Turkey's Erdogan at UN: Zionism is a Crime Against Humanity

Speaking Wednesday in Vienna at a United Nations summit for tolerance, Erdogan said, “Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it becomes unavoidable that Islamophobia must be regarded as a crime against humanity,” Anatolia News Agency and other Turkish media reported.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, called on Erdogan to apologize for his “shocking” statements and urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the speech publicly. UN Watch said Ban was on stage while Erdogan was speaking.

Earlier in the week, a report on xenophobia in the Turkish media said Jews and Armenians had the most hateful writings against them of any group in Turkey.
The report by the Hrant Dink Foundation, a human rights watchdog, is based on material that appeared in 16 national circulation newspapers and another 1,000 local publications between last September and December, according to an article about the report that appeared Thursday in Hurriyet, a Turkish daily.

The researchers found 39 instances of anti-Jewish writings in Turkish newspapers during the period, which accounted for 25 percent of the total of hateful articles. The levels were slightly lower for Armenians. The third most targeted group was Christians with 18 percent.

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Tebow Controversy Makes Way For The Gospel

Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at the First Baptist Church of Dallas says God has used the Tebow speaking controversy as a springboard for spreading the Gospel.

Pastor Jeffress came under fire for his traditional evangelical stance after it was announced that the openly-Christian NFL quarterback Tim Tebow would speak at the grand opening of the new campus for the Dallas megachurch on April 28.

Both Jeffress and Tebow received pressure from national media outlets and sports commentators for not only the pastor's biblical convictions on such matters as the exclusivity of the gospel and homosexual sin, but for Tebow's decision to speak to a church known for such beliefs.

Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports warned, "Tim Tebow is about to make the biggest mistake of his life" by speaking at "a hateful Baptist preacher's church," going so far as to liken Jeffress with the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.
While Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post offered his own warning to Tebow: "After a season on the sidelines, the ball's in your hands, Timmy. Better not fumble this one."

The pressure forced Tebow to back out of the engagement via Twitter on Feb. 22.
"Due to new information that was brought to my attention," Tebow said he decided to cancel stating he wished to "share a message of hope and Christ's unconditional love."

But despite the cancellation, Jeffress is using the attention to spread the Good News.
The Huffington Post writer, Paul Brandeis Raushenbush even conceded, "while Dr. Jeffress has a tendency not to sugarcoat his feelings," his teachings are nonetheless accepted by mainstream Evangelicals and it's what Christians "have been saying for a long time."

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Obama Admin: Homosexuals Cannot Change

President Barack Obama's administration does not believe homosexuals can change their sexual orientation and holds that reparative therapy is "generally futile and potentially dangerous to an individual's well-being."

Those are the sentiments expressed in the amicus curiae the Justice Department filed with the Supreme Court on Friday, urging justices to strike down a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

According to the Obama administration, "the broad consensus in the scientific community is that, for the vast majority of people (gay and straight alike), sexual orientation is not a voluntary choice."

The brief also asserts that the medical profession has determined that "efforts to change an individual's sexual orientation are generally futile and potentially dangerous to an individual's well-being."
However, the 2009 American Psychological Association's Task Force Report that the DOJ lawyers site seems to indicate that that aspects of sexuality can be changed.

It states, "recent research...illustrates that sexual behavior, sexual attraction, and sexual orientation identity are labeled and expressed in many different ways, some of which are fluid."

While the APA report denigrates reparative therapy, it dismissses most of the studies on the topic. It states that "only a few studies have been conducted in the last 10 years" and that "none of the recent research (1999-2007) meets methodological standards that permit conclusions regarding efficacy or safety."
The APA then cites the alleged dearth of evidence to undermine the efficacy of reparative therapy.

Dr. Joseph Berger, a consultant psychiatrist at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Canada, disagrees with the APA's assessment.
He said, "some studies suggest 33 percent to ... as high as 79 percent" of people who undergo sexual conversion therapy have been helped.

The Obama administration highlights a statement in the APA reporting claiming that "efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm."

Dr. Nicholas Cummings, APA president from 1979 to 1980, attributed such views to the homosexual lobby's dominance over the APA.
By the mid-1990s "political stances seemed to override any scientific results," he said. "Cherry-picking results became the mode. The gay rights movement sort of captured the APA."

Homosexuals have fiercely combatted the idea that sexual orientation is a choice or can be altered in any way. Such a view "undermines the entire alleged civil rights nature of the gay activist movement," author Michael Brown told LifeSiteNews.

