WHILE ISLAMIC TERROR GROWS WORLDWIDE, WITH THE KORAN FUELING ITS JUSTIFICATION; CHRISTIANS TARGETED & PERSECUTED, ABUSED & KILLED BY MUSLIMS
ALLEGED "CHRISTIANS" WORK TOWARD A ONE WORLD RELIGION, STARTING WITH UNITING IN SOLIDARITY WITH ISLAM
A SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADS THE WAY
The Rev. Johnnie Moore, a commissioner with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, speaks at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's Jalsa Salana event in Alton, Hampshire, England, on Aug. 4, 2018. Photo courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Being Unequally Yoked
SEE: https://biblereasons.com/unequally-yoked/
EXCERPTS:
What does the Bible say?
1. Amos 3:3 Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?2. 2 Corinthians 6:14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?
3. Ephesians 5:7 Therefore do not become partners with them.
4. 2 Corinthians 6:15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
5. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
6. 2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
7. Isaiah 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the LORD’s house.
8. 2 Corinthians 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
________________________________________________________________
Christian leader meets Middle East rulers: “We want what it was like when Muhammad was alive, a pluralistic region”
BY ROBERT SPENCER; SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/01/christian-leader-meets-middle-east-rulers-we-want-what-it-was-like-when-muhammad-was-alive-a-pluralistic-region; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Says Johnnie Moore: “All we want is for what it was like when the Prophet Muhammad himself was alive, which was a very pluralistic region. There were Christians and Jews, there were synagogues and there were churches.”
Yes, but what happened to them?According to Islamic tradition, there were three Jewish tribes in Medina when Muhammad moved there: the Banu Qurayzah, Banu Qaynuqa and Banu Nadir. Muhammad exiled the Banu Qaynuqa and Banu Nadir, massacred the Banu Qurayza after they (understandably) made a pact with his enemies during the pagan Meccans’ siege of Medina, and then massacred the exiles at the Khaybar oasis, giving Muslims even today a bloodthirsty war chant: “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.”
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.” (Sahih Muslim 19.4366)
This is why the Saudis allow no non-Muslim religious observance in their domains.
If Johnnie Moore thinks Muhammad offers a pluralistic model for Muslim countries to emulate today, he has been reading too much deceptive Islamic apologetics, and is whistling in the dark.
“Evangelicals Seek Detente With Mideast Muslim Leaders As Critics Doubt Motives,” by Jerome Socolovsky, NPR, January 2, 2019 (thanks to Magdi):
In recent months, evangelical Christian leaders have been traveling to the Middle East to meet with rulers of Islamic countries and with Muslim clergy._____________________________________________________________
The participants say the meetings — especially one they had in November with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — are unprecedented, and aimed at promoting religious freedom in the region.
Johnnie Moore, a public relations consultant and a former vice president of Liberty University, has been on many of the trips. He says they are not about easing the way for Christian missionaries, as some critics allege.
“All we want is for what it was like when the Prophet Muhammad himself was alive, which was a very pluralistic region,” he says. “There were Christians and Jews, there were synagogues and there were churches.”
The evangelicals have also had audiences with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan….
INCREDIBLY IGNORANT CHURCH LEADERS ATTEMPT RELIGIOUS RECONCILIATION WITH MUSLIMS, WITH THE EQUALLY IGNORANT CHRISTIAN PRESS
Still No Churches in Saudi Arabia, But Small Steps Toward Religious Freedom
US envoy celebrates “unprecedented” progress under the promise of more moderate Muslim rule.
BY
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Saudi Arabia has made unprecedented strides toward religious tolerance just a year
after its young new ruler pledged to bring more moderate Islam to the Sunni
kingdom.
After a visit to the capital city of Riyadh last week,
US officials reported the country has reformed its religious police—once
tasked with enforcing shari’ah law on the streets and in homes—and has
instituted new government programs to quash extremism.
“I was surprised by the pace of change in the country.
It reminded me of the verse at the end of Book of Job which says, ‘My
ears had heard ... but now my eyes have seen,’” said US Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) commissioner Johnnie Moore, who
has also served as an unofficial liaison between evangelical leaders
and the Trump White House.
“It was the first time I have ever thought to myself, Wow, we could actually see religious freedom in Saudi. This is possible.”
