Free speech jilted by Muhammad romance novel 'warpath'

From Diana West writing at Townhall.com [boldface mine]:

Reading about the late Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, we are reminded of his epic force of will -- despite the threat to life and limb posed by the Soviet police state -- to bear witness, to document, to record everything he could about totalitarianism in the USSR.

Then, reading about Random House Publishing Group, which called off the publication of a romance novel about Muhammad "for fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims," we should be reminded of something else: How apt was Solzhenitsyn's much-maligned critique of the West, which he excoriated for, among other things, a decline in "civil courage" that was "particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elites.". . .

What happened with a romance novel at Random House this summer isn't going to change any epochs -- but it may tell us something about how much our times have already changed.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, author Sherry Jones also "toiled," writing weekends since 2002 to tell a "tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem" through a fictionalized story of Aisha, Muhammad's 9-year-old bride. All was well enough until Random House sent out galleys of the book to seek endorsements from writers and scholars. Among them was Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas at Austin. According to the Journal, Spellberg read the novel and became "frantic," explaining, "You can't play with a sacred history and turn it into soft-core pornography."

You can't? Says who in our free-speech world?

Says Islam in our formerly free-speech world. (That's what I mean about how much our times have changed.) Whether Spellberg is herself a Muslim isn't clear, but she certainly went on the warpath (jihadpath?) over this bodice-ripper (burqa-ripper?), activating a chain of Muslim bloggers and Web sites that spread the word, as one Islamic Web site put it, about a "new attempt to slander the Prophet of Islam." Soon, there was a "seven-point strategy" online to ensure "the writer withdraws this book" and apologizes to "Muslims across the world."

But that turned out to be unnecessary. Spellberg also e-mailed her editor at Random House -- did I mention Spellberg has a contract with another Random House imprint to write a book called "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an"? -- labeling the Jones novel nothing less than "a declaration of war," "a national security issue," and "far more controversial" than either "The Satanic Verses" or the Danish cartoons. She said the book should be withdrawn "ASAP."

And so it was after Random House consulted "security experts and Islam scholars" -- possibly the same ones who urged the U.S. government never again to use the words "Islamic" or "jihad," but I digress. Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said the company received "cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some of the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

So, Perry, by all means, just give in to this thuggish blackmail. In fact, why not just stop publishing altogether?. . .

Read it all. And Diana writes on her own blog:

. . . I wrote about the story this week, using the example of Solzhenitsyn to highlight the cravenness of the US publisher. But that's not the end of the story--or, at least, it shouldn't be. Random House, a key component in the workings of free speech in the Western world, has been dictated to by just the threat of jihad in the air. What next? Has anyone noticed? Does anyone--say, editorial writers, free speech advocates, city fathers, the PTA. Congress or maybe even our two presidential hopefuls--even care?

The perils of conversion *Updated*

UPDATE: A very interesting comment line going on at Stand Firm on this presentation and the topic of evangelizing in Muslim countries. Take a look.

Original: From EpiscopalLife Online, a story on the Everyone, Everywhere World Mission Conference (June 5-8) held at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute near Baltimore, Maryland. It was also a joint meeting of the Global Episcopal Mission Network (GEM) and the Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission (EPGM).

But lest this sound too "evangelistic" for you, be reassured that ECUSA is still ECUSA [boldface mine]:

. . . The Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler, Episcopal missionary and author and the conference's June 6 plenary speaker, urged participants to work to "bridge this chasm of misunderstanding" between Christianity and Islam, not by seeking to convert Muslims but by working to form interfaith friendships in which both religions can explore all that the two faith have in common.

"Our starting point always has to be to see the redeeming values of the other," he said.

Muslims who are pressured into converting to Christianity suffer in what Chandler called a "total break with society," describing how Christian converts from Islam in Senegal, where he grew up as the son of Christian missionaries, were exiled for the choice they made.

"They ended up getting Jesus, but the rest of their life was hell," he said.

Chandler said he feels called to help find another way of showing Muslims about the way of Christ. Muslims must be able see Christ in the lives of Christians, not simply be told about Christ, he said.

Chandler, who is the rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Cairo, suggested that Christians use the Five Pillars of Islam as a way to explore their common religious heritage with Muslims. That commonality is centered in the fact that Jesus was a Middle Eastern man whom Islam reveres, he said.

To the five pillars, Chandler added the concept of jihad, noting that the Qu'ran characterizes jihad as an internal wrestling towards God's intention for one's life. Christians must "actively wage peace on Islam," he said.

Concerning the shahada -- the first pillar, which calls for a profession of faith -- he compared the Muslim proclamation of "There is no god except for God and Muhammad is the messenger of God" to the earliest Christian creed simply professed as "Jesus is Lord."

