The Battle for Jerusalem Begins
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will put Jerusalem on the negotiating table as he hurtles toward a “joint declaration” with the Palestinian Authority ahead of next month’s U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit. The prime minister says that a joint declaration with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas prior to the summit will lead to direct negotiations. The Arabic Al Quds Al-Arabiya newspaper reported Monday morning that Olmert has now come to an agreement with Jordan that Arabs in eastern Jerusalem will be granted Jordanian citizenship. The plan would leave Jerusalem's Muslim holy sites under the control of the Hashemite kingdom, according to the report. Olmert vehemently denied the report…
From Arutz Sheva Israel National News (dated October 8, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/WT/RE)
Israel May OK Division of Jerusalem
A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that his government would support a division of Jerusalem, which is reportedly a key component of an Israeli-Palestinian declaration to be made at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference next month. As part of recent negotiations between the sides, Deputy Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon has proposed turning over many of the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians…
Associated Press story at My Way News (dated October 8, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/WT/RE)
West Papua Delegation Donates Gold For Holy Temple
On Wednesday, the last day of the Sukkot festival, a 34-person delegation from West Papua presented a large amount of gold to be used in the building of the Holy Temple. The delegation, including representatives of the nation’s government, explained that they study the Bible regularly and recently came upon a verse in Zecharia (6:16) reading “And the distant ones will come and build the Temple of G-d.” They discussed the passage among themselves and decided that their faith obligates them to fulfill the verse…
From Arutz Sheva Israel National News (dated October 7, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/AP/RE)
Pope calls for Sunday's soul 'to be restored'
The Pope has urged Catholics to reclaim the Sabbath as a day of religious reflection during a sermon in Vienna. Pope Benedict XVI's words came on the final day of his three-day visit to Austria amid declining church attendance figures in the central European country…
Adfero (UK) story at Manchester.com (dated September 9, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (EU/RE)
Calling Europe Back to Its Christian Roots: Pope Says Another Alternative Doesn't Exist
Benedict XVI stressed the Christian identity of Europe in an address to members of the government and the diplomatic corps in Austria. The Pope said today in an address in the reception hall of Vienna's Hofburg Palace, the seat of the Austrian presidency, that "Europe cannot and must not deny her Christian roots. These represent a dynamic component of our civilization as we move forward into the third millennium"…
From Zenit News Agency (Vatican) (dated September 7, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (EU/RE)
Muslims caught red-handed destroying Temple artifacts
Islamic authorities using heavy machinery to dig on the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – have been caught red-handed destroying Temple-era antiquities and what's believed to be a section of an outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple…
From WorldNetDaily (dated September 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/RE)
'Reunion' of Priests Spurs Talk of Third Temple
What made this blessing at the Western Wall unique was that the service was among the opening ceremonies of the first international Kohen-Levi conference, "The Gathering of the Tribe," held this week in Jerusalem….Members of the Jewish priestly class came from near and far to participate in this unique "family reunion" of the sons of Aaron…[Many] came to learn exactly how to fulfill their divine ancestral duties for when the Third Holy Temple is built…In addition to seminars about purity laws for priests and the correct way to offer the blessing of the Kohanim, experts talked about recent DNA testing that validates the belief that today's Kohanim descend from one man who lived about 3,000 years ago, at the time of the Exodus -- namely, Aaron. Most Ashkenazi and Sephardi Kohanim in the world have a common set of genetic markers indicating their common origin…
Jewish Telegraphic Agency story at Jewish Exponent (dated July 26, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/RE)
Rethinking the core issues
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah to help Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams craft a joint declaration for the upcoming Annapolis summit that addresses the "core issues," particularly, - refugees - known as the Palestinian "right of return" - final borders, and Jerusalem… Israel is…mistaken to waste most of its diplomatic energy "killing" the Palestinian "right of return," when there is no danger that Israel will be forced to absorb millions of Arab refugees. Diplomatically, Israel has already won that battle. But on two other "core issues," borders and Jerusalem, that are no less critical to Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state, and are today in great peril, Israel has a bloody diplomatic fight ahead…
From Institute for Contemporary Affairs director Dan Diker in The Jerusalem Post (dated October 15, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/WT/RE)
Will the Belgian Crisis Lead to a Sharia State in the Heart of Europe?
The break up of Belgium. [...] The obvious is the annexing of the two largest regions, Flanders into Holland and Wallonia into France, which would in all essence leave Brussels as a region with no home. [...] The [Eurocrats] would see this as an opportunity. They would have within their power the ability to create a capital state, in the same way that Washington sits within the District of Columbia (DC) and the Australian capital Canberra sits within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Brussels would therefore become a state in its own right. A true capital of a new super state. [...] Over half the inhabitants of the Brussels region are of foreign origin, and growing at an alarming rate, many of them from Morocco. [...] How long would it take before Brussels was declared an Islamic state. - EURABIA. How would the 27 member states react being tied by treaty to the supremacy of Brussels if it was an Islamic state…
From Ian Parker, excerpted at The Brussels Journal (dated September 4, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (EU/RE)
Latent Nazis -Conversations with Young German Intellectuals
In his controversial tome, "Hitler's Willing Executioners", the author, Daniel Goldhagen, posits that the Germans underwent a miraculous transformation in the wake of their devastating defeat in World war II. En masse, they have abandoned their centuries-old rabid, virulent, and ultimately lethal brand of anti-Semitism and anti-Slavism and became docile, altruistic citizens of the New World Order. This unlikely scenario sounds too good to be true because it is far from the truth…
From Sam Vaknin at Global Politician (dated August 20, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (EU/RE)
Christianity finds a fulcrum in Asia
Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter's veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history…
From Asia Times columnist Spengler (dated August 7, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (AP/RE)
Dutch researcher claims to confirm Queen Jezebel's seal
For some 40 years, one of the flashiest opal signets on display at the Israel Museum had remained without accurate historical context. Two weeks ago, Dutch researcher Marjo Korpel identified article IDAM 65-321 as the official seal of Queen Jezebel, one of the bible's most powerful and reviled women. Israeli archaeologists had suspected Jezebel was the owner ever since the seal was first documented in 1964…
From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated October 11, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/RE)
A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation
The "Jewish State" is allowing Judaism's holiest site to have its priceless artifacts destroyed and nobody seems to care…
From Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks at Jewish World Review (dated September 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ME/RE)
Hindu prayer in Senate defies nation's founding, some say
Some Americans took offense when a Hindu chaplain led the morning prayer in the United States Senate July 12 because they said it defied the Judeo Christian heritage set forth by the nation's founders…Zed was the first Hindu to offer a Senate prayer since the formation of the governing body in 1789, and he was invited by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev. But Zed was not the first Hindu to pray in Congress. That distinction belongs to a Hindu priest who prayed before the House in 2000. Also, a Muslim prayed before the Senate several years ago…
From Baptist Press (dated July 19, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (US/RE)
Report: Christians crucified by terrorists in Iraq
Believers in Jesus said to be nailed to crosses, tied with ropes, set ablaze…
From WorldNetDaily (dated July 17, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Israelite priests hold first gathering since Temple era
Jews belonging to the Tribe of Levi, and particularly the Kohen [i.e., priest] clan, came together for a mass gathering in Jerusalem on Sunday. It was the first large-scale gathering of biblically-mandated Israelite priests since the time of the Second Temple. The gathering included lectures and seminars on the history and future of the Temple, and culminated with all of the participants declaring the priestly blessing over Israel from the Western Wall. Genetic research over the past several decades has succeeded in isolating a particular DNA signature shared by all members of the Tribe of Levi, making the reinstitution of Israel's priestly caste a relatively simple endeavor once the Temple is rebuilt.
From Israel Today (dated July 15, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE)
Olmert allows Muslims to dig on Temple Mount
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has quietly granted the Waqf – the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount – permission to dig unsupervised on the sacred site, WND has learned. The permission was granted in spite of longstanding fears from leading Israeli archeologists the Waqf might hide or dispose of Jewish Temple artifacts discovered during any Muslim digs. The last time the Waqf conducted an unsupervised excavation on the Temple Mount, in 1997, the Muslim custodians ultimately were caught by Israeli authorities disposing truckloads of Mount dirt that contained Jewish Temple artifacts…
From WorldNetDaily (dated July 11, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE)
Pope: Other Christian Denominations Not True Churches
For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches…[Also] Benedict revived the old Latin Mass, saying it was wrong for bishops to deny it to the faithful because it had never been abolished. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II….
