It's come to this: Belfast pastor faces prison for 'defaming Islam'
A 78-year old Belfast pastor is facing prison time for '
defaming Islam.'
James McConnell, 78, is facing up to six months in prison for
delivering a sermon in which he described Islam as "heathen" and
"satanic." The message was streamed live on the Internet, and a Muslim
group called the police to complain.
According to Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS), McConnell violated
the 2003 Communications Act by "sending, or causing to be sent, by
means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other
matter that was grossly offensive."
Observers say that McConnell's prosecution is one of a growing number of examples in which British authorities — who routinely ignore incendiary speech by Muslim extremists — are using hate speech laws to silence Christians.
McConnell, who turned down an offer to avoid a trial, says the issue
of Christians being singled out for persecution in Britain must be
confronted, and that he intends to turn his case into a milestone trial
"in defense of freedom of speech and freedom of religion."
...
"The God who we worship and serve this evening is not
Allah. The Muslim God, Allah, is a heathen deity. Allah is a cruel
deity. Allah is a demon deity. A deity that this foolish government of
ours ... pays homage to, and subscribes financial inducements to curry
their favor to keep them happy....
"While in Muslim lands Christians are persecuted for their faith;
their homes burned, their churches destroyed, and hundreds of them
literally have given their lives for Christ in martyrdom. A lovely young
[Sudanese] woman by the name of Miriam, 27 years-of-age, because she
has accepted Christ as her Savior, will be flogged publicly and hanged
publicly. These fanatical worshippers are worshippers of the god called
Allah. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a fact and it cannot be denied and
it cannot be refuted.
"I know the time will come in this land ... and in this nation to say
such things will be an offense to the law. It would be reckoned
erroneous, unpatriotic. But I am in good company, the company of
[Protestant Reformers] Luther and Knox and Calvin and Tyndale and
Latimer and Cranmer and Wesley and Spurgeon and such like him.
"The Muslim religion was created many hundreds of years after Christ.
Mohammed, was born in 570. But Muslims believe that Islam is the true
religion, dating back to Adam, and that the biblical Patriarchs were all
Muslims, including Noah and Abraham and Moses, and even our Lord Jesus
Christ.
"To judge by some of what I have heard in the past few months, you
would think that Islam was little more than a variation of Christianity
and Judaism. Not so. Islam's ideas about God, about humanity, about
salvation are vastly different from the teachings of the Holy
Scriptures. Islam is heathen. Islam is satanic. Islam is a doctrine
spawned in Hell."
McConnell's comments about Islam comprised less than ten minutes of a 35-minute sermon that focused on Christian theology.
Some day, historians will marvel at the way Western society destroyed itself. Or maybe they won't. By then, the Caliphate may not look kindly on such 'nostalgia' and history will have become too politically correct to discuss it.
Labels: Evangelical Christians, freedom of speech, Islam, Islamic Christian hatred, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
A shout-out for Israel's non-Jewish supporters
Caroline Glick writes about the necessity for Israel to cultivate non-Jewish supporters and then gives a shout-out to two of them:
Jon Voight and Rick Santorum.
Consider the case of Jon Voight.
The celebrated Oscar-winning actor is an outspoken champion of
Israel. Earlier this month, Voight published an open letter to Penelope
Cruz and Javier Bardem in Variety where he harshly criticized the
Spanish performers for their public statement condemning Israel and
siding with Hamas in its war against the Jewish state.
In his words, “I am heartsick that people like Penelope Cruz and
Javier Bardem could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are
oblivious to the damage they have caused.”
...
Last week, two UCLA professors, Mark LeVine and Gil Hochberg,
co-authored an article published in The Huffington Post assaulting him
for his views and his temerity to suggest that Israel is a moral,
embattled democracy fighting genocidal forces committed to its
destruction.
The two Jewish academics are supporters of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The principal aim of the BDS movement is to make it socially
unacceptable to support Israel. In 2010 LeVine and Hochberg signed a
petition calling for California state universities to divest from
companies that do business with Israel.
Online Hollywood commentators, such as Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva,
opined that Voight, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in
Showtime’s Ray Donovan series, was liable to lose his Emmy bid due to
his support for Israel.
