Muslims and Indians in Manitoba team up against white people

A pattern has emerged in recent years of groups of non-white people who otherwise have nothing in common with one another coming together to oppose white people for the heinous crime of being white. One such example is the National Immigration Table, which may be the subject of another blog post, if I can ever get around to it. Another example is the one below, as reported by John Longhurst in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 20, 2025:

At first glance, Muslims and Indigenous people in Manitoba might not have much in common.

However, the two groups have experienced racism and the effects of colonialism, including efforts to convert them to Christianity.

“We are all living with the history and trauma of colonization,” Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association, said. “We have much in common from that experience.”

The association will hold the first national Muslim-Indigenous Solidarity Conference, which is happening at the Hilton Suites Airport Hotel on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26.

Siddiqui said the goal is to “strengthen the bonds between the Muslim and Indigenous communities through learning, sharing and healing circles.”

Indigenous elders, Muslim imams, community leaders, academics and activists are scheduled to make presentations.

Topics to be discussed include the legacy of colonialism for Indigenous people and Muslims in North America; the role of colonialism in gender-based violence; the role of the church in assimilation, education and Christianization of Indigenous people in Canada and Muslims around the world; the spiritual commitment of Indigenous people and Muslims to peace, justice and human rights; and the role of spirituality in healing for members of both groups.

In addition, there will be space for smudging and to speak to counsellors.

“The legacy of colonialism is still with us today in the form of racism and dehumanization,” Siddiqui said, noting many countries in the developing world that are home to Muslims — Egypt, Syria, Sudan, India, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Indonesia — were colonized by European powers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

“This is an opportunity for members of both communities to hear from each other how they are addressing the colonial legacy and racism, so we can share and learn together and build resilience,” she said.

The "efforts to convert them to Christianity" have had a fair amount of success when it comes to Native people in Canada, since most still identify as Christians of one kind or another. The statement by Ms. Siddiqui is more than a little disingenuous, given that Muslims make efforts to convert others to Islam, while trying to make their new homes into Muslim nations.

Ms. Siddiqui's comment about the spiritual commitment of Muslims to peace, justice and human rights is laughable. The Muslim idea of peace is a lack of opposition to Islam; justice means the imposition of Islamic law; and I dare anyone to name one Muslim nation that respects human rights. In the nations that she mentions, colonialism had the beneficial effect of suppressing the most unpleasant aspects of the native cultures, such as tribal conflict. When it comes to the "legacy of colonialism," the main legacy is everything that these peoples have that can be regarded as mmodern, especially technology.

Sufi conference in Morocco highlights global citizenship

I'm not a fan of The Unz Review; I don't share or endorse the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias expressed by many of its columnists. However, it does sometimes publish interesting items, such as the following by Kevin Barrett, a convert to Islam, originally on Substack, on September 28, 2023 (bold, link in original):

Since I came to Islam in 1993, I have attended plenty of Sufi get-togethers, both here in Morocco and back in the USA. They are generally modest affairs (except for the food, which can be pretty lavish). Typically a couple of dozen people at most gather in a circle if it’s a mosque, or a rectangle if it’s a Moroccan sala, to perform dhikr, a kind of chanting, swaying group meditation. After an hour or two of dhikr, sometimes including an exhortation or discussion led by the shaykh, a communal meal is enjoyed. And I do mean communal—people reach in to eat off the same plate and drink out of the same glass.

I spent the day yesterday at a very different kind of Sufi gathering: a big academic-style conference sponsored by corporations, NGOs, and presumably the Moroccan government. Entitled “Sufism: Religious and Civic Values for Global Citizenship,” it was hosted by the Boutchichiyya Zawiya in Madargh, Morocco, and coordinated with the Mawlid an-Nabi (the Prophet’s birthday, celebrated today).

Sufism, often defined as “Islamic mysticism,” has had a long, ambivalent relationship with institutional forces and with power in general. Organized into tariqas or brotherhoods, some Sufis have supported rulers, others have opposed them, while the majority have oscillated between offering friendly and critical feedback. Today, some politically-engaged Muslims view Sufism negatively because, they say, it promotes quietism and navel-gazing rather than engagement with the formidable challenges facing the community. But historically, that’s just not true. Sufis have generally been about as activist (or not-so-activist) as anyone else.

Personally, my “truth jihadi” activism is inspired in part by Moroccan malamati Sufism. The malamatis (“people of blame”) don’t mind being vilified, because they don’t care about anyone’s opinion but God’s. The Moroccan malamatis have traditionally specialized in speaking truth to power, often in shocking ways. Middle Eastern malamatis, by contrast, traditionally did stupid things like filling wine bottles with water and chugging from them in the mosque to give the false impression that they’re obnoxious drunkards. (Since the last of the Middle Eastern malamatis got chased out of town a long time ago, you’re unlikely to see any on your next trip to Baghdad or Damascus.)...

...The serious business of the conference involved the notion of global citizenship (citoyenneté globale). In French and English, that sounds a bit like your status under the forthcoming world government being set up by the likes of George Soros and Klaus Schwab. But the Arabic phrase, موطنة شاملة, has rather different connotations. The word for citizenship, موطنة, stems from the notion of وطن (national homeland) and might be translated as “national homeland-belonging.” And the word شاملة means “inclusive” or “comprehensive.” So موطنة شاملة (an inclusive/comprehensive homeland-belonging) sounds, to my ears at least, markedly different from citoyenneté globale. While on one level the conference slogan could mean moving toward “world citizenship,” on another it can imply moving toward an even stronger attachment to national homelands than exists today.

Various Moroccan speakers at the conference, including Dr. Larbi Taouaf of Mohammad 1 University in Oujda, made it clear that one of the references of “national homeland-belonging” was to Morocco’s unique version of national-unity-in-diversity. Morocco, Dr. Taouaf explained, has spent many centuries forging an inclusive national identity bringing together a great many languages and ethnicities. The unifying factor, he suggested, is Islamic religious and spiritual values (which of course promote coexistence and dialogue with other faiths). By contrast, the postcolonial West’s experience of promoting secular-based “diversity” and “multiculturalism” and “pluralism” has only existed for a few decades and doesn’t seem to be working out very well.

Morocco’s approach, Dr. Taouaf said, differs from today’s Western liberalism in that it is “against identity politics in the public sphere.” In other words, Moroccans and their government don’t much care what you do or say in private, but have no compunction about placing limits on your ability to become a public nuisance. (When an American speaker apostrophizing “tolerance” ill-advisedly brought up the fraught issues of gender and sexuality, the next speaker, a Moroccan, subtly but pointedly rebuked him by citing the famous Qur’anic dictate to “command good and forbid evil.”)

It seems to me that rather than asking their hosts whether Morocco is liberal and democratic enough, Western visitors should ask themselves: Is identity-politics-based liberal democracy really the best way to run a country? Case in point: Today’s Washington Post features three excellent articles on how liberalism (say anything you want on social media, including incitements to violence) plus democracy (whoever riles up the voters the most wins) plus identity politics (Hindu fascism) is producing hell-on-earth in Modi’s godforsaken India...

...Meanwhile, back at the conference: How can Sufism, rather than “liberal democracy,” promote good citizenship around the world? I would answer that question by arguing that the mystical dimension of religion, rather than the exoteric and especially the identity politics dimension, is what inspires devotion to the good, the true, and the beautiful, thereby inspiring good behavior. If Hindus in India, for example, spent more time meditating on the Upanishads, and less time lynching Muslims and Christians (and voting and campaigning for people who promote the lynchings) they would be both better mystics and better citizens.

People are more likely to follow rules of good behavior if they can directly sense, intuit, or even know that there is a divine Reality behind those rules. Mysticism teaches direct encounters with the Reality at the heart of religion.

Just as mysticism promotes globalism, it also promotes universalism; those who so-called contemplative spirituality, for instance, come across people from other religions who report similar experiences, leading to the conclusion that the experiences must be coming from the same source--which is why it's dangerous to rely on the shifting sand of subjective experience rather than on the solid, unchanging truth of the Bible. This mysticism is contributing to the deception characteristic of the end times prior to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Backlog: Egyptian journalist wants to sue Israel for damages caused by Old Testament plagues

To quote Winston Churchill out of context, "Here, surely, is the world's record in the domain of the ridiculous and the contemptible." The journalist in the article below at least performs a service in illustrating the absurdity of recent calls for reparations for alleged sins committed long before the births of those manufacturing grievances. The biblical account of the plagues can be found in Exodus 7:14-11:10; rather than Israel, the journalist should be suing God, since He was the one who sent the plagues. The following item was first published in 2014, but is more relevant now than ever. As reported by Ahuva Balofsky of Breaking Israel News (now known as Israel365 News), March 31, 2014:

Columnist Ahmad al-Gamal of Egypt’s Al-Yawm Al-Sabi daily has proposed his country sue numerous countries for damages – both physical and psychological – inflicted over the past several millennia. Notably, he wants to sue Turkey for the abuses of the Ottoman Empire, France for Napoleon’s invasion, Britain for its 72-year occupation and Israel for causing the Biblical plagues.

