St Silouan: On Love for One's Enemies

Icon of St Silouan (Sept 24)
by Fr Andrew Tregubov 

Today is the feast of St Silouan, who came to love and pray for the whole world, and whose teachings on loving our enemies present us with a great challenge.

The world does not understand what love is. But the saints, because they are united to Christ, do grasp the mystery of love. Even love for one's enemies.

We must love our brother, our neighbor, our enemy. Yet one cannot love evil itself, one cannot love falsehood, for to do so would be to affirm it, to say "Amen" to it, and thus to wrongly and mistakenly give it validity, power, enthronement in the hierarchy of values.

The saints understand this, the difference between loving my neighbor, the person right in front of me, and honoring what he stands for. I must love my neighbor, even if he is my enemy, even if he has dressed me in an orange jumpsuit and is sawing my head off with a serrated blade because of my love for Jesus Christ. "Father forgive him, for he knows not what he does!"

I must forgive him because what he does to me is evil. I cannot say that the evil is not evil. I cannot honor the evil, for by doing so I dishonor the good. I cannot honor the lie without dishonoring the Truth. But I can and must love and forgive the person himself.

The saints understand that we must stand for Truth. It was his confession of the Truth for which Jesus was condemned and crucified.

And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, �Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?� But He kept silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, �Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?�
Jesus said, �I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.�
Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, �What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?�
And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.

� Mark 14:60-64 

Jesus said, "I AM." Ego Eimi, in this simplest statement, equating himself with "He Who Is." Jesus speaks the Truth for He is the Truth, and He cannot deny the Truth, for then He would be a liar. John presents this confession of Jesus in a different context, in Jesus' discussion with the Jews.

Jesus said to them, �If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God�s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.� [...]

Jesus answered, �If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, �I do not know Him,� I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.�
Then the Jews said to Him, �You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?�
Jesus said to them, �Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.�
Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

� John 8:42-47, 54-59

Now consider this powerful quote from Yuri Maximov, close friend and co-laborer with New Priest-Martyr Daniil Sysoev, who was killed by a Muslim group for showing the falsehood of Islam and converting 80 Muslims to Christ in the Orthodox Church:

Among those who call themselves Orthodox, I have met such strange people who say that Fr. Daniel should not preach to Muslims, that one must respect their religion, and that there is no benefit from his preaching. But Fr. Daniel thought, as did the Lord, the Apostles, and all the saints, that one must respect mistaken people but not their mistakes. Truth is one, that which contradicts and negates truth is a lie, and respect for a lie is contempt for the truth. (Source) 

My Muslim neighbor, even if he is my enemy and wishes to cut off my head, is still created in the image of God. Jesus died for him just as He did for me. I must love him, for, as St Silouan teaches, "Our brother is our life." But if I truly love him, will I not wish for him to know Jesus Christ and be saved from the spiritual deception and darkness of Islam? 

Yes! This is love, that we should wish for and pray for Muslims to have eternal life, "That they would know Thee, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent," for "there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved" (JN 17:3, ACTS 4:12).

Love AND Truth. This is the Way of Jesus Christ, the saints, and of St. Silouan. This is the Faith which can remove mountains. Lord help us to grow in such Love and Truth in Your Likeness!

From 'The Life and Teachings of Elder Siluan'
by Bishop Alexander (Mileant) and Natalia Bufius; Translated by Anatoly Shmelev:

Bishop Alexander, in his wonderful condensed work on St Silouan, relates the Saint's teaching:

"Our brother is our life," taught the Elder. Through Christ�s love all people are accepted as an indivisible part of our own personal eternal being. The commandment to love your neighbor as you would yourself, he begins to understand as something other than a mere ethical norm; in the word "as" he sees not an indication of the level, or measure, of love, but a sign of the ontological commonality of being. 

"The Father does not judge, but has given judgment to the Son... because He is the Son of man" (John 5:22-27). This Son of man, the Great Judge of the world, on Judgement Day will proclaim that "the one among the smallest of these" is Himself; in other words that the being of each individual is held in common with Him, and is included in His own personal being. All of humanity, "all of Adam," he has taken into himself and has suffered for all of Adam. 

After the experience of the torments of hell, after God�s admonition to "Keep his mind in hell," it became a habit of Elder Siluan to pray for the dead suffering in hell. But he prayed also for the living and for future generations. His prayer, which was not bound by temporal limits, erased any trace of the transient features of human life, and of enemies. 

He was given in the sorrow of the world to distinguish between those who experienced God and those who did not. It became unbearable for him to consider that people could languish in the depths of darkness. 

Once a hermit-monk said to him that "God would punish all atheists. They will burn in an eternal flame." It appeared to give this monk satisfaction that they would be punished by eternal fire. But Elder Siluan, with some worry, asked, "Tell me please, if you are placed in Heaven, and from there you see how others burn in hellish flames, would you remain detached?" "What can you do � it�s their own fault," countered the monk. The Elder, filled with sorrow, answered, "Love cannot accept that... Everyone must be prayed for."

Obviously, we can insert "Muslim" and "Jihadist" in the place of "Atheist" above, and the point is clear for us...

And indeed, he prayed for everyone; to pray only for himself became a foreign concept. All people are disposed to sin, and all are stripped of God�s glory (Romans 3:22). For Siluan, having been exposed to the glory of God and having been denied it, the very thought of such denial was too heavy to bear. His soul languished in the consciousness that people live without knowing God and His love, and he prayed with great prayer that the Lord through his inscrutable love should allow them to know Him. 

Till the end of his life, despite waning strength and sickness, Siluan continued to sleep for only brief spells. He had much time for individual prayer, and he remained in prayer constantly, changing its form to fit circumstances. He prayed especially strongly at night, before the matins. That was when he prayed for the living and the dead, for friends and enemies, for the entire world.

St Silouan himself writes as follows:

Christ prayed for those that crucified Him: "Father, count not this sin against them; they know not what they do." Archdeacon Stefan prayed for those who stoned him so that the Lord would not judge this sin against them. And so we, if we wish to retain grace, must pray for our enemies. 

If you do not find pity on a sinner who will suffer in flames, then you do not carry the grace of the Holy Spirit, but rather an evil spirit; and while you yet live, you must free yourself from his clutches through repentance. 

Whoever wishes to love the Lord must love his enemies and be without spite; then the Lord will give you to glorify Him day and night, and your mind will forget the world; and if it should return and remember, then it will pray diligently for the world. 

