesus. As in every vespers service, we sang the hymn �O Joyful Light,� which is the oldest surviving hymn from antiquity, having been composed in the late third or early fourth century; tradition says it was written by a bishop on his way to martyrdom. He didn�t write it for a praise band. 

And I thought about all the Christians of the Middle East being exiled and martyred today for their faith in Jesus Christ. These Christians are almost entirely Orthodox, Eastern Rite Catholic, or members of one of the Nestorian churches. Whatever their communion, their ancestors were worshiping Jesus Christ as God when the ancestors of nearly all of us northern Europeans were praying to pagan gods. 

And yet, to this fundamentalist Protestant in Texas, these people are not Christian.

Rod's musings on the Orthodox Vespers service hit some of the myriad highlights as to why Orthodoxy deserves to recognized as authentic Christianity. While there are some Nestorian groups to be sure, it is illuminating to consider two recent articles by Dr. Anton Vrame of the Greek Archdiocese on the Assyrians and the Armenians, as well as an affirming "Amen" to the canonization by the Coptic Orthodox Church of the 21 Coptic Christian Martyrs of Libya, written by Fr. Lawrence Farley, as hopeful signs. Out of the darkness of Islamic persecution of Christians is shining the light of true Christian faith, showing there is far more uniting many of the Eastern Christian communions than the often circumstantial historical anomalies which have separated us for centuries.


Perhaps Rod Dreher's Bible-believing Twitter correspondent would concede the points raised by Rod in his reflection above (though perhaps not, as he seemed to be possessed of a priori certainty that we Orthodox are "not Christian"). But somehow I suspect the fundamentalist's objections to us may focus more on such "non-Biblical" practices as the veneration of icons, church ecclesiology and hierarchy, calling priests "Father" (and bishops "Master!"), our veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and so forth.

Though Rod makes several more essential points (read the whole post, by all means), he ultimately declined to take up the gauntlet in his post ("I have no interest in engaging in theological disputation here, and won�t.").

I have addressed some of these issues in an article of mine from 2013, and feel it is well worth re-posting here in its entirety, especially as it points out several fundamental theological deviations of Western Christians, and how that cripples their response to Muslim persecution of Orthodox, Copts and others today, actually predisposing them to implicitly side with the Muslim persecutors on theological grounds, and turn a blind eye to the plight of Eastern Christians.

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Islam's Hatred of Holy Icons � and what that means for Persecuted Eastern Christians

Orthodox Church Iconostasis in the West Bank desecrated by Muslims

Introduction

One of the great sorrows � after the church attacks, murders, abductions, rapes and forced conversions � caused by Islamic persecution of Christians, whether in our own day or in centuries past, must be the defilement of holy icons by Muslims. Indeed, it is highly probable that the iconoclast heresy which rocked Christianity in the seventh and eighth centuries was triggered or accelerated by the brutal and sudden rise of Islam after the death of Muhammad in 632A.D.

Islam and Iconoclasm

Islamic 'icon' of Muhammad
and archangel Gabriel.

Islam is strongly set against images of any kind, although one may encounter in rare Islamic books depictions of Muhammad and his earliest companions, or Muhammad being visited by the spirit-being supposed to be the archangel Gabriel. But when it comes to Christian images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or the saints, Islam is the "icon smasher" extraordinaire. ("Icon smasher" is a literal translation of "iconoclast.")

In all the Christian lands conquered by Muslims from the seventh century onwards, when churches were not completely destroyed, they were converted into mosques and the holy images painted over, or, if they were panel icons, simply hacked into pieces and/or burned.

Islam's innate hatred of Christianity's holy images helps account for the recent push to re-convert all the Hagia Sophia churches of Turkey into mosques, including and especially the great Hagia Sophia of Constantinople (Istanbul) built by Justinian in 537A.D. In converting the Great Church into a museum, the original frescoes and mosaics began to be restored, revealing once again the holy images of Christ, His Most Pure Mother, and the Saints. This is a serious affront to the Islamic mind, thus with the re-Islamicization of Turkey, we see special emphasis on once again covering (or perhaps destroying) all Christian images, most perfectly accomplished in converting all the Hagia Sophia churches into mosques.

