30 Thursday Jan 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
On the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority states by the author of _In the Land of Invisible Women_.
24 Tuesday Sep 2013
Posted in Islamic Small Wars, Pakistan, Religion, Saudi Arabia
Tags
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region,” following Kuwait’s moves to ban their construction.
Destroy all churches in Gulf, says Saudi Grand Mufti – Culture & Society – ArabianBusiness.com by Elizabeth Broomhall, 3/15/2012
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Hearing him talk after the Church attack, it is clear that Mr Khan is no ‘apologist’. An apologist makes excuses, often in an oblique manner for the acts of another, after the commission of the act. Mr Khan does no such thing. He is crystal clear in his absolute defense of the terrorists. And more importantly, he pre-approves of all future murderers.
From Apologist to Ally – The Express Tribune by Saroop Tjaz, 9/23/2013.
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Related: Church bombing threatens Pakistan’s push for Taliban talks – CSMonitor.com 9/23/2013
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27 Monday May 2013
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In the previous post, I reblogged a message from an anti-Jihad blog without looking twice, which is dangerous for a cyberjournalist: at the very least, I should have glossed the topic, however compelling and dramatic the news out of Syria may be.
The claim of 90 percent ethnic cleansing can actually be traced to a report put out on March 13 by an online Arabic outlet known as Al-Haqiqa (Arabic for “the truth”).
A quick Google search reveals that the original memo sent to Fides by the church leaders had been copy-pasted almost down to the last word from the SyriaTruth site, which is notorious for its pro-regime propaganda. Officials of the Syrian Church did not confirm the story with anybody in Homs before sending out the memo. They must have presumed that the SyriaTruth writers did.
I’ve seen this same technique — one questionable press release reprinted through dozens of outlets — with stories about olive groves burning on the West Bank. At the end of such web excursions, the reader-blogger cries for the direct reporting from a trustworthy witness.
Apart from innuendo, first page Google look-up for the string “Syria Christian Persecution” seem to bring to light only unsubstantiated allegations, e.g., “When government forces aren’t present, Muslims have been known to rob churches and kidnap, rape, or even kill Christian women” — from Christian Freedom International: “Persecution in Syria: ‘How Do You Want to Die . . .'”.
Please, specifically: who? What? When? Where? How? And why?
Add: corroboration?
Put a byline on it — or attribute to a “desk” with contact information.
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At least with that story, there are names: Bishop Boulos Yazigi and Archbishop Yahanna Ibrahim. (“Syrian bishops kidnapped in Aleppo still missing one month on.” The Guardian, May 21, 2013).
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16 Thursday May 2013
Tags
bigotry, Canadian, Christians, documentary, Jews, Martin Himel, persecution, television, video
Television host, director, and correspondent Martin Himel has produced a body of work on bigotry.
I haven’t been methodical about selecting these clips from Mr. Himel’s YouTube page but to see these themes broadly collected and presented in one place in video should open eyes and hearts to the character of racist and religious hate.
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Amazon lists two documentaries by Martin Himel available on DVD (however, I think I may have just snagged the last available copy of Jenin: Massacring Truth): Jenin: Massacring Truth; Confrontation at Concordia.
Himel’s work has been airing this month on the Canadian television station Vision TV: Jew Bashing (May 6 to May 27); Persecuted Christians aired on May 6 and may be viewed in Canada in its entirety on the site linked (the message I got in western Maryland: “The channel owner has prohibited viewing from this location).
Bummer, dude.
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