With the pillar of Salat calling for ritual prayers done in the proper way five times each day, Chandler compared Christianity's emphasis on proper postures for prayers and the east-facing orientation of traditional churches.

Of the practice of Zakat -- charity -- Chandler suggested that Christians need to act charitably toward Muslims, loving what they love in themselves and their culture. When Christians act as the guests of Muslims and not their conquerors, "they know it, they sense it instinctively, even if you speak not a word of Arabic," he said.

Chandler noted the commonality between the pillar of Sawm -- fasting during Ramadan -- and the Lenten fast. He also suggested that Christians and Muslims must "fast" from the implication of both religions' notion that Christianity is a western religion. Christians and Muslims must return Jesus to his incarnated cultural context and remember that the Bible is not a western text received yesterday but a "collection of ancient Middle Eastern texts."

Finally, Chandler pointed out that both Muslims and Christian are called to the Hajj, or pilgrimage. He urged Christians to act more like pilgrims asking for directions and seeking companions on the way, rather than assuming they have already arrived at the truth that they need to proclaim to unquestioning listeners.

He reminded the participants that both Christians and Muslims hold dear Psalm 84, whose fourth verse says: "Happy are the people whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way.". . .

Read it all.

Free Mark Steyn!

For those wondering what Binky's been up to these days, he's been performing a very valuable public service in Canada, covering the Mark Steyn/Maclean's trial before the British Columbia Human Rights tribunal.

Check out info here and here. What a farce (and scary, too)! I, however, could read Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant all day--whether you agree with them or not, they are both a joy to read.

AAC weekly message from Bishop David Anderson

Via email, from the American Anglican Council [boldface mine]:

Beloved in Christ,

Orthodox Anglicans are under attack from several quarters, with the rise of Islamic militancy in England and the press of homosexual advancement, which affect many areas of everyday life, from the courts to the market place to the schools.

In the first area, we note the disturbing trend in England of Anglican clergy being threatened in their own parishes by militant young Muslims who want to chase them out. We also note that the Church of England freezes like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming automobile whenever Muslim issues are raised. If CofE bishops believe that Jesus is the Way, and the Truth and the Life, and none come unto the Father except through him...and that statement is fairly direct - from Jesus himself, then why will they not allow discussion of evangelization to Muslims at the upcoming Synod? Are they frightened? You would have to think so, but why are the bishops frightened?

Not all are. The bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, has been bold, truthful and prophetic, and many ecclesiastics in England don't want to listen to him. He said there were "No-Go areas" where Christians ventured at their peril. On the other hand, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said that Sharia Law is probably inevitable in some areas. What a contrast!

Now we read of two Christian preachers handing out Christian tracts to Muslims in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham, who were harrassed by the police for allegedly being involved in "hate" activities. My friends, if Western Civilization doesn't get its act together, we will certainly deserve the hell that is visited upon us. Wouldn't you think that someone should have arrested the police officer involved? The West Midlands Police apparently refused to apologize, although an investigation of the officer's actions was promised.

At the other end of the faith spectrum is the press of global homosexual activism. In the US, California's Supreme Court has ruled that the state must provide for homosexuals to marry legally. Meanwhile, a voter-led referendum has been qualified for this autumn's ballot which would put a change into the California Constitution that would limit marriage to between a man and a woman. In California, it often happens that laws and major changes have to be implemented by popular referendum of the people, since most of the public representatives and officials are in the grip of the homosexual lobby. Power to the people!

In England the government enforcement of pro-homosexual rules on adoption threaten to close the Roman Catholic adoption agencies. An article covering this issue points to some new options, however, if the agencies stipulate that their operations will be based on the religious and moral principles of the Catholic Faith. We pray that the RC's strategists will prevail and their agencies' good work will continue.

In the Episcopal Wars in the USA, the national Episcopal Church (TEC), has launched both a legal and public relations attack on the departed diocese of San Joaquin and the diocesan, Bishop John-David Schofield. Upon discovering that the Diocese of San Joaquin and Bishop Schofield, now affiliated with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, were in the process of moving assets into a Merrill Lynch account, they promptly named Merrill Lynch in the lawsuit already underway. Merrill Lynch, as most brokerages and banks in that position would do, froze the accounts until the court determines who the "rightful" owner is. San Joaquin's mistake was several fold: waiting so long to reposition the assets; putting them in a brokerage or bank that did not already understand the risk of litigation; and putting them in an account where TEC could so easily apply pressure.

Many churches departing TEC have learned the hard way that the first thing that hostile TEC operatives do is to visit the bank of record and present new signature cards. The bank panics and freezes the account until the court tells them which signature cards are the valid ones. Meanwhile the true owners of the bank accounts are unable to access their own money. There are ways to avoid this, of course, if care is taken to prevent this type of seizure, but it involves anticipating what TEC is going to do before they do it.

