Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 30, 2015
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, son of Alphaeus, was a tax collector. When the Lord said, “Follow Me,” Matthew left his tax booth and followed Him. After that, he prepared a reception for the Lord in his home and thus provided the occasion for the Lord to express several great truths about His coming to earth. After receiving the Holy Spirit, the Holy Apostle preached the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes and Ethiopians. In Ethiopia, he appointed his follower Platon as bishop, and withdrew to prayerful solitude on a mountain, where the Lord appeared to him. Matthew baptized the wife and the son of the prince of Ethiopia, at which the prince became greatly enraged and dispatched a guard to bring Matthew to him for trial. The soldiers returned to the prince saying that they had heard Matthew’s voice, but could not see him with their eyes. The prince then sent a second guard. When this guard approached the apostle, he shone with a heavenly light so powerful that the soldiers could not look at him; filled with fear, they threw down their weapons and returned. The prince then went himself. Matthew radiated such light that the prince was instantly blinded. However, the holy apostle had a compassionate heart; he prayed to God, and the prince was given back his sight. Unfortunately, he saw only with physical eyes and not spiritual eyes. He arrested Matthew and subjected him to cruel tortures. Twice, a large fire was lighted on his chest, but the power of God preserved him alive and unharmed. Then the apostle prayed to God and gave up his spirit. The prince commanded that the martyr’s body be placed in a lead coffin and thrown into the sea. The saint appeared to Bishop Platon and told him where the coffin bearing his body could be found. The bishop retrieved the coffin with Matthew’s body from the sea. Witnessing this new miracle, the prince was baptized and received the name Matthew. After that, the prince left all the vanity of the world and became a presbyter and served the Church in a God-pleasing way. When Platon died, the Apostle Matthew appeared to the presbyter Matthew and counseled him to accept the episcopacy. He accepted the bishopric and, for many years, was a good shepherd until the Lord called him to His Immortal Kingdom. St. Matthew the Apostle wrote his Gospel in the Aramaic language. It was soon after translated into Greek and the Greek text has come down to us, while the Aramaic text has been lost. It is said of this evangelist that he never ate meat, but only vegetables and fruit. – adapted from the Prologue of Ochrid
The Apostolic History of Abidas, records Matthew staying in Ethiopia for 23 years, founding churches, ordaining a priesthood and converting the entire royal family.
Equally there is mystery about his death. The Apostolic History of Abidas has him being stabbed in the back by a soldier, whereas the sixth century Martyrdom of Matthew has him being crucified and then burnt to death at the hands of a tribe of cannibals. Clement of Alexandria’s account has him dying of old age around AD90
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 25, 2015
WHEN A CHILD IS BORN
A ray of hope flickers in the sky
a tiny star lights up way up high
all across the land, dawns a brand new morn
this comes to pass when a child is born
A silent wish sails the seven seas
the winds of change whisper in the trees
and the walls of doubt crumble, tossed and torn
this comes to pass when a child is born
A rosy hue settles all around
you’ve got the feel you’re on solid ground
for a spell or two, no-one seems forlorn
this comes to pass when a child is born
And all of this happens because the world is waiting,
waiting for one child
black, white, yellow, no-one knows
but a child that will grow up and turn tears to laughter,
hate to love, war to peace and everyone to everyone’s neighbour
and misery and suffering will be words to be forgotten, forever
It’s all a dream, an illusion now
it must come true, sometime soon somehow
all across the land, dawns a brand new morn
this comes to pass when a child is born
I’M COMING HOME
Sitting in a railway station with my suitcase in my hand
Going back where I came from, I’ve had more than I can stand
Of watching men destroy my dreams
They picked my brain till it was clean
When I was up they knocked me down
I ain’t going to hand around, I’m going home
I’m going home, going home
Tell someone to meet me I’m coming home
Came to this old town seeking fortune and some fame
Never got the chance to prove myself, though I tried to play their game
But using people just ain’t my thing
And I don’t dangle from any string
To please some fool that don’t care about
They turned me inside out, I’m going home
I’m going home, going home
Tell someone to meet me I’m coming home
Tell someone to meet me I’m coming home
I’m going home, going home
Tell someone to meet me I’m coming home
I’m going home, going home
Tell someone to meet me I’m coming home
I’m going home, going home
Tell someone to meet me I’m coming home
When Music Was Written With The Capitol „M“ – The One and Only Johny Mathis LIVE From New York – Modesty + Competence + Wonderful Voice – the king would shame today’s mickey-mouse-voiced princes and princesses of the pop culture. God bless the legend!
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 23, 2015
At this point in the holiday season, whether we like it or not, we’ve all got Christmas melodies echoing through our heads. Everyone has a favorite or two; I particularly enjoy the smooth sounds of Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. But there are plenty of annoying Christmas tunes as well. One song stands out for Christmas crapulence, however, and it has little to do with the catchiness of the song.
