Tag Archives: Islam

Anglican priest blesses the burqa

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Rev. Rod Bower from the Anglican Parish of Gosford, as part of the unceasing Anglican striving after inclusion, relevance and trendiness, likes to put irritating signs up outside his church. This time he is blessing burqas; at least it makes a change from blessing same sex marriages.

It’s easy to see why Bower wants to bless burqas: he dresses in one himself – he was considerate enough to remove the headpiece for this photo:

3010_bower1_spFrom here:

A Central Coast man of God is continuing his crusade as a man of the people, calling on parishioners to “bless the burqa” as a campaign to ban facial coverings comes once more before Parliament.

Archdeacon Rod Bower of the Anglican Parish of Gosford has gained a measure of online fame with his pithy, popular church signs, which are always a hit on social media.

The latest offering shows Fr Bower standing in full ceremonial religious dress by the sign, which reads “Bless The Burqa”.

“I’m all for the religious (and non religious) freedom to wear what you like in public,” Fr Bower wrote on Facebook.

What eludes the Rev Bower is that if many of the women who do wear a burqa had the freedom of choice he thinks he is championing, they wouldn’t be seen dead in one.

As a reward for his innovative work in using church signs to explore hitherto untapped veins of clerical folly, he has been made an archdeacon.

Islam is not a religion of peace

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Given current events, this is not a particularly startling assertion. What is somewhat surprising, is that a Muslim is making it. Tarek Fatah, a Muslim, reckons that the antics of ISIS are inherent to the teaching and tradition of Islam and a continuation of the received understanding of the activities of its founder.

From here:

We Muslims need to acknowledge the beheadings by ISIS are part of Islamic tradition, text and history, not some fringe interpretation of our faith.

None other than the grandson of Prophet Mohammed was slaughtered and his head paraded through the streets of Damascus on a spike.

The ISIS jihadis are doing exactly what we Muslims are taught our Prophet did during warfare.

Here is a quote from the voluminous biography of the Prophet of Islam, Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, popularly known as the Sira:

“Then they (Jews) surrendered and the apostle (Prophet Mohammed) confined them in Medina. Then the apostle went out to the market and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them (Jews) and struck off their heads in those trenches … There were 600 or 700 in all.”

In my book, The Jew is Not My Enemy, I disputed this account of mass murder, but was assailed for having challenged what many, if not all Muslims, consider absolute truth.

Islam is not a religion of peace.

An Islamic State in Iraq

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From the BBC:

Up to a quarter of Iraq’s Christians are reported to be fleeing after Islamic militants seized the minority’s biggest town.

The Islamic State (IS) group captured Qaraqosh in Nineveh province overnight after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.

IS controls parts of Iraq and Syria and says it has created an Islamic state.

Meanwhile the UN says some of the Yazidi community, another religious minority in the area targeted by IS, have been rescued.

About 50,000 Yazidis are thought to have been trapped in the mountains after fleeing the town of Sinjar.

ISIS says it has created an “Islamic State”. The result is tens of thousands of Christians dying of thirst, a Christian family of eight shot in the face because they would not convert, and Christians beheaded, mutilated, raped, stoned and crucified – just for being Christians.

Is this what an “Islamic State” is supposed to look like? If not, I expect we’ll soon be seeing intervention from the real Islamic States.

The dog days of Ramadan

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From here:

Malaysian politicians and religious leaders have attacked the use of Scottie dogs during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, claiming it was disrespectful to Muslims.

[….]

Mohamad Sabu, the deputy president of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party said: “Malaysia and all Islamic countries deserve and [sic] apology from the organiser.

“This is just so disrespectful to Malaysia and Muslims – especially as it happened during Ramadan. Muslims are not allowed to touch dogs, so the organiser should have been more aware and sensitive on this issue.

“It is hoped this incident can teach other Western countries to be more respectful in the future.”

Meanwhile, Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and just about any other Islamic state that comes to mind are beheading, raping, torturing, persecuting and generally oppressing anyone who questions Islam. After exhausting the opposition, they turn on each other; all without disrespectfully touching any dogs.

