Church and repression of media in Egypt

The MidEast News Source reports about repression of the media in Egypt. With the coming demise of president Mubarak and the appointment of his son as the new king, sorry, president, it seems the authorities try to be ready for total media control.

The Church in Egypt should dare to speak out against these repressive measures, but it will probably not do so; usually the Church is quit satisfied when radical Islam is suppressed.
Eleven media executives have been arrested in Egypt on charges of belonging to an Islamic organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the newspaper The Daily News Egypt.

Not only these radical Muslims but also the totally secular Cairo Media Company (CMC) is the victim of the government. It was today fined $27,000 by a local court for breach of media-related permits and possessing equipment without permits. The CMC made headlines earlier this year for distributing footage of demonstrators tearing up and stamping on posters of Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

CMC owner Nader Gohar told Al-Jazeera that the verdict meant that he probably would be out of business within six months to a year and that five or six other media companies in Cairo were heading the same way.

The Church should be wise and show its protest against these abuses of the freedom of speech.

Another St Francis Missiological Conference

This month, 20 or so mission practitioners from the Muslim world meet to present and discuss papers on the cutting edge of Church, Islam, and Arab World. The subjects of the papers promise great mind-stretching discussions! The papers will probably be published in the December issue of St Francis Magazine - so keep coming back!

Coptic Christian to prison... ridiculous

An Egyptian Coptic Christian woman has been sentenced to three years in prison for failing to uphold her Islamic identity – an identity she didn’t know she had for over four decades.

Sisters Shadia and Bahia Nagy El-Sisi, both in their late 40s and residents of the small east Delta town Mit-Ghamr, were arrested and tried for claiming their official religious identity as Christian. Unknown to them, their religious identity officially changed 46 years ago due to their father’s brief conversion to Islam. Both are illiterate.

Shadia El-Sisi was tried for stating her religion as Christian on her marriage certificate and sentenced to three years in prison on Nov. 21, 2007. She was released two months later. Last Sept. 23 a judge also sentenced Bahia El-Sisi to three years in prison for “forging” her marriage certificate by stating her religion as Christian. This story of Compass News can be found on OneNewsNow

Training Islamic missionaries in using the media

Qatar University’s College of Shariah and Islamic Studies has started offering a new four-year programme on Da’wa (spreading the message of Islam) and media from this autumn, it was announced yesterday. Interesting is that this college not only teaches the traditional Islamic sciences, but also media and journalism. Clever of course: if you want your message to be heard, go for the media!

“The goal is to produce graduates committed to and well-versed in interaction and dialogue across the major religions and in far-reaching communities throughout the world to present Islam, its culture and its values,” said Zakaryya Abdel-Hady, head of the Department of Da’wa and Islamic Culture as well as the programme. More HERE in the Gulf Times.

Why bother about contextualization....

If we see that our beloved Saudi Muslims sisters just loooove Oprah Winfrey, why would we worry about contextualizing our Christian message ;-)

When "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was first broadcast in Saudi Arabia in November 2004 on a Dubai-based satellite channel, it became an immediate sensation among young Saudi women. Within months, it had become the highest-rated English-language program among women 25 and younger, an age group that makes up about a third of Saudi Arabia's population. ... More HERE in the New York Times

Mission and Dictatorship

On 20 August, Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, shared a gem of insight with the world. When he announced his withdrawal from political life, he stated:

The Arab nations live in a forest governed by dictatorships that have imaginary parliaments and constitutions.

I believe these dictatorships are one major stumbling block for Christian mission in the Arab World, as they make it very hard for muslims to become followers of Christ. I am often asked why Muslims are so resistant against the Gospel; I usually point to the happy marriage between the dictatorships and Islam. In general, the dictators are upheld by Muslims society, as long as they speak the language of Islam. And that is what they do, especially in the realm of conversions to the Christian faith.

I do not think Muslims are more resistant to the Gospel than anyone else. Their rulers and society make it, however, rather hard to seriously consider the option of giving one's allegiance to Jesus Christ.