"Therefore, therapy for this is considered to be harmful and destructive."
An Angus-Reid opinion poll earlier this month found that such views are pivotal to the acceptance or rejection of same-sex "marriage."
The firm discovered 76 percent of Americans who believe "people are born with" their sexual orientation support same-sex marriage, while 64 percent of those who believe homosexuality is "a choice" reject marriage redefinition.

Opposing such therapy has become a homosexual and liberal goal. One state, California, has already enacted a statewide ban on reparative therapy. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill last year, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals put the law on hold pending an ongoing appeal.
State Senator Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, said candidly during debate, "The attack on parental rights is exactly the whole point of the bill."

Lawmakers in the state of New Jersey are considering passing a similar ban.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey-based reparative therapy group JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives of Healing) for consumer fraud, on the grounds that the therapy does not cure all patients.

No word on whether the Obama administration will weigh in on either case.
The Obama administration has antagonized the ex-gay community in the past. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) has asked the administration to remove links from government websites to portals that denigrate or deny the existence of former homosexuals.

Source

The president "is engaging in sexual orientation bias against disfavored groups," said PFOX director Regina Griggs. - See more at: http://www.mychristiandaily.com/index.php/uk/162-world/usa-canada/news-item-1-usa-canada/5045-obama-admin-homosexuals-cannot-change#sthash.eDRXLmJ4.dpuf

The president "is engaging in sexual orientation bias against disfavored groups," said PFOX director Regina Griggs. - See more at: http://www.mychristiandaily.com/index.php/uk/162-world/usa-canada/news-item-1-usa-canada/5045-obama-admin-homosexuals-cannot-change#sthash.eDRXLmJ4.dpuf

The president "is engaging in sexual orientation bias against disfavored groups," said PFOX director Regina Griggs. - See more at: http://www.mychristiandaily.com/index.php/uk/162-world/usa-canada/news-item-1-usa-canada/5045-obama-admin-homosexuals-cannot-change#sthash.eDRXLmJ4.dpuf

President Barack Obama's administration does not believe homosexuals can change their sexual orientation and holds that reparative therapy is "generally futile and potentially dangerous to an individual's well-being."
Those are the sentiments expressed in the amicus curiae the Justice Department filed with the Supreme Court on Friday, urging justices to strike down a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
According to the Obama administration, "the broad consensus in the scientific community is that, for the vast majority of people (gay and straight alike), sexual orientation is not a voluntary choice."
The brief also asserts that the medical profession has determined that "efforts to change an individual's sexual orientation are generally futile and potentially dangerous to an individual's well-being."
However, the 2009 American Psychological Association's Task Force Report that the DOJ lawyers cite seems to indicate that that aspects of sexuality can be changed.
It states, "recent research...illustrates that sexual behavior, sexual attraction, and sexual orientation identity are labeled and expressed in many different ways, some of which are fluid."
While the APA report denigrates reparative therapy, it dismissses most of the studies on the topic. It states that "only a few studies have been conducted in the last 10 years" and that "none of the recent research (1999-2007) meets methodological standards that permit conclusions regarding efficacy or safety."
The APA then cites the alleged dearth of evidence to undermine the efficacy of reparative therapy.
Dr. Joseph Berger, a consultant psychiatrist at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Canada, disagrees with the APA's assessment.
He said, "some studies suggest 33 percent to ... as high as 79 percent" of people who undergo sexual conversion therapy have been helped.
The Obama administration highlights a statement in the APA reporting claiming that "efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm."
Dr. Nicholas Cummings, APA president from 1979 to 1980, attributed such views to the homosexual lobby's dominance over the APA.
By the mid-1990s "political stances seemed to override any scientific results," he said. "Cherry-picking results became the mode. The gay rights movement sort of captured the APA."
Homosexuals have fiercely combatted the idea that sexual orientation is a choice or can be altered in any way. Such a view "undermines the entire alleged civil rights nature of the gay activist movement," author Michael Brown told LifeSiteNews.
"Therefore, therapy for this is considered to be harmful and destructive."
An Angus-Reid opinion poll earlier this month found that such views are pivotal to the acceptance or rejection of same-sex "marriage."
The firm discovered 76 percent of Americans who believe "people are born with" their sexual orientation support same-sex marriage, while 64 percent of those who believe homosexuality is "a choice" reject marriage redefinition.
Opposing such therapy has become a homosexual and liberal goal. One state, California, has already enacted a statewide ban on reparative therapy. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill last year, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals put the law on hold pending an ongoing appeal.
State Senator Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, said candidly during debate, "The attack on parental rights is exactly the whole point of the bill."
Lawmakers in the state of New Jersey are considering passing a similar ban.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey-based reparative therapy group JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives of Healing) for consumer fraud, on the grounds that the therapy does not cure all patients.
No word on whether the Obama administration will weigh in on either case.
The Obama administration has antagonized the ex-gay community in the past. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) has asked the administration to remove links from government websites to portals that denigrate or deny the existence of former homosexuals.
The president "is engaging in sexual orientation bias against disfavored groups," said PFOX director Regina Griggs.

