The Egyptian Military - Oppressive Leaders or Preservers of Freedom for Minorities?

The Egyptian military get a bad wrap in the media.  It is said, that only a tyrant is strong enough to stand up to Islamic extremism in the Middle East.  The Muslim Brotherhood elected leader is now gone, and the military is in; Morsi's followers should get use to this idea.  You see, the Egyptian military may be violent and oppressive, but no less violent and oppressive than the Muslim brotherhood, and especially not for the 10% Christian minority.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/9461820/Anti-government-demonstrations-broken-up-in-Egypt

The Christians I expect will be very happy about the reversal of Article 2, which the Muslim Brotherhood strengthened to institute a more strict form of Shariah law.  The Christians are now an oppressed minority in Egypt, and have never been so badly oppressed than since Mohammed Morsi came to power.  Forced conversions, the looting and burning of shops, kidnapping children and offences of rape of women are only some of the treatment endured by the Christians, under a regime where as Dhimmi, these people have little or no rights under the law.

"Meanwhile, Muslim residents of a village in southern Minya province attacked Christian homes, burning 10 houses and wounding 15 Christians, including a 15 year-old girl thrown from the third floor of a building, according to Ezzat Ibrahim, an activist who monitors minority rights.   Ibrahim said the attack was instigated by rumors of a love affair between a local Christian man and a Muslim woman - a factor that can often spark sectarian clashes."

This is but one example.  Persecution occurs on a daily basis in Islamist countries.  It is only a measure of months since the Coptic Pope's own church was under attack.  The Coptic church, one of the oldest groups of Christians with traditions stemming back to nearly the birth of Jesus, is now in danger of total elimination.

Persecution in the Central African Republic

Astounded that in a country which is 75% Christian can be overtaken by Islamists, who then proceed to pillage from and kill in Christian areas.

http://www.aina.org/news/20131127122830.htm

Of course Western media continues portray such stories not for what they are, as a genocide with a Christian backlash movement, but as a "sectarian conflict".

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/9460163/Central-African-Republic-needs-peacekeepers

It is relatively rare for Christians to fight back towards Islamist genocides and pogroms.  And when they do, guaranteed there is media coverage.  But when Moslems do their standard driving out and terrorising of Christians and other religious minorities in majority Islam countries, there is no mainstream media coverage.  For example, Buddhists in Myanmar were recently reported as laying out an offensive toward Muslims, but the wide scale persecution of Christians typically goes unreported.

The example of Central African Republic also shows just how precarious the peace in a mixed Muslim - Christian country can be.  What may be a peaceful union of two peoples can quickly degenerate to a situation of mistrust, which is likely responsible for the reactionary and indiscriminate killing of Muslims in response to the Islamist take-over in this country.

Disturbing facts about the Radical Beliefs of Mainstream Islam

The media reports that extremist Muslims make up only a tiny fraction of the population.  This is certainly not the case. 

A study was done in the UK, and it was found that roughly:

• 15% are liberal, totally secular and in Islam in name only.
• 70%, the main bulk of Muslims, though they take Islam seriously they are basically living in the West to hold a job and make a better life for their children.  They don't care about establishing their religion as the dominant one.  They are certainly sincere in belief in Islam but don't know a terrible lot about it.  They lead relatively normal lives. 
• 15% are the Muslims said that when it comes time to die for Jihad, that's what they will do!

If the fractions in the UK is a general guide, then out of the 1.5 billion Muslims, 300 million are the more radical type.  This is a lot of people.

Of course it is not fair to base conclusions on the statistics from only one country.  A selection of other statistics:

• 15% of American Muslims under age 30 believe that suicide attacks in defence of Islam are SOMETIMES justified.
• 1/3 of British Muslim students of university age believe that killing in the name of Allah is sometimes justified.
• 40% of British Muslim students want the UK to adopt Shariah.
• 1/4 of British Muslim students think the 7/7 attacks (the London train bombings in 2005) were justified, on the basis of the war in Iraq and so on.
• 68% of Muslims support the arrest and prosecution of anyone who insults the name of Islam.

