HaMikdash

Outside of their own world, little is known about them - and such is the fascination that thousands have flocked to an exhibition that casts a little light on Israel’s Hasidic Jews.

The exhibition celebrating the 250-year-old Jewish movement has become an unexpected success since opening in…

Dozens of Gaza Christians staged a rare public protest Monday, claiming two congregants were forcibly converted to Islam and were being held against their will.

The small but noisy demonstration showed the increasingly desperate situation facing the tiny minority.

Protesters banged on a church bell and chanted, “With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus.”

Gaza police say the two are staying with a Muslim religious official at their request, because they fear retribution from their families converting to Islam. Two mediators said the two - a 25-year-old man and a woman with three children - appeared to have embraced Islam of their free will. Forced conversions have been unheard of in Gaza before.

Since the Islamic militant Hamas seized power five years ago, Christians have felt increasingly embattled, but have mostly kept silent.

There are growing fears among Gaza Christians that their rapidly shrinking community could disappear through emigration and conversions.

Their numbers appear to have shrunk from some 3,500 to about 1,500 in recent years, according to community estimates. They are a tiny minority among 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza, most conservative Muslims.

“If things remain like this, there’ll be no Christians left in Gaza,” said Huda Al-Amash, mother of one of the converts, Ramez, 25. She sat sobbing in a church hallway alongside her daughters, Ranin and Rinad, and a dozen other women. “Today it’s Ramez. Then who, and who will be next?”

Christians said the main reason for the shrinking numbers is emigration, since there are few jobs in Gaza.

Changing faith is a deeply traumatic affair in the Arab world, where religion is strongly interwoven with people’s identities and tribal membership.
To convert often means to be ostracized by the community.

The two converts, Al-Amash, and Hiba Abu Dawoud, 31, could not be reached for comment. Abu Dawould took her three daughters with her, further enraging the community.

On Monday, groups of men and women stood in groups in the square of the ancient Church of Saint Porphyrius, angrily chanting,” Bring back Ramez!” One man angrily hit the church bell.

“People are locking up their sons and daughters, worried about the ideas people put in their head,” said Al-Amash’s mother, Huda.

Technically seen I don’t think I can call them spammers, but to my mind they are. Let me explain myself.

For some time now, I keep getting asks from Christians who want me to see the ‘light’. Not only do I see them in my ask box, so now and then I hear they are even active in the Judaism-tag.

Up…

Israel: Jesus was not born in Palestine!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 | Ryan Jones

Israel is conducting a last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent the Palestinian Authority from officially registering the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as a World Heritage Site belonging to the…

Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on “Egypt Today,” airing a video of Muslims slicing off a young man’s head off for the crime of apostasy — in this instance, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it. The video — be warned, it is immensely graphic — can be seen here (the actual execution appears from minute 1:13-4:00). For those who prefer not to view it, a summary follows:

A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or “narrator,” chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: “Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate”; “Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists”; “Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims,” and “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”

Then, to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” — Allah is greater!” — the masked man holding the knife to the apostate’s throat begins to slice away, severing the head completely after approximately one minute of graphic knife-carving, as the victim drowns in blood. Finally, the severed head is held aloft to more Islamic slogans of victory.

Visibly distraught, Tawfiq Okasha, the host, asks: “Is this Islam? Does Islam call for this? How is Islam related to this matter?… These are the images that are disseminated throughout the electronic media in Europe and America… . Can you imagine?” Then, in reference to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, whose political influence has grown tremendously, he asks, “How are such people supposed to govern?”

___________________________________________

Things have surely improved, especially in regard to religious freedom, thanks to that lovely, tolerant Arab Spring.