Media watchdog Middle East Media Research Institute first noted the March 11, 2014 column. In the column, al-Gamal demands compensation for the “backwardness” imposed on his country by Turkey. He accused the Ottoman Empire of plundering the country of its precious resources, as well as its human capital, conscripting both to the Empire’s own needs and plunging the country into intellectual darkness at a time when the rest of the world was experiencing development.

He likewise charged modern Britain with similar misdeeds, saying it “took part in preventing [Egypt] from realizing the fruits of its stupendous victory” against Israel in 1956, 1967 and 1973.

He added, “We want compensation for 72 years of British occupation that imposed backwardness and dependency upon us, stole the resources of our country, drove a wedge between the sons of the homeland and turned [the members of] one social stratum into [British] agents who took no pity on the Egyptian poor…” He traced the roots of this injustice to Napoleon’s 1798 invasion, and added France to the list of responsible countries.

Most startling, however, were the allegations leveled at Israel, or more to the point, their Biblical origins. Al-Gamal quoted the Hebrew Bible in asserting the country should repay Egypt for the harm caused by the plagues, as well as the theft of precious commodities used to build the Tabernacle in the desert.

He claims the Bible’s collective punishment of the Egyptian people was uncalled for, as it was Pharaoh himself alone who was responsible for the suffering of the Israelites. He does not afford the French the same assumption regarding Napoleon’s decisions, though.

“We want compensation for the [Ten] Plagues that were inflicted upon [us] as a result of the curses that the Jews’ ancient forefathers [cast] upon our ancient forefathers, who did not deserve to pay for the mistake that Egypt’s ruler at the time, Pharaoh as the Torah calls him, committed. For what is written in the Torah proves that it was Pharaoh who oppressed the Children of Israel, rather than the Egyptian people. [But] they inflicted upon us the plague of locusts that didn’t leave anything behind them; the plague that transformed the Nile’s waters into blood, so nobody could drink of them for a long time; the plague of darkness that kept the world dark day and night; the plague of frogs; and the plague of the killing of the firstborn, namely every first offspring born to woman or beast, and so on.

“We want compensation for the gold, silver, copper, precious stones, fabrics, hides and lumber, and for [all] animal meat, hair, hides and wool, and for other materials that I will mention [below], when quoting the language of the Torah. All these are materials that the Jews used in their rituals. These are resources that cannot be found among desert wanderers unless they took them before their departure…”

He went on to reference specific Biblical passages. “The stories of the Holy Scriptures state that the Israelites set off from the [Nile] valley at night and went to the Sinai Peninsula. This is known to be a desert, where there is no use for large quantities of gold, silver, precious stones, meats, oils, fabrics and the like. Therefore it is clear that the Israelites took all these things from Egypt before they left.

Chapter 25 of Exodus, on the [Israelites’] departure [from Egypt], states: ‘The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering… These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. Have them make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other [Exodus 25:1-12]’…

“[Exodus 38:24 states]: ‘The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel…’

“I call upon everyone with an interest in Torah studies to instruct us on a scientific basis what is the [precise] meaning of the word ‘talent.’ How many grams is it currently worth, what was the weight of the sheqel during those days, especially as it was made out of solid pure gold and pure silver…”

It seems as though Mr. al-Gamal wasn't alone in allowing hatred of Jews to influence the Egyptian view of history; as reported by Simcha Jacovici of Breaking Israel News (Israel365 News), September 15, 2014:

The Egyptian archaeological community is in a tizzy. They are accusing foreign Egyptologists of being Israeli agents hell bent on altering their history. It seems Israel’s ultimate goal is to reclaim the Pyramids. This charge was recently laid by Amir Gamal of the “Non-Stop Robberies” movement. It was published in Egypt’s Elaph newspaper. Not long ago, Egyptian journalist Ahmad al-Gamal encouraged his government to sue the Jewish state for losses incurred during the 10 plagues, visited upon Egypt during the biblical exodus. Also, the Torah claims that the Israelite slaves took Egypt’s gold with them to the Promised Land. Al-Gamal wants the gold or an equal sum in U.S. dollars – with 3500 years of compounded interest – paid by Israel to Egypt.

Some of this is funny, and some of this is not. When I filmed archaeology in Egypt in 2004 for a documentary film on the biblical Exodus, the Egyptians were watching us like hawks. In Egypt, the bible is current history. Even though the Qur’an says that the biblical Exodus is a historical fact, modern Arab regimes see Mideast history as a zero-sum game – if it’s good for the Jews, it’s bad for the Arabs. So any archaeology connected to the biblical Exodus is suppressed for fear that it might support Israel’s claims in the area. For example, a statue discovered at Avaris in the Delta is thought by some scholars to be a representation of the biblical Joseph. Because of the possible connection with the Jewish patriarch, the statue has now “disappeared” from the Cairo museum. It wasn’t easy for the statue to disappear, since it weighs a ton.

More than this, Egypt’s obsession with biblical archaeology influences the views of Egyptologists. If you claim you have found proof of the biblical Exodus, they ban you from Egypt. If you’re an Egyptologist, that’s a big problem. So – not surprisingly – Egyptologists tend to find nothing connected to the Israelites. Recently, Charles University professor Miroslav Barta tried to connect the bible to Egyptian archaeology. As a result, he’s being accused of working for the Mossad. His mission: falsify Egyptian history. Not exactly a climate for free academic debate.

Here’s what I think: they can keep the Pyramids, we didn’t build them. They had been around for a thousand years before Moses was born. Having said this, in return for us dropping our claims to the Pyramids, they should pay us for years of slavery and stop bullying Western academics.

On a related note, Jewish slaves built the Colosseum in Rome. Jewish masons cut the stone, and the money that financed the project came from the Roman looting in 70 C.E. of the Temple in Jerusalem. There is an inscription that proves this. We built it, we paid for it, it’s time to get it back. I would move it to Israel’s south, near the border with Gaza. First of all, I could get exclusive documentary filming rights to the process of moving the Colosseum from Italy to Israel. Besides, this feat of modern engineering would right a historical wrong, increase tourism to an area that has been suffering under Hamas rockets fired from Gaza and make the world more sensitive to those rockets – because instead of landing in Israeli towns, they would now be landing on a UNESCO cultural site.

"Christians," Muslims, and Jews open House of One in Berlin

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3

The Antichrist's agenda continues to advance on schedule; as reported by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of Israel365 News, June 29, 2021 (links in original):

Last month, a rabbi, imam, and priest laid the cornerstone for the House of One, a multi-faith prayer space built on top of the ruins of the 13th century Petrikirche (St. Peter’s Church) in Berlin. The original church was damaged in WWII and torn down by the Communist regime in 1964. During the ceremony, a Jewish prayer book, a piece of cloth from the Kaaba in Mecca, a miniature of the Coventry Cross of Nails (symbol of peace and reconciliation), and a copy of the document naming the provost of what was then St. Peter’s Church as the first citizen of Berlin in 1237 were placed in a copper capsule and enclosed in the cornerstone.

Ten years of planning went into the project and it is estimated that construction will require €47 million and be completed in four years. The final building will include a mosque, synagogue, and a church linked to a central meeting space. The central hall will also be used for gatherings of other faiths and atheists.

“The idea is pretty simple,” said Roland Stolte, a Christian theologian who helped start the project. “We wanted to build a house of prayer and learning, where these three religions could co-exist while each retaining their own identity.”

The three religions will be represented by Imam Kadir Sanci, Rabbi Andreas Nachama, and Father Gregor Hohberg, a Protestant priest. Rabbi Nachama, a rabbi organizing the project, said that Christians, Muslims, and Jews would worship separately, but would visit each other for religious holidays, commemorations, and celebrations.

Roland Stolte, a Christian theologian who helped start the project, noted that there were concerns from the public.

“In the first few years there were some fears that we were mixing religions or trying to create a new religion, Stolte told the Guardian.”

Despite the fears, the concept of universal prayer has its roots in the Bible and is explicitly described by the Prophet Zechariah:

And Hashem shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Hashem with one name. Zechariah 14:9

This concept of multiple religions worshipping God together is further described in prophecy as the basis for the Third Temple in Jerusalem:

I will bring them to My sacred mount And let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices Shall be welcome on My mizbayach; For My House shall be called A house of prayer for all peoples.” Isaiah 56:7

This vision is shared by Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute. Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein is planning a similar project in Jerusalem named the Center for HOPE (an acronym for ‘House of Prayer and Education’). He approved of the project while noting that Jerusalem has a special role to play in this Biblical vision.

