Religion of Peace update

[johnhp]

Top Iran cleric rejects Holocaust as 'superstition'

So he is the wrong kind of anti-semite for you?

Bishop Richard Williamson - Gas Chambers, Anti-Semitism and the Truth

[Mornac]

The Eternal Flame of Muslim Outrage

by Michelle Malkin
09/10/2010

Shhhhhhh, we're told. Don't protest the Ground Zero mosque. Don't burn a Koran. It'll imperil the troops. It'll inflame tensions. The "Muslim world" will "explode" if it does not get its way, warns sharia-peddling imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Pardon my national security-threatening impudence, but when is the "Muslim world" not ready to "explode"?

At the risk of provoking the ever-volatile Religion of Perpetual Outrage, let us count the little-noticed and forgotten ways.

Just a few months ago in Kashmir, faithful Muslims rioted over what they thought was a mosque depicted on underwear sold by street vendors. The mob shut down businesses and clashed with police over the blasphemous skivvies. But it turned out there was no need for Allah's avengers to get their holy knickers in a bunch. The alleged mosque was actually a building resembling London's St. Paul's Cathedral. A Kashmiri law enforcement official later concluded the protests were "premeditated and organized to vitiate the atmosphere."

Indeed, art and graphics have an uncanny way of vitiating the Muslim world's atmosphere. In 1994, Muslims threatened German supermodel Claudia Schiffer with death after she wore a Karl Lagerfeld-designed dress printed with a saying from the Koran. In 1997, outraged Muslims forced Nike to recall 800,000 shoes because they claimed the company's "Air" logo looked like the Arabic script for "Allah." In 1998, another conflagration spread over Unilever's ice cream logo -- which Muslims claimed looked like "Allah" if read upside-down and backward (can't recall what they said it resembled if you viewed it with 3D glasses).

Even more explosively, in 2002, an al-Qaida-linked jihadist cell plotted to blow up Bologna, Italy's Church of San Petronio because it displayed a 15th century fresco depicting Mohammed being tormented in the ninth circle of Hell. For years, Muslims had demanded that the art come down. Counterterrorism officials in Europe caught the would-be bombers on tape scouting out the church and exclaiming, "May Allah bring it all down. It will all come down."

That same year, Nigerian Muslims stabbed, bludgeoned or burned to death 200 people in protest of the Miss World beauty pageant -- which they considered an affront to Allah. Contest organizers fled out of fear of inflaming further destruction. When Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel joked that Mohammed would have approved of the pageant and that "in all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them," her newspaper rushed to print three retractions and apologies in a row. It didn't stop Muslim vigilantes from torching the newspaper's offices. A fatwa was issued on Daniel's life by a Nigerian official in the sharia-ruled state of Zamfara, who declared that "the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed. It is abiding on all Muslims wherever they are to consider the killing of the writer as a religious duty." Daniel fled to Norway.

In 2005, British Muslims got all hot and bothered over a Burger King ice cream cone container whose swirly-texted label resembled, you guessed it, the Arabic script for "Allah." The restaurant chain yanked the product in a panic and prostrated itself before the Muslim world. But the fast-food dessert had already become a handy radical Islamic recruiting tool. Rashad Akhtar, a young British Muslim, told Harper's Magazine how the ice cream caper had inspired him: "Even though it means nothing to some people and may mean nothing to some Muslims in this country, this is my jihad. I'm not going to rest until I find the person who is responsible. I'm going to bring this country down."

In 2007, Muslims combusted again in Sudan after an infidel elementary school teacher innocently named a classroom teddy bear "Mohammed." Protesters chanted, "Kill her, kill her by firing squad!" and "No tolerance -- execution!" She was arrested, jailed and faced 40 lashes for blasphemy before being freed after eight days. Not wanting to cause further inflammation, the teacher rushed to apologize: "I have great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone, and I am sorry if I caused any distress."