Protestantism and Iconoclasm

There is no small irony in the fact that Protestant Christians also tend to be iconoclastic, rejecting the holy images which the Christian Church had created, embraced and sanctified from the first century onwards. Though perhaps a justifiable reaction against Roman Catholic use of statues, the Protestant rejection of holy icons is in fact a theological error which limits and impoverishes Protestant theology and its grasp of the Incarnation, as well as its actual worship. 

(Orthodoxy does not accept the use of statues in its churches as they are too realistic, too much of this world. Icons, in contrast, are deliberately "other-worldly," and are often called "windows into heaven." Even when they depict historical events in the life of the Savior or the Saints, these events are "transfigured" with the uncreated light from beyond this world.)

Venerating an Icon

Orthodox converts from Protestantism are familiar with this issue, and are quick in grasping the essentials of proper icon use. �Worship is due to God alone,� the Church Fathers consistently affirm, whereas our veneration of an icon is imputed not to the wood and paint, but to the prototype in heaven. 

The Eastern Christian practice of making the sign of the Cross and bowing to kiss (venerate) icons is an essential physical aspect of Christian worship. Orthodox and Coptic Christians preserve intact the timeless certainty that worship to God must be performed by the entire person. Not with the mind alone, but with the body also do we show our love, adoration and worship of the Holy Trinity. 

Thus not only icons (which are visual and tactile), but incense (smell), prostrations and bows, and theologically rich hymnography (aural) according to the ancient rule of �Lex orandi, lex credendi� (St Vincent of Lerins) characterize traditional Christian worship.  

The pinnacle of Orthodox Christian worship is of course the receiving of the Holy Eucharist, the very Body and Blood of Christ, which sanctifies our entire being through the apparently mundane sense of taste. Thus the psalmist exclaims,

Taste and see that the Lord is good! �(Psalm 33:8, LXX)

And the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us,

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. �(John 6:53-57)

The Greek word used for "eat" in these verses means literally to "gnaw" or "chew." No mere memorial or symbol here! Christ means that we are to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood.

Thus all the senses, �All one�s strength,� as well as the mind and heart are to be fully engaged in worshipping the God of All. This is the first and greatest commandment:

�You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.� �(Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37)

It was St John of Damascus in the eighth century who not merely defended the use of icons, but convincingly showed their necessity for Christian praxis, piety and worship. Because God the Word became Man and took on human form (literally becoming "enfleshed," which is what "incarnation" means), therefore He may be depicted in human form, as may His Most Holy Mother, the saints, and events in the life of Christ and His Church. The veneration of holy icons is thus a necessary and true aspect of authentic, timeless Christian worship.

This is so pure and simple a truth, that a child can grasp it. "Unless ye turn and become as little children..."  And children in the Orthodox Church naturally love and venerate the holy icons.

Just as the average home typically has many family photographs, so the Christian home should have holy images of the Family of God, the Church. Just as images are used in the secular world to teach, instruct, and depict historical events and heroes, so in the Church the holy icons present the Mystery of Faith in visual manner, yet, as stated above, in an other-worldly perspective, shining with an inner, transfigured light.

Tragically, by rejecting and denigrating Orthodox Christian iconography, Protestants are unwittingly siding with Islam, and implicitly denying the full meaning of the Incarnation.

The Islamification of the Bible

Protestantism commits a similar error in what Fr Stephen Freeman terms its "Islamification of Christianity." Protestantism has morphed the Bible into a sort of Christian Koran, as if God sent down the literal words of the Bible in direct revelation.

It is not the words of God which have been revealed to us. Rather it is Jesus Christ Himself, the Incarnate Logos, the Living Word of God, who is the most full and perfect revelation of God, "the image" � literally, in Greek, "icon" � "of the invisible God," as the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:15.

All of sacred scripture testifies to Him, and was written by numerous different people, the Old Testament over a couple of thousand years, the New Testament over only a few decades after the Crucified, Risen and Glorified Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father.

NEWS FLASH: The Bible did not come down out of heaven fully formed.

