Islamists in Syrian city offer Christians safety -- at a heavy price

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From CNN.com: Islamist militants have told Christians in a northern Syrian city that they will guarantee their safety. But there’s a catch.

Make that a lot of catches.

Christian residents of Raqqa, once one of the nation’s most liberal cities, will have to pay as much as 17 grams of gold per adult male in an annual payment, the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said in a statement posted online this week.

The group is also forbidding the city’s Christians from repairing or refurbishing their churches and monasteries, said the statement, which has been circulated in the city, according to Syrian activists.

See the rest of the story at: cnn.com/2014/02/28/world/meast/syria-raqqa-isis-christians/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

Any thoughts?
 
My only thoughts are to pray for the Christians being persecuted and for the conversion of their persecutors.

:gopray:
 
rfournier103 said:
From CNN.com: Islamist militants have told Christians in a northern Syrian city that they will guarantee their safety. But there’s a catch.

Make that a lot of catches.

Christian residents of Raqqa, once one of the nation’s most liberal cities, will have to pay as much as 17 grams of gold per adult male in an annual payment, the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said in a statement posted online this week.

The group is also forbidding the city’s Christians from repairing or refurbishing their churches and monasteries, said the statement, which has been circulated in the city, according to Syrian activists.

See the rest of the story at: cnn.com/2014/02/28/world/meast/syria-raqqa-isis-christians/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

Any thoughts?
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This is what is meant by a sharia state.
 
I am glad to see this on CNN, a mainstream media outlet. For too long, this sort of story has been ignored.

Of course, very sad that it is happening. But the only way to stop it is for the world to unite against persecution of Christians.
 
Why don’t some of the free Muslims speak up? Why is there not a world council of Muslim scholars that condemn this sort of translation of the Quran?
 
JourneyForTruth said:
Why don’t some of the free Muslims speak up? Why is there not a world council of Muslim scholars that condemn this sort of translation of the Quran?
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Because that is the accepted translation of the Koran. For example,

On taxes or jizya
Exemption from the Jizya has become an incentive to encourage Zimmis to relinquish their faith and embrace Islam.
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Sheik Najih Ibrahim Ibn Abdulla summarizes the purpose of the Jizya. He says, quoting Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, that the Jizya is enacted:
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“…to spare the blood (of the Zimmis), to be a symbol of humiliation of the infidels and as an insult and punishment to them, and as the Shafiites indicate, the Jizya is offered in exchange for residing in an Islamic country." Thus Ibn Qayyim adds, "Since the entire religion belongs to God, it aims at humiliating ungodliness and its followers, and insulting them. Imposing the Jizya on the followers of ungodliness and oppressing them is required by God's religion. The Qur'anic text hints at this meaning when it says: until they give the tribute by force with humiliation.’ (Qur’an 9:29). What contradicts this is leaving the infidels to enjoy their might and practice their religion as they wish so that they would have power and authority.”
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Can we trust “answering islam.org”, It seems to be written by very enthusiastic evangelicals?

There are so many Muslim authorities figures how do we know WHO speaks for the official interpretation Islam’s sources. For instances the web link says, “Mawdudi, a prominent Pakistani Muslim scholar, summarizes” who is he to speak?

Is there a white paper that all Islam would follow like the catechism?​

To answer my question, I looked back at the forward and saw, “attempts to examine these laws as they are stated by the Four Schools of the Fiqh (jurisprudence)”.

There it’s only an attempt, I doubt even the Islam followers do not really know what to believe.
 
JourneyForTruth said:
Can we trust “answering islam.org”, It seems to be written by very enthusiastic evangelicals?

There are so many Muslim authorities figures how do we know WHO speaks for the official interpretation Islam’s sources. For instances the web link says, “Mawdudi, a prominent Pakistani Muslim scholar, summarizes” who is he to speak?

Is there a white paper that all Islam would follow like the catechism?
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No, but there are three or four very prominent schools whose judgement on what is or isn’t legitimately Islamic are esteemed and carry a lot of weight among Muslims.

If liberal Muslims could quote any of the experts from these schools in order to create space between themselves and the Syrian Islamists, they most certainly would be speaking up.

As it is, there is not a lot that they could say which would carry any weight, for none of the prominent schools would offer them any support on this matter.
 
JourneyForTruth said:
Why don’t some of the free Muslims speak up? Why is there not a world council of Muslim scholars that condemn this sort of translation of the Quran?
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That is like asking why there isn’t a world council of Christians to provide a common voice of beliefs. We Catholics have the Magisterium; the Protestants have their own understandings, each to his-or-her own. Even among common creeds there is great division (i.e, the Anglican (Episcopalian) Communion, the Presbyterian Church of the USA (PCUSA), etc.)

We need to remember that traditionally, the Islamists are considered (even by themselves) to be descendents of Ishmael. We can see what Scripture says is the destiny of the descendents of Ishmael:

[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 16:12[/BIBLEDRB]

The part about “against all his brethren” can also be translated to mean that his descendents will settle outside and next to the Promised Land, but will never settle inside there; or that he will always be at odds with his kin.
 
I found this in my bookmarks. It’s a prayer to Our Lady of Good Remedy, who was the patron of the Trinitarians. This was a religious order dedicated to ransoming Christians from the Islamic slave markets. Naturally, this would take a lot of money, so they put their fund-raising efforts under the care of Mary and were very successful.

I think we need to start praying to her to help the Christians in all the Syrian cities.

This attachment is from the “Catholic Home and Garden” web site. It’s been edited to fit on a single page as a PDF file.:
 
We are Jesus’ hands and feet on earth. We need to pray and DO something to help these people.

One thing that is very easy to do if you live in the U.S. is to let your congress people KNOW that you care about this issue. If every Christian in the U.S. wrote letters, it would have an impact.

Almost exactly a year ago, a resolution calling for the protection of religious minority rights and freedoms in the Arab world was introduced. It is STILL sitting in committee, with little chance of getting beyond because the congress people KNOW that (in general) Americans don’t give a hoot about Christians being persecuted and killed.

govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hres106
religiousfreedomcoalition.org/2013/11/01/senator-inhofe-urges-kerry-to-defend-religious-liberty-in-middle-east/
 
The Obama admin encouraged this civil war. And this is what always seems to come from it when there’s a revolt in these Islamic countries. It always ends up in chaos with Christians getting persecuted. They gave Obama the Nobel Peace prize as soon as he was first elected without knowing anything about him other than that he was the first black American president. People seemed to believe that Obama would usher in a kind of utopia on earth. But since that time we have seen chaos, death, and destruction, called “revolutions”, quickly spreading from place to place.

“But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4
 
Muzhik said:
That is like asking why there isn’t a world council of Christians to provide a common voice of beliefs.
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At college here we have “Free Muslims” which means they do not attach to the extremist/ conservatives. My question is why don’t the free Muslims in America with their individual Mosque and Imam’s demonstrate or at least speak out against this sort of extremist Islam? Why doesn’t the Muslim weekly print something against this sort of discrimination?

America may have 30 thousand protestant religions but they generally have one authority for their dogmas, one pastor one creed.

In Wiki; According to Muslim tradition, when Abraham left Ishmael to die in the desert Mecca sprang up from the well.
 
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