Headlines:
- Study: Pastors Grow More Polarized on Islam
- ‘Islam was Never Part of Europe’: Hungary’s Orban
- Russia Calls for Fresh Elections in Syria
- Turkey says won’t let Kurds ‘Seize’ Northern Syria
- Turkey’s Erdogan to be ‘Caliph’ under Presidential System, Pro-AKP Columnist Claims
- Syria divides remain / U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey discuss transition
Study: Pastors Grow More Polarized on Islam
Protestant pastors are increasingly polarized about Islam, with a growing share labeling the Muslim faith violent while a sharply rising minority calls it spiritually good, a new study shows. Although a majority considers Islam dangerous, a small but increasing segment believes Islam is similar to Christianity, according to a new survey by LifeWay Research. And two-thirds of Protestant pastors agree Christianity and Islam should seek to coexist in America. The softening of some pastors’ views toward Islam is a key finding of a LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors. Seventeen percent of pastors characterize Islam as similar to Christianity, nearly double the 9 percent from five years earlier. Although views shifted in both directions, positive opinions rose more significantly. The American public, meanwhile, is twice as likely as pastors to see common ground between Islam and Christianity. In a parallel survey of 1,000 Americans, more than a third say the two faiths are similar. “To understand the data, you have to understand that Protestant pastors are not of one mind,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research, “and minds are changing in more than one direction.” While more than 8 in 10 Protestant pastors say Islam is fundamentally different from Christianity, just as they did in 2010, minority viewpoints are increasing, LifeWay Research finds. Compared to five years ago, pastors are much more likely to describe Islam in favorable terms. Fifty percent say Islam promotes charity, up from 33 percent. Significant numbers also describe Islam as spiritually good (32 percent, up from 19 percent), tolerant (24 percent, up from 16 percent), and open (22 percent, up from 12 percent.) Negative opinions are also on the rise, although the shift is less dramatic. A slim majority considers Islam dangerous (52 percent, up from 44 percent). Almost half say Islam promotes violence (49 percent, up from 42 percent) and is spiritually evil (46 percent, up from 39 percent). [Source: Baptist Press]
The negativity towards Islam has more to do with the media than the views of the protestant church. The same media remains silent about Jewish atrocities on the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine during the Bush administration and the village mosques throughout Palestine today.
‘Islam was Never Part of Europe’: Hungary’s Orban
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban defended his hardline stance against refugees, the vast majority of whom are Muslim, saying in an interview published last week that Islam “has never been part of Europe”. Speaking to Germany’s Focus news weekly about the record migrant influx, he said, “The language of the European elite is ideological and dogmatic”. “Islam has never been part of Europe, it came to us,” Orban told Focus in an interview. He conceded that Germany’s Turkish migrants, who arrived in their tens of thousands from the 1960s for work, now “belong to German history and therefore Europe’s too”. “But spiritually, Islam was never part of Europe. It’s the rulebook of another world,” said Orban. He also hit out at France and Germany for refusing to countenance “any doubts” over a multicultural society. “We in Hungary decide what we want or don’t want. We don’t want that,” he said. Almost 600,000 people have arrived in Europe so far this year, with many of them heading for Germany and Sweden. Orban asserted that most asylum seekers arriving in Europe are actually economic migrants. “Not everyone is entitled to a life in Germany or a life in Hungary. That’s only for those who have worked for it,” he said. [Source: Yahoo.com]
Orban’s comments about Islam are out of step with his earlier comments in Egypt in 2015. Then he praised Islam. His moral relativism revolves around benefit. In Egypt, Islam was praised as Hungary signed bilateral agreements with the government, while the influx of Muslim refugees hurts his pocket.
Russia Calls for Fresh Elections in Syria
Russia is pushing for fresh elections in Syria next year and offering air support to the opposition Free Syrian Army in its fight with ISIS as Moscow seeks to use the momentum of its military campaign to move towards political stabilisation in the war-torn country. Speaking on Saturday to state television, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was “necessary to prepare for elections, both presidential and parliamentary” in Syria. Recent successes of the Syrian army achieved with backing from the Russian air force have allowed the government of president Bashar al-Assad to “consolidate its position and should make the state more interested in progress of the political process,” he said. Mr Lavrov added Russia was ready to “give air support to the so-called Free Syrian Army”, but said that the US was refusing to share with Moscow its assessment about the respective location of terrorist groups and “patriotic” opposition forces. “The most important thing for us is to reach out to the people who authoritatively represent different armed groups that fight terrorism,” he said. Russia’s offer to back the FSA militarily sharply contrasts with its earlier denouncement of all armed opposition groups as “terrorists”. It comes as Moscow seeks to stop its military support for Mr Assad’s regime from undermining its credibility with the opposition. Although Russia has said that its military intervention in Syria is aimed at destroying ISIS, the radical jihadist group, the vast majority of its air strikes so far have hit other armed opposition forces. Moscow’s appeal for elections and open offer for military support to the FSA cap a week of hectic diplomacy in which Moscow appeared to lean on Mr Assad to open up to dialogue with opposition groups and stepped up pressure on the US and its allies to accept a role for the Syrian president in a political transition. Russian president Vladimir Putin summoned Mr Assad to Moscow for marathon discussions on Wednesday and subsequently claimed the Syrian leader was open to working with moderate opposition forces and viewed positively the idea of Russian support for armed opposition groups who fight Isis. On Friday, Mr Lavrov discussed Syria with US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. [Source: Financial Times]
Does the Russian plan differ in any way to America’s plan for Syria? It appears now that Washington and Moscow are working together to kick-start a political process, which includes the butcher Assad as part of the solution.