More Arrests in Libya After Detention of Foreign Christians

BENGHAZI, LIBYA (ANS) -- Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org), is reporting that arrests continue of Christians accused of proselytizing in Libya, with a total of seven now known to be in custody including one reported to have been tortured, sources said.

Rebels celebrating the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, now are they turning on Christians? (Photo: EPA)

 
Their story states that four expatriate Christians in the eastern coastal town of Benghazi were arrested on Feb. 10, accused of proselytizing. Libya’s Preventative Security Unit arrested the Egyptian, South African, Korean and dual Swedish-American Christians, who have yet to be officially charged. 


“On Feb. 13, Preventative Security officers picked up two more Egyptian Christians, and another Egyptian Christian was arrested by Feb. 16, sources said. All the detainees were being held in Benghazi. It was unclear what led to their arrests,” the Morning Star News story said. 

Preventative Security spokesman Hussein Bin Hmeid said in a statement to Reuters that the four Christians originally arrested were printing books calling for conversion to Christianity. He said the country is 100 percent Muslim and that proselytizing “affects our national security.” 


Only one of the four arrested on Feb. 10, Sherif Ramses of Egypt, has been publicly identified. When Ramses was arrested, he allegedly had 30,000 Bibles in storage, a figure that Libyan police inflated to 45,000 in published statements, sources said. Ramses ran a small printing service in Benghazi and a bookstore that sold both Christian and secular books. 

Sources close to the arrests told Morning Star News that Ramses has been tortured, saying he was severely bruised. Several other sources independently told Morning Star News that Preventative Security was able to get the names of other Christians in Libya from Ramses, possibly by accessing information on his cell phone. It was unclear, however, if any Christians subsequently detained had any significant links to Ramses’ work.

“Preventative Security is an internal police force formed during the Libyan Revolution by regional rebel leaders,” the story continued. “Rumors were circulating throughout Libya about unknown others thought to be arrested.” 

Another wave of arrests was said to have taken place on Sunday (Feb. 17) in Tripoli. Sources in Libya reported to contacts in Egypt that no one has been able to contact these detainees, learn their location or even get an estimate of the number of those said to be arrested. 

“They say it was a large group,” a source in Cairo receiving updates from Libya said. “They were supposed to be released, but there has been no word.”
There has been no information about the possibility of Libyan nationals being picked up in any of the expatriate sweeps. 


“Those monitoring the situation said that they thought all the detainees would be released except for Ramses, who will likely stand trial,” Morning Star News added. “It was unclear what penalty a guilty verdict would bring for Ramses, as the proselytizing law is a hold-over from the previous regime deposed in October 2011, and Libya has yet to approve a new constitution.” 

When arrested and asked why he thought he could hand out Bibles in Libya, Ramses reportedly told his captors, “They say Libya is supposed to be a free country.”
Morning Star News concluded with, “The arrests are the latest in a series of recent incidents in Libya against Christians or Christian symbols. In December, two Egyptian Christians were killed and two were wounded when suspected Islamic extremists threw a homemade bomb into a Coptic Orthodox Church building in Dafniya, in western Libya.

Several communities of Catholic nuns left Cyrenaica Province after receiving credible death threats. In addition, on many occasions suspected Islamic militants have desecrated graves with crosses on them of Britain’s World War II dead.”  

Source

An Encounter With Evil Voices

Will Morales spent his teen years and most of his adult life trying to escape the pain he suffered from an abusive father.

He said, “My relationship with my dad, I started to hate my dad. It was a hate and love relationship, for many years.”

Alcohol, drugs, and sex helped him cope, but it was never enough.
“I was running from my issues,” He said.  “I got me to a very depressive state of mind. There was no meaning, no purpose. Deep within my soul there was this deep emptiness, this deep hole that couldn’t be filled. The women the drugs the life, it was- nothing could fill that. It was temporary satisfaction.”

As a child, he had often gone to church with his mother. Now that he was an adult, he thought returning might solve his problems.
“And the Lord spoke to me in that sermon so vividly it was like he was talking to me,” he said.  I embraced Christ that day. It was the first time I actually made Christ my personal savior. It was a liberating feeling. I felt forgiven. I felt a peace that I’d never felt before. And it was beautiful.”