All of this is accompanied by slanted news releases from the official Episcopal Church party organ, Episcopal News Service (ENS). They are fond of referring to Bishop Schofield as "former bishop John-David Schofield," to convey the idea that their irregular attempt at deposition of Schofield successfully changed his status to that of a layman in the church. TEC seems unwilling to acknowledge that Bishop Schofield was accepted as a bishop into the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, and thereby his status as a bishop was moved from TEC to the Southern Cone. Even if their deposition is finally held to have been effective, they lost jurisdiction over him before the "trial," and could at best only extinguish his right to function as a bishop in TEC. The Province of the Southern Cone holds the jurisdiction over his functioning as a bishop, yet the ENS continues to refer to him as "former bishop Schofield," and then as "Mr. Schofield." Although titles in themselves aren't that important, TEC actually puts great stock in them, and their refusal to use the title of bishop for Schofield, and instead insist on using "Mr." tells us that TEC must think that this is really important. Unfortunately, that makes them not only wrong, but petty.

Midway between those who have left The Episcopal Church and hard-core TEC'ers, a new Anglican group has formed. Communion Partners is made up of those not wishing to or unable to leave TEC, but believing that good things could still come of working with the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, primus inter pares. The new group says of itself, "The Communion Partner bishops will work together according to the principles outlined in the Windsor Report and seek a comprehensive Anglican Covenant at the Lambeth Conference and beyond." Three or four years ago this would have sounded better to us, but our observation is that neither Presiding Bishop Schori nor Archbishop Williams can be relied upon for any agreement, any implementation, or any safety for those of orthodox faith. We wish the Communion Partners well, and pray that God will protect them from harm and from the duplicity and deceit that many of us have encountered coming from TEC and Lambeth Palace. The Windsor Report was actually a flawed document from the beginning, but we think we could have lived with it if it were fully and strongly enforced across the board... failing that, we would look elsewhere for a better Anglican future.

Blessings and Peace in Christ Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council

American Anglican Council weekly update

Via email, a message from AAC president, Bishop David Anderson [boldface mine]:

Beloved in Christ,

Although the besetting sins of the American Episcopal Church have been teaching paths to God other than through Jesus Christ and playing down the authority of Holy Scripture, the aspect that most people see is the relentless pushing of the homosexual agenda. We read in the Los Angeles Diocese's "Episcopal News" Update from May 25, 2008, that Episcopalians are encouraged to join in the Los Angeles Gay Pride parade on June 8. We quote: "The Bishop's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Ministry invites the diocesan community to join them and Bishop J. Jon Bruno to march and pray in this year's Los Angeles LGBT Pride parade on Sunday, June 8." It goes on to say that "Episcopalians will gather for a celebration of the Eucharist at 9 am in the Bank of America parking lot at the northeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Crescent Heights in West Hollywood before moving elsewhere to line up for the parade."

Doesn't that just warm your heart, knowing that not only are misguided clergy and laity supporting Gay Pride, but Episcopal/Anglican bishops are, too - even riding on a float. This is not a new occurrence in the LA Diocese, because each year the bishops take turns participating. The real question is, "When will Katharine Jefferts Schori be photographed riding on a float for Gay Pride?" And it isn't just in Los Angeles; the Episcopal Church bishops and priests are often represented in Gay Pride parades around the country.

It appears, if an article by Hilary White for LifeSite News is true, that now the British Government will officially, though covertly, push the homosexual agenda using all of their embassies and chancery offices around the world, even if that subverts the law of the nation they are in. This is truly breathtaking news, and raises a profound question if true: is there in fact an organized international effort to corrupt the moral climate of the entire world? If the story is true, this public exposure of the British diplomatic agenda will have far-reaching consequences. Within England, the governments' pro-homosexual legislation has caused the Roman Catholic Church to begin pulling out of the adoption ministry, because all agencies will have to handle adoptions for homosexual couples as well as for married heterosexual ones. Lost will be a vital ministry which helps both small children and couples desiring a child, along with the millions of pounds sterling poured into these agencies by Roman Catholics for buildings and services.

Word has reached us of Islamic attacks in northern Nigeria, and churches being burned. Apparently the Islamic tactic of kidnapping young girls, forcing them to convert to Islam, and then marrying them off to Muslim men, has finally resulted in police action. Although the girls in this case were rescued by the police and taken out of the area for safety, this is something that many in our Christian Anglican family have to deal with when they are a minority in Islamic Sharia Law areas. Is England ready for this? The Archbishop of Canterbury has already said that Sharia Law is "probably inevitable" in England. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has a better idea - why not introduce Muslims to the real Christian faith and give them the opportunity to be freed from misunderstandings and become an inheritor of eternal life through Jesus Christ? In the meanwhile, let us pray for those Christians in northern Nigeria whose lives and property are today at risk.

