Egypt holds 3 suspects in church slayings

CAIRO – Three suspects in a drive-by shooting that killed six Christians and a Muslim guard in an attack on Coptic Christmas Eve were captured by police Friday.
Egyptian security forces had blanketed the area between the village of Farshout and the town of Nag Hamadi, where the slayings occurred early Thursday, and flushed the suspects out of dense sugar cane fields, the state MENA news agency reported.
Early Thursday, gunmen opened fire on a crowd of worshippers leaving midnight Mass for Coptic Orthodox Christmas Eve.
The Interior Ministry called the shooting revenge for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man in the town.
The attack was the worst to target Christians in Egypt in nearly a decade.
Copts, descendants of the original inhabitants of Egypt, make up most of the 8 million Christians in this country of 80 million people.
The Associated Press

Four Malaysian churches firebombed after court rules Christians may use ‘Allah’

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan 9, 2010 / 01:12 am (CNA).- Four churches in and around Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia have been firebombed in the continued reaction to a court ruling that Christians may use the word “Allah.”
One attack destroyed the first-floor offices of the three-story Metro Tabernacle Church. The Times reported that the worship hall itself was undamaged, but Kevin Ang, a church spokesman, said that the church is “90 percent gutted.”
Ang also reported that witnesses saw two persons on a motorbike who approached the entrance and threw in what looked like a petrol bomb.
Minor damage was caused in petrol bomb attacks on three other churches, one of them Catholic, in the adjacent town of Petaling Java, the Times reports.
Angry protests and cyber attacks on the website of the Herald, the Catholic newspaper involved in the case, followed the Malaysian High Court’s Dec. 31 ruling. The court said that the paper, Malaysia’s largest Catholic newspaper, may use “Allah,” also a traditional Malay word, to name the Christian God.
The high court suspended its ruling on Wednesday in anticipation of a government appeal.
Muslim preachers used Friday prayers to object to the decision, the Times reports.
“We will not allow the word Allah to be inscribed in your churches,” one speaker said at the Kampung Bahru mosque in central Kuala Lumpur. Protesters also carried posters reading “Heresy arises from words wrongly used” and “Allah is only for us.”
Muslims are a small majority in Malaysia, which has large Chinese and Indian populations who follow Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Most of the readers of the Herald are Christian tribespeople in the states of Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo.
In a Wednesday statement the Herald editor Fr. Andrew Lawrence told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that the paper believed the website attacks were designed to create a “climate of fear” and a “perceived threat to national security” in order to pressure the court to reverse its decision.
“We are Malaysians and we want to live in peace and happiness,” Fr. Lawrence added.

Did Jesus oppose capitalism, as Moore argues?

Michael Moore, director of Capitalism: A Love Story, says you can’t be a religious Christian and a capitalist. (Chris Pizzello / AP)ndre