Turkey says won’t let Kurds ‘Seize’ Northern Syria
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Kurdish groups on Saturday of trying to grab control of northern Syria, and said Ankara would not allow this to happen.
Turkey is alarmed by territorial gains for the Kurds in Syria’s civil war, which it fears could stir separatism among its own Kurdish minority.
Tel Abyad, on the border with Turkey, was captured in June from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group militants by Kurdish YPG militia with help from U.S.-led air strikes. Last week, a local leadership council declared it part of the system of autonomous self-government established by the Kurds.
Syrian Kurds have established three autonomous zones, or “cantons’, across northern Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011. They deny aiming to establish their own state.
The YPG’s capture of Tel Abyad linked up the Kurdish-controlled canton of Kobane, which was besieged by Islamic State last year, with the bigger canton of Jazeera, which is further east and borders Iraq.
Turkey has for the past three decades been trying to end an insurgency by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union.
The PKK has been staging almost daily attacks in the southeast since July, when a ceasefire fell apart.
Ankara accuses the Syrian Kurds’ political arm, the PYD, of deep links to the PKK. It has been incensed by the role the Kurds have carved out for themselves, with U.S. support, in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria.
Erdogan also slammed countries who provided assistance to the PYD, although he did not name them.
“Right now there are 1,400 PKK members in PYD. There is no point ignoring this, this is a fact,” said Erdogan. “But all these countries who seem friendly towards us are trying to make this look the opposite way. Whatever arms assistance they (PYD) receive, it is coming from these countries. We know very well whose arms.”
Earlier this month, the YPG Kurdish militia announced a new alliance with small groups of Arab fighters, and the group was air-dropped small arms and ammunition by U.S. forces in northeast Syria.
Washington has indicated it could direct funding and weapons to Arab commanders on the ground who cooperate with the YPG. [Source: Al Arabiya]
Firstly: Nationalistic bond is an unsuitable bond to bind man with man. So it causes conflicts among people over dominion. It does not serve to unite The Muslim Ummah.
Secondly: Erdogan is acting like he does not collaborate with the USA. But in fact he applies his political plans for the sake of the USA. We can see this collaboration at Incirlik airbase and Diyarbakir airbase. American planes bombing Syrian land takes off from these bases.
Turkey’s Erdogan to be ‘Caliph’ Under Presidential System, Pro-AKP Columnist Claims
A pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) columnist has claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be the ‘caliph,’ or leader of Sunni Muslims in the world, under the much-anticipated presidential system.
Yeni Akit columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak said the rooms of the controversial presidential palace would be reserved for the representatives from nations under the caliphate, adding that Turkey’s caliphate had never been abolished.
“If Tayyip Erdogan shifts to a presidential system, he will probably assign advisors from the regions under the caliphate and open representative agencies of all Islam Union nations in that 1,005-room [the presidential palace] in Bestepe,” said Dilipak speaking at a conference organized by AKP Toronto Election Coordination Center in Canada.
Dilipak also added that Erdogan would assign advisers for all Muslim nations in the world.
Erdogan has been known for his longtime aspiration for a presidential system in the country. [Source: Hurriyet Daily News]
If something inevitable approaching threatens a state’s interests, it generates a fake happening to deceive the public and confuse people’s minds. Futile efforts like ISIS and Erdogan’s Presidential Caliphate will be Capitalist ideology’s last tricks. Nothing can prevent the Prophet’s (saw) glad tidings and the coming promise of Allah (swt): The Khilafah Rashidah.
Syria divides remain / U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey discuss transition
The United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey put forward new ideas Friday to revive a failed push for a political transition in Syria that could end the country’s civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday. But they remained deeply divided over the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The top diplomats from the four countries agreed to meet again in an expanded format with representatives from other nations, but the only concrete result of last week’s talks appeared to be an agreement between Jordan and Russia to coordinate military operations in Syria. Kerry said there was no decision on whether to invite Iran, a major patron of Syria.
Kerry said that he, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu went over proposals to restart moribund talks on how to create a transitional government for Syria.
After the meeting, Kerry told reporters the “meeting was constructive and productive and succeeded in surfacing some ideas, which I am not going to share today, but which I hope have a possibility of changing the dynamic.”
Lavrov said he has invited the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to join a coordination center that Russia and Jordan agreed earlier Friday would be used to integrate their air campaigns over Syria. Jordan is a member of the U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State facilities in Iraq and Syria. The coalition has so far refused to cooperate with Russia’s operations beyond a basic agreement intended to prevent mid-air incidents. Mohammed al-Momani, Jordanian government spokesman said the agreement did not mean that Jordan was leaving the coalition.
A leading Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said it still aimed for Assad’s ouster. “We will not accept the presence of Assad for one day in the transitional period,” said Anas al-Abdah, a member of the coalition, in a statement e-mailed to AP.
The United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia all share the view that Assad must go if the conflict is to be resolved. Russia began airstrikes in Syria last month that it said were aimed at Islamic State militants, but the United States and its allies say the bombing is bolstering Assad rather than targeting militants.
Lavrov said Russia’s support for Assad remains strong. “Our partners have some obsession with the figure of the Syrian president, but we reaffirmed our position,” Lavrov said.
One item on the agenda, Kerry said, is which nations should be included political transition discussions. Russia is keen to bring Iran into the talks, but Saudi Arabia is opposed. The Obama administration has said repeatedly that all the countries with an interest in Syria, including Iran and Russia, need to agree on a unified, secular and pluralistic Syria governed with the consent of its people. [Source: The Japan News]
It seems like the last Crusade coalition is going to work with Turkish and Saudi support. USA aim to form a secular and pluralistic government in Syria. This is what they mean by the word: Moderate.