Moving from the global back to the local, the number of dioceses that are protesting the form and manner of the depositions of Bishops Cox and Schofield, done at the last House of Bishops' meeting, continues to grow. South Carolina and Central Florida have been joined by Springfield, Northern Indiana, Western Louisiana, and more may follow.

Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council

Moral issues divide Westerners from Muslims in the West: Abortion

From Gallup, a poll on some moral issues. I've highlighted the one on abortion [bolface mine]:

With respect to abortion, the French public (77%) is also far more likely than the Britons (58%), Germans (52%), and Americans (40%) to say that it is morally acceptable. And while Muslim respondents' attitudes on this issue vary across communities, they are less likely than Westerners polled to believe it is morally acceptable: 34% of Berlin Muslims, 24% of Paris Muslims, and 10% of London Muslims believe abortion is morally acceptable. Religious Americans (22%) are also far less likely than the European and the U.S. publics surveyed to believe abortion is morally acceptable.

Next I'm going to read you a list. For each item on the list, please tell me whether you personally believe that it is morally acceptable or morally wrong:

H/t to the Western Standard (Canada).

Pope discusses Islam relations with Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams

From Reuters:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury discussed Christian-Muslim relations on Monday in their first meeting since the Anglican leader caused a storm with comments on the role of Sharia law in Britain.

The Vatican said the Pope had received Rowan Williams in a private audience but gave no details.

An Anglican spokesman said the two spoke privately for about 20 minutes and discussed Christian-Muslim relations, inter-faith dialogue and the Pope's impression of his visit to the United States last month.

He described the visit, the second official meeting between the Pope and the spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, as "warm and friendly".

In March Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's top man for relations with Islam, criticised Williams as mistaken and "naive" for suggesting that it was unavoidable that some aspects of Sharia, Islamic law, would be adopted in Britain. . .

Read it all.

Something to ponder. . .

Just think about this for a minute - Mozart was performed publicly for the first time. . . Think about that again.

It's 2008. . . Mozart died in 1791.

From the Associated Press [boldface mine]:

A first for Saudis: Mozart performed publicly and women can attend

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - It's probably as revolutionary and groundbreaking as Mozart gets these days. A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia's first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender audience.

The concert, held at a government-run cultural centre, broke many taboos in a country where public music is banned and the sexes are segregated even in lines at fast food outlets.

The Friday night performance could be yet another indication that this strict Muslim kingdom is looking to open up to the rest of the world. . .

Public concerts are practically unheard of in the kingdom. Foreign embassies and consulates regularly bring musical groups, but they perform on embassy grounds or in expatriates' residential compounds, and the shows are not open to the public.

In the past couple of months, however, there has been a quiet, yet marked increase in cultural activities in Saudi Arabia. Lectures and a couple of segregated folk music performances were held on the sidelines of Riyadh's book fair. And Jiddah's annual Economic Forum opened with a surprise this February: a performance of Arab and western music.

"For half an hour, we did not quite know whether we had stumbled into an unknown Jiddah nightclub or whether it was some amazing mistake that would suddenly stop," wrote Michel Cousins in the English-language daily Arab News, describing the 30-minute show.

Friday's concert of works by works by Mozart, Brahms and Paul Juon was the first classical performance held in public in Saudi Arabia, said German press attache Georg Klussmann. It was advertised on the embassy's website with free tickets that could be downloaded and printed.

The excitement in the 500-seat hall was palpable as the largely expatriate audience walked in. . .

Japanese pianist Hiroko Atsumi, the quartet's only woman, said there was some debate before the concert about whether she should perform in an abaya, the enveloping black cloak all women must wear in public. She ended up settling on a long green top and black trousers. . .

Faleh al-Ajami, a university Arabic language professor, brought his wife and two sons to the concert, a rare opportunity for the whole family to do something fun together.

"It's a good step to introduce Saudis to classical music," al-Ajami, 50, said during the intermission.

"I was amazed at the sounds coming from the musical instruments," said his son Ziad al-Ajami, 11, a fan of hard rock. "I've never been to a live concert before."

For the expatriates, the evening was an opportunity to have a normal evening out in Riyadh, a city with no movie theatres and where women are not allowed in outdoor cafes.

One foreign couple held hands, while another husband put his arm around his wife's shoulders, both rare public displays of affection in the kingdom. The mutuwwa, the dreaded religious police tasked with enforcing public morality, were nowhere to be seen for a change. . .

But not everyone was impressed.

Abdullah al-Sabhan, his brother and three friends received invitations from a German business associate, but after half an hour, they left quietly.