What we need is not new methods, new 'keys to the heart of Muslims', new contextual mission, what we need is true democracy. I believe that the Church in the Arab World and beyond should have democracy in the Arab World high in its banner. Not in the sense of one-man-one-vote only, but also in the sense of upholding the right of each individual to make his own choices, lead the life he likes, andf believe what he wants to believe.

Islam Lite

The Coptic priest, Abuna Zakaria, has a bounty on his head of 60 million dollars by al-Qaida, it seems. Read more on him HERE. It is interesting how one evangelist on TV in the Arab World can upset muslims so badly. I guess this is because he invites Muslims to read their own sources, Qur'an and ahadith, and asks them whether what they read is credible. Oh, the doubts he is sowing in Muslim minds!

Until the 1950s, hadly any Muslim in teh Arab World coud read Arabic, and you can argue, that this was a main reason for Islam to be rather heterodox in the Arab World. Then many people became literate, and Islam became more a fundamentalist religion of the book. Bad habits and beliefs were rejected. And now, these literate Muslims are facing the darker sides of what Islam officially teaches. Very upsetting for many. Is that maybe why at the moment, a more 'evangelical' style Islam is in vogue? An Islam that hardly looks at its sources, but that is a sort of 'Islam lite' that can speak of loving God, the love of God, serving other people, and where Muslims sing a sort of praise and worship music for Allah, thei beloved?

Is this Sufism revived? Look on the website of one of the very popular Islam Lite preachers, Moez Masoud, and you see him quote Rumi. Moez is miles apart from what Islam considered traditionally a preacher - he speaks to his audiences in a very conversational style, brings in musicians, and gives his young audiences a great evening in which they realize again that Islam is a religion of peace and love for God, and that Muhammad al-rasul allah is truly to be loved, and that critics like Abuna Zakaria are totally wrong.

Very worrying indeed: the criminalization of criticizing Islam

Our brother Rev Bassam Madany pointed me to this important article in the Wall Street Journal. There are strange happenings in the world of international jurisprudence that do not bode well for the future of free speech. In an unprecedented case, a Jordanian court is prosecuting 12 Europeans in an extraterritorial attempt to silence the debate on radical Islam.

The prosecutor general in Amman charged the 12 with blasphemy, demeaning Islam and Muslim feelings, and slandering and insulting the prophet Muhammad in violation of the Jordanian Penal Code. The charges are especially unusual because the alleged violations were not committed on Jordanian soil.

The Wall Street Journal has more on this. I find this VERY worrying indeed. Our liberty to even share our Christian views on Islam may be at stake. We better speak our before it is too late.

Islam group urges jihad by forest fires

AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror. US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.
More can be found HERE.

Happy birthday to you..... NO! HARAAM!!!!

Shortly after prominent Saudi cleric Salman al-Audah said on Saudi television that it was OK to celebrate birthdays for Moslems, the country’s grand mufti and top religious authority, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheik, responded saying that celebrating birthdays is a foreign innovation - a Christian one - and, as such, forbidden.”Christians have Mother’s Day, an eid for trees, and an eid for every occasion,” the enlightened and highly intelligent Al Sheik said. The previous mufti, Sheik Abdul-Aziz bin Baz, also considered it haram, forbidden, to celebrate birthdays. “It’s not permissible to take part in them,” he said. “Birthday parties are an innovation … and people are in no need of innovations,” this great Saudi Arabian thinker said several years ago.

What is most interesting about this recent debate is that al-Audah broke with his fellow leading clerics publicly. Birthdays are considered ‘forbidden’ by most Saudis, especially by the religious leaders. They do not even support celebrating the birthday of the prophet Mohammed.

Al-Audah obviously disagrees with that, believing it to be fine if people want to celebrate their own or someone else’s birthday. He did, however, point out that one should not call birthday’s eid. The reason for this is that an eid should be strictly religious, according to al-Audah that is. Eid is an Arabic word meaning “feast.” For more on this see HERE

Troubles ahead in the Arabian Gulf?