Moore represents the highest-profile evangelical leader
to meet with the Saudi government since 33-year-old Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman announced plans last October
to return the restrictive Muslim country to “what we were before: a
country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the
world.” The USCIRF official formerly worked with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s campaign to aid persecuted Christians in the Middle East.
Fewer than 5 percent of the 32 million people living in Saudi Arabia are Christians, according to Pew Research,
and the kingdom ranks No. 12 among countries where it is hardest to
follow Jesus, according to Open Doors. Likewise the State Department, at
USCIRF’s recommendation, has designated Saudi Arabia a “country of
particular concern” since 2004 due to its egregious religious freedom
violations.
The government still does not sanction churches or any
form public worship by non-Muslims, but progress is being made toward
allowing private worship and protecting the rights of minority faiths.
As the conservative Muslim nation instituted new social
reforms—including lifting its infamous ban on women driving—bin Salman
has recently hosted a string of Christian leaders.
“It should not be lost on us that the Crown Prince
has—in the last six months alone—met with the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Maronite Patriarch, and met with the Coptic Pope in Cairo and that
meeting took place in front of wall-sized piece of art honoring Jesus,”
Moore told CT.
“There was also a very prominent visit by the recently
deceased Cardinal Tauran [a Vatican diplomat] where he signed a joint
agreement to promote peaceful coexistence with the General Secretary of
the World Muslim League, Dr. al-Issa.”
During their visit, Moore and fellow USCIRF commissioner Nadine Maenza
met with leaders across the government, including the Commission for
the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which promotes
Islamic moral code.
According to Moore, the commission—once the greatest
barrier to private worship—no longer has authority to go into people’s
homes or to make arrests. He said Christians in Saudi Arabia have
already felt the effects of the reform under bin Salman and support the
changes.
Additionally, the USCIRF delegation met with the
government ministries tasked with cracking down on religious extremism
by establishing educational programs and monitoring teaching in mosques.
Under a Muslim constitution, Saudi Arabia continues to have laws
against apostasy and conversion, though there a signs they may be
becoming less strict in their implementation.
The changes now coming to Saudi Arabia have been
anticipated for over a year. “The days of a religious monopoly in Saudi
Arabia are over,” Daoud Kuttab, a Christian Palestinian journalist, told CT last fall, noting mixed motivations—social and economic—for the changes. “No more pushing Islam down every citizen’s throat.”
Some of the reforms are obvious already. “I saw women
driving, some guardianship rules being rolled back, and women and men
increasingly mixing in public venues, including at a Cirque du Soleil
concert in Riyadh,” Commissioner Maenza said in a press release.
“The question we continue to assess is whether this
opening is extending to other parts of the country and the degree to
which these reforms are impacting freedom of religion or belief in a
country that still—for instance—officially bans public worship unless it
is the state-sanctioned practice of Islam.”
Moore, for one, is hopeful. He wrote to CT days after the trip:
I am optimistic for a Saudi Arabia where Muslims, Christians and others can freely and openly worship, living as neighbors, their children as friends with no fear of one another and, in fact, great joy from knowing one another.I’m praying for a day when I can travel to Saudi Arabia to proudly and publicly celebrate Christmas or Easter on a peninsula whose Islamic faith and culture owes, by its own admission, a great debt to “people of the book,” which preceded it.For the first time in my life, and in my advocacy for religious freedom, I believe this could be possible and maybe even sooner than we expect. I am also realistic about the challenges involved, but—so far—I do believe they are sincere in their ambitions to moderate and modernize.
Over the summer, USCIRF commissioners also spoke out
on behalf of religious minorities in Pakistan, including Ahmadi Muslims
and Christians, pledging to prioritize religious freedom and promote
peace in that region as well.
____________________________________________________________
SEE OUR POSTS ABOUT APOSTATES ROMA DOWNEY & MARK BURNETT HERE:
______________________________________________________
Why Rev. Johnnie Moore Is Praising This Muslim-Majority Nation as a 'Model' for Other Countries
BY CRYSTAL WOODALL
SEE: http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2018/november/why-rev-johnnie-moore-is-praising-this-muslim-majority-nation-as-a-model-for-other-countries;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Rev.
Johnnie Moore, founder of the Interdenominational Congress of Christian
Leaders, is singing the praises of Azerbaijan after wrapping up a
multi-day visit to the Islamic nation.