Hochberg and LeVine’s assault on Voight was a long-winded voyage into
the post-Zionist and anti-Zionist literary moonscape. Their principal
criticism of Voight was that he refuses to accept this intellectual
wasteland’s rejection of the known facts of history.
Voight is not an academic, nor has he ever claimed to be an expert on
Middle Eastern history. He is a non-Jewish American concerned about the
future of America.
That is why he stands with Israel. Voight recognizes that when Israel
is under assault, and its right to defend itself is denied while
terrorists are supported, the US is endangered. And so he feels
compelled to speak out, regardless of the price.
...
Another non-Jewish champion of Israel is former US senator and
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. Both during his tenure in
the Senate and since, Santorum has spoken out strongly against Iran’s
nuclear program, insisting that it is a serious threat not only to
Israel, but to the US itself.
Like Voight, Santorum recognizes that the fate of the US is directly tied to the fate of Israel.
For his trenchant support for Israel, and his outspoken concern about
Iran’s nuclear program, as well as his support for domestic issues
where he has not shied away from taking controversial, inconvenient
position, Santorum’s critics have demonized him.
...
Last week, Santorum led a solidarity mission to Israel. The majority
of his colleagues were non-Jewish opinion shapers from Iowa, the first
state to hold Republican presidential contests. Santorum explained that
his goal in coming to Israel was not simply to show Israelis that the
American people support us. It was to build support among Republicans in
Iowa for a robust US engagement in foreign affairs based on supporting
Israel, fighting America’s enemies and preventing the forces of hatred,
like Hamas and Iran, from expanding their power.
Santorum’s chief concern is that weary of foreign policy failures,
more and more Republicans are embracing the isolationism most identified
with Senator Rand Paul. Paul is currently polling well in Iowa.
...
Santorum is convinced that if Iowans are educated about the nature of
the threats emanating from the region, and of Israel’s singular
contribution to the cause of freedom and stability, their position can
become the basis for a Republican foreign policy that rejects
isolationism and embraces US leadership in world affairs as the only way
to secure the US and strengthen its embattled allies.
In other words, like Voight, Santorum’s support for Israel is rooted
in his concern about America, and its future. Like Voight, Santorum
recognizes that the growing penchant among elite opinion shapers to
ignore truth in the pursuit of moral relativism and fake sophistication
or isolationism constitutes a danger to America.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE 5:55 PM
Unfortunately, Santorum's trip left
much to be desired. Please make sure to read the comments below as well.
Labels: Caroline Glick, Evangelical Christians, Jon Voight, RIck Santorum
More American White Evangelical Protestants than American Jews say God gave Israel to the Jews
This is just about the saddest commentary I've seen on the state of Jewish belief in the United States. A Pew poll finds that a significantly higher percentage of white evangelical Protestants than American Jews believe that God gave Israel to the Jews.
For example, twice as many white evangelical Protestants as Jews say
that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God (82% vs. 40%). Some of
the discrepancy is attributable to Jews’ lower levels of belief in God
overall; virtually all evangelicals say they believe in God, compared
with 72% of Jews (23% say they do not believe in God and 5% say they
don’t know or decline to answer the question). But even Jews who do
believe in God are less likely than evangelicals to believe that God
gave the land that is now Israel to the Jewish people (55% vs. 82%).
That very sad statistic translates into stronger support for aid to Israel among evangelicals than among Jews and into much more realistic views about the prospects for 'peace' and for a 'two-state solution.'
I'm not complaining about the support from evangelicals - I'm complaining about the lack of support from Jews and the lack of basic Jewish beliefs among those who call themselves Jews.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: American Jewish support for Israel, American Jews, Evangelical Christians
Jeffrey Goldberg worries about the decline of the Evangelical Church
Every time I read an article by an American Liberal Jew like Jeffrey Goldberg in which he expresses fear and worry over Israel's support by Evangelical Christians, I wonder why it is that none of my Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish friends in Metropolitan New York or Chicago or Miami shares Jeffrey's fears. What really underlies the fear American Jewish Liberals have from Evangelical Christians is the fear that they will 'try to [forcibly] convert us.' And while there was a real basis for that fear in Europe a few hundred years ago, and while there is a real basis for that an analogous fear in much of the Arab and Muslim worlds today (a fear that Goldberg and his friends largely ignore), I find it hard to envision Evangelical Christians trying - let alone succeeding - in converting any of my Orthodox Jewish friends in the US to their religion. Let alone forcibly. Maybe that's because my friends all have solid Jewish educations....
