Former Muslim, Brother Rachid, Now in Christ! Watch His Heartfelt Testimony!

IŞIK ABLA interviews a former Imam's son, who had to flee for his life from his parents after he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord

Reinstated, the Foster Parent Struck Off for Allowing Muslim Girl to Convert to Christianity
MAIL ONLINE: A foster parent struck off after a Muslim girl in her care converted to Christianity has won the right to be reinstated.

Gateshead Council’s decision to remove the carer from the register provoked a storm of controversy after it was highlighted by The Mail on Sunday last year.

The carer, who had looked after children for ten years and had a perfect record, was blamed for failing to ‘protect and preserve’ the girl’s Muslim faith when she was baptised, even though she was over 16 and had made up her own mind to change her religion.

Gateshead’s decision was quashed by a court in Leeds last week, prompting criticism of the former head of its children’s services, Maggie Atkinson, who is now Children’s Commissioner for England.

The foster carer, who cannot be named to preserve the anonymity of the girl, said last night that her loss of income had been ‘devastating’.

She added: ‘In addition to losing the Muslim teenager, another girl I was looking after was taken back into care. And I lost the farmhouse I rented to look after vulnerable teenagers.’

She said she was seeking damages from the council. >>> Jonathan Petre | Saturday, July 10, 2010

A Christian on the Run in Egypt
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Maher El Gohary is something his Muslim compatriots can't fathom: a convert to Christianity. He and his daughter live like fugitives, moving frequently to avoid those who'd like to see him dead.

Christians and Muslims clashed in 2005 at St. George's Church in Alexandria, Egypt, where Muslims demanded an apology for a play they said was offensive to Islam. Photo: LA Times
Reporting from Alexandria, Egypt - It is a clear day along the coast, but in a bungalow off the beach, Maher El Gohary sits behind a locked door with an open Bible and a crystal cross, suspicious of every voice and sandal scraping past outside.

He and his daughter, Dina, live like refugees, switching apartments every few months, not wanting to get close to neighbors. Gohary's life has been threatened, his dogs have been killed, and it's been suggested that he's insane or possessed by spirits.

He is a man this Muslim nation cannot fathom: a convert to Christianity.

"Islam is the only thing Egyptians are 150% sure of. If you reject Islam, you shake their belief and you are an apostate, an infidel," he says. "I can see in the eyes of Muslims how much my conversion has really hurt them."

Egypt's Coptic Christians, who represent about 10% of the population, have veered from coexistence to violence with the Muslim majority. Bloody clashes recently erupted between Copts and Muslims over land disputes and restrictions on churches.

But converts, such as Gohary, are even more unsettling. Islamists believe that Muslims who forsake their religion should be punished by death.

Gohary wants to be called Peter and refuses to yield. He has filed a lawsuit asking an Egyptian court to officially recognize him as a Copt by changing the denomination on his national ID card from Muslim to Christian. The court ruled against him in June, finding that Gohary's baptism documents from the Coptic Orthodox Church were "legally invalid." The verdict is on appeal.

The case highlights the religious and political complexities that drive modern Egypt. The nation often seems at battle with itself as it attempts to balance the ideals of a democracy with laws steeped in Islamic principles.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution, but fatwas, or religious edicts, from clerics subject converts from Islam to persecution and threats. The government treads uneasily, not wanting to anger religious conservatives who stubbornly guard Islam's grip on society.

Converts such as Gohary "should be killed by authorities," says Abdul Aziz Zakareya, a cleric and former professor at Al Azhar University. "Public conversions can lead to very dangerous consequences. The spreading of a phenomenon like this in a Muslim society can cause many unwanted results and tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims." >>> Jeffrey Fleishman | Sunday, August 23, 2009

Taking off the Mask of Islam

Former Muslim Facing Death Threats In Egypt
BOS NEWS LIFE: CAIRO, EGYPT -- A former Muslim who converted to Christianity in Egypt was in hiding Sunday, March 8, after Islamic lawyers demanded that he be executed on charges of "apostasy," Egyptian Christians and rights investigators monitoring the trial said.

Middle East Concern (MEC), an advocacy group with closely follows the case, told BosNewsLife that Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary has been trying to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religion, despite death threats.

"Maher is involved in a legal battle to officially change his religious registration from Islam to Christianity so that both he and his daughter may be identified as Christians," MEC said.