Associated Press story at Fox News (dated July 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (EU/RE)
Hamas’s plans for Temple Mount foiled
Hamas attempts to gain control of the Temple Mount and recruit new Israeli-Arab operatives in east Jerusalem have been foiled by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), a senior security official announced on Monday…
From The Jerusalem Post (dated July 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
The Persistence of Islamic Slavery
Besides being practiced more or less openly today in Sudan and Mauritania, there is evidence that slavery still continues beneath the surface in some majority-Muslim countries as well -- notably Saudi Arabia, which only abolished slavery in 1962, Yemen and Oman, both of which ended legal slavery in 1970, and Niger, which didn’t abolish slavery until 2004. In Niger, the ban is widely ignored, and according to a Nigerian study, as many as one million people remain in bondage there. Slaves are bred, often raped, and generally treated like animals…
From Robert Spencer at FrontPage Magazine (dated July 20, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/AF/RE/MO)
Temple Mount travesty
A bulldozer was seen last week ripping up earth on the Temple Mount, at the Dome of the Rock platform. It slashed a long gash, purportedly to lay new electric cables. With crude, damaging handling, it exposed a largely gray deposit, which according to archeologists is a sure-fire indication of "archeologically significant" matter. Incomprehensibly, despite TV air-time and print space, these revelations by the Archeologists Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount (CPDATM) failed to cause much stir. The public has perhaps grown numb due to official abdication of control on the Mount. But the expedient turning of official blind eyes amounts to abetting the Wakf's ongoing construction at Judaism's most sacred site…This travesty was perpetrated with Israeli policemen stationed nearby. Archeological supervision was nowhere to be detected…The officers on hand, moreover, according to testimony by archeologist Prof. Yisrael Caspi, CPDATM head, forbade him from picking any remains out of the rubble. Caspi and other archeologists were warned that they had better not even try to bend down, lest they stretch out an arm to touch anything. A policeman was finally dispatched to maintain particular vigilance against Prof. Eilat Mazar, most suspected of a proclivity to lay a hand on a pottery shard. Speaking for the CPDATM, Mazar expressed "the deepest distress at the continued official disregard and disrespect for the incalculable archeological importance of the Temple Mount"…
From The Jerusalem Post (dated July 14, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE)
Is Pope Benedict turning back Catholic clock?
Critics say Pope Benedict, in several recent controversial moves, is turning the Roman Catholic Church's clock back by half a century and alienating Muslims, Jews and Protestants in the process. Supporters say that by allowing a wider use of the Latin Mass and reasserting Catholic primacy over other religions, he is trying to revitalise his 1.1 billion-member church and prepare it for an uncertain future…Some see a leaner, meaner Catholic Church in the future…
From Reuters (dated July 12, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (EU/RE)
Israeli and Palestinian authorities are failing to protect the Temple Mount
I don’t know who are worse: the Muslim religious authorities digging up Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, or the Israeli authorities who are allowing it to happen…
From Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks in The Wall Street Journal, reposted at Biblical Archaeology Society (dated July 18, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (ME/RE)
Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament
Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out…a [joyful] cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact. Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered - Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon. Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim…"This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," [British Museum expert] Dr [Irving] Finkel said yesterday. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power"…
From The Telegraph (London) (dated July 13, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (RE)
Pope pious?
Efforts to canonize Pope Pius XII as a saint of the Catholic Church are in high gear. The pope who reigned during the Holocaust, whose detractors have called him "Hitler's Pope" and defenders say used his moral and political influence to save thousands of Jews, is once again dominating conversations in the Vatican…Dozens of research projects, articles and books, written by Jews and non-Jews, were published on the heels of [a 1963] play. All the works - from Saul Friedlander's book, "Pius XII and the Third Reich" to John Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope" - ostensibly prove that the pope had supported the Nazis. Pius XII's decision to shelve an edict issued by his predecessor, Pius XI, which supposedly condemns Fascism and Nazism, is likewise proof of his attitude. But books and articles have also been published in defense of Pius XII, most of them written by Catholic clergymen, but some by rabbis and Jewish authors…One of the most lethal attacks on the silence of the pontiff during the Holocaust came from Susan Zuccotti, whose book "Under His Very Windows" was published in 2002. In her book, Zuccotti examines the pope's silence even as the Italians began arresting the Jews of Rome. The Vatican intervened only in cases where a Jewish man was married to a Christian woman and had himself converted to Christianity. Additional studies reveal that Pius XII also did not protest when the Nazis banished 1,000 Italian Jews to the extermination camps. However, he did take real steps before the start of World War II to help some 3,000 Jews who converted to Christianity from different parts of Europe obtain immigration visas to Brazil…The defense of Pius XII comes from members of the Catholic Church, but a few Jews have also chimed in, most notably Rabbi David Dalin, whose book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope" refutes the attacks on the pontiff. The defenders' main contention is that the pope carried out all his actions secretly because he feared that openly criticizing the Nazis would only worsen the situation of the Jews and Catholics in occupied Europe. Other historians confirm that the pontiff did act secretly, but that he did so only after 1942, when the Americans warned that those who had participated in the persecution of the Jews would face punishment, and when it became clear to the Vatican that the Allies would win the war…It is doubtful whether it is possible to decide one way or the other on this matter as long as the Vatican denies access to all the documents in its archives from the period of the war…
From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated July 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends July 25, 2007 (EU/RE)
Poll shows belief in evolution, creationism
Majorities of Americans in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say evolution and creationism are both likely explanations for life on Earth — underscoring the complexities of an issue that has put Republican presidential candidates on the spot in recent weeks. Two-thirds in the poll said creationism, the idea that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years, is definitely or probably true. More than half, 53%, said evolution, the idea that humans evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, is definitely or probably true. All told, 25% say that both creationism and evolution are definitely or probably true…
From USA Today (dated June 7, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE)
Mohammed likely to top British boys' names list by year-end
Mohammed will likely become the most popular name for baby boys in Britain by the end of the year, The Times reported on Wednesday, citing government data. Though official records from the Office for National Statistics list the spelling Mohammed 23rd in its yearly analysis of the top 3,000 names given to children, when all the different spellings of the name are taken into account, it ranks second, only behind Jack, according to The Times…
Agence France-Presse story at Breitbart.com (dated June 6, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (BR/RE)
One Third of Americans Say Bible is Literal Word of God
Do you believe the Bible is the literal word of God? Since 1991, the Gallup Organization has asked Americans that question, yet their answers remain remarkably unchanged. About 31% of people believe the Good Book is infallible. Frank Newport with Gallup says we still live in a country where God’s word is taken seriously… If you add together the people who think the whole Bible is the direct word of God and those who see it as divinely inspired, but not all parts are to be taken literally, you arrive at about 80% of the public believing it to be a major source of truth in their lives…
From Focus on the Family (dated June 4, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE)
Americans Remain Negative on State of Nation's Moral Values
Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll finds Americans are very pessimistic about the current state of moral values in the United States, as has typically been the case in recent years. Only about one in six Americans describe the state of moral values in the country in positive terms, and perceptions that moral values are "poor" in the country are at their highest point, edging closer to the 50% mark. More than 8 in 10 Americans think morality is getting worse, representing a slight increase in the past three years. The groups of Americans who are most negative about moral values in this country include senior citizens, blacks, women, conservative Republicans, Protestants, and weekly churchgoers…
From The Gallup Poll (dated June 4, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
Gaza: Female TV staff get death threat
A radical Islamic group in the Gaza Strip issued a death threat over the weekend against women working for the official Palestinian Authority television station, accusing them of dressing immodestly and behaving in a way that violates the teachings of Islam. The threat, the first of its kind against female employees of Palestine TV, was made by the Righteous Swords of Islam, a relatively new group that is believed to have links with al-Qaida…
From The Jerusalem Post (dated June 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Three Arrested, 1 Sought In Terror Plot On New York City's JFK Airport
Federal authorities announced Saturday they had broken up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell planning a "chilling" attack to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods. Three men, one of them a former member of Guyana's parliament, were arrested and one was being sought in Trinidad as part of a plot that authorities said they had been tracked for more than a year and was foiled in the planning stages. "The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable"…
From Fox News (dated June 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/LA/RE/WT)
Palestinian Kindergarten Graduates Vow to Die for Allah
A televised graduation ceremony at a Palestinian kindergarten in Gaza shows little boys dressed in black masks, camouflage fatigues, carrying toy guns, and waving green Hamas flags. The children vow that their most "lofty aspiration" is death for the sake of Allah. The ceremony aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa Television on Thursday…
From Cybercast News Service (dated June 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
The persecution of Lina Joy, continued
Malaysia supreme court upholds law forbidding citizens from converting out of Islam…
From columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin (dated May 30, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (AP/RE)
[Israel] Sabbath-Sunday Bill Survey Shows Support
[Member of the Israeli Knesset] Zevulun Orlev (NRP) has announced the findings of a poll showing 56% support amongst Israelis for his proposed legislation making Sunday a day of rest and allowing some public transportation and entertainment on the Sabbath. Orlev's bill would change the official approach to Sabbath as the country's day of rest… Orlev's bill, which he proposed last week, also calls for a second day of rest during the week - Sunday - during which businesses and offices would be closed…
From Arutz Sheva Israel National News (dated May 25, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (ME/RE)