“Berlin may have some negative historical connotations for some people but as a city, it symbolizes reconciliation and becoming whole again,” the rabbi said.

“The Biblical prophecy of God’s name being one does not mean everyone converting to one religion,” the rabbi said. “It will be more like each religion going through an internal conversion that will bring us all together to serve God.”

Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein sees prayer as playing a vital role in this process.

“We want to change the image of religion from one of competition to one that brings us together with all people turning to one God,” Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein said. “It is a very simple thing. Each religion prays in the presence of the other in parallel prayer spaces, affirming the presence of the other, indicating a willingness to live together in peace.”

As reported by the English newspaper The Guardian, February 21, 2021 (link in original):

On the site of a church torn down by East Germany’s communist rulers, a new place of worship is set to rise that will bring Christians, Jews and Muslims under one roof – and it has already been dubbed a “churmosquagogue”.

The foundation stone of the House of One in Berlin will be laid at a ceremony on 27 May, marking the end of 10 years of planning and the beginning of an estimated four years of construction, and symbolising a new venture in interfaith cooperation and dialogue. The €47m building, designed by Berlin architects Kuehn Malvezzi, will incorporate a church, a mosque and a synagogue linked to a central meeting space. People of other faiths and denominations, and those of no faith, will be invited to events and discussions in the large hall.

“The idea is pretty simple,” said Roland Stolte, a Christian theologian who helped start the project. “We wanted to build a house of prayer and learning, where these three religions could co-exist while each retaining their own identity.”

Andreas Nachama, a rabbi who is turning the vision into reality in partnership with a pastor and imam, said: “There are many different ways to God, and each is a good way.” In the House of One, Christians, Muslims and Jews would worship separately, but would visit each other for religious holidays, commemorations and celebrations, he added.

“It is more than a symbol. It is the start of a new era where we show there is no hate between us.”

The House of One will be built on the site of St Peter’s church in Petriplatz, which was damaged during the second world war and demolished in 1964 by the GDR authorities. When the foundations of the church were uncovered more than a decade ago, consideration was given to a memorial or a new church on the site. “But we wanted to create a new kind of sacred building that mirrors Berlin today,” said Stolte. “The initiators are acting as placeholders. This is not a club for monotheistic religions – we want others to join us.”

The federal government and the state of Berlin have between them contributed €30m to the cost of the project, with another €9m coming from donations and fundraising. A new drive for contributions, launched in December, is expected to fill the gap of nearly €8m.

The project has been generally supported by faith communities and the public, said Stolte, although “in the first few years there were some fears that we were mixing religions or trying to create a new religion”.

The inclusion in the planning of people of no faith was a very important aspect of the House of One project, he said. “East Berlin is a very secular place. Religious institutions have to find new language and ways to be relevant, and to make connections.”

The leaders of the House of One aren't even united on who God is, and they're deceived if they think this edifice is anything other than an abomination to the God of the Bible. The rabbis quoted in the above articles are especially deceived; like those in the time of Jesus, they don't know the scriptures. The complete text of Isaiah 56:7 reads:

Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

The phrase "holy mountain," which appears seven times in the book of Isaiah and several times elsewhere in the Old Testament, always refers to Jerusalem. This is particularly clear in Isaiah 66:20:

And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.

BBC Radio broadcasts Muslim prayers for the first time

I wonder how temporary this will prove to be; as reported by Benedict Spence of Arab News, April 8, 2020:

LONDON: Muslims in the UK can now listen to Friday prayers broadcast on BBC radio for the first time.

Different imams lead the 5:50 a.m. broadcasts every week on 14 BBC local radio stations, reciting verses from the Qur’an or quotes from Prophet Muhammad, before delivering sermons and leading listeners in prayer.

The stations’ audiences are in parts of Britain with large Muslim communities — Leeds, Sheffield, Lancashire, Manchester, the West Midlands, Leicester, Stoke, Derby, Nottingham, Coventry and Warwickshire, the Three Counties, Merseyside, Berkshire and London.

“Local radio is all about connecting communities, and we hope these weekly reflections will go some way to helping Muslims feel a sense of community while they are isolating,” said Chris Burns, the head of BBC Local Radio.

Places of worship throughout Britain have been closed since March 23 in one of the measures introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The BBC already broadcasts Christian services on Sundays on 39 of its local and national stations.

The Friday prayer broadcasts, which began last Friday, will continue for as long as Muslims are unable to attend their local mosques. There are also plans for regular broadcasts for other religious minorities, such as the Hindu and Jewish communities, the BBC said.

In a TV broadcast to the British people on Sunday, Queen Elizabeth praised people of “all faiths” for their combined efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Muslims declare Islamic supremacy in prayer at Roman Catholic mass in Ireland

(video)

With friends like the priest mentioned in the following article, who needs enemies? As reported by Jules Gomes of the Roman Catholic site Church Militant, April 3, 2020 (links in original):

COUNTY MAYO, Ireland -- Muslims, invited by a Catholic priest in Ireland to pray alongside him during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, prayed the Adhan — the Islamic call to prayer that categorically proclaims Islam's supremacy over its forebears — Judaism and Christianity.

Father Stephen Farragher, parish priest of St. Patrick's Church in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, invited two Muslims to "pray in solidarity" with him "the final blessing and prayer" at the 10 a.m. Friday Mass to be broadcast on radio, Midwest Radio Ireland reported.

Mohammed Cherbatji and Mohammed Rahmani joined Fr. Farragher to seek a blessing on all frontline health care workers and frontline workers during the pandemic and pray for the eradication of the Wuhan virus. The church was reportedly empty because of the Wuhan virus restrictions.

However, a video of the Islamic prayer released on Twitter showed one of the Muslims in the pulpit cantillating the Adhan in Arabic.

Church Militant contacted an Arabic expert and scholar in Islamic jurisprudence who confirmed that the prayer was not a blessing for health care workers but the "Islamic call to prayer, which conclusively and unambiguously asserts that God's revelation to Muhammad has supplanted and superseded God's prior revelations to Moses in the Old Testament and to Jesus in the New Testament."

The Adhan asserts: "Allah is the greatest. I bear witness that there is no god except Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to prayer. Come to salvation." These affirmations are repeated twice.

Theologian Dr. Gavin Ashenden, who resigned his position as Chaplain to the Queen in protest against a reading from the Koran at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland, confirmed to Church Militant that "the Muslim call to prayer is a dramatic piece of Islamic triumphalism."

"It proclaims Islam's superiority over all other religions, and in so doing casts Jesus in the role of a charlatan and a liar. The Muslim god, Allah, is unknowable and has no son. Jesus was, therefore, a fraud in claiming He and the Father are one," Ashenden, who recently converted to Catholicism, said.

"In a religious narrative where one religion denigrates another, compromise is not logically or theologically available," he stressed.

Ashenden explained how Fr. Farragher, having invited a Muslim to end his broadcast-Mass with the Adhan prayed from the Catholic pulpit, "so far from creating a congenial interfaith event for the online world, he had given a platform to an alien prayer that invalidated the Mass, his Saviour, the authenticity of the Gospels and the legitimacy of the whole Catholic Church."

Ashenden added:

No doubt he sought to be imaginatively generous. But his profound ignorance will have caused the deepest offense to all literate and faithful Christians as well as the profoundest grief to those growing scores of thousands of Christians who suffer around the world at the hands of a brutalising Islam that makes them pay the price of loving and believing in Jesus, Son of God and Saviour, with their lives.

Former Swedish Imam Tomas Samuel explains how the Adhan is a statement of Islamic supremacy. In Islamic sources, "we discover that the prayer call states that everyone should submit to Islam and proclaims power over the area of the ​​prayer."

The Adhan is prayed for two reasons: "It will remind people of when it is time to pray, and the prayer call will proclaim Islam over a city," he explains.

Samuel quotes Omdat Al-Ahkam, a fundamental text for Islamic law: "One can liken the Adhan to the Muslim flag. Its proclamation shows that the people of the city are Muslims."

In Arabic, "adhan" means "information" or "enlightenment" — signifying that people previously in darkness and ignorance are now "informed" and "enlightened" about the "true religion" of Islam, to which they must submit. Islam means submission (from the Arabic root "al-Silm" — submission or surrender).

Commentators have explained how reciting the Adhan in churches is a "power play" intended to conquer and sacralize Christian territory. Islamic scholars are engaged in an in-house discussion on whether it is haram (forbidden) or makrooh (offensive) for Muslims to enter churches.

"If your going to the church is just to show tolerance and lenience, then it is not permissible, but if it is done to call them to Islam and create opportunities for you to do so, and you will not be taking part in their worship and you are not afraid that you may be influenced by their beliefs or customs, then it is permissible," declares the Fatwa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah.

