by Johanna Markind*

Is Muhammad more deserving of reverential treatment than Jesus? The New York Times seems to think so.

A Times article reporting on the collapse of Christian communities in the Middle East contains two references to Jesus. Not “Christ,” which is a religious title, or “Jesus Christ,” but simply “Jesus,” who was (or may have been) a historical figure. The same is true of other Times stories and wire service articles published by the Times which no longer appear on its website (but still appear on other sites under different titles and are linked below). A December 21 story entitled “First Jesus-Era House Discovered in Nazareth” (AP byline) contains ten references to Jesus and none to Christ. Ditto another item, “Mass. School Denies Suspending Student for Drawing” (also AP), about a second grader who may have been suspended for drawing a figure of Jesus on the cross. Three references to Jesus, none to Christ.

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A briefing by Magdi Khalil*

Magdi Khalil is an Egyptian-born human rights activist and prominent figure on Arabic media, such as Al Jazeera and Al Ahram. He is director of the Middle East Freedom Forum, an Egyptian think-tank that campaigns for human rights, secularism, and democracy. On February 26, Mr. Khalil addressed the Middle East Forum via conference call on the situation of Egypt’s Copts.

If Islamists failed to terrorize America on Christmas Day, they amply succeeded in terrorizing the Copts, Egypt’s indigenous Christian minority, when they shot and murdered six Copts leaving church after Christmas mass. But according to Mr. Khalil, not only are the Copts increasingly being persecuted by Islamists; the Mubarak regime increasingly scapegoats them in order to redirect public anger from its own corruption and onto the Copts, exasperating an already intolerable situation for Egypt’s Christians. (Considering that Egypt bases its constitution on Shar’ia law, which mandates the subjugation of Christians, this is only to be expected.)

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by Phyllis Chesler

The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA) is about to release a report which denounces Israel as a “racist” nation which has absolutely no historical, covenantal, or theological right to the Holy Land. The report calls for the United States to withhold financial and military aid to Israel and for boycotts and sanctions against Israel. That’s not all. The report also endorses a Palestinian “right of return” and “apologizes to Palestinians for even conceding that Israel has a right to exist.” According to the press release, it also states that Israel’s history begins only with the Holocaust and that Israel is “a nation mistakenly created by Western powers at the expense of the Palestinian people to solve the ‘Jewish problem’.” Continue reading…

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A Film By: Franco Sacchi, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Reviewed by Fern Sidman

In an hour and a quarter, filmmakers Franco Sacchi, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner take us through a tumultuous journey to the final scenario of the world as we know it, as they present the religious prophecies of the 50 million strong American Evangelical Christian movement in a new and powerful documentary entitled, “Waiting For Armageddon.” Riding the wave of the all pervasive eschatological (or End Times) phenomenon that has, in recent years, been highly touted in the media and in literary circles; the filmmakers provide an in depth view of what some interpret to be the Biblically mandated perspective on the final days of our universe. Told in the first person voices of mainstream Christians who subscribe to the beliefs of the evangelical church, they inform us that the end of days will occur in the Land of Israel, with the Jewish people figuring prominently in this venue.

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WASHINGTON (December 29, 2009) - In contrast to many national religious leaders who are lobbying for increases in immigration, a new Zogby poll of likely voters who belong to the same religious communities finds strong support for reducing overall immigration. Moreover, members strongly disagree with their leaders’ contention that more immigrant workers need to be allowed into the country. Also, most parishioners and congregants prefer more enforcement to cause illegal workers to go home, rather than legalization of illegal immigrants, which most religious leaders prefer. The survey of Catholic, mainline Protestant, born-again Protestant, and Jewish voters used neutral language and was one of the largest polls on immigration ever done.

Among the findings:

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by Phyllis Chesler

It is Christmas 2009, and instead of peace on earth and good will towards all, Muslims are busily blowing up churches and Christians all over the Islamic world.

This is an awful reality but it is neither recent nor unexpected. Perhaps what is even more awful is the world’s silence and seeming passivity. We in the West who believe in religious tolerance have not stopped the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. In the name of political correctness, we have also “tolerated” the often aggressive demands for mosques, public prayer, minarets, and loudspeakers on our own soil even though there is absolutely no reciprocity towards Christianity (or any other non-Muslim religion) in most Arab and Muslim countries. Continue reading…

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By CIS.org

WASHINGTON — The supporters of amnesty for illegal immigrants have frequently used religious arguments and terminology to make their case. They explicitly claim that legalization and increased immigration are the only morally acceptable choices facing lawmakers and that opposition to “comprehensive immigration reform” is, literally, a sin.