The Economist has an interesting article on Expat Labour in the Arabian Gulf. The local populatiuon is increasingly worries about how their culture is changing. Hey, that is the culture of Islam that is being changed. The countries there want economic growth, but this is only possible with expat labour. In the UAE, 90% of labour in the private sector, is expat. The population is growing at an explosive rate, from 4.3 million in 2005 to 6 million now.

Just imagine... in many Gulf states the majority is expat. How will this impact the religious situation in the holy lands of Islam in the years ahead? More in The Economist.

New StFrancisMagazine: Vivienne Stacey

The new issue of our St Francis Magazine is published today. The whole issue is about Ms Vivienne Stacey, a lifelong missionary amongst Muslims in Pakistan and the Middle East. She was accepted as a missionary in 1953 by the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, later called Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship (BMMF), and nowadays Interserve. Vivienne was especially noted for her teaching and practice of Spiritual Warfare. She was also adamant about the important role of women in mission. Have a look at the 8 articles and books that we uploaded - 7 by Vivienne. And under the button Vivienne Stacey you find many more articles by her hand.

A Shia website that explains why the Sunnis are wrong

Here is an interesting website from Shia Muslims; the aim of this website is to convince Sunni Muslims about how wrong they are. You may find some useful information here!

Saudi convert burned to death

In Saudi Arabia, a young woman was executed by her own father, an officer of the Muttawa, as he felt obliged by honor to cleanse his family of his daughter’s shame. She had become a Christian, God forbid! According to ANSAmed:

The sentence could not be appealed: guilty for converting to Christianity, a young Saudi woman was set alight by her father, who first had cut her tongue.

Not an ordinary father, but a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Against Vice [the Muttawa], a sort of police watching over the moral behaviour of the citizens of Saudi Arabia and the full compliance with the rules of the rigid Wahabi doctrine, by using whiplashes on the legs for too high heels and arresting men and women not linked by marriage or family bonds for meetings in restaurants.

To the injury of the conversion, the woman had added also the insult of the written word, by writing articles with Christian-religious content on blogs and regional websites. The brutal news reported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s daily Gulf News reflects the reality of Saudi Arabia, a conservative and intransigent country, and throws ice-cold water on the image of an oil kingdom which says to be ready to open up partially to other religions, an image painted by the recent gestures of the king Abdallah Bin Abdelaziz.

The father of the burnt alive Saudi woman, as reported by sources close to the victim, is investigated for “honour killing” and not “murder”, a motif which if acknowledged, might lead to a sentence of up to three years in prison, because caused by the necessity to “wash the shame of dishonour” fallen on the entire family, for the unbecoming behaviour of the daughter.

Zawya has more details on this brutal incident. According to the following report, the young woman’s discovery of Christianity as well as the exposure of her crime were brought about in part by the internet:

According to the Saudi Al Ukhdoud news website, the victim wrote an article on the blog of which she was a member under the nickname “Rania” a few days before her murder.

She wrote that her life became an ordeal after her family members grew suspicious about her after a religious discussion with them.

She said that her brother found some Christian articles written by her as well as a cross sign on her computer screen. Since then he started to insult her and blamed the internet for pushing her to change her religion.

[…]

Saudi religious scholars have frequently warned against the dangers of Christian internet websites and satellite TV channels which attract Muslim youngsters to change their religion.

They decreed that watching these channels or browsing these websites which call for conversion to Christianity by various means is against the teachings of Islam.

The importance of the internet to the subversion of Islam cannot be overstated. Islam is brittle and vulnerable, and cannot easily maintain itself where information flows freely to the people who are imprisoned by it. The fact that Christian conversions can occur even in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — the Heart of Darkness itself — shows the value of modern forms of communication in the struggle against Islam.

It’s also important to remember that dedicated Christian believers are quietly and diligently risking their lives all over the world to spread the message of their faith. The conversion rate in countries like Saudi Arabia is obviously hard to estimate, because to count a new believer is to condemn her to death.

