Sick Sex

I do not like to sensatinalize the issue os Islam and sex, but reality is, that the actual views of orthodox Islam have some elements that make me sick. MEMRI (pity they are zionists...) transcribes this video of a program broadcast on LBC TV on 19 June. Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi, a Saudi marriage officiant explains that Muhammad's example allows Muslims nowdays to 'marry' and have sex with children.

If you are interested in the orthodox Islamic descriptions of Muhammad's sexlife with his girl-wife Aishah (she was 9 when he had sex with her, though he misused her by fondling her after her married her at 6!), read HERE.

I just hope that many Muslims with little children ask themselves whether this 'prophet' is worth following. To me, all religious statements of his are completely disqualified by his gory lifestyle. C'est ca.

Ataturk's crimes against Armenians

In The Sunday Times, William Dalrymple reviews the book Paradise Lost Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance by Giles Milton. This book is a powerful account of one of the most horrific humanitarian disasters of the 20th century, the genocide of the Turks against the Armenians. According to Dalrymple,

Milton has written a grimly memorable book about one of the most important events in this process. It is well paced, even-handed and cleverly focused: through the prism of the Anglo-Levantines, he reconstructs both the prewar Edwardian glory of Smyrna and its tragic end. He also clears up, once and for all, who burnt Smyrna, producing irrefutable evidence that the Turkish army brought in thousands of barrels from the Petroleum Company of Smyrna and poured them over the streets and houses of all but the Turkish quarter. Moreover, it is clear that it was done with the full approval of Ataturk, who was determined to find a final solution to his “minority problem” to ensure the future stability of his fledgling Turkish republic. A relatively homogenous Turkish nation state was indeed achieved; but as Milton shows, the cost was suffering on an almost unimaginable scale and one of the most horrific humanitarian disasters of the 20th century.

Amazing: oldest church ever... in Arab World

Missionaries in the Arab World have another tool to show that the Christian faith is not 'Western' but solidly Middle Eastern. "We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," Abdul Qader al-Husan, head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, says in The Jordan Times. This church was found beneath the ancient Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab, in northern Jordan near the Syrian border. If tests confirm that it dates back to between 33 AD to 70 AD, as archaeologists claim, it would make it the earliest known place of Christian worship by around two hundred years.

EPA

The altar of St Georgeous Church, which dates back to 230 AD

Arab Columnists: Islam Has Been Harmed More By Muslims than By the West

The recent re-publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad by the Danish press and release of Dutch MP Geert Wilders' film "Fitna" have precipitated a wave of Muslim protest, some of it violent, throughout the world. Following these developments, several Arab columnists wrote to condemn the violent reactions, arguing that the Muslims themselves had committed iniquity against both their coreligionists and everyone else, thereby harming the name of Islam.

The following are excerpts from some of the articles:

Islam's Biggest Enemy is the Muslims Themselves

In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, titled "Muslims Against Islam," Kuwaiti liberal Dr. Ahmad Al-Baghdadi wrote: "In most countries around the world, Muslims broke into Danish Embassies, setting fire to them, and called for a ban on Danish imports... They have also launched a satellite TV channel and organized various committees and institutions, with the sole purpose of defending the Prophet [Muhammad] and the Islamic religion... Have the Muslims ever taken account of the tremendous iniquities they themselves have committed and are still committing against Islam [within and outside] the Islamic countries? Read the whole article on MEMRI's website.

Misery in Sudan

Africa's longest and one of its worst civil wars is “on the brink” of re-erupting after three years of peace, a senior United Nations official has warned, accoridng to the Telegraph. Troops from both north and south Sudan are building up around a strategic central town, prompting Washington’s envoy to the country to pull out of talks with both sides which he called “a sham”.

The former enemies, now sharing a unity government, fought for more than two decades in a war which killed two million people and forced millions more to flee their homes. But the landmark peace deal, signed in January 2005, now appears to be unravelling, putting Africa’s largest country “on the brink” of falling back into major civil conflict, said David Gressley, the UN’s regional coordinator for south Sudan.

Book on Mission in Arab World

On our website you will find some information on a book that Interserve just published together with StFrancisMagazine. The book is titled Doing Mission in the Arab World. Order through us, and we will soon mail you your copy. The cost per book is US$12.95 (excluding S&H, that depends on where you live of course).

Islamic theories of war

A very interesting website I came across this morning, is Middle East Strategy at Harvard.
Raymond Ibrahim for instance posts a discussion on the lack of knowledge in academia about Islamic theories of war. For mission in the Arab world this may not be the first sort of knowledge we need ;-) but for understanding a culture and its history, this is not unimportant. In our own western studies, we have all learned of Clausewitz, have we not?

The ugly battle in the Arab World has begun...

Hardline Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia accused Shiites Sunday of destabilizing Muslim countries and humiliating Sunnis, just days before a Muslim interfaith conference called by Saudi Arabia's king. The International Herald Tribune reports.

The attacks on Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah — though contrary to official policy — highlight the sharp, growing distrust between Islam's two arms, and its potential to cause more unrest.

In a strongly worded statement, the 22 clerics savaged the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying it has tricked Muslims into believing it is against Jews and Americans.