islam

"Miracles come when they are needed, and it seems that the Holy Fire first came when it was needed most — during the time of the Islamic oppression of the Church, when the Christians suffering under the yoke of Muhammad most needed confirmation that their faith in the crucified and risen Christ was true." — Fr. Lawrence Farley Today, May 2, 2019, the Holy Fire arrived at a wonderful parish I am closely connected to, by circumstance and by the heart. Alas, I could not travel to be with them to greet and receive the Holy Fire, brought all the way from Jerusalem, but it did spur me on to read up on the annual Miracle of the Holy Fire. In doing so, I came across a typically wonderful article by Fr Lawrence Farley. It is his quote at the top of this post, and his observation is no less true today than it was when the Sword of Islam cut its wide and bloody swath across the Christian world, decimating churches and slaughtering and subjugating Christians across the Middle East, North...

Thanks be to God for this brave Orthodox parish hosting the fearless and indefatigable Robert Spencer, to speak the truth about Islam and Muslim persecution of Christians. Robert Spencer is, of course, the director of the Jihad Watch blog , and author of bestselling books such as The Truth About Muhammad, and his newest book, the essential title, The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS. The Orthodox Church has a long memory when it comes to Islam's 1400-year war against Christianity. Sadly, very few Orthodox Christians are willing to face the truth about the false prophet Muhammad and the heresy of Islam, which St John of Damascus called a "superstition" and a "forerunner of the Antichrist." Fortunately, intrepid Orthodox priests like Fr Josiah Trenham of St Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside CA and others are warning and educating about Islam. In August 2017 Fr Josiah conducted a wide-ranging and most edifying interview with Robert Spencer. This address by...

"Graham reacted strongly to a recent Islamic terror attack in Strasbourg, France, warning that radical Islam continues to be a major global threat." There are so few Christian voices stating the obvious, that the obvious is in decline.  'AXIOS' to Rev. Graham for having the courage and conviction to boldly rebuke those who hold to the Same God Heresy , to bravely condemn the false religion of Islam, and to blast weak Christian leaders like Pope Francis who deny that Islam is behind jihad terror attacks. Graham recently stated that Islam “is behind the violence and jihad we’re seeing in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and here in this country.  “It’s a religion that calls for the extermination of ‘infidels’ outside their faith, specifically Jews and Christians.” Franklin Graham: Allah and the Christian God ‘Not the Same’ by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News , December 16, 2018: Celebrated evangelical pastor Franklin Graham reacted strongly to a recent Islamic terr...

"If Christian minorities living under Islamic authority have little choice but to speak well of their 'coexistence' with Islam, why are Western leaders, politicians, and talking heads of all varieties—who are not under Islamic authority—also behaving like cowed dhimmis?" Raymond Ibrahim applies his penetrating insights into the historical continuity of Islamic persecution of Christians to the tragic case of the Coptic Pope Tawadros II's recent remarks. It should be noted that Orthodox Christian patriarchs and bishops subjugated under Muslim rule in the Islamic world have also made similar such statements, and some have even gone much further, to the borders (and beyond?) of outright blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy: His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has written of a “dialogue of loving truth” with Islam, and of Orthodoxy having for centuries “coexisted peacefully” with Islam, and projects the chimera of an “interfaith commitment.....

Fr Benedict Kiely “We are at a Lepanto moment in Western history,” said Father Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.org... Lepanto refers to the 1571 naval battle that turned the tide for Christian forces resisting the onslaught of the Muslim invaders of the Ottoman Empire in the waters off southwestern Greece. “We must pray with the same fervor that the Christians prayed then to save Western civilization, not just from the danger of radical Islamist extremism, but from radical, aggressive secular liberalism," added Fr Kiely. _____________ This is a bold and, for Roman Catholicism in America, unexpected move, which we welcome for its ability to draw attention to persecuted Christians, as as well as to highlight Islam's strident antichrist theology which manifests in its doctrine of violent jihad against Christians. With fearless Orthodox voices such as Archbishop Mark of Berlin , Fr Josiah Trenham (whose own church has been subjected to jihad threats ), and of course New Mart...