Moore says he was encouraged by how people of various faiths and backgrounds seemed to peacefully co-exist in the country, which boasts a more than 90 percent Muslim population.
"I met Sunni and Shia young people who pray together, orthodox and evangelical Christians who serve together," he wrote in a statement. "And I observed the valued and indispensable role a thriving Jewish community plays in a country whose population is over 90 percent Muslim but whose people have celebrated a longstanding relationship between their nation and the State of Israel."
Moore was joined by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center. Both men are frequent collaborators on interfaith
initiatives worldwide and Moore said he was impressed by the
multiculturalism he witnessed during their visit.
"No doubt, Azerbaijan has its imperfections as well," Moore acknowledged. "But I came to specifically assess firsthand the spirit of multiculturalism that undergirds Azeri society, which should be celebrated and which can be a model for many countries in the world."
He indicated this was particularly poignant given Azerbaijan's history as a former Soviet republic.
"It was profound to sit these last few days with Muslim, Jewish and Christian citizens who haven't forgotten the mutual suffering they endured together as devoutly religious under the atheistic, Soviet era," Moore said. "They cherish what they have now knowing what little they had, then. "
He noted that Azerbaijan lies in stark contrast to nations like Iraq
and Afghanistan, where religion is wielded like a weapon against the
people by terror groups like the Islamic State. It's a brutal phenomenon
he hopes to help bring to an end.
"Having witnessed firsthand the devastation wrought by the alternative in 2014 by Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq, I decided I would work with all my might to prevent future extremism by finding good partners, encouraging moderation, identifying best practices and building trust through friendship between many religious communities throughout the world, especially between Muslims, Christians and Jews," Moore wrote.
"The fact is that we have allowed our world to become a place where religion is too easily weaponized," he observed. "Rather than being a blessing to the world that God intended, religion has been used as a tool to sow chaos, division, and worse. Even in our most developed and enlightened societies, we are losing the ability to get along with those different than us."
"For the sake of our children, we must find another way, where the name of God is revered, not defiled by our mistreatment of others who are also made in His image," he concluded.
______________________________________________________________
“I grieve at the defilements of God’s name to promote (acts of terrorism and murder),” Moore said in a short speech at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s annual Jalsa Salana convention in Alton. “God truly is great, and he is a God of peace, and you are a symbol of it.”
The Jalsa, billed as the U.K.’s largest Muslim convention, was presided over by Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the caliph and leader of the world’s minority Ahmadi Muslims. The denomination’s members, estimated to number 10 million to 20 million, face often-deadly persecution from hardline clerics who consider them apostates.
Moore, whom Trump recently appointed as a commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, has drawn criticism from many in liberal and Muslim activist circles for his alignment with Trump. But for Ahmadis, an alliance with a political conservative like Moore is nothing unusual. Their strong advocacy of religious freedom and vocal condemnation of religious extremism have gained them several unlikely allies in the West.
“Sometimes the religious freedom space isn’t packaged neatly,” Amjad Mahmood Khan, AMC’s U.S. public affairs director, told Religion News Service. “We believe in religious freedom for all, and not as a partisan or political issue.”
At the AMC’s annual Jalsa in Canada, too, speakers have included conservative former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was branded an Islamophobe by many Muslims and liberals after, among other comments, his attempt to call for limitations on wearing the face-covering niqab shortly before the elections. (Many Ahmadi women worldwide wear the niqab.)
Speakers at this year’s Jalsa U.K.
included Sara Khan, head of the U.K.’s new Commission for Countering
Extremism. Her appointment drew criticism because of her support of policies that some claimed damaged government relations with Muslim communities.
“It is the Ahmadiyya Community’s defiant rejection of extremism often in the face of abuse, intolerance and persecution that brings me to today’s Jalsa,” she said. “I am here today to extend my hand out to you in friendship, solidarity and partnership in our common cause of countering extremism.”
In an age when many critics accuse moderate Muslim leaders of standing silent in the face of Islamist terrorism, the AMC is quick to send out press statements condemning acts of deadly violence. The denomination’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whom members believe to be the messiah, urged a “jihad of the pen” to defend the faith. Every year, the caliph keynotes a National Peace Symposium the AMC organizes in London for a crowd of 800 dignitaries and civic leaders, where he denounces terrorism as well as the governments that enable and sponsor such discord. He has also corresponded with heads of state and delivered speeches on establishing world peace before Congress and the parliaments of Canada and major European nations.
