Australia to Spend $60M to Combat Muslim Extremism and Radicalization

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The Australian government said Tuesday it will spend 64 million Australian dollars ($60 million) on measures to counter violent extremism and radicalization as Islamic State continues to recruit foreign fighters to its ranks in Iraq and Syria.

The measures include strengthened community engagement programs aimed at preventing young Australians from becoming involved with extremist groups and new multi-agency investigation teams to disrupt foreign fighters and their supporters.

The Australian government is giving high priority to reducing the domestic terrorism threat created by homegrown extremists who travel to Syria and Iraq to fight.

Australia and the United States will raise at the United Nations General Assembly in September the need for governments to cooperate against the common threat.

“This is the highest national security risk that we face and we will not rest until we are sure that the Australian people are safe and secure from it,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told Parliament.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at least 60 Australians were fighting for Islamic State overseas, and another 100 were working or fund-raising within Australia to support the al-Qaida offshoot group and other terror groups.

Islamic leaders have complained that Australia’s Muslim minority is being unfairly targeted by draconian counterterrorism measures, such as a proposed new onus on Australians traveling to terrorism hotbeds to prove that they had legitimate reasons for going there.

But Abbott said Muslims were not being targeted.

“I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that the enemy here is terrorism, it’s not any particular faith, it’s not any particular community,” Abbott told Parliament.

A poll published in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday found that 77 percent of respondents supported laws that would require travelers to prove that they had no contact with terrorist groups while overseas. Another 18 percent opposed the move and 5 percent were undecided.

The poll by Sydney-based market researcher Newspoll was based on a random, nationwide telephone survey of 1,207 voters last weekend. It has 3 percentage point margin of error.

Original Post by The Washington Post

Former President Jimmy Carter to speak at Annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America(ISNA)

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Former President Jimmy Carter to speak at Annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America(ISNA)

Former President, Jimmy Carter, 89, will be the keynote speaker at the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) 51st annual convention in Detroit this weekend, the Toledo Blade confirmed Monday.

According to the Toledo Blade, the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, is hosting the annual event.

CBN News has reported ISNA is the nation’s largest Muslim group with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and Hamas.

White House officials have praised the organization as a pillar of the American-Muslim community. ISNA leader, Mohamed Mageed, has also been an adviser to the Obama administration.

This year’s conference theme is “Generations Rise: Elevating Muslim-American Culture,” and speakers will offer ideas for advancing Islam in America over the next five years.

Carter will mostly discuss his latest book, “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power,” the Blade reported.

The convention will also host other politicians, including Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).

Carter has come under criticism in the past for his critical views of Israel and U.S.-Israel relations.

In his 2006 book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” Carter accused Israel of practicing a racist state policy similar to South African Apartheid. In addition, earlier this month, the former President called Hamas, the militant Palestinian group at war with Israel, “a legitimate political actor.”

Original Content by CBN News

If All Iraqi Christians Leave,Who would be the Salt and Light in Iraq?

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This past weekend I met with Ankawa Evangelical Church Pastor Ghassan Yalda who told me he is saddened when Iraqi Christians talk about leaving the country for America or elsewhere in the West…by Gary Lane of CBN News

“Christians are salt and light. If everyone leaves, who will be speaking the truth to the people who need us? Sin is everywhere, people are killing each other. “

Who will be left to ask God to pour out his mercy on Iraq?

But every displaced Christian I’ve met here has told me they want to leave. They say they can no longer live with Muslims when a percentage of them are trying to exterminate anyone who does not believe the way they do.

Yalda also told me he appreciates the partnership CBN Disaster Relief has made with his church to help displaced Christians and others. Each day church volunteers provide food and other necessities for 60-80 families. CBN has stood alongside them.

The daily demands on Yalda’s church body are overwhelming. Just two months ago their main effort was conducting a weekly church service and doing outreach work with Syrian refugees. Now, in addition to the daily outreach efforts, 100 Christian refugees reside at the church in Sunday school classrooms.

Pastor Yalda asks us to pray for more volunteers to come to Iraq to help and encourage the people here.

“We need each other,” the pastor told me. “And our country cannot be saved by military action. It can only be saved by Jesus Christ.”

Watch the full Video interview below:

Original Content by CBN

American held captive by al-Qaeda group in Syria for over two years now freed

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American held captive by al-Qaeda group in Syria for over two years now freed

An American held captive for two years by an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria was released Sunday, according to the Obama administration and his family…report by USA Today

“For two years, we have kept Peter Theo Curtis, a U.S. citizen held hostage in Syria, in our thoughts and prayers,” White House national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement. “Today, we join his family and loved ones in welcoming his freedom.”