Would Jesus Christ — the founder of the largest religion in the world, unequivocally recognized as a messenger of peace and love — support capitalism?
It’s one of the questions filmmaker Michael Moore, the well-known creator of documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine and Sicko, asks in his latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story.
In Capitalism, the filmmaker wonders whether Christ would support a system that, as the filmmaker stated, "has allowed the richest one per cent to have more financial wealth than the 95 per cent under them combined."
Moore, a Roman Catholic, argues that Jesus’ commandments to care for others and feed the poor and hungry go against the love of money and greed that make up capitalism. He argues that one cannot be a religious Christian and a capitalist.
Clement Mehlman, a Lutheran chaplain at Dalhousie University, agrees.
"Jesus was a Jewish peasant, coming from an underprivileged tradition Himself, so He would have been what we would call a communist or a socialist," he says. "And there are elements of communism in descriptions of early Christian communities. They pooled their resources. There was not independent wealth, there was communal wealth."
The idea that Christ preached a socialist message would probably scare some conservative believers, but Mehlman has no problem with that.
"Jesus says to follow Him, you have to give everything you own to the poor," he says with a wry smile. "How many Christians do you see doing that? It’s a text that should be thrown at the wealthy fat cats."
While Mehlman does not see capitalism as being compatible with the Christian faith, Rev. Gary Thorne, an Anglican minister and chaplain with Dalhousie and the Canadian Forces Reserves, thinks Christians should take a second look at the system.
"There’s nothing wrong with the free market system in itself," he says. "It’s how it’s used. I don’t think there’s anything inherently evil in the free market system, in supply and demand and the exchanging of goods."
He argues that the problem is not capitalism, but what people bring to it — in particular, greed and desire for wealth.
The intent of the heart is crucial in any system, Thorne says. For him, Jesus’ message is not about the market system, but about the people who make up the market.
"If the poor are those who are opposed, marginalized, persecuted and forgotten, then clearly Jesus would have us look at these people, really look them in the eye, and be with them, not just write them a cheque."
He also draws upon church history, and the beliefs of the church’s most important figures, in making his argument.
"Martin Luther, John Calvin, they were really clear. They were entirely in favour of a free market system."
He says leaders like Luther viewed it as motivation to work hard, both to earn an income and to please God.
But the most important part about acquiring wealth is the willingness to share it, Thorne says. And part of that sharing comes through paying taxes.
"Any Christian who says that we pay too much in taxes is just bonkers," he says. "They should want to give more of their money to taxes, so the government can use the money to take care of the poor."
Thorne believes the core of capitalism is working hard to acquire wealth, but that one should be willing to use the wealth to help others.
"If you acquire a great deal of wealth, you should be happy to be taxed at 75 per cent because you can live comfortably with the 25 per cent you keep."
While Mehlman thinks Jesus would question capitalism, and believes that the government cannot do the work of the church, Thorne sees no problem with a free market, but is in favour of the government raising taxes to fulfill the command to feed the poor.
Is there middle ground between the two?
Russell Daye, a minister at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax, thinks so.
"I don’t think Jesus was flat out opposed to capitalism," he says. "He lived in what can best be described as a free market, and He contributed to it. Economies back then worked with small pools of capital, which is literally what capitalism is. But what capitalism has become now is a system filled with greed that has proven it can’t maintain itself."
Daye says that capitalism fails when greed takes precedence over compassion.
"Look at globalization. What we’ve seen with rampant, unchecked globalization is First World countries hurting the Second and Third Worlds, through child labour, destroying the environment and taking away land."
Daye says Jesus would never approve of that.
Then how should Christians respond to a system that is rampant with greed and lust for money?
Rev. Brad Close, a Christian Reformed minister, says they should try to avoid supporting it as much as possible.
"If someone wants to follow Christ, they have to realize where the money they spend is going," he says.
He encourages Christians to boycott large corporations that exploit workers or the environment, and suggests buying fairly traded products instead.
Those who claim to want to follow the teachings of Christ, but wilfully profit from an unjust system, need to realize the harm they are causing to community, he says.
"You need to come to a point where you realize what you’re doing is wrong. In that case, change it from the inside, or get out. Those are the only two choices."
Ultimately, despite some disagreement among theologians, Moore’s argument that Jesus opposed capitalism — at least, the money worshipping form of capitalism that has grown in his country — has found much support within the Christian community.
Even Pope Benedict XVI, in his most recent encyclical, condemned the greed-driven, free market systems that helped to cause the economic collapse. He also said people’s attitudes towards money must change.
It appears that the ultra-progressive Moore may have finally found an opinion with which Christians agree.
Andrew Clumpus is a journalism student at the University of King’s College, Halifax.

Media Homosexuals Bash Uganda's Christians

The Washington Post editorial page has now joined lesbian MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow in blasting the government of Uganda for considering a law to protect children from homosexual predators and the dangerous public health impact of the homosexual lifestyle. Despite its moderate views on some foreign policy issues, the Post has always come down firmly on the side of making homosexuality into a special right that should be protected and even glorified by governmental institutions. Now it wants to impose that view on Uganda's mostly Christian population.

The editorial was probably written by Post editorial writer and homosexual activist Jonathan Capehart, who wrote a blog post on January 5 griping about the Ugandan bill. Like Maddow, who has been campaigning against the legislation, Capehart falsely claimed it would make homosexuality "a crime punishable by death."

"If the law passes, Uganda should be punished by the international community," Capehart thundered. "I would love for the U.S. to strip the country of foreign aid. Nothing focuses the mind like cash deprivation."

The Post editorial says the proposed Ugandan law against homosexual conduct, including the deliberate spreading of the AIDS virus, is "homophobic" and will "foment hate." In fact, the bill is designed to save lives by curtailing the spread of homosexual conduct and a disease that kills millions.

The determination of this major paper to use its influence to impose acceptance of homosexuality on Uganda, possibly using foreign aid as a lever, is not something that generates outrage or even concern in the rest of the nation's media. Rather, a humorous skit on the David Letterman show about Obama's first openly transgender appointment is what has led to a media firestorm, with publicized demands from various "gay rights" groups for apologies from Letterman to avoid "violence" and "hate."

The silly Media Matters group is even claiming that WorldNetDaily is guilty of "bigotry" for referring to the appointee as Mitchell rather than Amanda Simpson. Mitchell was the name before the man had sex-change surgery.

There is a determined effort to prevent the media from reporting a natural reaction of revulsion to this kind of perversion. Part of that effort includes accepting the terminology of the "gay" community.

But some aren't buying. "This is a man-and by the way he is a man; he's not a woman-who is one of the leaders in crusading for so-called 'civil rights' based on gender-confused behavior," Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth was quoted as saying by onenewsnow.com "Gender identity disorder" is "a recognized mental illness that should be treated-not affirmed and protected," points out Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Indeed, according to WebMD, "Gender identity disorder typically is diagnosed by a trained mental health professional (psychiatrist or psychologist)."

