Christian Convert Killed In Iraq

Zakho (AsiaNews/MEC) – A Christian convert from Islam was killed for his faith. Ziwar Muhammad Isma’il, who worked as a taxi driver in Zakho in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, was shot dead by Abd al-Karim Abd al-Salam at a taxi station early on the morning of February 17.

Abd al-Salam approached Ziwar and told him to return to Islam. When Ziwar refused he opened fire with an automatic rifle.

Abd al-Salam fled but was chased by other taxi drivers who, after apprehending him, turned him over to the police.

Abd al-Salam claims that the prophet Muhammad appeared to him in a dream and told him to kill the Christian.

Ziwar, who converted to Christianity seven years ago, leaves a widow and five children. He had been quite open about his faith even though he had been threatened by his relatives and other Muslims. He had been arrested twice but never charged.

In countries like Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, where the Shariah (Islamic law) is the state law, Muslim men who convert from Islam can be put to death, their marriages annulled, and their property taken away.

Even under more moderate Muslim authorities, such as those in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, converts may still face widespread hostility and aggression from their own families and communities.

Articles On New Age & Wicca

A reader writes:

If you have time to respond to this, that would be great. I am looking for some internet articles dealing with apologetics against New Age and Wiccans. Any links you could provide would be helpful. Keep up the great work at CA and with your blog.

Your wish is my command:

That enough to get you started?

Articles On New Age & Wicca

A reader writes:

If you have time to respond to this, that would be great. I am looking for some internet articles dealing with apologetics against New Age and Wiccans. Any links you could provide would be helpful. Keep up the great work at CA and with your blog.

Your wish is my command:

That enough to get you started?

“I See Dead People”

Y’know the Christmas episode of  WKRP where Dr. Johnny Fever asks Jennifer (Loni Anderson) what she’s doing for Christmas and, embarrassed, she reveals that one of her businessmen boyfriends is flying the two of them to Bethlehem?

Johnny’s impressed response is: "Now that’s a down home Christmas."

Ever wonder what a down home Ramadan is like?–a Ramadan celebrated in Saudi Arabia? An American living over there tells us:

Watching [Night of the Living Dead], I remembered
something Mohammed had said on the advent of Ramadan, when we were
discussing the effects of the holy month of fasting on the Magic
Kingdom’s inhabitants.

"In four weeks," Mohammed said, with a wave of his arm, "You will see dead people. Everywhere you look, dead people."

He had a point. By the end of Ramadan most Saudis did seem more like reanimated corpses than living humans.

Saudis have their own peculiar way of observing Ramadan. During
Ramadan the Saudis flip their lifestyles from day to night. True, they
do abstain from food, water, and sexual intercourse, during the day.
What they deny themselves in the sunlight they more than make up for in
the dark. Most Saudis gain weight during Ramadan. Like camels storing
nourishment and water in the form of fat in their humps for long treks
across the desert, the Saudis gorge on food and drink during the night
for the perilous journey from dawn to dusk the following day.

Nightlife
in the heart of the Magic Kingdom during Ramadan is frenzied. Shops and
restaurants stay open until late in the morning. Some don’t bother
closing until just before sunrise. Stores are congested. Restaurants
are full. Traffic is bumper to bumper. There are Ramadan Special Offers
and Ramadan Sells and Ramadan Drawings and Ramadan Discounts everywhere
as stores vie for customers.

Aside from an occasional catnap before iftar (the first evening meal at sundown, when you break fast) and after suhoor
(the pre-dawn meal) no one bothers to sleep. Sleep can be postponed
until the weekend, when you can snooze all day long to your heart’s
content, which is exactly what the Saudis do. On Thursdays and Fridays
(weekend in this part of the world) during Ramadan the heart of the
Magic Kingdom becomes one massive necropolis. Streets are completely
empty. Shops are closed. Aside from police at checkpoints on the
lookout for terrorists it’s as though the entire city has been
abandoned.

One discernible impact of the lack of sleep during Ramadan is a
tremendous rise in traffic accidents. Driving in Arabia is dangerous
anytime of the year, but during Ramadan it is like playing Russian
roulette, only with cars instead of bullets.

Some of these accidents are caused by sleepy Saudis racing home to eat iftar.

This week the Arab News reported that road accidents were up
20 percent during Ramadan. Brigadier Saad Al-Ghamdi of the Jeddah
Traffic Department told the Arab News the accidents peak just before iftar.
He said, "I have no idea why people are behaving so differently in
Ramadan even though they are supposed to respect the spirit of the holy
month by being patient and tolerant. This happens every Ramadan despite
our continued warning. Motorists tend to speed more than usual and lose
their concentration while driving."