Curtis, 45, who is from Massachusetts, was held by the Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

Curtis is a published author and freelance journalist who writes under the name Theo Padnos, according to a statement released Sunday by his family expressing gratitude to the United States, Qatar and others who helped negotiate his release. He was captured shortly after he crossed into Syria in October 2012.

“My heart is full at the extraordinary, dedicated, incredible people, too many to name individually, who have become my friends and have tirelessly helped us over these many months,” his mother, Nancy Curtis from Cambridge, Mass., said in the statement. “Please know that we will be eternally grateful.”

Nancy Curtis said the family did not know the details surrounding the negotiation for Curtis’ release but said they “were repeatedly told by representatives of the Qatari government that they were mediating for Theo’s release on a humanitarian basis without the payment of money.”

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry confirmed late Sunday that the Gulf emirate succeeded in gaining Curtis’ release. “(Qatar) exerted relentless efforts to release the American journalist out of Qatar’s belief in the principles of humanity and out of concern for the lives of individuals and their right to freedom and dignity,” according to a government statement released by the Qatar News Agency.

Curtis was handed over to United Nations peacekeepers in Golan Heights on Sunday evening, according to a U.N. statement. After receiving medical attention, he was handed over to U.S. government representatives, the statement said.

“Over these last two years, the United States reached out to more than two dozen countries, asking for urgent help from anyone who might have tools, influence or leverage to help secure Theo’s release and the release of any Americans held hostage in Syria,” Kerry said.

President Obama, who was wrapping up a vacation in Massachusetts, was briefed Sunday morning on Curtis’ release.

“The president shares in the joy and relief that we all feel now that Theo is out of Syria and safe,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. “But we continue to hold in our thoughts and prayers the Americans who remain in captivity in Syria, and we will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to see that the remaining American hostages are freed.”

Footage of Curtis, in a video obtained by Al-Jazeera and The New York Times in late June, showed the American looking disheveled. Speaking from a script, Curtis stated his name and said he was a journalist from Boston, Al-Jazeera reported. He said his captors treated him well, and he “had everything” he needed, the Times reported.

In a video obtained by the Associated Press dated July 18, Curtis appears to read from a sheet and pleads for the U.S. and European governments to contact a named intermediary.

“They have given me three days to live,” he says as a man holding an assault rifle and dressed in camouflage stands next to him. “If you don’t do anything, I’m finished. I’m dead. They will kill me. Three days. You have had 20 days, and you’ve done nothing. ”

Curtis, under the Theo Padnos byline, has written for the New Republic and in 2011 wrote a book called Undercover Muslim: A Journey Into Yemen, which studied the radicalization of disaffected youths.

“He seems to be in good health,” Curtis’ cousin Viva Hardigg told the Associated Press on Sunday. “We are deeply relieved and grateful for his return and the many people who have helped us secure his freedom. At the same time, we are thinking constantly of the other hostages who are still held and those working to help them be freed. We want to do everything we can to support their efforts.”

Rice said Curtis will be reunited with his family shortly. His release comes days after the Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of James Foley, 40, an American freelance reporter.

“We will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of all Americans who are held overseas so that they can be reunited with their families as well,” Rice said.

Steven Joel Sotloff, a photojournalist and former University of Central Florida student, remains a hostage of the terrorist group and was threatened with death in the same video that portrayed Foley’s killing.

Nancy Curtis said in a statement that she had gotten to know the Foley family and appealed to the captors of remaining hostages to release them.

“My entire focus right now is on helping the other families of those still being held in Syria and on taking care of my son,” she said.

Original Content by USA Today

Tweets by Muslims Defending the Beheading of American Journalist, Foley

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Tweets by Muslims Defending the Beheading of American Journalist, Foley

Islam expert David Wood at AnsweringMuslims.com has compiled some of the English language tweets from Muslims defending and celebrating the murder of American journalist James Foley…report by CBN News

As Wood put it, “there are plenty of Westernized Muslims who condemn the beheading of James Wright Foley. Unfortunately, Islam isn’t defined by Westernized Muslims.”

A Muslim told me a few days ago that the killers from the Islamic State are “criminals, not Muslims!”

But the killers believe they are being good Muslims. Some are helping distribute Qurans when they’re not massacring innocent non-Muslims. And Muslims justify the beheading of Foley with Islamic teaching.

This is a big crisis, not only for the West, but for worldwide Islam, which, up until now, has been very successful in efforts to essentially colonize European nations by more peaceful means; exploiting European guilt and wacky immigration policies.