But thanks to the financial largesse of George Soros, who puts money into such groups as Simpson's National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, the "right" to be highlighted as a "transgender" individual is being presented as fact.

The Post seems to find normal heterosexuality, not gender identity confusion, to be a disorder. It had previously condemned General Peter Pace for expressing his view that homosexuality is immoral. The Post was also one of the first papers to run "gay marriage" announcements.

It is clear that Jonathan Capehart's basic problem is with the Christian character of the opposition to his lifestyle.

The Uganda motto is "For God and My Country." Its national anthem, "Oh Uganda, Land of Beauty," includes the words:

"Oh, Uganda! may God uphold thee,

We lay our future in thy hand;

United, free for liberty

together we'll always stand."

This kind of language rubs some people in liberal-left circles the wrong way. Look at how "progressives" in the media are going ballistic because Brit Hume of Fox News suggested that Tiger Woods accept the Christian faith in order to clean up his life.

Capehart, a former officer of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, used to specialize in covering gay sex clubs, supposedly to expose their unsafe sexual practices. "At the YMCA after a swim, Jonathan Capehart, naked, frequently lingers under the wallmounted driers and observes men beckoning from the adjacent toilet stall," is how POZ magazine covered one of Capehart's adventures into the homosexual culture. It was an assignment, the magazine explained, for the New York Daily News, where he previously worked. He became such an expert that he emerged as a contributor to the volume, "Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism."

The Post says sponsors of the bill in Uganda are "ignorant." But perhaps they don't want the gay sex clubs that Capehart "exposed" to start appearing in their country.

What you will NOT learn from the Post editorial is that Uganda, which is 85 percent Christian, is still trying to recover from a time when King Mwanga forced his homosexuality and pedophilia on others. After Uganda began to convert to Christianity in the 1800s, a group of young Catholic Christian men, led by Charles Lwanga, refused to be sodomized by the King. As a result, they were tortured and killed. The executions are now remembered on June 3, Martyrs' Day, a national holiday in Uganda. Lwanga was made a Saint in the Catholic Church.

"We respect a nation's right to defend its culture and values," the Post says. But it won't explain why Uganda wants to defend its culture and values against the homosexual movement, which was started in this country by a supporter of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, Harry Hay.

While the Uganda bill goes too far even for pro-family activists in the United States and several provisions will probably be eliminated or modified before final passage, it does not advocate the death penalty for being homosexual. Instead, the death penalty is proposed for cases of "aggravated homosexuality," mostly involving pedophilia and rape. The bill was introduced by a Ugandan parliamentarian named David Bahati, a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement and a Christian.

While opposing anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda, Capehart is a cheerleader for Obama's pro-homosexual agenda here.

Capehart supports Obama's threat to homosexualize the Armed Forces, saying in a blog post on April 15, 2009, that "Gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve. They should be allowed to serve openly."

Capehart was taking issue with an op-ed in the Post by the founding members of Flag and General Officers for the Military, who said that, in their experience, and that of more than 1,000 retired flag and general officers who had signed an open letter to President Obama and Congress, repeal of the law against open homosexuality in the military "would prompt many dedicated people to leave the military." They noted that polling by the Military Times publication of its active-duty subscribers over the past four years indicates that 58 percent have consistently opposed repeal and that, in its most recent survey, 10 percent said they would not reenlist if that happened, and 14 percent said they would consider leaving.

When he is not writing editorials promoting the homosexual movement, he is participating in it.

Capehart traveled to San Francisco in December, where he appeared at the 25th International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, along with openly "gay politicians" such as Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jared Polis, D-Colo.

Another speaker at the event was Jim Kolbe, an openly homosexual former Republican member of Congress who came under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix because of a 1996 camping trip he took with two male former pages, both of them 17-years-old. No charges were filed, however.

The conference program features an ad from LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered) elected officials saying they would "resist" campaign contributions from the tobacco industry because of the threat to public health posed by smoking. However, a workshop at the conference noted that HIV/AIDS "is still a deadly disease and a major health concern for the LGBT community," almost 30 years after HIV was first identified.

According to federal figures, 77 percent of adults and adolescents living with AIDS in the U.S. are male. Of this figure, 61 percent got AIDS through homosexual relations and another eight percent through homosexual relations and drug abuse. Perhaps Ugandan politicians understand the significance of these numbers.

The FAIR Foundation points out that AIDS gets far more federal money for research than 16 diseases that kill a million more people a year. But don't look for Capehart to write a Post editorial on the unfairness of this.

At a time when WorldNetDaily is reporting that the White House initially refused to publicly confirm the presidential appointment of the first openly "transgender" individual to a federal post, possibly out of embarrassment over the anticipated public reaction, it turns out that John Berry, director of Obama's Office of Personnel Management, was at the San Francisco conference with Capehart. Berry is described as "the Obama administration's highest ranking gay appointee" and probably had some role in-or knowledge of-the appointment.