"I'm bored," said al-Sabhan, 26, an engineer who prefers Egyptian pop music and had never heard of Mozart. "Let me leave before the second piece begins."

His brother, Saud, dismissed the notion that gatherings involving men and women together might one day become the norm.

"Saudi society wouldn't accept it. And girls aren't used to such mixed gatherings," he said, adding that if he had a sister, she certainly would not have been allowed to attend.

Read it all.

Rule Britannia no more: St. George's parade scrapped

From the Daily Star (U.K.):

A MARCH to celebrate St George’s Day has been axed – because the authorities fear it could spark race riots.

About 1,500 children were due to take part in a parade to commemorate the patron saint of England on Wednesday.

But council bosses in Bradford, West Yorks, have ditched the event over concerns it could upset the Asian community, many of them Muslim.

They feared a repeat of riots that hit the city in 2001, when an Asian man was stabbed by National Front supporters and 300 police were injured. Officials suggested making the route shorter to avoid areas where the riots took place. . .

Read it all.
H/t to Gateway Pundit.

Uganda: Gadaffi ignorant

In response to this earlier report (Libya: Bible a forgery, says Col. Gadaffi), a follow-up from allAfrica.com:

THE Libyan leader's mid-week frontal attack on the Bible has continued to elicit strong responses from Christian and non-Christian leaders alike, with Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga describing Col. Muammar Gadaffi's views as provocative.

"Had the Christians said something similar [about] the Koran, there would be war," Dr Lwanga, who is the Catholic archbishop of Kampala, said during Good Friday prayers at Nakivubo Stadium. "But we need to forgive him and pray for his conversion."

Interestingly, Col. Gadaffi questioned the Bible's authenticity at the same Nakivubo Stadium in Kampala on Wednesday while leading celebrations to mark the birth of Prophet Muhammad.

The Libyan leader said that someone had deleted the name of Prophet Muhammad from the text of the Bible and as such it is a forgery. He thus called for the search of the genuine Bible.

But Christian leaders are having none of it.

"To say that the Bible is a forgery because Prophet Muhammad is not included [is] distorting religious facts," Dr Lwanga said. "The Koran came in 610 AD long after the Bible [had been written] in 1450 BC. How can we be blamed for not including what was not in existence?"

MP David Bahati (NRM, Ndorwa West), the secretary of the Uganda Parliamentary Fellowship, said yesterday that Col. Gadaffi's remarks were a direct attack on the principles of tolerance and co-existence.

"It is clear that Col. Gadaffi's views had nothing to do with the Muslims in Uganda and our people should ignore his remarks," Mr Bahati said. "We have lived together harmoniously and no one should promote disunity among our people."

Some Muslims appear to have also been taken aback by the directness of the Libyan colonel.

MP Ibrahim Kadunabbi (NRM, Butambala), the chairman of the Uganda Muslim Parliamentary Caucus, said: "As Muslims, we are mandated to reflect on our utterances, this is what religion says. It was crucial for Col. Gadaffi to first think over before saying anything like that to avoid causing problems."

Makerere University Chaplain Larry Kanyike dismissed Col. Gadaffi as a man ignorant of the subject he was talking about.

"Gadaffi attacked the Bible because he is a Muslim and assumes that other religions are secondary, which is not correct," Fr Kanyike said yesterday. "Gadaffi is a politician, not a biblical scholar.". . .

The Libyan's views have so roiled the waters that various Christian groups are falling over themselves in condemnation.

"This issue cannot be taken lightly," said the Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye, the provincial secretary of the Church of Uganda speaking on behalf of Archbishop Luke Orombi.

"For us in the Church of Uganda, we have already issued a statement on this matter. But again, under our umbrella organisation [the Uganda Joint Christian Council - UJCC] we are going to issue another statement on Tuesday on the same matter because we're deeply concerned."

Archbishop Orombi is reported to be on a working trip out of the country. Fr Kanyike of Makerere said calls being made by some sections of the Christian community for Col. Gadaffi to apologise "are useless because Gadaffi does not understand what he was talking about and you cannot base an apology on ignorance".

Several Christian leaders demanded an apology from the Libyans on the same day Col. Gadaffi spoke out.

The government, which appears to be feeling the heat generated by the President's guest who abruptly left the country on Thursday, is meanwhile keeping quiet hoping the furore will run its course and die out. . .

Read it all.

Libya: Bible a forgery, says Col. Gadaffi

From allAfrica.com [boldface mine]:

Hussein Bogere, Kampala

COLONEL Muammar Gadaffi yesterday celebrated the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Muhammad with a two-hour speech in which he attacked the Scandinavian countries for besmirching the Prophet, the Arabs for monopolising the Kaaba and signed off by describing the Bible as a forgery.