The Islamic State is now forcing Europe and America to get real about the true threat of Islam, not only in the Middle East, but within their own borders.

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Original Content by CBN News

Christian Restaurant Owner reacts to FFRF’s warning to discontinue Church bulletin discount Faith-based discount

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Christian Restaurant Owner reacts to FFRF’s warning to discontinue Church bulletin discount Faith-based discount

A restaurant owner who is under fire for offering a faith-based discount to customers says he doesn’t plan to discontinue it, despite receiving a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a secular activist group…report by The Blaze

Steven Rose, owner of Bailey’s Pizza in Searcy, Arkansas, told TheBlaze Wednesday that he posted a 10 percent discount on his restaurant’s Facebook page on July 19 for anyone who brought in a church bulletin. Not long after, he received a comment from a user named “Bong Hits for Jesus” that read, “Good luck on your discrimination lawsuit.”

“I didn’t give much credence to it,” he said of the comment, but the story doesn’t end there.

What followed was a letter postmarked July 30 from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization located in Madison, Wisconsin, that called Rose’s discount an act of discrimination and a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. An unnamed local resident who found the discount offensive reportedly alerted the group.

“The law requires places of public accommodation to offer their services to customers without regard to race, color, religion or national origin,” Elizabeth Cavell, an attorney who works for the atheist legal firm, told KTHV-TV.

But Rose, a Christian who recently opened Bailey’s Pizza July 1, said he firmly disagrees with this assessment, claiming that the discount was merely a “marketing tool” that enabled him to reach out to people of faith whom he associates with.

“I didn’t want to exclude anyone,” he said. “It was just like giving a discount to the Boy Scouts or the military and they made it an ugly thing.”

While the Freedom From Religion Foundation apparently wants Rose to discontinue the discount, he said he has no plans to comply and that a lawyer he consulted with said that the atheist group doesn’t “have a leg to stand on.”

“From their argument, if I’m giving a discount to the elderly, it’s agism. If I give one to police offers, I’m prejudiced against people who aren’t police officers,” Rose said.

The discount will remain in place unless a judge tells him he is violating the law. In that case, he said he would comply, but that he doesn’t believe he has violated any statutes.

“Short of [a judge’s ruling] there’s nothing that they’re going to say to me that makes me waver on what I believe,” Rose said.

He also made an important point about the faith-based discount: one doesn’t actually need to be a churchgoer to receive it.

“I didn’t say you had to go to church. I said come in with a church bulletin,” he said, noting that some churches publish their Sunday bulletins on their websites. “[Atheists] can download it and bring it in.”

The pizza shop owner told TheBlaze that, though the Freedom From Religion Foundation requested that he write a letter to explain how he plans to “remedy the problem,” he has no plans to offer an official response.

“I really wonder if this is the best use of their resources. What are they doing about ISIS, what are they doing about joblessness?,” he said. “My 45-cent discount — that’s a battle they should [wage]?

Rose said that he has been encouraged by the support he received in the wake of the complaint, noting that conservative legal firms have offered to help if needed.

He also noted that this isn’t the first time the Freedom From Religion Foundation has gone after targets in Searcy, a town of just 17,000 residents. Earlier this year, the group asked that a cross on display outside the local police department be removed. Rose also said that the organization went after the city council to try and halt public prayer back in 2010.

In a separate incident, the Freedom From Religion Foundation recently convinced Mary’s Gourmet Diner in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to abandon its prayer discount after sending a similar letter to owner Mary Haglund.

Original Content by The Blaze

Christian Restaurant Owner warned by Freedom From Religion Foundation for offering Faith-Based discount to Customers

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A Christian restaurant owner is taking more than his kitchen’s heat after offering a faith-based discount to his customers…report by Worthy News

Steven Rose, the owner of Bailey’s Pizza in Searcy, Ark., told TheBlaze that 10 days after posting a 10 percent discount on Facebook for any customer with a church bulletin, he was warned by the Freedom From Religion Foundation that the discount was an act of discrimination.

“The law requires places of public accommodation to offer their services to customers without regard to race, color, religion or national origin,” attorney Elizabeth Cavell told KTHV-TV.

But Rose said no one needs to be a churchgoer to receive his faith-based discount.

“I didn’t say you had to go to church. I said come in with a church bulletin.”

However, Rose has been encouraged by the support showed him after receiving the FFRF complaint, especially from conservative firms that have offered legal assistance.

Original Post by Worthy News

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, LORD CAREY says he wants evil British jihadis banish from UK

CM Editor
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Former Archbishop of Canterbury, LORD CAREY says he wants evil British jihadis banish from UK

The menacing advance of the Islamic State in Iraq should not prejudice Western people against Muslim people and the Islamic faith.