American Christianity -- Laodicean church in the making, says Barna
More than 20 years of research, says The Barna Group, has revealed a disturbing trend among Americans' spiritual beliefs and behavior: their commitment to orthodox biblical perspectives is "slipping." The director of a recent Barna study says the findings reflect a "spiritual profile" among Americans similar to that of the early church at Laodicea -- a church which Jesus admonished for being "neither hot nor cold" and called to repentance…
From One News Now (dated May 23, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
Hundreds view 'sweating' statue
Hundreds of Hindus in Nepal are flocking to see a statue of a deity which is said to be "sweating". Devotees believe the apparent perspiration is a sign of impending turmoil or natural disaster…
From BBC News (dated May 21, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (AP/RE)
Ex-chief rabbi opposes new moves to visit Temple Mount
Former chief rabbi Abraham Shapira, responding to a visit to the Temple Mount this week by dozens of religious-Zionist rabbis, declared Wednesday that such visits remain forbidden for Jews… Perhaps the most significant ruling, though, came from Rabbi Yaakov Ariel - one of the leading halakhic figures in religious Zionist circles today and a candidate for the chief rabbinate. Ariel published his ruling Friday in Argaman, a journal for religious women, where he gave explicit permission to women to visit the Temple Mount if they immerse in a mikveh after completing their menstrual cycle. He also gave permission to brides to go on their wedding day, after immersion and before the marriage ceremony…
From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated May 16, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (ME/RE)
Merkel gives up on God in EU treaty
German chancellor and Christian Democrat Angela Merkel has voiced regret there will be no reference to Christian roots in the revised EU treaty, amid controversial remarks about damage to churches in Turkish Cyprus at a meeting of religious VIPs in Brussels…
From EUObserver.com (dated May 15, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (EU/RE)
Rabbis Call for Temple Mount Visits
Close to 30 leading religious-Zionist rabbis visited the Temple Mount "in purity" on Sunday, after taking the necessary Halakhic [Jewish legal] precautions. The precautions involve immersing in a mikveh (ritual bath), taking off one's shoes, and clarifying the precise areas forbidden for entry - or else going only with a guide who knows the area. The visit was unique in that it marks the first time such a large group of rabbis ascended together to the holy site… [Rabbis consider that] biblical law forbids one from entering the holy areas of the Temple Mount, and some feel that the precise boundaries of those areas are not known. However, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel of the Temple Institute has shown that the rock under the Dome of the Rock is in fact the Holy of Holies, and most scholars agree… Last week, a group of over 40 rabbis signed a declaration calling upon the religious public - those who know the laws and restrictions - to frequent the permitted sites on the Temple Mount… Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, however, issued an opposite call, saying that visits to the Temple Mount could lead to the grave sin of entering forbidden sacred locations…
From Arutz Sheva Israel National News (dated May 13, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (ME/RE)
Pakistan: New apostasy bill to impose death on anyone who leaves Islam
Pakistan’s government sends draft bill tabled by six-party Islamic alliance to standing committee for review…The Apostasy Act 2006 which the government sent to the committee would impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam. It would also force them to forfeit their property and lose legal custody of children…
From AsiaNews (dated May 9, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (AP/RE)
Israel is doomed (again)
By any rational analysis of all the factors in play, Israel is doomed. Which is why the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War in 1967 has come at a propitious time. If Israel's position is precarious now, it seemed hopeless in the days leading up to that war…
From Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial page editor Paul Greenberg at Jewish World Review (dated June 6, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Alleged plot: A potential threat seen in America's backyard
Officials think members of an extremist network in the Caribbean were part of the alleged plot… "That is what is most significant about this case. It demonstrates the evolving nature of the threat and how we need to be looking at areas of the world that have not been viewed by the general public as a terror threat," the official said. "It shows that the threat can come from anywhere. It is not just limited to the Middle East or South Asia"…
From the Los Angeles Times (dated June 3, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/LA/RE/WT)
300,000 Supporters of Suicide Attacks in America
Some of the results of the Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in America were startling: twenty-six percent of Muslims between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine affirmed that there could be justification in some (unspecified) circumstances for suicide bombing, and five percent of all the Muslims surveyed said that they had a favorable view of Al-Qaeda. Given the Pew Center’s estimate of 2.35 million Muslims in America, and the total of thirteen percent that avowed a belief that suicide bombings could ever be justified, that’s over 300,000 supporters of suicide attacks. And 117,500 supporters of Al-Qaeda…
From Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer at FrontPage magazine (dated May 30, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE/WT)
America must not ignore a dangerous percentage
26 percent looms large when it describes the number of American Muslims, ages 18-29, who support suicide bombings "in defense of Islam" — one of the sensational, if sensationally underreported, findings of a recent Pew poll. According to Pew, the total Muslim population in America is 2.35 million, 30 percent of whom are between 18 and 29. By my figuring, the suicide-bomb-approving cohort works out to 183,000 people…
From columnist Diana West at Jewish World Review (dated May 25, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE/WT)
Was Osama Right?
Islamists always believed the U.S. was weak. Recent political trends won't change their view…
From author Bernard Lewis in The Wall Street Journal (dated May 16, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/ME/RE/WT)
There is only one acceptable way to talk about homosexuality -- SILENCE!
Christians arrested merely for handing out pamphlets which call homosexuality a sin? Postal workers refusing to deliver mail they deem to be "homophobic?" A pastor forced to pay for police protection after gay activists threatened to picket a church event? What ever happened to free speech? More and more, in the U.S., Canada and Europe, homosexual activists and their straight sympathizers are trying to ensure that the only speech that's tolerated is the pro-gay kind…
From American Family Association Journal news editor Ed Vitagliano at One News Now (dated May 31, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
6 men charged in plot to attack Fort Dix
Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack Fort Dix and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers — a scheme the FBI says was foiled when the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad. The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base. Their goal was "to kill as many American soldiers as possible" with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said…
Associated Press story at Yahoo News (dated May 8, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (US/RE/WT)
King Herod's Tomb Unearthed Near Jerusalem, Expert Says
The tomb of King Herod the Great has been found on the sun-bleached slope of a desert mountain near Jerusalem, an Israeli archaeologist announced today. Hebrew University professor Ehud Netzer and colleagues say they solved one of Israel's great archaeological mysteries by unearthing the remains of Herod's grave, sarcophagus, and mausoleum at the Herodium complex…
From National Geographic News (dated May 8, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (ME/RE)
Houses Passes 'Hate Crimes' Bill, Religious Leaders Praise Veto Threat
The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill that would extend "hate crimes" protection to homosexuals and other specified groups, but religious leaders were already praising the White House for issuing a threat to veto the bill if it passes… The White House pointed out that "almost every state in the country can actively prosecute hate crimes under the state's own hate crimes law." It did not address concerns raised by religious leaders who fear that the law would have a chilling effect on their right to preach Biblical teachings, including opposition to homosexuality…
From Cybercast News Service (dated May 3, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
Top Hamas official: Kill all Americans
Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One"…
From The Jerusalem Post (dated May 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries
The Roman Catholic Church has effectively buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went. In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of salvation"…
Reuters story at Yahoo News (dated April 20, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (EU/RE)
Indonesia's Secular State under Siege
Indonesia is a nominally secular democracy. But the influence of conservative Islam is gaining in the world's biggest Muslim country. A further step away from tolerance may be just around the corner…
From Der Spiegel (Germany) (dated April 6, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (AP/RE/WT)
Court prevents groups from sacrificing live animals at Temple Mount
In their efforts to sacrifice a live animal at the Temple Mount, the New Sanhedrin Council adopted an almost underground modus operandi. Rabbis Adin Steinsaltz, Israel Ariel, Yishai Baved and their associates secretly located a butcher, found a Cohen hailing from a lineage 1,000 years old and worked out a plan to quickly erect an alter on the Temple Mount. They tried to revive the customs of the ancient Sanhedrin tribunal, which was the highest judicial body for the Jewish people in Israel some 1,600 years ago. They sought to slaughter a sacrificial animal across from the Western Wall. The activists, who belong to various religious circles such as the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, also petitioned the High Court of Justice for the right to perform the ritual. Their plans were thwarted on Sunday when the court rejected their request, ruling that "the rights of the petitioners to practice their faith are outweighed by other considerations such as public order and safety." Despite the ruling, the followers decided to hold a colorful procession on Sunday in Jerusalem, heading to the Western Wall along with two sheep. The Temple Mount Movement followers present were joined by partners from the Temple Institute, which has for years prepared the traditional holy tools and utensils for the Third Temple, according to Torah specifications. The spectacular display did not, however, persuade authorities to allow the participants to perform the practice…
From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated April 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (ME/RE)
First Temple wall found in City of David
A wall from the First Temple [period] was recently uncovered in Jerusalem's City of David, strengthening the claim that it is the site of the palace of King David, an Israeli archeologist said Thursday…
From The Jerusalem Post (dated March 29, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (ME/RE)
Europe’s best hope
Everyone in France and Europe realizes, however, that the economy had nothing to do with Sunday's historic verdict. Mr. Sarkozy won because of his tough rhetoric against the Islamist "thugs" (his word) who aim to rule the country, where over 10 percent of the population already adheres to the Muslim faith…
From Brussels Journal editor Paul Belien in The Washington Times (dated May 9, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (EU/RE)
Al-Qaida Sleeper Cells Await
Day in and day out, there are new revelations about terrorist sleeper cells in the United Kingdom and other European countries…The law of averages would indicate the near-certainty of terrorist sleeper cells in the United States…