During that time, he was reunited with his high school sweetheart, Denise. She was also a Christian. They fell in love, and soon, they married and started a family.
“Things started off great,” he said. “And life was good at the beginning. But marriage… I didn’t understand marriage. I was still very immature, and marriage was a lot of work. I felt this great pressure where I just wasn’t the Christian I should have been.”

Little by little, their relationship began to erode.
“We began to part ways as far as emotionally, “ he said.  “We wouldn’t read the bible together. We hardly ever prayed together No intimacy. Our intimacy life died and that led me to go on to sites that I didn’t even know existed. Led to cyber chat lines with other females, cybersex that was there, pornography started to take control of my life. It was that lifestyle that I began to live, which is a double life. And after that it took not even a year before I was finding gratification in other things instead of my wife and my family. And I said I need to leave.”

Then, he started sleeping with other women. Eventually, Will thought it was time to leave, and deserted his family. He went back to his familiar routing of drugs, alcohol and women.
“I was such a mess with relationships. I had multiple relationship, he said.” I was dealing in the nightclubs and the strip clubs because I was empty, empty, empty. My life had become so unmanageable and I was powerless over my life.”

One day while driving, voices started taunting him.
“Voices began to hover me like bees, he said. “Just saying all kinds of voices from ‘You’re a loser’ to ‘God doesn’t love you.’
As he sat at an intersection, they urged him to run the light and slam into an oncoming car.

  “[They said] Come on, just hit the car. You will see this will all disappear,” he said. “And the car got closer and the voices intensified and that’s when I decided to say, and cry out to God and say, ‘If you’re really out there God, are you willing to help me? I need you! Help me! And no longer than I said that, a second didn’t go by, I heard a voice speak to my soul clearly, “You are not a quitter.” Telling me, “I’m here. That’s all I needed you to do is cry for help.”

Will pulled over.
He said, “I began to cry and praise him like I had forgotten to praise him years ago. It’s like the joy of my salvation was coming back. “
Afterward, will wanted to be free once and for all from his addictions. He could only remember one thing that would help- prayer. He asked his family to pray for him.

“As they prayed over me, I began to repent, he said. “It felt like this freedom I had never experienced in my life. I felt like a new me, a revival. I felt liberty in Christ. I felt this weight of letting all my shame out, all my skeletons and my baggage had to come out.”

Through God’s grace and forgiveness, Will says he was able to quit using drugs and alcohol. And after 3 years, Will reunited with his wife and children. He has also reconciled with his father.

“My family, my children saw the power of forgiveness, how God can restore brokenness, Will said. “The worst things we can make, he can patch it back together one day at a time, one stitch at a time it’s like my life was a broken puzzle and everything just fell apart and it was shattered and pieced everywhere.

And day by day, day by day, trusting in him, he’s putting the puzzle back together. And it’s just beauty, beauty, beauty, beauty to see how God has restored my marriage and then he has brought my children together and he’s given me things that I never thought I’d have back. More importantly, my joy, my peace, my love for him, my relationship with him is something that I just treasure now. My God is an awesome God. And he’s a redeemer and I can’t ever thank him enough.”

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Canadian Scientist Stirs Up The Evolution Debate

Daniel Friedmann, long-time President and CEO of Canada's leading aerospace company, is on a mission to demonstrate the scientific accuracy of biblical texts, blurring the boundaries between science and religion.

In his first published book, The Genesis One Code,  Friedmann compares the book of Genesis with everything that is known about science's accepted timeline of Earth and the Universe. He claims he has developed a mathematical formula that converts "Bible time" into years as we know them.

With this formula he can plug in major scientifically accepted events like the age of the universe, the creation of the sun, and life on Earth and have his calculations produce more than 20 Bible/science matches for events described in Genesis.

"Using my formula, I have found at least 20 events that match to exact scientific measurement, the odds seem impossible that this is a mere coincidence," challenged Friedmann.

As explained in his book, Friedmann developed the formula - 1,000 X 365 X 7,000.
"I had been studying the numbers for a while, but it wasn't until I was relaxed and backcountry skiing that I actually figured out the formula," chuckled Friedmann.
"The 1,000 number represents what Psalms in the Bible tells us is one of God's days. The 365 number represents the days in a solar year, and from other studies of the scriptures it has been found that universe was made in seven of God's days, which translates to seven thousand years."

From the equation, Friedman has come up with a ratio of one creation day in Genesis being equivalent to 2.56 billion solar years.
To make his equation accessible to the "common person," Friedmann helped create a free app called Bible Clock that allows users to convert from the biblical timeline of the six days of creation in Genesis to the scientific timeline of billions of years and vice versa.