There appears to be more radicalisation in the younger generation of Muslim immigrants than for their parents.  The population of Muslims in America is somewhat between 2 and 4 million or approximately 1% of the total population.  There are more Moslems in the UK than in the United States.  Over 1 million live in London alone. 

This is in the West.  In Muslim countries:

• 55% of Muslims in Jordan have a positive view of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah.
• 49% of Egyptian Muslims have a positive view of Hamas, another terrorist organisation.
• 59% of Indonesian Muslims supported Osama Bin Laden in 2003.  This is no tiny minority of extremists, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world.
• 78% of Pakistani Muslims support killing apostates (those who leave Islam).
• Over 30% of Muslims in Turkey, one of the most moderate Muslim countries, believe that terrorist attacks are justified.

These are very scary statistics about Islam.  People need to know.

These statistics were taken from a CARM Radio interview of Christian apologist David Wood.  I shall endeavour to obtain the sources of these statistics.  But check this interview out.  Many more alarming facts about the Political embodiment of Islam are given in this interview ( http://carmpodcasting.blogspot.com.au/2012_10_01_archive.html, Wed 17 - Sat 20 October 2012).

The Egyptian who is Pro-Israeli

Maikel Nabil, once put his life on the line for democracy in Egypt.  He was key in the revolution at Tahrir Square for democracy and suffers 10 months of rough treatment in an Egyptian jail under the charge of "insulting the Egyptian army for doing so.

 

http://www.unwatch.org/cms.asp?id=3674274&campaign_id=63111

 

He now speaks out for Israel.  Now a Christian, he can see several truths about Israel:

• Israel stands out as a beacon for human rights in the Middle East including women's rights, gay rights and religious freedom,
• Israel is one of the brightest countries in terms of research and innovation - indeed in my own area of research the Israeli university of Ben Gurion is a world leader and
• Unlike the surrounding Arab countries, Israel has not had a single coupe or revolution accompanying handover of power since its inception, making it a bastian for democracy and stability in the region.

Check out the link here:

http://maikel-nabil-in-jail.blogspot.co.il/2011/11/why-am-i-pro-israel-old-article.html

Maikel is a good man to speak up in the face of imprisonment and torture.  The Middle East needs more like him.  To change the world, we must start with xorrecting our thinking.  This demands men prepared to speak truth in spite of the consequences.  Men prepared even to sacrifice to their own lives.

Womens rights and Islam

Have you beaten your wife recently?  Woman's rights is quite a controversy in Islam. Certain Islamic governments do not have a great track record with woman's rights. There are issues regarding the requirement for female circumcision, and a woman's safety when venturing out of their homes unaccompanied .

One key question is whether Islam, its central book in particular, advocates wife beating. Islam does, as their chief prophet Mohammed is quoted as condoning it. Qur'an 4:34 gives a clear instruction to, under some circumstances, beat ones wife.

Attempts have been made from Muslim feminist writers, such as Laleh Bakhtiar, to "reinterpret" the Koran to make it more woman friendly. (C.f. http://www.religioustolerance.org/islabuse.htm.) However it appears that the results of their work is to blatantly cut sections out of their book.

Another argument in defence of the Koranic stance is that the only perfect version of the Koran is the original one. And that all translations are no longer not perfect. So if there are sections that appear to suppress women, they resulted from imperfect transcription or translation.

This comes across to me as an excuse, for the fact that some bits of the Koran are unappetising to our Western mindsets. What is this meaning of the phrase that women could be "beaten", as is instructed in Qur'an 4:34? Why is it completely omitted by the feminist writer? What do the more serious followers of the Koran think of such an obvious omission?

Anyhow, what the feminist reinterprets are trying to do is exactly what liberal theologians do when it comes to dealing with the more controversial beliefs in Christianity, such as whether homosexuality is condoned in the Bible. It is not.

Lets be clear. Lets call a spade a spade. Many Muslims will act on their better conscience to decide on what is right. But when a religious holy book gives a clear instruction in one area, it is likely that followers who take their beliefs seriously will follow the instruction.

Lets not sweep the issue under the rug of political correctness.