Australian Mosque Issues Fatwa Against Christmas Because It Promotes Belief In The Trinity

Another Christmas, and yet another Islamic teacher is compelled by the need to remind Muslim followers of the evil sins associated with Christianity and the belief in the Triunity of God. The Christian faith teaches us that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who was born to be the Savior of the world, sent to die for the sins of all mankind as the final sacrificial Lamb of God. However, according to Islamic teaching — which fails to even correctly understand many basic Christian doctrines — Jesus Christ was not God in the flesh and considers this foundational tenet of Christianity the worst of sins that anyone can commit, called “shirk“. In Islam, it is an unpardonable sin that Allah will never forgive. But in Christianity, it is the key to everlasting life. This certainly tells us something about the nature of Islam …

Natalie O’Brien, The Sydney Morning Herald – “THE Lakemba Mosque has issued a fatwa against Christmas, warning followers it is a ‘sin’ to even wish people a Merry Christmas.

The religious ruling, which followed a similar lecture during Friday prayers at Australia’s biggest mosque, was posted on its Facebook site on Saturday morning.

The head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, had told the congregation during prayers that they should not take part in anything to do with Christmas.

Samir Dandan, the president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, which oversees the mosque, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

The fatwa, which has sparked widespread community debate and condemnation, warns that the ‘disbelievers are trying to draw Muslims away from the straight path’.

It also says that Christmas Day and associated celebrations are among the ‘falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid … and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them’…

The fatwa quotes the teacher Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim as saying that congratulating disbelievers for their rituals is forbidden, and if a ‘Muslim who says this does not become a disbeliever himself, he at least commits a sin as this is the same as congratulating him for his belief in the trinity, which is a greater sin and much more disliked by Almighty Allaah than congratulating him for drinking alcohol or killing a soul or committing fornication or adultery’.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Teacher: Saying ‘Merry Christmas’ is Worse Than Killing Someone

Kygyzstan: Muslim Parents Torture Daughter For Accepting Jesus Christ As Savior

BosNewsLife – “A young Kyrgyz girl is forced to work in a sewing workshop after being tortured by her parents in Kyrgyzstan because she converted to Christianity, well-informed investigators said Tuesday, December 18.

The troubles began when the girl ‘accepted Jesus [Christ]’ as her Lord and Savior ‘during a church meeting’ despite opposition towards Christians in this heavily Islamic nation, explained aid and advocacy group Open Doors.

‘When her parents found out about her decision, they were very upset and took her home to their village’ where she was soon mistreated, the group told BosNewsLife in a statement.

‘They wanted her to recant and renounce her faith in Christ, so they began to beat her systematically till she lost consciousness.’ Yet the girl, who was wrongly identified as ‘Almas’ amid security concerns, ‘did not give in’, added Open Doors…

‘It was winter when all of this happened, so her parents put her into a cold room and kept her there for several days. Still they were unable to break her spirit,’ said Open Doors, which is in close contact with local believers.

‘They then started pulling her hair and put her face against the stove, burning her face. In spite of this, she remained faithful,’ the group claimed.

Her parents reportedly also burned all her Christian literature and decided to closely watch their daughter. ‘They put her to work in a sewing workshop, where she is forced to work from early in the morning till late in the evening.’

Sewing sweatshops are believed to be widespread in the country where many struggle with crippling poverty. ‘It has become virtually impossible for Almas to have any contact with her Christian friends,’ Open Doors said.

The findings come amid reported growing pressure on minority devoted Christians in this country of some 5.5 million people, where roughly 75 percent is Muslim…

In a surprise move, President Almazbek Atambayev reportedly signed new censorship amendments to Kyrgyzstan’s Religion Law on December 7.

Rights group Forum 18 has warned that new legislation will effectively ‘increase state control over religious literature and other materials’, potentially impacting the printing and distribution of Bibles and other Christian publications.” Read more.