Son of Hamas leader becomes Christian

Mosab Hassan Yousef is an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary story. He was born the son of one of the most influential leaders of the militant Hamas organization in the West Bank and grew up in a strict Islamic family.

Now, at 30 years old, he attends an evangelical Christian church, Barabbas Road in San Diego, Calif. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and is seeking asylum in the United States.

The story of how his life unfolded is truly amazing, whether you agree or disagree with his views. Click HERE for an exclusive FOX News interview with Hassan as he tells firsthand how a West Bank Muslim became a West Coast Christian.

Stiffling free speech about Islam?

A coalition of Islamic states is using the United Nations to enact international 'anti-defamation' rules about Islam that could develop into a real threat for free speech on Islam. Soon it may be internationally illegal to say that Islam is a wicked religion - and that all Muslims should turn to Jesus Christ for salvation. Phew boys and girls, what is happening! On McCleans.Ca you get the whole story. And here you can see how a renowned publisher like Random House decided to NOT publish a book for fear of muslim reprisals. Sick.

A (Russian) Orthodox view of Mission to Muslims

I found a great website, through a link on my friend Abu Dawud's blog Islam and Christianity, about an Orthodox view of Islam and mission to Muslims. The site contains testimonies, histories, patristic views of Islam, etc. Really worth a looong visit to download lots of their articles. I am so interested to find out about a truly Orthodox view to mission among Muslims! Here the website of our brother-in-mission Yurij Maximov. And how interesting to see that they also have an article by our regular writer Rev Bassam Madany!

At the time of the prophet Muhammad...

I came across this piece of information on an Islamic website today, and marvelled ;-)
Look how the very dark situation the whole world was in at the time when Islam began, is described by the author. But in a brief sentence, he says: 'no-one seemed to take any notice of this malaise'. This supposed malaise cannot have been too bad then? May I suggest that Islam did not spread in the Mediteranean world because the darkness of those days, but because Islamic armies conquered those areas? It took hundreds of years before the number of Muslims became a majority in those lands. The islamization was a very slow process and the resistance was great. People did NOT flock to Islam in great numbers. Here the text I read on this website:

At the time of the advent of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the entire world was steeped in darkness. Belief in multiple gods and worship of idols had shaken the foundation of civilized life. The light of civilization had faded over the then known world from Egypt to India and from Greece to China. Banners of the Roman and Persian empires immersed in the worst forms of tyranny, and terrorism fluttered over the degraded humanity.

Not only did the rulers claim to be the representatives of God but, in some cases, they also claimed to be gods with whom fiefdoms and religious orders were allied. The combined forces of the three had strangled the common people, who were already overburdened with heavy taxes, bribes, and grafts and were forced to labor under duress.

No one seemed to take any notice of this malaise, and no one provided any remedy or escape from this course. The then going overlords sank in moral degradation, and the devastating wars and frequent changes in ruling dynasties further grounded the common people under heavier strain, instead of giving any relief to them.

Ethical Behavior in Mission

Oslo Coalition on Freedom on Religion or Belief has published a valuable document in March 2008 - sorry I am so slow to mention it here... The document, Missionary Activities and Human Rights: Proposing a Code of Conduct regarding Missionary Activities is a discussion paper about the ethics of missionary work. In the Arab World, we can use these guidelines, because so many Christians think they should hammer Muslims on the head and bash Islam. Here the link to the document.

Yemen imprisons 7 MBBs

YEMEN - The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) released a report on June 27, 2008, regarding seven Christians who were arrested by Yemeni Authorities.

ICC says that all seven are Yemeni Christians. 'They are being held in prison and face mistreatment by Yemeni authorities.' ICC adds: "Please pray for the safety of these seven Christians, and that the Lord will protect them from torture and other types of mistreatment. Please pray for strength and courage for the seven as they go through this difficult situation, and that they will be released quickly."

For more information, contact Darara Gubo, Regional Manager for Africa, 1-800-ICC (422)-5441, darara@persecution.org.