by Raymond Ibrahim*

Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization.

Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with ample precedents. Indeed, from its inception, most of those who embraced Islam did so under duress, beginning with the Ridda wars and during the age of conquests, and to escape dhimmi status. This is a simple fact.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

Cases dealing with apostasy in Islam — whereby Muslims who convert to other religions are tortured and executed — are on the rise and need to be acknowledged for what they are: one of Islam’s most visible attempts to suppress the human conscience — a phenomenon that has dire implications beyond religious freedom. Consider these two recent stories. First, from Somalia:

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by Fern Sidman

Before noon on Wednesday, September 21st, scores of stalwart Christian supporters of Israel along with sizable contingents of Jews poured into Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations to express their indignation over the unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood expected to take place on Friday as part of the annual UN general assembly meeting. Sponsors of the rally said that a coalition of close to 50 Christian and Jewish organizations along with the Israeli government had taken part in mobilizing over 5000 people to attend under the banner of the “Eagles Wings Coalition Council”, named for the Buffalo, New York based organization of the same name, headed by Robert Stearns. Many rally participants had traveled from across the United States and Canada to attend.

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By Fern Sidman

Addressing thousands at his much heralded “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening August 24th, FOX News talk show host Glenn Beck exhorted his audience to immerse themselves in doughtiness and “to stand up for Israel” in the face of the existential siege that the Jewish state finds herself under by the international community.

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By Fern Sidman

“We are facing a new holocaust, and people of all faiths must demand that the truth be heard”, declared Oscar winning American actor Jon Voight on Monday evening, August 22nd in Jerusalem. Voight, 72, joined FOX news personality Glenn Beck as the featured speaker at the central train station in Jerusalem in an event commemorating the Holocaust. As a lead up to Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally on August 24th, Monday evening’s event, which was carried on Beck’s new television network, featured a powerful film about Holocaust survivor Rudy Wolf’s visit to his childhood home in Germany. Other speakers at the event noted the significance of holding a Holocaust themed evening at the former Jerusalem train station after world armies did not bomb the tracks to Auschwitz in World War II.

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By Gary Gerofsky

We heard crowds in Egypt chant, “allahu akbar.” We heard the crowds in Yemen chant allahu akbar. We heard crowds in Bahrain chant allahu akbar. We hear the crowds in Syria chant allahu akbar. We hear the crowds in Libya chant allahu akbar. The same chant can be heard all over the Muslim world from troubled people in countries that are themselves in deep trouble. Literally, allahu akbar means “God is great” in Arabic, in the context of the Islamic religion. I am certain that the God to whom they are referring and envisioning is a very harsh deity with a very Islamo-specific agenda in mind; a celestial leader who refuses to include or acknowledge those outside of Islam in his vision of the world order.

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By Fern Sidman

On Sunday, August 21st, former FOX News talk show host and conservative commentator Glenn Beck delivered an address laden with palpable emotion at the Roman amphitheater in Caesarea, Israel as part of the first fixture leading up to his “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem on August 24th. Speaking to over 3000 mostly American attendees, Beck exhorted his audience at the monumental venue built in the first century by Herod the Great to, “not only love Israel but love the Jewish people as they are.”

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by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi*

I was recently told by my aunt in Baghdad that there was a widespread belief among Iraqis that some external force was behind the protests and uprisings across the Middle East. What outside conspiracy, I wondered, could be responsible for the Arab Spring? Not to worry, however; George Saliba — the Syriac Orthodox Church’s bishop in Lebanon — offers us a simple answer. In an interview with Al-Dunya TV on July 24, Saliba declared that “the source… behind all these movements, all these civil wars, and all these evils” in the Arab world is nothing other than Zionism, “deeply rooted in Judaism.” The Jews, he says, are responsible for financing and inciting the turmoil in accordance with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

These remarks are not an isolated case among Middle Eastern Christians. The anti-Semitic trend has become especially apparent in the aftermath of Iraq’s assault last October on the Syriac Catholic Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, leaving 58 dead and 67 wounded in the worst attack on the Iraqi Christian community since 2003.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

In his manifesto, Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the Norway massacre, in which 80 people were killed and many wounded, mentioned the Crusades and aspects of it as they had been an inspirational factor to him. Predictably, Western elites — especially through the mainstream media — have begun a new round of moral, cultural, and historical relativism, some even conflating the terrorist with former President Bush, who once used the word “crusade.”