I once served as an  airman in Egypt and Iraq and can vouch for the kindness and goodness of many Muslim  people. Indeed, more than three million have made their home in Britain, and by far the majority want to get on and make good and peaceful homes among us.

But there is a darker side. Radical Islam is on the rise and imperilling our way of life, threatening to undermine the values that have been bitterly won over the centuries.

In recent weeks, we have heard desperate reports of  barbaric violence – including crucifixions and beheadings – accompanying the onward march of the terrorist group calling themselves ‘Islamic State’ (IS, formerly ISIS).

Even worse, about 500 of these murderous thugs, criminals and rapists are said to be Britons and a further 1,500 from other parts of Europe.

The youngest of these would-be terrorists is reported to be 13 years old and has travelled to the Middle East from Belgium with an older brother.

Frighteningly, the young British hostage-taker who may have beheaded the incredibly brave reporter James Foley, is not even the first to have committed such a despicable act. Journalist Daniel Pearl was murdered by a Briton as well.

My good friend Canon Andrew White, widely known as the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’, has seen many of his parishioners killed.

He said only the other day that a child he had recently baptised was cut in half by terrorists in the advance of IS. He and other church leaders in Iraq are witnessing the ethnic cleansing and even the genocide of the ancient Christian community in the homeland of our Christian faith.

Christianity in Iraq dates back to the first century and the missionary expansion inspired by the preaching of St Paul. By contrast, Islam arrived by conquest and the sword centuries later.

These young fanatical Muslims from Britain and elsewhere are bringing the sword yet again to this region.

Only this time they are killing all in their wake, including fellow Sunni Muslims who do not hold the same belligerent interpretation of Islam, together with Shia Muslims who by population are in a majority in Iraq.

How can we respond to the evil these young people are doing in the region, including young Britons that we have educated in our schools and who now repudiate our decent and tolerant values by pursuing jihad in Iraq and Syria?

The first step is to withdraw their passports. This includes young people who we learn are planning to travel to commit terrorist acts, together with those who are fighting for foreign terrorist groups.

…read more

Original Content & Post by Daily Mail

A Darker Iraq: Light of Christian Faith Going Out Fast

CM Editor
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A Darker Iraq: Light of Christian Faith Going Out Fast

This new is Originally from CBN News – We suggest that you read it

ERBIL, Iraq — While the Obama administration tries to figure out if targeting terrorists is worthwhile, thousands of refugees are suffering across northern Iraq.

Talk to anyone who has fled the Islamic State and they’ll share their story of tragedy and suffering.

One Christian CBN News spoke to said the terrorists seized all his gold and money, thenthreatened to cut off his hand.

This boy was traumatized when he witnessed Islamic State fighters armed with machine guns open fire on fleeing Christians near Mosul.

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Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians now live in tents, schools, and abandoned buildings. War weary and despondent, most now say they want to leave Iraq.

“Go to America, Christians go to America. No, stay in Iraq!” one refugee woman said of the enormous decision to leave the land of their ancestors.

When Islamic State fighters seized his city, this former police officer took his family, including his newborn daughter, to safety in Erbil.

“If we return to our village, they will kill us,” he said.

With passports in hand, these Iraqi Christians hope Congress will soon grant them immediate religious asylum status so they can live in the United States.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdS_VvmV2m0[/youtube]

Ten families from this church, Ankawa Evangelical, have already left Iraqsince the crisis began last June. That troubled Pastor Ghassan Yalda, who urged them to stay.

“This is hurting a lot because the faith that we have is that the Christians are the salt of this land and the light of this land,” he said.

“If everybody leaves this country, who is going to be speaking the truth to the people who need it and who is going to be keeping this area from the wrath of the Lord because the sin is everywhere and people are killing each other?” he asked.

Those still here are reaching out to help. Here in the Kurdistan capital city of Erbil is a Christian neighborhood known as Ankawa.

It usually has a population of about 22,000 people. But with the massive influx of refugees from around the country fleeing the fighting with ISIS, the population has swelled to over 100,000 — five times above normal.

And that is overwhelming the churches and the community here.

CBN Disaster Relief has partnered with Ankawa Evangelical to relieve some of the pressure and to bring help to Yazidis and basic food and toiletries for Christians.

“Today we’re giving out clothing to the Yazidis who fled to northern Iraq,” CBN Disaster Relief’s Brian Scott said.

“We did this because they have very little, no money to purchase anything and they don’t have anything but the clothes on their back,” he said.

CBN is also providing episodes of the animated Bible series “Superbook,” shown to the refugee children in their own Arabic language.