Speaking to the mammoth crowd that braved the afternoon heat in Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium after leading the Thuhur (afternoon) prayer, Col. Gadaffi said any Bible and Tora (Old Testament) that does not mention Prophet Muhammad was written by mankind and therefore a fraud.

"The Bible we have now is not the one that was revealed to Issa [Jesus] and the Old Testament is not the one that was revealed to Musa. Muhammad is mentioned in both (original versions), but the Tora and Bible we have now, there is no mention of him," the Libyan leader, more known for his controversial statements than his piety, said.

"It means that it (Bible) has been forged. Prophet Muhammad was sent to mankind. Allah wanted mankind to have one religion. The Koran that we have is the only book that was sent by Allah. We believe in the Bible as well as the Tora.". . .

President Museveni said he would put the Archbishop of Uganda, Luke Orombi and Bishop Cyprian Lwanga of Kampala Archdiocese to task to explain the omission of Prophet Muhammad from the Bible. He thanked Col. Gadaffi for the help he has extended to Islam in Uganda.

Col. Gadaffi's remarks, just like the similar ones he made exactly a year ago in West Africa are bound to court some controversy in a deeply religious Uganda. . .

Wouldn't you love to hear ++Orombi's response?

Read it all.

Ruth Gledhill: Archbishop's Q & A on Sharia

From Ruth Gledhill's blog at the TimesOnline (U.K.), a write-up of the transcript of Archbishop Rowan's interview that started all the contentiousness (but before you read that, go to Iowahawk for the "poetic" reaction, Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte):

I've obtained a transcript of the Q&A the Archbishop of Canterbury did after last Thursday's lecture. The text throws a little more light on what precisely he was trying to get at. One thing leaped out at me. Although he emphasised again was not talking about 'parallel jurisdictions', he did say he wanted 'to look for parallel situations'. And he did also advocate 'supplementary jurisdiction' to the law of the state. As Melanie Phillips said on last night's Question Time, there really is not that great a distinction between a parallel and a supplementary jurisdiction. I draw your attention once again to Mary Ann Sieghart's article, which gets to the heart of why so many have been so offended by Dr Rowan Williams' remarks. Lapido Media in its blog believes the Archbishop has done the world a favour by 'dropping a bomb' on multiculturalism.

One of the answers he gave was about usury, both sinful and illegal in Islam, as it was once considered by many in Judaism and Christianity but is no longer. Except, it appears, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Judging from what he says here, he really would like the whole of our banking system converted to a Sharia-compliant one as 'a way of addressing serious poverty.' Interesting, then, that some of the most serious poverty in the world subsists among the Sharia-compliant Muslim communities in this and other countries.

You can download for yourself the entire transcript of the post-lecture questions and the Archbishop's answers.

Here are some extracts that I found of interest. . .

Read it all.

MCJ fisks ++Rowan - and hilarity (with a whiff of despair) ensues)

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard or read of the remarks by our Archbishop of Canterbury on the inevitability of sharia law in Britain. For an up-to-the-minute takedown of ++Rowan's comments, where do you go?

To Christopher Johnson, of course, at the Midwest Conservative Journal. Because if you aren't laughing at this, you'd have to cry.

'Islamic Jesus' hits Iranian movie screens

From the AFP:

A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians.

Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong".

"Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that," he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified. . .

Even in Iran, "Jesus, The Spirit of God" had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.

The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.

Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ's final hours on earth. . .

"By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity," he said.

The director is also keen to emphasise the links between Jesus and one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, the Imam Mahdi, said to have disappeared 12 centuries ago but whose "return" to earth has been a key tenet of the Ahmadinejad presidency. . .

The bulk of "Jesus, the Spirit of God", which won an award at the 2007 Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, faithfully follows the traditional tale of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament Gospels, a narrative reproduced in the Koran and accepted by Muslims.

But in Talebzadeh's movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.

"It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus" but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.

Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets -- others being Noah, Moses and Abraham -- sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus' followers as "people of the book". . .

Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, believe Jesus will accompany the Imam Mahdi when he reappears in a future apocalypse to save the world.

And Talebzadeh said the TV version of his film will further explore the links between Jesus and the Mahdi -- whose return Ahmadinejad has said his government, which came to power in 2005, is working to hasten.

Shiites believe the Mahdi's reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony. . .

Read it all.

Rami Ayyad - remembering ‘a genuine martyr’

I'm a few days late with this since it's really an All Souls' Day posting, but check out Cranmer's piece on Rami Ayyad:

Please light a candle today in memory of Rami Ayyad, whom the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, called ‘a genuine martyr’.

The murder of the Palestinian-Arab Christian Bookseller casts a tragic light upon the attitudes adopted by major Christian organisations to the problems of the Middle East.

