Turkey: Muslims Attack Church Pastor in Istanbul, Threaten to Kill Him If He Refuses to Accept Islam

“Four people rushed to the Protestant Grace Church in Bahçelievler, Istanbul and physically abused pastor Semir Sertek (58), after forcing him to cite the Islamic testimony of faith.

Sertek had depicted the attack which took place on the night of the Orthodox Easter, April 7th, to Radikal daily as follows:

‘Someone knocked forcefully on the door of the church. They were aggravated. When we opened the door, they forced their way in, mocking us. I was troubled. I asked them to come back at the next day but they kept insulting. ‘This is a Muslim neighborhood, there’s no place for a church’ they said. They threatened to kill me if I refuse to accept Islam. One of them cited the Islamic testimony of faith and asked me to recite it. He kicked me on my chest and then they ran. I fell of the stairs.’ (EKN/EÜ)” Source – Bianet.

Flashback: Turkey: From Churches to Mosques, See What Happens When a Secular State is Taken Over by Islamists – “A story in today’s International Herald Tribune (read here on the New York Times website) provides an interesting insight into exactly what happens when a secular state is taken over by Islamists. The piece concerned the Hagia Sophia of Iznik, an ancient church that brought 40,000 tourists to the town south of Istanbul much to the delight of the locals. Iznik was once known as Nicaea, and it was there the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church met at the Hagia Sophia in the year 325. But the Islamist government of Turkey has put a damper on the prosperity of those who profited from the museum by formally converting the building into a mosque.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey, Key US Ally, Added to List of Worst Religious Freedom Offenders – “Yes, you’ve read that right. The country that has become ‘a useful model for new Arab regimes’ has now been added to the list of worst religious freedom offenders in the world. Alongside Egypt who now vows to one day kill all Jews, this is a nation that the Obama Administration is now actively arming, a nation that now makes verbal attacks against Israel ‘a central feature’ of its political discourse. Welcome to the ‘new’ face of ‘moderate Islam’ …” Read more.

Allah’s Law Has Spoken: Kuwaiti Parliament Unanimously Approves Death Penalty for Those Who Insult Allah, Mohammed or His Wives

Revelation 13:15, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

“KUWAIT CITY, April 8: MP Adel Al-Damkhi proposed to the government Sunday to establish ‘a center to treat negative phenomena alien to Kuwaiti society.’

The Islamist MP explained the proposal arrives ‘in light of the occasional spread of negative phenomena alien to our Kuwaiti society.’

The center should also aim ‘to promote noble values amongst Kuwaiti youth, who are the future of the country; to fight what affects the moral values of the society; and to encourage the youth to be involved in fields that serve the nation,’ he added …

Al-Dallal added the legal committee also unanimously approved amendments to the Penal Code pertaining to blasphemy. The amendments stipulate the death penalty for those who publicly insult God Almighty (Divine Entity) or Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) or his wives. He said the committee discussed the matter with representatives from the Awqaf Ministry and fatwa experts and the bill will be on the agenda of the next session.” Read more.

Flashback: Kuwait: Islamists Experience Overwhelming Gains in Parliamentary Elections, Women and Liberals See Dismal Losses – “Kuwait has become the fourth Arab country in as many months to see overwhelming gains for Islamists and dismal losses for liberals in parliamentary elections. It also saw a new exclusion of women from the 50-seat parliament after none of the 23 women candidates, including the four incumbents, could secure enough votes to win even though women made up around 54% of the voting bloc. Overall change to the parliament composition over the latest one, which was dissolved in December following bitter clashes with the government, was about 54 per cent as 27 new lawmakers made their way to the green seats. The Islamists have now 22 seats from the Salafist and Muslim Brotherhood movements as well as independent MPs.” Read more.

Report: There Are Hundreds, Perhaps Thousands, Of ‘Iranian and Hezbollah Terrorists’ Inside the United States

By Yitzhak Benhorin, Reuters – “WASHINGTON – A recent report by the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security states that there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, people he described as ‘Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists’ in the United States.

An alarming part of the officials’ assessments focuses on the apparent surveillance missions that Iranian diplomats and possible Hezbollah operatives have been seen conducting at sensitive targets such as New York City’s subways and bridges, and at nuclear power plants and tunnels elsewhere in the United States in the past 10 years.

At the same time, US officials caution that Hezbollah, a Shiite militia based in Lebanon, has largely avoided attacking US targets since it carried out mass-casualty bombings in the 1980s against the US Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut. One reason may be that it does not want to endanger its lucrative North American fund-raising operations.

The renewed focus on Hezbollah – which US counter-terrorism officials regard as the most potent and disciplined of Islamic militant groups, even more so than al-Qaeda – comes amid a growing confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program.