And who could forget the global Danish cartoon riots of 2006 (instigated by imams who toured Egypt stoking hysteria with faked anti-Islam comic strips)? From Afghanistan to Egypt to Lebanon to Libya, Pakistan, Turkey and in between, hundreds died under the pretext of protecting Mohammed from Western slight, and brave journalists who stood up to the madness were threatened with beheading. It wasn't really about the cartoons at all, of course. Little-remembered is the fact that Muslim bullies were attempting to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to report Iran to the UN Security Council for continuing with its nuclear research program. The chairmanship of the council was passing to Denmark at the time. Yes, it was just another in a long line of manufactured Muslim explosions that were, to borrow a useful phrase, "premeditated and organized to vitiate the atmosphere."

When everything from sneakers to stuffed animals to comics to frescos to beauty queens to fast-food packaging to undies serves as dry tinder for Allah's avengers, it's a grand farce to feign concern about the recruitment effect of a few burnt Korans in the hands of a two-bit attention-seeker in Florida. The eternal flame of Muslim outrage was lit a long, long time ago.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38938

[johnhp]

Bishop Richard Williamson - Gas Chambers, Anti-Semitism and the Truth

[Mornac]

1 November 2010
Baghdad church hostage drama ends in bloodbath

At least 52 people were killed as security forces stormed a Catholic church in Baghdad to free dozens of hostages, said Deputy Interior Minister Maj Gen Hussein Kamal.

He suggested six attackers had also died in the fighting, though other sources have said the overall death toll was lower.

Continue reading the main story ATTACKS ON IRAQI CHRISTIANS SINCE 2003 Aug 2004 - series of bombings targets five churches, killing 11October 2006 - Orthodox priest, Boulos Iskander, snatched in Mosul by group demanding ransom. Despite payment of the ransom, priest found beheaded, his arms and legs also cut off June 2007 - Ragheed Ganni - a priest and secretary to Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahh, killed in 2008 - shot dead in his church along with three companions January 2008 - Bombs go off outside three Chaldean and Assyrian churches in Mosul, two churches in Kirkuk and four in BaghdadFebruary 2008 - Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahh kidnapped; body found in shallow grave two weeks laterApril 2008 - Fr Adel Youssef, an Assyrian Orthodox priest, shot dead by unknown assailantsFebruary 2010 - At least eight Christians die in a two-week spate of attacks in northern city of MosulEyewitness: 'Gunshots everywhere'In pictures: Baghdad church siegeIraqi Christians' long history

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the "absurd... ferocious violence".

The gunmen had reportedly demanded the release of jailed al-Qaeda militants.

A statement was posted on a militant website allegedly run by the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs, claiming responsibility for the attack.

The statement reportedly said Iraqi Christians would be "exterminated" if Muslim women in Egypt were not freed. It specifically mentioned two women in Egypt who radicals believe are being held against their will after converting to Islam.

Negotiations abandoned
 
Residents of Baghdad's affluent Karada district, where the attack took place, first heard a loud explosion at about 1700 (1400 GMT) on Sunday, believed to have been a car bomb going off at the scene.

About 100 people were inside Our Lady of Salvation for an evening Mass at the time.

The blast was followed by gunfire as a group of armed men began by attacking the Iraq Stock Exchange building, police said, and then took over the Catholic church just across the road, clashing with guards and killing some of them.

There have been many attacks on Christians in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003, but nothing like this.
At that time there were estimated to be around one million Christians from several ancient denominations - mainly Assyrian Nestorians, Chaldaeans and Syriacs.

Their numbers are believed to have dwindled now to 600,000 or less.

Many churches have been damaged by bombs in various parts of the country where Christians live - around Mosul in the north, Baghdad, and even Basra in the south.

Christians have also been the victims of targeted killings, while priests and others have been abducted and murdered or ransomed.
The exodus of Christian emigrants has continued despite the general improvement in Iraq's security in the past three years.
The fear is that the carnage on Sunday night at the church of Our Lady of Salvation may speed up the flow of Christians seeking a better life elsewhere.

It seems the church was the attackers' real target, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.

One eyewitness, who was inside the church, said the gunmen "came into the prayer hall and immediately killed the priest". The witness, who declined to give his name, said worshippers were beaten and herded into an inne hall.

There was an hours-long stand-off as security forces surrounded the building with helicopters hovering overhead.

The militants made contact with the authorities by mobile phone, demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners and also of a number of Muslim women they insisted were being held prisoner by the Coptic Church in Egypt.