In the U.K., Ahmadis have become well-known for the “human chain” of solidarity they formed last year on the Westminster bridge after a Muslim man drove his car into a crowd there, killing four in what officials called an act of terrorism. Ahmadis’ anti-extremism campaigns in the Western world are wide-ranging: True Islam clarifies that terrorism has no place in Islam, Muslims for Peace shows that the faith revolves around tolerance and justice, Stop the CrISIS and United Against Extremism work against youth radicalization, and Pathway to Peace identifies the requirements for moving toward a lasting world peace.
Amjad Khan said his experience engaging with the Obama and Trump administrations shows that it’s not always the case that progressives enact policies that help Muslims. Under Obama, the role of the international religious freedom ambassador remained vacant during much of his administration, and Khan said there were long stretches where the administration would ignore AMC’s efforts to engage.
While many leaders were skeptical that Trump would prioritize Muslim religious freedom, Khan said, the president appointed Sam Brownback to the empty ambassador position in a matter of months, and Brownback’s office now holds weekly roundtables with global stakeholders. And last month, not only did Brownback speak at the AMC’s Jalsa in America, he invited representatives from AMC and a Pakistani Ahmadi victim of persecution – Farooq Kahlon, who was shot five times the day after his son’s wedding by anti-Ahmadi extremists in 2012 – to speak at the State Department’s first International Religious Freedom Ministerial in Washington, D.C.
Brownback’s first international trip once in office was to a camp for persecuted Rohingya Muslims. And his first public appearance was his speech at an event hosted in February by the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, where interfaith leaders signed the Washington Declaration that called for respect for U.S. Muslims and affirmed the rights of religious minorities in Muslim-majority nations.
Regarding largely liberal critics who accuse Moore and Brownback of only caring about religious freedom for Christians, Amjad Khan said: “I always expect commissioners to naturally be passionate about issues they’re personally connected to. That’s why you need a diverse group to bring in their own experiences and interests.”
As a USCIRF commissioner, Moore promised Ahmadis that he had a “personal commitment to make sure that you’re not forgotten, because I believe that the answer to the worst of religion in our world is the best of the best of faith.” He pointed to a recent RNS op-ed he co-wrote calling for international pressure to be placed on the Pakistani government to undo its blasphemy laws against Ahmadis.
That personal commitment is partly because of behind-the-scenes advocacy efforts from Ahmadi representatives.
“I would like to see (Vice President Mike) Pence tweeting about Muslim prisoners of conscience instead of only Christian ones,” Amjad Khan said. “But the principle I advocate is that you must meet with anyone and everyone who will listen to you advocate your cause. Our job is not to dictate the political winds.”
But that doesn’t mean cowing into silence or praise when those people miss the mark, he said. “I’ve told Sam Brownback that when it comes to Islam, he needs to educate himself on this issue or that issue.”
And while many Muslim leaders announced that they would refuse to attend Trump’s controversial White House iftar dinner, held this summer during Ramadan, Ahmadi officials say they would have gladly attended had they received an invitation.
“We would never boycott an event,” Khan said. “It’s not in our DNA. It’s critical for us to have a seat at the table and discuss our concerns.”
_____________________________________________________________
Moore says he was encouraged by how people of various faiths and backgrounds seemed to peacefully co-exist in the country, which boasts a more than 90 percent Muslim population.
"I met Sunni and Shia young people who pray together, orthodox and evangelical Christians who serve together," he wrote in a statement. "And I observed the valued and indispensable role a thriving Jewish community plays in a country whose population is over 90 percent Muslim but whose people have celebrated a longstanding relationship between their nation and the State of Israel."
"No doubt, Azerbaijan has its imperfections as well," Moore acknowledged. "But I came to specifically assess firsthand the spirit of multiculturalism that undergirds Azeri society, which should be celebrated and which can be a model for many countries in the world."
He indicated this was particularly poignant given Azerbaijan's history as a former Soviet republic.