Rami Ayyad was manager of the Palestinian Bible Society Bookshop in Gaza City. He was abducted on Saturday 6th October shortly after closing his shop for the day, and his corpse was found early next morning. His funeral took place the same day. The staff at the Palestinian Bible Society work against a constant backdrop of violence and conflict. They face the threat of attack daily. But they are dedicated to demonstrating the Bible’s life-changing message to the Palestinian people.

According to those who knew him, Rami Ayyad loved to share the Good News. He is described as a smiling, loving big guy, the face of the Bible Society in Gaza, with a heart full of the love of Jesus. We rest in the knowledge that he is now with the Lord, for ‘we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, and eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands’ ( 2Cor 5:1).

But here on earth, Mr Ayyad leaves behind a pregnant wife and two young children. He also leaves behind a shocked community of believers.

Mr Ayyad was a witness to his faith in Gaza, which since the Israeli withdrawal has plummeted into violence reminiscent of Beirut in the 1970s: Palestinian self-rule has not fostered peace. His witness in the Holy Land was transformed into martydom at the hands of the militant Islamic fanatics of Hamas - who decree that there shall be no peace until its sectarian brand of Islam is politically, militarily and spiritually triumphant. . .

Read it all.

God's Continent: A review

From the Kew Continuum, a review by the Rev. Richard Kew of God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis by Philip Jenkins (author of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South [boldface mine]:

. . . First of all [Jenkins] debunks the notion that the Islamic crescent flag is going to flutter in dominance over European skies any time soon -- if ever. The statistics of past, present, and future immigration from the Islamic world, he contends, do not support such a notion. This is not to say that Islam won't be a significant minority in Europe but it radically overstates the case that Westminster Abbey's future is as a mosque or that the fashionable Champs d'Elysee in Paris will be peopled by women wearing head scarves and burkas!

Secondly, he encourages his readers not to write off Christianity so quickly. Yes, its traditional forms and liberal theologies are in trouble, but there is a great deal more to the faith in Europe than that. Many of those immigrants from Africa and Asia are often mistakenly labeled as Muslims when in fact they are Christians, and vibrantly so. Some of the largest congregations in Europe, in fact, are to be found in the minority communities (thus the old Odean theatre in Luton), and don't write off fresh energies in the Catholic or mainstream Protestant churches, coming in flavors and packages like Alpha.

And bear in mind the nature of Christianity, he encourages us, for as it is challenged in what has historically been its home territory there is the likelihood that it will perk up considerably. "Viewed over the centuries, perhaps the best indicator that Christianity is about to expand or revive is a widespread conviction that the religion is doomed or in its last days... nothing drives activists and reformers more powerfully than the sense that their faith is about to perish in their homelands and that they urgently need to make up these losses farther afiled, whether overseas or among the previously neglected lost sheep at home (pages 288-289).

What is clear is that Europe's secular elites, after having dismissed religion as a curiosity for the best part of half a century, are just starting to wake up to the fact that religion is not withering away, but that there are two major religions each with a significant sense of identity in their very own backyard. Yes, Jenkins tells us, as Islam takes root in Europe it is going to be changed by its encounter with modernity, secularity, and being a minority movement in an unsympathetic culture, but this "Islamic Revolution" is not going to change it into the empty and vacuous affair that has so gutted liberal Christianity, which is the elitist model of the way it ought to go.

Philip Jenkins works hard to tease out the various issues that Europeans, whether Christian, Muslim, secular, or something else, have to address in the coming years. These will include issues of sexuality, gender, freedom of speech, censorship, self-censorship, and so forth. Then there is the huge one of Islam being given great freedom to express itself in what has been the Christian heartland, freedoms that are utterly denied Christians in Islam's own heartland, a point brought home strongly to me in a conversation yesterday evening with a student who has come from one of those countries. Saudis, for example, are free to finance a $65 million mosque in Rome, while as one priest puts it, Christians in the Arabian peninsular function in something akin to the catacombs.

Then there is the whole issue of blasphemy, and what can be portrayed on screen, stage, and in the written word. The most significant and legitimate question related to this is whether it is appropriate for Christianity to be openly pilloried, as it often is in Europe, because Christians do not threaten violence and even murder when attacked in this way in a free society. However, society tiptoes around Muslims, censoring itself, because it fears that if treated as Christians are they would resort to violence.

I always feel much better when facts are out because then we can address them, Jenkins deliberately puts the facts on the table. Some of the facts I personally do not like, some are not as bad as I feared, but all of them are grist for the mill of what is a remarkable book that ought to be taken seriously by thoughtful Christians -- especially any who have a deep concern for the future of Europe. I would add that the thoughtful Muslim would also have much to gain from reading this helpful volume. . .