But the discussions got nowhere, our correspondent says, and the security forces stormed the church.

Witnesses nearby said they then heard two explosions from inside the church and more shooting. The gunmen reportedly threw grenades and detonated their suicide vests.

Maj Gen Hussein Kamal said 52 "martyrs" had died in the fighting, along with six attackers, though a police source earlier said 37 people - worshippers, security forces and attackers - had been killed.

The number of wounded are put at between 56 and 62 - many of them women.

Pope Benedict XVI denounced the attack as he gave a holiday blessing on Monday. He said two priests had died in the siege, though it was unclear whether both were killed in the initial attempt to take hostages or during the raid by security services.

He said he was praying for the victims "of this absurd violence, made more ferocious because it was directed against unarmed people gathered in the house of God".

He called for a new effort to end the violence.

'Impossible to wait'
 
Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul-Qadr al-Obeidi said security forces approached the building at ground level and from the air.

"We took a decision to launch a land offensive, and in addition an airdrop, because it was impossible to wait - the terrorists were planning to kill a large number of our brothers, the Christians who were at Mass," said Mr Obeidi.

"So the operation was successfully done. All terrorists were killed. And we now have other suspects in detention."

Witnesses say they saw US troops on the ground and US military helicopters hovering above the scene, but the extent of their involvement is not yet clear.

Many churches have been bombed in recent years - including Our Lady of Salvation in August 2004 - and priests kidnapped and killed, but there has never been a prolonged hostage situation like this before, our correspondent says.

Christians - many from from ancient denominations - have been leaving Iraq in droves since the US-led invasion in 2003, and about 600,000 remain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11463544

[Mornac]

Militants threaten further attacks on Iraqi Christians
November 3

Members of the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaeda’s front group in the country, have threatened more attacks on Christians after a siege on a Catholic church in Baghdad Sunday left 58 people dead. It was the deadliest attack ever against Iraqi Christians.

The Islamic militants linked the threats to claims that officials of Egypt’s Coptic Church are holding women captive for converting to Islam. The militants said their deadline to release the women had expired. Consequently, they said their fighters would attack Christians wherever they can be reached.

A spokesmen for the militants also said they were giving the Coptic Church 48 hours to release the women. They’ve specifically mentioned two Egyptian women who are married to Coptic priests. Some believe they converted to leave their husbands. Egypt’s Coptic Church bans divorce. The group also demands the release of al-Qaeda-linked prisoners held in Iraq.

Hundreds of members of Iraq’s Christian community gathered Tuesday for a memorial service in Baghdad. One of the officials read a letter from Pope Benedict XVI, conveying the pope’s sympathy with the grieving community.

Catholic experts told Reuters the attack and the threats confirm fears of a mass exodus of Christians from the biblical lands that were raised in the recent Vatican summit on the Middle East.

“As the terrorists themselves say, their purpose is to eliminate the Christian presence from those lands either by physically destroying Christians or by terrorizing them into renouncing the faith or fleeing,” said Father David Jaeger, a Franciscan expert on the Holy Land and the Middle East.

On Tuesday night, Iraq’s Shiite Muslims bore the brunt of violence. A string of 13 attacks struck Baghdad, despite a network of police and army checkpoints and blast walls crisscrossing the capital. The death toll in that violence climbed to 91 people by Wednesday, according to Iraqi police and hospital officials.

Iraqi state TV aired footage Wednesday of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visiting victims of the blasts in Baghdad’s hospitals. The televised bedside calls to civilians were a first for al-Maliki since he took office in 2006. According to Reuters, a spokesman for Iraq’s chamber said Wednesday parliament will meet Monday for speaker elections, potentially breaking an eight-month political deadlock and securing al-Maliki’s reappointment as prime minister.

The Sunni-backed bloc of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi narrowly defeated al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated alliance in the March 7 parliamentary election. Neither bloc won an outright majority.

http://online.worldmag.com/2010/11/03/militants-threaten-further-attacks-on-iraqi-christians/

[Mornac]

Analysis: Fate of Iraqi Christians will worsen, experts fear

Wed, Nov 3 2010
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - With al-Qaeda declaring war on Christians in Iraq and no end to political instability in sight, Catholic experts on the Middle East fear the fate of the minority Christian community there will only worsen.

