Tag Archives: Islam

Muslims Shield Christians During Terrorist Attack in Kenya

Muslim passengers helped shield non-Muslim passengers, some of them Christians, during a terrorist attack on a bus in Northern Kenya on Monday, according to multiple published reports.

Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper, reported a bus traveling from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to Mandera was attacked at about 7 a.m. local time by gunmen believed to be tied to Al-Shabaab.

The Associated Press reported 60 passengers were on the bus when the gunmen stopped it in Papa City, and that some of the Muslim passengers helped some of the non-Muslim passengers put on Islamic apparel, such as head scarves, to help mask their identities from the terrorists.

The bus passengers might have been recalling a similar attack that took place last November.

Al-Jazeera reported that Al-Shabaab militants stopped a bus near Mandera, singled out 28 non-Muslims aboard, and killed them. The BBC also reported that Al-Shabaab militants singled out Christians when they shot and killed about 150 people at Kenya’s Garissa University in April.

The quick-thinking passengers ensured that a similar scene wouldn’t take place this time.

A local government official told Daily Nation that the militants reportedly asked the passengers to exit the bus and separate themselves into two groups: Muslims and non-Muslims. The official told the newspaper the gunmen “were trying to identify who were Christians and who were not.”

But the passengers refused to divide themselves. Mandera Governor Ali Roba told Daily Nation that the passengers insisted the gunmen “should kill them together or leave them alone.”

According to the Associated Press, the gunmen ordered everyone back on the bus after a Muslim passenger told them that the bus had a police escort that was due to arrive on the scene shortly.

Two people were killed and three were injured in the attacks, Roba wrote on his Twitter page. The governor said the militants also attacked a truck.

Virginia School District Closes Over Backlash from Islamic Homework Assignment

Schools in one Virginia county were closed Friday after a controversial homework assignment, in which students were reportedly asked to copy the Islamic statement of faith, drew backlash.

In a statement posted on the Augusta County Public Schools website, the district announced that schools would be closed Friday after “parental objections to the World Geography curriculum and ensuing related media coverage” spurred a bombardment of phone calls and emails.

The district said those messages “significantly increased in volume” Thursday and they were concerned about their “tone and content.” The district made the decision to close the schools “out of an abundance of caution,” though said there was “no specific threat of harm to students.”

The district didn’t offer details about what specific assignment prompted the backlash, but multiple media outlets reported that students at Riverheads High School were asked to practice drawing calligraphy by copying down the shahada, which is the Islamic statement of faith.

CNN published a copy of the assignment, which notes calligraphy’s importance in Islam. It shows the shahada written in Arabic calligraphy and instructs students to copy it into a box. “This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy,” the assignment reads.

One of the most common objections to the assignment is that the shahada, when translated into English, reads “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

The News-Leader, a Virginia newspaper, reported that more than 100 people “met in fury” over the assignment, and some parents had called for the teacher who gave it to be fired. But the state Department of Education and the district’s superintendent both reviewed the assignment and determined it wasn’t a violation of students’ rights, and deemed it in line with state standards.

As of Friday afternoon, 2,500 members had joined a Facebook group to support the teacher. Still, some parents weren’t happy about the message the students were asked to copy.

“I will not have my children sit under a woman who indoctrinates them with the Islam religion when I am a Christian, and I’m going to stand behind Christ,” Kimberly Herndon told Virginia television station WHSV. The news station identified her as a parent of a Riverheads student.

The News-Leader reported that the teacher didn’t come up with the assignment, but rather pulled it out of a workbook about world religions. The newspaper also reported that students had learned about other religions in the teacher’s class, including Christianity and Judaism.

In its website posting, Augusta County Public Schools said “no lesson was designed to promote a viewpoint or change any student’s religious belief.” School officials said that their students will keep learning about world religions, which is required by state education officials, but a new, non-religious calligraphy sample will be used in future homework assignments about Islam.

Before making the decision to close, the district said it increased police presence at its schools.

34 Islamic Nations Team Up to Fight Terrorism

A group of 34 Islamic nations have formed a military alliance to fight terrorist organizations.

​Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defense, confirmed the announcement at a news conference Monday night in Riyadh, where the alliance will be based.

Operating out of a room in the Saudi capital, the group will “coordinate and support efforts to fight terrorism in all countries and parts of the Islamic world,” according to a news release.

Perhaps the most notable Islamic terrorist group is the Islamic State, which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria as it tries to spread its radical interpretations of the religion through violence.

At the news conference, Abdulaziz said the new military alliance won’t just fight the Islamic State, but will take action “against any terrorist organization (that) emerges before us.” He called Islamic extremism a “disease which infected the Islamic world first” and spread internationally.

The Saudi Arabian news release did not specify the 33 other nations that joined the anti-terrorism alliance. Reuters reported those countries included Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and multiple nations in Africa.

Abdulaziz said each country will contribute according to its capabilities and that he hoped more nations would join soon. While he offered concrete little details on how exactly the alliance would work, he stressed that collaboration and coordination would be important pillars.

“Today, every Islamic country is fighting terrorism individually,” Abdulaziz told reporters at the news conference. “The coordination of efforts is very important; and through this room, means and efforts will be developed for fighting terrorism all over the Islamic world.”

The United States is currently providing equipment and training to forces in Iraq and Syria that are fighting the Islamic State, and have urged for more help in the fight against the group. The U.S. also heads a 65-nation coalition that carries out airstrikes against ISIS-linked targets there.

Before Saudi Arabia’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was travelling to Turkey as part of a plan to get other countries to boost their efforts to defeat the Islamic State.

According to Reuters, Carter told reporters at the Incirlik airbase that he wanted to learn more about Saudi Arabia’s alliance, but more anti-ISIS involvement from Islamic nations generally appears to be “very much in line with something we’ve been urging for quite some time.”

Muslims Could Outnumber Christians Worldwide By 2070

A new study shows that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and will surpass Christianity by the middle of the century.

The study from the Pew Research Center says that the only religion that won’t see increases in numbers by 2050 is Buddhism.  Islam will be the only religion that increases faster than the world’s population on the whole.

Christianity and Islam will obtain equal status by 2050 according to the study.

The study showed bad news for Christianity in North America.  The number of Christians in the United States will decline from 78 percent of the population to around 66 percent by 2050.

Muslims, “other religions” and those who are not affiliated with any religion will see the largest increases.  The study predicts there will be more Muslims than Jews in the U.S. by 2050.

The study attributes the increase to Muslim women having the highest fertility rate with 3.1 children per woman.  Christians are second with 2.7 per woman.  The highest percentage of youth are Muslim at 34 percent compared to 27 percent for Christians.

Netanyahu Delivers Strong Warning To Congress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, looking and sounding like a strong, firm leader of a nation, delivered a strong warning to members of Congress concerning negotiations with Iran over nuclear weapons.

“We have been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well this is a bad deal. It is a very bad deal. We are better off without it,” Netanyahu said.  “We are being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That is just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal.”

Over 50 Democratic Party lawmakers, including Vice President Biden, boycotted the speech.

The speech drew multiple standing ovations from the combined houses of Congress and many of the legislators could be seen shaking heads in agreement with virtually all of the Prime Minister’s speech.

“The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.

“That is exactly what could happen if the deal being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal would not prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them.”

Saudi Arabia Sentences Man To Death For Renouncing Islam

An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has given a death sentence to a man who renounced his Muslim faith.

The man posted an online video of himself ripping up a Koran and then hitting it with a shoe as he said he was no longer a Muslim.

A witness in the court says the video was played showing “’In the video he cursed God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his daughter Fatimah and ripped a copy of the Holy Qur’an and hit it with a shoe.”  The death sentence was then immediately handed down.

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS, follows the Wahhabi Sunni Muslim school and gives clerics control over the justice system.  Renouncing Islam brings a death sentence along with other crimes like blasphemy and criticism of senior Muslim clerics.

Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually public beheadings.

