[Ennahar] The evangelization campaign conducted nowadays in Algeria is the subject of long discussion among people and even the media, where opinions vary between those who see the issue as trivial as not deserving of importance, based on freedom of religion, and those who expect tough action from the state to put an end to this phenomenon. If you're a secular state then you've got no concern at all about evangelism, other than to keep the peace. If you're an Islamic state then you need to grow beards and wear burkas. If you're sending out Islamic missionaries then it's good manners to treat missionaries coming into your own country with the respect you expect to be accorded elsewhere.
The idea to do a coverage on the topic came to me after a long discussion with old Fatima, who lives in the town of Chorfa in Bouira, about some people who converted to Christianity before becoming in their turn missionaries with the mission to convert other people to their new religion. I'm snickering here, as we seldom see any actual accounts of Christian missionary activity in Islamic countries except as the targets of riots, arson and murder.
This question prompted me to ask questions on the subject and the desire to collect every detail in order to inform the reader about the danger involved, without infringing on individual freedom of religion, or have any preconceptions about any social classes in the society. I'm not convinced Algeria's in any "danger" of becoming a Christian country any time soon.
The old Fatima tld me with great sadness that a significant number of young people and even old men from the region, leave the religion of their ancestors, Islam, due to television programs such as the one broadcast on "Al Hayat" TV channel. Girls make visits to hair salons or go door to door to distribute copies of the Gospel, showing great professionalism by targeting people who are weak and thus prone to succumb. Christians in the ideal live lives of kindness and service to their fellows. Muslims are more into jihad.
I was surprised to hear names of people whom I believed attached to Islam, especially the elderly, but it turned out that those people, for social and difficult living conditions, poverty and misery, easily fall into the trap of false promises of a better life. Or at least a better afterlife...
An old woman converted to Christianity for the love of her husband. Young people tempted by money and promises to get visas for Europe. Yet you don't turn a hair if women convert to Mohammedanism for love of their husbands.
The old Fatima told me the story of an old couple married for over thirty years. The wife often abused by her husband, decides to use the "Rukia" traditional medicine, but seeing no change, she decided to convert to Christianity. Many people in this region, especially women, have converted to Christianity, and as they face rejection from their society, they leave to Tizi Ouzou where the churches offer them large sums of money (60 million) for new converts, ostensibly in the context of "humanitarian aid". Young people, tempted by emigration, convert in order to get a visa for Europe.
A friend told me that in a village, located between the provinces of Bejaia and Bouira (without mentioning its name), she met a woman wearing a shawl with Christian symbols and inscriptions, calling for Christianity. The old woman was unaware she about what she was carrying.
The imam of Tizi Ouzou denies the existence of missionaries. The Ministry of Religious Affairs is about to send 140 imams to fight against the phenomenon.
In a broadcast on Algerian radio channel, the imam of Boghni in the province of Tizi Ouzou has denied the existence of missionaries in the region, claiming that they were just rumors. Adding that if it is true, the number of these would be minimal and represents only 3%.
Furthermore, the Minister of Religious Affairs, Bouabdallah Gholamallah, said in a press conference at « Dar el Imam " that his department was about to send 140 imams in Kabylia region in order to address the problem. This is proof of the veracity of the facts.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I suppose it depends on who you ask, but I have seen figures of up to 6 million Muslims a year converting to Christianity. Personally, I believe that number is a bit high, but I believe there are certainly more Muslims who convert to Christianity than Christians who convert to Islam.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Niger is facing the worst hunger crisis in its history, with almost half of the population (or 7.3 million people) in desperate need of food, the UN's World Food (WFP) Program says. Sounds like another case of "not enough Islam."
The WFP says 17 percent of the African nation's children, or one in five, are acutely malnourished. Surely if they were more devout they'd have much more... ... like polio, for example ...
The charity Helen Keller International (HKI) has accused the international community of failing to respond effectively to repeated appeals for help for Niger. Personally, I'm feeling strong feelings of apathy...
HKI's Africa director, Shawn Baker, stated, "Famine is a very loaded word. But I think if you look in terms of the number of children affected, the way the livestock have been decimated, and the population movements that were seen earlier in the year, you certainly could consider a famine situation," reported BBC.
The UN reported that more than 67,000 people lost their homes after severe rains in the past week. The River Niger, the 3rd largest river in Africa, reached its highest level for 80 years, said the regional river authority, the ABN.
Not only are many village people going short of food, but their livestock, which are their only real assets, have died off.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > EAST AFRICA: SOMALIS FLOODING INTO "DEADLY PIPELINE" OF AL-SHABAAB | SOMALIS LIVING THE US ACCUSED OF AIDING AL-SHABAAB.
* SAME > [Op-Ed]WHEN STATES CANNOT PROTECT WOMEN + CHILDREN, TERROR IS LOOSED UPON THE WORLD. Wars Revolutions + Anarchies.
