Khazen

Gunfire from Syrian side of border hits former Lebanese security center

  BEIRUT: Gunfire from the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon struck a former General Security facility in the area Monday, security sources told The Daily Star. No causalities were reported. The center is located on the outskirts of the northern border village of Abboudiyeh and was a target of heavy gunfire from machine guns, […]

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No Demonstrations in Pakistan * India When Christian Girls Raped

 

 

Ever since the attack on our embassy in Benghazi, Libya and the murder of four Americans on September 11, the news has been flooded with pictures of mobs burning American flags and effigies of President Obama throughout the Muslim world in protest of a video, which we are told hurts the feelings of the Muslim people.

Days after the "Love the Prophet Day" demonstrations in Pakistan, where the largest, most violent, week-long demonstrations occurred, I read a headline article in Asia News that says, "The wave of anti-Christian violence has not stopped in Pakistan. Abuses continue to be perpetrated in the name of the blasphemy law and acts of sexual violence are carried out against underage girls from religious minorities. . . ." Allah Rakhi is 10 years old. She is from a poor Christian family in Yousafabad, Madina Town, Faisalabad in Pakistan. In late August she went to a store to sell some things. It was there she met Muhammad Nazir. He lured the trusting 10 year old to his house under the pretense that he was interested in buying her things, but the money was at his house. When Allah’s father found her, she was unconscious on the floor, naked and bleeding. A porno movie was playing on the television.  The vicar general of the Diocese of Faisalabad, Father Khalid Rashid Asi, said, "The lack of justice in Pakistan means that the rich and powerful think that they can commit such acts and get away with it." If a Muslim girl had been raped, he went on to say, "It is likely that all the Christian homes in the area would have been torched."

According to another Asia News article, about 11:00 A.M. on September 20, 16-year-old Shumaila Masih was walking through the streets of Faisalabad when the Christian girl encountered three young Muslim men: Iftikhar Hussain, Shahid Munir and Muhammad Imran. They tried to get her to go with them but she refused, so they forced her. She cried for help as they dragged her through the streets, but no one helped her. Once they got her to Hussain’s house, they took turns raping her until her father and cousins found her hours later and rescued her.

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O’Reilly vs. Stewart The Rumble 2012 [REAL DEAL

    Fox News host Bill O’Reilly began Saturday evening’s “Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium” with Jon Stewart by delivering an opening speech that blasted President Barack Obama‘s spending record, liberals who still blame President George W. Bush for America’s troubles, and people like Sandra Fluke who want “more entitlements.” O’Reilly started his speech by […]

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Citing U.S. Fears, Arab Allies Limit Syrian Rebel Aid

  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — For months, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been funneling money and small arms to Syria’s rebels but have refused to provide heavier weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles, that could allow opposition fighters to bring down government aircraft, take out armored vehicles and turn the war’s tide. While they have publicly called for […]

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The election law debate wastes our time

  If there were any doubts as to how futile the debate over a new election law has become, they were dispelled when the parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, declared that he supported the formation of a parliamentary subcommittee to discuss such legislation. That’s because the body will only push the discussion into a labyrinth of […]

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Obama Vs Romney: Who Is The Real Commander In Tweet? [INFOGRAPHIC]

 

 

We’re just a few short weeks away from the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, and suddenly it’s all getting very serious indeed.

On Wednesday (Oct. 3), President Barack Obama debated with Republican nominee Mitt Romney at the University of Denver, trading barbed remarks and facts (or “facts”, as some pundits have suggested of Romney) in a heated contest that could decide the next occupant of the Oval Office. But who won? How did Twitter react? What’s the word from the peanut gallery?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud partnered with Ignite Social Media to produce this infographic, which attempts to answer the question: who is the real Commander in Tweet?

 

 

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Catholic political tradition: endorsements and condemnations

By Joe Tremblay *

As the presidential election heats up, Catholics in America are bound to weigh in and give their two cents worth.

A robust engagement in the political arena by Catholics has always been encouraged by the Church. With that encouragement, however, the Catholic Church makes the distinction between endorsements and denunciations; between officially supporting a political party and publicly condemning them.

The former is forbidden for good reason. But it should be noted that the Church reserves the right to denounce or condemn evil in the political world. To condemn one party or regime does not imply the endorsement of the alternative party or regime.

Historically the Church has condemned many civil rulers, political regimes and ideologies which proved themselves to be contrary to God’s law and the common good. During the twentieth century, for instance, the Catholic Church condemned the Communist governments of Mexico, Spain and the Russian Bolsheviks. In 1937 Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical entitled, “On the Church and the German Reich” (or “Mit Brennender Sorge”). His condemnation of the Third Reich speaks to that ancient pagan error which held the State as supreme:

“Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community – however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things – whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.”

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Cardinal Dolan on the US Election, the Radical Abortion License, Religious Liberty, Marriage, Debt and Solidarity

 

 

NEW YORK, NY (Ctaholic Online) – On the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, one day before he headed for Rome to participate in the historic Synod on the New Evangelization, Cardinal Timothy Dolan authored another outstanding column. It was one in a series he regularly pens for the "Catholic New York". The series is entitled "Lord, to Whom Shall We Go" and the article, entitled "Cherished Saint Brought Christ to World Around Him",

Our readers should be well aware of the leadership of this great Cardinal of the Church and the esteem with which he is held by this author. I write regularly about his courage and the clarity which he has brought to the leadership of the Conference of Bishops in the United States at this critical time in our history. You can click here to read the most recent of numerous articles I have written about the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. I have written many more and plan to continue the practice. He is one great gift to both Church and Nation.

However, though I share the Cardinal’s appreciation for St. Francis, the little poor man of Assisi, I was concerned that the title of the Cardinal’s recent column, dedicated to and written on the Feast of Francis, as well as its placement, might limit its readership. That would be tragic. The instruction and insights this column offers on the exercise of our faithful citizenship is simply too important! The concerns which the Cardinal shares must become the material out of which we approach this election and our own exercise of voting.

I offer below a portion of the Cardinals recent article for your serious and prayerful reflection as November 6, 2012 draws near.

*****
Timothy Cardinal Dolan

"Those Americans who have faith in God, and in His Son, Jesus, and venerate saints such as Francis, also find themselves in the middle of the world, and cherish our freedom to bring the teaching of Jesus, which we hear both in the Good News proclaimed in the Bible and in the life of Francis, to the public square and political process."

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