By United Press International and Washington Times editor Arnaud de Borchgrave (dated May 3, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (US/BR/EU/RE/WT)
Towards a Totalitarian Europe
Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovksy has warned that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. When people who have worked on higher levels in the EU system note similarities as well, it is time people start taking this idea seriously. In 2002 Louis Michel, the then Belgian minister of foreign affairs and today a member of the European Commission, told the Belgian parliament that the EU will eventually encompass North Africa and the Middle East as well as Europe…The Constitution will move even more power into the hands of the already powerful and unaccountable elites. The EUrocrats are basically saying that since somebody may conceivably threaten our democratic system at some point in the future, we might as well dismantle it now, in an orderly fashion. Moreover, whereas constitutions have traditionally outlined the basic workings of the state, the proposed European Constitution, running into hundreds of pages, betrays an almost sharia-like desire to regulate all aspects of life. It is an instrument of control, a blueprint for an authoritarian state. Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state, but such societies can also be transnational, as was the Soviet Union, which the EU resembles more than just superficially: An artificial superstate run by an authoritarian bureaucracy that overrides the will of the people and imposes its ideology on the populace. Are we back in the E.U.S.S.R? Although the EU, due to its transnational nature, most closely resembles the Soviet Union, there are also similarities with Nazi Germany. The EU was created by perfecting the Big Lie technique that was championed by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels: Serve people massive lies, so big that they cannot believe that anybody would lie about it, and they will believe them, at least for a while. It should also be mentioned that Adolf Hitler stated his admiration for the warlike nature of Islam. The admiration was mutual. Muhammad Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem, was an Arab nationalist and passionate anti-Semite who cooperated closely with Nazi Germany during World War II. Later, leadership of Palestinian Arabs was transferred to Husayni’s nephew Yasser Arafat, a very dear friend of the EU, who in 2002 gave an interview in which he referred to "our hero al-Husayni." If the EU is supposed to protect us from the horrors of Nazi Germany, it is remarkable how many of its traits it is copying, such as flirting with Arab strongmen and admiration for Islam. The Muslim immigration the EU is promoting to Europe has triggered the largest wave of anti-Semitism since the rise of, well, Nazi Germany, and may yet force the remaining Jews to leave. That Europeans should support this organization to prevent a new totalitarian regime is a sick joke. The EU is a lot closer to totalitarian states than the supposedly evil nation states it is going to replace. Since there is no European demos, no pre-political loyalty or shared public community, and since legislate power has been transferred to the unelected EU Commission, there is no way the EU can function as a democracy in any meaningful sense of the term. The EU can only become one giant Yugoslavia, either ruled by an authoritarian oligarchy in the fashion of Tito, or fall apart into civil wars. The slow, but steady stifling of free speech through legislation and Muslim Jihad violence indicates an ominous trend: Europe is moving in a totalitarian direction…
From blogger Fjordman at The Brussels Journal (dated April 30, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (EU/ME/RE/WT)
Failure to See Jihad for What It Is
Someday, when the war in Iraq has become a historical episode, we will tally up the lessons learned--if, that is, we ever learn any. Here are two worth mastering because failing to do so probably means we will no longer exist. Lesson 1. Nation-building in a war zone is nuts. Nation-building in an Islamic war zone is suicide…I hate to be the one to break it to Gen. Petraeus, not to mention President Bush, but the fact is, in an Islamic war zone, an "infidel" army just isn't going to win Islamic allegiance. There are many religious and cultural reasons I could offer in explanation, but instead I'll turn to the underreported story of the week: two findings contained within an extensive new poll of Muslim opinion conducted in four major Islamic countries, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco and Pakistan. Accordingto WorldPublicOpinion.org, more than half of those polled in Indonesia, and three-quarters of those polled in Egypt, Morocco and Pakistan believe in the strict application of Shariah, or Islamic law. Nearly two-thirds of all respondents expressed their desire to see the Islamic world united in a caliphate. Which brings me to: Lesson 2. With numbers like these, portraying jihadist war goals (Shariah, caliphate) as belonging to a "tiny band of extremists" is nuts. Persisting in this PC fantasy as part of the narrative and strategy of the "war on terror" is suicidal. But such PC fantasy fuels hearts-and-minds efforts that go beyond "allegiance"-winning outposts in Iraq as the United States now weirdly cheers on world Islamization to curry Islamic favor…
By columnist Diana West in The Washington Times (dated April 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (ME/AP/RE/WT)
The Long Road to Victory
The US's difficulties with confronting Iran have little to do with the decision to invade Iraq. Rather, America's feckless diplomacy toward Iran to date is the result of the administration's early misunderstanding of Iraq and of Iranian and Arab interests. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration identified certain basic guiding realities and missed others. First there was the issue of Arab tyranny…Yet recognizing this basic reality did not lead the administration to adopt appropriate policies…By pushing fast elections, the US entrapped itself. It inadvertently empowered its enemies and so was unable to embrace the duly elected governments. In opposing the forces it expended so much energy getting elected, the US was perceived as weak, foolish and hypocritical…As for the Arab world, the administration believes that since the Arabs oppose Iran's quest to become a regional nuclear power, they will help the US both in stabilizing Iraq and in preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Here too, the administration confuses common interests with common agendas. The fact that the Arabs share common interests with the US does not make them allies. As a young Saudi imam put it this week to The Wall Street Journal, "We are waiting for the time to attack [the US]. Youth feel happy when the Taliban takes a town or when a helicopter comes down, killing Americans in Iraq. It is a very dangerous situation for the US in the whole Muslim world"…
From Jerusalem Post deputy managing editor Caroline Glick at Real Clear Politics (dated April 14, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (US/ME/RE/WT)
Bin Laden's Eurofighters
242 jihadists, 31 attacks, 28 networks. After examining militant Islamism in Europe, researchers have found that self-recruitment is on the rise among terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's Eurofighters, and that there is no such thing as a standard terrorist…
From Der Spiegel (Germany) (dated April 11, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (EU/RE/WT)
President Bush Commemorates National Day of Prayer
Since the days of our founding, our nation has been called to prayer. That's exactly what our first President did, George Washington. "It's the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his protection and favor." It's interesting that the first President said those words. For two centuries, Americans have answered this call to prayer. We're a prayerful nation. I believe that makes us a strong nation. Each day, millions of our citizens approach our Maker. We pray as congregations in churches and in synagogues, and mosques, and in temples. We welcome people of all faiths into the United States of America. We pray as families, around the dinner table, and before we go to sleep. We pray alone in silence and solitude, withdrawing from the world to focus on the eternal, spending time in personal recollection with our Creator. We pray for many reasons. First, we pray to give thanks for the blessings the Almighty has bestowed upon us. We pray to give thanks. We give thanks for our freedom. We give thanks for the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend it. We give thanks for our families who love and support us. We give thanks for our plenty. We give thanks for our nation. Second, we pray for the strength to follow God's will in our lives, and for forgiveness when we fail to do so. Through prayer, each of us is reminded that we are fallen creatures in need of mercy, and in seeking the mercy and compassion of a loving God, we grow in mercy and compassion ourselves. We feel the tug at our souls to reach out to the poor, the elderly, the stranger in distress. And by answering this call to care for our brothers and sisters in need, our hearts grow larger and we enter into a deeper relationship with God. Third, we pray to acknowledge God's sovereignty in our lives and our complete dependence on Him. This is probably the toughest prayer of all, particularly for those of us in politics. In the humility of prayer we recognize the limits of human strength and human wisdom. We seek the strength and wisdom that comes from above. We ask for the grace to align our hearts with His, echoing the words of Scripture, "Not my will, but thine be done." We ask the Almighty to remain near to us and guide us in all we do, and when He is near we are ready for all that may come to us. Finally, we pray to offer petitions, because our Father in heaven knows our cares and our needs. We trust in the promise of a loving God: Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find. Inspired by this confidence we pray that the Almighty will pour out His blessings on those we love. We ask His healing for those who suffer from illness, for those who struggle in life. We ask His comfort for the victims of tragedy, and that the injured may be healed and the fallen may find comfort in the arms of their Creator. We implore His protection for those who protect us here at home and in far away lands. We pray for the day when His peace will reign in every nation and in every land until the ends of the earth. The greatest gift we can offer anyone is the gift of our prayers, because our prayers have power beyond our imagining. The English poet Tennyson wrote, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Prayer has the power to change lives and to change the course of history. So on this National Day of Prayer, let us seek the Almighty with confidence and trust, because our Eternal Father inclines his ear to the voice of his children, and answers our needs with love...
Text of U.S. President George Bush’s speech (dated May 3, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
The Trouble With Islam
Sadly, mainstream Muslim teaching accepts and promotes violence…
From former Islamist terror group member and Muslim reformer Dr. Tawfik Hamid (dated April 3, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends May 9, 2007 (RE/WT)
Germany recalling its Christian roots
German Chancellor Merkel, currently also serving as president of the European Union, said that Europe should recognize in some way its Judeo-Christian heritage even if in a document separate from its Constitution…
Catholic News Agency story at Spero News (dated March 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (EU/RE)
Papal Address on 50th Anniversary of Treaty of Rome
These [Catholic Christian] values, which make up the soul of the continent, must remain in the Europe of the third millennium as "ferment" for civilization. If in fact these values should disappear, how could the "old" continent continue to function as "leaven" for the entire world? If, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the governments of the Union wish to "be nearer" to their citizens, how can they exclude an element essential to European identity such as Christianity, when a vast majority continues to identify with it? Is it not surprising that today's Europe, while hoping to be seen as a community of values, more and more seems to contest that universal and absolute values exist? Does not this unique form of "apostasy" from itself, before even from God, lead to doubts about its identity?...
