Israel Matzav: Britain's Roman Catholics to join pro-'Palestinian' bandwagon?

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Britain's Roman Catholics to join pro-'Palestinian' bandwagon?

A friend in England writes that in his Christmas Day sermon the leader of Britain's Roman Catholics, Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, spoke of their obligations to speak out against injustice, and he focused on the plight of 50 Palestinian families who are in danger of losing their homes in order to make way for Israel's security barrier.

Right on cue, BBC News 24 Sunday afternoon couldn't resist following that up with an excerpt from an interview in which Nichols spoke of their having farmed that land that Israel now wants for 700 years .

More enemies of Israel thus created via the BBC in 60 seconds, to say nothing of the archbishop's listeners in the packed Westminster Cathedral.

According to my friend, Nichols is a lost cause. While Archbishop of Birmingham in 2009, shortly before his present elevation, he sanctioned the use of a Roman Catholic chapel in Birmingham for a celebration of the birth of Mohammed!

Now if Nichols were really concerned with protecting Christians in the Middle East, there are far more urgent cases than 50 'Palestinians' whose land may be taken by eminent domain.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that "Christians are being refused refugee status [in the U.S.] and face persecution and many times certain death for their religious beliefs under [Islamic] Sharia [law], while whole Muslim communities are entering the U.S. by the tens of thousands per month despite the fact that they face no religious persecution."

Categorized by theme, November's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed according to theme and in alphabetical order by country, not necessarily severity.

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Ethiopia: More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church, while screaming "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is Greatest!"]: the church was built on land used by Christians for more than 60 years, but now a court has ruled that it was built "without a permit."

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Iran: The nation's minister of intelligence said that house churches in his country are a threat to Iranian youth, and acknowledged a new series of efforts to fight the growth of the house church movement in Iran.

Nigeria: Islamic militants shouting "Allahu Akbar" carried out coordinated attacks on churches and police stations, including opening fire on a congregation of "mostly women and children," killing dozens. The attacks occurred in a region where hundreds of people were earlier killed during violence that erupted after President Jonathan, a Christian, beat his closet Muslim rival in April elections.

Turkey: The ancient Aghia Sophia church has been turned into a mosque. Playing an important role in ecumenical history, the church was first transformed into a mosque in 1331 by the jihadist Ottoman state. As a sign of secularization, however, in 1920 it was turned into a museum. Its transformation again into a mosque is a reflection of Turkey's re-Islamization.

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Iran: Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who caught the attention of the world after being imprisoned and awaiting execution for leaving Islam, remains behind bars as officials continue to come up with excuses to force him to renounce Christianity; the latest is that "everyone is [born] a Muslim." A Christian couple "who had been snatched and illegally-detained" by authorities for eight months without any formal charges, were finally released, beaten again, and have since fled the country. While imprisoned, they were "ridiculed and debased" for their Christian faith.

Kashmir: Muslim police arrested and beat seven converts from Islam in an attempt to obtain a confession against the priest who baptized them. After the grand mufti alleged that Muslim youths were alternatively being "lured" and "forced" to convert by an Anglican priest "in exchange for money," the priest was arrested in a "humiliating" manner. Recently released, his life is now "in serious danger."

Kenya: A gang of Muslims stabbed and beat with iron rods a 25-year-old Somali refugee, breaking his teeth; he was then stripped naked, covered with dirt, and left unconscious near a church. Although he was raised Christian since age 7, he was attacked on the "assumption that as a Somali he was born into Islam and was therefore an apostate deserving of death."

Nigeria: The Muslim militant group, Boko Haram, executed two children of an ex-terrorist and "murderer" because he converted to Christianity. When still a terrorist, he "was poised to slit the throat of a Christian victim" when "he was suddenly struck with the weight of the evil he was about to commit." After finding he converted to Christianity, "Boko Haram members invaded his home, kidnapped his two children and informed him that they were going to execute them in retribution for his disloyalty to Islam. Clutching his phone, the man heard the sound of the guns that murdered his children."