This is how the saints lived, for the Spirit of God taught their souls to pray for others. 

The Lord loves us greatly, despite our sins, as long as we seek humility and love our enemies. Whoever does not love his enemies cannot achieve peace, even if he were placed in Eden.

Bishop Alexander continues:

As wise and learned and fine-looking as a person may be, if he does not love his enemies, i.e. any other person, he cannot reach God. And the opposite is also true, however simple a person may be, and poor and ignorant, but if he carries within himself that love, then "he is with God and God is with him." The Elder maintained that it was impossible to love one�s enemies outside of the One True God. The carrier of such love is a participant in eternal life, and he carries within himself an undeniable witness of this. 

He is the abode of the Holy Spirit, and knows the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit, knows them with a true and life-giving knowledge, and in the Holy Spirit he is a brother and friend of Jesus Christ, he is the son of God, and close to God in grace. 

The Lord condensed all the law and prophets into two brief commandments (Matthew 22:40). And during the last supper, before His path to death on the cross, said to the Apostles, "There is no greater love but that a man lay down his life for his friends," adding, "You are My friends... I call you friends because I have told you all that I have heard from My Father" (John 15:13-15). Thus in these few words was said everything. And without them all the laws, prophets, cultures, are nothing. 

In order to remain in the love of God, it is necessary that anger and "hate" be multiplied to their limits, but they must be directed at the sin that lives inside me, at the evil that acts within me, within me, not within my brother.

In the Akathist to St Silouan, we find praises for his teaching that we must love our enemies:

OIKOS IX 

Even the most eloquent of orators are unable to describe the power of thy love, O all wondrous father Silouan; for with tears thou didst thirst to extinguish all enmity and disorder among men and to reconcile everyone unto God, crying out to the Master of the world: �O Lord, I yearn to be Thine, and to crucify myself with Thee for the whole world, that all may be saved!� And to the brethren thou didst cry out: �My children, pray for thine enemies, for they are our brethren, our life; and only the devil is the enemy of peace.� And guided by thee toward brotherly love and love of mankind, we cry out to thee: 

Rejoice, thou who in thy goodness didst make thyself like Christ on Golgotha;
Rejoice, thou who didst crucify thyself for thine enemies, not through thy hands, but thy heart and soul!
Rejoice, thou who carest for thy neighbor and didst not lose the beauty of grace filled stillness;
Rejoice, thou who, loving thy neighbor, didst acquire the power of unceasing prayer!
Rejoice, thou who through fasting and prayer didst utterly deflect the darts of the evil one;
Rejoice, thou who hast taught us to overcome the evil wiles and machinations of the devil!
Rejoice, thou who, laboriously grinding thy flesh in the mill of Christ, like sacred grain, didst sweeten thy heart with prayer;
Rejoice, thou who with the bread of life didst abundantly feed the workmen of the garden of the Queen of heaven!
Rejoice, O father Silouan, inextinguishable burning of love in thy prayer for the world!

May the Lord draw us to Himself, and grant us His Grace through the Holy Spirit, so that we too may love our enemies, even as we reject that false religion which commands hatred, killing and destruction.

Bishop Mark of Berlin: A Voice in the Wilderness

Orthodox Bishop Mark (Arndt) is that rare example of a Christian hierarch speaking the truth about Islam.

by Ralph H. Sidway

Islam is at its core anti-human... Reading the Quran, you will see that all of this [extremism] lies at the foundation of Islam. One must look truth in the eye: this is all anti-human, it is directed against humanity...  

Yes, there were times when Muslims tried to live in peace with their neighbors, they even acknowledged that we Christians are people, too. But for many, those times have passed, and now they reveal who they really are.   

� Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin, ROCOR (Full interview below.)

Some readers may be familiar with the refusal of Roman Catholic bishops to address the global issue of Muslim persecution of Christians and Jews (and other non-Muslims) and its grounding in the Quran and the example of Muhammad. The prime example may be that of Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester Mass., whose infamous quote reads more like a parody from the Onion every day:

Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.

Pope Francis of course leads this disturbing trend, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium including the emphatic affirmation that �authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.�

It seems many Muslims have failed to read that particular epistle.

Sadly, things are not much different in the Orthodox Church. The world's second largest Christian communion, comprising between 225 and 300 million members (source), retains a dwindling remnant in the Middle East, the "cradle of Christianity," and is one of the main bodies suffering most from the resurgent global jihad.

Perhaps because of this suffering Levantine presence, there exists in world Orthodoxy what I would call a "latent dhimmitude," a deep-seated aversion to criticizing the religion of Muhammad, no doubt out of fear of causing outbursts of mob violence by Muslims against Christians due to the concept of "communal guilt" explicit in the dhimma contract and the Conditions of Omar, the seventh century pact which set the standard for Muslim treatment of conquered Christians. 

Under the Pact of Omar, if any Christian violated the terms � and they are many and demeaning, not just payment of the crippling jizya tax �the entire Christian population became subject to harsh persecution and punishment. This open threat served, and still serves, to keep Christians docile and subservient under Islamic rule, which, according to classical Muslim jurists, is the purpose of the dhimma:

�This is why the Leader of the faithful �Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met by the Christians, these conditions that ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace.� � renowned Muslim jurist Ibn Kathir

Because of this long historical memory � this "latent dhimmitude" �  and the global threat to Christians today from their Muslim neighbors, Orthodox Christian leaders, from priests, professors and theologians to bishops and patriarchs, almost to a man shy away from ever openly ascribing the motivation behind Muslim terrorism and persecution of Christians to Islam.

Instead, they all too often issue false, pious platitudes, such as these from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has written of a �dialogue of loving truth� with Islam, of Orthodoxy having for centuries �coexisted peacefully� with Islam, and of an �interfaith commitment... still felt and lived by Greeks [and] Turks.� ( Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Encountering the Mystery, Doubleday, 2008, pp xxxvii, 196, 174.) 

Yet he writes this in spite of:

• fourteen centuries of Islamic jihad against Christians, the enslavement of the Greek Orthodox after the conquering of Constantinople in 1453, and the blood-stained parade of neo-martyrs from the 15th to 19th centuries (including dozens of Ecumenical Patriarchs); 

• Turkish Muslim genocide against Orthodox Christians from 1894 to 1922, in which over 4 million Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians and others were killed; 

• Turkish Muslim pogroms against the Greek Orthodox (e.g., Istanbul, 1955) up through the present day, which includes the conversion of the great Hagia Sophia Church of Constantinople into a mosque, together with numerous other 'Hagia Sophia' churches throughout Turkey. 