“Through the comfort of the Gospel… to show them that Christians truly love them, to be blessed and receive relief,” Scott said.

The help is giving Iraqi refugees a break from their misery, providing them with some of life’s basic necessities and with spiritual encouragement to last a lifetime.

Original Post from CBN News

Your First Calling Is to Trust God

CM Editor
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Your First Calling Is to Trust God

If you have been given a particular calling and ministry from the Lord, I hope it burns within your soul and provides you with much passion for service everyday. That tends to be the way it plays out for a Spirit-led and Spirit-filled believer who is called and gifted to serve in God’s kingdom. But there are plenty of obstacles along the way, as I am sure you have probably already discovered.

For one thing, we easily forget that our “calling” is not our first priority in God’s kingdom. While it is very important to the Lord that we do not “neglect our gift” for service, it is even more important to Him that we realize what our first calling entails. You see, before you were called into a ministry, you were called into a family. You were called into a relationship with the King of Kings. And you were called to trust Him, plain and simple.

In our passion and zeal to use the gifts He has given us for service, we can lose sight of the fact that the One who called us into His family is more than capable of working out the details of our secondary calling. Who do we think set it up this way in the first place? God saw us before our parents saw us. He loved us before our parents loved us. And He gave us the free gift of salvation before He gave us gifts for service. It is good for us to remember these things.

There are many stressful matters in life, and that certainly includes the stresses of fulfilling our calling in the Lord’s service. All of Christ’s disciples go through times of struggle, anxiety and pressure. It is par for the course. And yet, we are constantly compelled to carry out the work He has given us to do. Sometimes, we start to carry more than He wants us to carry. Our first priority is to trust Him, plain and simple. And if I can trust Him for my eternal well-being in paradise, perhaps I can also choose to trust Him for the work He has planned for me to do here on earth.

This brings us to the privilege of prayer. We are invited to bring everything to the Lord in prayer, including the desires of our heart as it relates to serving Him. The more we pray about it, the more God shapes our desires and works out the details in accordance with His will for us. If we stop praying about it, we really begin to carry the work around our neck and upon our heart. It feels heavy on the inside. But the Lord isn’t producing the heaviness. We are causing it by the mental pressure we are placing on ourselves.

The Lord has not promised that we won’t have heavy issues on the outside, but He has promised to be our peace in all things. (see John 16:33) In other words, God will keep us calm on the inside if we trust Him. The apostle Paul had many struggles outwardly. But what did he say about it? “In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.” (2 Cor. 7:4) Are you kidding me? Seriously? How? Why? Who? I mean what in the world could produce joy for Paul in the midst of such pressure? Here was a guy who had some serious obstacles. (see 2 Cor. 11:23-33) And yet there it was – joy for the journey. An inner peace. And a Christian who never forgot his first calling.

How is it with you my friend? As a pastor for the past 24 years, I have had the opportunity to interact with plenty of God’s servants over the years on this issue. It touches all of us who serve in the kingdom. We are tempted over and over again to carry that thing which the Lord has told us He will carry. And we are tempted over and over again to make our secondary calling our primary focus. But it isn’t, or at least it doesn’t need to be our primary focus. We have a higher calling. Did you catch that? You have a higher calling. God will handle your ministry needs, and details, and logistics. Meanwhile, it’s up to you to keep the main thing the main thing.

Memo to you and me as servants in Christ’s kingdom: “Your first calling is to trust God.” One more time. “Your first calling is to trust God.” We need to preach this message to our soul everyday. After all, you and I trusted Him when we entered His family. We placed our faith in Christ to forgive our sins. And now the Lord calls us to trust Him in ministry, even when we are “bursting at the seams” to reach the world for Christ.

We already have a Savior. He did just fine without our assistance. He doesn’t need a “co-redeemer” to help Him save our soul or to fulfill our ministry. He will do it, if we trust Him. Just like we trusted Him when we first believed, and everyday since then with the knowledge that heaven is our home.

So what do you say? Shall we give this thing a go? Shall we carry out the ministry He has given us in the same spirit with which we trust Him everyday to forgive our sins? The God who forgives sins is the same God who makes a way for His servants to fulfill their calling. And that includes you if you have been given a calling in the kingdom.

God’s job? Provide the fire and the holy love for His children to serve others. Our job? “Don’t put out the Spirit’s fire.” (1 Thess. 5:19) Everything else is just a potential distraction and substitute for your first calling. And those substitutes are not very good at producing peace in the hearts of the Lord’s disciples, unless of course they are being carried out in the right order.

… read more

Author :Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.

Original Content & Post from Christian Post

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