Articles from Feb 27, 2015

'With This Sword Is Civilization And Humanity Slaughtered'

The above cartoon from Arabic social media captures well the significance of the Islamic State's recent destruction of priceless and ancient statues dating back thousands of years and which were once a reflection of the grandeur of early human civilization.

In the picture above, an IS member unsheathes his sword as he prepares to behead an ancient Babylonian statue. His sheath is the Koran and the sword is covered with verses from the Koran. The caption states: "With this sword is civilization and humanity slaughtered."

For more on this story, the Daily Mail reports:

Islamic State thugs have destroyed a collection of priceless statues and sculptures in Iraq dating back thousands of years. Extremists used sledgehammers and power drills to smash ancient artwork as they rampaged through a museum in the northern city of Mosul. Video footage shows a group of bearded men in the Nineveh Museum using tools to wreck 3,000-year-old statues after pushing them over. Extremists used sledgehammers and power drills to smash ancient artifacts at a museum in the northern city of Mosul Militant uses a power tool to destroy a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity at the Ninevah Museum in Mosul, Iraq. The statue dates back to the 9th century B.C. One of the items, depicting a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity, dates back to the 9th century B.C. A man shown in the video said the items were being destroyed because they promoted idolatry. 'The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him,' the unidentified man said. The articles destroyed appeared to come from an antiquities museum in the northern city of Mosul, which was overrun by Islamic State last June, a former employee at the museum told Reuters. The extremist group has destroyed a number of shrines – including Muslim holy sites – in a bid to eliminate what it views as heresy. Militants are also believed to have sold ancient artwork on the black market in order to finance their bloody campaign across the region. ISIS destroy artefacts with sledgehammers at Mosul museum A man shown in the video said the items were being destroyed because they promoted idolatry The video bore the logo of the ISIS group's media arm and was posted on a Twitter account used by the group. Yesterday it was revealed how terrorists had blown up the Mosul Public Library, sending 10,000 books and more than 700 rare manuscripts up in flames. Leading members of Mosul society reportedly tried to stop the fanatics destroying the building, but failed. The director of the library, Ghanim al-Ta'an, said that the extremists used homemade bombs in the attack, which took place on Sunday. He told Middle Eastern website Geran: 'ISIS militants bombed the Mosul Public Library. They used improvised explosive devices.' Presumed destroyed are the Central Library's collection of Iraqi newspapers dating to the early 20th century, maps and books from the Ottoman Empire and book collections contributed by around 100 of Mosul's establishment families. Large segments of the priceless winged-bull Assyrian protective deity are hurled to the ground as militants smash it to pieces Isis first invaded the Central Library in January. Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books – including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science – into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts. 'These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned,' a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby who spoke to The Associated Press.

Raymond Ibrahim

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Islamic State: All Churches in Cairo Must Be Destroyed

Hussein bin Mahmoud, a jurist of Sharia law for the Islamic State, said in an article published on February 17 and appearing in various jihadi websites that all Christian churches in Cairo must be demolished.

Titled the “Ruling on Egypt’s Christians,” the article, written like a fatwa, asserts that

The ruling concerning the churches that are in Cairo is that they be destroyed, according to the consensus of the righteous forefathers [Salaf], because they are new under Islam, and Cairo is a new city whose original inhabitants were Muslim; there were no churches in it previously. As for churches in Upper Egypt, which may have been in existence before the Islamic conquest of Egypt, these may remain but may never be renovated or fixed.

The Islamic state cleric cited medieval jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), some of whose fatwas deal with Islam's views on churches which are described as “worse than bars and brothels.” And in fact, Taymiyya and many other jurists (such as Ibn Qayyim) called for the destruction of all churches built after the conquests (see Crucified Again, pgs. 35-36 for a review of the relevant fatwas/teachings).

Raymond Ibrahim

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Pakistan: Catholic Congregation Held Hostage, Church Robbed by Armed Men

Carnage from the 2013 jihad on the All Saints Church in Pakistan

On February 19 around nine in the morning, three armed men entered Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic church in Kasur district, Punjab, which is 97% Muslim, and took church personnel, the assistant parish priest Father Ijaz Bashir, and congregation hostage. Before leaving the premises the terrorists stole mobile telephones, cameras and a computer. This is not the first time the church gets targeted. Earlier, Father Leopold, the parish priest, was robbed by thieves who “pretended to be ordinary members of the faithful wanting to enroll some children at the parish school. Then they suddenly pulled out guns.”