In the same way, the Gospel is not properly a "book," nor is it even "four books." St Paul speaks of the gospel in his letters, which were written well before the four gospels were written or known to the Church at large. (It is thought likely that Mark wrote his gospel � generally accepted to be the first of the four � around 70AD, nearly twenty years after 1 Thessalonians, the earliest of Paul's letters, written ca. 50-51AD. However, some scholars suggest that when Paul writes of "my gospel" in Romans 2:16, that he may be referring to the Gospel according to Luke, who traveled with Paul on his later missionary journeys, likely compiling and composing his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles during this time.)

The Gospel is the saving good news of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, in the flesh, bringing salvation and new life to mankind, enabling us to become "children of God" through Him (1 John 3:1), even to the point of becoming "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).  In the theological language of the Church, this is termed theosis, or divinization. As St Athanasius of Alexandria boldly put it: "God became man so that man might become god."

The four gospels are thus the God-inspired accounts embraced by the Church within her Canon of Faith which properly testify to the Truth of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Living Word brings us the words of eternal life (John 6:68, 17:8), and it is the Word made flesh Himself  Who brings everything to us. Nothing is sent through an intermediary. Furthermore, by uniting us to Himself, he transforms us in an ontological manner. If we abide in Him, we are no longer of this world, just as He is not of this world (John 17:6, 14-18).

Jesus Christ is "the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6).  He is "the Light that was to come into the world" (John 1:9, 8:12), not the Bible. The Logos did not become incarnate to bring us a book � although we certainly rely on this Holy Book for the record of His life-giving words. And truly, all scripture is inspired by God and "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). However, we must recall that when St Paul speaks of "the scriptures," he is referring to what we call the Old Testament. The New Testament did not yet exist.

The Scriptures are indeed God-inspired, and the Scriptures come from out of the womb of the Church. It is the Church which formed the New Testament, led and inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is part of the great synergia between God and Man. Thus we are not merely "People of the Book" (as Islam condescendingly calls Christians and Jews), but rather members of the Church, members of the theanthropic Body of Christ. And the Church is the Bride of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul even calls the Church "the Pillar and Ground of the Truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

The Logos became incarnate to bring Himself  to us, to unite us to Himself, and to usher us into Eternal Life in unending communion with the Holy Trinity, as Jesus prayed to His Father:

...That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. �(John 17:21-23)

Islam distorts the meaning of the word "Gospel," positing that Jesus delivered the Injil (the Koranic term for the Gospel) as a book of God's words to his disciples (in a manner similar to how Muhammad supposedly delivered the Koran).

(Interestingly, Islam teaches that Jesus' disciples subsequently distorted his message in the Injil, which is why Allah sent Muhammad to correct everything, which is eerily similar to what Protestants teach happened between 100A.D. and the Reformation, that true Christianity disappeared, only to be recovered by the Protestant Reformation.  This is an alarming parallel indeed...)

Therefore, muddled Protestant theology, cut off from the sources of traditional Christianity, can be seen to be Islamified both in its distorted view of the Bible and the Gospel, as well as in its rejection of the holy icons.

Eastern Christians are 'True' Christians

The sad result is that Western Protestant Christians, though well-intentioned and sincere in so many ways in their faith, tend to have a very difficult time seeing Eastern Christians as "true" Christians. (I am deliberately leaving aside here any discussion of Chalcedonian vs. non-Chalcedonian communions...)

I remember ten years ago or so, being very saddened at meeting a young woman who was zealous to do missionary work in Russia because, as she put it, "All they have over there is the Orthodox Church."

Another young woman returning from a mission trip to Romania expressed her confusion to me as to why the impoverished Romanians she had met were so zealous to donate what little resources they had for the building and beautification of Orthodox churches there. She wanted desperately to liberate them from what she saw as false piety, and help them "know Jesus." I know she meant well, and is very faithful in her own way, but the Lord's lesson of the Widow's Mites was lost on her, and the Jesus she wanted to introduce the Romanians to was the American Jesus, the one who hates the holy icons, beauty, "high church" services, and everything Orthodox.

This unfortunate ignorance is a persistent affliction blinding American Protestants to the fullness of the Christian Faith and to their own destiny and calling in Christ. The Lord loves His Bride, the Orthodox Church, which is why He calls her to suffer for His sake, and why He is blessing the Russian Church to flourish in our own time, in accordance with the mysterious prophecy of St Seraphim of Sarov.