“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was released in 1984 as part of Band Aid, an effort organized by Bob Geldof in response to a famine that struck the east African nation of Ethiopia. The song certainly captures the spirit of the season, as its charitable aims are noble enough. The problem, however, is in how these good intentions are translated into word and deed. The song describes Africa largely as a barren wasteland, “Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears.” It continues in this vein. Africa, the onetime breadbasket of the Roman Empire and home of the Nile River is a land “where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow.” The title question likewise plays into the supposed desperation of the continent. The only “Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom.” The response to this call is supposed to be charity from the affluent West, to “feed the world” and thereby “let them know it’s Christmastime again.”
In this depiction of Africa, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” perfectly encapsulated the patronizing approach to international development that dominated the twentieth century and is still largely with us today. On this account, rich people in Europe and North America have a duty to help those who cannot help themselves in Africa, a place destitute not only of material resources but also spiritual and intellectual assets as well. As development economist William Easterly has argued, this attitude evinces a kind of tyrannical neo-colonialism, where the power, knowledge, and wealth lies entirely with the “First World” and those in the developing world are reduced to a kind of vassalage.
Easterly points to the view championed by Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974, the same year as the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek. In his acceptance lecture, Myrdal painted a picture of the “underdeveloped countries” in terms evocative of the later “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Places like Africa had too many people, too few resources, and too little support, worried Myrdal. “In this situation there are certainly moral and rational reasons for a new world order and, to begin with, for aid on a strikingly much higher level,” argued Myrdal. As Easterly documents, Myrdal was representative of a hope placed in “the new rational planning,” in which experts in the developed world would, along with their material aid, impose the necessary technical solutions upon the Third World. The agency of those in the underdeveloped nations was often relegated to that of pleading beggars. As Myrdal put it, the UN provided a forum for their cries: “Almost from the beginning, the United Nations and its specialized agencies became now the sounding boards for demands, raised by the representatives of the underdeveloped countries, for aid from, and commercial considerations of the developed countries.”
Myrdal’s intentions are explicitly moral. He has concern for the good of those in the “underdeveloped countries.” So too does “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” exude moral conscientiousness. But just as Myrdal’s vision insufficiently captured the dignified character of the human person created in God’s image and called to exercise stewardship responsibilities and creative capacities, the Bob Geldof/Midge Ure tune caricatures Africa as a place devoid of dynamism, resources, and hope.
The new documentary Poverty, Inc. examines the NGO-industrial complex that has arisen in response to the call for “the new rational planning” on a global scale. A memorable section of the film explores the impact that “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” has had on Africa through the perspective of Magatte Wade of Senegal. This song, says Wade, “perpetuates a sentimental image of Africans as helpless.”
And it’s not just Fox’s Glee that’s reviving “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Geldof has released a new recording of the song, this time focused on Ebola rather than Ethiopian famine. But as the Kenyan journalist Fredrick Nzwili reports, the patronizing dynamic of the original song remains. “The general feeling here is that 30 years after the Ethiopian famine, Africa has surged forward. In fact, Nigeria was able to stem the Ebola crisis without much external help,” writes Nzwili.
Recognizing, affirming, and respecting the capacities of people in the developing world is a critical component of what it means to truly promote development and solidarity. As Easterly writes of Band Aid and similar celebrity efforts, “The original ‘We’ in ‘We Are the World’ and ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ did not include ‘They’ Africans.” Josh Larsen of Think Christian rightly observes that in these songs, “There is very much an us and – literally, in the lyrics – ‘them’ vibe.” A 2012 parody song and “Radi-Aid” campaign shows that it is just as absurd to think that Africans are too destitute to celebrate Christmas as it is to think that Norwegians need an influx of donated radiators. As Africa for Norway puts it, “The truth is that there are many positive developments in African countries, and we want these to become known. We need to change the simplistic explanations of problems in Africa.”
Against Myrdal, Easterly has rightly observed that this emphasis on the agency and dignity of those in materially poorer nations characterizes the contrasting approach to international development championed by Hayek. In his Nobel lecture, given in 1974, the same year as Myrdal’s, Hayek eviscerated the arrogance of those like Myrdal and Geldof who think they know better. Hayek argued forcefully against the “scientism” of those who thought that economic problems, like those faced by “underdeveloped nations,” were essentially technical problems that required the planning of experts. “I confess that I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much indetermined and unpredictable, to a pretence of exact knowledge that is likely to be false,” said Hayek.
“By now Bono should know better,” says Magatte Wade. In thirty years since the original release of “Do They Even Know It’s Christmas?” the pretense of expert planning has not yet been unlearned, and that’s why this tune is the worst Christmas song ever.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 22, 2015
22nd of December, 2015. The powerful ruler bans Ramadan:
Emperor of Ethiopia threatens Muslims who celebrate it with up to five years in prison while Muslims must keep theirs secret.
Ramadan sweets, kebaps and even Muslim hats are off in the horn of Africa nation
Muslims caught celebrating are threatened with up to five years in prison
The nation’s non-Christians are allowed to celebrate in their communities
But revealing their celebrations to Christians would also lead to jail time.
In 2014 the country introduced an anti-gay biblical Penal Code, which includes the execution of any Christian for sodomy
In fear the religious holiday will affect the faith of its country. The historically-rich nation’s Emperor, Abraha the 2nd has banned the public celebration of Ramadan.
