Newt Gingrich: We Will Build a Mosque When You Open a Church and Synagogue in Mecca

Laina Farhat-Holzman*: Mosques in Europe -- Where's the Reciprocity?
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL: President Barack Obama mentioned reciprocity: mutual respect between the Muslim world and America. Not much reciprocity in Europe, where some governments are already putting up white flags as clever Islamists attack their basic institutions. Diana West townhall.com worries that French schools no longer teach authors deemed offensive to Muslims Voltaire, Diderot, Darwin, and, of course, history of the Holocaust.

She notes that the British government "cravenly elevated five Sharia courts to the level of tribunal hearings, making their rulings legally binding." The first verdicts upheld male supremacy -- inheritance that gives girls half of the inheritance of boys -- and they dismissed several domestic violence charges. Sharia permits wife beating.

The French city of Tours was the historic capital of the French king Charles Martel, who in the 7th century turned back the Muslim invasion that had overrun Spain. Because of this, Europe did not become Muslim.

Now Tours is the recipient of money from the French government -- as well as Algeria and Saudi Arabia -- to construct one of the largest mosques in France. While this is very generous, and politically correct, of France, Algeria is shutting down Christian churches because they might try to convert Algerians, and in Saudi Arabia Christianity is illegal. In almost all Muslim countries, Judaism may not be practiced either.

The French Ministry of the Interior lists 1,500 places of worship, including 400 mosques. Here "mosques" mean any places of worship. Prisons are another locus for active Islamist conversion. According to Walid Phares, who has been talking with French counterterrorism people, a terrorist cell from Central Asia was picked up in France, where they were getting military training.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said 90 Islamic activists were arrested in France in 2007. She notes that French and American prisons are incubators for Islamist recruitment and conversions, as are French suburban ghettos. >>> Laina Farhat-Holzman | Saturday, January 31, 2009

*Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, lecturer, and author. Contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.

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A Russian Church for a Saudi Mosque?
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: This delightful story just came in thanks to getreligion.org: The Saudis have recently asked permission to build a mosque in Moscow, a city where there are only four mosques and 2 million Muslims. The Russians, however, are saying they want, in return, an Orthodox church in Saudi Arabia.

As we all know, the Saudis have a habit of constructing mosques in dozens of world capitals while forbidding houses of worship for any religion whatsoever outside its Wahabist brand of Islam. They've gotten some bad PR locally for some of the hate language in textbooks at the Saudi Academy in northern Virginia. Not only are hapless Christians terrorized and jailed for daring to hold private prayer services in Saudi Arabia, but God help them should they try to convert someone to their religion. And that's for a fellow People of the Book: One can only guess at what the treatment of Buddhists and Hindus must be like.

Wouldn't it be so ironic if the Russians were the first Christian body to win acceptance of the right to build a church in, say, Riyadh? (Some of the Russians are calling for a church in Mecca, but the chances of any other religion getting a foothold within walking distance of the world center of Islam is less than zero.) Of course we all know the Saudis aren't about ready to let Bibles or other religious literature, let alone a church, anywhere near their homeland, but all the same, it's amusing to see the Russians give the Saudis a taste of their own medicine. [Source: The Washington Times / Belief Blog (Comments welcome)] By Julia Duin | December 3, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

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