The article when on to
say that,  "the increased number of accidents has led the Traffic
Department in cooperation with charity organizations to provide a very
light iftar meal to motorists by traffic lights to calm them down."

READ MORE.

You’ll be seeing dead people.

"I See Dead People"

Y’know the Christmas episode of  WKRP where Dr. Johnny Fever asks Jennifer (Loni Anderson) what she’s doing for Christmas and, embarrassed, she reveals that one of her businessmen boyfriends is flying the two of them to Bethlehem?

Johnny’s impressed response is: "Now that’s a down home Christmas."

Ever wonder what a down home Ramadan is like?–a Ramadan celebrated in Saudi Arabia? An American living over there tells us:

Watching [Night of the Living Dead], I remembered

something Mohammed had said on the advent of Ramadan, when we were

discussing the effects of the holy month of fasting on the Magic

Kingdom’s inhabitants.

"In four weeks," Mohammed said, with a wave of his arm, "You will see dead people. Everywhere you look, dead people."

He had a point. By the end of Ramadan most Saudis did seem more like reanimated corpses than living humans.

Saudis have their own peculiar way of observing Ramadan. During

Ramadan the Saudis flip their lifestyles from day to night. True, they

do abstain from food, water, and sexual intercourse, during the day.

What they deny themselves in the sunlight they more than make up for in

the dark. Most Saudis gain weight during Ramadan. Like camels storing

nourishment and water in the form of fat in their humps for long treks

across the desert, the Saudis gorge on food and drink during the night

for the perilous journey from dawn to dusk the following day.

Nightlife

in the heart of the Magic Kingdom during Ramadan is frenzied. Shops and

restaurants stay open until late in the morning. Some don’t bother

closing until just before sunrise. Stores are congested. Restaurants

are full. Traffic is bumper to bumper. There are Ramadan Special Offers

and Ramadan Sells and Ramadan Drawings and Ramadan Discounts everywhere

as stores vie for customers.

Aside from an occasional catnap before iftar (the first evening meal at sundown, when you break fast) and after suhoor

(the pre-dawn meal) no one bothers to sleep. Sleep can be postponed

until the weekend, when you can snooze all day long to your heart’s

content, which is exactly what the Saudis do. On Thursdays and Fridays

(weekend in this part of the world) during Ramadan the heart of the

Magic Kingdom becomes one massive necropolis. Streets are completely

empty. Shops are closed. Aside from police at checkpoints on the

lookout for terrorists it’s as though the entire city has been

abandoned.

One discernible impact of the lack of sleep during Ramadan is a

tremendous rise in traffic accidents. Driving in Arabia is dangerous

anytime of the year, but during Ramadan it is like playing Russian

roulette, only with cars instead of bullets.

Some of these accidents are caused by sleepy Saudis racing home to eat iftar.

This week the Arab News reported that road accidents were up

20 percent during Ramadan. Brigadier Saad Al-Ghamdi of the Jeddah

Traffic Department told the Arab News the accidents peak just before iftar.

He said, "I have no idea why people are behaving so differently in

Ramadan even though they are supposed to respect the spirit of the holy

month by being patient and tolerant. This happens every Ramadan despite

our continued warning. Motorists tend to speed more than usual and lose

their concentration while driving."

The article when on to

say that,  "the increased number of accidents has led the Traffic

Department in cooperation with charity organizations to provide a very

light iftar meal to motorists by traffic lights to calm them down."

READ MORE.

You’ll be seeing dead people.

“What Is Your Religion?”

Christians are required at all times not to lie about the fact that they are Christians. Though they can mentally reserve their faith when the situation warrants, they cannot lie about it, and they are required not to deny Christ on pain of mortal sin.

Muslims, on the other hand, are allowed to lie about their faith.

There is even a technical name for this practice: Taqiyya.

As one might expect, there is considerable disagreement in the Muslim community about when one can do this. Wanna bet the terrorists are on the permissive side of the debate?

"What Is Your Religion?"

Christians are required at all times not to lie about the fact that they are Christians. Though they can mentally reserve their faith when the situation warrants, they cannot lie about it, and they are required not to deny Christ on pain of mortal sin.

Muslims, on the other hand, are allowed to lie about their faith.

There is even a technical name for this practice: Taqiyya.

As one might expect, there is considerable disagreement in the Muslim community about when one can do this. Wanna bet the terrorists are on the permissive side of the debate?