Any Muslims caught celebrating Ramadan, and non-Christians who are discovered organising celebrations, could face the lengthy prison sentence.
While non-Christians are allowed to celebrate the holiday within their own communities, they must not disclose their plans to the nation’s Christians – which make up 65 per cent of the 100,000,000-strong population
Coffee-rich Ethiopia has banned public celebrations of Ramadan for fear of Christians being led astray.
There may be no Ramadan in Ethiopia – but the Emperor owns the Saudi Collection of hotels including the Mecca Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bin Saddened.
Around 20 per cent of Ethiopia’s residents are non-Christian, including substantial Muslim and Jewish communities.
‘These enforcement measures are…intended to control the act of celebrating Ramadan excessively and openly, which could damage the spiritual life of the Christian community,’ said the Ministry of Religious Affairs in a statement.
The great African nation prohibits propagating religion other than Christianity to a Christian, and breaking this is a violation of the penal code.
Other banned activities include dressing up for Ramadan, singing religious songs and sending Ramadan greetings.
‘Some may think that it is a frivolous matter and should not be brought up as an issue,’ the priests are quoted as saying.
‘But as Christians…we must keep it [following other religions’ celebrations] away as it could affect our Christian faith.’
Some Ethiopian residents, however, are risking jail time by still celebrating Ramadan and uploading pictures to social media as part of a #WeAreAllMuslims campaign that celebrates religious freedom
At the time, the emperor said: ‘Today I place my faith in and am grateful to Lord The Almighty to announce that tomorrow,Thursday, May 1 2014, will see the enforcement of biblical law phase one, to be followed by the other phases.’
The change means people can face conviction by Christian courts and fines or jail terms for a range of offences such as pregnancy outside marriage, failure to perform Sunday prayers and propagating other religions.
A second phase of the law comes into effect in May this year covering theft and alcohol consumption by Christians, which would be punishable by whipping and amputation.
The death penalty, including death by stoning, will be introduced in the final phase a year later for offences such as adultery, sodomy and insulting the Bible or Jesus Christ.
Most of the laws will also apply to non-Christians.
The biblical Penal Code calls for the stoning of people who commit a variety of sexual ‘crimes’ including sodomy, adultery and rape.
‘By the grace of God , with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to God is therefore being fulfilled,’ the Emperor said at a legal conference in Ethiopia’s capital last year.
Even before that law was passed, there was a ten year prison sentence for gays.
Alcohol is also banned in the nation.Under the biblical code theft and alcohol consumption are punishable by whippings and amputation. Smoking is also banned in public.
The Emperor lives in Addis Abeba, also the seat of the Ethiopian government (which is effectively the Emperor and his family).
SHOCKED?
Wait a minute…it’s not the Christian Ethiopian Emperor, rather the the super-rich Muslim ruler of Brunei who just has told residents of his country that if they plan on celebrating Christmas, they could face up to five years in jail.
The Daily Mail reported:
In fear the religious holiday will affect the faith of its country, the tiny oil-rich nation’s Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, has banned the public celebration of Christmas.
Any Muslims caught celebrating Christmas, and non-Muslims who are discovered organising celebrations, could face the lengthy prison sentence.
While non-Muslims are allowed to celebrate the holiday within their own communities, they must not disclose their plans to the nation’s Muslims – which make up 65 per cent of the 420,000-strong population.
Around 20 per cent of Brunei’s residents are non-Muslim, including substantial Buddhist and Christian communities.
‘These enforcement measures are…intended to control the act of celebrating Christmas excessively and openly, which could damage the aqidah (beliefs) of the Muslim community,’ said the Ministry of Religious Affairs in a statement.
The small Borneo nation prohibits propagating religion other than Islam to a Muslim, and breaking this is a violation of the penal code.
Other banned activities include putting up Christmas trees, singing religious songs and sending Christmas greetings, reported the Borneo Bulletin.
‘Some may think that it is a frivolous matter and should not be brought up as an issue,’ the imams are quoted as saying in the Bulletin.
‘But as Muslims…we must keep it [following other religions’ celebrations] away as it could affect our Islamic faith.’
My Note: Imagine if this was done by a Christian country like Ethiopia. Very loud condemnations, calls for sanctions, UN exclusion, even possible military interventions would certainly have been possible the next day.
Muslims slaughter my Christian brothers and sisters in their apartheid states, women are subjugated to slavery there, then these same oppressors move to the Christian nations and apply their primitive laws to bother, molest and kill everyone else there as well…full of smiles when weak and full of deceit when strong. Amazing how they are always capable of playing the poor victims wherever they go. It’s also mindbogglingly a mystery to witness how western elites and their medias go along. Liberals and Islamic apologist like telling us Muslim radicals are just a few.. they don’t seem to count entire Muslim countries which are radical and oppressive. Those who cry for equal protection – if protected and tolerated — later become the bullies and oppressors. Think about this, no other world religion other than Islam has laws that apply for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Can you understand the subtle deference here? Look out for the signs!