From Pope Benedict XVI at ZENIT News Agency (Vatican) (dated March 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (EU/RE)
EU weakens own identity by ignoring Christianity, warns Pope
Pope Benedict XVI has criticised EU leaders for ignoring Christianity in their reflections over the union's 50th birthday and warned about demographic trends that put Europe's future at risk…
From EUObserver (dated March 26, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (EU/RE)
Jews Revive the Sanhedrin with Plans for a Passover Sacrifice
In a donated apartment concealed among the narrow streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Nahlaot, 13 Orthodox Jewish men meet every Tuesday to debate matters of Jewish law. They are the management team of a larger developing Sanhedrin, or religious court, in Israel. And they plan to sacrifice sheep on the Temple Mount on the day before or one month after Passover, which starts at sundown April 2. Either date is permissible under Jewish law. "If the government will not resist," said Rabbi Dov Stein, 68, a member of the group, "we will do it"…The Passover sacrifice is the latest of more than 40 legal decisions issued by the modern Sanhedrin…Some Orthodox Jews see the Passover sacrifice on Jerusalem's Temple Mount -- one of the most disputed pieces of real estate on the planet -- as key to quickening redemption. The Sanhedrin bought a herd of 12 sheep -- 110-150 pounds each -- from a farm in southern Israel. Anyone wanting to eat of the sacrifice can pay seven shekels ($1.67) for an 8-10 gram slice, the minimum required by Jewish law, Stein said. The group is hoping to collect 30,000 signatures through its Web site to prove its influence to the Israeli authorities, and gain access to the Temple Mount area…
Religion News Service story at Beliefnet.com (dated March 22, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (ME/RE)
New Delhi: Jesus Portrait 'Bleeds' in Andaman
Christians are gathering in huge swarms at the Bishop's House of Churches in Andaman, where a portrait of Christ is reported to have bled from its heart…Many people, including some journalists, also witnessed the incident. ''Call it a miracle or a mystery, it appeared to be true. There was something unusual as there was no chance that a laminated cardboard portrait could bleed,'' said Denis Giles, Editor of a local Andaman daily and Andaman Chronicle, who first reported the incident. Finally, priests of Anglican Church of Northern India took the portrait to CNI church and the portrait was kept there for public viewing. ''The portrait bled even after it was taken to the Bishop's house,'' Denis said…
From DaijiWorld (dated March 21, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (AP/RE)
Virgin Mary in Bavaria Starts to Cry
The believers could hardly believe their eyes. The Madonna statue in a hostel for pilgrims in the Bavarian village of Heroldsbach suddenly started crying recently. But is it real? The local priest wants to have the tears sent to a lab for an authenticity test…Dozens of witnesses were on hand for the miracle…
From Der Spiegel Online (dated March 16, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (EU/RE)
Americans get an 'F' in religion
Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married. Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world religions — their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir — is dangerous, he says…
From USA Today (dated March 8, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (US/RE)
'Renew animal sacrifices on Mount' says radical rabbi
Member of Sanhedrin says sacrifices 'were not possible when the people of Israel were in the Diaspora, but now they are.' Adds: Jerusalem Temple should be rebuilt, Israeli government standing in our way…
From Ynet News (dated March 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (ME/RE)
Why Pakistan, not Iran, is the most pressing nuclear threat
The most pressing nuclear threat is widely perceived to be from Iran while the more imminent terrorist threat is believed to be found in Pakistan. While both threats remain very real, few seem to understand that the most imminent nuclear threat is posed by Pakistan--the only current nuclear power considerably within reach of becoming an Islamist-run state aligned with al Qaeda, the Taliban, or other Islamists…
From Center for Threat Awareness co-founder Steve Schippert in The Weekly Standard (dated March 15, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (AP/RE/WT)
Europe’s Stark Options
As the American columnist Dennis Prager sums them up, "It is difficult to imagine any other future scenario for Western Europe than its becoming Islamicized or having a civil war." Indeed, these two deeply unattractive alternative paths appear to define Europe's choices, with powerful forces pulling in the contrary directions of Muslims taking over or Muslims rejected, Europe an extension of North Africa or in a state of quasi-civil war…
From Mideast expert Daniel Pipes for National Interest (dated March-April 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (EU/ME/RE/WT)
From Cold Peace to Cold War?: The Significance of Egypt’s Military Buildup
Since the 1978 Camp David Accords, the Egyptian government has undertaken extraordinary efforts to modernize its military with Western arms and weapon systems. By bolstering its armored corps, air force, and naval fleet with an array of U.S. military platforms, the Egyptian armed forces have emerged as one the region's most formidable forces. But as the post-Husni Mubarak era looms, questions abound. Who, precisely, is Egypt arming against, and why? Has Egypt attained operational parity with Israel? How will the military be affected by a succession crisis? Could Cairo's weapons arsenal fall into the hands of Islamists?...As the Egyptian armed forces continue to upgrade the quantity and quality of their military platforms to unparalleled heights--levels rivaling those of Israel--they have positioned themselves to be a major player on the Middle Eastern block. The path charted by Egypt during the coming years, though, will go a long way toward determining the significance of its meteoric rise from an archaic, Soviet-styled military to a Western-armed, twenty-first century juggernaut…
From American Enterprise Institute research assistant Jeffrey Azarva in The Middle East Review of International Affairs (dated March 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Let the Evidence Speak
In a recent Archaeological Views column [in Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR)], Michael Coogan counseled readers to question authority. He said we should “beware of an argument based on ‘authority.’” While I heartily agree with Coogan, I believe there are other examples of unscientific methodology being practiced in the fields of Palestinian archaeology and Biblical studies that are just as insidious. As one schooled in the scientific method, it disturbs me that, in addition to the say-so of esteemed authority figures, many times opinions are driven by preconceived notions, received knowledge (e.g., my professor told me such-and-such in graduate school), arguments from silence (thus-and-so has not been found to support a biblical statement—i.e., the Bible is guilty until proven innocent) or majority opinion. In an objective, scientific inquiry, conclusions must be based on evidence, and evidence alone. Take the matter of the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible. Most scholars are of the opinion that biblical history prior to the monarchy is myth and fable. This attitude is reflected in Views columns. Hendel stated, “Archaeological research has…secured the non-historicity of much of the Bible before the era of the kings.” Dever remarked, “there was no military conquest of Canaan.” Coogan expressed a similar view with regard to the conquest of Jericho, which I shall comment on below. How can we check the veracity of this supposition? If we are honest researchers using sound methodological principles, we need to examine the evidence, much of it documented in the pages of BAR, to see if it agrees or disagrees with the proposed hypothesis. Due to space limitations, we can consider but a few examples pertaining to Joshua and Judges, proceeding from the end of the Judges period backward in time…
Biblical Archaeology Review article from archaeologist Dr. Bryant Wood, reposted at Associates for Biblical Research (dated March 28, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (ME/RE)
The So-Called Jesus Family Tomb “Rediscovered” in Jerusalem
[There is a] new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, entitled The Jesus Family Tomb…[accompanied by a] documentary…on the Discovery Channel called "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"…I said in the title of this article, the "rediscovery" of the so-called tomb of Jesus' family because in 1996, the BBC ran an Easter special called "Heart of the Matter: The Body In Question" on the resurrection of Jesus. In this documentary they claimed that the ossuaries of Joseph, Mary and Jesus were found in 1980 and were sitting in the basement of the Department of Antiquities in Jerusalem…Jacobovici acknowledges this BBC broadcast in their [new] book…Now he claims to have more information that was not available in 1996 to prove his case, and has a different interpretation of some of the ossuaries. In the Forward to the [new] book, James Cameron describes the research as being done with "systematic rigor"…and called it "brilliant scholarly research" with conclusions that were "virtually irrefutable," "compelling," and "extremely convincing"…Is this the case, or is Cameron overstating his case?...
From Gordon Franz at Associates for Biblical Research (dated March 17, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (ME/RE)
'Jesus Tomb' Filmmakers Should Be Ashamed, Archeologist Says
The makers of a new documentary detailing the supposed discovery of Jesus' tomb should be ashamed of the inconsistencies and unscientific evidence they are reporting in the film, said the archeologist who oversaw the initial dig…
From Cybercast News Service (dated March 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE)
Present-day Sanhedrin court seeks to revive ancient Temple rituals
The present-day Sanhedrin Court decided Tuesday to purchase a herd of sheep for ritual sacrifice at the site of the Temple on the eve of Passover, conditions on the Temple Mount permitting…
From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated February 28, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE)
Secret plan to reunite Catholics, Anglicans under Pope
Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, according to a statement leaked to the media today. The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches…
London Times story in The Australian (dated February 19, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (EU/BR/RE)
Tiny Minority of Extremists Update
"84,000 Canadian Muslims think it's justifiable to behead our democratically elected prime minister and blow up the very symbol and centre of our democracy!"…
From Jihad Watch (dated February 19, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (BR/RE/WT)
Diss a 'gay'? Go to jail!
