Muslim terrorists found guilty of plotting largest attack on UK soil

Good news! The UK Telegraph reports.

Excerpt:

The ringleaders of an al-Qaeda backed British jihadi group have been found guilty of plotting the worst terror attack on UK soil.

The Birmingham-based gang planned to use eight suicide bombers, armed with guns, to cause “mass death” and “carnage” on the streets of Britain.

They planned to cause more damage than the 7/7 London bombings and wanted to carry out “another 9/11”.

Police believe had they been successful it would have been the largest terrorist atrocity on home soil.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, were today found guilty of planning a terror campaign after a four and a half month trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

They were also guilty of raising money for terrorism and recruiting others for a terror act.

[…]In a first for the UK, Naseer, a pharmacy graduate, had planned to extract ammonium nitrate – used as main explosive – from sports injury cold packs.

Although no target was settled on, Ali told police they had planned to attack soldiers but they also talked hitting “crowded places” and turning a Birmingham street in to a “little war zone”.

[…]They also considered other forms of attack such a putting poison in hand cream to rub on car and door handles or even putting blades on the front of a vehicle and driving it in to a crowd of people.

The gang raised more than £20,000 by claiming to be collecting for Muslim Aid to fund their atrocity but lost large parts of it after investing it in the foreign exchange markets.

One has to wonder why the Muslim community as a whole does not speak out more against terrorism. I find it difficult to believe that people who are given everything by their adopted country – freedom, prosperity, security – would turn against them. Speaking as an immigrant to a Western country, I really have no idea how people can leave their homeland and then attack the citizens of the country that welcomed them. As Shakespeare’s King Lear says “Monster Ingratitude!”.

Woman raped at gunpoint in “gun free zone” on university campus

CNS News reports.

Excerpt:

Recently, Revealing Politics released a video of Colorado Rep. Joe Salazar arguing that college women don’t need guns to prevent rape because they can use whistles, “safe zones”, and call boxes instead. His theory behind this was that just because women feel they’re going to be raped, doesn’t mean it’s actually going to happen.

On Wednesday, NRA News Radio Host Cam Edwards interviewed Amanda Collins, a woman who was raped at the University of Nevada at gun point in a gun free zone. The brave woman responds to the comments made by Rep. Joe Salazar.

“It is so frustrating. I wish I could sit down with each one of these policy makers and have a face-to-face conversation with them and tell them my story, especially the representative out of Colorado who made the comment that he did on Friday – I have it in front of me. He said, ‘It’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we have safe zones, it’s why we have whistles.’ And, I can just go through and argue each one of those statements with the experience that I had.

“For one, all of these are just sentiments that give a false sense of security. In my experience, I know that. The university that I attended, the University of Nevada, Reno, they didn’t have any call boxes the night that I was attacked, they afterwards they installed them. I can tell you that a call box above my head while I was straddled on the parking garage floor being brutally raped wouldn’t have helped me one bit. The safe zones? Well I was in a safe zone and my attacker didn’t care,” said Collins.

Edwards asks, “What do you mean you were in a safe zone?”

“The campuses are designated as a safe zone, or as I take it, a gun free zone. All it does is ensure the perpetrator that they are going to be unmatched when they pick a victim”, Collins responds.

“You were attacked in what would be considered a safe zone, I’m assuming. You were within sight of the campus police department.”

“Right. I’m going to share something this afternoon that I haven’t shared before, and that is that knowing that I could see the police cruisers less than 50 feet away from me where from where I was being attacked- the moment I saw those cruisers I knew no one was coming for me”, she replied.

Here’s Dr. John R. Lott to explain why gun-free zones should really be called “helpless victim zones”.

Excerpt:

Contrary to public perception, Western Europe, most of whose countries have much tougher gun laws than the United States, has experienced many of the worst multiple-victim public shootings. Particularly telling, all the multiple-victim public shootings in Western Europe have occurred in places where civilians are not permitted to carry guns. The same is true in the United States: All the public shootings in which more than three people have been killed have occurred in places where civilians may not legally bring guns.

Look at recent history. Where have the worst K–12 school shootings occurred? Nearly all of them in Europe. The very worst one occurred in a high school in Erfurt, Germany, in 2002, where 18 were killed. The second-worst took place in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, where 16 kindergartners and their teacher were killed. The third-worst, with 15 dead, happened in Winnenden, Germany. The fourth-worst was in the U.S. — Columbine High School in 1999, leaving 13 dead. The fifth-worst, with eleven murdered, occurred in Emsdetten, Germany.

