Category Archives: Religion

Chief Rabbi on enemies and friends

Anti-Israeli Action, Christian Churches, Religion

Ruth Gledhill’s weblog in The Times includes a article by the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, due to be published tomorrow in the Jewish Chronicle. The Chief Rabbi frequently avoids what he sees as unnecessary public bickering and conflict with the Church, but clearly he is distressed by the Church of England’s recent decision on ‘disinvestment’ (or divestment):

The vote of the synod of the Church of England to “heed” a call to divestment from certain companies associated with Israel was ill-judged even on its own terms. The immediate result will be to reduce the Church’s ability to act as a force for peace between Israel and the Palestinians for as long as the decision remains in force. The essence of mediation is the willingness to listen to both sides. The timing could not have been more inappropriate. Israel has risked civil war to carry out the Gaza withdrawal, the first time in the history of the Middle East that a nation has evacuated territory gained in a defensive war without a single concession, even the most nominal, on the other side.

Israel faces two enemies, Iran and Hamas, open in their threat to eliminate it. It needs support, not vilification. For years I have called on religious groups in Britain to send a message of friendship and coexistence to conflict zones throughout the world, instead of importing those conflicts into Britain itself. The effect of the synod vote will be the opposite. The Church has chosen to take a stand on the politics of the Middle East over which it has no influence, knowing that it will have the most adverse repercussions on a situation over which it has enormous influence, namely Jewish-Christian relations in Britain.

That is why we cannot let the matter rest. If there was one candle of hope above all others after the Holocaust it was that Jews and Christians at last learned to speak to one another after some 17 centuries of hostility that led to exiles, expulsions, ghettoes, forced conversions, staged disputations, libels, inquisitions, burnings at the stake, massacres and pogroms. We must not let that candle be extinguished.

Israel: Adventists and Jewish Scholars Meet in Friendship Conference

Religion

In a time of Hamas terrorists getting elected into government, threats against Christians in Gaza, Iranian nukes and widespread anti-Semitic attacks, it is odd that the Church of England feels it necessary to jump on the anti-Israeli bandwagon. But there are at least some positive things going on elsewhere. From the Adventist News Network (ANN) / Adventist Press Service (APD):

Jerusalem, Israel: Seventh-day Adventists from 23 countries gathered February 6 for a six-day “Adventist Jewish Friendship Conference” aimed at building bridges between Adventists and Jews.

In his opening address to the 140 delegates, Dr. Bertil Wiklander, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European region, noted several Adventist beliefs that suggest a close connection with Judaism and Jewish people.

“We have the Sabbath in common and with it a high regard for God’s law as an ethical guide, and we wait for the ‘advent’ of the Messiah. We are united by Torah and Messiah,” said Wiklander.

Rabbi David Bateman, of Kehilat Ya’ar Ramot, a conservative Jewish congregation in the Jerusalem suburb of Ramot, gave a presentation on the subject of “The Place of Israel in Jewish Thinking.”
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Threats to Christians in Gaza

Christian Churches, Religion

More horrific threats have been received by the Bible Centre in Gaza. From the Executive Secretary of the Palestinian Bible Society:

Dear Friends,

f have just received a call from Jerusalem and Gaza informing me that this morning we have received another very serious threat. A few masked and armed militants distributed fliers around the area where the Bible Society’s centre is located in Gaza this morning. The flier included the following:

1. A threat to the landlord that if he does not evict us by the 28th of Feb they will blow up the whole building
2. A warning to the tenants in the building that they should leave before that date if we are still there
3. A warning for us that we should completely close down our operation in Gaza and not to try to relocate as we are being watched closely
4. Accusations that we spread a doctrine against Islam and that we are a Crusaders’ evangelistic operation supported by the Crusaders’ West
5. A strongly-worded warning about their seriousness proved by the bomb which they blew up at the door of the Bible Society last week.

Our team in Jerusalem and Gaza are taking two lines of action:

1. Calling upon the Lord and claiming the blood of Jesus upon the team and the neighbours and the building
2. Informing all the security offices responsible and also copying the office of the Palestinian President Mr. Mahmoud Abbas
3. Calling upon the Church through all of you to lift us up before the Lord as we want to hold in balance:

  • Trust in the Lord and His protection
  • Not giving in t the threats of the enemy
  • An attitude of responsibility towards the safety of the team, and our Muslim neighbours who are terrified by this threat. The landlord came to the Bible Society centre and demanded that we should close for a while!

Please pray for us. As I was praying and thinking the Scripture of 1 Peter 3: 10 – 17 came to mind. It is TEST TIME for our ministry in Gaza.

In the love of Christ
Labib

Uncle Boutros and Uncle Tom… A Lesson In Arab Tolerance

Middle East Politics, Religion

by Gerald A. Honigman

My friend and scholar, Jerry Gordon, sent me a note the other day alerting me to Diane West’s great article in the The Washington Times referring to the essential historian, Bat Ye’or’s, writings on dhimmitude.

Having written somewhat myself on the subject of the forced Arabization of much of the region’s lands and peoples since Muhammad’s successors burst out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century C.E. and spread Islam by their imperial Caliphal sword in all directions, events of late sired in Denmark also had me thinking anew on this subject.
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Dangerous Hypocrisy: World Reactions to the Danish Cartoons

Religion

by Roberta Seid, PhD and Roz Rothstein

Westerners are agonizing about whether the twelve Danish cartoons of Mohammed showed unforgivable prejudice against Islam. Enraged Muslims in Europe, the Middle East and Asia are rampaging in protest against the cartoons, demanding apologies, boycotts, blood and even beheadings. But in all this, the real outrage is overlooked: the sheer hypocrisy of these reactions.
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