The Armenian Genocide is commemorated on April 24 each year, the Pontian Greek Genocide on May 19. Together with the Assyrians and other Christians under Ottoman rule, the combined total of Orthodox and Eastern Christians massacred by the Muslim Turks from 1894 to 1923 reached 3.6 million. Still from the film 'Ravished Armenia', based on a survivor's eyewitness account. While it is essential to remember the Armenian Genocide and to work to stop the Islamic genocide against Christians in the Middle East and Africa being committed today, we must recall that the term 'genocide' is a secular one. As Christians we commemorate those killed not so much as 'genocide victims', but as Martyrs — Witnesses for Christ — for they were persecuted and killed by the Turkish Muslims primarily because they were Christians, who refused to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. As the Lord tells us, "You will be hated by all for My Name's sake. But he who endures to th...

The recent discovery of of "how an eighth century Koran was found to be written over... the Bible" has been hailed by the media as evidence of "cultural interactions between different religious communities.” The truth, however, as Raymond Ibrahim proves in his most recent article, is much darker and far more foreboding: "What is euphemistically referred to as 'cultural interactions between different religious communities' is a reference to the near cultural annihilation of Coptic Christian civilization by Islam. " Islam’s Erasure of Christianity by Raymond Ibrahim , May 14, 2018: A recent article titled “Passages from the Bible discovered behind Qur’an manuscript” is a reminder that for centuries Islam has been literally and figuratively erasing Christianity. The report tells of how an eighth century Koran was found to be written over a Christian book, possibly the Bible: “French scholar Dr Eléonore Cellard … noticed that, appearing faintly behind the ...

A young monk, a simple baker, and a pure maiden — each bravely confessing to the death their Orthodox Christian Faith in Jesus Christ — are soon to be formally recognized as saints and martyrs by the Serbian Orthodox Church. These three — Gregory of Peć, Vasilije of Peć, and Bosiljka Rajičić, who lived during the 17th-18th centuries — are among the "great cloud of witnesses," the thousands of holy neo-martyrs killed by the Muslim Turks during the Ottoman occupation. You can learn about many of them in the landmark book, Witnesses for Christ, Orthodox Christian Neomartyrs of the Ottoman Period, 1437-1860 , by Nomikos Michael Vaporis. The plight of the Holy Neomartyrs under the Ottoman yoke is part of the historical continuity of Muslim persecution of Christians across the centuries from Muhammad's time until now, wherever Islam has conquered. We see the exact same phenomenon in our own day in such geographically far flung nations as Egypt and Indonesia, Nigeria and Malaysi...

While preparing to post William Kilpatrick's article,   'The Church and Islam: Dangerous Illusions' ,  I ended up with quite a long introduction which, I felt, took away from Mr. Kilpatrick's presentation. Therefore, I decided to hold back that introduction and use it to create this follow-up post to further address the 'Dangerous Illusions' which plague those Christians who praise Islam and refuse to see it for what it is. For an Orthodox Christian to praise and affirm Islam and the Qur'an is akin to spitting on the holy icons of Christ and His Most Pure Mother. When the Muslims invaded Tbilisi, Georgia in 1227, they set icons of Christ and the Theotokos in the middle of the bridge, and promised to spare all those who spit on the icons, denied Christ and converted to Islam. 100,000 Georgian Orthodox Christians chose martyrdom rather than deny Jesus Christ. Let us honor their memory by confessing Jesus Christ to our dying breath! ( Source ) William Kilpatric...

"Church leaders... have taken every opportunity to praise Islam, to declare their solidarity with it, and to join in various Islamic initiatives, such as the campaign against 'Islamophobia'. Judging by the Church’s great solicitude for Islam, one would think it was the most persecuted faith on earth, rather than one of the chief persecutors." The below article by William Kilpatrick, while directed specifically towards Roman Catholic leaders, can be read with profit by Orthodox Christian hierarchs, clergy, and educators as well. The Church and Islam: Dangerous Illusions by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine , April 25, 2018: Pope Francis meets with Dr. Muhammad al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, on September 20, 2017. (Photo credit: CNA / L’Osservatore Romano) When I first began writing about the Church and Islam, I devoted a lot of space to describing ways that Church leaders could resist the spread of Islam. It seemed only a matter of time until ...

“Those who are in denial, who don’t think there is Christian persecution, or who even think there is more Muslim persecution, those pastors better wake up, better be aware, that you now have Christian conferences being closed down by these Islamofascists, Antifa, the SPLC, they’re all working together.”  — former Muslim-turned Christian Pastor Shahram Hadian 'Axios!' to Leo Hohmann for exposing these thuggish tactics being used to silence Christians warning about the threats from Islam.  Christian broadcaster Brannon Howse on the set of his Worldview Weekend radio  and Internet podcast show. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ” – John: 15:18-19 By LEO HOHMANN , April 13, 2018: It’s no secret that the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood-l...