In any event, this time,
Goldberg's excuse for worrying about Israel 'depending upon' Evangelical support is the supposed
disintegration of the Evangelical Church (and I say supposed because the source is the New York Times, and we all know how much they love the church and how unbiased their coverage is, and besides, this is an op-ed). This is from the first link:
It is a source of great frustration, even pain, among liberal American
Jews that Israel finds such stalwart support among American evangelical
Protestants, with whom they share very little. It is, of course, a
source of great comfort to Israeli politicians such as Benjamin
Netanyahu and to his even more right-wing colleagues, that evangelical
support for Israel is so strong. Evangelical support always struck me as
a narrow reed on which to rest Israel's fortunes in America, and not
only because many evangelicals, in my experience, have no love for Jews
as autonomous people, but merely as vehicles for the Christian
redemption. I also thought it was odd to build a strategy around
evangelicals because evangelicals don't represent a majority of
Americans.
I have three points to make. First, we (or at least the people with whom I hang in this country) rely only upon God. We don't rely on American Jewry or Bibi or Obama or even on Evangelical Christians.
Having said that, we Orthodox Jews are raised to believe that we must do our
hishtadluth, and try to bring about our goals in natural ways before expecting God to help us. There are a heck of a lot more Evangelical Christians out there than there are Jews. If they want to support us, I'm happy to let them.
Third, we'd be happy to accept the support of American Jewry. Unfortunately, liberal American Jews have bought into the anti-Israel tripe of the hard Left. That's not going to change any time soon. Apologists like Goldberg continue to delude themselves that if only we would martyr ourselves upon the altar of a 'Palestinian state,' liberal American Jews would love us... if only we were lucky enough to live long enough to see it happen....
Oh, and by the way, I believe that the Church's problems described in the Times op-ed are cyclical, and that the day that a Reagan or Bush-type President replaces Obama (it should only happen speedily and in our times) the Church's decline will be reversed.
Labels: American Jewish support for Israel, Evangelical Christians, Jeffrey Goldberg, liberal Jews, New York Times
American Jewish fools
Caroline Glick reports that American Jews
cannot tell their friends from their enemies.
According to a Gallup poll released last month, 80% of American Jews have favorable views of American Muslims. Seventy percent believe that they are not supportive of al-Qaida. These data indicate that American Jews are second only to American Muslims in their support for Muslim Americans. Indeed 6% more American Jews than American Muslims believe that American Muslims face prejudice due to their religion.
American Jewish championing of American Muslims is disconcerting when compared with American Jewish treatment of the philo-Semitic Evangelical Christians. Matthew Knee discussed this issue in depth in a recent article published at the Legal Insurrection website.
In a 2003 Pew survey, 42% of American Jews expressed antagonism towards Evangelical Christians. In a 2004 American National Election Study, Jews on average rated Evangelical Christians at 30 out of 100 on a "feeling thermometer," where 1 was cold and 100 was hot.
A 2005 American Jewish Committee survey found that Jews assessed that following Muslims, Evangelical Christians have the highest propensity for being anti-Semites. And yet, in the same 2004 American National Election Survey, Evangelical Christians rated Jews an average of 82 on the 1- 100 feelings scale. Evangelical Christians rated Catholics at 80.
Consistent survey data show that levels of anti- Semitism among Evangelical Christians is either the same as or slightly lower than the national average. According to a 2007 ADL survey, the US average is 15%.
There is a clear disparity between survey data on anti-Semitism among various American ethnic groups and American Jews' assessment of the prevalence of anti-Semitism among the same groups. The AJC survey found that American Jews believed that 29% of Evangelicals are largely anti- Semitic. They assessed that only 7% of Hispanics and 19% of African-Americans are anti-Semites.