Friday prayers at Ballyhaunis mosque (pictured in this article) have been canceled as a result of the virus. Over 500 Muslims attend Friday prayers regularly at the mosque — the oldest purpose-built mosque in Ireland.

Islam is poised to become Ireland's second-largest religion in the next 10 years. Ballyhaunis is Ireland's most diverse town, according to the 2011 national census, and only 40% are of Irish origin while 60% are immigrants — a significant portion of whom are Muslim.

Church Militant contacted Fr. Farragher and asked him if he was aware of the implications of the Islamic prayer. We also inquired if Pope Francis' Abu Dhabi declaration had inspired him to indulge in this act of combined Muslim-Catholic worship — but received no response as of press time.

Interfaith forum in Abu Dhabi celebrates first anniversary of Document of Human Fraternity

This blogger somehow missed hearing of the original event a year ago, but the anniversary hasn't slipped by me. The Antichrist's agenda advances apace, as reported by Ismail Sebugwaawo in the Dubai newspaper Khaleej Times, February 3, 2020:

Abu Dhabi -- Engaging youths in campaigns for unity, intercultural dialogue and denouncing hate speech, and ensuring that schools introduce lessons on tolerance and human values are some of the strategies to ensure that the Human Fraternity document that seeks world peace becomes a reality, according to authorities.

During a media roundtable on Monday, officials from the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, an independent body of religious leaders, educational scholars and cultural figures from across the world, said the inaugural Voices of Human Fraternity Forum will be held in Abu Dhabi today. The event is held on the anniversary of the historic Document of Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El Tayyeb, during the Papal visit to the UAE Capital in 2019.

The forum brings together more than 150 students, youth leaders, advocates and educational representatives from around the world to discuss ways to address young people's aspirations for a peaceful future.

Judge Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salam, general secretary of the Higher Committee, said: "On the anniversary of the Document of Human Fraternity, we want to honour those who are making human fraternity a reality. It is these people who are shaping the future and we need to hear their voices, understand their concerns and engage with their hopes and aspirations if we are to collectively enable a more peaceful future for all."

He noted that the human fraternity document is for everyone seeking good. "It encourages good deeds, denounces evil and promotes peace and intercultural dialogue," said Salam, adding that the committee is actively pursuing a plan to realise the aspirations of the document and is engaged in a number of major initiatives, including advising on the development of an Abrahamic Family House set to be located on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. The initiative launched after the signing of the document involves places of worship for three faiths including a synagogue, mosque and a church in one place and the project will be completed in 2022.

"The committee is making strategies on how to introduce lessons about tolerance and human values in schools across the globe. We are also organising workshops involving youths to educate youngsters on the importance of peace and togetherness," said Abdel Salam.

"We shouldn't consider people of other religions or those we disagree with as enemies because we are all one and we should learn to respect and love one another. This is the message youths should spread."

Mohamed Hussein Mahrasawi, president of Al Azhar University, said: "In Egypt, we have conducted various seminars and lectures to promote the human fraternity document which carries great values of peace, tolerance, equal rights for minority groups and respect for each other."

He noted that it's important to educate young people on the values of humanity and peaceful coexistence, empathy, solidarity and the negative effects of hate speech so that "we can become one family".

Officials said the human fraternity document is an absolute confluence of every religion because it calls upon unity and togetherness, advocates for education and goes to as far as dealing with human trafficking and other things that deny people of their human rights like education and living in peace.

The Human Fraternity Committee said it was also engaged in meetings with leaders and projects in vulnerable communities. Most recently, the committee met the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and other senior UN representatives, to discuss the group's future plans. Following the meeting, Guterres agreed to share the Human Fraternity Document with the 194 member states so that they can benefit from the principles and values it sets out.

As reported by Anjana Sankar in the Khaleej Times, February 5, 2020 (bold in original):

The Document on Human Fraternity, signed last year by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, is proof that "what unifies believers is much more than what divides them", the personal secretary to the Pope said in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Monsignor Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, who is also the member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity Council, was speaking on Tuesday at the forum to celebrate the first anniversary of the signing of the historic document on February 4 last year.

"The document is a road map for a better future... to rebuild the torn humanity."

It is hailed as the most important document in human history and a blueprint for collaboration between faiths.

Describing the document as a 'lifeboat', Gaid also said it is a call for all thinkers, philosophers, politicians, leaders, artists, creative people and media to "reinvent the values of peace and witness peaceful coexistence".

Quoting the rich diversity of nationalities living in Abu Dhabi, Gaid said God created a diverse world and true believers will know that all creatures belong to the same source.

"Diversity is there because it is the will of God. To fight against diversity is to go against the will of God."

Gaid said the worship of God without respecting every human being, especially those who are vulnerable, is not real worship.

"Human fraternity is not just a value. It is the main root without which we cannot reach God. It is a reality."

Achieving peace

In his opening remark, Patriarch Bartholomew 1 of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church spoke about the importance of interreligious dialogue in promoting world peace.

"It is our duty to promote interreligious dialogue because there is no peace in the world without peace among religions. And there is no peace among religions without interreligious dialogue," he said.

The Patriarch raised concerns on how the unprecedented changes and challenges facing the world is spawning a reevaluation of the role of faith. "The acts of fundamentalists support the characterisation and even identification of religion with division and intolerance. So the essential dilemma of humanity nowadays is not between religion and no religion... but what type of religion."

He said the revival of religions should be based on their genuine ability and contributions to reconciliation and solidarity, and that religions can make use of their 'precious spiritual inheritance and philanthropic vision' to promote interreligious dialogue and tolerance.

"In our times, the credibility of religions depends largely on their commitment to interreligious dialogue, peace and solidarity.

"Genuine religion cannot betray earth for the sake of heaven; the present for the sake of future."

He said religions do not absolve humans of their responsibility in the world and for the world, and for true believers, faith is a peaceful approach to resist injustice and work for social cohesion and solidarity. "The solution must be based on projection of human dignity and social justice."

As reported by Wam in the Khaleej Times, February 9, 2020:

Miguel Moratinos, the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, has commended the steps taken by the Higher Committee for Human Fraternity towards implementing the 'Document on Human Fraternity.' "The document is a blueprint for interfaith harmony and charts the course for promoting a culture of peace, respect of the other and religious pluralism," Moratinos said in a statement on the occasion of the first anniversary of the signing of the document.

The 'Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and living Together' was co-signed in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019, by the Head of Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Dr. Ahmed El-Tayeb.

The top UN official also "reaffirmed his commitment to collaborate with the Higher Committee in implementing the Document on Human Fraternity."

When I see all this emphasis on peace, I'm reminded of this prophecy concerning the Antichrist (emphasis mine):

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. Daniel 8:25

900 years ago: The Council of Nablus

On January 16, 1120, the Council of Nablus was convened by Warmund, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. It took place in Nablus, a city about 30 mils north of Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been plagued by locusts and mice for four years, in addition to attacks from Muslims, and it was believed by the authorities that the sins of the people had to be addressed and corrected in order for the Kingdom of Jerusalem to prosper.

The Council, or Concordat, was a combination of ecclesiastical synod and legal body. It published 25 canons, which were the first written laws for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Trial by ordeal was the test of truth in those days, and they didn't mess around when it came to punishments, if the following canons were any indication:

Fourth Decree
If anyone should be afraid to be handled by a bad wife, who has suspicion [of her adultery] he may sue and the household may summon her entrance at a conference of the wife before legal witnesses. If in fact after the decree the husband himself or one of his friends finds them conversing [at] her home or elsewhere, the man should be summoned to the judgment of the church without interruption of "members". And if he cleanses himself by fire and the sword [ordeal], let the unpunished be released. But if anything in discussion supports the finding of disgrace, let the unpunished be released for the transgressed decrees without freedom [from the crime].

Fifth Decree
Whosoever will be tried as to have lain with the wife of another, the accepted sentence of the judgment may deprive him of virility [castration], and let him be expelled from this land. The woman adulterer's nose should be cut off, unless the other man [whose wife cheated on him] wishes to show his mercy. Because if he does so, both are to cross the sea [in exile]...
...
Eighth Decree
If anybody were tried as an adulterer had defiled him/herself with sodomy and wickedness by their own free will, let both the one doing and the one receiving be burned.

Ninth Decree
If a child or anyone advanced in years should be defiled by the force by some sodomite woman and thereafter make a protest, let the sodomite woman be surrendered to the flames. He who in fact will have sinned not by their own will, let him do penance according to the ecclesiastical sentence and not fall into legation.

Tenth Decree
If anyone who has suffered the wicked crime of sodomy at any time and who hid it [the crime] and once more allows himself to be dirtied [defiled] nor discloses it to justice, when he will have been tried afterwards, then he will be judged a sodomite.

