Islam: Authentic Religion or merely a Hate Crime In Progress?

I marched into the courtroom every day for nine months and proved that there was an undeniable nexus between Islamic doctrine and terrorism committed by Muslims.

The Blind Sheikh, the jury was allowed to learn, was not a fringe lunatic; he was a globally renowned scholar of sharia whose influence over a spate of international jihadist organizations was based on his doctorate from al-Azhar University, the world’s most influential center of Islamic thought.

And when I demonstrated the straight-line, undeniable logic of the evidence — that scripture informed the Blind Sheikh’s directives; that those directives informed his terrorist subordinates; and that those subordinates then committed atrocities — the government gave me the Justice Department’s highest award.

Today, I’d be ostracized. No longer is the government content to be willfully blind. Today, it is defiantly, coercively, extortionately blind.

Read more from Andrew C. McCarthy/NRO

Victims describe horror of Christmas Nigerian Catholic church attack

The bomb exploded as Esther Ibu walked out of the church, her five-month-old son in her arms, the power of the blast throwing her and the boy to the ground and leaving death all around her.

“Before I knew it, I started seeing dead bodies, people burning into ashes,” the woman in her 30s said, sobbing as she sat in a wheelchair at a hospital in the capital holding her son and waiting to be x-rayed, her right leg bandaged.

Read more

After 52 weekly columns we bid farewell to “Ask Alice” and say hello to “Religious Ed”

Click here to see all of Alice’s other columns

After one full year/52 weekly columns, we bid farewell to Alice and thank her for her faith, her wit, her knowledge, her love, as well as her tireless service to all our readers … and the whole Church.

Alice plans to keep up with her other ministries and church work, something that will hopefully be much easier now, without a looming, 5 AM, Thursday morning deadline.

We plan to keep all of Alice’s previous columns available for reference, on-site. See the “CATEGORY” drop down menu, on the right side of the main viewing window, or simply use the search box.

We wish Alice and her family the very best of all God’s blessings, supernatural abundance and peace, along with a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Our new weekly Q&A columnist,
“Religious Ed”®
will begin his column
on Thursday, January 12, 2012.

“Ed” is a staunchly conservative Catholic, with many years of experience in both the “pre” and “post” Vatican II Church. Ed likes to remind people that, while God IS love, his wrath is also genuine, awesomely formidable and nothing to be marginalized or ignored!

Ed theorizes that many of the evils that God allows to exist in the world are actually divine chastisements, stemming from corruption in the Church and in the world, at large. 

One example: The rise of Islamic terrorism in the West closely coincided with the wide-spread, legalization/government promotion of abortion. If infants can’t be safe and secure inside their mother’s womb, why should anyone expect to experience security in their land?

Similarly, the rise of militant homosexuality closely coincided with the illicit establishment of the “Lavender Mafia” inside the Catholic Church, presently thought to encompass one-third to one-half of the hierarchy and priesthood, and wielding a particularly deviant homosexual influence over the bulk of Catholic seminaries.

In light of all this, the clerical sex abuse scandals were not only likely, but virtually guaranteed. Yet the church still refuses to enforce the established rules preventing homosexuals from applying to the priesthood, and the bishops generally do very little to reign in militantly homosexual priests and their parishes.

Maybe after another $2.6 billion in payouts, they’ll finally get the message. Not likely though, since it’s not their money!

Send Your Questions or Comments to Ed

Ask Alice: How to treat a 1st class relic (one you’re not currently married to.)

Send A Question To Alice

She’ll answer as many questions as possible,
right here, every Thursday.

Email responses will also be provided, as time permits.

Joan asks: I have in my possession a 1st class relic of Blessed Seelos and need to know how to take care of it when it is not being used by someone in special need.  What is the best paper back book on Saints (one that gives  a detailed account of Saints lives. )

Alice replies: How fortunate you are to have a first class relic of the New Orleans priest, dubbed the “cheerful saint” who was blessed with the gift of healing. If the Blessed Seelos relic is contained in a reliquary (relic case) you can keep it in any little box on your dresser. If the relic is simply affixed to a small paper or cloth, you can place the relic inside a clear plastic box.

An excellent paperback about saints’ lives is: Saint of the Day (5th revised edition) by Leonard Foley, O.F.M. and Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. (2003) ISBN 0-86716-535-9.  Another fine paperback is titled: The Saints from A to Z, by Cynthia Cavnar (2000) ISBN 1-56955-190-1.

