The Liaison Committee – a joint forum of B’nai B’rith World Center – Jerusalem and the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel together with Menachem Begin Heritage Center – will convene on November 8 a symposium entitled “The Present and Future of Christians in the Middle East”. The symposium will take place at Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem at 20:30 (light refreshments at 20:00).

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 8:30 PM

Menachem Begin Heritage Center

8 Nahon Street

Jerusalem, Israel

The symposium takes place as ancient Christians Communities in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan and elsewhere in the region face persecution and the prospect of disappearance in some of these countries and the implications of this for the State of Israel.

Speakers at the symposium:

> Raymond Ibrahim, Associate Fellow, Middle East Forum and Shillman Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center (USA);
> Juliana Taimoorazy, Founder and President, Iraqi Christian Relief Council (USA); and
> Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar Ilan University.

Dr. Mordechai Nisan from the Hebrew University will chair the symposium.

Greetings will be delivered by: Herzl Makov, Director, Menachem Begin Heritage Center; Alan Schneider, Director, B’nai B’rith World Center and Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt, Director, The Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel. 

Raymond Ibrahim  is a Middle East and Islam specialist, A widely published author best known for The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007), he guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, briefs governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Born and raised in the U.S. by Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided him with equal fluency in English and Arabic.

Juliana Taimoorazy - An Assyrian Christian born in Iran. Requested religious asylum at the American Embassy in Germany after fleeing Iran. In the United States she obtained her graduate degree in Instructional Design and worked as a reporter at a local station in Chicago for many years. In addition to owning her own businesses, creating employment opportunities for Iraqi Christian refugees, she has worked since she was 19 years old to elevate the Assyrian Christian cause in the United States.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar - BA in Arabic and Political Science (1982) and a PhD in Arabic (1998) both from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His areas of research include: Islam, Islamic movements, gender issues in Islam, Arabic mass media, popular culture in the Arab world, and state and society in the Arab world.

Dr. Mordechai Nisan - born in Montreal, earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University. After moving to Israel, he taught Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, while lecturing as well at other academic institutions in the country. He has specialized and written books on Israel, Lebanon, Islam, minority peoples in the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Egypt: Destroying Churches, One at a Time

What clearer sign that Egypt is turning rabidly Islamist than the fact that hardly a few weeks go by without a church being destroyed, or without protesting Christians being attacked and slaughtered by the military?

The latest chaos in Egypt—where the military opened fire on unarmed Christians and repeatedly ran armored vehicles over them, killing dozens—originates in Edfu, a onetime tourist destination renowned for its pharaonic antiquities, but now known as the latest region to see a church destroyed by a Muslim mob.

This church attack is itself eye-opening as to the situation in Egypt. To sum, St. George Coptic church, built nearly a century ago, was so dilapidated that the local council and governor of Aswan approved renovating it, and signed off on the design.

It was not long before local Muslims began complaining, making various demands, including that the church be devoid of crosses and bells—even though the permit approved them—citing that "the Cross irritates Muslims and their children."

Coptic leaders had no choice but to acquiesce, "pointing to the fact that the church was rebuilt legally, and any concessions on the part of the church was done for the love for the country, which is passing through a difficult phase."

Acquiescence breeds more demands: Muslim leaders next insisted that the very dome of the church be removed—so that the building might not even resemble a church—and that it be referred to as a "hospitality home." Arguing that removal of the dome would likely collapse the church, the bishop refused.

The foreboding cries of "Allahu Akbar!" began: Muslims threatened to raze the church and build a mosque in its place; Copts were "forbidden to leave their homes or buy food until they remove the dome of St. George's Church"; many starved for weeks.

Then, after Friday prayers on Sept. 31, some three thousand Muslims rampaged the church, torched it, and demolished the dome; flames from the wreckage burned nearby Coptic homes, which were further ransacked by rioting Muslims.

This account of anti-church sentiment in Egypt offers several conclusions:

First, the obvious: animosity for churches, demands that they be left to crumble, demands to remove crosses and stifle bells, are an integral part of Islamic history and dogma. That church attacks in Egypt always occur on Friday, Islam's "holy day," and are always accompanied by religious cries of "Allahu Akbar!" should be evidence enough of the Islamist context of these attacks.

Because there was a lull in this animosity from the colonial era to just a few decades ago, most Westerners, deeming events closer to their time and space more representative of reality, incorrectly assume that church toleration is the rule, not the exception in Islamic history, which has more frequently been draconian to churches, and is back: "the Muslim Brotherhood announced immediately after the revolution that it is impossible to build any new church in Egypt, and churches which are demolished should never be rebuilt, as well as no crosses over churches or bells to be rung."

This is also why Muslim authorities are complacent, if not complicit. According to witnesses, security forces, which were present during the Edfu attack, "stood there watching." Worse, Edfu's Intelligence Unit chief was seendirecting the mob destroying the church.