Here�s another whopper:

�Christians and Muslims are two lungs of one Eastern body,� the Greek Orthodox Patriarch said, �and we condemn anything that harms the reputation of the forgiving Islamic religion, with which we have experienced the peace and fraternity.� (Daily Star)

I am not familiar with any "forgiving Islamic religion."  I am familiar with the supremacist and militant Islamic religion, whose holy book and prophet have set forth commands which determine its reputation:

Fight against those who believe not in Allah�  (Quran 9:29) 

Kill the mushrikun [unbelievers] wherever you find them�  (Quran 9:5) 

I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved, so strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes. (Quran 8:12) 

�I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah...� (Hadith from Sahih Bukhari, cited in Reliance of the Traveller, Entry on Jihad, o9.0, o9.1, o9.8, o9.9.)

Here is an especially scandalous statement from a few decades ago: 

�The Prophet Muhammad is an apostle, He is a man of God, who worked for the Kingdom of God... When I speak against Islam, then I am not found in agreement with God.� � Patriarch Parthenius of Alexandria (Orthodoxos Typos 854, May 1982)

ANAXIOS!  Blatant apostasy for any Christian to say such a thing! By affirming Muhammad, one explicitly denies Jesus Christ � because Muhammad denied Christ � which would justify a Synod in deposing and defrocking Patriarch Parthenius, for in making such a statement, he excommunicated himself from Christ and the Church!

But how many hierarchs and clergy might secretly agree with Parthenius? How many secretly subscribe to the "many paths to God" fantasy and the pan-ecumenist heresy that "all religions meet at the top of the mountain?" I once heard an Antiochian bishop teach exactly these heresies from the amvon in an Orthodox Church. I wish I had walked out, but I was still young, and didn't know what to do.

Just for clarity, the Quran explicitly denies the Holy Trinity (even confusing the Trinity as God, Mary and Jesus - Sura 5:73-75, 116), explicitly denies that Jesus Christ was crucified, and therefore denies the Resurrection, denying also that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Not content to deny the Truth, the Quran pronounces "curses" and a "grievous penalty" on Christians, which many devout Muslims take quite seriously: 

Say not �Trinity�: desist: It will be better for you: For God is One God: Glory be to Him: (Far Exalted is He) above having a son. . . . (Sura 4:173)

In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the Son of Mary. (Sura 5:19)

They do blaspheme who say: �God is Christ the son of Mary . . .� They do blaspheme who say: God is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One God. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them (Sura 5:75,78)

The Jews call 'Uzair a son of God, and the Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the Unbelievers of old used to say. God's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! (Sura 9:30)

In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him � they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him. (Sura 4:157)

I could go on, but you get the idea. A false book from the false prophet of a false religion, calling down curses on Christians, and commanding Muslims to "fight," "kill," "strike terror," and "smite".  (For a thorough examination of all this and much more, order my book, Facing Islam.)

Patriarchs and bishops who seek to cover over the anti-human bloodlust inherent in Islam do not help, they merely confuse, frustrate and demoralize the faithful. The faithful need clear Christian teaching and inspiring examples of confessors and martyrs, to help them stand firm in their own trials, when the challenge comes to their doors. 

This is why it is essential to extol those rare Christian hierarchs, like Bishop Mark of Berlin, who choose to ignore the politically correct climate of the day, and instead pattern their statements after fearless Church teachers of every age, such as Sophronius of Jerusalem (7th c.), John of Damascus (8th c.), Gregory Palamas, (14th c.), Kosmas of Aitolia (18th c.), Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov (19th c.), Fr. Seraphim Rose (20th c.), and New-Martyr Fr. Daniil Sysoev (21st c.).

The below article, which I originally posted a year ago, is worth revisiting in the hopes that other Christian leaders � whether Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic or Protestant � will take courage and find again that authentic Christian voice in this titanic struggle against the temporal and spiritual tyranny of Islamic jihad.

_______

Interview with Archbishop Mark (Arndt)

Excerpted from Pravmir � July 31, 2014

Q - How should Christians react to the terrible epidemic of the genocide of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Syria, Metochia, Kosovo and Serbia? Is this active Islamization or the actions of radical extremists, bandits who only assume the mantle of Islam? His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, during a Liturgy in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow read to his Russian flock the epistle of the Antiochian Patriarch, in which he painfully called to the whole world for help, stressing that the situation is at such a horrifying stage that help is needed not only through prayers to God, but in action. But in Christian society the reigning opinion is that we can help exclusively by prayer.

A - I reject the expression �help exclusively by prayer.� That we Christians are only capable of prayer is a false notion. Of course, prayer is our foundation and greatest strength. But if we think that all we can do is pray, we will go astray. Yes, we must pray, but we must also understand that people are often forced by circumstances to soften one�s language. If the Antiochian Patriarch says this, he bases it on the experience of his own nation, where Christians and Muslims always lived in peace. I think that it is incorrect to say that there are only extremists at work there. 

Reading the Quran, you will see that all of this lies at the foundation of Islam. Extremism exists, of course. Other Eastern hierarchs openly state that they have known about this particular aspect of Islam all their lives. I often serve in Jerusalem. There, for instance, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, right next to the church a muezzin cries from his tower that they believe in the One God Who has no children, no Son and Holy Spirit, etc. He has no compunction to do so, though these people are not really extremists. What is this? Open, unabashed propaganda against Christianity! They know full well what they do, spewing these slogans during the main Christian holiday of the Pentecost, the celebration of the birth of the Church Herself.

Islam is at its core anti-human. Look at Ramadan�this is the mortification of the human being, of the human body. I saw how people were taken to hospitals during their observance of Ramadan. All day they eat nothing, drink nothing even during baking heat, and at night the cram there stomachs to the point of losing consciousness�it is madness! One must look truth in the eye: this is all anti-human, it is directed against humanity.

Yes, there were times when Muslims tried to live in peace with their neighbors, they even acknowledged that we Christians are people, too. But for many, those times have passed, and now they reveal who they really are.

Q - In other words, when some say that what is happening in Syria and other fundamentally Christian nations, it is only political, not a religious war against Christianity, it is untrue? Regardless, can we say that the Christians who are murdered for their faith today are martyrs.