"It was profound to sit these last few days with Muslim, Jewish and Christian citizens who haven't forgotten the mutual suffering they endured together as devoutly religious under the atheistic, Soviet era," Moore said. "They cherish what they have now knowing what little they had, then. "
"Having witnessed firsthand the devastation wrought by the alternative in 2014 by Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq, I decided I would work with all my might to prevent future extremism by finding good partners, encouraging moderation, identifying best practices and building trust through friendship between many religious communities throughout the world, especially between Muslims, Christians and Jews," Moore wrote.
"The fact is that we have allowed our world to become a place where religion is too easily weaponized," he observed. "Rather than being a blessing to the world that God intended, religion has been used as a tool to sow chaos, division, and worse. Even in our most developed and enlightened societies, we are losing the ability to get along with those different than us."
"For the sake of our children, we must find another way, where the name of God is revered, not defiled by our mistreatment of others who are also made in His image," he concluded.
______________________________________________________________
Fighting intolerance, Ahmadi Muslims have won unlikely allies
SEE: https://religionnews.com/2018/08/07/fighting-intolerance-and-terrorism-ahmadi-muslims-have-won-some-unlikely-allies/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
ALTON, United Kingdom (RNS) — Johnnie Moore, one of President
Trump’s evangelical advisers, stood before the Ahmadi caliph and tens
of thousands of his Muslim followers on Saturday (Aug. 4) and celebrated
the phrase “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is the greatest.”“I grieve at the defilements of God’s name to promote (acts of terrorism and murder),” Moore said in a short speech at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s annual Jalsa Salana convention in Alton. “God truly is great, and he is a God of peace, and you are a symbol of it.”
The Jalsa, billed as the U.K.’s largest Muslim convention, was presided over by Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the caliph and leader of the world’s minority Ahmadi Muslims. The denomination’s members, estimated to number 10 million to 20 million, face often-deadly persecution from hardline clerics who consider them apostates.
Moore, whom Trump recently appointed as a commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, has drawn criticism from many in liberal and Muslim activist circles for his alignment with Trump. But for Ahmadis, an alliance with a political conservative like Moore is nothing unusual. Their strong advocacy of religious freedom and vocal condemnation of religious extremism have gained them several unlikely allies in the West.
“Sometimes the religious freedom space isn’t packaged neatly,” Amjad Mahmood Khan, AMC’s U.S. public affairs director, told Religion News Service. “We believe in religious freedom for all, and not as a partisan or political issue.”
Muslim advocacy groups have long noted that it’s difficult
to move in Western religious freedom circles. Muslim activists and
researchers told Deseret News
in 2016 that, particularly because of perceived ties to extremism,
their contributions in the space were not valued. On top of that, many
Muslim civil rights advocacy groups have shunned conservative
politicians and organizations because of their ties to anti-Muslim
policies. And Muslims themselves feel disconnected from the idea of
religious freedom because of how they say it has been politicized by the
Christian right.
But Ahmadi officials say they are happy to work with any
nongovernmental organizations or politicians who share their goals.
Ahmad told reporters during a news conference after the Jalsa that his
community will join a secular organization working toward good. “When
the purpose is not religious, we can work together for humanitarian
work,” he said.
In 2014, Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., became co-chairs of the 32-member Congressional Ahmadiyya Muslim Caucus
for religious freedom. Before that, King made headlines for chairing a
controversial 2011 hearing about radicalization among U.S. Muslims — a
hearing many Muslims criticized as an Islamophobic witch hunt. But one
prominent U.S. Ahmadi wrote a letter to the editor
in The New York Times at the time: “There should be no reason to
blindly accuse the Muslim-American community of noncooperation. But if
the government thinks that Congressional hearings will improve homeland
security and help expose those exploiting Islam, I assure full
cooperation.”At the AMC’s annual Jalsa in Canada, too, speakers have included conservative former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was branded an Islamophobe by many Muslims and liberals after, among other comments, his attempt to call for limitations on wearing the face-covering niqab shortly before the elections. (Many Ahmadi women worldwide wear the niqab.)
Mirza
Masroor Ahmad, the international leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community, speaks at the group’s 52nd annual Jalsa Salana event in
Alton, Hampshire, England, on Aug. 4, 2018. Photo courtesy of Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community
“It is the Ahmadiyya Community’s defiant rejection of extremism often in the face of abuse, intolerance and persecution that brings me to today’s Jalsa,” she said. “I am here today to extend my hand out to you in friendship, solidarity and partnership in our common cause of countering extremism.”
