Islam is a fact of life, but the facts are not always good about Islam. Indeed, a political ideology which sees as its goal the overthrow of the West and the establishment of a universal caliphate is always going to be a worrying sort of religion.
It was spread by bloodshed, maintains power by bloodshed, and intimidates its opponents by bloodshed. Most things that we greatly value in the West are held in contempt by Islam, things such as freedom, democracy, Christianity, the dignity of women, and pluralism.
Throughout its 1400-year history we find these core values trampled upon in Muslim-majority nations, and wherever Islam gets a solid foothold in the West. Examples of this are simply the stuff of daily newspaper headlines. Here I offer four new cases of Islamic intolerance, hate, and contempt for so much which is good.
Perhaps the worst case comes out of Yemen. It is horrific, but tragically far too typical in Islam. Here is how one Arabic source presents this shocking story: “Al Nahar, Lebanon, has reported that an eight year old child bride died in Yemen on her wedding night after suffering internal injuries due to sexual trauma. Human rights organizations are calling for the arrest of her husband who was five times her age. The death occurred in the tribal area of Hardh in northwestern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. This brings even more attention to the already existing issue of forced child marriages in the Middle Eastern region.”
As I said, this is not uncommon. “It is reported that over a quarter of Yemen’s young girls are married before the age of 15. Not only do they lose access to health and education, these child brides are commonly subjected to physical, emotional and sexual violence in their forced marriage.”
Of course this is happening because Muhammad, the ideal example of humanity, was quite keen on young girls. He married Aisha for example at age six, and consummated his relationship with her at age nine. So Muslim men are encouraged to do the same, often with the same tragic results as this poor girl.
But as I mentioned, the West is not immune from the wrath of Islam. While churches are burning in Egypt and Syria, they are also burning in places like Sweden. In Muslim areas there, churches are not altogether safe, with one Pentecostal church destroyed by an arson attack just recently, although police investigations are still ongoing.
Meanwhile back in Syria the anti-Christian rebels there have declared that Bibles are worse than chemical weapons. Says one report, “A video apparently made by some of the Islamists fighting and killing each other and the population in Syria reveals quantities of Bibles and biblical materials, such as the Book of John, as a narrator describes them as being ‘more dangerous than chemical weapons.’
“The video appeared yesterday, just as reports were coming out of Syria about how the Islamist rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s army were ‘liberating’ villages, and then forcing Christians there to convert to Islam or be beheaded.”
And these are the rebels being supported by Obama. As Thomas Sowell comments, “Whatever the Obama rhetoric, the reality is that his policies in Egypt and Libya have led to replacing stable regimes, at peace with Israel and the West, and tolerant of their own Christian minorities, with chaotic regimes in which fanatical anti-Western terrorists have played a large and growing role, with hostility to Israel and murderous attacks on Christians in their own country.”
Syria offers us more of the same. But Australia too has its issues. Consider Sydney, where the name Muhammad is becoming one of the most common names given to newborn baby boys. As one news item states, “In a sign of the state’s cultural and religious diversity, Muhammad is now officially one of our most popular baby names.
”The moniker cracked the state’s top 100 baby names for the first time last year – but varying spellings have actually seen it in sitting in the top quarter of NSW baby boy names for the last three years, figures from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages reveal.
“Boys named Muhammed, Mohamed, Muhammed or Mohammed combined to make the top 25 most popular names in NSW for the first time in 2010, with a total of 312 NSW parents naming their child after the Islamic prophet. The trend appears on track to repeat this year, with 161 boys named Muhammed or one of its variants in the first seven months of 2013.”
As I have discussed elsewhere, when Muslims reach a critical mass in any given Western nation, the demands for sharia law and a two-tiered society increase exponentially. The demographic revolution usually precedes the stealth jihad revolution.
So problems we witness elsewhere increasingly become our problems. Thus these trends need to be monitored closely, and we need to be aware of what is taking place in other countries. While we are always to love, pray for, and share our faith with individual Muslims, none of us should be ignorant of or naive about political Islam, and all the damage, destruction and death that occurs whenever it is given free rein.
I’m glad Magistrate Milledge stood her ground and forced Mohammed Issai Issaka, one of the Muslim rioters to apologise when he refused to stand for her in court recently.
It’s so important to stand firm when these sorts of things are tested!
“A Muslim man stood crying in court as he apologised after he was ordered to do so or face being charged with contempt for having refused to stand before a female magistrate. Mohammed Issai Issaka said to Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge that he was genuinely sorry for his contemptuous conduct during a hearing in May this year.