A - There is an intentional war being waged against Christians. Kosovo was the first in the list of such genocide from Christian territory. Then Chechnya. Understand what happened, a Christian nation was simply given away to the Muslims. The destruction of churches continues, tortures, wild fanaticism, murder. Kosovo, Chechnya, Syria, Egypt�

Q - The next goal for these people, whether they are extremists or not, is to declare Russia Muslim. What are we to do, strengthen our prayers?

A - The most important thing is to be real Christians. This means constant participation in the Mysteries of the Church. If the Lord grants someone the crown of martyrdom, it means the person earned it and must accept it with dignity.

OCA All-American Council: 'AAC delegates express solidarity, support for suffering in Middle East'

Council statement another missed opportunity for a strong Orthodox Christian stance against Islamic jihad and Muslim persecution of Christians.

While a welcomed gesture, this statement could have been so much stronger, and could have, thereby, provided an inspiring example of the very theme of the AAC: "How to Expand the Mission." As worded, it projects a cautious image of timidity and uncertainty of the Orthodox Church's voice and role regarding the challenge posed by the global resurgence of Islamic jihad.

Read the report from the OCA website, then see my comments below.

AAC delegates express solidarity, support for suffering in Middle East

OCA, July 23, 2015

After the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy early Thursday morning, July 23, 2015, and during the AAC�s fifth Plenary Session, delegates to the 18th All-American Council adopted a resolution expressing the Orthodox Church in America�s solidarity with Christians suffering persecution in the Middle East and calling on governments to do everything possible to ensure their safety. 

Presented by Dr. Paul Meyendorff and adopted by acclamation, the text of the resolution reads as follows. 

�Whereas recent developments in the Middle East have caused great suffering to Christians in the area, leading to numerous deaths, desperate living conditions and mass movement of refugees, we, gathered at the 18th All-American Council in Atlanta, Georgia, express our solidarity and support for all suffering peoples in the area, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we call on our respective governments to take vigorously all possible political and humanitarian measures to ensure their safety and the survival of Christianity in the lands where it first took hold.�

What is missing?  At least three key truths:

1. No mention of the 21st century's first genocide � committed by Muslims against Eastern Christians � as a direct result of an emboldened Islamic jihad.  

2. No mention of the militant, supremacist ideology behind this genocide, an ideology enshrined in the Quran and in the example of the prophet of Islam, Muhammad. 

3. No mention of the undoubted age of martyrdom we have entered, in which Christians are being killed precisely and solely because they are wearing or displaying a cross, because they confess Jesus Christ as Lord, God and Savior, and especially because they refuse to convert to Islam to save their lives. 

Even the ever restrained and sober Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church and Moscow Patriarchate, openly refers to the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East and Africa as a "plague" and as "genocide." His Eminence, like most Orthodox hierarchs and clergy (with the notable exception of Archbishop Mark of Berlin), also declines to squarely confront the Islamic foundation of Muslim jihad and terrorism, but his words are somewhat stronger than the AAC resolution.

In my estimation, Orthodox Christian reference to the global Muslim persecution of Christians as "genocide" is itself nowhere near strong enough, and the term should be thought of as a condescension to human frailty, and not as any especially bold stance. "Genocide" is a worldly, secular term, not a Christian one.

Rather, to truly honor the new confessors and martyrs of the 21st century, who are suffering loss of livelihood, homes, families, churches, and their very lives � all for the sake of Jesus Christ � DEMANDS of the rest of us that WE STAND WITH THEM in ABSOLUTE SOLIDARITY.

This means condemning Islam as a false religion, and to do so by using the same texts of the Quran as are used by the Islamic State and all Muslim jihad groups to justify their atrocities. Indeed, Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. reference these same Quranic passages in justifying their open persecution of Christians. 

This also requires condemning Muhammad as a false prophet, as it is the example of Muhammad, who is held up by Muslims as "the ideal pattern of conduct," which amplifies and gives concrete expression to the murderous commands in the Quran. The hadiths (sayings by and about Muhammad) and the Sira (the life of Muhammad) are as important as the Quran; the three form the foundation of Islam.

The failure of any local Orthodox Church council to present a definitive, clear teaching on why Islam is a false religion, presenting a false and blasphemous image of God, founded by a false prophet, is a sin by omission which must be corrected, and quickly, or we will be called to account before the judgment seat of Christ for remaining silent when presented with a false teaching about God.

But at the same time and always, it must be strongly emphasized that by denouncing Islam and Muhammad, we are by no means denigrating or rejecting Muslims themselves. Rather, we open our arms and our hearts to sincere Muslims truly seeking to be pleasing to God, and we hold out for them the words of Life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Search for yourselves what is true and good: a "prophet" who tells his followers to "Smite the unbelievers on the neck," and who boasts, "I have been made victorious through terror," or the One who says, "Love your enemies," and, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep."

When the OCA can issue a statement burning with evangelical zeal and solidarity with the new "cloud of witnesses" of this dark age, then she will clearly see before her the shining path of the confessors and martyrs, by which alone she may "expand the mission."

Forgive me for writing so boldly.

Message to Muslims after Chattanooga Jihad Attack: 'Time to Repent'

. . . and turn to Jesus Christ.

Christ receives the Prodigal Son

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, if you have a conscience, and if you are, at the very least, made uneasy deep in your heart of hearts every time another of your fellow Muslims launches a bloody jihad attack, there is an answer for you:

Repent, and leave your false religion.  Now.

Surely you must know that the Islamic State (ISIS) (and its �lone wolf� followers like Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez in Chattanooga) bases every single one of its atrocities on the commands of the Quran and on the example of Muhammad as conveyed in Islam's other sacred texts, the ahadith and the Sira?  

Is that the example you wish to follow?

That is the example being followed by every Muslim jihadi murderer, whether in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, France, England, or here in North America.

Surely you must know that for nearly fourteen centuries all schools of Islamic jurisprudence have consistently mandated offensive jihad � the killing of non-Muslims to advance Islam � as an obligation for all Muslims. For those who cannot wage open jihad, supporting it financially or through other means is required. 

Is that the teaching you wish to follow, one that commands bloodshed, hatred, and unending warfare?

You have a choice. Each and every Muslim jihad attack slaps you in the face to wake you up. Is that what you want to belong to?

Don�t turn to the Quran for help. 