ARTIC > IFF GOVTS-STATES cannot assure BASIC SERVICES = QUALITY OF LIFE, how can it assure CIVILIAN SECURITY, PROTECTION, + JUSTICE.
DOMINO'S pizza stores which offered halal-only menus in the UK have switched back to traditional ingredients because of declining sales. I don't think there's any such thing as halal pepperoni...
Three stores - in the UK cities of Birmingham, Bradford and Blackburn - switched to halal menus in January 2009, in a move which upset some non-Muslim customers. Halal sausage doesn't sound really tasty, either...
The halal menu removed pork from Domino's pizzas. Muslims are banned from eating pork under religious law. And I won't even mention halal Canadian bacon.
But after declining sales, Domino's Pizza released a statement today saying that: "we took the decision to trial a halal menu back in January 2009 ... However, the halal menu hasn't attracted the custom we had hoped it would, and we have decided to return to a conventional Domino's menu in all three of these stores."
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/16/2010 11:40 Comments ||
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#3
I don't think there's any such thing as halal pepperoni...
I once encountered a sutler at a Boy Scout summer camp who thought that pepperoni was a suitable vegetarian protein substitute. You'd be surprised how many people have no idea what's in things like sausages and pepperoni and hot dogs.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/16/2010 13:10 Comments ||
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#4
Pepperoni sounds like a fine substitute for that vegetarian soy protein nonsense to me. Although kielbasa would be better, generally speaking.
MOSCOW Russia's FSB security agency on Monday detained a Romanian diplomat for spying, and he was ordered to leave the country within 48 hours, an agency spokesman told AFP. Sort of like the Amityville Horror: "GET. OUT."
"Gabriel Grecu... was detained by FSB in Moscow on August 16 during an attempt to receive secret information of a military nature from a Russian citizen," the spokesman said, claiming that Grecu worked for a Romanian intelligence agency. Romania's foreign ministry had no comment.
"Items of spying equipment that fully reveal his hostile activity against Russia have been confiscated from the intelligence officer," the spokesman told AFP on customary condition of anonymity. Items of spying equipment: a camera inside a cufflink? A short-wave radio in the sole of a shoe?
The recent deployment of China's first four indigenous KJ-2000 AWACS aircraft marks an important milestone in the PLA Air Force's long march from being a 'numbers intensive' low technology force, to a much more modern high technology one. So, discard your old, dated ideas about masses of MiG-21s rising to the skies only to get shot down by AMRAAM, ok guys?
More fundamentally, though, the AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) extends China's deep and broad network of air defence Command Control Communications Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems into a key airborne area. In doing so, China is now acquiring the radar and passive early warning and air defence command, control and communications it needs to counter foreign fighters and cruise missiles.
Yet despite the fact that this system employs radar technology two generations ahead of that used by the US Air Force's E-3C AWACSgenerally seen as a benchmark by the rest of the worldthe deployment of China's new aircraft elicited almost no response from Washington.
The airborne C3ISR segment has also seen investment, with three concurrent programmes to develop AWACS/AEW&C capabilities. Following the abortive KJ-1 effort, the PLA invested in developing a conventional system carried by the Y-8. This system was supplanted by the KJ-200, which uses electronically steered active phased array radar technology that's two generations ahead of the mechanically steered technology used by the US. I'm sure Boeing will step right up to the plate with a new AWACS that costs far too much and doesn't work.
The much larger KJ-2000 AWACS, which also uses active phased array radar, is directly modeled on Israel's A-50I and Elta Phalcon radar. The PLA had actually negotiated the purchase of the A-50I, only to have the Clinton administration block the sale, resulting in an acrimonious war of words. As a consequence, the Chinese made a national commitment to build their ownresulting a decade later in the recently deployed milestone of the KJ-2000. Yeah, I remember that one. Thanks a lot, Israel. It's funny how the US-Israel alliance benefits Israel and it's never time for Uncle Sam to get a benefit.
All this means that China is deploying a modern, high technology air defence system based largely on the same or more advanced basic technologies used by the US, EU and Russia in their systems.
Once fully deployed and matured, this system will be effectively impregnable to regional air forces, and largely impregnable to US naval air power, itself the victim of chronic underinvestment. Indeed, the technology being deployed in strength by the PLA is so sophisticated that only the small planned inventory of US Air Force B-2A Spirit and F-22 Raptor aircraft will be capable of confidently penetrating a post-2015 PLA air defence network. It doesn't matter anyway, if there is ever a shooting war between China and America, the first thing that happens will be all our computers stop working, and the sneak attack will make Pearl Harbor look like the Battle of Barking Creek.
Something to be taken seriously? Yes. Something that will send the USAF fleeing from the skies in defeat? Not yet.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/16/2010 13:17 Comments ||
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#2
There was an article here just the other day about how some Indian engineer spilled the beans on a secret that would probably make the B-2 and F-22 not nearly so stealthy.
#3
Actually, he was an Indian-born retirement age ex-contractor (and US citizen) who has spent most of his life stateside. IMHO, they should have given him a pension once his work on those sensitive projects was done, if only to give him a positive incentive to keep his lips sealed. Penny-wise, pound-foolish...