The pessimism followed the bloodiest attack against Iraq's Christian minority since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Fifty-two hostages and police were killed on Sunday when security forces stormed a church that had been raided by al-Qaeda-linked gunmen.

The bloodbath struck fear deep into the hearts of remaining Iraqi Christians and confirmed some of the worst concerns of a Vatican summit on the Middle East held last month that warned of a continuing exodus of Christians from the lands of the Bible.

"In Iraq, every attack prompts the exodus of thousands of Christians," said Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit who is one of the Vatican's leading experts on Islam.

"They say they have no guarantees there. The Shiites have their militias, the Sunnis have their militias and the Kurds have a well-protected autonomous province in the north. The Christians have neither militia nor a region," Samir said.

Gunmen seized hostages at the Our Lady of Salvation Church, a Syrian Catholic cathedral, during Sunday mass, demanding the release of women they said had converted to Islam but were being detained by the Coptic church in Egypt.

"As the terrorists themselves say, their purpose is to eliminate the Christian presence from those lands either by physically destroying Christians or by terrorizing them into renouncing the faith or fleeing," said Father David Jaeger, a Franciscan expert on the Holy Land and the Middle East.

Two days after the Baghdad church attack, which Pope Benedict condemned as ferocious because it took place in a house of God, the al-Qaeda front in Iraq said Christians were "legitimate targets" wherever they are.

POPE IS "HALLUCINATING TYRANT"

The group, which calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), ridiculed the pope as "the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican" and warned that Christians would be "extirpated and dispersed" from Iraq.

Iraq's Christians once numbered 1.5 million out of a total Iraqi population of about 30 million. Church officials believe that hundreds of thousands have either left the country or been displaced to other parts of the country.

"The militants are trying to drive them out of the large cities like Baghdad and Mosul with attacks ... it's almost done in Baghdad," said Samir, the Egyptian Jesuit.

A main theme of a two-week Vatican synod on the Church in the Middle East last month was precisely the fear that war, violence and political instability in the region would accelerate a worrying exodus of faithful from Biblical lands.

It urged Christians not to sell their property even if they fled so they or their children would have a place to return to and also expressed a fear that the rise of political Islam would continue to pose a threat.

During Saddam's rule, only his Baath party was allowed to exist. The Sunni dictator crushed attempts to establish rival political organizations, and in particular carried out constant campaigns against Islamic parties, but did not target Christians.

But Jaeger, the Franciscan expert, warned against idealizing Saddam's Iraq.

"Christians were not singled out under Saddam but there was a horribly oppressive and murderous regime for everyone," he said.

"The irony is that now there are some elements of democracy in Iraq but within this context the Christians specifically appear to be worse off," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A23EL20101103

[johnhp]

i guess that makes Goerge Bush et all pretty horrible people.  Who did he think were going to be targeted for his illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq?  i am certain they put this into their calculus and didn't give a second thought about it.

[Mornac]

The Murderers of Christianity

by Patrick J. Buchanan
11/09/2010

Sunday, on the eve of All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, 2010, the faithful gathered at the Assyrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad.
   
As Father Wassim Sabih finished the mass, eight al-Qaida stormed in, began shooting and forced him to the floor. As the priest pleaded that his parishioners be spared, they executed him and began their mission of mass murder.
   
When security forces broke in, the killers threw grenades to finish off the surviving Christians and detonated explosive-laden vests to kill the police. The toll was 46 parishioners and two priests killed, 78 others wounded, many in critical condition after losing limbs.
   
Within 48 hours, al-Qaida in Mesopotamia issued a bulletin: "All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the (holy warriors)."
   
It was the worst massacre of Christians yet. For Assyrian Catholics known as Chaldeans, whose ancestors were converted by St. Thomas the Apostle, the U.S. war of liberation has been seven years of hell.
   
Estimates of the number of Christians in Iraq in 2003 vary from 800,000 to 1.5 million. But hundreds of thousands have fled since the invasion. Seven of the 14 churches in Baghdad have closed, and two-thirds of the city's 500,000 Christians are gone.
   
