Islam

A clash of civilizations between the West and Islam is not inevitable, asserts the head of the U.S. Catholic community’s official international humanitarian agency.

“In his recent speech in Cairo to the Muslim world, he (President Obama) sought out the common ground and values that unite all people of good will, noting that America and Islam ‘share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings,'” noted Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, over the weekend.

“As someone who leads a humanitarian organization that works in the five nations in the world with the largest Muslim populations, I could not agree more,” he stated. more >>

Although President Obama’s speech was generally hailed as successful in placing the U.S. and the Muslim world on better terms, some Christians and Muslims found fault with what he chose not to say.

For some Christian leaders, the speech was “brilliant” in terms making America more presentable to the Muslim world, but it failed to address the important issue of unequal treatment of religious minorities in Islamic countries compared to Western nations.

These critics took issue with Obama’s seeming to gloss over problems in Muslim countries, with some even saying the president seems more “pro-Islam” than “pro-Christian.” more >>

Last week, the FBI arrested four members of a would-be terrorist cell in New York. While the arrests eliminated the immediate threat from this particular group, it highlighted a much bigger threat: the spawning of terrorism in American prisons.

The four men, allegedly angered by the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan, had planned to bomb several synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down a military plane using a Stinger missile. Happily, the plastic explosives and the Stinger missile they planned on using were fake. The FBI, acting on a tip from another member of their mosque, penetrated the cell, sold them fake equipment and foiled the plot.

Maybe they were “relatively unsophisticated,” but their rage was well-developed. Their leader considered Jews “the source of all problems in America.” They “wanted to make a statement” by targeting synagogues and destroying military aircraft. more >>

A used book ministry, as of this month, is sending Christian books and Bibles to prisons in all 50 U.S. states, according to an announcement Tuesday.

Though Christian Library International was founded in 1996, the ministry only began distributing Christian literature to prisons in 2003. But within a few years, CLI saw the great demand inside U.S. prisons and focused exclusively on providing such materials to inmates.

The ministry has grown from 32 outreaches to now over 1,000, supplying to U.S. prisons, jails and youth detention centers. more >>

Security officers in Iran recently arrested five newly converted Christians and the leader of the house church they were meeting in, reported a Farsi Christian news agency.

The authorities were in plain clothes when they raided the house church located in the northern city of Karaj, according to sources of Farsi Christian News Network. The arrested Christians were gathering in the house church for worship and Bible study during the raid.

According to FCNN sources, no arrest or search warrant was given by the security officers to the house church leader when they invaded his house. more >>