Saudi Arabia: Woman Becomes Christian and Flees -- 6 Years and 300 Lashes For her Collaborator

(Riyadh) A Saudi court has sentenced two men to several years of imprisonment and additional flogging, because they have helped a woman to become  Christian and to escape from Saudi Arabia. The daily newspaper Al-Hayat has reported this . The criminal division of the city of Al Jabar has sentenced the Lebanese Christians to six years in prison and 300 lashes. The second man, a Saudi citizen, was sentenced to two years in prison and 200 lashes. Both were colleagues of the woman and announced to appeal against the judgment.

The case became known in 2012, as the media reported on the illegal departure of the Saudi woman, "the young woman from Al Jabar" is how she became known. Saudi women can not leave the country without the consent of their fathers, husbands or guardians. The young woman is believed to be currently in an unknown location, probably in Sweden.

The father of former Muslim woman from the area of ​​Al-Khobar, which was converted to Christianity, had identified the two men. The charge was that they had convinced the woman to give up Islam and helped her with a fake passport to escape from Saudi Arabia.

In the Wahhabi Kingdom, one of the strictest Islamic countries of the world, the Sharia is Islamic law is applied in a particularly radical form. Muslims who convert to another religion can be sentenced to death. Therefore, the woman had left the country hastily.

According to press reports, the woman has taken refuge in Sweden, where she is protected by a charity. The young woman appeared last year in a video which was posted on YouTube in which she explained to profess Christ and to have accepted Christianity through baptism. 

The father of the woman called  the Saudi government to return his daughter  in November 2012. The Saudi embassy in Sweden has been active in "diplomatic channels".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Asianews

Shots Disturb Christians in Istanbul, Turkey

(Constantinople) At an Armenian church in Istanbul an unidentified man fired seven shots from his rifle on Sunday. Panic broke out among the believers who were gathered in the church for Easter.

The Turkish press reported that an intimidation campaign took place yesterday against Christian communities of Istanbul which concerns Surp Hovhannes about the Armenian Church. As the Armenian Archbishop Aram Atesyan said, the gunman threatened the Christians in the church, "You are too many!" As the Archbishop said, a young Armenian Christian was beaten on Sunday in front of another church in the nearby district Samatya. Other Christian communities of Istanbul were also victims of assault and intolerance in the past days.

In Atesehir a group of 40 people attacked the New Hope Lutheran Church on 27 April. They pelted the church with stones and smashed the stained glass windows. The next day, a group plundered the Greek Orthodox Church of Burgas Ada. All the incidents took place in Istanbul.

According to Archbishop Atesyan “with these attacks they want to stoke fear among the members of our communities” who in Turkey have been repeatedly victims of violence and discrimination in recent years. In 2006 the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was murdered in Trabzon, in Malatya three Protestants in 2007 and 2010 in Antioch, the Catholic Bishop Padovese.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Christians in the East

Link to Katholisches...

Religious Leaders Demand the Release of Syrian Bishops

Edit: earlier it was reported from many different sources that two Bishops who were kidnapped in Syria were to be released.  It turns out that they are still in captivity, and increasingly, the reports of this tragedy have aroused even the major news media.

[charismanews] Religious leaders from around the world have stepped up their pleas for the safe return of two Syrian bishops who were kidnapped April 22 by armed men as they were driving near the war-torn city of Aleppo.

The kidnappers, who have not been identified, abducted Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahim, both of Aleppo, while they were undertaking a “humanitarian mission” to help Syria’s Christian minority, according to Syrian Christian expatriates in the U.S.

The bishops’ Syrian Orthodox driver was killed in the attack.

Since 2011, more than 70,000 Syrians have died in fighting in the bloody civil war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking to oust Assad’s strong-arm regime.

Link to charismanews.com...

Cardinal: Christians Have a Tragic Lack of Knowledge About Islam

(Kah.net) Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola: "In Europe and the USA there is a very significant indifference about Islam. We are, in the truest sense of the word, ignorant. If we ask the average Christian about Islam, we get tragic answers." This is what Milan's Angelo Cardinal Scola said according to Radio Vatican. In a society becoming increasingly more international and in the growing religious diversity, Christians need a fundamental understanding of Islam. Scola sees the metropolitan See of Milan also as "a bridge, it is an opportunity, to meet the East and to understand, upon entering in an inter religious dialog.