Out of fear of the media reaction, most conservative politicians will be reluctant to even call for an investigation of this appointment.

On Tuesday, as reported by the New York Times, the Obama administration went one step further, inserting language into the federal jobs website explicitly banning employment discrimination based on "gender identity," even though Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council pointed out that "Congress has never passed a law saying that."

Don't look for a Post editorial from Capehart taking issue with Obama's use of executive power to benefit this special interest group.

"This new policy applies only to the federal government," Perkins says. "But there is a bill being considered in Congress, the so-called 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act' (ENDA), which would require every employer in America to open every position to homosexuals (by making 'sexual orientation' a protected category) and 'transgenders' (by protecting 'gender identity')."

Perkins says, "All American employers including Christian-owned businesses and potentially Christian ministries would be affected."

Russia Celebrates Orthodox Christmas

In Russia, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the Catholic Christmas. Orthodox Christians all over the country observed Christmas Eve on Wednesday and early Thursday morning.

[Tamara, Parishioner]:
"Christmas is a great celebration for all orthodox Christians. It's renewal, it's good; beauty and hope for a light future."

Mass began late on Wednesday evening. In Moscow, more than 800 churches held mass. And millions of people attended mass all over the country.

[Yekaterina, Parishioner]:
“As usual we are expecting only the best in the year to come. You always have hopes. You always think the life will be better."

According to Russian Orthodox tradition, Christmas is first observed with an evening mass, and then the celebration with family and friends occurs the following day. The mass lasts for several hours. Orthodox midnight mass concludes a four-week fast.
    
The Russian, Georgian Orthodox, Serbian and Jerusalem churches, Athos monasteries, some Protestants and some Catholics celebrate Christmas on January 7, according to the Julian calendar.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Orthodox Church decided to follow the old Julian calendar, which lags almost two weeks behind the new Gregorian calendar of all other Christians.

After the 1917 revolution, Christmas was banned in Russia. But Russians started to celebrate Christmas again only years later, with the break-up of the Soviet Union.
 

North Korea remains on top of watch list for Christian persecution

A women's prison at the border of North Korea at Dandong. North Korea tops a list of nations persecuting Christians for the eighth consecutive year.

For the eighth consecutive year North Korea tops the list of 50 countries regarded as the worst persecutors of Christians.
Open Doors USA has sponsored the list since 1991. The ministry supplies Christians around the globe often worshiping in secret for fear of reprisals with basic necessities and biblical material.
The list is compiled through questionnaires to field staff and other experts, said Open Doors advocacy director Lindsay Vessey. She said that Open Doors has people in 46 of the 50 countries on the list and distinguished it from State Department statistics which focus on persecution of all faiths.
While North Korea remaining on top of the list may not be surprising because of the well-known Stalinist oppression practiced by dictator King Jong-Il’s regime, Vessey said risks for Christians worshipping in secret continue to deteriorate. She said government attempts to restrict movement by assigned specific jobs or workforces to its citizens prompted the ministry to stop its shipments of food and Christian literature into the country.
“There were two of these (work detail programs) one right after the other and our people there asked us to continue in faith (with shipments),” she said. “Christians continue to meet in secret with the threat of being placed in a political prison or labor camps.”
Also in the top 10 are three countries with a high value of interest to American foreign policy.
Iran is second on the list amid the ongoing unrest since the heavily disputed re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last summer. Street battles between demonstrators demanding more openness and government forces have ebbed and flowed for months.
“With all the news that has come out of Iran in the past year there has been no focus on the fact that there has been a real crackdown on Christians during that time,” Vessey said.
Afghanistan, where 30,000 more U.S. troops are scheduled to be deployed this year, is sixth. Yemen is seventh. The country has received a great deal of attention since it is believed to have been the site of the terrorist training ground for suspected Nigerian bomber Umar Abdulmutallab who attempted to destroy a plane on a Detroit runway Christmas Day. Both Afghanistan and Yemen operate under the tents of Islamic Sharia Law which prohibits the practice of any other religions.
“There has been a lot of very good information compiled by the State Department on religious freedom, but it hasn’t been taken as seriously as it should,” Vessey said.
She said Christians interested in influencing public policy should engage elected officials, including President Obama, who has yet to appoint an at-large ambassador on religious freedom to the State Department. She also encourages concerned Christians can also become involved in advocacy against restrictive legislation in other countries to protect other overseas.
Vessey and Open Doors CEO Carl Moeller said the most sought after commodity by persecuted Christians is prayer and the knowledge that their struggles haven’t been forgotten.
“There is a strong group of Christians in North Korea and actually the number of Christians in North Korea has grown in the last 10 years,””Moeller said in a press release. “Many are coming to Christ in the Muslim world. But we need to continue to embrace them in prayer in 2010.”