Two Christians in Australia have been indicted for criticizing Islam, and another for criticizing Zionism. A filmmaker has been threatened with arrest for using the word "homosexual" rather than "gay." Now a German priest faces jail time for publicly criticizing abortionists, and in Holland, "fornicators" and "adulterers" are protected classes and cannot be criticized. All courtesy of the concept of federal "hate crimes" legislation, which unless defeated soon could be mandatory in the United States, warns a rising chorus of critics…
From WorldNetDaily (dated February 15, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (BR/EU/US/RE/MO)
Arab League blasts Temple Mount dig for 'altering features' of Jerusalem
The Arab League chief on Saturday accused Israel of attempting to alter the features of Jerusalem with its ongoing construction and excavation work near the Mugrabi Gate to the Temple Mount, and urged the international community to intercede to stop the work…Moussa said, without elaborating, that the dig reflects Israeli attempts to tighten control over Jerusalem…In Jordan, Islamists called for holy war, or jihad, to save the mosque and vowed revolt against their Arab rulers if they do not protect the Jerusalem flashpoint site from Israeli actions…
From Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated February 11, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Canada's Jihadist Fifth Column
The fact that some 84,000 Muslims living in a western democratic country sympathize with the aims of these 18 would-be jihadists should not come as a surprise. Their number corresponds to the ten to 15 percent of the one billion Muslims worldwide who, experts say, support jihad. So even if one accepts the lower ten percent figure, that makes one hundred million people -- more than the membership of the Communist and Nazi parties combined -- who wish violent death upon the infidel. Not an insignificant number, to say the least…
From FrontPage Magazine columnist Stephen Brown (dated March 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (BR/GI/RE/WT)
Purim Replay
If you stop to consider, it might occur to you that there is something surreal about Purim this year [sunset Saturday, March 3, to sunset Sunday, March 4—anniversary of the celebration in the book of Esther]. It is almost as if we are witnessing "replay". Haman is once again in our midst, but this time he is called Ahmadinejad - same country, same place, same agenda. Today's Iran is Persia of yore, and even as the malevolent Haman schemed Holocaust - the "final solution", so too, his 21st century heir is orchestrating a plan to wipe Israel off the map. And even as the Jews in Shushan were divided, caught napping and assimilating into their secular culture, so today, our people are fragmented, sleeping, and succumbing to the enticements of society. To be sure, there is one huge difference between Shushan of old and the events of today - Esther and Mordechai are missing. There is no one to summon our people, to awaken them from their slumber and charge them with their Divine calling. There is no one to proclaim those two magic words, "Keemu V'Keeblu" - "Let us re-accept and re-commit to our Torah" - two magic words that resulted in a. nechapochu - "a miraculous turn-around", converting darkness into light, doom into blessing, culminating in the joyous festival of Purim. But worse still, today we find ourselves in an untenable situation. Not only do we have to deal with the Ahmadinejads of this generation - Hamas, Fatah, and all the other anti-Semites who are proliferating on every continent, but we have to deal with a scourge that is by far more menacing - those of our people who have become Jewish self-haters. And that is an evil that we cannot easily overcome, for the decay from within is by far more deadly than any onslaught from without. Our own people, members of the liberal left, have taken up the cause of those who would wipe us off the map…
From Esther Jungreis at the Jewish Advocate (dated February 28, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Tales from the Crypt, do we have the bones of Jesus
The last week in February started out with an incredible announcement. James Cameron (director of the film “Titanic”) and Simcha Jacobovici announced that they have found the bones of Jesus! At their news conference, they promoted their Discovery Channel special “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” that will air on March 4th and also promoted [a book on the subject]… The foundational claim is that they have discovered the family tomb of Jesus Christ. But is this really the tomb of Jesus or his family? There are many good reasons to believe this tomb has no relationship at all to Jesus and his family. Many are asking what to think about these claims. Therefore, I put together a quick two-page summary of some of the criticisms and concerns that surfaced in the first few hours after the announcement. Before we look at those criticisms, let’s first review the history of this tomb…
From theology professor and radio host Kerby Anderson at One News Now (dated February 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE)
The Battle on the Temple Mount
A furor erupted in Jerusalem last week. It concerns the construction of a new walkway to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, intended to replace an earlier bridge that had collapsed. The only one that permits entry to the Mount for non-Muslims, via the Mughrabi Gate, the bridge is located near the Western Wall, and completely within Israeli jurisdiction…Islamic critics claimed that this work being done outside of the walls of the Temple Mount was an imminent threat to the al-Aksa Mosque on the Mount. Although the charge was baseless, Muslim organizations called for massive protests and there were also threats of violence…On this issue, as so many others in the past, Israelis and Arabs are on different pages. Yet we Israelis, largely blind to their perspective, continue to expect Arabs to function according to our terms, which are intended to be reasonable and conciliatory…But what is apparent now is that the head of the Islamic Movement, Kamal Khattib, has already declared that what the mayor proposes [i.e., a slowdown] is insufficient, and that only a complete cessation of the project will do. Clearly, he doesn't really care what the plans say. He will oppose them regardless of the facts…Almost certainly, it has nothing to do with stopping the construction of a walkway. The outrage over the walkway is only the latest front in the ongoing war against Israel. For Palestinian Arabs, nothing will truly suffice except total Israeli surrender…
From Jerusalem investigative writer Arlene Kushner at FrontPage Magazine (dated February 22, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
The myth of Al Aqsa mosque
Presently, the Mullahs are calling for another "intifada" claiming that the Jews are undermining the Al Aksa Mosque and the place where their myths believe Mohammed launched himself into the Seventh Heaven. Where did this story come from? Does it meet any known time-line?...
From Middle East analyst Emanuel Winston at Israel Insider (dated February 13, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (ME/RE)
Study: Anti-Semitic attacks hit record level in Britain in 2006
Anti-Semitic attacks reached record levels in Britain last year and peaked during the conflict in Lebanon, a study showed Thursday. Race hate incidents - ranging from death threats to physical assault - rose by more than 30 percent to almost 600. "These are the worst figures we have had in the 23 years since we have been monitoring it," said Mark Gardner of the Community Security Trust …British Jewish leaders say attacks have risen steadily since 2000, with British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks warning that "a tsunami of anti-Semitism" was sweeping across Europe…
Reuters story in Haaretz (Tel Aviv) (dated February (dated January 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (BR/EU/RE)
40% of young UK Muslims want sharia law: Over a third say conversion from Islam should be 'punished by death'
[A recent survey] found evidence that young Muslims held more fundamentalist beliefs on key social and political issues than those over age 55. Forty percent of Muslims between aged 16 to 24 said they would prefer to live under sharia law in the UK, compared to only 17 percent of those over 55. Thirty-six percent of the younger group said a Muslim who converted to another religion should be "punished by death," while only 19 percent of the older group agreed. Thirteen percent of young Muslims surveyed said they "admired" organizations such as al-Qaida and others who were prepared to "fight the West"…
From WorldNetDaily (dated January 31, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (BR/RE/ME)
Report shows anti-Semitism on the rise
Press conference by Jewish Agency reveals startling rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the world in 2006, including two murders. Austria sees 66 percent rise in incidents, Germany sees 60 percent rise, Russian incidents up by 20 percent…
From Ynet News (dated January (dated January 28, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (EU/RE/WT)
Iran prepares people for 'messiah miracles': Government broadcasts series on imminent appearance of apocalyptic Islamic 'Mahdi'
Official Iranian radio has completed broadcasting a lengthy series on the imminent appearance of a messianic figure who will defeat Islam's enemies and impose Islamic Shiite rule over the entire world – even speculating on specific dates the so-called "Mahdi" will be revealed. English-language transcripts of "The World Toward Illumination" programs can be found on the website of IRIB, a public broadcast arm of Tehran…
From WorldNetDaily (dated January 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
'Never on Sunday,' Scientologists told: Group considered business, not a church, in Germany – sales banned on worship day
A controversial new Scientology center that opened two weeks ago in one of Berlin's upscale neighborhoods won't be open on Sundays like Christian churches in the German capital – the government considers the group a business rather than a church and, as such, it falls under the country's rigid Sunday closing laws…
From WorldNetDaily (dated January 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (EU/RE)
Waiting for the Mahdi: Official Iranian Eschatology Outlined in Public Broadcasting Program in Iran
The website of the governmental Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has posted a lengthy document titled "The World toward Illumination." The document is a transcript of an IRIB series on the imminent arrival of the Mahdi, the Twelfth or Hidden Imam, awaited by Shi'ites as the Messiah. The program describes in glowing terms the messianic age to be inaugurated by the Mahdi. He is to begin his uprising in Mecca, and then march on Iraq, where he will establish his "seat of world government" in the city of Kufa and subjugate the current world powers. This will be an age of unparalleled happiness; there will be completely new technologies at mankind's disposal, and "corruption, war, and rebellion will no longer exist." Neither will "liberal democratic civilization"…
From The Middle East Media Research Institute (dated January 25, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Burma 'orders Christians to be wiped out'
The military regime in Burma is intent on wiping out Christianity in the country, according to claims in a secret document believed to have been leaked from a government ministry…The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness." Its discovery follows widespread reports of religious persecution, with churches burnt to the ground, Christians forced to convert to the state religion, Buddhism, and their children barred from school…
From The Telegraph (London) (dated January 21, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (AP/RE/WT)
Zeus devotees worship in Athens
Worshippers who believe in the 12 gods of ancient Greece have held a ceremony at the Temple of Zeus in Athens. This is a landmark event to celebrate official recognition of their religion by a court last year…
From BBC News (dated January 21, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (EU/RE)
Sleeper Cells in the United States and Canada
There is every reason to suspect that we will endure suicide missions by Islamist sleeper cells. They are already in place. They are waiting for the right time. I know this from experience. I have worked over 15 years as a U.S. Federal Agent, a U.S. State Department Arabic linguist, and the first civilian Federal Agent deployed into Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Since returning from Iraq I have been involved in terrorism analysis, specifically the mindset of terrorists. During my extensive research on sleeper cells I have talked with hundreds of people from the Middle East from all walks of life, and have talked with Iraqi Government officials, Iraqi military, and Iraqi police officers. In addition I have interviewed numerous counter-terrorism specialists in the U.S. and abroad. In the last year alone I have trained over 4000 U.S. Law Enforcement officers in Basic Investigative Arabic and counter-terrorism. The conclusion of my research is the title of this article…
From Dave Gaubatz at American Thinker (dated February 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (US/BR/RE/WT)
Israel’s Worst Nightmare: Israel cannot live with a nuclear Iran
A nuclear Iran could completely remake the region (not to mention imperil the Jewish state) merely by existing…And these terrifying scenarios exclude the most terrifying scenario of all: Iran uses its bomb. In a poll, 66 percent of Israelis said they believed Iran would drop a nuclear weapon on the Jewish state. Though defense experts are divided over the likelihood of an Iranian nuclear attack, every strategist we spoke with for this article considered the scenario plausible. "No one knows if Iran would use the bomb or not," says [current Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim] Sneh. "But I can't take the chance." The threat of a theologically motivated nuclear assault against Israel tends to be downplayed in the West; not so here…