Extensive Muslim Secret Society Exposed In America

The Chicago Trib carries the story. Excerpts:

Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day.

But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well.

These men are part of an underground U.S. chapter of the international Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s most influential Islamic fundamentalist group and an organization with a violent past in the Middle East. But fearing persecution, they rarely identify themselves as Brotherhood members and have operated largely behind the scenes, unbeknown even to many Muslims.

Still, the U.S. Brotherhood has had a significant and ongoing impact on Islam in America, helping establish mosques, Islamic schools, summer youth camps and prominent Muslim organizations. It is a major factor, Islamic scholars say, in why many Muslim institutions in the nation have become more conservative in recent decades.

Documents obtained by the Tribune and translated from Arabic show that the U.S. Brotherhood has been careful to obscure its beliefs from outsiders. One document tells leaders to be cautious when screening potential recruits. If the recruit asks whether the leader is a Brotherhood member, the leader should respond, “You may deduce the answer to that with your own intelligence.”

[T]he group began in 1928 as an opposition movement to the British-backed Egyptian monarchy. Its founder and leader was schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, who advocated a return to fundamental Islam as a way to reform Muslim societies and expel Western troops.

The Brotherhood slogan became “Allah is our goal; the Messenger is our model; the Koran is our constitution; jihad is our means; and martyrdom in the way of Allah is our aspiration.”

Over time, the Brotherhood gained notoriety for repeatedly attempting to overthrow the Egyptian and Syrian governments and for spawning violent groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian group Hamas.

In recent months Akef, the international Brotherhood leader, repeatedly has praised Palestinian and Iraqi suicide bombers, called for the destruction of Israel and asserted that the United States has no proof that Al Qaeda was to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks.

A U.S. chapter of the Brotherhood, documents and interviews show, was formed in the early 1960s after hundreds of young Muslims came to the U.S. to study, particularly at large Midwestern universities, such as Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Some belonged to the Brotherhood in their homelands and wanted to spread its ideology here.

But to protect themselves and their relatives back home from possible persecution, they publicly called themselves the Cultural Society and not the Brotherhood.

Not anyone could join the Brotherhood. The group had a carefully detailed strategy on how to find and evaluate potential members, according to a Brotherhood instructional booklet for recruiters.

Leaders would scout mosques, Islamic classes and Muslim organizations for those with orthodox religious beliefs consistent with Brotherhood views, the booklet says. The leaders then would invite them to join a small prayer group, or usra, Arabic for “family.” The prayer groups were a defining feature of the Brotherhood and one created by al-Banna in Egypt.

But leaders initially would not reveal the purpose of the prayer groups, and recruits were asked not to tell anyone about the meetings. If recruits asked about a particular meeting to which they were not invited, they should respond, “Make it a habit not to meddle in that which does not concern you.”

Leaders were told that during prayer meetings they should focus on fundamentals, including “the primary goal of the Brotherhood: setting up the rule of God upon the Earth.”

Mustafa Saied, the Floridian who left the Brotherhood six years ago, recalls how he was recruited in 1994 while a junior at the University of Tennessee.

“It was a dream, because that’s what you’re conditioned to do–to really love the Ikhwan,” Saied says, using the Arabic term for Brothers or Brotherhood.

After he joined, he learned the names of other local members.

“I was shocked,” he says. “These people had really hid the fact that they were Brotherhood.”

Inamul Haq, professor of religion at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill., says the U.S. Brotherhood pushed Islam in a conservative direction. “They were in a position to define American Islam. Since they were well-connected in the Middle East, they were able to bring money to build various institutions.”

Without the Brotherhood, he says, “We would have seen a more American Islamic culture rather than a foreign community living in the United States.”

In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation’s major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.

Some wanted the Brotherhood to remain underground, while others thought a more public face would make the group more influential.

They agreed not to refer to themselves as the Brotherhood but to be more publicly active.

An undated internal memo instructed MAS leaders on how to deal with inquiries about the new organization. If asked, “Are you the Muslim Brothers?” leaders should respond that they are an independent group called the Muslim American Society. “It is a self-explanatory name that does not need further explanation.”

And if the topic of terrorism were raised, leaders were told to say that they were against terrorism but that jihad was among a Muslim’s “divine legal rights” to be used to defend himself and his people and to spread Islam.

But MAS leaders say those documents and others obtained by the Tribune are either outdated or do not accurately reflect the views of the group’s leaders.

Now, he says, his group has no connection with the Brotherhood and disagrees with the international organization on many issues.

