Saturday, December 02, 2006

Headlines of the day

The Wall Street Journal has two editorials worth reading.

One is St. Peggy on the need for "grace" in politics. Sigh, if I could only write as well as she does.

The second is about PapiRatz:

"Very simply, he is talking about and defending what we call "the West"--both the place and the classically liberal idea, which radical Islam wants to blow up. Just as John Paul championed the jailed or hiding dissidents behind the Iron Curtain, Benedict is seeking similar protections for persecuted Christian minorities--indeed all minorities--across the Islamic world. Starting in Turkey."

Time Magazine has the facts about Christians in Turkey, but a tin ear for the context found in Henninger's editorial. For example, they write: "...since Turkey's independence in 1923, his Greek Orthodox community has dwindled from around 150,000 to 1,500 people.."

"Dwindled"? and of course, if you start at 1895, the number would be 500 000...LINK. Context, anyone?

GETRELIGION BLOG points out a case where Turkey is prosecuting two Turkish Christians who converted from Islam, accused of "insulting Turkishness", thereby being a troubling case about the lack of both freedom of religion and freedom of speech in that country.

In a related manner, THIS OKIE wrote an editorial condemning Islamofascism, and was banned from his mosque. The mosque claims he was not banned for the editorial, but because when people attacked him, it caused a ruckus in the mosque. No mention if the attackers were banned. Freeper link has the original editorial.

And, of course, the "invisible man" in the discussion of Bendict's concern about freedom for Christians to practice their religion in Muslim lands are the several million overseas foreign workers (OFW). 80% of the one million Filipinos OFW in Saudi are Christian, as are many from India and Africa. LINK. Yet there are NO churches in Saudi Arabia...

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