From Jerusalem Shalem Center senior fellows Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael Oren in The New Republic, reposted at Aish.com (dated January 28, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
This Holocaust will be different
The Nazis, of course, industrialized mass murder. But still, the perpetrators had one-on-one contact with the victims…The second holocaust will be quite different. One bright morning, in five or 10 years, perhaps during a regional crisis, perhaps out of the blue, a day or a year or five years after Iran's acquisition of the Bomb, the mullahs in Qom will…give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…the go-ahead. The orders will go out and the Shihab III and IV missiles will take off for Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, and probably some military sites, including Israel's half dozen air and (reported) nuclear missile bases. Some of the Shihabs will be nuclear-tipped, perhaps even with multiple warheads. Others will be dupes, packed merely with biological or chemical agents, or old newspapers, to draw off or confuse Israel's anti-missile batteries and Home Front Command units. With a country the size and shape of Israel (an elongated 20,000 square kilometers), probably four or five hits will suffice: No more Israel…No Iranian will see or touch an Israeli. It will be quite impersonal. Some of the dead will inevitably be Arab…It is doubtful whether such a mass killing of fellow Muslims will trouble Ahmadinejad and the mullahs. The Iranians don't especially like Arabs, especially Sunni Arabs, with whom they have intermittently warred for centuries. And they have a special contempt for the (Sunni) Palestinians who, after all, though initially outnumbering the Jews by more than 10 to 1, failed during the long conflict to prevent them from establishing their state or taking over all of Palestine. Besides, the Iranian leadership sees the destruction of Israel as a supreme divine command, as a herald of the second coming, and the Muslims dispatched collaterally as so many martyrs in the noble cause…A question may nevertheless arise in the Iranian councils: What about Jerusalem? After all, the city contains Islam's third holiest shrines (after Mecca and Medina), Al Aksa Mosque and the Mosque of Omar. But Ali Khamenei, the supreme spiritual leader, and Ahmadinejad most likely would reply much as they would to the wider question regarding the destruction and radioactive pollution of Palestine as a whole: The city, like the land, by God's grace, in 20 or 50 years' time, will recover. And it will be restored to Islam (and the Arabs). And the deeper pollution will have been eradicated…
From Ben-Gurion University history professor Benny Morris in The Jerusalem Post (dated January 18, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Boys of the Taliban
Just recently, the Taliban issued a new set of 30 rules to its fighters. Many of the instructions were to be expected…But there is a curious rule that the Western media has typically ignored. Rule No. 19 instructs that Taliban fighters must not take young boys without facial hair into their private quarters…Rule No. 19 obviously indicates that the sexual abuse of young boys is a prevalent and institutionalized phenomenon among the Taliban and that, for one reason or another, its widespread practice has become a problem….That a mass pathology such as this occurs in a culture which demonizes the female and her sexuality -- and puts her out of mind and sight -- is only to be expected. To be sure, it is a simple given that the religious male fanatic who flies into a violent rage even at the thought of an exposed woman’s ankle will also be, in some other dysfunctional and dark secret compartment of his fractured life, the person who leads some poor helpless young boy into his private chambers. The key issue here is that the demented sickness that underlies Rule No. 19 is by no means exclusive to the Taliban; it is a widespread phenomenon throughout Islamic-Arab culture and it lies, among other factors, at the root of that culture’s addiction to rage and its lust for violence, terror and suicide…In the dysfunctional and morbid paradigms of this culture, the idea of love is, obviously, completely absent from men's understanding of sexuality. Like the essence of Arab masculinity, it is reduced to a form of prison sex: hurting others with violence. A gigantic rupture inevitably develops between men and women, where no harmony, affection or equality is allowed to exist. The sexual confusion, humiliation, and repression that develop in the mindset of many males in this culture are excruciating. And it is no surprise that many of them find the only avenue for personal gratification in the act of sexually abusing young boys and, of course, in humiliating the foreign "enemy," whose masculinity must be violated at all costs -- just as theirs once was…
From Frontpage Magazine managing editor Jamie Glazov (dated January 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (ME/RE/WT/MO)
Sabbath Wins in Cohen v. Seinfeld Ruling
American Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld was ordered by the [New York State Supreme Court] to pay a Sabbath-observant realtor her fee, which he withheld due to her not having answered her phone on Saturday…a ruling that is seen as a positive defense of religious worship for Sabbath observers…
From Arutz Sheva Israel National News (dated January 17, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (US/RE)
Religious Persecution Growing Worldwide, Group Says
At a time when religious persecution prompts growing international concern, Christian advocates in the U.S. marked Religious Freedom Day Tuesday by drawing attention to those who do not have the freedoms enjoyed by Americans. However, some voiced concern that a bill currently before Congress may dilute religious freedom at home too, by threatening free speech under the guise of outlawing "hate crimes"…
From Cybercast News Service (dated January 17, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (GI/RE)
New parliament chair drops call for God in EU constitution
The new president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering has promised to act as a "fair and objective" president of the whole assembly, indicating that despite his personal convictions, he would no longer press for a reference to God in any revised EU constitution…
From EUObserver.com (dated January 16, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (EU/RE)
Plans for Western 'Mega-Mosque' Rouse Concerns
London is set to become home to the largest mosque outside the Middle East, as controversial plans continue to move forward for a huge development in East London. Already England’s capital city contains more mosques than any other in the Western world, and plans have been continuously rumored for an enormous modern Muslim complex which would create an Islamic village in London’s East End. At the proposed site, a simple and small mosque currently stands, which is set to make way for a 17-acre center for up to 70,000 Muslim worshippers…Although the mosque would dwarf many of England’s Christian cathedrals, it is not the size of the proposals that is the main concern, but rather the group behind the proposed establishment…The group behind the development is called Tablighi Jamaat. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Tablighi Jamaat has ties to al-Qaeda. In addition, the shoe bomber Richard Reid was associated with Tablighi Jamaat, as were two of the 7/7 bombers who struck London's public transport system in 2005…
From The Christian Post (dated January 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (BR/RE/WT)
France 'no longer a Catholic country'
Barely half the French population describe themselves as Catholic, according to a poll released yesterday, sparking a leading religious publication to declare France "no longer a Catholic country". A poll published in Le Monde des Religions yesterday showed the number of self-declared French Catholics had dropped from 80 per cent in the early 1990s and 67 per cent in 2000 and to 51 per cent today. The number of atheists has risen sharply to 31 per cent from 23 per cent in 1994…
From The Telegraph (London) (dated January 10, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (EU/RE)
Ahmadinejad's nukes for U.S, not for Israel
There is hardly enough American political will to sustain the fight in Iraq, let alone political capital for a pre-emptive strike against Iran. Instead, it appears the free world's one remaining hope of neutralizing Iran's nuclear arsenal by force is Israel – the nation that launched a pre-emptive strike against Saddam Hussein's nuclear bomb factory in 1981. It's a matter of survival for Israel, we're told. After all, everyone is familiar with the bellicose mutterings of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. Right? Maybe. Perhaps. Could be. Iran might indeed strike Israel with nuclear weapons if it ever had the chance. But, I think it's more likely Iran's determination to develop nuclear weapons is based on its desire to destroy "the Great Satan," not "the Little Satan." There are several reasons to make this judgment…
From WorldNetDaily editor and CEO Joseph Farah (dated January 18, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (US/ME/RE/WT)
The Truth About Londinistan
Should the warnings in these books be dismissed as right-wing hysteria, or is the danger in Europe so great as to warrant the charged language? Put another way, is "Londonistan" just a catchy title for a book, or is the Islamification of Britain already well under way? The facts paint the truest—and most alarming—picture…
From Aaron Hanscom at FrontPage Magazine (dated January 18, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (BR/RE/MO/WT)
Politics: The new religion
There is a sense that the Messiah…is rapidly being supplanted in the public consciousness by a new American religion called politics. Consider the number of "messiahs" who present themselves as redeemers and who claim the ability to deliver the masses from their "deplorable" conditions - conditions from which only government can save them…What puzzles me is why so many people put their hopes in politicians, when politicians (and politics) repeatedly let them down. Has politics become a God-substitute? Have political "messiah figures" become false gods?…
From columnist Cal Thomas at Townhall.com (dated December 20, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
Religion of Peace?: Robert Spencer asks the hard questions
Islam is quintessentially tolerant…a “religion of peace.” This conventional wisdom brims over the mainstream media’s daily servings…But is it true? Emphatically, the answer is “no.” So argues best-selling author and Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer…Painstakingly, Spencer has crafted a biography Islam’s Prophet from the authentic Muslim Sunnah, comprised of [the Koran and other Muslim sources]… The picture that emerges is complex but not ambiguous…
From Foundation for the Defense of Democracies senior fellow Andrew McCarthy at National Review Online (dated January 11, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (GI/RE/WT)
Risk of collapse at Western Wall
Following report of risk of collapse, Western Wall authorities plan to demolish Mugrabi hill – Jews' only entrance to the Temple Mount, meaning Jews can no longer enter site…
From Ynet News (dated January 2, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ME/RE)
Iran website heralding 'Mahdi' by springtime
State media: Shiite messiah to kill archenemy in Jerusalem, may arrive [with Jesus] during next equinox…
From WorldNetDaily (dated December 31, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Jesus, Mahdi both coming, says Iran's Ahmadinejad
In a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Shiite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, to return and "wipe away oppression"… Ahmadinejad… sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance." With Iran's continued development of nuclear technology in defiance of the West, some analysts fear Ahmadinejad's intent is to trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world. Ahmadinejad hosted a conference last week examining whether the Nazi genocide took place, drawing Holocaust deniers from around the world. The Iranian president has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map…
From WorldNetDaily (dated December 19, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Report: Rise in European 'Islamophobia'
Muslims across Europe are confronting a rise in "Islamophobia" ranging from violent attacks to discrimination in the job and housing markets, a wide-ranging European Union report said Monday…
Associated Press story in The Jerusalem Post (dated December 18, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (EU/RE)
Russia churches protest govt demand for faithfuls’ details
Church leaders in Russia have protested to the government over a law that has revived memories of Soviet persecution by requiring them to supply the names of their worshippers and the contents of weekly sermons…
Reuters story in The Peninsula (Qatar) (dated December 16, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (EU/RE)
The War Against Global Jihadism
Given the stakes involved in this war and how little is known, even now, about what is at the core of this conflict, it is worth reviewing in some detail the nature of our enemy - including disaggregating who they are (Shia and Sunni extremists), what they believe and why they believe it, and the implications of that for America and the West…
From White House Office of Strategic Initiatives director Peter Wehner at Real Clear Politics (dated January 8, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (GI/ME/RE/WT)
The Iranian who wants an apocalypse
Ahmadinejad is unique, not because of his pronouncements about Israel, which he wishes wiped off the face of the earth, but because he actively seeks to bring about an apocalyptic struggle between the righteous and the wicked to accelerate the return of the mahdi or Hidden Imam…
From Michael Burleigh in The Telegraph (London) (dated January 5, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
Holland's Post-Secular Future Christianity is dead. Long live Christianity!