Mukesh, Anil groups deny hand in YSR death

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh police have filed a case against a Telugu news channel over a report alleging foul play by the Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil in the death of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.The police have already begun a probe and are collecting evidence, including video tapes of the news footage beamed by TV5 that alleged that the Ambani brothers were behind the helicopter crash in which Reddy was killed on September 2, last year.The report last night triggered an attack by Reddy's supporters on business outlets of companies led by Mukesh and Anil, and the two groups separately accused each other of fuelling the allegations.Mukesh-led Reliance Industries today denied the allegations and called them "malicious" and "motivated" and said that it was the "dirty handiwork of our business rivals in cohoots with TV5."The Anil Ambani-led Reliance group said: "A malicious and criminal disinformation campaign has been engaged into by our corporate rivals leading to substantial loss and damage to our several offices and businesses of Reliance ADA Group in Andhra Pradesh yesterday evening."We are shocked to see our corporate rivals stooping down to new levels of desperation by engaging in such imaginative and baseless rumor-mongering."According to a senior police official, a case has been registered suo-motu against the Telugu news channel TV5.

Celebrating The Christian Feast of The Epiphany

On January 6, Italy celebrates the national holiday for the Christian Feast of the Epiphany, to commemorate the manifestation of Christ to the magi, or wise men.
But it’s also a popular tradition that La Befana – an ugly Christmas witch – gives candies and gifts to deserving children, or coal to the naughty ones.
In Rome, the tradition includes a trip to the historic center, to shop at the Christmas booths at Piazza Navona, filled with toys and gifts, and above all throngs of people.
This is a tradition that I normally gladly avoid. But this year I made the trip.
Here is a video I shot with my Flip camera … hope you enjoy and Buon Anno!
done

Fewer Muslims for the Archbishop Lord Carey's call for a cut in immigration makes no sense unless you realise that the immigrants he fears are Muslims

George Carey doesn't do subtlety: watching him try is like watching someone working an iPhone wearing boxing gloves. But he does have good political instincts. His settlement with (and of) the liberals in the Church of England has endured: women priests and, in time, women bishops but no open gays. Now he has called for a drastic cut in immigration. Will this be the future line of the Church of England?
If it is, that would represent a huge, wrenching change. The upper ranks of the Church are almost all in favour of better treatment for asylum seekers; both Archbishops speak about the subject recently, and Carey himself, when in Canterbury, incurred the wrath of the Daily Mail for defending them on the Today show. Parts of the Church have been eager to reach out to Muslims on a local level.
Carey's article in the Times today is headlined "Migration threatens the DNA of our nation" and you might think that lays him open to a very reasonable charge of racism, especially as he uses a similar phrase in the article. But it turns out he doesn't mean real DNA, but something like "essence", or "soul". He's not a racist. He promoted John Sentamu to Birmingham and wanted Michael Nazir Ali to succeed him. He writes in the Times that "we welcome the contribution of both economic migrants and asylum seekers to our lively cosmopolitan culture."
No, the sort of immigrants he doesn't want are pretty clearly Muslims, especially when they are poor and unskilled. The examples he gives of obnoxious immigrants are those who "immediately establish their own tribunals to apply Sharia, rather than make use of British civil law" – they are "deeply socially divisive". Muslims are clearly the target of his remark that "while we don't expect groups to assimilate, there must be a willingness on their part to integrate with the rest of British society". They are the people who end up in "the last thing any of us want … ghettos".
More to the point, when he warns of the danger of the BNP vote in such places as Dagenham, where he grew up, he clearly has in mind that it is hostility to Muslims which gains the BNP their vote.
"Those who seek to live in this country recognise that they are coming to a country with a Christian heritage and an established Church." he writes. "Just as we should expect immigrants to subscribe to democratic principles, abide by our laws, speak English, support freedom of speech and a free press, so they should also respect the Christian nature and history of our nation with its broad, hospitable Establishment."
Again, this can hardly be aimed at Poles or even Ukrainians. Lord Carey is a columnist for the News of the World, though this piece was written for the Times, and he understands the prejudices of his regular readers and to some extent still shares them.
But if he wants to muster a body of Christian opinion to stop Muslim immigration, there is one ally he needs, whose silence here is quite remarkable: Michael Nazir Ali, the former bishop of Rochester. It was Nazir Ali who said last year that Muslims had set up no go areas in some British cities and who has flirted with the Eurabians, who believe that Muslim immigration threatens European civilisation. He is not the only evangelical to regard Muslims with fear and suspicion. But he is the only one whose anti-racist credentials are impeccable: one woman, vox-popped outside Rochester Cathedral when he was enthroned there, said she hoped the new bishop was a Christian.
The great majority of Anglican bishops remain opposed to the Carey line of thinking, certainly in public. But the increasing African influence on the Church of England brings with it a deep suspicion of Muslims, especially from Nigeria which is divided, sometimes bloodily, on religious lines. There is a curious and unpleasant paradox here. Carey sets himself up as a defender of particularly English values; and to the extent that the church retreats into a cosy conservative nationalism, it will be tempted to follow his line. But the same hostility to Muslims is also likely to grow from international engagement, and the belief that the church of England is part of a wider communion, whose centre of gravity is in Africa.
The antidote will come, if it does, from engagement at a local level. But every stunt like the Wootton Bassett march will lend strength to Carey's backlash. This could be part of the emergence of a much more nationalist church of England.