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

Earlier this month I participated in Coptic Solidarity’s Second Annual Conference in Washington D.C., titled: “Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the ‘Arab Spring’?” Panelists included Middle East specialists, prominent members of the Coptic community, and other minority leaders from the Muslim world, including Kurds, Berbers, and Sudanese animists.

Held at the U.S. Capitol, nine members of Congress made statements and showed their support, including Sue Myrick, Chris Smith, and Frank Wolf. Walid Phares, a Congressional advisor who also participated, asserted that their appearance is encouraging and indicates that at least some members of Congress “are aware about the plight of minorities in general and of Christian communities in the Arab and Muslim world, and are particularly concerned about the Islamist and jihadi threat to these communities.”

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By Fern Sidman

Introduced by Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a gathering of thousands of ardent Christian Zionists via satellite from Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon, July 19th at a special “Middle East Briefing” session at the sixth annual CUFI national summit in Washington.

Greeted with over 10 minutes of applause and enthusiastic cheers, Mr. Netanyahu extended his appreciation to Pastor Hagee for his, “unwavering support and commitment for Israel,” and for those Christian supporters of Israel who have the, “courage to stand up and speak the truth.” Sharing the same sentiments that he did in his speech before the Joint Sessions of Congress in late May, Netanyahu said, “Israel is not what’s wrong with the Middle East; it’s what is right about it. Israel is a country that draws from the same well as you. Both America and Israel were forged on the same principles, the same ideas and so we have shared values and common hopes for the future.”

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By Fern Sidman

John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, had some strong words for the world body on Monday evening, July 18th as he delivered a broad-based foreign policy speech during the Chairman’s Club dinner at the sixth annual Christians United For Israel (CUFI) national summit in Washington, DC.

Speaking from the podium of the Washington Convention Center, Ambassador Bolton addressed the upcoming vote, scheduled for September at the United Nations General Assembly in which the Palestinian Authority will call for nation states to cast their vote for the establishment of an independent state.

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By Fern Sidman

Receiving numerous rousing ovations and thunderous applause, FOX television personality Glenn Beck told an audience of over 5000 gathered at the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) national summit in Washington that if the pernicious trends in global anti-Semitism culminate in another genocide, “Then count me as a Jew, and come for me first”. Mr. Beck delivered these remarks as part of his keynote address at “The Night to Honor Israel” gala banquet at the organization’s sixth annual convocation on Tuesday evening, February 19th.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

Earlier we saw Egyptian preacher Huwaini and Kuwaiti political activist Mutairi call for the reinstitution of sex-slavery. Before dismissing their position as aberrant, that is “radical,” for the record, here are respected Muslim scholar Majid Khadduri’s thoughts on the matter:

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by Stephen Schwartz*

John L. Esposito, professor of religion and international affairs and director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU) at Georgetown University, is the leading defender of radical Islam in U.S. higher education — if not in the entire Western academy. He and his enterprise have returned to the public eye with the exposure that, in 2006-07, they were offered $325,000 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to hold a conference on Islamophobia at the university.

A 57-member international body headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the OIC was founded in Morocco in 1969 to “protect” the Islamic sites in Jerusalem from Israel. It defines “Islamophobia” with considerable and questionable latitude, as any criticism of Muslim individual, institutional, ideological, legal, or cultural behavior. Combating Islamophobia as it conceives it, OIC seeks to prevent free discussion about Islam or the lives of Muslims under, for example, the radical Islamists dominating Saudi Arabia and ruling Iran.

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