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 19, 2015
“I will not have my children sit under a woman who indoctrinates them with the Islam religion when I am a Christian, and I’m going to stand behind Christ”
— Ninth-graders at Riverheads High School were given assignment to copy the Islamic creed known as shahada during world geography class
— It reads: ‘There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah’
— Public recitation of the shahada is the first formal step in conversion to Islam but students were not asked to read it aloud
— Students were also shown a Koran and invited to try on a scarf to learn about Islamic concept of modest dress
Education officials in a Virginia county have cancelled classes Friday over security concerns sparked by parents’ outrage in response to an Arabic calligraphy lesson.
Augusta County School Board President Eric Bond announced Thursday that schools would be closed Friday.
In his statement, Bond said the decision to cancel classes was made ‘out of an abundance of caution’ after consulting with law enforcement. He noted that there was no specific threat to students but did not elaborate on the exact nature of the safety concerns.
Education officials in a Virginia county have cancelled classes Friday over security concerns sparked by parents’ outrage in response to an Arabic calligraphy lesson.
Augusta County School Board President Eric Bond announced Thursday that schools would be closed Friday.
In his statement, Bond said the decision to cancel classes was made ‘out of an abundance of caution’ after consulting with law enforcement. He noted that there was no specific threat to students but did not elaborate on the exact nature of the safety concerns.
The school district received ‘voluminous’ phone calls and emails about the controversial lesson on Islam, which went viral on social media thanks to the efforts of a local parents and made national headlines.
Several people who came out for the meeting called for Cheryl LaPorte’s termination in the wake of the incident.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 18, 2015
WELCOME TO ENGLAND’S MUSLIM EXTREMISM CAPITAL: BURY PARK, LUTON
The Islamization of England: Bury Park. “The location is England, the buildings are English, but the culture is all very alien, hostile and unwilling to assimilate.”
I first visited Luton nearly 25 years ago when Luton Town Football Club were in Division One, the top flight of English football. Luton were an established first division team back then and had won their first and only major honour, the League Cup in 1988. In the quarter of a century since then, Luton have had a few ups but mainly downs, and nowadays they play in League Two – the fourth tier of the English game.
Luton Town FC’s downturn in fortunes in some ways echoes the fall of grace of the surrounding Bury Park area, that their Kenilworth Road ground is situated.
Bury Park is a five minute walk from Luton town centre and within, it certainly feels as though this is a parallel community. Decades of uncontrolled and needless Muslim immigration from the Indian subcontinent has transformed a once modest, proud tight knit community, beyond all recognition.
Bury Park and Luton in general has gone beyond a place where Muslims hold conservative values and has become synonymous with Islamic radicalisation and terrorism. Even Luton Central Mosque’s president admits Luton has become a ‘Hotbed of Extremism’ and in the eye-opening ‘My hometown fanatics’ documentary, reporter Stacey Dooley did an excellent job investigating why her hometown of Luton is known as ‘the extremist capital of Britain’.
Protests by Muslim groups have included pelting the unelected female Muslim politician Baroness Warsi with eggs while she was walking around Bury Park for ‘not being Muslim enough’ and ‘not representing Islam’ (see here). Or when thousands of grateful locals turned out in Luton town centre for a homecoming parade by British soldiers and were left shocked and dismayed when Muslims became abusive.
Beyond the childish tantrums however, there are numerous hate preachers, terrorism and suicide bombing links to Luton. The 7/7 London bombers met up in the town before their suicide missions and caught the train from Luton to London.
Things have gotten so bad for the non-Muslim population that the ‘United People of Luton’ (see video of their first demo here) movement was formed and that would quickly evolve into the nationwide ‘English Defence League’.
Therefore I was a little apprehensive about entering Bury Park for the purpose of taking photos and notes. I had initially decided to take some photos of just the buildings; however I did throw some caution to the wind and managed to get a few people in some of the pictures.
The first Islamic building I saw was the ‘Bury Park Jamie Masjid’ on Bury Park Road (pictured at the top), with elderly men dressed as though they were in downtown Islamabad entering the mosque.
However the Bury Park URC Church which was a stone’s throw away aptly had plastic protecting its windows, to prevent any damage if real stones got thrown.
On the junction of Bury Park Road and Cromwell Road was the scene below. A burqa-clad woman (presumably a female is in there?), a ‘Mo Ansar doppelgänger’ with his children, school kids on the way to a madrasa for Islamic doctrination and a halal delivery lorry. The location is England, the buildings are English, but the culture is all very alien, hostile and unwilling to assimilate.
I cannot recall seeing any Muslim women or indeed Muslim schoolgirls in Bury Park that were not wearing a hijab. I did not see any hijabs when I first visited Luton but like many other English towns and cities it has become the norm, like an act of defiance.
Pictured below is a woman wearing a niqab, a garment that was a common sight in Bury Park. Maybe an advert for niqabs could have the slogan; ‘Get the Bury Park look’? She may have been born and raised in England but it is clear what culture she favours and she doesn’t want to integrate with other cultures.