Eleventh Decree
If anyone accused as a sodomite before he comes to his senses and having been led to penance for abominable wickedness (by oath swearing) rejects [the practice], let him be received in a church and be judged according to the sentence of the canons. If, however, the accused fell into it [the practice by accident] and secondly wishes to do penance, indeed let him be allowed to do/ for penance but be sent abroad [exiled] from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Twelfth Decree
If anyone should be tried with having lain with a Saracen woman consensually ementuletur, indeed let the Saracen women's nose be cut off.

Thirteenth Decree
If anyone should oppress [rape] his Saracen slave woman, she herself will be marked and he himself will be castrated.

Fourteenth Decree
If anyone should push himself on a Saracen of another by force, he will undergo the sentence of an adulterer.

Fifteenth Decree
If a Christian woman should mix with a Saracen by her free will, let both be judged the sentence of adultery. If in fact she was oppressed [raped] by him with force, she will not be held herself at fault, but the Saracen will be castrated...
...
Twenty-third Decree
If anyone should be convicted of robbery, if the property was more than 1 bezant, let his limbs be crushed, or hand or foot or eyes. If in fact the stolen property was lower than 1 bezant, let a brand be burned onto his face, and be led through the village yielding to whips. And if something should be found on him, let the stolen property be returned to him [the original owner], if in fact he has nothing [stolen], his body should be decided to make [good] the stolen article to this man. If he should perpetrate it again at another turn, let him be deprived of all his limbs or life.

I don't know if the Council of Nablus resulted in a reduction of plagues of locusts, mice, or Muslims.

Palestinian leaders claim Jesus as a Palestinian martyr, Christmas as a Palestinian holiday

Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Proverbs 14:7

The examples cited in the following article provide ample evidence of why there's no point in trying to have rational discussions with Palestinians. As reported by Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, December 29, 2019 (bold, links in original):

Fatah leader: Jesus was "first Palestinian," and "first Islamic Martyr"

PA Prime Minister: “Christmas is a national holiday for the Palestinian people”

Abbas: "For all of us Palestinians, this holiday [Christmas] is ours"

Fatah: "Christmas is a Palestinian holiday"

There were repeated new claims this week, by senior Palestinian leaders and the official press, that Jesus was a "Palestinian" and the "first Palestinian." A senior Palestinian leader this week also referred to Jesus as the “first Shahid,” or Islamic Martyr, which many believing Christians find very offensive. According to the Islamic tradition, which the Palestinian Authority has repeated many times to its people, among the rewards that the Islamic Martyr receives in Islam’s paradise are 72 dark-eyed virgins. Whereas claiming that Jesus who was a Judean (Jew) was a Palestinian is nonsensical for believing Christians, saying he is now in Islamic Paradise with 72 virgins is seen by many as defamation.

Tawfiq Tirawi, senior Palestinian leader and Fatah Central Committee member posted on his personal Facebook page:

“This is blessed Christmas, The birthday of our lord Jesus the Messiah, the first Palestinian and the first Shahid (Islamic Martyr)."

[Tawfiq Tirawi Facebook page, Dec. 24, 2019]

Others claiming Jesus include Laila Ghannam, District Governor of Ramallah:

"The entire Palestinian people celebrates Christmas because we are proud of Jesus being Palestinian."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 24, 2019]

Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily, wrote:

"If someone could win the Nobel Peace Prize every year forever, it is Palestinian Jesus son of Mary who was born in Bethlehem… Palestinian Jesus son of Mary was a victim…"

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 26, 2019]

It should be noted that the expression by Tirawi “our lord Jesus” is not an indication of Palestinian acceptance of the principles of Christianity. According to Islamic tradition, as explained in the following quote by the top PA religious figure, PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein, Jesus is said to have been a Muslim who preached Islam:

PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein: "We’re talking about an ongoing chain [of prophets of the Islam], from Adam to Muhammad. It’s an ongoing chain, representing the call for monotheism, and the mission of Islam… The prophets were all of the same religion [Islam]… Jesus was born in this land. He lived in this land. It is known that he was born in Bethlehem… He also lived in Nazareth, moved to Jerusalem. So he was a Palestinian par excellence… We respect Jesus, we believe in him [as a Muslim prophet], just as we believe in the prophet Muhammad."

Finally, the PA, seeing themselves as part of Jesus' nation, is now saying that in addition to it being a religious holiday for Christians, Christmas is also a national holiday for Palestinians.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas himself said Christmas is a Palestinian national holiday:

"Christmas is a national-religious holiday and not just a religious one. For all of us Palestinians, this holiday is ours. Therefore we all celebrate it. The Palestinian leadership is going to church to be present for [Christmas] Mass… It is our obligation to do this, because it – as I told you – is a religious holiday for our [Christian] people, and you are our people, and it is [also] a national holiday for us all."

[Official PA TV News, Dec. 28, 2019]

Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah in a headline on its official Facebook page likewise declared:

"Christmas is a Palestinian holiday… There is a special significance to the Christmas celebrations in Palestine, since it has clearly become a national holiday in which all of our people participate, starting from [PA] President of Palestine [Mahmoud Abbas] and down to the last of the children."

[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 20, 2019]

As documented many times by Palestinian Media Watch, the Palestinian Authority rewrites history, both ancient and recent, according to its political and internal needs. As a people without a history who are attempting to create a national identity, teaching Palestinians that Jesus, one of the most important and admired historical figures, was a Palestinian, is their attempt to trick primarily their own people into believing that they have not only an ancient history but a glorious national identity.

40 years ago: Liberal American clergymen visit hostages at U.S. embassy in Tehran

50 days after Muslim terrorists had invaded the U.S. embassy in Tehran and began holding the embassy's residents hostage, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini allowed three useful idiots American clergymen to visit the embassy for Christmas. The three were William Sloane Coffin of Riverside Church in New York City; William Howard of the National Council of Churches; and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a Roman Catholic leader from Detroit. All three were known for their liberal views, including support for criminal civil disobedience, opposition to American defense pacifism, and pervert "gay" rights. The Ayatollah, recently named Time magazine's Man of the Year, made full use of the men's visit to suit his own purposes.

Anglican Church of Canada will be dead by 2040, according to its own report

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

When Canadian journalist Ted Byfield was publishing the newsmagazine Alberta Report from the 1970s to the '90s, he often published articles about the apostasy of Canada's mainline churches, and wondered why, at their conferences, these churches spent a lot more time discussing social issues than their own aging and declining membership. Things haven't changed for the mainline churches since then, and the decline is now so much in evidence that the churches are now starting to acknowledge it. Submitted for your approval, the following example regarding the Anglican Church of Canada, as reported by Tali Folkins in the Anglican Journal, November 9, 2019:

The Anglican Church of Canada’s first reliably-collected set of statistics since 2001 show the church running out of members in little more than two decades if the church continues to decline at its current rate, the Council of General Synod (CoGS) heard Friday, Nov. 9.

“We’ve got simple projections from our data that suggest that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040,” the Rev. Neil Elliot, a priest for the diocese of Kootenay seconded in 2016 by the national church to collect a new set of statistics, told CoGS. Elliot, who reported on 2017 data collected from all of the church’s dioceses, also told the group about ongoing efforts to expand and diversify data collection.

The current projection should be taken especially seriously by Canadian Anglicans, Elliot said, because it is suggested by five different sets of church data, all collected in different ways: older data from 1961 to 2001; Anglican Journal subscriber data from 1991 to 2015; and three sets of data from his own survey of the dioceses as of 2017: the number of people on parish rolls, average Sunday attendance and regular identifiable givers.

“For five different methodologies to give the same result is a very, very powerful statistical confirmation which we really, really have to take seriously and we can’t dismiss lightly,” said Elliot, who gave his presentation remotely with the use of videoconferencing technology.

Two other findings, he added, suggest different outcomes. Data collection on the pastoral offices of baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals show an even faster rate of decline. However, a demographic study of a small number of parishes in the diocese of Kootenay, he said, suggested that—because of the age ranges that Anglicans fall into—the church could lose only 50% of its members by 2040.

In a response to a question on how other Canadian churches were faring, Elliot said data collected by the United Church of Canada also showed 2040 as a “zero-member date.” The Presbyterian Church in Canada, while declining, seems to be losing members somewhat more slowly, he said. For the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, he added, the projected zero-member date was around 2050.

Archdeacon Michael Thompson, general secretary of General Synod, told CoGS that senior staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada had given him a similar impression about membership decline in that church.

“Though I can’t quote the numbers, the lines look quite similar,” he said.

Introducing Elliot’s presentation, Thompson said he believed the substantial reduction in church membership since 2001 shown by Elliot’s data should not come entirely as a surprise to Canadian Anglicans involved in the church at a local level. The church they have been able to offer to God has been declining in size since the 1960s, he said, but they should not despair. Instead, Thompson said, they should look at this numerical decline in the context of other changes for the better.