New York: Two Muslim Men Arrested After Planning To Blow Up NYC Landmarks During Christmas Holidays

For peaceful purposes …

Daily Mail – “A Pakistani-born man wanted to avenge the deaths of U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan by blowing up a New York City landmark but lacked the money and materials to carry out the plan, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert said at a bail hearing that Raees Alam Qazi, 20, researched bomb-making techniques on Internet sites affiliated with al-Qaida, including one using Christmas tree lights, and the FBI recorded phone calls and conversations linking Qazi to a purported ‘lone wolf’ plot.

‘He fully intended to do this, and thankfully he didn’t have enough money,’ Gilbert said. Referring to casualties in U.S. drone attacks, she added: ‘He wants to avenge those deaths and kill people.’

Qazi traveled to New York last month in hopes of getting a job to fund his terrorist plans, Gilbert said, but wound up sleeping in public transportation, a mosque and in restaurants, and riding a bicycle around the city looking for potential targets.

He then decided to return home on a Greyhound bus and was arrested after arriving back in South Florida, she said.

Qazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who attended local Florida public schools, confirmed many elements of the plot in a statement to FBI agents after his arrest in late November, Gilbert said.

Investigators also found bomb-making and related components at the Qazi family home in Oakland Park, as well as explosives research evidence on a computer used by Qazi.

Qazi is charged along with his brother, 30-year-old taxi driver Sheheryar Alam Qazi, with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S.” Read more.

Sudan: Islamists Threaten Violence After Two Coptic Christians Arrested For Converting, Baptising Former Muslim

NOW – “Two priests from the Coptic Orthodox Church in Sudan have been arrested after the religious conversion of a Muslim in the Islamist-run state, church sources said.

‘I understand there was someone from the Arab origin that accepted Christ and was baptized by them,’ leading to their arrest within the past few days, one religious leader told AFP.

Other religious sources confirmed the incident but Khartoum’s Coptic Bishop Elia was not immediately able to comment.

Under the 23-year Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s minority Copts have not experienced the violence suffered by their brethren in Egypt, where sectarian attacks surged after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and saw Islamists rise to power.

But a little-known group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Nilien States sent a statement to Sudanese journalists on Tuesday threatening violence against Copts unless the woman who converted and was ‘kidnapped’ by the Christians is returned.’ Source – NOW.

Flashback: Sudan: Christians Under Increasing Pressure As Sharia Law Imposes Amputation, Crucifixion, Stoning – “Hudud, a specific category of punishment within the penal code of sharia (Islamic law), is unspeakably barbaric in Sudan. And this barbarism has not diminished in recent years… Even more shocking, women—and girls—are sentenced to be stoned to death under Sudanese hudud for adultery… Cross-amputation—the amputation of the right hand and left foot—is almost incomprehensibly cruel, yet it too persists… Crucifixion is also a punishment under Sudanese hudud. It is the punishment for apostasy (leaving the faith of Islam), but other crimes as well… the criminalization, subject to the death penalty, of apostasy; the efforts by the government in Khartoum to impose its restrictive interpretation of Shari’ah (Islamic law) on Muslims and non-Muslims …” Read more.

Pakistan: Islamists Kill Aid Workers For Trying To Save Lives With Un-Islamic Polio Vaccine

However, since their sinless and all-wise prophet said so, they’d be perfectly ok with serving a warm glass of camel urine instead to the sick and dying …

RFE/RL – “A volunteer who was shot during a wave of attacks on polio-vaccination teams has succumbed to his injuries in Pakistan.

That brings to nine the number of health workers killed since December 17.

Officials say the student volunteer died on December 20, a day after he was shot while helping distribute polio drops in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Five of the nine health workers killed were women.

The bloodshed prompted United Nations agencies to suspend their campaign against polio in Pakistan after the attacks.

The Islamic terrorist group Jundullah claimed responsibility, telling RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that polio vaccination is forbidden in Islam.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the disease is endemic.” Source – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Flashback: Mali: 4.6 Million People Face Starvation Following Islamist Advances In The North – “War is not the only reason why at least 340,000 people have fled their homes since gunmen loyal to ‘al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ (AQIM), along with rebels from the local Tuareg tribe, began their advance across northern Mali in January. A desperate shortage of food is also taking hold in this arid Saharan region. More than 1.6 million people in northern Mali are in a ‘situation of severe, close to extreme, food insecurity,’ according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Islamist Militants Deprive 1.3 Million People Of Food, Clean Water And Health Care After Banning Muslim Aid – “Somalia’s al Shabaab militants said on Monday they had banned Muslim aid agency Islamic Relief from areas under their control, a move that would deprive 1.3 million people of food, clean water and health care… Al Shabaab accused the humanitarian organisation of working with other relief groups it had already expelled.” Read more.