However at a trial on February 22 some 20 Islamic lawyers strongly opposed that move, MEC and other sources said.

Egyptian law allows Muslim lawyers to become involved in a court case if they believe the outcome will run counter to Islamic law "harmful" to society. "These lawyers described Maher as an apostate from Islam and asked that he be sentenced to death," MEC said. >>> BosNewsLife Middle East Service | Sunday, March 8, 2009

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Ex-Muslim Christian, Simon Altaf, Speaks about True Islam

Part 2
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Islam Is “Intrinsically Violent”, Warns Muslim Convert, Magdi Cristiano Allam
Photo of the recently converted Muslim to Roman Catholicism, Magdi Cristiano Allam, courtesy of Catholic News Agency
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY: Rome - Italian journalist and Muslim convert to Catholicism, Magdi Allam, warned this week that Islam is growing as a result of the ideology of relativism that pervades the West and claims that there are many truths instead of one unique Truth.

In an article published by the magazine Mundo Cristiano and quoted by Analisis Digital, Allam explained that relativism, which attributes “equal dignity to everything regardless of the content” has made it possible for extremism and Islamic terrorism “to be introduced and to take root” in Europe, to the point that there are Islamic extremists with European citizenship who “act upon and spread an ideology of hatred and violence.”

Likewise, Allam, who was recently baptized by Benedict XVI, said it was impossible to be a moderate Muslim, because the religion of Islam is “physiologically violent, as confirmed by certain verses from the Koran that defend an ideology of hatred, violence, death and condemnation of those who are not Muslims. This way of thinking comes from Mohammed,” Allam said, adding that Islam is an “intrinsically violent” religion.

Asked about his conversion to the faith, Allam said he was convinced by the preaching and testimony of Benedict XVI, whose “strong affirmation of the relationship between faith and reason as a foundation for understanding the authenticity of true religion” fascinated him. [Source: Islam’s Growth Result of Western Relativism, Warns Muslim Convert] May 28, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers
The Dawning of a New Dark Age –Paperback, direct from the publishers

Mahmoud: From Islam to Jesus Christ

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

Zamzam: From Islam to Jesus Christ

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers
The Dawning of a New Dark Age –Paperback, direct from the publishers

Magdi Cristiano Allam

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Italy)

Algeria: Christian Sentenced for Carrying Bible
COMPASS DIRECT NEWS: Police pressure convert to return to Islam during ‘illegal’ five-day detention.

ALGIERS, Algeria, May 9 – An Algerian Christian detained five days for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books was handed a 300-euro (US$460) fine and a one-year suspended prison sentence last week, an Algerian church leader said.

Last Tuesday (April 29) a court in Djilfa, 150 miles south of Algiers, charged the 33-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity with “printing, storing and distributing” illegal religious material. A written copy of the verdict has yet to be issued.

The Protestant, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told fellow Christians in his home city of Tiaret that police pressured him to return to Islam while in custody.

The conviction is the latest in a wave of detentions and court cases against Algeria’s Protestants and Catholics. Since January police and provincial officials have ordered the closure of up to half of the country’s 50 estimated Protestant congregations.

Officials in several instances have cited a February 2006 law governing the worship of non-Muslims. Clarified by subsequent decrees in 2007, the law restricts most religious meetings to approved places of worship and forbids any attempt to “shake the faith of a Muslim.” Algeria: Christian Sentenced for Carrying Bible >>> | May 10, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Vatican Baptism No Good, Says Muslim Scholar
Photo of Arif Ali Nayed courtesy of the BBC
BBC: A Muslim scholar involved in high-level dialogue with the Vatican has denounced the Pope's baptism on Saturday of a prominent Italian Muslim convert.

Aref Ali Nayed, the head of Jordan's Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, called the baptism of journalist Magdi Allam a deliberate and provocative act.

The Vatican has not yet commented, but its official newspaper said the gesture aimed to promote religious freedom.

The Pope traditionally baptises adult converts to Catholicism on Easter eve.

Mr Allam's invitation to the ceremony, which took place in St Peter's Basilica, was however kept secret by the Vatican, until just before the Easter vigil mass.

The Egyptian-born Italian TV and newspaper commentator has been an outspoken critic of Islamist militancy and a strong supporter of Israel.

He says such controversial views and his conversion to Christianity have provoked threats on his life, and he is now protected by a police escort. Muslim Scholar Denounces Muslim Baptism >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)