The London, Ont., church in which he started worshipping in 1968, Thompson said, “while not filled to the point of discomfort, was full.” On the other hand, he added, “in all of the years that I attended that church…in all of the years I had attended church before then, and in all of the years that I attended church until I was in my 20s, I never once heard a sermon that made reference to God’s justice.”

He continued, “I never once heard anybody tell me about the residential schools. I never heard anything about the responsibility of the people of God to respect the dignity of every human being. It’s not that people didn’t care about those things, but those things were not tip-of-the-tongue discourse in the life of the church in which I was formed. Things are quite different now.”

In his report and in response to questions from CoGS, Elliot said he hoped the church would expand its data collection to be better able to monitor how specific aspects of its life, some of which may hold particular potential—home churches, Fresh Expressions, Messy Church and Book of Common Prayer services, for example—are doing.

Meanwhile, a working group of bishops, to be headed by Mary Irwin-Gibson, bishop of the diocese of Montreal, has been formed, Thompson said, “to say what are the things we should be counting…that will help us understand that, while the church we offer to God is smaller than it has been in the past, that’s not the only thing that’s true of it.”

In table group discussions after Elliot’s presentation, members of CoGS were asked to ponder four questions: whether the data aligned with their own experience; what surprised or stood out for them in the report; what they believed God was telling the church through the data; and where the “Good News” was in it.

Some table spokespeople said the data matched the experience of those at their table; some reported that at least one member of their group came from a growing or stable parish. Some groups expressed doubt that the church would run out of members by 2040.

“We actually don’t think there’s ever going to be a ‘zero person,’” one table spokesperson said. “I think what we will be offering to God in 2040 will be a different church, and a much smaller church, but it will still be a church.”

Another reported of his group, “Between the range of us there were some who found it hard to understand how everybody that they knew would either be dying or becoming apostate at 55, for the church to run out of members.” But he himself, the spokesperson added, was amazed to learn the church hadn’t lost more than Elliot’s report stated.

Some groups spoke to hope that the report would spur the church to change.

“Our group talked about the great hope, and good news, in the idea of taking more risks,” one said. “We see good news in the fact that several of us were noticing that lots of newcomers to the congregation were new Canadians as well…. Now we’re in this time of change, we can start addressing these kinds of trends.” And the emptying of rural congregations might mean more opportunities for ecumenical shared ministries, the spokesperson said.

Some groups were curious about whether data could be collected in other areas—such as how church buildings are being used. At least one group spoke to hope that the collection of the data, and possibly more data in the future, would not only help the church identify areas of growth; it would also help parishes and dioceses in numerical decline know that they’re not alone.

Elliot said one tool he hoped would be very useful for gathering this sort of detailed information is ParishOS—a kind of “electronic vestry book” that he had already used to gather information from some parishes. The national church, his report stated, is providing ParishOS free of charge to dioceses that want to use it.

A version of Elliot’s report had been leaked earlier this fall. In October, a link to it appeared in the Anglican Samizdat independent blog, after which it began to spread through social media. On Monday, Broadview, the former United Church Observer, published a story on the report.

After Elliot’s presentation and the feedback from the table groups, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, noted the interest the report had generated outside the church after it was leaked.

“I have to tell you, there’s lots of interest outside this room in this conversation,” she said. “We had hoped to simply present [the information] here, have a conversation before it went public. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues were not so good at keeping things quiet, and it leaked into some media. And in fact I’ve had at least two or three requests for interviews prior to coming here, and even while I’ve been here in the last two days.”

Nicholls said she hoped that instead of trying to figure out why the church was in numerical decline, or get drawn into a “vortex of negativity” about it, Canadian Anglicans would instead focus on the church’s calling.

“We’re called to do and be God’s people in a particular place, for the purpose of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and the only question is, ‘How do we need to share it, so that it might be heard by those around us?’” she said.

“I think we’re being tested about perseverance, endurance, creativity in the coming years,” she said. “At the end of the day, when we stand before the great judgement seat and have to answer for how we lived our lives as Christians, I think the question that will be asked is, ‘Were you faithful with what you were given?’”

Nicholls also said she was hopeful to see “green shoots” of growth in various areas around the country—some in the church’s traditional ways of being and some in its new ways of expressing itself.

She said Elliot’s report was a “wake-up call” to the church, a mirror showing it unpleasant truths that could act as a spur to action. She noted the excitement she sensed in the church about the potential of detailed statistics-gathering to give it a deeper picture of itself, and said she looked forward to his work continuing together with the newly-formed bishops’ working group.

“It’s my hope that when we leave here, the message we take is not ‘Oh no, the church is dying,’ but ‘Oh, we’ve got a challenge’,” she said. “But we’ve also got a hopeful way of addressing that.”

As reported by Ms. Folkins in the Anglican Journal, July 16, 2009:

Vancouver--In 2018, the Anglican Church of Canada experienced a fall in revenues due to declining contributions from dioceses, poor market performance and a decrease in giving, General Synod heard Monday, July 15.

The national church’s audited financial statements for the year show that overall revenue was $11.1 million, down by $800,000—7%—from 2017, Fraser Lawton, bishop of the diocese of Athabasca and a member of the financial management committee, told General Synod.

The decline in revenue was due chiefly to a decrease in proportional gifts from the dioceses—the money they forward to the national church every year, which makes up 83% of the church’s revenue. In 2018, proportional gifts sank to $7,898,264 from $8,416,738 the previous year—a total decline of $519,000, the audited financial statement for 2018 shows.

It was the largest decrease in proportional gifts the national church had suffered in a single year since 1994, Lawton said.

“This was a cause for some discussion, and certainly catches our attention,” he said. “Seven dioceses decreased their contributions to General Synod, and the evidence is that dioceses are struggling to meet their proportional giving commitments.” Although there is a set rate at which dioceses are asked to give to the national church, their contributions are entirely voluntary; some give less than the rate stipulates because they’re not able to give the total amount every year.

“Contributions from dioceses are a key driver for revenues,” Hanna Goschy, treasurer and chief financial officer for the church, told the Journal in an interview after General Synod. “When diocesan revenue decreases, the contributions to General Synod decrease. Some dioceses are struggling to meet their commitments, [so] they decreased over the prior year. Resources for Mission also decreased by $180,000, and there was an investment loss of almost $300,000.”

Goschy said the investment loss was due to stock market losses in 2018 and that the market had recovered in 2019.

Expenses in 2018 were $11.8 million—$400,000 more than the prior year, Lawton said in his presentation, citing rounded figures from the statements. Goschy told the Journal that this increase was anticipated and budgeted for. “There was a planned deficit on core operations of $522,000. The actual deficit was $442,000, which meant we did better than budget on core operations.”

The deficiency of revenues over expenses for the year, Lawton said, was $735,322 before transfers from internally designated funds in reserve. “There are reserves set up for major initiatives that are large and don’t happen every year,” Goschy said. “Two examples are the meeting of General Synod and the meeting of Sacred Circle. They’re both triennial events.”

Efforts to develop a strategy related to revenue losses also emerged at General Synod.
Lawton noted that General Synod had passed, on July 14, a resolution directing the Council of General Synod (CoGS) to address questions about what kind of work the national church should focus on given the financial difficulties faced by the dioceses, which support it. Similarly, a second resolution passed on the same day asks CoGS to undertake a strategic planning process to consider its own mission and ministry...

...Editorial Note: This story was updated on August 2, 2019, to include an interview with Hanna Goschy, chief financial officer, who clarified that the deficit experienced by the church in 2018 was anticipated in the budgeting process.

As reported by Terry Mattingly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 30, 2019:

...Elliot noted that a 2006 report suggested the final Anglicans would exit Canadian pews in 2061. The church's membership had peaked -- as it did for many mainline Christian churches -- in the early 1960s, with 1,358,459 on parish rolls. That number fell to 641,845 in 2001, while Canada's population rose from 18 million to 31 million.

In the 2017 report, Anglican membership fell to 357,123 -- with an average Sunday attendance of 97,421.

Meanwhile, the number of Anglican clergy in Canada rose -- from 2,380 in 1961 to 3,491 in this new report. But other numbers were sobering. For example, the church confirmed 1,997 new members in 2017, while there were 9,074 burials or funeral rites.

"There is no sign of any stabilization in our numbers; if anything, the decline is increasing. Some had hoped that our decline had bottomed out, or that programs had been effective in reversing the trends. This is now demonstrably not the case," Elliot said. "International comparisons suggest that the decline in the Anglican Church of Canada is faster than in any other Anglican church," although 2018 numbers from the larger Episcopal Church in the United States showed "an even greater rate of decline in attendance than ours."...

...Trends in Canada are part of a larger global drama, with Christian churches booming in Africa, Asia and elsewhere in what researchers call the "Global South." At the same time, membership numbers have stalled, declined or collapsed in many mainline and Catholic flocks in Europe and North America.