While Saddam Hussein, a secularist, had protected religious minorities, Muslim vigilantes -- Shia, Sunni and Kurd, as well as al-Qaida -- have attacked the Christians who have endured kidnappings, pillage, rapes, beheadings and assassinations.
   
And what has happened to this Christian community, which had lived peacefully alongside Muslim neighbors for centuries, must be marked down as one of the predictable and predicted consequences of America's war in Iraq.
   
In editor Tom Fleming's Chronicles, just days before President Bush ordered the invasion, columnist Wayne Allensworth warned pointedly:
   
"Iraqi Christians fear they will be the first victims of a war that might dismember their country, unleashing ethnic and religious conflicts that Baghdad had previously suppressed. Tariq, a Christian merchant in Baghdad, told the French weekly Marianne that 'If the United States goes to war against our country ... (t)he Wahhabis and other fundamentalists will take advantage of the confusion to throw us out of our homes, destroy us as a community and declare Iraq an Islamic nation.'
   
"If recent history is any indication, Tariq has cause for concern," wrote Allensworth. "The Shiite uprising in southern Iraq during the first Gulf War -- encouraged and then abandoned by Washington -- targeted Christians. Many Christians had supported Saddam's regime, in spite of creeping Islamicization, as their best hope of survival in the Islamic Middle East."
   
"We let the Shia genie out of the bottle," said a rueful Yitzhak Rabin after Israel's invasion of Lebanon gave birth to Hezbollah.
   
We Americans did the same with our wars against Saddam's Iraq.
   
Why is Christianity being murdered in its cradle by Muslim fanatics?
   
Multiple reasons. A return of Islamic militancy. The rise of ethnic nationalism that conflates tribal and religious identity. Hatred of America for its domination of the region, for our war on terror that they see as a war on Islam and for our support of Israel in its suppression of the Palestinians.
   
Christians across the Middle East are now seen as both members of an alien religion and a fifth column of the Crusaders inside their camp.
   
Paul Marshall of Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom warns that we may be in another great wave of persecution, "as Christians flee the Palestinian areas, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt."
   
Christians are gone from Jerusalem, gone from Nazareth, gone from Bethlehem. From Egypt to Iran, the Vatican counts 17 million left.
   
"Across the Middle East," writes Robert Fisk in The Independent, "it is the same story of despairing -- sometimes frightened -- Christian minorities, and of an exodus that reaches almost Biblical proportions."
   
In an essay titled in Christ's own words, "Whoever Loses His Life for My Sake ..." columnist Doug Bandow writes,
   
"Although Christians are no longer tossed to the lions in the Roman Colosseum, believers are routinely murdered, imprisoned, tortured and beaten. Churches, businesses and homes are regularly destroyed. The opportunity to meet for worship and prayer is blocked. There is real persecution rather than the cultural hostility often denounced as 'persecution' in America."
   
America remains the most Christianized of the Western nations. Yet, the protests of the White House, State Department and major media over the eradication of Christianity in the Middle East is muted.
   
Where is the outrage? What happened to the America whose president, with a British prime minister in Placentia Bay, on the eve of war sang with his sailors, "Onward Christian Soldiers"?
   
Are we so wary of offending Muslim sensibilities or inflaming Muslim rage we cannot denounce the pogroms perpetrated against Christians in the name of Allah?
   
Of what worth are these wars for democracy if we end up freeing fanatics to annihilate communities or expel populations of our own Christian brothers and sisters across the Middle East?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39844

[JC]

 Is it time to start a "Religion of Robe Wearing Child Fuckers' update thread?

[JC]

My point is this:

Sure, there is a category here in newsrake for theology/religion. But nobody else really uses it. That in itself is not the issue, but you(Mornac) not only inundate, but downright SPAM this forum with your catholic bullshit, propaganda and exceptionalism. It is annoying. Nobody of any other denomination or faith or practice imposes and annoys with the exception of you. It is the cumulative buildup of catholic chest pounding bull shit that has drove me over the edge, and I really do not believe that I stand alone on this issue. My responding posts have been harsh, I'll admit, but unapologetically I will say you deserve everything that comes your way. It is the arrogance and exceptionalism you have to your religion and faith that is unacceptable because of how much you post and don't seem to care who you annoy. You have it coming and I will serve it up as long as you continue. Just one of the things I have as my back up and it is undisputable: Your own family-not just your wife and soulmate-do not share or believe in your bullshit.