"I guess my fascination between religion and science really grew in university. The more I studied science, in particular physics and cosmology, the more I realized that science doesn't have all the answers. I found it intriguing that both science and religion didn't have an explanation for what happened in the beginning of time and how our universe came to be. I've been comparing the two ever since," explained Friedmann.
While his book has garnered a lot of praise and debate, Friedmann's credible background is not in question.

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The De-Churched: Why They Left

They left church behind. Now they outnumber those who've stayed.

Why have they turned their backs on a community of believers? What is it about today's church that keeps them away?

Over the last year, while working on a major documentary film that examines America's state of faith and the condition of the church, I've talked with hundreds of people. Many of these are de-churched. They're done with the organized church. In some cases, they're wounded. In other cases, they're simply disinterested.

Last week I interviewed Tony, a father of four young children, who left his church a year ago. He no longer attends any church. Or small group. Or Bible study. He hasn't abandoned his faith in Jesus. He's just done with what Jesus' church has become.

In some ways, he knows too much. He spent 10 years in professional ministry, some of it in a couple of America's well-known large churches. "I'm over the concerts and speeches and the contrived effort to call a gathering of 3,000 people a family," he said.

"What I value now is proximity," he wrote in his blog. "The only leaders I care to hear are those willing to know me and be known. Not in some official capacity over Starbucks with their church credit card in hand. But with a friend, a person living honestly in their own right with no agenda or 'line' to keep–but possessing the strength of character to have their own voice, doubts and convictions."

Tony worries about the hidden curriculum of pastoral leaders who intentionally keep a professional distance from their church members, who avoid forming real relationships. Tony fears the unintended take-away: maybe that's how God operates too. Unwilling to know and be known.

Tony is like a lot of de-churched people. He simply doesn't find value in participating in church as we know it. "I'm detoxing and looking for what remains that is real, that is love, and that is true."

My interview with Tony was sobering. And disturbing. But also encouraging. Because what Tony yearns for . . . is something the church of Jesus can be. If we choose to. He's not looking for perfection or polish or pious professionalism. He's looking for real people who are willing to admit they don't have it all together, but realize we're all in this together. Humbly, fumbly, looking to follow the One who is perfect.
We need Tony–and the millions like him.

Through writing, speaking and leading, Thom has served the faith community for 35 years. He's the founder of Group Publishing and Lifetree Café. He's the author of many books, including "Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at Church." He now devotes much of his time to innovating breakthrough ways to connect regular people to God.

Article by Thom Schultz,  www.holysoup.com

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UN: Both Sides Committing War Crimes in Syria

Syrians in "leadership positions" who may be responsible for war crimes have been identified, along with units accused of perpetrating them, UN investigators say.

Both government forces and armed rebels are committing war crimes, including killings and torture, spreading terror among civilians in a nearly two-year-old conflict, they said on Monday.

The investigators' latest report, covering the six months to mid-January, was based on 445 interviews conducted abroad with victims and witnesses, as they have not been allowed into Syria.
The independent team, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, called on the UN Security Council to "act urgently to ensure accountability" for grave violations, possibly by referring the violators to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

"The international community, and the UN Security Council, must take the decision to refer this to justice," Carla del Ponte, a former UN prosecutor and a member of the commission, said.
"We suggest the International Criminal Court."

War crimes on both sides

The list of suspects, building on lists drawn up in the past year, will remain a secret; it will be entrusted to Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
Pillay, a former judge at the ICC, said on Saturday that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad should be probed for war crimes and called for immediate action by the international community, including possible military intervention.

"The evidence collected sits in the safe in the office of the high commissioner against the day it might be referred to a court and evidence would be examined by a prosecutor," a European diplomat said.

The death toll in Syria is by some estimates approaching 70,000 people, Pillay told the Security Council last week in a fresh appeal for it to refer Syria to the ICC.

Government forces have carried out shelling and aerial bombardment across Syria including Aleppo, Damascus, Deraa, Homs and Idlib, the independent UN investigators said, citing corroborating evidence gathered from satellite images.

"In some incidents, such as in the assault on Harak, indiscriminate shelling was followed by ground operations during which government forces perpetrated mass killing," it said, referring to a town in the southern province of Deraa where residents told them that 500 civilians were killed in August.
"Government forces and affiliated militias have committed extra-judicial executions, breaching international human rights law. This conduct also constitutes the war crime of murder."

They have also targeted queues at bakeries and funeral processions, in violence aimed at "spreading terror among the civilian population", and used cluster bombs, the commission said.
Rebel forces fighting to topple Assad have committed their own war crimes including murder, torture, hostage-taking and using children under age 15 in hostilities.