Wainwright: McGwire deserves Hall of Fame

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright (FSY) is excited about Matt Holliday's (FSY) huge new contract and disappointed that Mark McGwire hasn't made the Hall of Fame.

Wainwright was the keynote speaker Thursday at the Missouri governor's annual prayer breakfast in Jefferson City. He spoke primarily about his Christian faith, but noted that Holliday's $120 million contract could keep him with the Cardinals for seven years.

McGwire, the team's new hitting coach, has been stigmatized since evading questions from Congress in 2005 about steroids use. But Wainwright thinks McGwire deserves recognition partly because of his famous home run race with Sammy Sosa in 1998, when McGwire set a single-season home run record.

"They did more than just hit home runs, they brought fans back, they brought baseball back," Wainwright said. "There's people in the Hall of Fame who have done much worse things than what allegedly Mark McGwire has done."

McGwire again fell far short of being elected to the Hall of Fame this year, his fourth time on the ballot.

A good-faith attempt to help

If he had suggested a miracle diet for Tiger Woods, no one would have thought anything of it.

FOX

When Brit Hume suggested that Tiger Woods turn to Jesus to deal with his sins, liberal pundits answered with flawed comparisons of Hume to a radical jihadist.

Click photo for options

Instead, Fox News commentator Brit Hume apparently committed a cardinal sin when he recently suggested that the troubled golfer look into the saving graces of Jesus Christ.
"Tiger, turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world," Hume said.
Seems like a sincere, innocuous attempt to throw a lifeline to someone in distress.
Nope. According to the wacko left, Hume's endorsement of Christianity had no business being aired in public.
For his good-faith effort, Hume has been viciously attacked by liberals. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann compared Hume to a Muslim "jihadist" -- notwithstanding the fact that jihadists try to convert folks at the end of a knife or a bomb fuse.
To get expert commentary on Hume's awful transgression, he called on sex columnist Dan Savage.
"Whenever we have a discussion in our country about jihadism and radical Muslims," Savage said, "you always hear, 'Where are the moderate voices? Where are the moderate Muslims?' ... Where are the moderate liberal progressive Christians when something like this happens? ... American Christianity's been hijacked by the lunatics (including) people like Brit Hume."
So we've established so far that Hume is a lunatic jihadist. Because he's Christian and suggests others consider it.
Wow.
The snarky insults continued with Washington Post TV writer Tom Shales, who said, "Whom did he sound more like -- Mary Poppins on the joys of a tidy room, or Ron Popeil on the glories of some amazing potato peeler?"
Then, turning end-of-the-world serious, Shales wrote, "If Hume's remark is going to turn out to be a mere starting point, where in the name of all that's holy (really holy, genuinely holy) is the finishing line going to find us? Or leave us?"
Yes, the world is ending because Brit Hume is selling Christianity. How awful!
Atlanta Journal-Constitution blogger Jay Bookman's headline sneered, "The Right Rev. Brit Hume points the way to Tiger's redemption."
Even if that's true, what the heck's wrong with that? If you felt you could share the secret to salvation -- a somewhat weightier matter than the keys to slimming down for swimsuit season -- what's wrong with sharing it?
Hume speaks from very real, very moving experience.
He's never held himself up as a "right reverend" as Bookman sarcastically scoffs. Instead, it was Hume's Christian faith that helped him cope with the death of his son in 1998.
"When my son died," Hume once said, "I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing."
For that, Brit Hume is a lunatic jihadist?
How can there exist such a virulent anti-Christian venom in a majority Christian nation?