An Israeli or US strike on Iran’s nuclear sites could prompt Hezbollah to change strategy, moving from surveillance and fund-raising in North America to launching retaliatory attacks on either country, several US officials said.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran-Sponsored Terrorists Plan US Attack ‘Worse Than The World Trade Center’ From Latin American Countries – “Middle Eastern terrorists have infiltrated Latin American countries—especially Mexico—to plan an attack against the United States, according to an alarming exposé broadcast this week by the world’s largest Spanish news network. The Univision documentary, ‘La Amenaza Irani,’ (Iranian Threat), uses undercover, never-before-seen video footage to illustrate how Iran’s growing political, economic and military ties to Latin America threaten U.S. security. The videos were part of a seven-month investigation in which college-aged Mexicans infiltrated diplomatic circles in Mexico to obtain recordings that prove diplomats from Iran, Venezuela and Cuba planned a cybernetic attack against the White House, FBI, Pentagon and U.S. nuclear plants.” Read more.

What the Quran Says About the Apostates of Islam? ‘Just Kill Them’

By M. A. Khan – “In Sharia Law, one who openly leaves Islam is given three days to repent and re-embrace Islam. If he/she doesn’t, he/she must be killed.

The fact that punishment for decisively leaving Islam is death by beheading has been a settled and traditionally practised matter from the beginning of Islam to the present time. But in the face of Western influence and criticisms, some apologists of Islam in the 19th century started raising doubts about the ‘death punishment’ for apostasy in Islam. About this, Abul Ala Maududi, the greatest and most influential 20th-century Islamic scholar, says:

To everyone acquainted with Islamic law it is no secret that according to Islam the punishment for a Muslim who turns to kufr (infidelity, blasphemy) is execution. Doubt about this matter first arose among Muslims during the final portion of the nineteenth century as a result of speculation. Otherwise, for the full twelve centuries prior to that time the total Muslim community remained unanimous about it. The whole of our religious literature clearly testifies that ambiguity about the matter of the apostate’s execution never existed among Muslims. The expositions of the Prophet, the Rightly-Guided Caliphs (Khulafa’-i Rashidun), the great Companions (Sahaba) of the Prophet, their Followers (Tabi’un), the leaders among the mujtahids and, following them, the doctors of the shari’ah of every century are available on record. All these collectively will assure you that from the time of the Prophet to the present day one injunction only has been continuously and uninterruptedly operative, and that no room whatever remains to suggest that perhaps the punishment of the apostate is not execution.[i]

Maududi wanted to kill the doubts about Islam’s command of ‘death punishment’ for Muslim apostates for once and for all, but didn’t succeed. In the face of mountainous odds, Islamic apologists – who are permitted by Islam to lie and deceive, i.e. to exercise Taqiyya, for the good of Islam – would not let the matter settle. A few of today’s small-time Islamic apologists – opposing the 1400-year-old Islamic tradition, all schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and opinions of the stalwart scholars of Islam in all of its history – have taken up the Islamic dispensation of lying and deceiving to deny the undeniable: Punishment for apostasy in Islam is death!” Read more.

One Step Forward: Jews Beginning To Reclaim Jesus As One Of Their Own, ‘I’m Jealous Of Christians’

Romans 11:11, 25-26, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation [has come] to the Gentiles… For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob'”

It is a good thing, perhaps prophetic, to begin seeing the Jewish people taking one step forward to at least examine the person and teachings of Yeshua. The fullness of the Gentiles is at hand. My question now is this: Is the Second Coming of Messiah the catalyst that brings about their belief in Yeshua, or will their belief in Yeshua be the catalyst that brings about the Second Coming of Messiah? …

By Richard Allen Greene, CNN – “The relationship between Jews and Jesus has traditionally been a complicated one, to say the least.

As his followers’ message swept the ancient world, Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah found themselves in the uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous, position of being blamed for his death.

Mainstream Christian theology’s position held that Judaism had been supplanted, the Jewish covenant with the divine no longer valid, because of the incarnation of God as Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross.

Jews, for their part, tended largely to ignore Jesus.

That’s changing now.

In the past year, a spate of Jewish authors, from the popular to the rabbinic to the scholarly, have wrestled with what Jews should think about Jesus.

And overwhelmingly, they are coming up with positive answers, urging their fellow Jews to learn about Jesus, understand him and claim him as one of their own.

‘Jesus is a Jew. He spent his life talking to other Jews,’ said Amy-Jill Levine, co-editor of the recently released ‘Jewish Annotated New Testament.’

‘In reading the New Testament, I am often inspired, I am intrigued. I actually find myself becoming a better Jew because I become better informed about my own history,’ she said.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a media personality who recently launched a bid for a U.S. House seat, argues in his own new book, ‘Kosher Jesus,’ that ‘Jews have much to learn from Jesus – and from Christianity as a whole – without accepting Jesus’ divinity. There are many reasons for accepting Jesus as a man of great wisdom, beautiful ethical teachings, and profound Jewish patriotism.’

And Benyamin Cohen, an Orthodox Jew who spent a recent year going to church, admitted that he’s jealous that Christians have Jesus.

‘He’s a tangible icon that everybody can latch on to. Judaism doesn’t have a superhero like that,’ said Cohen, the author of the 2009 book ‘My Jesus Year.’

‘I’m not advocating for Moses dolls,’ he said, but he argued that ‘it’s hard to believe in a God you can’t see. I’m jealous of Christians in that regard, that they have this physical manifestation of the divine that they can pray to.'” Read more.