The Effect of Iconoclasm on Eastern Christians

With this background, I would like to express my concern that the innate rejection of Holy Orthodoxy and Eastern Christianity by Protestants may be a major factor in suppressing outcry in the United States against Muslim persecution of Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Tunisia, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and throughout the Islamic world.

In extreme cases, Protestants even condemn Eastern Christians (and Roman Catholics) as idolators because of their use of holy images, and therefore may secretly consider them as deserving of the "scourge of Islam" being visited upon them.  (As an historical aside, from the time of St Sophronius of Jerusalem in 637A.D., who called Christians to repent over their sins which had brought the Muslim attackers upon them, Eastern Christians have retained this sense of the rise of Islam as being allowed by God as a chastisement.)

With a double irony, the false "Prosperity Gospel" so popular in the United States actually fosters a sense within Evangelical circles that material prosperity (and lack of being persecuted) is proof of validation by God. This too is an Islamification of Christianity, being analogous to how the early Muslims interpreted Muhammad's battlefield successes, and after his death their own rapid expansion, as proof of God's favor and the truth of their religion. The Prosperity Gospel can ultimately lead to a condescending attitude towards Eastern Christians, and as with Protestant iconoclasm, suppresses U.S. support for Christians suffering under Muslim persecution.  In any case, Jesus clearly told us we would be persecuted if we follow Him, and he never promised earthly prosperity or glory.

We are seeing signs now that this unintentional suppression of concern and intervention for Eastern Christians suffering under Muslim persecution is beginning to change, as excellent organizations like International Christian Concern, Morning Star News, and others, offer broad reporting and support inclusive of Orthodox, Coptic, Assyrian, Chaldean and Catholic Christians. Important texts like Raymond Ibrahim's new book, Crucified Again - Exposing Islam's New War On Christians,  Mark Durie's The Third Choice, and others, help convey the causes, breadth and continuity of Islamic persecution of all Christians, and foster an informed concern especially for Eastern Christians in their fourteen-century long endurance of Islamic jihad and domination.

We may even hope that God may work through this wave of Islamic persecution of Eastern Christians to awaken and draw many souls into the fold of the timeless, unchanging Orthodox Christian Faith.

VIDEO: Raymond Ibrahim � The ongoing war between Islam and Europe

In the following video, Hanne Nabintu, historian of religions, interviews Raymond Ibrahim on the history of Islam and the West.  Topics include the original (but forgotten) Arab conquests, the (demonized) Crusades, and why the modern West�s notion of �history� is immensely skewed.

Raymond Ibrahim � May 21, 2015

Interview with scholar Raymond Ibrahim on the Middle East and vital facts of history that we often hear little about in the media today. We often forget that during the early Islamic conquest a high number of Christian nations in the Middle East were taken over by Islam. Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Marocco - these were Christian lands at the time.

Europe itself was under siege for several hundred years, - only Scandinavia, Germany and the British Isles were exempt from the Muslim effort to take Europe. We forget that the Crusades were originally a European reaction to the horrors that was done to Christians, both pilgrims and the indigenous Christians in the Middle East as a result of the Muslim Conquests.

Scroll down for video...


We tend to hear much about that which was not so good about the Crusades, but little about the Islamic horrors that led to the European Crusader reaction in order to save the lives of Christians in the Middle East. We are forgetting history as a result of the politically correct, radical leftwing and liberal teaching that permeates the curriculum and teachings in schools today: History is twisted, vital facts not presented and the valuable European contribution to civilization demeaned.



A ConCerva Production

Islamic State captures Ramadi, threatens Baghdad, expands in North Africa

ISIS celebrates capture of Ramadi with orgy of bloodshed, 25,000 flee their homes.

Islamic State forces now only 60 miles from Baghdad.