Muslim Leaders To Hold Massive Rally In Texas

Muslim leaders from around the U.S. will be heading to Texas for a rally called “Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect.”  The event is being called “a movement to defend Prophet Muhammad, his person and his message.”

The event seeks to combat “Islamophobes in America” who have, in their words, have turned Muhammad “into an object of hate.”

The event comes a week after Islamists killed 17 people in France for mocking Muhammad.

One of the scheduled speakers at the event is Siraj Wahhaj, the man called an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

“Frustrated with Islamophobes defaming the Prophet?” the event materials ask. “Fuming over extremists like ISIS who give a bad name to Islam? Remember the Danish cartoons defaming the Prophet? Or the anti-Islam film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’?”

“When real events warrant, like the Danish Cartoon controversy, Sharia ban, Quran burning, Boko Haram kidnappings. [Islamic State] brutality, etc., we articulate fresh talking points and content quickly, and in a timely manner, working with professionals to disseminate it through community spokespersons and our allies,” organizers state on their website.

Saudi Arabian Law May Mean Death Sentence For Bible Smugglers

A new law passed in Saudi Arabia could impose the death sentence on people who bring Bibles into the country and anyone else who distributes information about a religion that is not Islam.

“The new law extends to the importing of all illegal drugs and ‘all publications that have a prejudice to any other religious beliefs other than Islam,’” Paul Washer’s HeartCry Missionary Society outlines in a post on their website. “In other words, anyone who attempts to bring Bibles or gospel literature into the country will have all materials confiscated and be imprisoned and sentenced to death.”

The Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington has been refusing to confirm or deny the new law.

Members of the HeartCry Missionary Society reminded Christian News about the fact Christians in Saudi Arabia are routinely harassed by Muslims with virtual immunity.

“Christians are raped, abducted, murdered, and beaten on a daily basis. Saudis who accept Christ as their Savior are choosing to pick up a cross of ostracism, discrimination, harassment, and even death,” it outlines. “They risk losing their jobs, access to education for their children, or even the right to basic utilities like water and electricity.”

The Open Doors International list of the 100 most dangerous places for a Christian to live has Saudi Arabia at number 6.

ISIS Sells Young Girls For $1,000

Islamic terrorist group ISIS is selling young Yazidi girls for $1,000 while forcing young Yazidi boys to train to be used in front line battles.

A report released Sunday shows the group is forcing women, teens and even pre-teen girls into forced marriages with ISIS terrorists.  Women who resist being converted to Islam and forced into marriage are used as “slaves” for the “enjoyment” of the terrorist fighters.

Yazidi men and boys are forced to convert to Islam and fight or be beheaded.

The report included eyewitness testimony from a 15-year-old girl who had been kidnapped by ISIS and held for three weeks until she was able to escape from a terrorist who had “purchased” her.

The girl said that she saw girls as young as 12 being forced into marriages with soldiers and others that were already pregnant from their captors.

ISIS says that they are only treating women the way dictated by true Islam.  They say the men who have been “converted” to fight with them came willingly and that no one was forced to join their ranks.

New York Times Allows Christian Bashing Ad

The New York Times is being accused of showing their anti-Christian bias by accepting an ad that bashes Christians on the Supreme Court while they have rejected ads that were critical of Islam.

In 2012, a group of anti-Muslim activists had tried to place an ad in the Times critical of Islam and its stances on non-Muslims and treatment of women.  The newspaper said they would not run the advertisement because they didn’t want to “inflame” Muslims with an ad critical of their faith.

Then Thursday, the virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation was permitted to place an ad in the New York Times that personally disparaged the five justices on the Court who voted to uphold religious freedom by condemning them as “all being Roman Catholic.”

Matthew Balan, a news analyst for the Media Research Center, says while Times has every right to decide what ads to run in their newspaper, the fact they would allow a bigoted attack on Christians in an advertisement while denying an ad critical of Islam in any way shows their bias.

Catholic League statement Bill Donohue said that there were multiple examples of bigotry toward Catholics in the media following the ruling.  He cited the Boston Herald that headlined a story “Court’s Catholic Justices Attack Women’s Rights.”