The idea that secularization is the irreversible wave of the future is still the conventional wisdom in intellectual circles here. They would be bemused, to say the least, at a Dutch relapse into religiosity. But as the authors of a recently published study called De Toekomst van God (The Future of God) point out, organized prayer in the workplace is just one among several pieces of evidence suggesting that Holland is on the threshold of a new era--one we might call the age of "post-secularization." In their book, Adjiedj Bakas, a professional trend-watcher, and Minne Buwalda, a journalist, argue that Holland is experiencing a fundamental shift in religious orientation: "Throughout Western Europe, and also in Holland, liberal Protestantism is in its death throes. It will be replaced by a new orthodoxy." According to Bakas and Buwalda, God is back in Europe's most notoriously liberal country. Or rather: The Dutch are moving back to God. It seems an implausible hypothesis. After all, Europe was supposed to have entered the realm of post-Christianity, to use C.S. Lewis's term--a state of eternal unbelief from which there is no return. And yet, Bakas and Buwalda claim, the Dutch are turning back. Take the almost unnoticed reintroduction of crucifixes and other religious artifacts into the classrooms of Catholic schools throughout the country. Years of gradual but seemingly unstoppable secularization have given way to a reaffirmation of old religious identities. The change is also starting to affect the attitudes of pupils at these schools. In a recent newspaper interview, a head teacher at a Catholic secondary school in Rotterdam observed, "For years, pupils were embarrassed about attending Mass. Now, they volunteer to read poems or prayers, and the auditorium is packed"…
From Dutch columnist Joshua Livestro in The Weekly Standard (dated January 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (EU/RE)
The chain of events matters
The conference of Holocaust deniers held in Teheran under the sponsorship of Iranian President Ahmadinejad was a provocation that compels us to respond to very strongly… If the conference were an isolated incident, we could perhaps dismiss it with contempt, as part of a bizarre phenomenon. But the moment it becomes a link in a chain of activities aimed at preparing the ground for Israel's destruction, we have no choice but to relate to the conference with all due gravity. Moreover, supporting the conference is not a lunatic-fringe neo-Nazi organization, but rather the fanatical government of a major and wealthy Middle Eastern Muslim country. And this is the chain: Iran provides the money, arms and instructors to Hizbullah in Lebanon. Iran supports Hamas in the territories. Iran manufactures long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching any target in Israel. Iran is investing enormous resources to manufacture a nuclear device and is willing to take on the entire world to do so. The Iranian government is intensively involved in denying the Holocaust based on the assumption that the memory of the destruction of European Jewry gives Israel an umbrella - Europe's guilty conscience… As recently as a year or two ago, no one could have imagined that the president of any state in the world denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel. Now, we find ourselves in the absurd situation of having to prove that the Holocaust is not a hoax and that the State of Israel has the right to exist…
From the Yad Vashem Council chairman in The Jerusalem Post (dated December 13, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ME/RE/WT)
It's the worldview, stupid
I believe the main animating difference between conservatism and liberalism is that the former believes in the Biblically revealed sinful condition of mankind. Our Constitution's framers established a system of government around their belief that man-operated government had to be limited and held in check in order for freedom to flourish. Liberalism generally embraces a secular humanist (or enlightenment) faith in the general goodness, perhaps even perfectibility of man. Conservatives accept that government exists as a necessary evil, to prevent anarchy, establish order and maximize but not absolutize freedom. Human beings within this context will be freer to minimize, but never completely solve society's problems. By contrast, liberals place their secular faith in government to wholly eradicate societal problems…
From columnist David Limbaugh at Townhall.com (dated January 5, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (US/RE/MO)
FAQ - The Shiites and the Sunnis
1) Who are the Sunnis and the Shiites?...
From Dean Barnett at Townhall.com (dated December 12, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (GI/ME/RE)
Global jihad's new front in Africa
As Islamists take over Somalia, its Western-backed neighbor Ethiopia prepares for war…
From The Christian Science Monitor (dated December 12, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (AF/RE/WT)
Pagan Christmas ritual pressed on young kids
Elementary-age children given handout pushing heathen 'Yule' ritual tomorrow…The celebration of Christmas is a major cultural battleground in the U.S., dating back to colonial America when Christians in New England outlawed Christmas, saying it was based more on ancient pagan traditions than instruction from the Bible. Today, followers of ancient paganism strive to remind the public about the heathen origins of traditions that many may never have questioned…
From WorldNetDaily (dated December 8, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (US/RE/MO)
Pope speaks of Europe's Christian roots in holiday appearance
Pope Benedict XVI urged Europeans on Friday to turn to their "ancient Christian roots" to build the present and future of their continent. Making a traditional visit to the Spanish Steps on a holiday dedicated to Mary, the pope prayed [to Mary]…"Show yourself mother and vigilant guardian for Italy and for Europe so that from the ancient Christian roots peoples will know to draw new sap to build their present and their future"…
Associated Press story in the International Herald Tribune (dated December 8, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE)
Follow God or vanish, Ahmadinejad tells West
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Western leaders to follow the path of God or "vanish from the face of the earth"…
Agence France-Presse story at Breitbart.com (dated December 6, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (ME/RE/WT)
Rabbis urge Israelis to revolt against government
A group of prominent rabbinic leaders in Israel and abroad yesterday issued a call for Israeli citizens to launch a democratic uprising to bring down the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert…
From WorldNetDaily (dated December 6, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (ME/RE)
Pope hailed for praying toward Mecca like Muslims
Pope Benedict wound up a fence-mending visit to Turkey on Friday amid praise from the local press for visiting Istanbul's Blue Mosque and praying toward Mecca "like Muslims"…
From Reuters (dated December 1, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE)
Pope says the goal of Ecumenical dialogue remains unchanged: one single visible Church
Speaking to the participants at the plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Pope Benedict recalled that the primary goal of ecumenical dialogue remains the same: to reach one, single, visible Church…
From Catholic News Agency (dated November 17, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE)
Germany’s Rising Anti-Semitism?
Right-wing adolescents and young Muslims are displaying levels of anti-Semitism that were long considered unthinkable in Germany. At many German schools, the word "Jew" is becoming an insult again. German politicians don't seem to know how to respond…
From FrontPage Magazine (dated December 12, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE/MO)
The Reality of Eurabia
Another response to Ralph Peters column against the notion of Eurabia…
From Aaron Hanscom in FrontPage Magazine (dated December 1, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE)
They Report, You Decide (with Update From Mark Steyn)
Mark Steyn responds to Ralph Peters column against the notion of Eurabia…
From Power Line (dated November 26, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE)
The ‘Eurabia’ Myth
Muslims take over Europe? Sorry, there’s no chance… The historical patterns are clear: When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened - even when the threat's concocted nonsense - they don't just react, they over-react with stunning ferocity. One of their more-humane (and frequently employed) techniques has been ethnic cleansing…
From columnist Ralph Peters in the New York Post (dated November 26, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (EU/RE)
Shedding light on the real 'reason for the season'
I've got your "reason for the season" right here, pal. Just outside the window, to be exact: Sunlight. No secret there. Civilizations all over the northern hemisphere have been making merry toward the end of December for thousands of years, with m | 