It is somewhat of a surprise that Christian places of worship still exist in Bury Park. Pictured below is a small church with the intimidating dome and minaret of Luton Central Mosque looming in the background.
On the exterior of the Luton Central Mosque pictured below is the Muslim ‘Shahada’; “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” A chilling message of conquest and superiority on a building that looks intimidating.
Bury Park really is a parallel community in every sense that has shops not just for ‘Asian’ culture but specifically for anything and everything relating to Islamic culture. Everything is halal here, all shops and businesses cater for this market.
An unexpected surprise was this public weapons disposal bin on Dunstable Road, Bury Park. Is this is Islamic culture or not? Well to be honest this is the first time I have ever seen one and its presence speaks volumes for the area.
I had finished my brief tour of Bury Park and continued my walk further up Dunstable Road where a woman with a baby in a pushchair stopped me and asked with an African accent: “I have just moved here from London. What number do I ring if I have to contact the police?” I was taken aback that of all the people she could have asked it was me, bearing in mind the purpose of me being there! I informed her to dial 999 for an emergency and 101 for a non-emergency – just like anywhere in the country. After visiting nearby Dunstable and returned through Bury Park in the dark, I thought of that lady again, and whether she was showing common sense or considerable foresight? Either way she was certainly braver than me living there.
I live in an area that has a large Pakistani Muslim population but Bury Park definitely felt as though it was a ‘Muslim area’, so far removed from the mainstream that it now could not return even if it wanted to. All this has happened in less than 50 years. It didn’t take long, did it?
There are many areas of English towns and cities that are on the way to becoming like Bury Park and there is seemingly not much we can do about it. A lost battle thanks to failed multiculturalism policies, political correctness and sheer demographics due to massimmigration and sky high birth rates.
Like Luton Town Football Club’s periods of relative success, its Bury Park neighbourhood would have once been a safe, peaceful haven for its residents. Now it is an unwelcoming, self-segregated Pakistani/Bangladeshi ghetto where Islamic extremism is rampant. Who wins? Not the people who welcomed them into their community, that’s for sure.
My Note: The Saudi prince said that the coalition would coordinate efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. They don’t intend to fight Islamic terrorism in Africa: Somalia (Al-Shabab), Nigeria (Boko Haram) etc, yet, Africans send their children to shade their blood for the wicked Arabs?!
The list of 34 — Muslim ‘anti-terrorism’ coalition — members: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinians, Qatar, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Some of the non-Arab-League African countries they either do not have a majority Muslim population, or have a significant non-Muslim population, nevertheless, they decided to join the beastly Saudi coalition. What could have driven them? Voodoo (Paganism)?!
Benin
Roman Catholicism (27.1%)
Islam (24.4%)
Vodun (Voodoo) (17.3%)
Other religion (15.5%)
Protestantism (10.4%)
Gabon
Christianity: 73%
Islam: 12%
Vodun (Voodoo): 10%
Nigeria
Christianity: 50.5% of the population. (19.9% Protestantism, 12.3% Churches of Christ, 10.1% Anglicanism and 8.2% Catholicism)
Islam: 43.5% consisting of 95% Sunni Islam and 5% Shia Islam)
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 15, 2015
The refugees are unwanted and refused, while the Saudi kingdom sits on a structured, and empty, tent city capable of housing over 1,000,000 Muslim refugees:
But Prince Alwaleed refuses to allow the refugees entry.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 14, 2015
“A minumum of 28 Million African were enslaved in the Muslim Middle East. Since, at least, 80 percent of those captured by Muslim slave traders were calculated to have died before reaching the slave market, it is believed that the death toll from 1400 years of Arab and Muslim slave raids into Africa could have been as high as 112 Millions. When added to the number of those sold in the slave markets, the total number of African victims of the trans-Saharan and East African slave trade could be significantly higher than 140 Million people. — John Allembillah Azumah, author of The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious Dialogue”
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has declared his Muslim-majority country an Islamic republic, saying the move marks a break with the colonial past.
Mr Jammeh told state TV the proclamation was in line with Gambia’s “religious identity and values”.
He added that no dress code would be imposed and citizens of other faiths would be allowed to practise freely.
Some 90% of Gambians are Muslim. The former British colony’s economy relies heavily on tourism.
However, relations with the West have soured recently.
The European Union temporarily withheld aid money to Gambia last year over its poor human rights record.
Mr Jammeh has been president of the tiny West African country for 21 years.
Op-Ed: Islam in Africa: The Invisible Genocide of Christians
Published on May 07, 2012
The UN does nothing, the world is silent, and most Western citizens, who know little about Africa, do not know it is happening. The goal is creating a big African-Islamic continent. Christians must be killed or expelled.
Fom Nigeria to Sudan, it is raging, the “Odium Fidei”, the war of religion.
A genocide epitomized not by the images of Sydney Pollack’s “Out of Africa”, which presents a continent that is rich and attractive, but by the Nigerian village of Dogo Nahawa, where Islamists, armed with machetes, killed 300 Christians, mostly women and children.
The Nigerian Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature, Wole Soyinka, called them “the butchers of Nigeria”.