"They continue to endanger the civilian population by positioning military objectives inside civilian areas," the report said, adding that rebel snipers have caused "considerable civilian casualties".
"The violations and abuses committed by anti-government armed groups did not, however, reach the intensity and scale of those committed by government forces and affiliated militia," the report noted.

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Syrian Opposition Adds Hizbullah Terrorists to Target List

 

The Syrian opposition fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad has added another target to its hit list: the Lebanon-based, Iranian-funded Hizbullah terrorist organization.

 

According to a report published Wednesday in The Washington Post, the Free Syrian Army threatened Tuesday to attack Hizbullah guerrilla fighters not only in Syria, but also on their home territory – Lebanon.

The threat comes just a few days after Hizbullah terrorists were involved in attacking three Syrian villages near the border between the two countries, around the Syrian border town of Qusayr.

"If the Hizbullah shelling on the Syrian land, on the villages and unarmed civilians, from inside the Lebanese land does not stop in the next 48 hours from the release of this statement, we will take matters in our own hands to respond to the source of the shooting and stop it inside Lebanese territory", the Free Syrian Army warned.

Source

Russia Calls for End to Syrian Crisis

 

 

Russia is calling for an end to the nearly two-year crisis in Syria.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday after a meeting with Arab diplomats in Moscow that neither the Syrian government nor rebels can pursue a military solution, saying that is a path to mutual destruction.

Russia has used it veto power in the United Nations Security Council to block three rounds of resolutions against Syria, stressing the need for Syria to find an end to the fighting without foreign interference.

Lavrov's comments come a day after rebels fired mortar rounds at one of President Bashar al-Assad's palaces in Damascus. The strike was the first confirmed by the government close to a presidential building.

Activists also reported a missile strike Tuesday in the northern city of Aleppo that killed at least 31 people. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says approximately 140 people died in fighting across Syria Tuesday. 

 

Source

Expert: Islam Demands Subjugation of Christians

WND.com reports: “Catholic psychologist Dr. William Kilpatrick is warning that Christian Americans are naïve about Islam and working towards their own extinction.

‘We often hear that the true Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a minority of violent extremists,’ Kilpatrick told WND. ‘If that’s true, why not open the books on Islam? Islam deserves the kind of inspection and scrutiny that Christianity has received for decades.’

Kilpatrick, author of ‘Christianity, Islam and Atheism: The Struggle for The Soul of The West,’ said alarms should be sounding.
‘Muhammad said that he came as a ‘warner,’’ wrote Kilpatrick in his book, published in November. ‘Among the banners that can be seen in various Muslim demonstrations in Europe is one that reads, ‘Islam – our religion today, your religion tomorrow.’ For anyone who follows the pronouncements of Islamic religious authorities around the world, there can be little doubt that this is their goal.’

Kilpatrick chronicles Islam’s war on Christian civilization as a war on universal human rights. He cites three factors working against all people of goodwill: cowardice or malice by secular governments, naïve Christian leaders and irreligious or atheist news media preaching indifference.

Indifferentists purport that all religions are equal and valid, except Christianity. Among them are secular media who whitewash Islam’s history and agenda, charging instead that Christianity is guilty of intolerable extremism…”

Source

Video: Egyptian Salafi Cleric Calls to Kill Opposition Leaders

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has posted a video to YouTube which shows a radical Egyptian cleric calling to kill the leaders of the country’s opposition.

The fatwa (Islamic ruling) by Salafi cleric Sheik Mahmoud Shaaban was aired by Al-Hafez TV via the Internet on February 1, 2013.


“The leadership of the National Salvation Front, which clearly aspires to the [presidential] throne, should be killed, according to Islamic law,” Shaaban says in the video. “Are you with me, Dr. ‘Atef? According to Islamic law, they should be killed.”

“The National Salvation Front, which wants the presidency, and whose leadership is setting fire to Egypt, in an effort to gain the presidency, should be killed,” he repeats.
Shaaban is a professor at Sunni Islam's main seat of learning in Egypt, Al-Azhar. His fatwa gives the green light to kill opposition leaders including former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei and ex-presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.

Another hardline cleric, Wagdi Ghoneim, recently urged President Mohammed Morsi to kill “thugs” and “criminals” who are burning the country, otherwise people will do it themselves.
According to an AFP report on Friday, security was stepped up outside the homes of ElBaradei and Sabbahi ahead of anti-Morsi protests throughout Egypt which the opposition had called for.
The Egyptian presidency has condemned the fatwas as "terrorism".

"Some are promoting and inciting political violence while others who claim to speak in the name of religion are permitting ‘killing’ based on political differences and this is terrorism," the presidency said, according to AFP.