****

Joseph asks: Today is November 26, and a terrorist killed more than 100 people, calling them unbelievers and believing that by killing, God will reward them. How can one Love such people????

Alice replies:

I am very sorry to learn of the 100 innocent people who lost their lives on November 26. Your question is one of the biggest challenges of our faith.

One of my favorite scripture passages is (Luke 6:27-28) where Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who maltreat you.”

Forgiveness is a vital component of love. It is the fabric from which miracles are fashioned.

As Jesus was dying, He forgave the repentant thief on the cross. St. Stephen, the first martyr, forgave the people who stoned him.

Ten years ago, Jennifer Bishop Jenkins taught me a lesson about loving one’s enemies: With God’s grace, Jennifer forgave the teen who brutally murdered her sister Nancy, her brother-in-law, and the couple’s unborn child.

As she lay dying Nancy wrote, “I (heart) YOU” in her own blood, on the wall of the couple’s townhouse.
Gradually, Jennifer realized that Nancy left her family a message of love to guide them for the rest of their lives.

Jennifer’s story changed my life forever. If Jennifer could forgive the unrepentant teen who murdered her beloved Nancy and her family, how can I not forgive people for everything they’ve done against me?

As human beings, we are naturally incapable of forgiveness. It is only with God’s grace that we can forgive others. “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”

Forgiveness is a process. When I ask God for the grace to forgive an enemy, He always answers my prayer. Please pray for the souls of the 100 victims who died on November 26, and pray for their murderer(s) as well. In this way you provide relief for their souls and heal your own heart, as well.

Doug Lawrence adds: Forgiveness is the true test of love. Jesus commanded Christians to love God and love our neighbors. Yet, unless an offender sincerely apologizes and makes amends, forgiveness appears to remain optional. And when it comes to matters of life and death (as in self-defense) it’s sometimes necessary for we Christians to preserve our rights (and our lives) by use of the “sword”.

The Catholic Church has formulated doctrines to guide us in such matters, but there are really no invariable, hard and fast rules to go by … other than the commandment mentioned above.

In an earlier post (on a different matter) Msgr. Charles Pope explained things this way: We do not love merely with good results in mind, we love unconditionally, as God does. God loves because God is love and that’s what Love does, He loves. And so to for us, called to be possessed of God’s love, we love. We risk  to love. The Lord was killed for the love he had for us. We do not love merely to get something from it, we simply love. Others may accept or refuse our love, but as for us we love. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16).

Christians also need to believe that God will restore whatever we might (temporarily) lose, by faithfully acting as “other Christs”. (Nobody ever said the Christian life would be easy.)

Forgiving, like love, is fundamental to our faith. Once we make up our mind to do it, just because Jesus asked, the matter should be settled. And from a purely practical point of view, when we refuse to forgive, we provide God with an exceedingly strict rule, by which to judge our personal soul:

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us …

Islam needs to emerge from its’ self-imposed “dark ages” and join the world community.

The days of Muslim Conquest
and the Crusades are behind us.

by Doug Lawrence

Islam claims to be a religion of peace, but so long as Islam continues to harbor terrorists and murderers within its’ ranks, and so long as Islam appears to officially support various types of revenge and brutal discrimination, under the false guise of Sharia and Jihad, few non-Muslims are ever likely to take Islam seriously, as a true world religion … let alone, a religion of peace.

Muslim Sharia Law is an only slightly modified version of the old Mosaic Law of the Jews. The Law actually worked pretty well in the harsh living environment of nomadic desert dwellers … and it should have … since it was originally given to the Israelites by God (Allah) for that express purpose. But when impressed on modern-day urban citizenry by certain fundamentalist Imams, Sharia can easily take on the look and feel of brute totalitarianism.

All of current-day Islam’s inherent violence and its’ serious denials/abuses of personal freedom make Islam look very unappealing and even frightening to the common man. And that should not come as a surprise, to anyone.

I’m betting that the promoters of true Islam can make a logical case for many/most of their fundamental beliefs and practices, but there’s no way they can ever do the same for violent Jihad and brutal, religious persecution and discrimination … simply because that type of behavior is essentially an unjust, corrupt aberration … and it was never a part of original, authentic Islam.

The days of the Crusades are behind us. The world (except apparently, for certain Muslims, and a few others) has moved on. Now, it’s high time for the true leaders of the Islamic world to get together, universally reject violence and terrorism, disown and shun those who can’t or won’t change their Medieval ways, and finally, join the modern family of nations, in peace.

What’s your stance on abortion?

