Delusion 1
Reluctantly, the US authorities have had to conclude that the shooting of 14 civil servants at a Christmas party in California was not the act of a disgruntled employee but one inspired by Islamic fundamentalism: "The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalisation by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorists organisations".
Nervousness in recognising the facts is understandable. How many more silent potential killers lurk among us? Predictably ISIS have claimed credit but the sad fact is that even when ISIS and all other fundamental Islamist organisations are defeated, the ideology still comes from the book Muslims are required to study from their earliest years. The answer is in proper education, enabling Muslims to question a faith which in Christian terms must be misguided. So long as people are allowed to believe that they can gain a place in paradise by murdering innocent people there will be no change.
In Christianity the greatest of faith, hope and charity (love), is love. By contrast Islam rewards believers at the expense of unbelievers. The characteristics of love and forgiveness are embedded in Christian consciousness, even of nominal and lapsed Christians which leads them to welcome others who reject democracy and regard Christians as inferior. It is a delusion to think that Muslims would allow non-Muslims the same freedom that they demand in our midst yet to question their allegiance is condemned as Islamophobia. If believers cannot question their beliefs and come to their own conclusions they will be forever at the mercy of those who would control them, a devastating lesson learnt all too late by many Christians.
Delusion 2
The leader of the Labour Party was quick to take credit for Labour's victory in the Oldham by-election. Labour Deputy leader Tom Watson said "If this was a referendum on Jeremy Corbyn, then he has won. It was a decisive victory with our share of the vote going up. I hope our MPs look at this result." It was not a referendum. The local verdict was that the electorate simply had confidence in their local lad. It had nothing to do with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
The decision of Parliament to ignore the artificial border between Iraq and Syria was a difficult one for MPs. Mr Corbyn likes to base his authority on grass roots support but what is that worth when supporters resort to bullying tactics, sending threats and offensive material to MPs who voted according to conscience?
Delusion 3
The Anglican Church in this country continues to grapple with the consequences of following the liberal lead of the US Episcopal Church. As attendance continues to decline in line with these liberal innovations the Church of England ("A Christian presence in every community") has even considered a Beeching style closure of churches, leaving a Christian presence in some communities.
The relentless pursuit of a liberal agenda in the Church in Wales where a policy of exclusion continues to operate has resulted in an exercise to keep the current episcopal elite and their supporters in the style to which they have become accustomed by substituting Ministry Areas for Parishes with lay people doing most of the work regardless of whether they are qualified to do so beyond a programme of rudimentary lay training.
Archbishop Morgan thinks it a wonderful idea (here, page 2): "So things are on the move and what has been fantastic about all this is how the parishes concerned have got excited about the prospect, embraced the vision and seen for themselves the advantages that accrue. That is much better than a centrally imposed plan that people do not own."
The question has been raised, "What hope for the Church in Wales?" - When meetings do not address the problem of alienation there is something wrong with the organisation they exist to serve. Read the alternative view here.
In Christianity the greatest of faith, hope and charity (love), is love. By contrast Islam rewards believers at the expense of unbelievers. The characteristics of love and forgiveness are embedded in Christian consciousness, even of nominal and lapsed Christians which leads them to welcome others who reject democracy and regard Christians as inferior. It is a delusion to think that Muslims would allow non-Muslims the same freedom that they demand in our midst yet to question their allegiance is condemned as Islamophobia. If believers cannot question their beliefs and come to their own conclusions they will be forever at the mercy of those who would control them, a devastating lesson learnt all too late by many Christians.
Delusion 2
The leader of the Labour Party was quick to take credit for Labour's victory in the Oldham by-election. Labour Deputy leader Tom Watson said "If this was a referendum on Jeremy Corbyn, then he has won. It was a decisive victory with our share of the vote going up. I hope our MPs look at this result." It was not a referendum. The local verdict was that the electorate simply had confidence in their local lad. It had nothing to do with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
The decision of Parliament to ignore the artificial border between Iraq and Syria was a difficult one for MPs. Mr Corbyn likes to base his authority on grass roots support but what is that worth when supporters resort to bullying tactics, sending threats and offensive material to MPs who voted according to conscience?
Delusion 3
The Anglican Church in this country continues to grapple with the consequences of following the liberal lead of the US Episcopal Church. As attendance continues to decline in line with these liberal innovations the Church of England ("A Christian presence in every community") has even considered a Beeching style closure of churches, leaving a Christian presence in some communities.
The relentless pursuit of a liberal agenda in the Church in Wales where a policy of exclusion continues to operate has resulted in an exercise to keep the current episcopal elite and their supporters in the style to which they have become accustomed by substituting Ministry Areas for Parishes with lay people doing most of the work regardless of whether they are qualified to do so beyond a programme of rudimentary lay training.
Archbishop Morgan thinks it a wonderful idea (here, page 2): "So things are on the move and what has been fantastic about all this is how the parishes concerned have got excited about the prospect, embraced the vision and seen for themselves the advantages that accrue. That is much better than a centrally imposed plan that people do not own."