As it works out, their perceptions are completely incorrect. According to the 2007 ADL survey, foreign born Hispanics, and African-Americans, harbor significantly stronger anti-Semitic views than the national average. Twenty-nine percent of foreign born Hispanics harbor very anti-Semitic views. Thirty-two percent of African-Americans harbor deeply anti-Semitic views.
Like Jews, Hispanics, African-Americans and Muslims vote disproportionately for the Democratic Party. Evangelical Christians on the other hand, are reliably Republican. A 2009 survey on US anti- Semitism conducted by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco found that Democrats are more likely to be anti-Semitic than Republicans.
The Gallup survey from last month showing American Jews' deep support for American Muslims is of particular interest because that support stands in stark contrast with survey data concerning American Jewish perception of Muslim American anti-Semitism.
Read the whole thing. The post by Matthew Knee of Legal Insurrection, which is cited by Caroline extensively, is
here.
Labels: American Muslims, anti-Semitism, Barack Hussein Obama, Caroline Glick, Democrats, Evangelical Christians, Jewish vote, Matthew Knee
Why Glenn Beck is in Israel
I think Zev Chafets is correct about
why Glenn Beck is in Israel, and if he is, no one here needs to worry about it.
Such fervent philo-Semitic rhetoric is rare, even among the United States’ Christian Zionists, a group whose operational alliance with Israel dates at least to the days of my former boss, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. Jimmy Carter was in the White House and he had a palpable distaste, even then, for Israel. At the same time, rising evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were making support for Israel and its policies a pillar of their Christian Republican philosophy. Begin asked his staff how many of these evangelicals there were in the Unites States. The answer was upward of 20 million. And that settled that.
American Jewish leaders, virtually all of whom were (and are) liberal Democrats, were (and remain) scandalized. They argued that evangelical Christians believe that Jews don’t go to heaven and that they will die in some end-of the-world scenario. Begin — and every subsequent Israeli prime minister of both the left and the right — preferred to let God sort out eternity. Here on Earth, actions speak louder than words.
The Christian right has no obvious political motivation for its Zionism. Republicans are not going to get American Jewish votes or much in the way of contributions. So what makes them love Israel?
“Many Christians support Israel for the same reason other Americans do,” I was told by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. “They see Israel as a pro-American democracy in a region of anti-American dictatorships. Or they think that after the Holocaust, supporting Israel is the moral thing to do. But the main motivator for evangelicals is the Bible, Genesis 12:3. ‘I will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel.’ ” If you believe that literally, standing up for Israel isn’t just a political preference but a divine commandment.
The fervor gap is reflected in public opinion polls. Support for Israel is a rare matter of bipartisan agreement in the United States, a fact demonstrated recently when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a public spat with the Obama administration, got a wildly enthusiastic reception from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. A Gallup poll released in late February showed that 63 percent of Americans sympathized more with the Israelis, compared with 17 percent with the Palestinians. But it is also true that Democrats are less enthusiastic than Republicans. That might seem counterintuitive; Jews, after all, are the very heart of the Democratic Party. And, indeed, 57 percent of Democrats prefer Israel to the Palestinians. But 80 percent of Republicans do.
Evangelicals express their support not only at the polls, but with their pocketbooks. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews raises $120 million a year for Jewish philanthropy from more than a million born-again donors. Eckstein estimates that other American evangelical organizations, including Christians United for Israel, send an additional $20 million, much of it to strengthen Jewish settlement of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Chafets' argument is that Beck has no interest in playing to Israelis. He's not meeting any government officials here (and in fact, when he was last here, he did not meet with the Prime Minister or with any of the other senior ministers). He's interested in becoming the leader of the Christian Evangelical movement. With Pastor Hagee in his 70's and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson gone or elderly, the position seems to be open. In fact, the biggest question here might be whether the Evangelicals will accept the leadership of a Mormon.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Christian Zionists, Evangelical Christians, Glenn Beck, Pastor John Hagee
