Following the fatwa issued by a Muslim Brotherhood mufti, congratulating Copts on the Easter holiday was prohibited.

There have also been a number of recent calls made to prevent the celebration of Sham al-Nessim, an Egyptian national holiday marking the beginning of spring, which is celebrated the day after Eastern Christians Easter, which is also recognized as an official state holiday.

Fliers were distributed in the governorate of Beni Suef, outside of Cairo, which read "Sham el-Nessim is Not Our Holiday," and included a fatwa prohibiting citizens from celebrating the holiday. more >>

While publications like the Daily Beast and Mother Jones and networks like NPR are exposing the scandal of – gasp – Evangelical adoptions, perhaps they should cover a different religious scandal. Thanks to Jim Geraghty's must-read Morning Jolt e-mail (subscribe if you haven't — it's consistently my favorite read of the day), I ran across this chart from The Economist detailing Muslim attitudes towards Sharia law and apostasy:

Read it and weep. In Egypt, for example, more than 70 percent of the public supports Sharia law, and almost 90 percent of those individuals also support executing those who leave Islam. I feel comfortable saying this is a problem, a much, much greater problem than any alleged American "Islamophobia," and if we turn away from these statistics and believe the fault for continued jihadist bloodshed lies primarily within us — or is primarily the fault of Israel — then we are truly willfully blind.

To be clear, I do not share this chart as evidence of the nature of "true Islam." Unlike our recent presidents, I don't claim to understand the religion so deeply as to pontificate on its true nature. In fact, this chart shows considerable diversity of views (if only Egypt were like Kazakhstan), and I know many Muslims who not only are marvelous people but have provided indispensable help in the war against jihadist terror. Instead, I defy anyone to read this and argue that there aren't deep cultural problems — tied directly to religious belief — in vast and important swathes of the Muslim world. more >>

An independent panel has made ten suggestions for Bible translating ministries Wycliffe Global Alliance and SIL International, after being asked to review their practices in light of various translation controversies, including interpretation for a Muslim context.

The panel, organized by the World Evangelical Alliance, wrote in one of its suggestions that it recognized "that there is significant potential for misunderstanding of the words for 'father' and 'son' when applied to God, and that in languages shaped by Islamic cultures, the potential is especially acute and the misunderstandings likely to prove especially harmful to the reader's comprehension of the gospel."

The panel recommended that translators consider the addition of qualifying words and/or phrases (explanatory adjectives, relative clauses, prepositional phrases, or similar modifiers) to the directly-translated words for "father" and "son," in order to avoid misunderstanding. more >>

More than half of evangelical Christians (52 percent) view Islam as "essentially a violent religion," a new report from Barna Group reveals, though only about a quarter (26 percent) of all American adults feel the same way.

Despite the general perception of Islam within the evangelical community, 68 percent of evangelicals agree with the statement: "Peace between Christians and Muslims is possible." Researchers also found that 79 percent of mainline Christians, 82 percent of college graduates and 75 percent of all American adults also believe such peace is possible.

The report indicates that those who associate with different religious groups tend to view Islam differently. Only 30 percent of non-evangelical born again Christians, 26 percent of Catholics and 20 percent of people who are agnostic or have no faith also consider Islam to be violent. In contrast, 62 percent of people who are agnostic or who have no faith agree that "Islam is essentially a peaceful religion," and 59 percent of Catholics, 47 percent of non-evangelical born again Christians and 27 percent of evangelicals agree. more >>

The mother of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has seemingly confirmed suspicion that religion played a major part in the attack last week, revealing that her son had told her he was ready to die for Islam.

Twenty-six-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed on Friday morning in a shootout with police, while his younger brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured later that day and placed in custody. The Boston Marathon bombings killed three people and wounded more than 200, shutting down the entire city as a large manhunt was launched for the suspects.

Various reports have since come out trying to pinpoint a motive for the attack, but what has been determined so far is that the brothers, from Chechnyan origin, began following a radical version of Islam sometime in the last few years while living in the U.S. Authorities have said they appear to have no ties to any established terrorist groups, but they had been attending a mosque in Boston with radical connections. more >>

Last week, when it became clear that some radical Muslims were behind the bombing, the question came up as to why? What was the motive? It's the same motive that has caused so much of the violence of radical Muslims all over the world; it's basically men seeking eternity in Paradise.

I'm thankful that as a Christian, I can know that I am going to heaven. Not because I'm good; not by works---that is my works; but certainly by the work of Christ at the cross.

John the Apostle writes, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." more >>