Source

Western Links To Terror Attacks Raising Concern That Canadian Passport May Become Tainted

Reports of Canadians involved in two terror attacks are raising new concerns that the Canadian passport might become tainted in the eyes of the world.

The link of two Westerners – a Canadian and an Australian – to a fatal attack in Bulgaria has heightened the fear that Hezbollah and other terrorist groups are deliberately using dual-citizen operatives with the so-called “clean” passports of unassuming, supposedly “low-risk” nations.


That comes on top of an Algerian claim, still unconfirmed in Ottawa’s eyes, that two Canadians, including a ringleader, were involved in the crisis at the Tigantourine gas plant in Algeria, which left at least 38 hostages and 29 attackers dead. The two links are raising uncomfortable questions about whether security services around the world will start to eye Canadians more suspiciously when they cross their borders.

“In all good intelligence services, you look at patterns, you look at trends, you attempt to try to weight things, and say, ‘Given the preponderance of activity with Canadian passport holders, they seem to be representing a higher threat profile, maybe we should take other measures,” said Ray Boisvert, a former assistant director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada’s spy agency.


Foreign intelligence services don’t yet view Canada suspiciously as a source-country for terrorists, Mr. Boisvert said, but he noted that CSIS said last year that 50 to 60 Canadians had left the country to train as terror operatives. “That’s not onesies or twosies. Secondly, we’ve had two back-to-back,” Mr. Boisvert said.

U.S. intelligence officials have already expressed concern over the Canadian link to the Algerian case, even though Ottawa insists it has yet to see the evidence.
But it’s a problem without simple solutions. The Canadian suspect in the Bulgarian bombing, according to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, came to Canada at 8, became a citizen, and returned to Lebanon at 12 – suggesting there’s little Canadian intelligence could have done to intervene. The case put a spotlight on the many dual-citizens living abroad – an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 in Lebanon. But most counterterrorism experts don’t see links to a pair of attacks as reason to place tight restrictions on dual citizenship – and Mr. Kenney insists that’s not “viable.”

Bulgarian investigators have linked last July’s bombing in Burgas – which killed five Israeli tourists, a Bulgarian driver, and the bomber – to the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah. That group has a practice of recruiting overseas sleeper cells, according to Israeli terrorism expert Boaz Ganor, executive director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. But there are also signs that Hezbollah is using dual citizens to conduct terrorist attacks in third countries, using their real passports so they don’t need counterfeited documents.

“When you come in with your real identity, the risk that you will be exposed prior to your attack is much smaller,” Dr. Ganor said. That makes someone with a Canadian passport a useful operative. “It would be easier to move from state to state, from border to border, with the Canadian passport, than for example, a Peruvian passport.”

The actions of the Burgas bombers demonstrate that advantage. Two of the plotters entered the country with real passports, one Canadian and one Australian. Once inside Bulgaria, they adopted false identities using crudely faked Michigan drivers’ licences, counterfeits so bad that a rental-car agency in Pomorie, near Burgas, refused to rent a car to one of the plotters.

Politicians have scrambled for a response: Mr. Kenney has proposed stripping citizenship from those who commit terror acts, but that’s an after-the-fact, symbolic response – not prevention.
Canadians have seen terrorism threaten their easy passage across borders before, notably after Sept. 11, 2001, when U.S. lawmakers repeated false assertions that the attackers entered the U.S. through Canada’s porous borders. The two recent cases raise concerns Canada’s reputation will be challenged again.

“We should take these sorts of incidents very seriously, but we should not overstate the issue,” Mr. Kenney said, arguing most Western nations have bigger problems with “homegrown” terrorists. The Harper government examined dual citizenship after Canada evacuated tens of thousands of Lebanese-Canadians during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Mr. Kenney noted. Revoking citizenship for those who leave Canada for years, he said, “is not a viable idea.”

Mr. Kenney said the government is increasing efforts to ensure that those who do become Canadian citizens have greater ties to the country – increasing checks to ensure immigrants have lived in Canada for three years before becoming citizens, and tests of attachment, like requirements citizens speak English or French and understand Canada’s democratic “values.”

Source

Tunisian President's Party Quits Coalition Government

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki’s secular party is quitting the coalition government in anger at the dominant Islamist party’s handling of the country’s worst political crisis since it unleashed the Arab Spring uprisings two years ago.

The move by the Congress for the Republic party threatens to deepen the crisis, prompted by the assassination of an opposition leader last week.

Marzouki was a longtime human rights activist whose ascension to the presidency was seen as a sign of Tunisia’s democratic progress after it overthrew a longtime authoritarian president in 2011.