Can Christians Say 'Allah'? In Malaysia, Muslims Say No

"Why are the Christians claiming Allah?" asks businessman Rahim Ismail, 47, his face contorted in rage and disbelief. He shakes his head and raises his voice while waiting for a taxi along Jalan Tun Razak, a main thoroughfare in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. "Everybody in the world knows Allah is the Muslim God and belong to Muslims. I cannot understand why the Christians want to claim Allah as their god," Rahim says as passers-by, mostly Muslims, gather around and nod in agreement.
The reason for their anger is a recent judgment by Malaysia's High Court that the word 'Allah' is not exclusive to Muslims. Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled that others, including Catholics who had been prohibited by the Home Ministry from using the word in their publications since 2007, can now use the term. She also rescinded the prohibition order freeing the Malay language-edition of the Catholic monthly The Herald to use Allah to denote the Christian god. After widespread protests, however, the judge granted a stay order on Jan. 7. The same day the government appealed to the higher Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling. The anger seemingly turned violent late Thursday night after masked men on motorcycles firebombed three churches in the city, gutting the ground floor of the Metro Tabernacle Church located in a commercial building in the Desa Melawati suburb of the capital. The attacks, which police said appeared uncoordinated, were condemned by the government, opposition MPs and Muslim clerics alike. On Friday Muslims demonstrated in scores of mosques across the country but the protest was peaceful. In the mosque in Kampung Baru, a Malay enclave in the city, Muslims held placards that read "Leave Islam Alone!, Treat Us As You Would Treat Yourself! Don't Test Our Patience!" This, amid cries of "Allah is Great!" (See pictures of Islam's soft revolution in Cairo.)
Because of its ethnic make-up, religion is a sensitive issue in Malaysia and any religious controversy is seen as a potential spark for public unrest. Some 60% of Malaysia's 28 million people is Malay Muslim, while the rest are ethnic Chinese, Indians and indigenous tribes, practicing various faiths including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and animism. Among Christians, the majority Catholics number about 650,000, or 3% of the population. Despite Malaysia's diverse national complexion, political Islam is a growing force and the country operates under two sets of laws, one for Muslims, the other for everyone else. The authorities regard such compartmentalization as essential to maintaining social stability.
To many Malay Muslims, Judge Lau's ruling crosses that line. Prominent Muslim clerics, lawmakers and government ministers have questioned the soundness of the judgment. A coalition of 27 Muslims NGOs wrote to the nine Malay Sultans, who are each head of Islam in their respective states, to intervene and help overturn the verdict. A Facebook campaign by Muslims started on Jan. 4 has attracted over 100,000 supporters. Among them: Deputy Trade Minister Mukhriz Mahathir, son of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who also waded into the controversy saying the court is not a proper forum to decide on an emotive religious issue. "The judgment is a mistake," says Nazri Aziz, minister overseeing Parliamentary Affairs, speaking for many Malaysian Muslims. The few Muslims who have urged respect for judicial independence have been shouted down as "traitors." "I can't understand how any Muslim can support this judgment," said legislator Zulkifli Noordin in a statement.
The case arose after the Home Ministry prohibited The Herald, a Catholic monthly newsletter, from using Allah for god in its Malay-language versions in 2007. "We have been using the word for decades in our Malay-language Bibles and without problems," Reverend Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Catholic publication told TIME. In May 2008 the Catholics decided to take the matter to court for a judicial review — and won. "It is a landmark decision ... fair and just," says Andrew. During the intermittent trial in the closing months of 2008, lawyers for the Church argued that the word Allah predated Islam and was commonly used by Copts, Jews and Christians to denote god in many parts of the world. They argued that Allah is an Arabic word for god and used for "decades" by the Church in Malay-language Bibles and other publications in Malaysia and Indonesia. And they said that The Herald uses the word "Allah" for god to meet the needs of its Malay-speaking worshippers on the island of Borneo. "Some people have got the idea that we are out to convert [Muslims]; that's not true," the lawyers said on behalf of The Herald.
Government lawyers countered that Allah denotes the Muslim god, is accepted as such around the world and is exclusively for Muslims. They said that if Catholics were allowed to use Allah, Muslims would be "confused." The confusion would worsen, they said, because Christianity practices a "trinity of gods" while Islam is "totally monotheistic." They said the proper word for god in the Malay language is Tuhan and not Allah. Judge Lau held that the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and speech and therefore Catholics can use the word Allah to denote god. She also overturned the Home Ministry order prohibiting The Herald from using the word. "The applicants have the right to use the word 'Allah' in the exercise of their rights to freedom of speech and expression," she said.
Non-Muslim Malaysians worry that the vehement opposition to the Allah ruling reflects a growing Islamization in a multi-religious society. Last October a Muslim Shariah Court sentenced a Muslim woman who drank beer to be caned in public; in another incident in November, Muslims enraged over the construction of a Hindu temple near their homes demonstrated their anger with a severed cow's head. They kicked and stomped on the head, as Hindus to whom the cow is sacred, watched helplessly. As for the court ruling, Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan met Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday to discuss how to cool emotions. Says Kesavan: "We need to get the Muslim and Christian leaders together. They need to meet face to face and work out a compromise and not let this thing escalate."