It presents a false and distorted view of God and Jesus. Turn to the Christian Bible. Read the Gospels first, and learn about the real Jesus, who laid down his life for the world. Such love as this does not exist among men. His is the love of God � the True God � for mankind. He lays down his own life to give us new life.

Don�t turn to Muhammad for help. He can�t save you. 

And if you continue to follow him � knowing what you know about Islam and jihad, and with your conscience screaming at you to turn to Jesus Christ � if you continue to follow Muhammad, he will lead you into hellfire.

We Christians have a message for you, one of love and forgiveness. We too are sinners, fallen, astray, needing the True Shepherd to guide our souls. Knowing the love of God, the forgiveness He offers, the eternal life only He can give, we offer that to you. We long to call you brothers and sisters, and so we invite you to turn to Jesus Christ.

Did you see the messages of forgiveness from the families of those Christians martyred by ISIS in Libya and Ethiopia? This is the love of God through Jesus Christ in action. 

Did you see the video "Letter from the People of the Cross to ISIS"? It will reach into your soul and touch your heart. 

Like them, we invite you to turn to Jesus Christ and be set free from your slavery to the false god and false prophet of Islam. And I would encourage you to turn to Jesus Christ as He has been known and preached in the Orthodox Church for nearly two-thousand years. 

Pray to Jesus Christ, read the New Testament, especially the Gospels. Explore the resources on this blog, especially here, here and here. Then seek out an Orthodox Church, talk to the priest, and unburden your aching heart.

We know this is hard for you. What we are going through is something huge, immense. We are all living through one of the most dire times in the history of the world. The signs are everywhere around us. We all are being forced to make a choice. No more relaxing, easy life. No more lies, no more ignoring the still small voice within us calling us to repent. Now is the time.

You know you have a choice. The biggest choice of your life, and it can lead to eternal life with God. Make the right choice today, now. We�re waiting for you with open arms.

�The Butterfly Effect� - Obama, Climate Change, and Islam�s War against the World

If even the wings of a butterfly have weight and shared causality, then what of the teachings and example of a seventh century desert prophet?

by Ralph H. Sidway

President Obama, during his recent address at the Coast Guard Commencement ceremonies, again offered his profound views on the myriad vectors shaping global unrest and chaos. Ranking high among the primal forces threatening us � high enough to be emphasized by the President of the most powerful nation on the planet � is that bane of mankind, �climate change.� 

Lest there be any doubt of the gravity of the situation, or of his authority in such matters, Mr. Obama predicates his mission with a great �I am� statement:

�I am here to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and make no mistake, will impact how our military defends our country.�

The Obama Administration is consistent and adamant on this topic. This past February, Vice-President Biden told college students in Iowa that �global warming is the greatest threat of anything at all, across the board,� and Secretary of State Kerry has likewise been beating the same drum.  (Never mind that the data shows we have been in a �global warming pause� for nearly two decades, and that climate-change IPCC scientists resorted to manipulating the data in order to create the fraudulent "hockey-stick graph" and advance their agenda.)

Curiously, the Administration�s emphasis on the threat from �climate change� seems to roughly balance its insistence that the Islamic State Caliphate is �not Islamic� and is not much of a threat anyway.  One might be tempted to think that the �war against climate change� is being used as a tool to deflect attention away from Islam�s war against us.

But let�s allow, for the sake of argument (and in deference to the great Ray Bradbury�s short story, �A Sound of Thunder�), that there is some validity to �The Butterfly Effect,� the chaos theory corollary which postulates that events of great consequence may be set in motion by much smaller events separated by vast scales of time and distance. �Change one thing � Change everything,� says the tag for the 2004 Ashton Kutcher film of the same name. 

So, in the Obama narrative, chaotic weather shifts are contributing to drought, floods, poverty, inequity, and a host of other effects, all triggers generating global violent extremism, as disenfranchised groups duke it out for dwindling resources � or something like that.

But no matter how you dress it up with fancy words and phony analysis, the Obama narrative of �Blame it on the weather� is not only incorrect, it is as deceitful as the hockey-stick graph itself.

Let�s rather explore �the Butterfly Effect� and take a quick ride in Ray Bradbury�s time machine back to the early 7th century. Let�s set the dials for shortly after Muhammad makes his hijra to Medina (Year 1, in the Islamic calendar). Let�s listen to the prophet and watch his actions. But take care not to step off the path.

�

The first thing we might hear would be recitations of early, Meccan-period, Quran verses such as these:

50:45� We know of best what they say; and you (O Muhammad) are not a tyrant over them (to force them to Belief). But warn by the Qur'an, him who fears My Threat. 109:1-6� Say: "O Al-Kafirun (disbelievers)! "I worship not that which you worship, "Nor will you worship that which I worship. "And I shall not worship that which you are worshipping. "Nor will you worship that which I worship. "To you be your religion, and to me my religion (Islam)."

That sounds reasonable enough. Muhammad was not a tyrant - the Quran tells us so!  Islam is a �live and let live� religion.  Yes, this is what the experts and the president say Islam is. 

We might even be around to hear Muhammad share this verse, from early in the Medinan period:

2:256� There is no compulsion in religion. Verily, the Right Path has become distinct from the wrong path. Whoever disbelieves in Taghut {idolatry} and believes in Allah, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break. And Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.

I remember those Islam experts telling us this, yes! Here is the religion of peace in its formative years... How wonderful!

But let�s stay on the path and keep watching and listening.

Wait� What�s this? This sounds totally at odds with what we heard after first arriving in the Way-Back machine:

9:5� Then when the Sacred Months have passed, then kill the Mushrikun {unbelievers} wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for them each and every ambush... 

8:39� And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah Alone...  

8:12� I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved, so strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes. 

9:29� Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.  

9:33� It is He {Allah} Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), to make it superior over all religions even though the Mushrikun (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) hate (it).

What? This isn�t the Islam I was told about by Obama and the experts at all! Fighting, killing and domination, supposedly the literal commands of God!?  Why, that would mean the words are eternal, unchanging� 

But stay on the path� Let�s keep watching, it�s not just about the words. Surely they were taken out of context...

Wait� What�s this?  Raids on caravans? A battle at Badr? More raids on Jewish tribes?  Battle after battle� And new revelations endorsing this, killing the vanquished, deceit and treachery, taking sex slaves and booty!  