The centre-left Congress for the Republic party, which Marzouki founded, said Sunday that it is quitting the coalition government, the state news agency TAP reported. The party had wanted negotiations on a new government.

The coalition government is currently led by the Islamist Ennahda party, which dominated Tunisia’s first free elections. Marzouki’s party and the secular Ettakatol party also held some government seats.
Fringe violence by radical Islamists has mounted in Tunisia, and secular critics of Ennahda accuse the party of not doing enough to stop the extremists.

The shooting death on Wednesday of opposition leader Chokri Belaid — one of Ennahda’s most outspoken critics — sparked nationwide protests and calls for a new government.

The prime minister, an Ennahda member, wants to form a new government of non-political technocrats. But Ennahda party leadership rejects that idea. A crucial party council is meeting Sunday to discuss what to do.

After three days of street violence, the capital Tunis was relatively quiet Sunday, under the watchful eye of riot police.

Professor Khaled Adouani expressed hope Sunday that the government would find a “disciplined” solution to the crisis, noting that a pro-Ennahda rally in Tunis ended peacefully. “We must not in these delicate circumstances think about anything else other than legality,” he said.

Musician Imed Amar, however, echoed concern about a divide within Ennahda between moderates and hard-liners. “Things are getting complicated, the disagreements are growing inside the Ennahda itself,” the 29-year-old said.

Source: The Globe and Mail

UK: Over 40,000 Teachers ‘Face Sack’ Over Gay Marriage

More than 40,000 teachers say they will probably refuse to teach about “the importance of” same-sex marriage, according to a new poll.
And 56 per cent of teachers believe any colleague who takes such a stance risks damaging their career.

The survey has led to concerns that tens of thousands of teachers may face being sacked or disciplined over their views, because of how legislation is worded.
It comes ahead of an important vote on redefining marriage in the House of Commons tomorrow.

The poll, conducted by ComRes, found that one in ten teachers say they are likely to refuse to teach about gay marriage.
It also uncovered that a further 17 per cent of teachers, 74,000, said they would probably teach the importance of gay marriage but “wouldn’t be happy about it.”

The results come as a leading employment lawyer warned of the effect redefining marriage would have on teachers.
John Bowers QC explained that legislation currently “gives a privilege to marriage in the school curriculum”.
However if same-sex marriage was brought in to law, the current definition of marriage would change.

Mr Bowers said: “The stark position in my view is that a Christian teacher (or indeed any teacher with a conscientious objection) may have to teach about (and positively portray) a notion of marriage (and its importance for family life) which they may find deeply offensive.”

“If the Marriage Bill becomes law, schools could lawfully discipline a teacher who refused to teach materials endorsing same sex marriage.”

Responding to the survey of teachers Campaign Director for the Coalition for Marriage, Colin Hart, said: “As this recent poll shows, tens of thousands of teachers face the real prospect of being disciplined, or sacked, over the Government’s proposals to redefine marriage, creating a poisonous atmosphere in every staffroom in every school.

“The legislation contains no safeguards for those who work in the public sector.
“The quadruple lock is not sustainable and instead of answering these questions the PM plans to ram this bill through Parliament in just a few months, including having to appoint 50 new peers to ensure the measure is not rejected by the Lords.”

Mr Hart concluded: “There has been very little good news for the PM just days ahead of the Second Reading vote on the Government’s gay marriage bill, which he is expected to win.

“What puzzles most people is why, when the economy continues to flat line, and he has consistently failed to implement policies that were actually in his manifesto, he decides to press on with this profoundly undemocratic and unpopular policy?

“As those within his party are saying, Mr Cameron is no Tony Blair and this policy will not be his Clause 4 moment, but his Iraq War moment. It’s time he ditched these plans, or finds the courage to put the change to the British people in a referendum.”
The ComRes poll questioned 500 teachers between 21 and 31 January about the Government’s plans to redefine marriage. It is a representative sample of the nearly 440,000 teachers in England.

Source

Ravi Zacharias On Christ and The Bible

One of the most articulate Christian Apologists in the world today, Ravi Zacharias discusses an assortment of topics including why Christianity, the flaws in atheism, and the flaws of Islam.

Big Shock To Big Bang Theory

According to astronomers a recently discovered group of quasars exceeds in size anything previously believed possible, requiring a fundamental revision of cosmological theory.

But perhaps the real mystery is how the scientific media failed to acknowledge that discoveries of this sort were predicted by one of the 20th century's leading astronomers, Halton Arp.

Many years ago, Arp observed that astronomers were misinterpreting quasar redshift, placing these objects at the boundaries of observable space. Quasars, he said, are much closer than assumed and nothing like the size required by the standard interpretation of redshift.