It’s an invisible genocide where sadistic killers slaughter and execute thousands of Christians.
According to Philip Jenkins, a leading expert on Christianity, in Nigeria, what is at stake is the balance between Islam and Christianity. It’s the largest Muslim country of Africa, a global leader in oil production and a country where the future of religious cohexistence is precarious, since the country is divided in a half between Islam and Christianity.
The Islamic conquest of Africa began in the seventh century, when the Umayyads spread the faith in the Mediterranean lands which had long been Byzantine. But in deeper Africa, the penetration was difficult and for centuries Islam was unable to climb over the Horn of Africa.
Now, with modern methods of warfare, we are witnessing a wave of Islamization with unforeseeable, tragic consequences. The “Islamic project” is trying to build a unique ‘adan’ (Islamic call for prayer) from the Libyan minarets to the Juma Mosque in Durban, South Africa.
Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania are already 90 percent Islamized, the rate decreases as one moves downward, reaching nine per cent in South Africa and almost none in the rest of the southern region – so far.
The goal is creating a big African-Islamic continent. Christians must be killed or expelled.
On January 3, the Islamic groups issued an ultimatum to the Christian community in Nigeria: “You have three days to leave, or you’ll die”.
If on Darfur there was some mobilization in favor of the victims, who cared about the campaigns of extermination sustained by the Christians in Sudan and Nigeria?
The West doesn’t hear the cry of these pariahs, trying to atone for its colonial past by not intervening.
In South Kordofan, Sudan, Christians are still subjected to bombardment, targeted killings, the kidnapping of children, forced conversions.
Over 13,750 Christians have been killed by Muslims in northern Nigeria since the introduction of Sharia laws in 2001.
If the Islamists are dreaming of an Arab caliphate from the Atlantic to the Suez Canal, south of Sahara, Islam is conquering cities and entire populations. It’s collapsing the historical dividing line along the sixteenth parallel, which divided the land of the Cross from the land of the Koran.
All that remains of the “dar al harb”, land of war, must become “Dar al Islam”, land of Islam.
According to the NGO Open Doors, in the northern states that have adopted Sharia law, five million Christians are under severe repression. Islam has planted the idea that the Muslim religion is “original in Nigeria” and that the spread of Christianity is “a threat”, “an enemy to destroy”.
The troubles in Nigeria began back with the Kano riots of 1980, when a Muslim leader named Marwa Muhamadu said to the young people that whoever wore a cross or expensive clothes was an “infidel”.
The election of Miss World in Abuja in 2002 lit the fire of jihad in a haystack, leaving 200 dead on the ground and 10.000 Christians fleeing.
From the Gulf of Guinea to the Red Sea, via northern Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia, Sharia has become the only law in many regions. Today Islam is the first religion in a dozen of African countries.
A year ago, the Nigerian police stopped a shipment of arms directed to the Hisba, the movement that seeks to impose Islamic law in northern Nigeria, and to the faction of Boko Haram.
The cargo came from Tehran, part of the “Africa Plan” launched by the mullahs to expand Iran’s influence in the continent by supporting Islamic governments and groups. These terror groups use guns, gasoline bombs and machetes, they shout “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on citizens.
They have so far focused on killing Christian clerics, politicians, students, policemen, and soldiers, as well as Muslim clerics who condemn their mayhem. 500 Christians have been killed since last December. 300 churches have been demolished.
The case of the Anglican Rev. Seth Saleh, in Zamfara, is emblematic. In 2003, the director of the local government knocked on his door and handed him a letter. “The governor – said the letter – informs you that your church will be demolished before his arrival in town tomorrow”.
In Romain Gary’s novel “The Roots of Heaven”, which won the Goncourt Prize in 1956, a Muslim character says: “One day black Africa will be on our side, our religion is younger and has the power of the desert, it will eventually triumph. An Islamized Africa will be an irresistible force for the world”.
A prophecy which seems about to become true. Will the world stand to prevent another Rwanda?
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 13, 2015
“The heart of a wise man is in his right hand, and the heart of a fool is in his left hand.” [Ecclesiastes 10:2]
Obama’s Theology of Original Sin, Fundamental Transformation and Utopia
There has been a great deal of nonsense written about the supposed cluelessness of our current administration concerning domestic and foreign policies. None of it is true. President Obama and his allies are not naïve, nor are they clueless idiots.
On the contrary, they are with great success deliberately sowing the seeds of a domestic and global revolution in order to fundamentally transform America and to use the United States’ global reach as a means for achieving a worldwide new order as defined by the Left’s deeply held, religious beliefs.
The theological justifications foundational for revolutionizing (“fundamentally transforming”) America and the world are at least twofold: One is to bring to fruition the leftist concept of a socialist/communist utopia through the destruction of the old order. The other is to expiate America’s original sin of slavery and European colonialism by destroying or transforming the irredeemable institutions that have perpetrated and continue to perpetrate the West’s societal distortions. For the Left, the original sin of racism, be it revealed in slavery or colonialism, has remained unexpurgated. It continuously mutates into new forms of racism because racism is a genetic moral deformation peculiar to the West.
