I grew up in Cardiff during an era when the most radical thing that happened in the city was Baptists raising their arms in Chapel. Now, Richard Llewellyn’s valleys, once black with coal dust, are green, covered in grass and being enjoyed by mentally unstable radical Islamists who might have profited by having to earn a living digging up coal by hand from a Welsh mine.
It’s ironic that as the valleys have become greener, the spiritual health of Cardiff has become blacker. Another symptom of our age and the church’s obsession with the material at the expense of the transcendent.
From here:
Cardiff has an ongoing problem with the radicalisation of young Muslims, said an academic who has studied the issue.
Two men from the city have been identified taking part in what appears to be a Jihadist recruiting video, which was posted online last week.
It is thought Reyaad Khan travelled to Syria with friend Nasser Muthana who also appears in the footage.
Khan lived close to the Cardiff men jailed over the London Stock Exchange bombing plot in 2012.
It is believed the two men, both 20, travelled to Syria in November, while Nasser Muthana’s younger brother Aseel, 17, travelled to the country in February.
The men are believed to be among 500 Britons fighting in the conflict in Syria.
I’ll let Richard Llewellyn have the last word:
“It is simple. Men lose their birthrights for a mess of pottage only if they stop using the gifts given them by God for their betterment. By prayer. That is the first and greatest gift. Use the gift of prayer. Ask for strength of mind, and a clear vision. Then sense. Use your sense. Not all of us are born for greatness, but all of us have sense. Make use of it. Think. Think long and well. By prayer and good thought you will conquer all enemies….Behold, the night is coming. Prepare, for the time is at hand.”
I met a man from England who has immigrated from Dover to live out the rest of his days here. I asked him why he would leave his country of birth, and such beautiful countryside as the Dover area.
He said, in a sad and regretful way, “Because it’s not my country anymore.”
A mess of pottage. Interesting words.
Anonymeau8se, have you heard C. S. Lewis on H. G. Wells – “He sold his birthright for a pot of message” A talented writer who got taken over by his committment to a bad ideology. Terry: the problem with leaving England (where I am at the moment) is that wherever you go, it has b een, or will soon be, taken over and ruled, not by formerly-alien people, but alien ideologies (I’d welcome anyone if they held to those things that were good). At least in north America (where I guess you are) you don’t have the awful EU.