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By Barry Rubin

Analysis of Middle East events, it often seems, is the worst-managed of all intellectual chores concerning the contemporary world. There are ideological and political barriers that get in the way of accuracy (not to mention fairness); ignorance plays a role, as does fear. But often underlying everything is the fact that when the Middle East knocks at the door, common sense jumps out the back window.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

“There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur’an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam.”[1] So announces former nun and self-professed “freelance monotheist,” Karen Armstrong. This quote sums up the single most influential argument currently serving to deflect the accusation that Islam is inherently violent and intolerant: All monotheistic religions, proponents of such an argument say, and not just Islam, have their fair share of violent and intolerant scriptures, as well as bloody histories. Thus, whenever Islam’s sacred scriptures — the Qur’an first, followed by the reports on the words and deeds of Muhammad (the Hadith) — are highlighted as demonstrative of the religion’s innate bellicosity, the immediate rejoinder is that other scriptures, specifically those of Judeo-Christianity, are as riddled with violent passages.

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By Barry Rubin

It’s a pity that the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief Islamic judge Tayseer Rajab Tamimi will be criticized for rudeness rather than incitement to genocide. And the whole political context of Tamimi’s statements shouldn’t be missed either: he is an appointee of the PA. When he demands that Israel be wiped out either he’s speaking for his bosses or if not they should fire him. Of course, they won’t because in large part he is.

The Syrian regime was even more open with its antisemitism during the Pope’s Middle East trip, trying to foment Christian hatred of the Jews quite openly. Even Syria’s president, during a previous papal visit back in 2001, told the pontiff:

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by Steven Shamrak

Contrary to common belief, the foundation of anti-Semitism was laid not by Christians but during the Roman Empire. Discrimination against Jews started during Roman rule because Judea and Samaria were the most rebellious provinces. Roman pagans considered Jews atheists as they believed in one god only.

Those who have read the New Testament closely and studied the political and religious situation in the Roman-occupied Jewish provinces of Judea and Samaria know that area was inflamed by rebellion against occupation. Religiously- and politically-motivated rebels, the Zealots, were the leading force of the Jewish resistance. Studying the actions of Jesus described in the Christian Bible rather than the politically motivated commentaries of the writers, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the Jesus’ group was, most likely, part of the resistance.

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by Uriya Shavit and Frederic Wiesenbach*

The conversion of Christians in Europe and the United States to Islam has become a matter of debate in some Western countries. Muslim scholars have called on immigrant Muslims to become involved in summoning non-Muslims to their faith. Indeed, the call on Muslim migrants to proselytize has become central in contemporary Islamic writings, not only in books, but also in sermons — many online on YouTube — and others on DVDs, and Islamic websites. The strategies that the global Islamic media uses to promote conversion of Christians to Islam illustrate both the perceptions of Islamists and can expose themes to defend and promote in cultural and public diplomacy.

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by Laurent Murawiec
Cambridge, 2008. 350 pp. $80

Reviewed by Raymond Ibrahim*

For some time now there has been a raging debate regarding what fuels Islamic terrorism–whether grievances against the West have caused frustrated Muslims to articulate their rage through an Islamist paradigm, or whether (all grievances aside) Islam itself leads to aggression toward non-Muslims, or “infidels.”

Laurent Murawiec’s The Mind of Jihad offers a different perspective. Discounting both the grievance and Islam-as-innately-violent models, Murawiec explores certain untapped areas of research in order to show correlations between radical Islam and any number of uniquely Western concepts and patterns, both philosophical and historical.

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By Phyllis Chesler

Rally Planned in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009. … Hindus (yes, those who live in Bombay/Mumbai as well as all over the world), Jews, (yes, those who live in Israel and elsewhere around the world), Christians, and Buddhists are organizing a rally right opposite the White House on January 20th, the day of President-elect Obama’s Inauguration. This “Coalition for Peace” is urging Obama to “declare Pakistan a terrorist state; stop Iran from producing an atomic bomb; stop Saudi Arabia from funding terrorism; stop Pakistan’s double game with the USA; stop Hamas and Hezbollah’s rocket attacks into Israel; seize Saudi Arabian assets for crimes against humanity.” … (Continue reading…)

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by Philip Jenkins
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 340 pp. $28.

Reviewed by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross*
Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Europe’s religious crisis, referenced in Jenkins’s title, is actually a demographic crisis. For a society to maintain its existing population size, it requires a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, and the fertility rates in most European countries fall well below that number. Along with the birth dearth, for decades Europe has been home to large-scale immigration, particularly from Muslim societies, and an immigrant population whose birthrate outstrips that of native Europeans. Warnings that the continent will become home to a Muslim majority before the next century are underscored in Europe’s Muslim communities by a strong extremist voice, a reluctance to assimilate, widespread support for Shari’a (Islamic law), and homegrown terrorism.

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