His repeated refusal to stand at his hearing in May over assault charges in relation to riots in Hyde Park last year caused outrage in the community.
Reading from a written apology on Monday in Downing Centre Local Court, Mr Issaka said: “I wish to make an unreserved apology to the court and to your honour. I wish to explain that I had formed a sincere religious belief that I did not have to stand for any man or woman. The reason I did not stand was because of this belief. It was not because of your honour’s gender.”
He said he did not intend to show disrespect or contempt.
“I sincerely apologise to the court and to your honour.”
Magistrate Milledge said she accepted his apology and said she understood it “is not an easy thing for you to do”.
She explained to him that judicial officers take an oath to deal with all people before the court equally, regardless of race or religion, and the court expects to be given the respect it deserves.
“Do you even know any Muslims? Because I have a Muslim friend who is nicer than most Christians…”
This is how my conversations usually go with Christians when it comes to Islam. It’s like a delusion of tolerance that prevents them from being able to critically examine Islam as the ideology it is, the same way any sane person can examine and despise Nazism for its claims and practice. Guaranteed, Islam and Nazism are of the same demonic spirit and sooner or later we will all realise just how much. Lets not be deluded so as to be surprised.
The increasing violence and persecution in the Middle East, particularly Egypt and Syria, is trumped only by the testimonies of God at work bringing Muslims to Christ and purifying the church. It’s a pity many Christians aren’t aware or interested enough to find out what is happening. Nonetheless, God is good!
Simon Fox
Bill there is a need for Christians in particular to understand Islam in order to understand it’s world view. It will become very clear that both the Holy Bible and the Koran have two very different authors.
There is a debate in the Melbourne CBD on the Thursday 19th September.
The topic is “Jesus or Muhammad-who is the best model for humanity today?”
Speakers Dr Bernie Power and Mr Faraz Nomoni Muslim Apologist
7.30pm – 9.30pm
At the Melbourne City Conference Centre
333 Swanston Street.
Book tickets from http://www.trybooking.com
Booking code DMTZ
Ordinary Tickets $10 or Concession $5.00
The remarks about child brides in certain Islamic cultural contexts suggest that the Western notion of an age of consent with regard to delineating between statutory rape and lawful consensual marital sexual intercourse is under threat from both a certain religious fundamentalist tradition and from certain “sexual libertarians” who follow Kinsey and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in endorsing children as “sexual beings” from birth with rights to sexual intimacy and autonomy, even before their bodies are biologically prepared via the changes of adolescence or their characters are mature enough to support adult intimate relationships and marriage.
John Wigg
I can’t remember an election where we voted for the party that offered to open the doors to mass Muslim immigration and the imposition of sharia law. “We the people” have been duped.
We can fight this with passive resistance, boycott halal certified foods, write to food manufactures and tell them you refuse to pay a food tax to the Muslim brotherhood, put pressure on your local member, comment on blogs, share articles on Facebook, write to newspapers; by all means to win some.
See link, not from a Christian but he makes a point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYq2DQG1zI&feature=share
Des Morris
Do you think the Russian offer may have been an answer to prayer in that it may 1 prevent military action by America, which, because of their misinformed belief would have hit the wrong target and 2 because it may yet help expose that it was the rebels and not the Assad regime that used the chemical weapons last months, though both sides obviously have them, as the regime has admitted to that already?
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Islam as a set of beliefs would not be acceptable as a registered political party in any democracy. If a political party treated non-members the same as Islam tells its members to treat ‘unbelievers’, the executives of the Party would be tried for hate speech.
Ruth Beardsley
Islamic beliefs and practices concerning females should not be acceptable to feminists but the feminists’ silence on this is deafening!
Jo Deller
Simon, this is what Churchill says about Islam and Moslems. It is a very accurate quote.
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. t has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step, and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it (Islam) has vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
The fact is that some Muslims don’t bother to follow their tenants doesn’t mean that they are right. They might be friendly and I do know some Muslims who are friendly, but they are simply ignoring most of the tenants of Islam.
Force is the last resort of every false religion.
Greg Sadler
I’m glad Magistrate Milledge stood her ground and forced Mohammed Issai Issaka, one of the Muslim rioters to apologise when he refused to stand for her in court recently.
It’s so important to stand firm when these sorts of things are tested!