It may be a surprise to those who believe in gun control that Germany was home to three of the five worst attacks. Though not quite as tight as the U.K.’s regulations, Germany’s gun-control laws are some of the most restrictive in Europe. German gun licenses are valid for only three years, and to obtain one, the person must demonstrate such hard-to-define characteristics as trustworthiness, and must also convince authorities that he needs a gun. This is on top of prohibitions on gun ownership for those with mental disorders, drug or alcohol addictions, violent or aggressive tendencies, or felony convictions.

The phenomenon is not limited to school attacks. Multiple-victim public shootings in general appear to be at least as common in Western Europe as they are here. The following is a partial list of attacks since 2001. As mentioned, all of them occurred in gun-free zones — places where guns in the hands of civilians are outlawed.

Dr. Lott then lists about two dozen incidents – all occurring in gun free zones. The only reliable way to defend yourself against a criminal is to defend yourself yourself. The only people who oppose self-defense are the people who think that only criminals should have guns – not law-abiding citizens. Gun control supporters don’t care if law-abiding people are raped, killed, robbed or tortured. They are more concerned about criminals – they don’t want the criminals to be scared or hurt when they are raping, stealing and killing their law-abiding victims.

Three debates on divine sovereignty, predestination and free will

The two views being debated below are Calvinism and simple foreknowledge. Calvinism is the view that God unilaterally predetermines a selected group of individuals who will know him – the “elect”. Foreknowledge is the view that God draws people to him who he foreknows will freely respond to his overtures and come to know him. What does the Bible teach about these issues?

The Calvinist debater is Dr. James White:

James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics. He has authored or contributed to more than twenty books, including The King James Only Controversy, The Forgotten Trinity, The Potter’s Freedom, and The God Who Justifies. He is an accomplished debater, having engaged in more than one-hundred moderated, public debates with leading proponents of Roman Catholicism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism, as well as critics such as Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and John Shelby Spong. He is an elder of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, has been married to Kelli for more than twenty-eight years, and has two children, Joshua and Summer.

The Foreknowledge debater is Dr. Michael Brown:

Michael L. Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at Southern Evangelical Seminary, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary (Charlotte), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Fuller Theological Seminary, Denver Theological Seminary, the King’s Seminary, and Regent University School of Divinity. He has contributed numerous articles to scholarly publications, including the Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion and the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Dr. Brown is the author of twenty books, including, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood: The Tragic Story of the “Church” and the Jewish People, which has been translated into more than twelve languages, the highly-acclaimed five-volume series, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, a commentary on Jeremiah (part of the revised edition of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary), and several books on revival and Jesus revolution.

Now, let’s get ready to rumble!

First debate

A nice friendly debate that introduces the topic. This is the best debate for casual listeners and non-Christians.

The MP3 file is here.

Summary:

  • Introduction to Calvinist James White and some of his 90 debates
  • What is Calvinism and why is it important?
  • Does God love all people the same way in Calvinism?
  • Does God desire the salvation of all people in Calvinism?
  • Is the offer of salvation to all people a genuine offer on Calvinism?
  • Does Calvinism diminish or augment God’s sovereignty?
  • Can God accomplish his will by permitting evil creaturely actions?
  • Did Jesus die only for the “chosen”, or for the possibility of salvation for all?
  • Does a person’s responding to God’s offer of savaltion detract from Gods glory?
  • Does our ability to resist God’s grace mean that we are “stronger” than God?

There is a little static in the audio for a few seconds every time they come back from a break, but nothing major.

Second debate, on specific passages in the Bible

Same two guys, but this time they tackle the meaning of specific Bible passages.

The MP3 file is here.

The passages being disputed:

  • John 6
  • Romans 8, 9
  • Ephesians 1
Each person gets 8 minutes to exegete the text, followed by 4 minutes of cross-examination by the other debater, followed by 3 minute conclusions by each debater. These texts were chosen by the Calvinist debater.

Third debate, on specific passages in the Bible

Same two guys, but this time they tackle the meaning of specific Bible passages.

The MP3 file is here.

The passages being disputed:

  • Luke 13:34-35 (Deuteronomy 5:28-29)
  • Ezekiel 18:21-32 (Jeremiah 3:19-20; Ezekiel 22:30-31)
  • 1 John 2:1-2 (2 Pet 2:1).
Each person gets 8 minutes to exegete the text, followed by 4 minutes of cross-examination by the other debater, followed by 3 minute conclusions by each debater. These texts were chosen by the foreknowledge debater.