Therefore, only revolutionary action that involves total destruction of Western institutions and the building of global structures from the ashes will finally expiate the original sins of racism and Western colonialism.
How and why is the leftist revolution to happen?
There are basically two types of revolution. One is characterized by public discontent welling from the bottom up. The result is a drastic change in governmental and societal constructs. The other involves authoritarian attempts to fundamentally transform a society from the top down. Often the one is nearly indistinguishable from the other, as the discontented who initially began the revolution find their way into the seats of power and then being to transform society by diktat, a term also known as “executive order.”
The American rebels of the sixties have gradually taken the seats of power in government and nearly every societal institution. They then hope to use that power to complete the transformation of the Republic of the United States into the socialist utopia which is not only to be a template for a new world order, but which is to be a leader in promoting it. The vast influence of the United States is to be turned into a force for transforming the entire world. To put it another way, a completely secularized version of the Christian “Great Commission” to preach the gospel is to be the new way of preaching and fostering good for all mankind. The idea of seeding cells is very similar to the establishment of Christian “house churches” in ancient Rome and indeed throughout history, including present-day China. The difference, of course, is that the State as characterized by our current administration seeds cells committed to violence and chaos; whereas the Christian Church sought and seeks to establish the Kingdom of God characterized by love, peace, and goodwill.
For the Left, using America and its might for a global revolution will only be achieved by destruction of the United States as it is still presently constructed, much as the Bolsheviks of Russian attempted to destroy czarist Russia, then to transform and use a new communist Russia as the paradigm for a global revolution and reconstruction. In like manner, the radical transformation long desired by the Left means in practice the demolition of the pervasive paradigms presently defining and delineating nation states while favoring global entities such as the United Nations and the European Union.
In the attempt to change the centuries old nation state paradigm, particularly Western democracies as understood in the broader definition of democracy, destruction of traditional ways of thinking and traditional institutions remains a paramount objective of the Left.
In the stages of fomenting the destruction necessary for the new paradigm to be the paramount rationale for the construction of a new world, co-revolutionaries are welcomed and encouraged, as the Left believes it can use and control various discontent factions such as Islamist extremists, race hate mongers, youthful malcontents in academia, and anti-authoritarian, ideologically driven political groups opposed to the legitimate use of police authority. Add to this mix of malcontents the religion of multi-culturalism, which is the new polytheism forbidding the elevation of any religion as morally superior to another. All gods are equal. But the gods of the Left are more equal than other gods, particularly the God of Christianity, which the Left seeks to dethrone.
It is well to recall the Left sees just about any angry group as legitimately angry and as a potentially disruptive force for achieving leftist goals; that is, as weapons of destruction of the status quo. To that end, there is virtually no radical group, including Islamist terrorist groups, that the Left cannot legitimize by rationalizing the group’s violent outlook by predestinarian logic that pushes every action, no matter how odious, back to foundational issues the Left believes will be fixed once utopia is put into place. No violent group is to be held fully accountable for its actions because there are core reasons it has become disaffected and criminally minded — core distortions of society can be straightened out by the utopia to come. The only illegitimate anger is righteous indignation against the atrocities perpetrated by violent groups, who are to be understood rather than confronted or eliminated.
In brief, fundamental transformation first requires fundamental destruction. Then rebuilding according to the religious tenets of the Left can happen.
We have an historical outline for how that destruction evolves; namely, the communist revolution in Russia, which had as its role model the French Revolution.
History reveals Lenin encouraged revolution not just in Russia, but throughout Europe and the United States. For instance, Lenin and his followers’ idea was to sow chaos by planting communist cells which would then encourage anarchy and perpetrate violence against the governments of the nations into which the seed cells were inserted. In a similar manner, our president and his administration have become proselytizers for Islamism and the Left.
The Left in the past and now was and is not particular about its allies as long as its leaders think they can control the factions they help to create. Leftism is not picky about anarchical cell groups as long as they are bent on violence. That is why leftists can look with equanimity on the seeding of Europe and America, as well as the Middle East, with radical Islamist cells by importation while steadfastly opposing the Christian religion that has informed and been the foundation of Western civilization for almost two thousand years. It is critical to the success of the global enterprise to diminish or even to eradicate the influence of Christianity, which because of its views of a divine order that transcends and informs all earthly governments is inherently opposed to a man-manufactured utopia created by the State.
The dream of a manmade utopia in the here and now and to come is why dreams of an earthly Islamist caliphate brought into being by violence are essentially encouraged by our administration here and abroad. Utopian visions and radical eschatology with “The End” actualized by a Gotterdammerung in the case of Islamism, or by the bureaucratic Chinese water torture of regulative minutiae by the Left are the very stuff of revolutionaries, regardless of what form their prophetic hallucinations take, communist or Islamist. It is why the foam-at-the-mouth Islamist radicals in Libya, Syria, and Iran are not named or even looked on favorably while democratizing forces are ignored or vilified for their faults, as democracies are stable and stability is what the Left wishes to take down. It is why there is such a tepid response to radical cells promoting terrorism in the name of Allah, be they in Europe, America or Israel. It is why the latest massacre in San Bernadino is being downplayed and attention diverted to other issues. Destabilization is a positive good in the eyes of leftist “one worlders,” as it augers and enables destruction of the old.