In an age when many critics accuse moderate Muslim leaders of standing silent in the face of Islamist terrorism, the AMC is quick to send out press statements condemning acts of deadly violence. The denomination’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whom members believe to be the messiah, urged a “jihad of the pen” to defend the faith. Every year, the caliph keynotes a National Peace Symposium the AMC organizes in London for a crowd of 800 dignitaries and civic leaders, where he denounces terrorism as well as the governments that enable and sponsor such discord. He has also corresponded with heads of state and delivered speeches on establishing world peace before Congress and the parliaments of Canada and major European nations.
In the U.K., Ahmadis have become well-known for the “human chain” of solidarity they formed last year on the Westminster bridge after a Muslim man drove his car into a crowd there, killing four in what officials called an act of terrorism. Ahmadis’ anti-extremism campaigns in the Western world are wide-ranging: True Islam clarifies that terrorism has no place in Islam, Muslims for Peace shows that the faith revolves around tolerance and justice, Stop the CrISIS and United Against Extremism work against youth radicalization, and Pathway to Peace identifies the requirements for moving toward a lasting world peace.
Amjad Khan said his experience engaging with the Obama and Trump administrations shows that it’s not always the case that progressives enact policies that help Muslims. Under Obama, the role of the international religious freedom ambassador remained vacant during much of his administration, and Khan said there were long stretches where the administration would ignore AMC’s efforts to engage.
While many leaders were skeptical that Trump would prioritize Muslim religious freedom, Khan said, the president appointed Sam Brownback to the empty ambassador position in a matter of months, and Brownback’s office now holds weekly roundtables with global stakeholders. And last month, not only did Brownback speak at the AMC’s Jalsa in America, he invited representatives from AMC and a Pakistani Ahmadi victim of persecution – Farooq Kahlon, who was shot five times the day after his son’s wedding by anti-Ahmadi extremists in 2012 – to speak at the State Department’s first International Religious Freedom Ministerial in Washington, D.C.
Brownback’s first international trip once in office was to a camp for persecuted Rohingya Muslims. And his first public appearance was his speech at an event hosted in February by the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, where interfaith leaders signed the Washington Declaration that called for respect for U.S. Muslims and affirmed the rights of religious minorities in Muslim-majority nations.
Regarding largely liberal critics who accuse Moore and Brownback of only caring about religious freedom for Christians, Amjad Khan said: “I always expect commissioners to naturally be passionate about issues they’re personally connected to. That’s why you need a diverse group to bring in their own experiences and interests.”
As a USCIRF commissioner, Moore promised Ahmadis that he had a “personal commitment to make sure that you’re not forgotten, because I believe that the answer to the worst of religion in our world is the best of the best of faith.” He pointed to a recent RNS op-ed he co-wrote calling for international pressure to be placed on the Pakistani government to undo its blasphemy laws against Ahmadis.
That personal commitment is partly because of behind-the-scenes advocacy efforts from Ahmadi representatives.
“I would like to see (Vice President Mike) Pence tweeting about Muslim prisoners of conscience instead of only Christian ones,” Amjad Khan said. “But the principle I advocate is that you must meet with anyone and everyone who will listen to you advocate your cause. Our job is not to dictate the political winds.”
But that doesn’t mean cowing into silence or praise when those people miss the mark, he said. “I’ve told Sam Brownback that when it comes to Islam, he needs to educate himself on this issue or that issue.”
And while many Muslim leaders announced that they would refuse to attend Trump’s controversial White House iftar dinner, held this summer during Ramadan, Ahmadi officials say they would have gladly attended had they received an invitation.
“We would never boycott an event,” Khan said. “It’s not in our DNA. It’s critical for us to have a seat at the table and discuss our concerns.”
_____________________________________________________________
'Holocaust of Christians' in the Middle East?
When Stupid Christians Are Misled & Deceived by Alleged "Peaceful" Muslims
Johnnie Moore on his new book, 'Defying ISIS'
NOTE: It's Not Just Isis, But All of Islam;
What Better Way To Separate Jihad Terror From The Rest of Islam, But Through Attempting to Whitewash the Rest of Islam?
"Defying Isis" ???
Johnnie Moore shares his latest book "Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard". To Get Your Copy: http://tinyurl.com/mwutvvv For More Information about Johnnie Moore: www.DefyingISIS.com
www.johnniemoore.org
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