It's certainly true that Canada has become more secular, creating a climate of "intolerant progressivism" that has troubled many physicians, nurses, lawyers and others, said the Rt. Rev. Ronald Ferris, a veteran Anglican Church of Canada bishop who now helps plant missions for the conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

"You can still grow churches in Canada, but it's an uphill challenge," he said. "We grieve to see so many people leaving the church, but we also know that many are still seeking a spiritual home. ... We know the changes in Canada are real. The question is whether the church has to change its teachings to fit into that. We see no signs that making those kinds of compromises leads to growth, or even survival."

The articles above provide abundant evidence of the truth of Vox Day's second law of social justice warriors: They always double down. The Anglican Church of Canada was informed in 2006 that it would be dead in 2061. One might think that such a dire prediction would prompt the church to examine itself and take appropriate steps to reverse the decline. Did they do that? Nooo! They doubled down on their "progressive" ecclesiastical practices and social agenda to the extent that the speed of decline has accelerated. If the Anglican Church of Canada had merely continued at a steady pace in keeping with the 2006 prediction, it would now be 42 years away from extinction; instead, in the last 13 years, the predicted expiry date has been moved up by 21 years. The SJWs who run the church would rather destroy it than abandon or dial back their agenda. Liberal Anglicans such as Archdeacon Thompson seem to be economic illiterates as well as apostates, and it doesn't seem to bother them--if it even occurs to them--that they won't be able to enact their politically correct social agenda if there isn't anyone around to pay for it.

In the case of the Anglican Network in Canada, they should obey the command of scripture: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. II Corinthians 6:17

For further information, go to Mr. Mattingly's podcasts:

Canada's Anglicans are vanishing and RNS can't find any conservatives to debate the reasons why (November 21, 2019)

Why it matters that Canadian Anglicans are having a near-death experience (November 23, 2019)

See also my posts:

Baptists, Anglicans and Pentecostals team up to host Emergent speaker and writer Peter Rollins (February 26, 2009)

Calgary parish votes to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and join the Roman Catholic Church (December 6, 2010)

Anglican Church of Canada mulls open communion (March 9, 2011)

Dissident Anglican congregations lose their properties when the Supreme Court of Canada declines to hear their case (June 18, 2011)

Another dissident congregation leaves the Anglican Church of Canada (July 5, 2011)

More Canadian Anglicans break away to join the Roman Catholic Church (May 16, 2012)

50 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada adopts new Book of Common Prayer (August 22, 2012)

Aboriginal bishops in Anglican Church of Canada invoke "colonial occupation" in opposition to same-sex marriage (March 10, 2016)

Anglican Church of Canada votes in favour of sodomite and lesbian marriage--after changing the vote count (July 13, 2016)

40 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada ordains its first female priests (November 30, 2016)

50 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada abandons its opposition to abortion (December 18, 2017)

An Anglican Church of Canada priest who's an example of a pagan disguised as a Christian (February 28, 2018)

50 years ago: Canadian Anglican traditionalists oppose union with United Church of Canada (June 21, 2019)

Statement from Anglican Church of Canada Primate-elect shows the church to be beyond the possibility of satire (July 27, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada General Synod votes overwhelmingly to remove prayer for the conversion of the Jews from the Book of Common Prayer (August 7, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada will review its governance structure in order to remove those who stand in the way of the alphabet pervert agenda (August 22, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada General Synod votes to endorse Chrislamic A Common Word Between Us and You (December 22, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada General Synod endorses Chrislamic A Common Word Between Us and You

As reported by Joelle Kidd in the Anglican Journal, July 25, 2019:

General Synod voted July 15 to sign on to “A Common Word Between Us and You” and endorse it as a model for Christian-Muslim dialogue.

“A Common Word” is a letter written in 2007 at the initiative of 138 Muslim scholars, clerics and political figures, according to the Rev. Scott Sharman, animator for ecumenical and interfaith relations, who gave a presentation to General Synod before the motion.

More than 400 Muslim leaders from around the world have since signed on to the letter, which is addressed to Christian leaders and is “an invitation to Christians to dialogue.” The title comes from a line from the Qur’an, Sharman said: “O People of the Book, come to a common word between us and you.”

The letter extends “an invitation to look at two foundational principles present within both of our respective scriptures: the call to love God above all things, and the call that follows from that, to love our neighbours. Love of God and love of neighbour is the starting ground.”

The resolution presented to General Synod involved two steps: becoming, as a church, signatory to the letter, and endorsing it to “use as a model…a kind of Christian-Muslim dialogue starter kit,” Sharman said.

The letter presents “a new kind of relationship between Muslims and Christians than has been possible for so much of our history,” according to Sharman. “It does not look for agreement, but it seeks to find common ground that could make for peace.” Since 2008, the letter has received 70 responses and nearly 200 sign-on endorsements by churches and Christian leaders.

Sharman also gave an example of the kind of interfaith ministry the letter hopes to inspire.

A Common Word Alberta formed in 2012, after an invitation by friends in the Sunni, Shi’a and Ismaili communities, Sharman said. The group was a mix of Anglicans, Lutherans, Mennonites, Roman Catholics and others. “Now, six years later, under the banner of A Common Word Alberta, a group that counts literally thousands of people, Christians and Muslims, are taking part in several occasions throughout the year in discussions of their scriptures, getting to know one another, sharing meals, sharing what their faith means to them, visiting one another’s places of prayer,” Sharman reported.

Speaking to why he believed this particular initiative was a valuable model of interfaith dialogue, Sharman highlighted three reasons.

Firstly, “A Common Word” is “not lowest common denominator”—meaning it does not require either faith to water down its beliefs or minimize differences in order to get along—he said. “In my view, that is not an authentic Anglican view of inter-religious dialogue.”
Secondly, he said, it is an ecumenical initiative, and thirdly, it is a “holistic effort.”

“There are some inter-religious efforts that perhaps tend toward the academic and the intellectual realm. There are some that are mostly on the level of making friends, sharing meals, maybe not going into the nitty-gritty questions. Both of those are important and have their place, but it’s better if those can be integrated.”

Sharman’s presentation was followed by a short speech by Imam Mohammad Shujaath Ali, an imam from the Vancouver area who works in connection with the BC Muslim Association.

Ali spoke to the importance of Christian-Muslim dialogue, saying, “it is not a human initiative for us Muslims—it is a divine obligation,” with the directive to “come to a common word” coming straight from the Holy Qur’an.

While the letter focuses on the common teachings of love of God and love of neighbour, Ali said, “these two are not the only two commonalities that we have. They are among many that we share with each other, and therefore I personally feel that these commonalities that we have between you and I as human beings, as the followers of faith, are so strong, so powerful to unite us than the differences that we have to divide us.”

Ali also said that Christians and Muslims should “open the doors of our congregations and our centres and our churches and mosques” to welcome each other, and form groups both locally and nationally to work together, “addressing the common challenges that serve as a threat to both of the faiths in this age of secularism and liberalism.”

Bishop of the diocese of Edmonton Jane Alexander also spoke briefly before the motion, which was on the no-debate list, was passed near-unanimously; six members of General Synod voted “No” (2.9%) while nine abstained.

“As I thought about this resolution, I was reminded of the words of [former Archbishop of Canterbury] Rowan Williams, who said that the growing awareness is that peace throughout the world is deeply entwined with the ability of all people of faith everywhere to live together in peace, justice, mutual respect and love. A radical, non-violent engagement with the deepest needs of our world and our common humanity. This need, to support this motion and ‘A Common Word,’ is seen across all the provinces of the Anglican Communion,” Alexander said.

February 1, 2020 update: As reported by the Anglican Church of Canada General Synod Communications, January 28, 2020 (bold, links in original):

The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) will hold an evening of Christian–Muslim friendship and learning on Tuesday January 28th, from 7-9 PM, at Huron University College, in London, Ont. This event will commemorate the official launch of www.acommonword.ca – an ACC—ELCIC joint online resource for Christian Muslim Dialogue.

Archbishop Linda Nicholls of the ACC and National Bishop Susan Johnson of the ELCIC will be in attendance, and will be participating in portions of the evening’s program. During this event, the Primate and National Bishop will formally express the commitment of the two churches to undertake in Christian–Muslim Dialogue, and will officially become signatories of the global Common Word initiative.

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, a renowned Muslim scholar, and one of the original 138 signatories of the A Common Word Between Us and You letter will be one of the speakers at the event, in addition to other Muslim and Christian leaders.

Seeking a Common Word welcomes Canadian Christians and Canadian Muslims who want to know one another more deeply, and who would like to grow in understanding of their respective faith traditions, to join in this evening of learning, friendship and community building.

Light refreshments will be served.