Read it all.

Get Religion: Punching my ‘moderate’ button again

From Get Religion:

. . . GetReligion readers already know what we think around here about journalists who like to toss the word “fundamentalist” around. That isn’t what has me on a slow boil at the moment, however.

No, I am fed up with the use of the word “moderate” by journalists, which basically means “people that we like.” I have been doing a lot of travel in recent weeks, and at almost every location — from Prague to Princeton — I have ended up in conversations with journalists and scholars about “moderate.” This word is getting more and more and more use when married with the word Muslim.

What exactly is a “moderate Muslim”? Moderate in comparison to what? Moderate vs. traditionalist? Moderate vs. liberal? Moderate vs. radical? And in what context is a “moderate Muslim” a “moderate Muslim”? As an Al-Jazeera English executive asked recently, during an interview for my Scripps Howard column, is that “moderate” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, France or the U.S. of A.? . . .

Read it all, but I do really like his understanding that the use of the word "moderate" basically means "people that we like" or, I would add, "people that think reasonably like us."

Nigeria: Two Christians murdered in Kaduna

From Compass Direct News:

KADUNA, Nigeria, October 22 (Compass Direct News) – One man has been killed with a sword and another bludgeoned to death in this city in central northern Nigeria following Muslim leaders’ appeal to wage violent jihad against youthful Christians.

Muslim extremists on October 12 murdered Henry Emmanuel Ogbaje, a 24-year-old Christian, at an area known as Gamji Gate. The following day, church leaders said, a young Christian identified only as Basil was beaten to death with wooden clubs in the same area.

Ogbaje was a Sunday school teacher with the Military Protestant Church at Kotoko Barracks in Kaduna, while Basil, church leaders said, was a member of the Our Lady of Apostles Catholic Church. He was from Kagarko Local Government Area.

Elder Saidu Dogo, secretary of the northern Nigeria chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass that Islamic leader Sheik Gumi had urged Muslims to wage jihad against Christians during Tafsir, the reading and interpretation of the Quran, in televised broadcasts during the Islamic month-long observance of Ramadan.

“I saw Sheik Gumi on the television, NTA [Nigeria Television Authority], during that period preaching this inciting sermon – in fact, the same sermon was again broadcast by NTA Kaduna, on September 21 and 22,” Dogo told Compass. “He specifically called for a jihad, and that when they go killing they should not kill the elderly people, because the elderly have spent their years already, but that Muslims should kill young Christians.”

. . . The Rev. Joshua Magaji, assistant secretary of the Kaduna state chapter of CAN, said the killings were meant to provoke Christians into angry retaliations and trigger another religious crisis in the state, which has seen tens of thousands of deaths from religious violence in the past three decades. Violence has broken out several times since the imposition of sharia (Islamic) law in 2000.

“We thank God that Christians in the state have restrained themselves from avenging the killing of these two, and we would like to appeal that they continue in this spirit,” Magaji said. . .

Read it all.
H/t to Gateway Pundit.

Korean Christians murdered because they refused to convert

From Gateway Pundit:

The reason the two Korean Christian missionaries in Afghanistan were murdered was because...they refused the Taliban’s demand to convert to Islam.

. . . The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.

“Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten,” reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church, Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital Seoul.

“I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death,” he added, according to Christian Today Korea. “Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert.”. . .

Read it all.

TV airing for Islam's story of Christ

From The Guardian in the U.K.:

There was no manger, Christ is not the Messiah, and the crucifixion never happened. A forthcoming ITV documentary will portray Jesus as Muslims see him.

With the Koran as a main source and drawing on interviews with scholars and historians, the Muslim Jesus explores how Islam honours Christ as a prophet but not as the son of God. According to the Koran the crucifixion was a divine illusion. Instead of dying on the cross, Jesus was rescued by angels and raised to heaven.

The one-hour special, commissioned and narrated by Melvyn Bragg, is thought to be the first time the subject has been dealt with on British television. Lord Bragg said: "I was fascinated by the idea ... Jesus was such a prominent figure in Islam but most people don't know that."

He denies the programme will divide communities. Raised as an Anglican, he describes the documentary as thoughtful and well researched. "I hope it will provoke among Muslims the feeling they are included in television.". . .

Representatives from mainstream Anglican and Catholic organisations were invited to take part in the film, to be broadcast on Sunday, but nobody was available, [director and producer Irshad] Ashraf said.

Patrick Sookhdeo, an Anglican canon and spokesman for the Barnabas Fund, which works with persecuted Christians, accused broadcasters of double standards. Mr Sookhdeo, who was born a Muslim and converted to Christianity in 1969, said: "How would the Muslim community respond if ITV made a programme challenging Muhammad as the last prophet?". . .

Read it all.