Related:

• Panicking Iraqi Troops Abandon U.S. Tanks as They Flee from ISIS
• Gates: �We Don�t Have a Strategy At All� In Middle East
• Kerry: Don�t worry about fall of Ramadi, �Daesh has been driven back�
• Obama admin says �file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight� is �inaccurate� days before huge ISIL convoy in Ramadi

Iraq braced for the Battle of Baghdad: Chilling images show ISIS victory parade after fanatics seize key city of Ramadi � just 60 miles from the capital � in an orgy of violence and beheadings

by Jay Akbar, Steph Cockroft, Simon Tomlinson and Julian Robinson

MailOnline � May 19, 2015 (h/t Jihad Watch)

ISIS victory parade in Ramadi

ISIS militants have held a twisted victory parade after taking the key city of Ramadi in an orgy of violence and beheadings � and the extremists could march on the Iraqi capital Baghdad within the next month.

Mutilated bodies scatter the streets of the �Gateway of Baghdad�, where Islamic State slaughtered around 500 and forced nearly 25,000 to flee their homes over the last few days.

Now ISIS has released images of militants celebrating, children wielding automatic weapons and a fleet of pick-up trucks carrying its jubilant fighters through the blood-stained streets of Ramadi.

Shi�ite fighters have already launched a counter-offensive to recapture the city, but these kinds of tactics play straight into Islamic State�s grand plan to spark all-out war in the region, according to the Middle East director of counter-terrorism think-tank RUSI.

Islamic State militants are already marching east towards the Habbaniya army base � around 20 miles east of Ramadi � where a column of 3,000 Shi�ite paramilitaries are amassing, witnesses and a military officer has said.

And if ISIS manage to reach Baghdad, it would be �utter carnage�, Professor Gareth Stansfield told MailOnline.

He said: �If ISIS turn up in great numbers in Baghdad, it will be an absolute slaughter between Sunni�s [sic] and Shia�s [sic] there.

�They [ISIS] are now having so many successes, and moving so quickly, that Baghdad is under very real threat from ISIS forces outside Baghdad and also the ISIS terror cells inside Baghdad as well...

Continue reading...

ISLAMIC STATE STRONGHOLD GROWS IN NORTH AFRICA WITH ALLEGIANCE OF TUNISIAN MUJAHIDIN

by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News � May 19, 2015

As ISIS influence increases daily in the North African nation of Libya, it has also succeeded in penetrating the ranks of Islamists in neighboring Tunisia, securing an oath of fealty from the Mujahidin of Kairouan.

According to reports, the Mujahidin have released an audio message addressed to the ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi containing a sworn oath of allegiance.

The nine-minute audio message was disseminated primarily through social networks and was still able to be heard in the original language on the net on Tuesday.

The new pact with Tunisian Islamists comes just a week after the Algerian group al-Mourabitoun allegedly also swore its allegiance to the Islamic State. Al-Mourabitoun militias have reportedly been active in the fighting in Libya.

The Mauritanian news source Alakhbar cited a recording it had received from a spokesman for al-Mourabitoun in which a speaker calling himself Adnan Abu Waleed al-Sahrawi asserted that al-Mourabitoun had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State�s self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and urged other jihadi groups to do likewise. A co-founder of al-Mourabitoun, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, later denied reports that the jihadist group has shifted its allegiance to the Islamic State from al-Qaeda.

Analysts suggest that the new Islamic State allies in Tunisia have been recruited to assist in galvanizing ISIS� strategic base in Libya, rather than primarily to infiltrate Italy, which at only 96 miles away is the closest African state to Italy. The distance is so short, in fact, that less than a decade ago an Italian government agency proposed a project to build a tunnel under the Strait of Sicily connecting the two nations.

Just last month ISIS launched an appeal to Tunisian jihadists through a 3-minute video inviting them to join the fight in Libya.

The newly established European mission in Libya has ruled out sending ground troops to Libya, at least for the moment. According to Gianandrea Gaiani, editor-in-chief of Analisi Difesa, an Italian journal of geopolitical and military analysis, a European military presence on Libyan soil would represent a provocation that would summon all jihadists within hundreds of miles.

For the moment, the European intervention in Libya will be an exclusively naval mission. On the one hand it aims at stemming the urgent problem of human trafficking and terrorist infiltration, and on the other it seeks to better secure the southern Mediterranean, especially between Sicily and North Africa.