US Citizen Who Converted To Christianity Arrested, Imprisoned In Iran While Visiting Family

By Lisa Daftari, Fox News – “A 32-year-old Iranian who is a U.S. citizen and a Christian convert has been imprisoned without notice of any formal charges while visiting his family in Iran, according to his wife and attorneys in the U.S., who are now hoping that a media campaign will help set him free.

The Rev. Saeed Abedini, who lives in the U.S. with his wife and two young children, was making one of his frequent visits to see his parents and the rest of his family in Iran, his country of origin and where he spent many years as a Christian leader and community organizer developing Iran’s underground home church communities for Christian converts.

On this last trip, the Iranian government pulled him off a bus and said he must face a penalty for his previous work as a Christian leader in Iran.

He is currently awaiting trial at Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin Prison, where he has been incarcerated since late September.

‘When he became a Christian, he became a criminal in his own country. His passion was to reach the people of Iran,’ Naghmeh, his wife, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News.

‘He comes from a very close-knit family, and he loved evangelizing and passing out Bibles on the streets of Tehran. This was his passion,’ she said.

In July, Abedini left his wife and kids to go to Iran to visit family and continue a humanitarian effort he began years ago to build an orphanage.

After a short visit to a nearby country, Abedini was traveling back into Iran to catch his flight back to the U.S. when members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stopped his bus near the Turkey-Iran border and pulled Abedini from the bus, confiscating his passports and subjecting him to intense interrogation, according to his wife.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Islamic Republic Refusing Business License For Convert To Christianity, Orders Businesses Not To Employ Christians – “Iranian authorities refuse to allow a young man to start his own company because he converted to Christianity and was previously detained on charges of ‘apostasy’, or ‘abandoning Islam’, Iranian Christians said Saturday, July 14… Iranian Christians said the move is part if a wider government crackdown on non-Islamic minority groups, especially Christian converts, in society. At least dozens of Christians are known to have been detained in the country. Outside prison, government offices are reportedly ordered not to employ Christians and Christians have been deprived from high school or university education, or running their own schools…” Read more.

‘Deserved To Die’: Somali Christian Shot To Death By Muslims For Leaving Islam

Morning Star News – “Gunmen in central Somalia on Saturday (Dec. 8) killed an underground Christian who had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam, area sources said.

Two unidentified masked men shot Mursal Isse Siad, 55, outside his home in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu, for leaving Islam, Muslim and Christian sources told Morning Star News. The assailants fled immediately after the murder.

Siad’s oldest daughter (name withheld), 15, said her father was killed ‘because he failed to attend the mosque for prayers and used to pray at home. He used to share with us about Jesus.’ She said that he had received messages on his mobile phone stating, ‘We know what you are doing, and you must stop, otherwise you risk your life.’

Siad’s 42-year-old wife (name withheld), three daughters and two sons have fled the area, fearing for their lives.

A Christian source in Mogadishu confirmed the killing, and a Muslim resident of the Beledweyne area also said Siad was killed for leaving Islam.

‘Siad deserved to die because he was not committed to the Islamic religion,’ the resident said…

As the gunmen were masked, she was unable to say whether the assailants were local. The area is under government control and there is no indication that the killers belonged to the Al Shabaab rebels who have vowed to rid the country of Christianity, but the Islamic extremist insurgents are present in Buulodbarde, 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, and Christians believe a few Al Shabaab rebels could be hiding in Beledweyne.” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Muslims Gather To Watch Convert To Christianity Beheaded By Al-Shabaab Islamists – “Islamic extremists from Somalia’s rebel Al-Shabaab militants on Friday (Nov. 16) killed a Christian in Somalia’s coastal city of Barawa, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said. The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose… A crowd assembled in the coastal city on Friday morning to watch the slaughter…” Read more.