Prince Charles spoke of persecuted Christians in his Easter message, offering support and telling them “they are not forgotten.” “I admire and greatly respect all those of you who find it in your hearts to pray for those who persecute you and, following the example of Christ, seek forgiveness for your enemies,” he said. The Read more
An anonymous Islamic State (IS) spokesperson is warning Muslims in Egypt to stay away from Christian gatherings and Western embassies because of probable IS attacks. He said the attacks are part of the “war on infidels” IS is fighting. He also claimed his group was responsible for the suicide bombings that struck two Coptic Christian Read more
In 1988, Ronald Reagan went to the newly restored Danilov Monastery in Moscow. Founded in the 13th century, the monastery had been restored not by the generosity of the Soviet state but by, as Reagan noted, “35 million believers” who had given “personal contributions.” “Our people feel it keenly when religious freedom is denied to Read more
For Muslims around the world, it’s become an almost daily heartbreaking experience to see Islam associated with all the shades of cruelty and inhumanity of so-called Islamic State (IS). It’s tempting to dismiss the group as lying beyond the boundaries of Islam. But this way of thinking leads down the same route IS has taken. Read more
In 1996, late US political scientist Samuel P. Huntington published the book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Following the collapse of communism in 1989, he argued, conflicts would increasingly involve religion. Islam, which Huntington claimed had been the opponent of Christianity since the seventh century, would increasingly feature in geopolitical Read more
ISIS considers itself the “Islamic Caliphate” (a theological empire) and controls vast swathes of land in western Iraq and eastern Syria. They also have “allegiance” from different radical Islamic groups around the world (from Afghanistan to Nigeria) who “govern” self-proclaimed provinces. Within the areas they control they have established a reign of terror second to Read more
In late June, images made their way around the world of four men as they were locked in a car and killed with a rocket-propelled grenade. They showed seven men, chained together with explosive necklaces, as they were blown up. And they provided evidence that five men had been locked in a metal cage and Read more
The murder of twenty one Christians by Islamic State in Libya brought condemnation from around the world. Their murder puts them in a long history of persecution of the Coptic Church. Martyrdom was not new to them or their people. For nearly two thousand years, their Church had prided itself as being the Church of Read more
The Islamic State has visibly attracted young Muslims from all over the world to its violent movement to build a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. But here’s what’s less visible — the online backlash against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, by young Muslims declaring their opposition to rule by Islamic law, Read more
When Barack Obama vows to destroy Islamic State’s “brand of evil” and David Cameron declares that Islamic State (ISIS) is an “evil organisation” that must be obliterated, they are echoing Tony Blair’s judgment of Saddam Hussein: “But the man’s uniquely evil, isn’t he?” Blair made this observation in November 2002, four months before the invasion Read more