 So you can continue to post and roll around in your gleeful masturbatory ignorant religious bliss if you want and as long as you do, it will be met with strong rebuttal, because as wonderful as you portray your so called glorious "One Real Truth", those who practice and interpret it to the poor unwitting innocent flock of "blessed" lambs are either robe wearing child fuckers, or deniers and protectors of the same.

[johnhp]

JC

Notice that he is not actually posting anything positive.  All of his posts are attacking people.  Unusally the wrong people.  For instance here he is upset that Christians are being attacked and killed in Iraq.  Yet he does not acknowledge that they were safe before the war.  Clearly their current fate has been caused by the war.  They are surrogate victims for the forces who invaded the country.  The simple proposition that Islam is to blame turns a blind eye toward the forces of the right in this country who actually caused this problem.

He will only tell us what he hates; he will never tell us what he believes.  Those must be some ugly beliefs.

[IM2]

I agree with JC. And I also will continue roasting Mornac as long as he posts up his crap. Because fucking little boys in the butt is not the kind of truth that god wants taught. I don't presume to speak for god, but it is written what he has said about men sleeping with other men like they do women.

Mornac tells us what he believes by telling us what he hates.

[Mornac]

'Religion of peace' launching 'ferocious' attacks
Worshippers targeted in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia

January 07, 2011
WorldNetDaily

It was only six days after the 9/11 attacks that President Bush described Islam as a religion of peace, specifically saying, "Islam is peace," but the Religion of Peace website reports that for 2010, there were 1987 jihad attacks in 46 nations resulting in 9,175 deaths and 17,436 injured, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

So analysts are expressing alarm that individual attacks on Christian churches are being replicated rapidly and appear to be reflecting a new wave of Islamists' war against any stability in the Middle East.

Recent al-Qaida attacks on Christians stretching from North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia reveal a new terrorist initiative that not only attempts to eliminate remnants of existing non-Islamist religions but hits hard at "soft target" opportunities, such as praying Christians in Egypt, leaving security experts off-guard.

Analysts say the orchestrated attacks against Christians – from Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria to Russia's mostly Muslim North Caucasus of the Ingushetia region bordering Chechnya – initially were thought to be random.

However, the killing spree now is being viewed as a coordinated pattern of attacks representing a new and higher level of violence.

The Vatican had been expressing alarm for some time, with Pope Benedict XVI describing as "ferocious" the terrorist acts that were launched in October when some 58 Iraqis were killed and 78 wounded in an attack on the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Baghdad.

The October attacks were an act of "unheard-of ferocity against defenseless people joined in prayer," said senior Vatican official Archbishop Carlo Marina Vigano at a recent general assembly meeting of Interpol in Doha, Qatar. Interpol, or the International Criminal Police Organization, helps facilitate police cooperation internationally.

The attack on the cathedral was followed by further attacks by al-Qaida-affiliated groups that struck in a coordinated effort on three Christian homes in the Iraqi capital, followed by mortar attacks on another two largely Christian communities.

The latest violence against Christians occurred last week in Alexandria, Egypt, on the Coptic Christian church where a suicide bomber killed 21 people and wounded another 80. Some 1,000 Christians were attending New Year's Mass.

According to observers, blood splattered the front of the church, as well as a mosque directly across the street. Many of the bodies were left in the church overnight to be collected by ambulances for burial the next day. Some Christians brought white sheets with the sign of the cross emblazoned on them in what appeared to be victims' blood.

"There were only three soldiers and an officer in front of the church," said Archbishop Raweis, the top Coptic cleric in Alexandria. "Why did they have so little security at such a sensitive time when there's so many threats coming from al-Qaida?"

Outraged Christians immediately blamed the predominantly Muslim government of Egypt which has seen growing tensions for some time between its Muslim majority and Christian minority.

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=248541

[Mornac]

Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields"

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/3365.aspx

[notoc]

“We either live together, or we die together,”

Well there's a novel idea ... a willingness to die for somebody else's religion.

What are your thoughts on this, Mornac ... will you bring it up as a suggestion next Sunday after the collection tray has been passed around?