Q: What’s your stance on abortion?

A: Abortion is a crime against humanity that has been decriminalized and promoted by governments all around the world, simply because it is politically expedient and cost effective.

As a matter of man’s inhumanity to man, the scourge of abortion rivals the debauchery of the infamous biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose sins cried out to Heaven for vengeance.

Abortion is without equal in demonstrating massive and blatant disrespect for the sanctity of life, and concurrently, a profound lack of respect for God, who is the sole author of life.

Many years ago, the late Mother Teresa declared the advent of global terrorism to be a divine chastisement for the world wide practice of abortion.

Since then, things have only gotten worse.

God may be running out of patience.

Ok, finally a few minutes to write …

A letter from my cousin Rich …  who is doing his 3rd tour in Iraq.
Thought y’all would find it interesting – Doria2

Subject: Hey

Ok, finally a few minutes to write.

Sept 11, 2008
Today they had a special tribute dedicated to the victims of 9/11.

There was personnel from 4 different countries, all standing together in the same formation. American, British, Australian & French.

All UNITED under one cause: Stop terror from where ever in the world it tries to seed itself and take root.

It is ironic to me, that I am here now standing outside the very steps Saddam Hussein had walked on.

We had a supervisors conference in the same room Saddam ran his war from. I vividly remember the video of this conference room on TV.

Now I am at the same table, with an all marble floor, walls & columns.

The picture I sent is just outside his building. You can’t see anything but the top of the building because it is blocked by blast walls, but I am here & I happy to be here with 2 of my closest friends in the world.

It has been really quiet here. No attacks for the last 3 months. You would never know that from watching the news.

Today, it was nice until about 10:00 AM when the sun really came out & the temperature peaked at 120 degrees. It was better than yesterday. It was hot but the wind was blowing all the dust up. You couldn’t see 40 feet in front of you.

Well, I am getting tired. It is my third straight 14 hour day.

Hope everyone is doing good.

Richie

Submitted by Doria2

The Real War on Terror

The Real War on Terror

The events of September 11th, 2001 will remain engraved upon the hearts and minds of every decent person living today and throughout many future generations. The terrorist attacks of that fateful day seven years ago showed the world the real face of radical Islam and unleashed a chain reaction of conflicts that have shaken the very foundations of what we, as a nation, hold dear. Those events have forced us to decide how much we are willing to do to stop such a radical injustice from spreading like a cancer throughout the world. May the whole world commemorate this day as a witness to the reality of evil and the resolve of good people to put a stop to it.

While we hold sacred the memory of the nearly 3,000 victims of the terror in the Twin Towers, their deaths are also a symbolic reminder of the real terrorism that has occurred every day of every year, uninterruptedly, for the past 36 years in a country that calls itself “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” This form of terrorism on America’s own soil kills more than 3,000 babies every single day! There has not been any official war declared on the terrorism of abortion. It is virtually ignored in public discourse and political campaigning, and even when it is dealt with, it is only talked about as something “controversial” and never as a substantive issue or one that needs to be addressed in all its dimensions.

The real story of international terror and extremism is not the story of Islam. It is the story of an industry that makes Islamic terrorists look like a bunch of Boy Scouts. It is not a localized war or one related simply to disputes between countries or conflicting political systems. It is an ideological war, a conflict between fundamental notions of good and evil, decency and depravity. In this respect, there is a direct correlation between the murderous terrorism whose bloody victims are shown on the evening news and the silent butchering of millions of babies, the images of whose suffering little bodies will never be considered fit for public viewing. The babies’ murderers are just as unscrupulous as the ones who behead their victims on the internet. In addition to that, this war is indeed spreading like a cancer around the world. The recent legalization of abortion in Mexico is an indication that the traditional ramparts against this kind of ideological killing are being battered down in the few places where they still remain standing.

So out of reverence for the victims of the Twin Tower disaster, we must memorialize their unborn companions in suffering who are virtually forgotten by the world and the press in the aftermath of 911. We will never forget them. We do no service to those who fell in the Twin Towers by glossing over their silent associates who are also full victims of modern terror, although hidden from view. We must not let the memory of these children fade, ever. And while we are remembering them, let us remind ourselves of our obligations to them which are even more real and immediate because these children are totally innocent and completely defenseless.

Unlike the declared war on terror, the war against abortion is not a war for trained military men. It is a war for every decent human being to engage in. We ourselves must vigorously fight the real war on terror or no future remains in store for our nation, our families, or possibly even our very souls.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International