Chanukah Lights at the Toronto Zionist Center
[Photo By: KPA]
I attended yesterday a Channuka Party at the Jewish Defense League here in Toronto. The gathering was also to introduce Michael Coren's new book: Hatred: Islam's War on Christianity.
There was good food and good people, as the invitation said, and Coren's presentation was as forceful and forthright as his approach during his nightly current affairs program The Arena.
Here is a chilling excerpt from Coren's book (pp25-26):
One of the central planks in the relationship between Muslims and Christians is the so-called Pact of the Umar, allegedly singed by the second caliph, Umar I (634-44). We don't know all the details of the treaty or even its precise date, and some historians argue that it was written by the conquered Christian themselves. We do know that it is used, or exploited, by modern Islamic scholars to underpin their attitudes toward Christian minorities. Among its conditions are the following:And here is a modern-day description, also from the book, of the current condition of the Coptic Christians of Egypt:"We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims. We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodgings to all Muslims who pass our way for three days. We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it. We shall show respect to the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit. We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitiating any of their garments, the cap, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their surnames. We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any ind of arms nor carry them on our persons."Whatever its accuracy, chronology and origin, it has been employed by Islam for fifteen hundred years to subjugate Christians.
"The Copts of Egypt," he continued [Anthony Browne, journalist at The Spectator], "make up half the Christians in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity. They inhabited the land before the Islamic conquest, and still make up a fifth of the population. By law they are banned from being president of the Islamic Republic of Egypt or attending Al Azhar University, and severely restricted from joining the police and army. By practice they are banned from holding any high political or commercial position. Under the 19th-century Hamayouni decrees, Copts must get permission from the president to build or repair churches - but he usually refuses. Mosques face no such controls. Government-controlled TV broadcasts anti-Copt propaganda, while giving no airtime to Copts. It is illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity, but legal for Christians to convert to Islam. Christian girls - and even the wives of Christian priests - are abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. [From Hatred: Islam's War on Christianity, p6. The full article is in The Spectator, March 26, 2005, and is here]Coren tells us that things are getting worse, with unimaginable human suffering going on as he speaks.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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