Christianophobia

Christianophobia by Rupert Shortt  published in December, 2012. I missed it in the Christmas rush. 

An article about this in the Independent

and on the Barnabas website

and a blog piece on it - which makes a distinction between 'the West' (where ideologically the Christian faith  is mocked and resisted) and 'the rest of the World' (where Christians are being killed). Then there is a brief attempt to connect them. 

9/11 & Qur’an burning

 “an unnecessary, offensive and dangerous gesture”  

so say the Barnabas Fund.

Their excellent statement [Barnabas Fund statement on the proposed burning of Qur’ans in Florida] follows this up in a strong yet gracious way :

A church in Gainsville, Florida, USA, the Dove World Outreach Centre, has announced that it will burn copies of the Qur’an on Saturday 11 September to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The stated purpose of this action is to raise awareness of the ideology and teaching of Islam and to warn against its dangers.

Barnabas Fund condemns the proposed action, for the following reasons:

1. Barnabas Fund is fully committed to making known the aspects of Islam that result in injustice and oppression of non-Muslims, not least the persecution of Christians. But we believe that the biblical and Christ-like way to do this is by speaking the truth in the power of God’s love, and by extending that love to Muslim people even when they are hostile to us. In that context it can never be justified to destroy a book that Muslims regard as sacred, however firmly and profoundly we may disagree with its contents.
   
2. The effect of the proposed action on Christians in Muslim-majority contexts is likely to be extremely serious. Already Muslim militants in Indonesia have promised to kill Indonesian Christians if Qur’ans are burned in Florida, and the history of anti-Christian violence in the country suggests that this is not an idle threat. Barnabas partners in Iraq have expressed concern at the probable Muslim backlash against an already beleaguered Iraqi Church. And Christians in numerous other places who live in daily fear of potentially deadly attacks will at once be placed in much greater danger. It cannot be right to exercise our freedom to protest in a way that puts at risk the lives of our brothers and sisters, for whom Christ died.
   
3. There is a further risk that Christian minorities may be divided among themselves as churches with links to the West come to be unfairly associated with the action taken in Florida and its destructive consequences. It is important for Christians under pressure to be united, as their division serves only to weaken the Church and increase its vulnerability to Muslim attacks. It is therefore wholly inappropriate to undermine that unity for the sake of an unnecessary, offensive and dangerous gesture.

For these reasons Barnabas Fund urges the Dove World Outreach Centre and its supporters to refrain from burning Qur’ans on the anniversary of 9/11. It invites all Christians instead to join with us in prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world, and that the hatred and violence that endanger them may be overcome by the grace and love of Christ.

Following the action in prayer

Jay Smith visiting the Midlands

Handsworth Bible Convention 2009
Saturday 10th October at 6.00pm
Junction Rd Evangelical Church B21 0EL

“Engaging with Islam”

Jay Smith

[see clips below to see who he is]

Seminar 1: “Islam, its history & beliefs”
Seminar 2: “Sharing our faith with Muslims”

Is the God of the Bible the same as the God of the Q'uran?

The Koran

I missed this Sunday Times article in which Sebastian Faulks, apparently (!) no lover of Christ, talks about his recent experience of reading the Koran.

It’s very one-dimensional, and people talk about the beauty of the Arabic and so on, but the English translation I read was, from a literary point of view, very disappointing.

There is also the barrenness of the message. I mean, there are some bits about diet, you know, the equivalent of the Old Testament, which is also crazy. But the great
thing about the Old Testament is that it does have these incredible stories. Of the 100 greatest stories ever told, 99 are probably in the Old Testament and the other is in Homer.

With the Koran there are no stories. And it has no ethical dimension like the New Testament, no new plan for life. It says ‘the Jews and the Christians were along the right tracks, but actually, they were wrong and I’m right, and if you don’t believe me, tough — you’ll burn for ever'. That’s basically the message of the book.

“Jesus, unlike Muhammad, had interesting things to say. He proposed a revolutionary way of looking at the world: love your neighbour; love your enemy; the meek shall inherit the earth. Muhammad had nothing to say to the world other than, ‘If you don’t believe in God you will burn for ever’.”

Bog standard ridicule and caricature of the OT.
But interesting to read an unbeliever's take on the Koran and praise for story!

Barnabas

Across the world, in countries such as Nigeria and Sudan, millions of Christians are being persecuted at the hands of militant Islam, with forced conversions, the burning of churches and widespread violence. Yet in the face of this global onslaught, the Church of England makes scarcely a peep of protest.

Worse still, when Dr Nazir-Ali warned last year that Islamic extremists had created 'no-go areas' across Britain where non-Muslims faced intimidation, he was disowned by his fellow churchmen who all but declared that he was a liar - even though he was telling the truth.

so says Melanie Phillips today.

Here is a group doing the kind of work that many churches are not doing (or more positivley, it is a group coordinating the efforts of many churches and Christians), in loving action for brothers and sisters who are suffering and in loving action for atheists and Muslims who too are commanded by the King of Kings, to repent and believe the gospel: http://barnabasfund.org/