We saw other tribes exiled by Muhammad, but now, after his victory at Medina, we can hardly believe our eyes!  Muhammad ordering the beheading of hundreds of men from the Bani Quraiza!  The Muslims cheering and beheading them in huge groups. Muhammad himself setting the chief example! All the blood and carnage� Unbelievable! It�s like ISIS times twenty!

� 

Returning to our own time, we look around at the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, the Taliban. We see the beheadings, the taking of captives, the slavery, the booty. We see thousands of Muslims from Europe and North America, Australia and Central Asia, flocking to join the Islamic State. We see the persecution of non-Muslims in Indonesia (which President Obama told us is modern and moderate!), Malaysia (another moderate Islamic country!), Egypt, Turkey� 

And we hear and read of them justifying what they�re doing using the Quran itself!

Why, this is exactly what we saw and heard being commanded in our time travel back to Muhammad�s day. This is exactly what Muhammad did and preached!  The Islamic State IS Islamic!

� 

No matter how often we check our boots, there is no dead butterfly crushed in the treads, no alternate blame to be laid on some shift in the timeline, nor on the forces of nature or even �human-caused global warming.�

The causes of �violent extremism� � Alas! � are now clear to us after seeing it with our own eyes. It is Muhammad himself who set all this in motion, fourteen centuries ago. It is Muhammad�s own example and the words he claimed were from God which devout Muslims today are following.

Of course, there is no time travel in the literal sense of the word. But our hypothetical journey to the seventh century in search of the Butterfly Effect was based entirely upon the Quran and the life of Muhammad as collected by his followers and as set down by his earliest biographer, Ibn Ishaq. Islam�s own revered texts provide the Way-Back machine, the lens into the past, which reveals to us the prophet and what he was like.

Sorry, Mr. Obama, you almost had us fooled, but no more. Sure, maybe the weather can impact human societies, but now we have seen with our own eyes the real cause of Islam�s war against the world.

And now we know it is Muhammad and the Quran. 

And the sound we hear all around us� a sound of thunder.

Freedom, Provocation and Targets

The Muslim predisposition towards jihad means �no cartoons required.�

by Ralph H. Sidway

The ultimate provocation:

A Coptic Orthodox monk makes the Sign of the Cross.

The recent Muslim jihad attack at a Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland Texas has generated strong reactions across the political spectrum. Four of us in my church recently had a fairly rigorous discussion of some of the issues involved, with two believing the cartoon contest needlessly provoked Muslim anger, and myself and one other siding with a strong commitment to freedom of speech/expression. You can�t escape this debate. It is literally everywhere, and will likely grow in significance in the days ahead.

Although there are many expected responses along partisan lines, there have been some surprises on both the conservative and liberal ends of the teeter-totter. For example, some Fox News personalities have openly blamed Pamela Geller, the �Draw Muhammad� event coordinator, for provoking the jihad attack. (Ms. Geller has written an articulate defense, which has been published as an op-ed by TIME, Inc.)

On the flip side, MSNBC�s �All In� host Chris Hayes, in a somewhat torturous apologetic, advocated for being provocative when it flushes out extremist would-be murderers:

My feeling, though, in the wake of this, is that there�s some part of me that feels that if the thing you�re worried about is doing an event that will provoke two people rolling up in body armor and automatic weapons trying to murder people, then it actually weirdly is important that you do that� I don�t care if it was a provocation, if what it�s provoking is attempted murder, because I want to live in a society that that is essentially not okay and not tolerated.

Ryan Mauro of The Clarion Project ably cuts through the fog of words surrounding the Garland Texas jihad attack:

The media's focus on the Mohammed drawings contest misses the mark. Whether or not one agrees with holding the event is irrelevant as to why this attack happened. It happened because of the desire to find a target; not because of the target itself.

Mauro is absolutely correct: when you�re a Muslim striving to follow as perfectly as possible the Koran and the example of Muhammad, the dar-al-Harb is filled with targets. With ISIS commanding Muslims in America to wage jihad against non-Muslims, there will be some takers who will do just that.

For Americans and Western Europeans, cartoons of Muhammad seem to have become the flashpoint of the �clash of civilizations.� But for Christians living in the Islamic world, their very being is all the provocation Muslims need. Witness:

• �Arab Spring� Muslim gangs go through buses in Cairo, Egypt checking the wrists of the passengers. Those with the cross tattooed on their wrists � a Coptic tradition � are summarily killed;

• 21 Coptic Christians in Libya are beheaded because they refuse to deny Jesus Christ and convert to Islam, or to pay the jizya;

• 30 Ethiopian Christians are shot or beheaded for refusing to deny Jesus Christ;

• The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia declares that all Christians must be expelled from the Arabian peninsula and all churches destroyed;

• 100 years after the Armenian Genocide (which taken in the larger context of Ottoman persecution saw 4 million Christians killed by their Muslim overlords and neighbors between 1894 and 1922) we are witnessing yet another Muslim genocide against Christians.

Christians themselves in the Islamic world are � by their very being, by their very presence � all the provocation Muslims need to slaughter them. No cartoons required.

Christians in the Islamic world cannot openly wear or make the Sign of the Cross without it provoking Muslims.  They don�t even have to do that much, they just have to be breathing. And now with Muslim desecration of Christian grave sites, they don�t even have to be doing that. 

When one has studied the phenomenon of Muslim attacks against non-Muslims for a while, one gets the sense that the term �provocation� is completely inaccurate and inappropriate. There is a better word which describes the Muslim pathology: �predisposition.�

The extent to which a Muslim grows in devout observance of Islam is the extent to which he/she is likely to follow more and more literally the commands in the Koran and the example of Muhammad. Devout observance leads to the predisposition to take action against non-Muslim targets which the Muslim believes offends his religion. 

In Muslim majority nations, this predisposition becomes so intense that the mere presence of Christians or other non-Muslims cannot be tolerated at all. This very principle is clearly expressed in the Koran:

And fight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah Alone. � Sura 8.39

Spirituality is often mixed with paradox. Most Westerners cannot understand that, and therefore cannot accept that the more devout a Muslim becomes, the more likely he is to become a jihadi. 

It would seem that God is not without a sense of irony, for in the Islamic world, as we have seen this tsunami of Muslim genocidal persecution of Christians, we have also seen immensely powerful examples of heightened Christian faith. 