Both Syrian Bishops Released by Rebels

(Damaskus) Two Syrian Bishops who were kidnapped yesterday, the Syrian-Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and the Greek Orthodox Boutros Yazigi should be free again and released in Aleppo. This was reported by by the Orthodox Partriarcate to Reuters. Already this afternoon there was a report released by Arabic section of Catholic News Service Zenit. Zenit states that the release had been made possible through negotiation by "the head of the Russian Orthodox Curxh, the Greek Foreign Minister and the UN special envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi".

From Aleppo there has been no report this far. In any case the communication with the embattled city is difficult. The report of the release has been released by another important source, the Oeuvre d’Orient, a Christian relief organization from France, which traditionally has good contacts to Syria's Christians. "According to our Surian sources both bishops were released around 2pm and can be found in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Elias of Aleppo", is what the Internet site of Oeuvre, that was "pleased" over the release of the Bishops. "At the same time the relief organization condemned the murder of the Syrian-Orthodox Deacon, who was driving the car for both bishops.“. The perpetrators had shot him immediately at the time of the abduction..

The Oeuvre d’Orient appealed to the international community of nations, to work for the release of two abducted priests who have been held for months at an unknown location.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Missionline

http://www.katholisches.info/2013/04/23/die-beiden-in-syrien-entfuhrten-bischofe-sind-frei/

Islamics Attack Marian Procession on Good Friday

(Melilla) in the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the North African coast, the traditional liturgical celebrations on the night of Good Friday were overshadowed by a clash between Christians and Muslims.  Drunken Muslims insulted the procession from the terrace of a restaurant.  The procession carried through the streets a statue of the Virgin Mary, who is particularly revered in Melilla in the miraculous image of the Virgin of Solitude.

Shortly after the statue of the Virgen de la Soledad was carried  out of the Sacred Heart Church in procession, there were  obscene insults on the Mother of God by drunken Muslims from the roadside. When they were asked by the Christians to stop, the Muslims reacted violently, throwing bottles, plates, chairs and tables on the Catholic procession participants and with palpable results. It broke panic among the faithful.  As a result, there was a fierce fight until the police arrived. Four Muslims were arrested and four injured who had to be patched up.

The procession was to be continued after the interruption. The incident was captured on video.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Commission of Melilla distanced itself from the provocateurs.

Muslim

Edit: it was confirmed at the Daily Mail.

 H/t: Roman Catholic Imperialist.

Libyan Islamists Prey on Christians -- Christians Graves are Desecrated

Libya (Benghazi) Islamists do continue to hunt for Christians working in the North African country. They are summarily accused of  proselytism. The recent incident takes place in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi, the capital of Cyrenaica. In the second largest city of Libya 48 Egyptian Christians were arrested, as Asianews reported. These are Orthodox Copts, who were reported by Libyan Islamists. The Christians, merchants and traders who visited the market of Benghazi, are alleged to have conducted religious images and representations of themselves. A  video seized from the police  shows how Christians are being held in a small room of Salafists. They appear physically exhausted. Many wounds and abrasions are visible. The Islamists have shaved all Christians bald.

The incident has caused displeasure among the inhabitants of Benghazi. Only in October, it had risen against the Salafi militias accused of perpetrating the attack on the American consulate, where the U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.

The authorities reported on Thursday that Egyptian Christians had not been arrested for religious reasons, but for violation of immigration laws. Only in mid-February, four Christians were arrested, an Egyptian, a South African, a Swede and a South Korean with U.S. citizenship. They are accused of having spread Bibles and other Christian materials.

The spread of Islamic extremism is affecting the Catholic orders, which have been active in part for a long time on the territory of modern Libya. They have built hospitals and work with elderly people. Only in January the Islamists have succeeded in forcing the Franciscan Sisters of the Child Jesus of Barce and the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Beida, to leave the country. In October 2012, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Spoleto were forced to leave Libya due to the constant threats and attacks by the Islamists, as Father Dominique Rézeau reported.

