Tag Archives: Islam

News

Two women imprisoned in Iran for converting to Christianity get their day in court

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The story is here. (H/T Reasonable Faith)

Excerpt:

In a dramatic session before the revolutionary court today in Tehran, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) were told to recant their faith in Christ. Though great pressure was put on them, both women declared that they would not deny their faith. Maryam and Marzieh were originally arrested on March 5, 2009 and have suffered greatly while in prison, suffering ill health, solitary confinement and interrogations for many hours while blindfolded.

[…]Mr. Haddad, asked the two women if they were Christians. “We love Jesus,” they replied. He repeated his question and they said, “Yes, we are Christians.”

Mr. Haddad then said, “You were Muslims and now you have become Christians.”

“We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims,” was their reply.

Mr. Haddad’s questioning continued and he asked them if they regretted becoming Christians, to which they replied, “We have no regrets.”

Then he stated emphatically, “You should renounce your faith verbally and in written form.” They stood firm and replied, “We will not deny our faith.”

During one tense moment in the questioning, Maryam and Marzieh made reference to their belief that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit. Mr. Haddad told them, “It is impossible for God to speak with humans.”

Marzieh asked him in return, “Are you questioning whether God is Almighty?”

Mr. Haddad then replied, “You are not worthy for God to speak to you.”

Marzieh said, “It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy.”

Mr. Haddad told the women to return to prison and think about the options they were given and come back to him when they are ready (to comply). Maryam and Marzieh said, “We have already done our thinking.”

Read the whole thing. Please pray for these two brave women, and consider sending a donation to Answering Muslims.

News

Muslim girl in Ohio converts to Christianity and escapes abusive parents

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UPDATE: Rifqa’s hearing is today (September 3, 2009). Please click here for the updated story.

UPDATE: The latest update on Rifqa is here (October 13, 2009).

Check out this story of a young girl from Ohio who converted to Christianity and fled to Florida from her Muslim parents. She hitchhiked to the bus station and took a Greyhound from Ohio to Florida because she was afraid that her father would carry out his threats to murder her.

Here’s the video:

The transcript of the video is here on Jihad Watch.

Excerpt:

Well, I’m a Christian, and my parents are Muslim. They’re extremely devout. And they can’t know about my faith – well, they do now. But they’ve threatened to kill me. I don’t know if you know about honor killing….You guys don’t understand. Islam is very different than you guys think. They have to kill me. My blood is now halal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I’m from a Muslim background, it’s an honor. If they love God more than me, they have to do this. And I’m fighting for my life, you guys don’t understand. You don’t understand.

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs reports that the child suffered violent beatings from her parents that were reported to the school counselors. The parents attend a very hard-line mosque (the “Noor Islamic Cultural Center”) that taught Islamic supremacy.

You can read more about the mosque here at the Jawa Report.

Jihad Watch has information on what you can do to make sure she is not killed by her parents:

Contact Governor Charlie Crist today:

Phone Calls to (850) 488-7146
Fax letters to (850) 487-0801
or Email him at Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

The Florida Department of Children and Families

George H. Sheldon, Secretary
1317 Winewood Blvd.
Building 1, Room 202
Tallahassee, Florida
Fax: (850) 922-2993

Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs have lots of posts up about this story!

UPDATE: Good news about this story can be found here.

Polemics

Choosing my religion: why I am not a Muslim

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I’ve decided to spend some time writing extremely short explanations about why I am an evangelical Protestant Christian instead of anything else.

I have two aims.

First, I want show how an honest person can evaluate rival religions using the laws of logic, scientific evidence and historical evidence. Second, I want people who are not religious to understand that religions are either true or it is false. Religions should not be chosen based where you were born, what your parents believed, or what resonates with you. A religion should be embraced for the same reason as the theory of gravity is embraced: because it reflects the way the world really is.

Why I am not a Muslim

  1. To be a Muslim, you must believe that the Koran is without error.
  2. The Koran claims that Jesus did not die on a cross. (Qur’an, 4: 157-158)
  3. The crucifixion of Jesus is virtually undisputed among non-Muslim historians, including atheist historians.
  4. Therefore, it is not rational for me to become a Muslim.

The data

Consider some quotes from the (mostly) non-Christian scholars below:

“Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.” Gert Lüdemann

“That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be.”  J.D. Crossan

“The passion of Jesus is part of history.” Geza Vermes

Jesus’ death by crucifixion is “historically certain”. Pinchas Lapide

“The single most solid fact about Jesus’ life is his death: he was executed by the Roman prefect Pilate, on or around Passover, in the manner Rome reserved particularly for political insurrectionists, namely, crucifixion.” Paula Fredriksen

“The support for the mode of his death, its agents, and perhaps its co-agents, is overwhelming: Jesus faced a trial before his death, was condemned, and was executed by crucifixion.” L.T. Johnson

“One of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea, Ponitus Pilate.” Bart Ehrman

That’s 7 famous historians: 3 atheists, 3 Jews and 1 moderate Catholic. Ludemann, Crossan and Ehrman have all debated against the resurrection of Jesus with William Lane Craig. The Koran was written in the 7th century. That is why no professional historian accepts the Koran as more authoritative than the many earlier Christian and non-Christian sources for the crucifixion story. Many of the sources for the crucifixion are dated to the 1st century.

So that’s one reason why I am not a Muslim.