Raymond Ibrahim

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Raymond Ibrahim Interview on ISIS Abduction of Christians, Western Indifference, and More

I was recently interviewed on Reel Talk with Audrey Russo. Topics ranged from Western desensitization to Islamic atrocities (wrote about here), the recent abduction of Syrian Christians (now reportedly between 350-400 people), and the truth about Muslim reformers. Click here to listen to the 30-minute interview.

Raymond Ibrahim

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Obama’s Self-Professed “Confusion” About Islamic Terror

FrontPage Magazine

Portuguese

During the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month, U.S. President Obama tried to shield Islam from criticism by depicting Christianity as equally violent and intolerant (via comments about crusades, inquisitions, and “high horses”). Much lesser known is that he also tried to shield Islam by invoking Christian virtues.

In many ways, his comments on “humility” might be the strangest of his entire speech—to the point that Obama himself got visibly confused by his own lack of coherency and even admitted it.

The transcript of the portion in question follows, interspersed with my comments and observations.

Said Obama:

So this [Islamic State type violence] is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance. But God compels us to try. And in this mission, I believe there are a few principles that can guide us, particularly those of us who profess to believe.

Two important points here to establish context for what follows: 1) Obama is referring to the atrocities being committed by the Islamic State—the beheadings, crucifixions, rape slavery, immolations—which he claims are common to all religions; 2) By invoking “God” and offering principles to “those of us who profess to believe”—a phrase he really stresses in the video—Obama is clearly addressing American Christians in particular.

Continues Obama:

And, first, we should start with some basic humility. I believe that the starting point of faith is some doubt—not being so full of yourself and so confident that you are right and that God speaks only to us, and doesn’t speak to others, that God only cares about us and doesn’t care about others, that somehow we alone are in possession of the truth.

These are surely some strange remarks in the context of this speech. Obama calls on Americans in general Christians in particular to exercise some “humility” and “doubt”—and he treats the two as interchangeable in meaning, which they most certainly are not.

Humility, of course, is a well-recognized Christian virtue. It is the exact opposite of pride; a modest if not humble opinion of oneself, one’s shortcomings. But what does that—exercising humility—have to do with our understanding of Islamic violence and terrorism, which is, after all, the topic under discussion? Are we not to judge and condemn it—since we’re apparently no better; is this just a reiteration of the president’s “high horse” comment earlier?

Furthermore, while Christian humility encourages self-doubt, it does not encourage doubt concerning right and wrong, good and evil. The same Christ who advocated humility repeatedly condemned evil behavior and called on people to repent of their sins.

Finally, what exactly are we supposed to “doubt”—that the Islamic State is evil? That they too “are in possession of the truth”?

Due to the incoherency of this speech, Obama himself eventually crashed on his own words and was left dumbfounded for a few seconds—six long and awkward seconds to be precise:

Our job is not to ask that God respond to our notion of truth—our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments. And we should assume humbly that [six-second pause] … we’re confused and don’t always know what we’re doing …

Be sure to watch the video (around the 11-minute mark) where it is clear that Obama’s own contradictory comments cause him to pause for an inordinate amount of time before he concludes that “we’re confused”—apparently a subconscious reference to his administration.

If Obama truly believed that “our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments”—and assuming “He” is God of the Bible, not Allah of the Koran—then he would be speaking truth, calling a spade a spade, and coming to the aid of those countless innocents being slaughtered, raped, and enslaved by the Islamic State and in the name of Islam—just as the Crusades did one-thousand years ago (only to be demonized today, including by Obama).

In short, just as the American president misrepresented episodes from Christian history to exonerate Islamic terror during the National Prayer Breakfast, so too did he misrepresent Christian virtues like humility to create doubt and moral confusion concerning Islamic terror.

And in the end, it was he—the president of the United States—who was left confused by his own nonsensical platitudes.

Raymond Ibrahim

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