As for the governor of Aswan, he appeared on State TV and "denied any church being torched," calling it a "guest home" (a common tactic to excuse the destruction of churches). He even justified the incident by arguing that the church contractor made the building three meters higher than he permitted: "Copts made a mistake and had to be punished, and Muslims did nothing but set things right, end of story."

Equally telling is that perpetrators of church attacks are seldom if ever punished. Even if sometimes the most rabid church-destroying Muslims get "detained," it is usually for show, as they are released in days, hailed back home as heroes (this, too, goes back to Muslim dogma, which naturally sides with Muslims over infidels).

This year alone has seen the New Year church attack, which left 23 dead; the destruction of the ancient church of Sool, where Muslims "played soccer" with its sacred relics; the Imbaba attacks, where several churches were set aflame; and now Edfu, wherein, as usual "none of the attackers were arrested."

Indeed, three days after Edfu, Muslims attacked yet another church.

Aware that they are untouchable, at least when it comes to making infidel Christians miserable, anti-Christian Muslims have a simple strategy: destroy churches, even if one at a time, safe in the knowledge that, not only will they not be prosecuted, but Egypt's military and security apparatus will punish the infidel victims should they dare to protest.

Raymond Ibrahim, a widely published Islam-specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

African Jihad Gathers Pace: Muslims Burn Down Zanzibar Church

Another Zanzibar church burning – another pre-Bombadan gesture of Interfaith Dialogue™ to the tiny Christian population of this Tanzanian island outpost:

Muslim extremists on Saturday (July 30) burned down a church building on Zanzibar island off the coast of Tanzania, church leaders said, just three days after another congregation’s facility on the island was reduced to ashes.

In Fuoni on the south coast of Zanzibar (known locally as Unguja), Islamic extremists torched the building of the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) at around 2 p.m., said Pastor Leonard Massasa, who oversees Zanzibar’s EAGT churches. The assailants were shouting, “Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children,” Pastor Massasa said.

The EAGT church is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Zanzibar town.

“Tomorrow is Sunday, and my members numbering 40 will not have any place to worship,” Pastor Paulo Magungu of the Fuoni EAGT church said. With fear in his voice, the pastor added, “We have reported the case to the police station. I hope justice will be done.”

He reported the case at Fuoni police station immediately after it happened, he said.

In Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, another church building was burned down on Wednesday (July 27) at about 2 a.m., said Pastor George Frank Dunia of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa. The fire destroyed 45 chairs.

“I have 36 members, and it will be very difficult for them to congregate tomorrow,” the pastor said on Saturday (July 30). “The members are afraid, not knowing what other plans the Muslims are out to do. We request prayers at this trying moment.”

Church officials have reported the case to the chief of Kianga, as well as to police.

Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago is 99.9 percent Muslim.

On neighboring Pemba island, suspected Muslim extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building, a witness said.

“It was at 1 a.m. when I saw the church burning,” said a neighbor who requested anonymity. “There have been issues that the Muslims have been raising about the existence of the church.”

The Seventh-day church owns a large property near Chake-Chake town but has been unable to erect a building due to hostility from Muslims, sources said.

“If we do not stop the growth of the churches here in Pemba, then soon we are going to lose our people to Christianity, especially the children,” Sheikh Ibrahim Abdalla of Chake-Chake Mosque reportedly said.

The June 17 attack took place at about 1 a.m., the witness said. Konde is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Chake-Chake town.

A case has been filed in Konde police station, but at press time no suspects had been arrested [don't hold your breath - Ed].

Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) Pastor Yohana Ari Mfundo said he has witnessed a series of attacks on Christians on Pemba island.

“It is even becoming extremely difficult for Christians to exercise their faith like praying or singing in a Muslim-owned rental house,” Pastor Mfundo said.

“We don’t want churches on our street. Today we are going to burn the church, and if you continue we are going to burn your house also,” Note posted to the donor of a plot for a church building in Zanzibar, 2009

As if a 97% Muslim majority was not enough, the local population and government (taking a cue from how they do it in other Muslim countries) is, through this latest Zanzibar church burning incident, seeing to it that Islam is the only way on Tanzania’s Pemba and Unguja Islands.

The latest Zanzibar church burning isn’t an isolated initiative. Other places of Christian worship have been torched recently and only days ago, Muslims started work on building a hotel directly on a Anglican cemetery they had siezed.

Despite what your local liberals or ‘Interfaith Outreach’ worker might tell you, Islam is decidedly not a religion of peace. It seeks to dominate wherever it exists; and enforces its supremacy ruthlessly where it already does.

And, with the long history of islamic jihad in the region making the Tanzanian government nervous – who’s going to stop them?

Read the rest at CDN.