"Not a day goes by without Christian graves being desecrated and destroyed," lamented Bruno Daimasso to the magazine Tempi, the gardener of the Italian cemetery in Tripoli. "The remains of the Christians are torn from their graves and scattered in the cemetery," as Jeune Afriquereported. "The Libyan authorities have arrived, took photos and did nothing," said Daimasso.

According to Dominique Rézeau there are officially some 200,000 Christians who lived in Libya before the fall of Gaddafi, and three percent of the population, since the so-called Arab Spring, "only a few are thousand left." As the Vicar Apostolic Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli confirmed, the churches in the Kyreinaika are indeed still open, the situation for Christians is however "very critical”.

Link to Katholisches...

Syria: Christian Dragged From Bus and Shot, Because he Wore a Cross

(Damascus) A Syrian Christian of the Armenian Church was put to death by Islamists on the road to Aleppo. As the news agency Fides reported while Christians were traveling on a bus towards Aleppo,  the bus was stopped by armed Islamists, who had set up a roadblock. The Islamists were scanning the bus, to relieve the passengers relieved  of possessions and looking for potential victims of kidnappings for ransom.  On the 9th of February two priests were  kidnapped in this way. The Armenian Catholic priest Michel Kayyal and the Greek Orthodox priest Maher Mahfouz. Both are still in the hands of Islamist gangs.

As the Islamists in the bus investigated the travelers, they also encountered a Syrian Christians Yohannes an  Armenian, who wore a cross on a necklace. They dragged him out of the bus and shot him at close range. For safety reasons,  as Fides reports, they omitted the messenger service on the publication of his full name in order to protect the family of the victim. As the Armenian Church announced, he is a "martyr", because the Christian was killed in "odium fidei", out of hatred for the Christian faith.

Just recently, a group of Christians to reach Beirut to escape the perilous situation in Syria. Their bus was hit by a rocket in flight. Two Christians, Boutros and his 22 year old fiancée Naraya, who wanted to get married soon, were killed. Islamists then stole everything they could steal in this bus brutally brought to a halt.

The Christian churches in Syria have decided not to pay a ransom for kidnapped Christians. A decision that was made after much consideration, as Fides reported, because Christians do not want to be prisoners of a lucrative Islamist kidnapping industry. If they were to pay, it would just such but inflame.

Instead, call the churches to the international community to take action against the inhumane practice of kidnapping in Syria. The Christians of Syria urge all Christians to support through prayer and spiritual sacrifices. Fides reported that the church tours in Syria, it is agreed that the rescue of the hostages, including the two priests, is to lead a spiritual battle and not as fundraising to collect money  for ransom payments.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Faith

Link to katholisches...

Islam Hour in Kindergarten: Coming to you Soon!

Edit: this liveleak video from 2011 shows a German Kindergarten visited by a local Imam.  The SSPX German District website has introduced the story again.  It's interesting to see that some of the children refuse to participate.  It is still topical:

This published video shows how a German Kindergarten (!) is made into an advertisement for Islam.

A women with a head covering gives the children a liquid with which they can rub and probably purify themselves, in order to prepare for Muslim prayers.

A Muslim, apparently an Imam, shows the children the Koran and explains to them how Muslims pray and how Turkish children play.



The muslim who praises the Koran to the German children, is clearly Ömer Akbulut, who is the spokesman for the Islamic community engaged in the building of a mosque with a minarett in Wertheim.  It is also apparent that this leaked video is of a Kindergarten in the vicinity of Wertheim.

pius.info recommends to readers:  If you have children in Kindergarten, then suggest to the teacher a visit from a conservative, Catholic priest.  Father will show the children how to make the sign of the cross, how one gets holy water and who the Mother of God is.

If the teacher answers, that such is not possible in a ideologically neutral state like Germany, then show her the photo above.

Link to pius.info...

Original source...

Bonn: Man Refuses Islam, so They Cut His Tongue

Bonn (kath.net)  The Criminal Police of Bonn are searching for two suspected Islamists, who have cut the tongue of a young Indian. According to statements of Indian students two men threatened him on Christmas Eve,  that they would cut out his tongue if he didn't convert to Islam.  The student didn't react to this, whereupon the two men struck him down and wounded him, according to police reports, on the tongue.  The "Welt" reported this.  The reports of the 24 year old guest student have been rated by police as believable, said police spokesman Harry Kolbe, because of the physical description of the and the course of the crime, police are not ruling out that there is a "political back ground" and that the perpetrators come "from an islamic spectrum".  The victim in the mean time has been released from the hospital, but stands because of his police questioning "still very strongly under the influence of the crime".

Bonn is considered, as reported by "Welt", as one of the main cities of the Islamist scene, since is happened  just two and a half weeks since the bomb attack on Bonn's main train station was just thwarted, the Attorney General suspects "connections in radical-islamic circles".

Link to kath.net...

"Convert to Islam or Die" -- Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Unleashes Fatwa Against Christians

(Bagdad) On the same day in which the Syrian-Catholic Cathedral was solemnly re-consecrated, the Grand Ayatollah issued a Fatwa against the Christians of Iraq.  The Christians are expected to convert to Islam or are liable to be killed.  The Catholic Cathedral was the scene of a bloody attack on 31 October, 2010.  An Al-Qaeda unit attacked the church, as the Christians there were celebrating Holy Mass. 58 Catholics lost their lives in the attack, among whom were two priests.

The Shi'ite Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Sayid Ahmad al Hassani al Baghdadi announced his call to murder Christians with the Egyptian television broadcaster Al Baghdadia.  Al Baghdadi, which belongs to one of the most radical members of the Islamic Jihad, is calling Christians as polytheists and friends of Zionists.  Al Baghdadi's call to the Christian minority of Iraq reads:  "Convert to Islam or Die".  The women and girls of the Christians "can be legally considered to be wives of Muslims", said the Grand Ayatollah.  Al Baghdadi,  who was born in Nadjaff in Iraq, is one of the "holy cities" of Shi'ite Islam, lives today in Syria and there supports the armed struggle of Islamists.

The Catholics of Bagdad regard the Fatwa as "extremely troubling".  Whatever effect they will have, they should not be underestimated.  Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, of the Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches,  undertook the re-consecration of the Cathedral.  In his sermon he spoke of the murdered Christians in 2010, that the tears and the blood of martyrs are seedlings, which will bring forth new fruit.  Cardinal Sandri held a five day visit to Iraq, in order to strengthen the Christians there during the year of Faith.

Text: Asianews/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Asianews

Neo-Cardinal Patriach Al Rahi Celebrates the Maronite Rite in the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome

(Vatican)  The 77th Patriarch of the Maronite Church united with Rome, Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Al Rayhi, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass on 26th of November in St. Peter's Cathedral after his elevation to Cardinal.  It was a Liturgy of Thanksgiving in the Maronite Rite fur the dignity which was received two days before, which was imparted by Pope Benedict XVI.  The Cardinal spoke during his sermon not only about his "responsibility" for the 1.6 million Maronites in Lebanon, but also for the 13 million Christians in the Arabic world of the Near East.  The Maronite Patriarch is currently the only representative of the Near East in the College of Cardinals.  Cardinal Al Rahi stressed his resolve to continue the "Moslem-Christian dialog in the Near East".

"Responsibility for the 13 Million Christians in the Arab World"

Three of the six newly made Cardinals on the 24th of November came from lands with significant Moslem populations.  "We Christians of the Near East have an unbroken tradition, which goes directly back to Our Lord Jesus Christ.  A rich fullness, which is our contribution to the world Church.  We are also rich in a mutual exchange of experience in the coexistence with Moslems", said the Patriarch.

Six of the NeoCardinals Come from Lands With Significant Muslim Populations

Cardinal Al Rahi sees the desire of the Pope in his Cardinal choices, "to give new impetus to the New Evangelization in the Near East".  The Near East is, as Benedict XVI in his Lebanon trip stressed, "A land chosen by God, because it is on this land that the revealed His saving Mystery".  That is a priceless treasure, which the Christians of the Near East have preserved, but also a mission, to make this treasure living and visible and to share with others.

The Near East has seen the cross, but also the resurrection, Pentecost and the persistence of the Church, said the Cardinal.  Pope Benedict XVI. has said that this is should be "a land of peacee, not a land of wars and conflicts".

The Near East "A Land of Peace, not of War"

Around 1,500 Maronites and other Arab Christians had found a place around the Maornite Patriarch and Cardinal to celebrate Holy Mass in the St. Peter's Cathedral.

Link to Katholisches...

Christmas Cancelled in Brussels

Here's a little something from Friends of Hungary.

THE END OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRUSSELS - NO CHRISTMAS THIS YEARAccording to Brussels city government's representative Bianca Debaets Brussels will not place a Christmas tree on its historical Grand Place square, because the tree, as a symbol of Christianity, could harm the feelings of people of other faiths. The electronic timber that has been granted and already placed is called "winter tree". The "Christmas market" thus receives a new name, from which the word "Christmas" is missing. (The muslim community reached 25% of Brussel's total population. According to most analysts the size and influence of the muslim community in Belgium was a key factor in making the decision.) 

Converted Muslims Are Secretly Baptized in Vienna -- Msgr Franz Schlegl on World Prayer Day for Persecuted Christians

(Vienna) On the 4th of November 2012 Msgr. Mag. Franz Schlegl preached for persecuted Christians.  Msgr. Schlegl is a priest of the Roman Rite and an Archpriest of the Byzantine Rite (Ukrainian Communion) of the Archdiocese of Vienna.

At the outset Dr. Elmar Kuhn, the General Secretary of Christian Solidarity International Austria spoke of a "dramatic scale of Christian persecution".  Kuhn reported the current case of a Pakistani Christian who had been given a prison sentence for "ridicule" involving  "blasphemy against the Prophet".  Although he had completed his sentence, the Muslim prison director refused to let him free, because he had continued to hold fast to his belief in Christ.

Msgr. Schlegl spoke in his sermon about the Christian persecution, of which the media does not report. "Whichever picture of human rights, whichever picture of democracy our responsible journalists of our media",   when there are attacks and violence to Christians "are hardly talked about in the media".   Every five to ten minutes somewhere in the world a Christian is killed because of his faith.  In 50 nations of the world there are more than 100 million Christians persecuted for their faith, mishandled, discriminated,  and threatened with death.  Nine of ten of those persecuted for their beliefs are Christians.  But that does not merit a line of the news value and also in the newspapers not a line."  With the exception of North Korea, he People's Republic of China and some of the other communistically inclined states, "the persecution of Christians takes place primarily in Islamic countries.  The 'Arab Spring' has become a Christian crucifixion." Christians are valued in states like Somalia and Nigeria "as vermin, that must be destroyed, as trash that must be taken out".

Msgr Schlegl explained that Muslims, who have converted to the Catholic Faith, in agreement with Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn do not have to participate in the catechumen celebration, "very simply, because it is dangerous.  Then their preparation for baptism and the baptism inclusively held in secret so that they don't have to fear for their lives."

"That is happening to us today that Christians, in following the Lord are ready to die as martyrs.  That is the biggest difference.  The Muslims also say, their fighters are martyrs.  As a Christian I am prepared to die for my Christian faith, but I am never prepared to murder for my Faith.  And those who call themselves martyrs, because they set off an automobile in the air and rip 100 or 50 people to death: what does that have to do with martyrdom.  That is naked violence."

Link to katholisches...

Sorry, his sermon is only in German.

Turkish Film About Fall of Constantinople Incites Hatred of Christians

(Beruit) The Turkish film, Faith 1453 tells of the dramatic, and for Christians traumatic, sack of Constantinople by the Mohammedan Ottomans in 1453.  Constantinople which was the Capital of the Roman Empire for more than 1,100 years was with Rome the most important city of Christendom.  The    $17 million-dollar-film which drew enthusiasm in Turkey, incited hard critics from Christians in the Orient.  The film has numerous historical errors and barbs of hate against Christians.

The film is to be shown in theaters in Beruit.  The Christian community of the Land of the Cedars have thus called for a boycott   They are calling it a "Propaganda film".  The 160 minute production of the Turkish director Faruk Aksoy begins with a flashback to Mohamed in exile from Medina, promising his  followers "eternal happiness" if they conquered the Byzantine capital.  The Ottoman Sultan took up this prophesy of Mohamed symbolically, according to the film, and began his operations against Constantinople which had defied Islam for 800 years.

Politico-Religious Propaganda Film Far Removed from Historical Reality

The combination of religious prophesy and Ottoman conquest in the film clearly speaks to Turkish national pride, as sold-out theater sales since February show.

One historical appraisal praised the film, say critics, but didn't stand.  The historical errors represented therein have rewritten the glorification of Islam and the Sultan's politico-religious leadership.  With that the film is not only a historical, but also more in a poltical dimension. A political dimension which which occurs in the re-islamicization of Turkey and connected with the beginning of the 20th century's declining Ottoman Empire and Turkey as a great power in the Orient.

Rodrigo Khoury, the founder of the Christian Lebanese party Al-Machreq is among the first to see the film in a preview.  The Lebanese Christians were shocked.  He forwarded an introductory film review with a detailed explanation of historical errors to General Surete, the censor of the Lebanese government.  Khoury addressed himself to numerous journalists, to allow the release of the film in the name of freedom of expression and art.

The Film Shows the Struggle Between Christian and Muslim Culture --- Christendom is a Grotesque Caricature

"The Film" says Khoury, "doesn't tell the struggle between two kingdoms, as the subtitle maintains, rather it's the struggle between two cultures, the Christian and the Muslim.  The Christian culture is distorted as a grotesque culture and the origin of all evil, while the Muslim culture on the other hand as perfect, faultless and portrayed therefore as the superior culture."  The young Christians of Lebanon are rejecting this film, because it "clearly calls for open hatred against Christians", says Khoury.

Father Abdo Abou Kassem is of the same opinion as the press agent for the Catholic Church in Lebanon.  "The Christian religion will be disparaged through numerous and substantial historical errors, and unjustly portrayed."  One scene shows, says the Catholic priest, how Sultan Mehmed (Mohammed) II entered the Basilica of Hagia Sofia and pushed among thousands of faithful, who had fled there in terror.  The Sultan hugged and silenced then a child and explained that the conqueror will also be a protector.  "As we know from the chronicles and the history, this is absolute fabrication.  As the Sultan entered the largest church in the city, he gave the order to slaughter all of the Christians there, more than 3,000, and let his soldiers rape Christian women there as a sign of the occupation.  The Basilica was then turned into a mosque," says Father Abdo.

"Fetih 1453" was released some weeks after protests against a short private film against Mohamed in Arabic lands. Because of a "blasphemous" disparagement of Mohammed and of Islam hundreds of thousands of Muslims in many states went to the streets.  The protests which were at times violent, costed more than 50 human lives, among them the American ambassador in Libya and hundreds of wounded.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Asianews

Link to Katholisches ...

Turkey Rules One of The Oldest Monasteries in the East

(Ankara) The appellate court in Ankara decided at the last moment against the monastery, which now loses up to 28 acres of its grounds, as the Turkish government and the economic existence of the monastery is withdrawn. Thus, at least at the national level Mor Gabriel is decided to the detriment of the ongoing dispute since 2008. Like so many anti-minority judgments which are applied can only be continued or appealed at EU level or before the European Court of Human Rights.

The legal land dispute has demoralized the tiny Syrian-Orthodox Community within and outside of Turkey since 2008, which touches upon Mor Gabriel, touches the last important spiritual center of this faith communion in the northern Mesopotamian area of origin of Tur Abdin.  Plaintiffs against More Gabriel were also the surrounding Kurdish inhabitants of three villages, who live with about 2,000 Aramaic Christians, and makes their existence even more difficult amidst the overwhelming Muslim majority in the Kurdish region.

The most recent and initial final judgment is also a direct affront to all those who had campaigned in Turkey and abroad to preserve the property rights of Mor Gabriel: In Turkey, in June 2012 some 300 intellectuals, expressed public solidarity with Mor Gabriel. Around the same time, the German Bundestag had adopted at the request of the ruling factions of the CDU / CSU and FDP, a decision to protect the monastery.

Text: AGA / Linus Schneider
Picture: AGA

Link to original...katholisches.

Turkish Government Threatens to Destroy Most Ancient Monastery in All Christendom

Edit: the drama continues in Turkish occupied Christian lands.

We'd reported earlier  last year in May that one of Christianity's most ancient and hallowed monasteries was being threatened by the Turkish government.   Amazingly, they're destroying the place by increments, using the legal system and the usual arbitrary despotic pretenses.  

It looked like a fait accompli then despite the outcry from Europe's politicians.

This is one of the reasons why we (Catholics) went on Crusade in the first place.

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, JULY 12 - The Mongolians failed to destroy it 700 years ago despite the massacre of 40 friars and 400 Christians. Yet the existence of the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, the fifth century Mor Gabriel Monastery in the Tur Abdin plane (the mountain of God's servants) near the Turkish-Syrian border, is at risk after a ruling by Turkey's highest appeals court in Ankara.

 Founded in 397 by the monks Samuel and Simon, Mor Gabriel in eastern Anatolia has been the heart of the Orthodox Syrian community for centuries. Syriacs hail from a branch of Middle Eastern Christianity and are one of the oldest communities in Turkey.

Today the monastery is inhabited by Mor Timotheus Samuel Aktash, 3 monks, 11 nuns and 35 boys who are learning the monastery's teachings, the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Jesus and the Orthodox Syriac tradition.

Link to ANSA...

Muslims Burn Down Two Churches in Zanzibar

(Doboma) Hundreds of Muslim separatists burned two churches in Zansibar to the ground.  The group of islands around the main island of Zansibar  with more than a million inhabitants belongs to Tanzania. The inhabitants of the autonomous island group are 98% Muslim.  This was reported by Reuters.


On the mainland, however, while the coastal region is predominantly Muslim, but the interior is predominantly Christian. In addition there is an ever-shrinking group of followers of indigenous religions. The number of Christians, mainly Catholics is estimated with more than 45 percent. The Muslims are supposed to be around 40 percent. Exact details are not known. Since the independence of the East African state in 1964, the religion of the state is not applicable because the question is considered too explosive for the cohesion of the state. In the wake of decolonization, the mainland territory of Tanganyika and the island group on the new state of Tanzania was united.

Muslim separatists demanding independence of Zanzibar and fight simultaneously for the Islamization of which is directed against the tiny Christian minority, which makes up just one percent of the population.

In the night from Saturday to Sunday the separatist group UAMSHO (Association for the Mobilization and Proliferation of Islam) burned down two Christian churches. This led to open clashes with the Tanzanian police. A church was burned down completely. The second was saved by the prompt intervention of the security service from utter destruction.

The UAMSHO calls for a referendum on the withdrawal of Zanzibar in Tanzania. For 2014, the East African country is scheduled to receive a new constitution. The UAMSHO will use this opportunity to lead the archipelago before the new Constitution to independence.
Link to katholisches...

Muslims Attack Catholic Church in India

Srinagar (AsiaNews) - An "planned" attack, with the clear goal of "scaring to death the Christian community. The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir must act to ensure security for the faithful and places of worship", says Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), reacting to AsiaNews to the arson attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Srinagar, two days ago. The main entrance was completely destroyed, but the timely intervention of a security guard prevented the fire from degenerating. Cameras captured two attacker who targeted the Church in the evening (20.30 hours the local, ed) their names are still unknown. All Christian communities in the valley of Kashmir have expressed solidarity with the Catholic Church.

The films show two men taking advantage of the temporary absence of the security guard. In those moments, the attackers threw petrol and other flammable material at the front door, then set it on fire. Fortunately, the guard came back in time to stop the fire to spreading: the entire building structure is made of wood.

Fr. Mathew Thomas, pastor of Holy Family, told AsiaNews: "What happened to us is very worrying. Watching the video, you understand that it is a premeditated attack, and that the two attackers were well aware of what happens in church. At the end of January, my bike was burnt, we have not found out why, nor who the culprits were. It was clear that even then, the goal was the church. On two other occasions, the Virgin has interceded for us. May She protect us and save us
Link to Asianews...