Rather than leading Christians to fear, hatred and retaliation (though one can find some examples of those humanly understandable reactions also), the Muslim slaughter of Christians has provoked (there�s that word again) responses of absolutely divine, Christ-like behavior, with Coptic, Iraqi, Nigerian and Niger Christians forgiving and praying for the Muslims who are killing their families. These examples are the very definition of true freedom: freedom from hatred, fear, and even death itself. 

Whereas the Muslim jihadis are slaves. Slaves of rage, bloodlust, and the example of their warlord prophet. Slaves of Allah, who commands them to kill.

For those who can slow down their own reactive thought processes and ponder this dichotomy between the evil, murderous behavior of devout Muslims, and the prayerful, sacrificial and forgiving response of the Christians they are persecuting, it should be clear that one of these two paths is patently false, and the other is amazingly, shiningly true.

With this in mind, it then becomes sadly clear that the future will only bring more proofs of the falsehood of Islam, in the form of more murderous Muslim jihad attacks against all manner of �provocations.�  (May the future also bring more proofs of true Christian witness as well.)

For the devout jihadi, the entire world is filled with targets. As with the Muslim persecution of Christians, no cartoons are needed.

'Do the Muslims Love Their Children Too?' � Reapplying Sting�s Cold War anthem to a new war

In Europe and America, 

There�s a growing feeling of hysteria�

. . . But what may save us, me and you,

Is if the [Muslims] love their children too.

�Adapted from �Russians�, by Sting, 1985.

By Ralph H. Sidway

The Islamic State's Poster Child

June 1 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of Sting�s solo career with his critically acclaimed, jazz inflected hit album, Dream Of The Blue Turtles. Included on this radical departure from the musical stylings of Sting�s former band, The Police, was the sobering meditation, Russians. (Complete lyrics here. Watch his live performance at the 1986 Grammys here.)

Although I disagree with some of Sting�s political sensibilities (after all, Reagan won the Cold War), his use of a simple, rhetorical question was most compelling. (Of course, the Russians love their children!) 

In any case, today, thirty years after Russians was released, we seem to have entered into a new phase of a different war, a very, very old war, with ominous clouds on the horizon. 

Ours is a time of fitful contradictions and spasms of policy incoherence, as the United States, the UK, and the West vacillate between outright denial of the threat of Islam, and ill advised alliances with the very forces seeking to destroy us. Sorely lacking is a clear-headed appraisal of and strategy to meet the mortal threat posed by a globally emboldened, militant Islam, which, after fourteen hundred years, is once again 100% determined to conquer us, through immigration, birth rates, lawfare, politics, stealth, and conversion when necessary, by terrorism wherever possible, and by open warfare whenever the odds are in their favor. 

No doubt you�ve seen the projections: England will be a Muslim majority country in a couple of decades. Europe too. The growth of Muslim populations in major European cities has led to sharia �no-go zones,� where police seldom venture, and from where Muslim youths routinely riot over the slightest offense. Last Spring it was Sweden which burned. In 2005, the outskirts of Paris. This year (so far) it�s Denmark. 

Generational Assimilation among Western Muslims?

We were told that multiculturalism was the way of the future in England, Europe, Canada and America. That any mild inconveniences experienced because of new (Muslim) immigrants having difficulties adjusting to Western paradigms would smooth away as their children grew to maturity, adopting wholeheartedly the Western worldview of prosperity, freedom, tolerance and congeniality.

Rather, the reverse seems to be happening, as numerous reports indicate second and third generation Muslim immigrants are committing far more crimes (218% more in Denmark) and are far more inclined to join the global jihad in Syria than their supposedly less-acclimated parents. There are whole French and German-speaking units in ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the most bloodthirsty jihadist faction among the Syrian �rebels�) made up primarily of second and third generation descendants of Arab immigrants and Muslim converts.

In the Netherlands, 65% of Moroccan Muslim youths have been arrested by police, and a third of that group have been arrested five or more times. 

There are reports, too, of whole Muslim families joining the jihad, as in the case of a British Muslim father who took his five sons across Europe and Turkey in order to wage jihad with them in Syria. 

The Muslim Dad from the UK: Proud of his Jihadi Sons.

Problems within Muslim Culture?

Doesn�t this reveal something about Islamic culture, the message being propagated via mosques, books, videos, and, of course, through core Islamic texts, including the Quran, the Hadiths and the Sira?  Devotion to the example of Muhammad�s victories in battle, the all important Muslim self-image of Islamic superiority over all other religions, supposedly proven by its conquering of the Byzantine Christian Empire in 1453 (celebrated annually by �secular� Turkey), coupled with disdain for the lax and soft European, British and American cultures, breeds contempt for the West and a sense of rightful entitlement.

And that�s just the West.

Media Watch Groups report on Global Muslim views

There are shocking video reports out of the Middle East of Palestinian, Egyptian, Lebanese and Syrian TV programs and videos geared expressly towards children, which portrays Christians and Jews as sub-human, openly calling for their slaughter, and prepping Muslim children for suicide operations. A quick list of examples follows.

The Next Jihadi-Generation.

Syria �

• A Sunni Muslim sheikh called on children aged 5-12 to �slaughter all Christians for being infidels.� 
• A child, prodded by the Free Syrian Army, cutting the heads off of Syrian men for apparently being loyal to the Assad government.
• The FSA making another child hack a man�s head off�again, to cries of Allahu Akbar.
• Young children in the town of Ras al-Ayn are shown playing �Behead the Enemy.� 
• An early 2014 video by ISIS shows young children (under six years old), swearing allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and holding and cocking rifles.

Pakistan �

• A devout Muslim father handed over his three young sons to the leader of Jamaat-ut-Dawah (the parent Islamic organization behind Lashkar-e-Taiba, the jihadist group which committed the 2008 Mumbai massacres which killed 166 people), saying: �I hand over my three young sons to you for jihad (holy war). They will be now on your hands in your struggle.�

Palestinian Children's TV Show.

Hamas trains children and teens to be suicide martyrs, kill Jews �

• The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported earlier this year on Hamas training 13,000 teens to emulate Muslim �suicide martyrs.� 
• Palestinian Media Watch reports on the Hamas children�s program Tomorrow�s Pioneers, with a child host teaching another child to �shoot all the Jews,� while a giant happy-faced bumblebee nods cheerfully. 
• The Muslim �Mickey Mouse� teaches terrorism to Muslim kids. Per the news report: 

After seeing how the Islamist terror group had appropriated her father�s work to encourage genocidal hatred, Diana Disney Miller � daughter of Walt Disney � voiced her disgust to the New York Daily News:  

�Indoctrinating children like this, teaching them to be evil. The world loves children and this is just going against the grain of humanity� What we�re dealing with here is pure evil�.