Malaysian churches attacked as Allah row worsens

ARSONISTS attacked at least three churches in Malaysia this morning, prompting tighter police checks at churches nationwide ahead of mass demonstrations in a row over the use of the word "Allah" for the Christian God.
Protests were due to take place later in the day to denounce a court ruling last week in predominantly Muslim Malaysia allowing the Catholic Herald newspaper to use "Allah" in its Malay-language publication.
The impact on Malaysia's financial market has been muted, but analysts said the issue could pose a longer term risk of political instability for Malaysia, which has been trailing Indonesia and Thailand for foreign investment.
A fire at the Metro Tabernacle church in suburban Kuala Lumpur, part of a Pentecostal group called "The Assemblies of God", gutted a ground-floor administrative office. Firebombs were later tossed into the compound of at least two more churches - the Assumption Catholic Church and the Life Chapel Protestant church - in the leafy outlying district of Petaling Jaya, but both failed to explode.

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Police ordered tightened security at churches throughout the country and called for the cancellation of protests, due to take place after Friday prayers at mosques.
"Since last night, I have instructed all patrol cars to patrol all church areas. We are monitoring all churches," Musa Hassan, Inspector-General of Police, told Reuters.
"I have advised them (protesters) to let this be handled by the court. I will take action against anyone who acts to jeopardise national security."
Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling Coalition suffered its worst defeats in the 2008 general election due in part to unhappiness by the mainly Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities over increasing Islamisation and failed reform pledges. The issue could deepen minority dissatisfaction and hamper Mr Najib's efforts to win back non-Malay support to stay in power after the next polls, to be held by 2013.
"The ball is now in Najib's court. All eyes are on him and the Home Ministry," said Ooi Kee Beng from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in neighbouring Singapore.
"Will they enforce the rule of law or be seen enforcing the rule of law without fear or favour, this is the next thing to watch for."
The Government has appealed the court ruling, which has threatened relations between the majority Malay Muslim population and the minority communities who practise a range of religions including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Last night, the Government's judiciary website was attacked by hackers amid growing anger over the court ruling. The Malaysian Insider, an online news site, captured a screen shot of the defaced website which contained the warning "Allah only restricted to Muslims only".
It is illegal for non-Muslims to proselytise Muslims although freedom of worship for minorities making up 40 percent of the population is guaranteed under the constitution.
Malaysia was rated as having "very high" government restrictions on religion in a recent survey by the Pew Forum, bracketing it with the likes of Iran and Egypt. It was listed as the 9th most restrictive of 198 countries.
The use of "Allah" has been common among non-English speaking Malaysian Christians in the states of Sabah and Sarawak - on the island of Borneo off mainland Malaysia - for decades without any incident.

Egyptian Christians Clash With Police

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Thousands of enraged Christians clashed with the police in Egypt on Thursday in response to a drive-by shooting the night before that left six Christians dead and nine wounded.
The attackers, who are still at large, had opened fire on several groups of Christians gathered to celebrate Coptic Christmas in the southern Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The killings seemed to be an act of revenge tied to accusations in November that a Christian man raped a Muslim girl, the statement said.
Clashes between Muslims and Christians have grown increasingly common in recent years, especially in Upper Egypt, where there is a large Christian population and a strong culture of vendetta killings. Those killings typically spring from unexceptional disputes that spiral into full-blown conflicts that have to be settled by security forces. There are no official statistics on the size of the Christian minority in Egypt, but the generally accepted figure is 10 percent of the population.
During a funeral procession on Thursday for the victims of the shooting, thousands of angry Christian protesters chanted, “With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for the cross,” and pelted police cars with stones. The police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.
According to the Interior Ministry, witnesses have identified the lead gunman as Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, a Muslim man with a criminal record.
Egyptians have been united historically by a strong sense of national identity, allowing the Muslim majority and Coptic Christian minority to live in peace, for the most part. But the recent rise in religious fervor, especially among Muslims, has strained relations and increased reported episodes of religiously inspired violence.
The general sentiment among Egypt’s Copts is that they are being squeezed into a tighter space, and there are increasing complaints of discrimination. They say, for example, that permits to build churches have become very difficult to obtain.
“There is a prevailing atmosphere of sectarianism and religious incitement which has led to this behavior,” said Gamal Asaad, a Coptic intellectual and former member of Parliament. “People deal with each other now as Muslims or Christians, not as Egyptians.

Casanova dropped, Christian Brothers to begin

Superstar Mohanlal's big budget Casanova directed by Roshan Andrews has been dropped once again, after one of its producers Vysakh Rajan has walked out of the project alleging unhappy with the heavy budget (around Rs. 8 crores).
In 2009, Casanova was kept in cold storage when its former producers (the Confident Group of companies) lost confidence and withdrew from the project owing to the lacklustre performance of Sagar alias Jackie.
According to sources, instead of Casanova, Mohanlal will now allot dates to veteran director Joshi’s long delayed multi-starrer Christian Brothers, produced by Anoop and Subair. The shooting will start in Ernakulam from January 12. The film has Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Dileep, Kavya Madhavan and Padmapriya in the lead roles.

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