View from the balcony where the discussion took place.
The discussion about ex-Muslims was good but earlier in the evening another discussion took place. The birthday was at a downtown condo. I had a good discussion on the balcony with a lady from my Church. The topic of discussion was the presence of Islam in the West and the Identitarian movement, specifically a YouTube video including Martin Sellner.
He wanted to appear younger than he was so he didn’t put a 2 in front of the 6
On Wednesday I was at a birthday for a friend. It was a really fun time. In addition to praying the rosary at this birthday party, we sang happy birthday in multiple different languages. There was only about a dozen of us but we sang Happy Birthday in English, French, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, and Arabic. Personally, I thought Hungarian sounded the best. I was actually surprised that I understood most of the Polish version.
Above is an interview of Martin Sellner, who is a leading Identitarian in Europe. What is the goal of the Identitarian movement? To save Europe from Islam of course. In this interview we find some disturbing things. It’s all about ethnicity. It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, atheist, neo-pagan, socialist, or capitalist. It’s all about being European and non-Islamic. That’s essentially what it is.
The Book of Psalms in my Russian Bible
Last week I was having coffee with one of my friends who is a member of the Orthodox Church. She told me earlier that she wanted to get together and ask me about the differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Instead, most of our conversation focused around Islamic apologetics. She’s from a Muslim country so this made sense to me. It was ironic because we were in a mall at a coffee shop and there was a Muslim at the next table. He seemed very knowledgeable. He was with a girl and it seemed that he was telling her about Islam. He was quoting sources like the Quran and the Hadith. I wanted to engage him in debate but I didn’t want to interrupt his conversation with this girl.
Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend and the phrase: “I may not agree with what you say but I shall defend to the death your right to say it?” came up. This phrase is often attributed to Voltaire, though there is some evidence that someone else may have come up with it instead. However, it really doesn’t matter who said this stupid phrase, since I’m going to refute it anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxjH5hZYTbQ&t=184s
As an apologist who deals with Islam, I believe that we should be careful about the arguments that we use against them. They should be thought out and well researched. In terms of those blog posts on Surah 5, they actually came after carefully researching the passage through Islamic commentaries and the historical context and even field testing them against Muslims. A good example would be to look at Protestant arguments against Catholicism. Here’s an example:
On the cross, our Lord said: “It is finished”. That speaks about our redemption, does it not? How come in Romans 4:25 St. Paul says: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” which seems to link redemption with the resurrection of our Lord. A contradiction perhaps? Scott Hahn opens up with this dilemma presented to him by his Pastor of the Evangelical Church he was attending many years ago. In the sermon, the Pastor throws out the dilemma but admits that he didn’t know the answer. Over the next several years, Scott Hahn would figure out the answer, give numerous speeches about it, and eventually publish The Fourth Cup which was released this January.
My free Quran form the Local Mosque
When a Christian and a Muslim debate, often the holy books are in the crosshairs. The Christian tries to find errors in the Quran, and the Muslim will do the same thing with the Bible. A good tactic? I don’t think so.
I’ve seen this little Muslim meme trending online lately so it’s time for me to respond to it. It’s actually not hard to respond to in the slightest. The Christian has a few options and I’m going to go through them. Ijaz Ahmad has put this on his website and it’s getting a lot of attention. Unfortunately no one is responding to it properly. This type of argument is exactly what to expect from street dawah and dawah booths in Western countries. We need to be prepared. Before you read any further, think about how you might respond to this.
Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. There is a lot of tension between the Jewish community and the Catholic community these days. This is especially evident amongst Israeli Jews and Polish Catholics. American Rabbi Shmuley Boteach shared a meal with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The account can be read here: