islam

Andrew McCarthy sees the writing on the wall, and what the escalating plague of Islamic jihad attacks really means: the rise of Islam and the End of the West as we know it. Islam and the Jihad in London It’s not non-Western. It’s anti -Western. By Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review Online via AINA , March 25, 2017: It was a careful choice of words, Bernard Lewis being nothing if not careful. In 2004, the West audibly gasped when its preeminent scholar of Islam famously told the German newspaper Die Welt,"Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century," if not sooner. Listen carefully. He did not say that Muslims will be the majority population in what is still recognizably Europe. No, Professor Lewis said "Europe will be Islamic." Khalid Masood acted "on unambiguous scriptural commands to war against non-Muslims." We are not talking about Muslims here. We are talking about Islam. Lots of individual Muslims desire peaceful coexistence, even assimilation....

Islam claims the archangel Gabriel came to Muhammad commanding him to "Recite" and ushering in his prophetic calling. What are we to make of this "Second Annunciation?  On March 25, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary.   As the hymn for the Feast says, Today is the beginning of our salvation, The revelation of the eternal mystery! The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace... Islam also begins with an annunciation of sorts, to Muhammad, (not) coincidentally by a spirit being also identified as the angel Jibril (Gabriel). However, the nature and outcome of that annunciation is quite different from the one to the Virgin Mary six centuries earlier. As St Gregory Palamas noted in the 14th century, Muhammad's actions were "instigated by the devil" : "[Muhammad] came with war, knives, pillaging, forced enslavement, murders, and acts that are not from the good...

The Cross is God's final word on revealing Who He Is, through His Son Jesus Christ. The limitless, infinite humility and radical, self-emptying love through which Jesus restores us to the Father, is the most eloquent word ever spoken... uttered in silence as He lays down His life for us. During this week at the mid-point of Great Lent, during which the Cross is brought out into the middle of the Church for the faithful to venerate, it seemed right to share this article I originally posted a couple of years ago. + + + For the Veneration of the Cross, I'd like to share a selection from my book, Facing Islam . This is taken from the conclusion of the chapter on Muhammad, 'Prophet Motives - Was Muhammad a Man of God?'. Beyond the Cross By far the most compelling, overarching point to emphasize as we close this chapter is the Person and Mission of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the absolute, incontestable finality and divine pre-eminence of the Son of God, the Second Person of ...

If you're a regular reader of this blog, or have my book, Facing Islam , you'll recall this was the bold statement of St Gregory Palamas, whom we commemorated last week on the Second Sunday of Great Lent. Here is the full quote: "It is true that Muhammad started from the east and came to the west, as the sun travels from east to west. Nevertheless he came with war, knives, pillaging, forced enslavement, murders, and acts that are not from the good God but instigated by the chief manslayer, the devil."    ( The Lives of the Pillars of Orthodoxy , Holy Apostles Convent & Dormition Skete, Buena Vista CO, 1990, p. 352.) It is not really a secret, yet I would suppose that most Orthodox Christians have no idea that St Gregory, during his later years as Archbishop of Thessalonica, was abducted by the Muslim Turks and held for ransom (an income generating crime still used by Muslims to this day, which observers of the Middle East will have to admit). Suffering cruel hards...