But he says that MAS, like the Brotherhood, believes in the teachings of Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, which are “the closest reflection of how Islam should be in this life.”

“I understand that some of our members may say, `Yes, we are Ikhwan,'” Elsayed says. But, he says, MAS is not administered from Egypt. He adds, “We are not your typical Ikhwan.”

MAS says it has about 10,000 members and that any Muslim can join by paying $10 a month in dues.

But to be an “active” member–the highest membership class–one must complete five years of Muslim community service and education, which includes studying writings by Brotherhood ideologues al-Banna and Qutb.

There are about 1,500 active members, including many women. Elsayed says about 45 percent of those members belong to the Brotherhood.

MAS’ precise connection to the Brotherhood is a sensitive issue, says Mohamed Habib, a high-ranking Brotherhood official in Cairo.

“I don’t want to say MAS is an Ikhwan entity,” he says. “This causes some security inconveniences for them in a post-Sept. 11 world.”

At a summer camp last year in Wisconsin run by the Chicago chapter of MAS, teens received a 2-inch-thick packet of material that included a discussion of the Brotherhood’s philosophy and detailed instructions on how to win converts.

Part of the Chicago chapter’s Web site is devoted to teens. It includes reading materials that say Muslims have a duty to help form Islamic governments worldwide and should be prepared to take up arms to do so.

One passage states that “until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful.” Another one says that Western secularism and materialism are evil and that Muslims should “pursue this evil force to its own lands” and “invade its Western heartland.”

In suburban Rosemont, Ill., several thousand people attended MAS’ annual conference in 2002 at the village’s convention center. One speaker said, “We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state” in America, but it would have to wait because of the modest Muslim population. “We mustn’t cross hurdles we can’t jump yet.”

Federal authorities say they are scrutinizing the Brotherhood but acknowledge that they have been slow to understand the group.

GET THE STORY

(Warning: The Chicago Trib is one of those execrable “Registration Required” sites.)

Bad News For Salt Lake

Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA are wonderful things. Since we inherit them from only one parent (mitochondrial DNA coming from our mothers, and Y-chromosome DNA coming from our fathers–if we happen to be male), they allow us to figure out how people are or aren’t distantly related.

The first time the existence of such genetic family-tree tracing broke into public consciousness was a number of years ago when evidence of a “mitochondrial Eve”–a woman from whom all living humans are descended–was reported. That story has been kicked around a number of times, but it’s still being taken seriously in scientific circles.

The same kind of genetic research has the potential to solve other historical puzzles. One that I’ve been waiting for lo these long years is word about where the so-called ten “lost tribes of Israel” ended up. There is some genetic evidence indicating that some of them ended up in Africa, but I’m still waiting for a fuller picture.

Now there’s evidence (which is really just the last nail in the coffin) for where they didn’t end up, and it’s bad news for the Mormon Church. Ever since the Book of Mormon was written, Mormons have held that the American Indians were descendants of immigrants from Israel.

NOPE.

Just as it’s possible to find a lost tribe with DNA evidence, it’s also possible to lose one.

Anthropologists have long-maintained, and genetic studies are confirming, that American Indians are descendants of immigrants from East Asia, not the Middle East. A new book by a former Mormon bishop now explores the matter, and he admits where the evidence points.

Mormon apologists have seen the handwriting on the wall on this one for some time, and they have been doing what Mormon apologists typically do when faced with scientific evidence contary to historic Mormon belief: change their claims.

Still, it’s not good for the folks in Salt Lake.

GET THE STORY.

GET THE BOOK.

Bad News For Fundamentalist Mormons

Here’s an interesting story about what looks to be an impending crackdown on a polygamous Mormon offshoot that straddles the Arizona-Utah border.

I’m not happy about the editorial’s use of the word “cult”–a term I generally don’t favor because it’s basically a term of disparagement that you can apply to anyone you don’t like. In this case the article seems to consider a “cult” to be any religious group that displays “disregard for civil rights” (which could easily be applied to Catholics and Christians in general if homosexual marriage is regarded as something that is or should be a civil right).

Nevertheless, I’m heartened to see that it looks like a long-delayed legal crackdown on the group may be in motion.

The editorial also contains interesting insights into the psychological effects of polygamy, including the fact that young men tend to get driven away, as they would provide competition for the older men who want to take multiple wives. That’s something you’d expect: Since humans have an approximately fifty-fifty gender ratio, for some men to take multiple wives, other men must be denied them. The men most likely to be able to take multiple wives will be those with more power and money, who by nature will tend to be older. Eliminating the competition is one of the best ways to ensure that they get what they want.