Keeping Jihad in perspective

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The Islamic struggle against unbelievers, Jihad, is a serious business entailing sacrifice, rigorous training, dietary observances and routine beheadings of filthy kuffars.

6eWHJWar_400x400Of course, as Abu Fulan al-Muhajir has discovered, none of this is possible without a properly cultivated beard. Have you any idea how hard it is to concentrate on which is the business end of a bazooka when all you can think about are the split ends in your beard?

From here:

Abu Fulan al-Muhajir.
A stranger. Currently fighting in Syria, to make the word of Allah the highest! Independent Anonymous group. kik: AbuFulan

19-07-2014 12-35-26 AMAnd then, my dear, there is the appalling heat:

19-07-2014 12-36-09 AM

So, coddled middle class would be Jihadists, do not leave home without your Frédéric Fekkai Protein Rx Reparative Shampoo; next to your AK-47, it will be your best friend.

Radical Islam growing in Cardiff

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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.”

The Diocese of New Westminster sells a church to make way for a mosque

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The diocese sold St. Richard’s Anglican Church to the North Vancouver Islamic Association for $3.05 million as a site for the Ar-Rahman mosque.

After selling a church to a competing religion, the next obvious step for members of the diocese is to start attending the mosque. After all, all religions are equally valid; there are many ways to God; we don’t want to exclude anyone; everyone knows Michael Ingham’s book should have been titled “Mosques of the Spirit”.

3 Women's Prayer RoomFrom here:

On Sunday March 30th, forty-five Anglicans and Lutherans were guests at Masjid Ar-Ramnan, the mosque in the former St. Richard’s building in North Vancouver. As part of a North Vancouver Lenten Visiting Program “Who is my neighbour?”

Huron College kicks non-Muslim out of Islamic preaching course

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Huron College used to be an Anglican theological college. The college’s current Faculty of Theology features Ingrid Mattson as the Chair of Islamic Studies, a discipline that I expect will increasingly find a natural home within Western Anglicanism.

Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz, unable to contain his enthusiasm at the prospect of Islamic Studies being taught in a once Anglican college, endorsed  Mattson’s appointment:

 “In establishing the “London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies”, Huron College is on the cutting edge of interfaith dialogue. With delight I endorse the appointment of Dr. Ingrid Mattson as the first occupant of that chair. She is a highly respected scholar and widely published. She is well known for her leadership in nurturing Muslim-Christian relations. The College and Community will be blessed by Dr. Mattson’s academic qualifications, and her capacity to engage people in dialogue, mutual learning and public witness to the values we hold in common as people of faith.”

The Most Reverend Fred Hiltz
Archbishop and Primate
The Anglican Church of Canada

The engaging “people in dialogue, mutual learning and public witness to the values we hold in common as people of faith” hasn’t worked out quite as well as Hiltz hoped: a non-Muslim student has been removed from one of the Islamic courses because he is not a Muslim. Ironically, the course is on Islamic Preaching – to the already converted, it seems.

As Hiltz notes, “Huron College is on the cutting edge of interfaith dialogue.”

From here:

A London, Ont., university is defending its decision to restrict access to a course that teaches Muslims how to proselytize.

The Huron College course — The Muslim Voice: Islamic Preaching, Public Speaking and Worship — was, according to the syllabus, “open to Muslim men and women who offer religious leadership and/or speak publicly about Islam on behalf of their communities.”

The school allowed a non-Muslim to enrol in the course, but then kicked him out because, they said, they didn’t want to open the course to auditors. That student, Moray Watson, is an accountant who says he is an opponent of Islamic extremism and enrolled in the course partly to test the prerequisite in the syllabus.

“I’m not allowed to take the course because I’m not a Muslim”

“[The school] gets $6.5-million [from the government]. Some of it is mine and I’m not allowed to take the course because I’m not a Muslim,” he said.