Why enable and promote destruction of the old? The reasoning is this: The old is inherently rotten and completely devoid of any possibility of reform, so it must be destroyed by any means in order the spotless and sinless New Order arise like the phoenix from the ruins. The old order, as were the ancien regime and the Roman Catholic Church to be completely annihilated during the French Revolution, has to be completely and irrevocably destroyed. Whatever societal structures are to be retained in skeletonized form, to be utilized only for the revolution’s New Order, much as magnificent homes of the wealthy were confiscated by the communists in Russia and used to house multiple families; much as the entire Romanov dynasty had to be exterminated in order the Bolshevik “dynasty” take its place; much as the kulaks, who resisted the confiscation of their lands were exterminated so their lands could be seized by the new communist landlords; much as Russian Orthodox churches and monasteries were either destroyed or infiltrated by communist lackeys — all for the sake of the eventual elevation of humanity within the new communist utopia, of course.
As mentioned earlier, the other reason destruction of the West and Christianity is being promoted by the Left and its allies is the idea that slavery/racism is the original sin of the West, particularly America. President Obama recently said, “We would do a disservice to those warriors of justice, Tubman and Douglas, and Lincoln and King, were we to deny that the scars of our nation’s original sin are still with us today.”
The president’s statement is revelatory of the rationale of the Left, which as a religion believes in original sin, but which has a very different definition of and remedy for original sin than Christianity.
For two thousand years, beginning with the apostle Paul and the early church fathers such as Augustine; and later to be defined by such theologians as John Calvin, the concept of original sin has been defined as meaning all human beings will and do commit sins, as it is ingrained in their very beings from the time of Adam’s fall forward. John Calvin writes in his Institutes of the Christian Religion about the infallible inclination of humanity to do wrong:
“This is the hereditary corruption to which early Christian writers gave the name of Original Sin, meaning by the term the depravation of a nature formerly good and pure… Original sin, then, may be defined a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul… Satan, by thus craftily hiding the disease, tried to render it incurable.”
In Calvin’s words lie the irreconcilable difference between President Obama’s (and the Left’s) concept of original sin and its remedy. For Christians, the sacrifice of Christ for mankind means that original sin is expurgated and the believer is no longer bound by the chains of sin, but is righteous before God. Calvin wrote:
“But if, out of all controversy, the righteousness of Christ, and thereby life, is ours by communication, it follows that both of these were lost in Adam that they might be recovered in Christ, whereas sin and death were brought in by Adam, that they might be abolished in Christ. There is no obscurity in the words, ‘As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.’ ”
But for the Left and our president, America’s original sins of slavery and racism remain unexpurgated and “incurable.” The sin of racism therefore is always latent, lurking within the human heart and always ready to be revealed. Appearances of improvement in race relations remain just that — appearances only.
Since the original sins of racism and the effects of slavery are always at least latently within, those sins must continually be sought out, exposed and punished. In fact, it is a good idea to stoke the fires of racism and to continually look for signs of it in order to prove it still exists. “Look, there’s a racist building named ‘Lynch’ Hall!!”
For our president and fellow believers in original sin as they define it, it is the white man who most sinned by perpetrating slavery; it is Western institutions that have been so completely corrupted by the effects of slavery and colonialism that they must be destroyed or radically transformed. In order to do so, the white man’s privilege must be revoked and the oppressed masses who still suffer from the lash of racism must be elevated to leadership and elevated to the place of masters in the new order in order that the original sins be expurgated and paid for. The original sins of the fathers, including those who wrote America’s foundational documents, have been passed down from generation to generation, seeping into the very pores of every American institution.
In sum, the entire West and all its institutions and foundational documents are inherently corrupt and are beyond salvation; therefore, the only remedy is to destroy them all and start anew with the disaffected, the formerly oppressed and the newly liberated, who can rewrite the world order.
Of course, the idea that the original sins of the fathers are passed down to the children from generation to generation is an essentially pagan idea that means vengeance for past offenses can be taken on the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and all generations into eternity. It means there is no redemption possible for those people whose ancestors held slaves or who exhibited racism in any form. It means the white race in particular is inherently corrupted by genetic racism, the original sin for the Left. This concept of original sin justifies eternal vengeance and eternal tinkering with the social order in hopes utopia will evolve.
Whoever continues to claim theology and politics are completely separate realms should reexamine the theology of the Left and note its destructive consequences. At the same time, Christians need to articulate and contrast the orthodox doctrines of their faith, refusing to allow those doctrines to be hijacked and distorted by the Left without protest.
Theology matters — in all areas of life, including politics.
At this point in the holiday season, whether we like it or not, we’ve all got Christmas melodies echoing through our heads. Everyone has a favorite or two; I particularly enjoy the smooth sounds of Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. But there are plenty of annoying Christmas tunes as well. One song stands out for Christmas crapulence, however, and it has little to do with the catchiness of the song.
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