“A Muslim man stood crying in court as he apologised after he was ordered to do so or face being charged with contempt for having refused to stand before a female magistrate. Mohammed Issai Issaka said to Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge that he was genuinely sorry for his contemptuous conduct during a hearing in May this year.
His repeated refusal to stand at his hearing in May over assault charges in relation to riots in Hyde Park last year caused outrage in the community.
Reading from a written apology on Monday in Downing Centre Local Court, Mr Issaka said: “I wish to make an unreserved apology to the court and to your honour. I wish to explain that I had formed a sincere religious belief that I did not have to stand for any man or woman. The reason I did not stand was because of this belief. It was not because of your honour’s gender.”
He said he did not intend to show disrespect or contempt.
“I sincerely apologise to the court and to your honour.”
Magistrate Milledge said she accepted his apology and said she understood it “is not an easy thing for you to do”.
She explained to him that judicial officers take an oath to deal with all people before the court equally, regardless of race or religion, and the court expects to be given the respect it deserves.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/man-offers-tearful-apology-to-female-magistrate-20130902-2szyr.html#ixzz2eUSyZ0OW
Jo Deller
“Do you even know any Muslims? Because I have a Muslim friend who is nicer than most Christians…”
This is how my conversations usually go with Christians when it comes to Islam. It’s like a delusion of tolerance that prevents them from being able to critically examine Islam as the ideology it is, the same way any sane person can examine and despise Nazism for its claims and practice. Guaranteed, Islam and Nazism are of the same demonic spirit and sooner or later we will all realise just how much. Lets not be deluded so as to be surprised.
The increasing violence and persecution in the Middle East, particularly Egypt and Syria, is trumped only by the testimonies of God at work bringing Muslims to Christ and purifying the church. It’s a pity many Christians aren’t aware or interested enough to find out what is happening. Nonetheless, God is good!
Simon Fox
Bill there is a need for Christians in particular to understand Islam in order to understand it’s world view. It will become very clear that both the Holy Bible and the Koran have two very different authors.
There is a debate in the Melbourne CBD on the Thursday 19th September.
The topic is “Jesus or Muhammad-who is the best model for humanity today?”
Speakers Dr Bernie Power and Mr Faraz Nomoni Muslim Apologist
7.30pm – 9.30pm
At the Melbourne City Conference Centre
333 Swanston Street.
Book tickets from http://www.trybooking.com
Booking code DMTZ
Ordinary Tickets $10 or Concession $5.00
Facebook details: http://on.fb.me/18BkA14
Mobile 0449 768 932
0431 785 232
Keith Lewis
The remarks about child brides in certain Islamic cultural contexts suggest that the Western notion of an age of consent with regard to delineating between statutory rape and lawful consensual marital sexual intercourse is under threat from both a certain religious fundamentalist tradition and from certain “sexual libertarians” who follow Kinsey and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in endorsing children as “sexual beings” from birth with rights to sexual intimacy and autonomy, even before their bodies are biologically prepared via the changes of adolescence or their characters are mature enough to support adult intimate relationships and marriage.
John Wigg
I can’t remember an election where we voted for the party that offered to open the doors to mass Muslim immigration and the imposition of sharia law. “We the people” have been duped.
We can fight this with passive resistance, boycott halal certified foods, write to food manufactures and tell them you refuse to pay a food tax to the Muslim brotherhood, put pressure on your local member, comment on blogs, share articles on Facebook, write to newspapers; by all means to win some.
See link, not from a Christian but he makes a point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYq2DQG1zI&feature=share
Des Morris
Do you think the Russian offer may have been an answer to prayer in that it may 1 prevent military action by America, which, because of their misinformed belief would have hit the wrong target and 2 because it may yet help expose that it was the rebels and not the Assad regime that used the chemical weapons last months, though both sides obviously have them, as the regime has admitted to that already?
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Islam as a set of beliefs would not be acceptable as a registered political party in any democracy. If a political party treated non-members the same as Islam tells its members to treat ‘unbelievers’, the executives of the Party would be tried for hate speech.
Ruth Beardsley
Islamic beliefs and practices concerning females should not be acceptable to feminists but the feminists’ silence on this is deafening!
Jo Deller
Simon, this is what Churchill says about Islam and Moslems. It is a very accurate quote.
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. t has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step, and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it (Islam) has vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
The fact is that some Muslims don’t bother to follow their tenants doesn’t mean that they are right. They might be friendly and I do know some Muslims who are friendly, but they are simply ignoring most of the tenants of Islam.
Ian Nairn