Islamic advice on how to beat your wife

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As  Egyptian cleric Mahmoud Al-Denawy points out: “there are so many…. misconceptions about this.” Here he is, then, to straighten us all out.

The nub of it is: let’s face it, some wives are just plain disobedient. If the husband refusing to sleep with her doesn’t do the trick (this must be an example of Islamic reverse psychology), a spot of beating is in order; try not to break her arms, or teeth, though. And mind out for the face: it belongs to Allah. Besides, someone might notice.

A contrast in responses from Justin Welby

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Archbishop Justin Welby’s reaction to attacks on mosques following the murder of Lee Rigby by Muslims contains words like: “evil”, “unacceptable” (the PC version of “evil”), “inexcusable”, “scandal”, “terrible”. He had little difficulty in roundly condemning the attacks – quite rightly, since some of the foiled attacks used nail bombs:

Speaking at Featherstone High School in Southall, west London, the Most Rev Justin Welby described attacks on mosques in the wake of the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby earlier this year as “evil actions”.

“The attacks on minority ethnic groups across the country that there have been over the last few weeks are inexecusable, [sic] unacceptable and a scandal to a tradition of hospitality in this country of which we should be deeply proud and which has contributed far more to us than it has taken from us,” he said.

He added: “I want, as I have already done, to acknowledge the pressure that our Muslim friends and colleagues have faced over the last few weeks.

“There have been terrible attacks, I know that the vast majority of those in this country and especially people of faith would join me in condemning utterly any act of violence against anyone because of their faith.

Contrast that with his official statement on Lee Rigby’s murder:

The Right Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, said on Friday regarding Rigby’s murder that Christian and Muslim leaders in the United Kingdom have been helping to bring reconciliation. “I want to recognize the response of churches, mosques and other faith and civil society groups as well as those of brave individuals who have done so much to bring our communities together at this time,” said Welby.

“The strong response from the Muslim Council of Britain and many other organizations has rightly emphasized that these acts have no place in Islam.”

Welby also mentioned his involvement with the interfaith British organization the Christian Muslim Forum, which was founded in the 1990s and comprised of leaders from both faiths. “As Patron of the national Christian Muslim Forum I know that the Forum is offering support and encouragement for these meetings to happen and I continue to hold all those working in these efforts in my prayers,” said Welby.

The Right Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, said on Friday regarding Rigby’s murder that Christian and Muslim leaders in the United Kingdom have been helping to bring reconciliation. “I want to recognize the response of churches, mosques and other faith and civil society groups as well as those of brave individuals who have done so much to bring our communities together at this time,” said Welby.

“The strong response from the Muslim Council of Britain and many other organizations has rightly emphasized that these acts have no place in Islam.”

Welby also mentioned his involvement with the interfaith British organization the Christian Muslim Forum, which was founded in the 1990s and comprised of leaders from both faiths. “As Patron of the national Christian Muslim Forum I know that the Forum is offering support and encouragement for these meetings to happen and I continue to hold all those working in these efforts in my prayers,” said Welby.

“This is very much a time for communities to come together.”

Notice the completely different emphasis here. Nothing about “evil”, “terrible”, “inexcusable” and so on; rather, the murder is a signal for reconciliation for us to come together to not blame Islam.

An act of ultimate wickedness – murder – is soft-pedalled because the murderers are Muslims.

Admittedly, imams were quick to denounce the murder and assure everyone that it had nothing to do with Islam; the murderers, we are expected to believe, shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the beheading due to a severe misunderstanding of Islam. Yet, there seems to be something inherent to Islam that inspires such violence, something absent in, say, Christianity; when was the last beheading performed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost?

To maintain his credibility – with me, at least – the Archbishop of Canterbury would do better if he could bring himself to condemn, with equal conviction, crimes perpetrated in the name of Islam – according to the clear and vociferous declaration of their perpetrators – and crimes attempted against Islam.

Jettison the impulse to give every benefit of the doubt to the cultural influence of Islam, none of which would be afforded the heritage of Christendom.