Islam

H/T: Mere Orthodoxy

Peter Kreeft is an incisive social thinker who draws from Catholic social teaching for insight into the deeper currents of American culture. The Orthodox and Catholics see eye to eye on many of his points.

Bishop Thomas speaking at the Hudson Institute (seven videos).

An unsigned “call to action” in defense of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was published today on the “Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism” Web site. This appeal asks readers to sign a Web-based petition which demands that the “Turkish government … take steps to guarantee the recognition, safety, and protection of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Patriarchate, the Seminary of Halki, and the ethnic minority of Greek Christians living in Turkey.”

The “call to action” placed the weight of its argument for religious freedom and human rights on a “Charter of Privileges to Christians” purported to have been signed by Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in the 7th Century. The “call to action” described this charter as emblematic of the “established universal position” of human rights that also inspired the U.S. Constitution.

The appeal:

To those who were privileged enough to see the, CBS 60 Minutes story about His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, that aired on December 20, 2009,

The segment focused on the challenges and struggles His All Holiness faces to sustain the Patriarchate, as well as the sacred early Christian churches and monuments in Turkey, under a government which has continually refused to recognize his title as Ecumenical Patriarch and also legitimize the legal status of the Patriarchate and related Greek properties. In the words of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church and approximately 300 million followers around the world, he and other Greek-Christians living in Turkey, “are treated as second class citizens.”

One of the most compelling and factually important aspects of the segment was the reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s Charter of Privileges to Christians, in his letter to the Monks of St. Catherine Monastery. In 628 A.D., the Prophet Muhammad granted this Charter of several clauses covering all aspects of human rights and religious tolerance, including the protection of Christians, their freedom of worship and movement, their freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property and religious houses of worship, and the right to protection in war. (An English translation of the Prophet Muhammad’s Charter of Privileges, by Dr. A Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq can be found at http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/charter1.html Continue reading →

Also see video “extras” on CBS site. Transcript from CBS via National Herald:

Text of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s interview on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’

(CBS) Would it surprise you to learn that one of the world’s most important Christian leaders, second only to the pope, lives in a country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim? His name is Bartholomew, and he is the patriarch of 300 million Orthodox Christians. He lives in Istanbul, Turkey, the latest in a line of patriarchs who have resided there since before there was a Turkey, since the centuries following the death of Jesus Christ.

That’s when Istanbul was called Constantinople and was the most important city in the Christian world.

But times change, and in modern Muslim Turkey the patriarch doesn’t feel very welcome. Turkish authorities have seized Christian properties and closed Christian churches, monasteries and schools. His parishioners are afraid that the authorities want to force Bartholomew and his church – the oldest of all Christian churches – out of Turkey.

His official title is impressive: “His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch.”

“Ecumenical” means “universal,” and worldwide, 300 million Orthodox Christians look to him for spiritual guidance.

60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon first met him in Istanbul. It was Easter, and worshipers from throughout the Orthodox Christian world had come to celebrate Christ’s resurrection on the holiest day of their calendar with the man who they see as their pope.

“My first question is this. How should I refer to you? As your all holiness? As patriarch? As ecumenical patriarch? What is the proper way to address you?” Simon asked the patriarch.

“The official title is ‘your all holiness,'” he replied, laughing. “But for me, Bartholomew is enough.” Continue reading →

From the Assyrian International News Agency. (HT: The Volokh Conspiracy):

Cairo (AINA) — In an effort to cover up the Muslim mob violence against the Copts which broke out last week in the town of Farshoot and neighboring villages (AINA 11-22-2009, 11-23-2009), and in view of the complete news blackout imposed by the Egyptian government, Egyptian State Security has intensified its pressure on the Coptic Church in Nag Hammadi and the victims of the violence into accepting extrajudicial reconciliation with the perpetrators, and opening their businesses without any compensation. Similar State Security scenarios have been experienced by Copts in all sectarian incidents in the past, in which they always come out as losers, having been forced to give up civil and criminal charges, while the criminals get away scot-free.

“There will be no reconciliation before full financial compensation has been paid to the Coptic victims, and the criminals are brought to justice, so that safety and security can be restored to the district,” said Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese. Continue reading →