The question has been raised, "What hope for the Church in Wales?" - When meetings do not address the problem of alienation there is something wrong with the organisation they exist to serve. Read the alternative view here.
@Ancient Briton: I received the following from a good friend recently.
ReplyDeleteIt is not strictly relevant to this particular posting,however I thought it might interest you, even if you do not think it is suitable to publish here. It is rather long so shall send in two parts : not an easy précis!
Subject: An Honest Man Making a Powerful Statement
This morning on CNN the rector of the main mosque in Paris spoke to reporter, Amanpour of CNN. He reverted to English from French to make his final point and said that Islam has to reform. He cited there were 4 main schools of teaching in Islam of which as we all know the Wahabis in Saudi Arabia is the most militant. There is a need to take out the political content of Islam and the compassionate part emphasised. At long last just as we all have hoped, Islamic leaders are risking their lives and seeking a reformation within Islam.
This message should be read by the whole world ......... the madness must end. From "The Heart of an Honest Muslim!"
By Dr. Tawfik Hamid :
"I am a Muslim by faith, a Christian by spirit, a Jew by heart, and above all I am a human being."
Dr. Hamid is an Egyptian scholar and author of this article.
I was born a Muslim and lived all my life as a follower of Islam.
After the barbaric terrorist attacks done by the hands of my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and after the too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible as a Muslim and as a human being to speak out and tell the truth to protect the world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations.
I have to admit that our current Islamic teaching creates violence and hatred toward non-Muslims. We Muslims are the ones who need to change. Until now we have accepted polygamy, the beating
of women by men, and killing those who convert from Islam to other religions.
We have never had a clear and strong stand against the concept of slavery or wars, to spread our religion and to subjugate others to Islam and force them to pay a humiliating tax called jizia. We ask others to respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly (in Arabic) in
our Friday prayers in the mosques.
What message do we convey to our children when we call the Jews "descendants of the pigs and monkeys"? [Yet, both Arabs and Jews are descendants of Ibrahim (Abraham)!] Is this a message of love and peace, or a message of hate?
I have been into [Christian] churches and [Jewish] synagogues where they were praying for Muslims. While all the time, we curse them, and teach our generations to call them "infidels", and to hate them. We immediately jump in a 'knee jerk reflex' to defend Prophet Mohammad when someone accuses him of being a pedophile while, at the same time, ...we are proud with the story in our Islamic books that he married a young girl seven years old [Aisha] when he was above 50 years old.
I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror
Given this article today http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/624781/Christianity-religion-Britain-report-schools-Islam, it seems you were in prophetic mode when you wrote this entry, AB.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we can add or invent another new word: Christianophobia. Not sure it will go down too well though with those who invented Islamophobia.
(Part 2.)
ReplyDeleteI am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror attacks.
Muslims denounce these attacks to look good in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic
terrorists and sympathise with their cause. Until now our 'reputable' top religious authorities have
never issued a fatwa or religious statement to proclaim Bin Laden as an apostate, while an author, like Rushdie, was declared an apostate who should be killed according to Islamic Sharia law just
for writing a book criticizing Islam.
Muslims demonstrated to get more religious rights as we did in France to stop the ban on the hijab (head scarf), while we did not demonstrate with such passion and in such numbers against the
terrorist murders. It is our absolute silence against the terrorists that gives the energy to these terrorists to continue doing their evil acts.
We, Muslims, need to stop blaming our problems on others or on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As a matter of honesty, Israel is the only light of democracy, civilization, and human rights in the whole Middle East .
We kicked out the Jews with no compensation or mercy from most of the Arab countries to make
them "Jews-free countries" while Israel accepted more than a million Arabs to live there, have their
own nationality, and enjoy their rights as human beings. In Israel, women cannot be beaten legally by men, and any person can change his/her belief system with no fear of being killed by the Islamic law of 'apostasy,' while in our Islamic world people do not enjoy any of these rights.
I agree that the 'Palestinians' suffer, but they suffer because of their corrupt leaders and
not because of Israel .
It is not common to see Arabs who live in Israel leaving to live in the Arab world. On the other hand, we used to see thousands of Palestinians going to work with happiness in Israel, its 'enemy.' If Israel treats Arabs badly as some people claim, surely we would have seen the opposite happening.
We, Muslims, need to admit our problems and face them. Only then we can treat them and start a new era to live in harmony with humankind. Our religious leaders have to show a clear, and very strong stand against polygamy, paedophilia, slavery, killing those who convert from Islam to other religion, beating of women by men, and declaring wars on non-Muslims to spread Islam.
Then, and only then, do we have the right to ask others to respect our religion.
The time has come to stop our hypocrisy and say it openly: We Muslims have to change.
A truly remarkable man! Dr. Tawfik Hamid I salute you.