What would Bugs Bunny do?

Egypt � 

• A Muslim child preacher cites the infamous genocidal antisemitic hadith, calling for Muslim extermination of the Jewish people. 
• Muslim children profess their eagerness to become martyrs through fighting the kuffar. 

Hamas Teen Camp

Palestinian Authority � 

• A Muslim mother lauds her three sons as �martyrs,� who were killed in attacks against civilians in Israel, and lamented that she did not have one hundred sons to die attacking Israelis.
• A UN-sponsored camp for Palestinian children, supported by U.S. tax dollars and supposedly neutral, teaches antisemitism, war, jihad and martyrdom to take back Palestine from �the Jews,� who are compared to wolves.

Lebanon �

• Hezbollah �indoctrinates youth with messages of hate and murder.� 
• Hezbollah�s brainwashing includes everything from �songs praising martyrs to support for jihad-like movements and glorifications of death. The organization�s goal is clear: to inspire children to become terrorists.�

Dagestan � 

• In the Muslim homeland of the Boston Marathon jihad murderers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, children are imitating their parents by filming their own jihad videos.

The Global Muslim Village:
�Unborn Martyrs� being Prepared to wage Jihad

Hillary Clinton famously wrote, �It takes a village,� yet there seems to be a significant and growing movement within the global Muslim village, which raises its children on a steady diet of hatred of non-Muslims coupled with an eagerness to �slay and be slain� (Quran 9:111), so as to gain Allah�s favor and inherit paradise. This Islamic indoctrination into a culture of death and murder begins in utero, as seen in this video example from the 2012 Muslim Day Parade in New York City, where one woman, an official speaker for the event, exclaimed �We have the unborn martyrs in our wombs.�

FGM, Child Marriage, and Honor Killings

Female Genital Mutilation

These are merely some representative examples of the impetus to jihad, death and murder in Islamic culture. Time and space do not allow us to cite the pervasive Muslim practices of female genital mutilation, child marriage, and honor killings, all codified in Islamic scriptures and law.

The situation of Muslim girls is perhaps the most dire of any segment of the global population, with the probable exception of Christian girls in Islamic countries such as Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Nigeria, where incidents of rape, abductions for ransom, and forced conversions are widespread. 

The Same Biology?

Sting�s repeating thought in Russians is the secular/scientific call for peace:

We share the same biology

Regardless of ideology...

Clever rhyme, which both Christian and atheist could find at least some solace in. Religious or secular, one can pretty much acknowledge the innate human impulse to life, to live life, and to wish to hand down to one�s children the opportunity to live their life, and enable the same for others. America is founded on the belief that all people are entitled to �Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.�

Yet it seems there is a frighteningly powerful counter-impulse permeating and afflicting the Muslim world. In Islam, death has both practical purpose and divine sanction. The life of a non-Muslim is not sacred, as elaborate religious laws make clear in prescribing penalties for murder. And there is no penalty for a parent, grandparent, sibling or close relative for the killing of a Muslim woman or child who is perceived as bringing shame upon the family (the Muslim phenomenon of honor killings). Similarly, a Muslim apostate may be killed by any member of the umma without penalty; they are discharging Allah�s judgment.

The indoctrination of each successive generation of children in Muslim cultures to hate the infidel, prepare for warfare, bloodshed, murder and suicide missions, offers little hope for the world. To an indoctrinated Muslim, the kuffar are unclean, even sub-human. We only �share the same biology� if we embrace the Islamic ideology.  Biology alone is not a universal standard in Islam.

Do the Muslims love their children too?

Perhaps I�m not alone in approaching this question in a non-rhetorical manner. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently dared to tackle the subject quite a bit more directly (albeit without mentioning children), urging an international alliance against Islamism, and defining it as �the greatest threat facing the world today.� 

But could an alliance of non-Muslim nations expect to roll back fourteen centuries of entrenched Islamic culture based on unalterable sacred scripture, which makes hatred of the infidel and the slaughter of Christians and Jews permissible, even obligatory? 

As we ponder the failure of the West to assimilate and rehabilitate second and third generation Muslim immigrants, as they riot and become career criminals at home, or run off to join the jihad in Syria or wherever, breathlessly eager to bring the jihad back to America, Canada, Britain and Europe to advance the worldwide caliphate, the answer to Sting�s once rhetorical question seems neither pleasant nor hopeful.

But what may save us, me and you, Is if the Muslims love their children too.

Whether the Muslims love their children or not may be a secondary question. Perhaps the more important question is the one we must ask of ourselves: 

But what may save us, in the end, Is if we love our children, enough to defend.

A Christian Coda

Sting�s undeniable talent and literate songwriting aside (he was a school teacher, after all � remember �Don�t Stand So Close To Me�?), we require something of a Christian �coda� to our considerations here. 

The very question of �what may save us� violates Christian ontology, namely, that we are saved through union with and growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ, not through any �political solution,� and certainly not as a function of what any outside group may do or say, whether the Soviets or the Muslims.

The Pre-Incarnate Word creates Man in His Own Image.

Secondly, we are not saved so much from some external threat, whether the Soviets, the Islamists, or the devil himself. But rather, far more importantly, we are saved for something much higher, the lofty calling of humankind hinted at in Genesis with the creation of man �in the image of God,� fulfilled in the incarnation and voluntary suffering, death and resurrection of the Word of God Jesus Christ, and to be fully actualized at His Second Coming, when His faithful ones will share in His glory.

So, given such ultimate questions, we must admit that this article serves merely as a �hook,� a device to catch the reader�s imagination and pose a provocative question. But we must apply the question not only to Muslims, but to our own children.

Do we love them? If we do, then we should be raising them in the ways of the Lord: to pray, to believe, to hope, to strive, to forgive and to love. 

To follow Christ is to carry our cross.

If we love our children, we ought to raise them in the likeness of Jesus Christ, of His most pure Mother, and of the saints. But to do that, we must be growing in that likeness ourselves.

This is our calling, and our answer to every question posed to us. Everything else is a distraction. 

As the Apostle and Evangelist John wrote in his letter, �Little children, keep yourselves from idols� (1 JN 5:21).