–30–

For media inquiries, please contact:
Alice Namu
Communications Coordinator, ACC
416-924-9199, ext. 269
anamu@national.anglican.ca

Trina Gallop Blank
Director of Communications, ELCIC
204-984-9172
tgallop@elcic.ca

For more on the "Christian" response to A Common Word Between Us and You, see the Lighthouse Trails Research Project posts:

Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Brian McLaren and other Contemplative/Emerging Leaders Invite Muslims to Love God, Neighbors Together (November 21, 2007)

Influential Evangelicals Withdraw from Christian-Muslim Statement (February 9, 2008)

Greek Orthodox Church protests Palestinian Authority's attempt to expropriate church property in Bethlehem

As reported by Baruch Yedid in the Jewish Press, December 15, 2019:

The Christian Greek Orthodox community in Bethlehem has been in a tumult in recent days following the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) intention to expropriate the lands of the Church of Nativity which belong to the Church.

A few days ago, 11 institutions associated with the Greek-Orthodox Church published a statement protesting the ongoing attempt by the PA to take control of the plaza in front of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The proclamation, which was initiated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, protests the harming of the Christian presence in Bethlehem, the forfeiting of their rights, the harm to the Church’s assets and the violation of their right to light Christmas trees on the plaza.

The protest was also joined by Michelle Freij, the son of former Bethlehem mayor Elias Freij.

The leaders of the Greek Orthodox community have accused the PA of working in recent years to put its hand on the area near the Church of the Nativity, property of the Orthodox Church and turn it over to the municipality of Bethlehem and the PA’s local government office.

The protest has spread through social media networks, prompting the Bethlehem City Council to announce that it does not intend to harm the various sectors and will maintain the status quo in the city.

A church official told TPS that for three years, one of the Catholic Church’s leaders, Ibrahim Faltas, has been working with Bethlehem’s Mayor Anton Salman, a Catholic as well, to take over the Greek Orthodox Church’s lands.

He said the two became good friends while participating in negotiations during the 2002 crisis that took place in the Church of the Nativity in which terrorists barricaded themselves there and left only after extensive negotiations. The two are considered in Bethlehem to be PA operatives and close to the Fatah.

The official added that while the PA has recently announced through the municipality that it does not intend to discriminate against any of the communities or take over the land, the Greek Orthodox Church leaders are aware of the authority’s efforts to gain control of their property.

Speaking off record, sources involved in the affair said that one of the Greek Orthodox Church’s leaders is suspected by the PA of dealing in land with Jews and, therefore, the PA is working to counteract his actions by taking over the land. The tension is mounting between Salman and his deputy, Hanna Hananya, who supports the Greek Orthodox Church’s claims.

A Bethlehem official told TPS that since the PA arrived in the city in 1994, the number of Christians in the city has significantly diminished and currently accounts for less than 22 percent of the city’s residents.

He further said that Christmas ceremonies are gradually turning from a religious Christian event to a national event sponsored by the PA, even though in recent years it has acted to deprive Christians of their properties.

Meanwhile, further tensions are rising among Greek Orthodox Christians after the municipality of al-Azzariya near Bethlehem released a tender to operate the Tomb of Lazarus. Christians are angry because they say the land does not belong to the municipality and therefore it does not have the authority to issue tenders to operate the tourism site.

A Bethlehem resident told TPS that tourists who have recently visited the Tomb of Lazarus testified that a number of young people and thugs are demanding entry fees.

Several months ago, a violent incident occurred in the Christian village of Jifna, near Ramallah, when Fatah activists, operating under a senior official close to PA head Mahmoud Abbas, rioted in the village and ordered the Christian to pay the Jizyah tax “so that they could enjoy the PA’s protection.”

The Jizyah is an annual per capita tax levied by Islamic law on non-Muslim subjects residing in Muslim lands. The tax is a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the permission to practice a non-Muslim religion with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as proof of the non-Muslims’ submission to the Muslim state and its laws.

Jizyah has also been understood by some as a ritual humiliation of non-Muslims in a Muslim state for not converting to Islam.

United Nations gives preliminary approval to resolution referring to Jerusalem only by its Muslim name

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it...
...In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem...
... In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:2-3, 6, 8-9

What arguably is the world's most corrupt organization continues its obsession with singling out Israel for criticism; as reported by Tovah Lazaroff in The Jerusalem Post, November 18, 2019 (link in original):

The UN gave its preliminary approval to a resolution that referred to the Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif.

The resolution passed at the UN’s Fourth Committee in New York 154-8, with 14 abstentions and 17 absences. It was one of eight pro-Palestinian resolutions approved on Friday, out of a slate of more than 15 such texts the committee is expected to approve. The UN General Assembly will take a final vote on the texts in December.

Ben Bourgel, the Israeli political coordinator at the UN mission in New York, pushed the committee on the issue of Jerusalem, asking why it was so difficult for UN member states to use the phrase Temple Mount.

“Is it acceptable in this committee’s view that in the resolutions presented it is inconceivable to add the phrase ‘Temple Mount?’” Bourgel asked.

His remarks referenced the resolution entitled, “Enforcing Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem.”

That text states that the UN is “gravely concerned by the tensions and violence in the recent period throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem and including with regard to the holy places of Jerusalem, including the Haram al-Sharif.”

The resolution makes no mention of the Jewish name for the area, the Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site, and Islam’s third holiest site.

Israel in the last five years has fought a pitched and very public battle against such language at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) based in Paris. In the last two few years, what had been known as the Jerusalem resolution has been neutralized, in an effort to tone down politicization at UNESCO.

But scant attention has been paid to similarly worded texts in annual anti-Israel resolutions in New York. Unlike at UNESCO, the text did mention the connection between Jerusalem and the three monotheistic religions, but did not link that connection specifically to the Old City or to its Temple Mount.

The resolution reaffirmed “the special significance of the holy sites and the importance of the City of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions.”

The US and Israel voted against the resolution and the other seven, the only two countries to vote against all eight texts. They were joined in their opposition to the Jerusalem text by Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Nauru.

All 28 European Union member states supported this resolution, along with six others. But a Finnish representative, who spoke to the Fourth Committee on behalf of the EU, said it disagreed with attempts by Arab states to solely reference the Temple Mount by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif.

New language linking Jerusalem with the three monotheistic religions is welcome, but the text had not gone far enough in underscoring that connection, the Finnish representative said.

“The EU understands the language on the holy sites of Jerusalem as reflecting the importance and historical significance of both the city of Jerusalem and the holy sites for three monotheistic religions,” the representative said. “The EU stresses the need for language on terminology that reflects respect for religious and cultural sensitivities. The future choice of language may affect the EU’s collective support for this resolution.”

Out of the eight approved resolutions, three involved the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. This included a resolution to extended UNRWA’s mandate by three years.

A fourth resolution to ensure the protection of Palestine refugees’ properties and their revenues within sovereign Israel passed 162-6, with nine abstentions. The text reaffirmed that “Palestine refugees are entitled to their property and to the income derived therefrom, in conformity with the principles of equity and justice.” The text also asked the UN to protect “Arab property, assets and property rights in Israel.”

A NUMBER of the resolutions took issue with past and future Israeli attempts to annex territory over the pre-1967 lines.

“The occupation of a territory is to be a temporary, de facto situation, whereby the occupying power can neither claim possession nor exert its sovereignty over the territory it occupies,” a resolution stated. That same resolution recalled “the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of land by force and therefore the illegality of the annexation of any part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” It also expressed “grave concern at recent statements calling for the annexation by Israel of areas in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Some of the resolutions condemned Israeli actions in Gaza. In one instance, a line was added condemning Palestinian rocket attacks without pointing at either Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A resolution on the Golan Heights took Israel to task for its annexation of that territory, which it captured from Syria after being attacked in the 1967 Six Day War.

“Reaffirming once more the illegality of the decision of 14 December 1981 taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan, which has resulted in the effective annexation of that territory,” it said. The resolution was approved 155-2, with 19 abstentions. Prior to the vote, Brazil explained its abstention, explaining that the text was unbalanced in that it only referred to Israel actions and did not also address Syrian violations.

Acting US Deputy Representative to the United Nations Cherith Norman Chalet told the Fourth Committee it opposed the “annual submission of more than a dozen resolutions biased against Israel. This one-sided approach only undermines trust between the parties, and fails to create the kind of positive international environment critical to achieving peace.

“We are disappointed that despite support for reform, member states continue to disproportionately single out Israel through these types of resolutions,” she said. “It is deplorable that the United Nations – an institution founded upon the idea that all nations should be treated equally – should be so often used by member states to treat one state in particular, Israel, unequally.

“As the United States has repeatedly made clear, this dynamic is unacceptable,” Chalet continued. “We see resolutions that are quick to condemn all manner of Israeli actions, but say nothing or almost nothing about terrorist attacks against innocent civilians. And so the United States will once again vote against these one-sided resolutions and encourages other nations to do so.”