#4
This is a propaganda piece : the Chinese have not shot 2 full generations ahead of the US in AWACS. They still have been trying to get the Russians to sell them the Russian AWACS and the Russians refused. Remember, this is a country that is still having problems building decent jet fighter engines; the Chinese have a good rocketry program that still has not developed into a full-blown ICBM program, they have less than 20 ICBMs that can hit the West Coast of the US. Besides which, they only have a few hundred aircraft of recent vintage that qualify as more than manned aerial targets in a shooting war against Western fighters like F/A-18s, F-16s, F-15s, F-2s, Rafaels, or Tornados.
#5
The bastard Clinton may have blocked this radar, but he allowed the sale of satellite and rocket technologies. When are administrations going to take China seriously? Just because we aren't actively fighting them like certain cultures, doesn't me you can stick your head in the sand.
Some liberties were taken while whittling this down:
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak called for a special tax to cover the costs of eventual Korean unification as North Korea was having its usual tantrum about a U.S.-South Korea military drill. M@L.
Seems this might be a good idea. As long as nobody can get their hands on it like they did here with SS.
#1
Doh! Looks like the highlighting tags took some liberties, too! This part shouldn't be highlighted:
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak called for a special tax to cover the costs of eventual Korean unification as North Korea was having its usual tantrum about a U.S.-South Korea military drill.
#2
WMF > ANALYSIS: THE COST TO SOUTH KOREA OF ACHIEVING FORMAL NATIONAL REUNIFICATION WID NORTH KOREA BY 2040 [30-Year Schema] MAY BE AS HIGH AS US$2.14TRILYUHN.
versus
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > [ChinaDaily] CHINA: THE US IS ENGAGING IN "GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY", vee the USS "Holy George", US-ROK Yellow Sea Drill, + South China Seas.
* WMF > CCTV7 STATE CHANNEL DISPLAYS UNPRECEDENTED HOURS-LONG SEGMENT ON CPLA'S "WAR MOBILIZATION" [Weaps Firings, MILEXS, etc] OF ARMED/MILITARY FORCES TO OPPOSE THE US AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN THE YELLOW SEA.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PHILIPPINES EYE PEACE WID MUSLIM REBELS [MILF] IN SIX YEARS
[Year 2016 = end of POTP Benigno Aquino Jr's term].
* CHINESE MIL FORUM > [PhilStar] US URGED TO BOLSTER RP DEFENSE AGZ CHINA.
USN ADM. [Retired] James Lyons.
* CHINESE MIL FORUM > PRC PISSED OFF AT US DECLARATION OF GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY |[China.org] US INSISTS ON GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY.
* WMF > US + JAPAN SHOCKED AT CHINA'S DESIRE, PLOT TO RECOVER 5.88 MILYUHN SQKMS OF LOST ASIAN TERRITORIES.
* WMF > THE US DOES NOT WISH TO ANGER OR ANTAGONIZE CHINA: US TELLS BEIJING THAT JAPAN'S GOVT. WILL MAKE ITS OWN FINAL DECISION ON WHETHER TO KEEP OR GIVE UP JAPAN'S CLAIMS OF SOVEREIGNTY ON THE DAOYUS [Daoyutai].
[Dawn] With the approach of a second 'peak flood', the district of Jacobabad is facing the worst crisis in its history and a number of villages and settlements have been inundated. A large number of people who had moved to areas earlier considered to be safe are now forced to move to other places.
At least 22 people, including women and children, have been swept away by raging waters in Moula Dad, Mehmal, Karim Bux and other areas.
The town itself appears to be safe for the moment, but a reported decision to divert floodwaters into a saline water drain has been strongly opposed by people of adjoining areas. The water was earlier diverted towards the Jacobabad-Dera Murad Jamali bypass.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2010 00:00 ||
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OK, maybe I should take back some of the snarky comments at this time.
This is actually worse than those inshallah headbangers deserve.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Popular Iranian footballer Ali Karimi, sometimes described as "the Maradona of Asia," has been fired by his club for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the club said on Sunday. They put him on waivers, right?
Steel Azin FC said on its website www.steelazin.com that it was "forced to sack one of its players, Ali Karimi, for being disobedient and not fasting during Ramadan," when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. Running laps wasn't an option?
Karimi, who was the Asian Player of 2004, had even "insulted officials of the (Iranian) football federation and the Tehran team's supervisor who confronted him on the issue," Steel Azin said. Extra pushups aren't an option?
His sacking comes after he criticized in an interview on his website the management style of the club's managing director and former official of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mostafa Ajorlou. Shooting your mouth off to the press about the coach is a sure sign he's looking to be traded.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
And then they stoned him and put him on the barbie.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/16/2010 23:41 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Popular Iranian footballer Ali Karimi, sometimes described as "the Maradona of Asia," has been fired by his club for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the club said on Sunday.
