By Jan Markell
October 16, 2012 Out-dated? – forget it – more pertinent now than ever!
www.olivetreeviews.org
When a college forum talks about being pro-peace and pro-Jesus, why do I become suspicious? When the event is sponsored by a Department of Reconciliation Studies, why do I become uncomfortable? The answer is, in part, that I graduated from this once rock-solid school in prehistoric days when Christian colleges were a safe bet.
Bethel University in St. Paul, Mn. is like most Christian schools today. They are trying to be cutting edge and they are trying to tell the truth from their perspective. But when the forum is about leaving the, “traditional pro-Israel stand,” and learning to embrace the tormented Palestinians instead, you will begin to understand the dilemma. The attempt at “reconciliation” is disingenuous. The whole truth won’t be told.
And Bethel University’s “Hope for the Holy Land” offered no hope and didn’t tell the truth.

The speakers were on tour promoting Christian engagement in Palestine and Israel. They included Lynne Hybels from Willow Creek Church in Illinois, Sami Awad from the Holy Land Trust, and Mae Elise Cannon from World Vision.
I’ll say it right up front: All participants represent outfits that are openly Replacement Theology: The church is the new Israel. Do you suppose their proper and Biblical perspective of Israel is going to be diminished and thus right from the start, the debate won’t be balanced? If you said ‘yes,’ you would be dead-on.
I did not know that at the same time my friend and fellow journalist Jim Fletcher was attending “Catalyst East”
in Atlanta, one of the greatest gatherings of young evangelicals in America. And, they are largely pro-Palestinian. I shudder as I compare notes with Fletcher because the conclusion is obvious: Israel’s days of enjoying unquestionable support from the evangelical community is eroding. He heard a few of the same voices as I did.
Fletcher writes, “Lynne Hybels presented no context with regard to physical conflicts between Israel and her Arab neighbors. For example, in her admittedly brief overview of the region, war seemed to spring up out of nowhere. No mention of Arab invasions of Israel in 1948 or 1973, or the cataclysmic decisions of Egypt’s Nasser in 1967, which led to Israel administering the disputed territories of Judea/Samaria, or as the world largely knows it, the West Bank.”
He continues, “For example, Hybels and others have begun framing the issue in terms of ‘pro peace, pro Israel, pro Palestinian, and pro Jesus.’ Other speakers such as Glenn Stassen, David Gushee, Brian McLaren, and Tony Campolo, savage Christian Zionists in the most odious terms. Hybels presents a softer, gentler side of Palestinian advocacy.”
I made the same conclusion about Lynne Hybels. If you have to listen to Palestinian propaganda, it is nice to hear it in a soft-spoken voice. The same can be said for Christian Arab Sami Awad. Both are people you would like to get to know better. Both are sincere Christians who just happen to believe what Palestinian Christian leaders have said more than they choose to believe many verses in the Bible as it concerns God’s land and people. Lynne and Sami aren’t being disingenuous. They have different interpretations of the Bible, theology, and the facts on the ground.
The problem is they are speaking into the minds of young people who may not be able to properly process the information. These same young people will soon become pastors and teachers to the church at large and the untruths will be further implemented in the church.
How can you genuinely be pro-peace if there is no truthful talk about the following:
* The wall of separation between Israel and the Palestinian territories that saves tens of thousands of Israeli lives from Palestinian Islamic terrorists is called the “apartheid wall.” The wall is compared to a bully to the Palestinian people when it is saving Israeli lives. Why not suggest that all other nations can have barriers to protect their people except Israel?
* There is no reference to the victims of Palestinian terror such as the Fogel family, slaughtered like pigs in March of 2011, or the dozens of victims of other terror activities that have left Israelis maimed or killed.
* The devious “two-state solution,” that is no solution, is heralded even though it boots Israel off of their God-given land and it gives legitimacy to terrorists. The same could be said about all references to “land-for-peace” efforts that are praised, yet the Palestinian leaders reject these efforts and return to terror.
* The plight of Christians in the region is ignored or underplayed. Tens of thousands of Christians are running for their lives and that includes a decimation of Palestinian Christians who once made up 20% of the Palestinian population. That number is now down to 1%. Israel has not driven them out. Fellow Palestinian terrorists as well as Fatah and Hamas leaders have done it. Why no reference?
At the “Hope for the Holy Land” forum, no Jewish history was cited, no Scriptures were quoted, and no pro-Israel position was allowed into the forum and was discouraged in the Q & A.
At the close, the president of Bethel University, Jay Barnes, closed with his pro-Palestinian position while almost denouncing the pro-Israel view under which he had grown up.
Clearly, the prophesied abandonment of Israel is hastening. If the Lord tarries, when these young leaders mature, they will form a legion of people who will abandon the traditional pro-Israel stand found within evangelicalism for 65 years. This trend is in keeping with the “new way of doing church.” Younger people continue to break tradition but contemporary ways are often not sound. The call of the “social justice” gurus are getting stronger and the Palestinian issues fall into that.
Jim Fletcher reached the same conclusion at his “Catalyst East” event. He says, “Everything I saw at Catalyst confirmed this drift. In dozens of random conversations, I noted that ‘Millennials’ — the 20-somethings who are quickly dominating the evangelical scene — expressed solidarity with the Palestinians and annoyance with Israel. This is a seismic shift in the American church and a serious threat to Israel’s one traditional area of support.”
He concludes, “No one is denying that there are plenty of sincere, well-meaning people in the peacemaker movement. The problem is, they are being schooled by the Palestinians themselves. The so-called Palestinian narrative, coming in via people like Sami Awad, isn’t different from the agenda of former PLO chief Yasser Arafat, in any real sense. The Palestinians then wanted to eliminate Israel any way possible. Today’s ‘two-state solution,’ ‘one-state solution,’ etc., is simply window-dressing for the goal of eliminating the Jewish state.”
It is very true that Christians do need to care about the souls of everyone in the Middle East. While these young people are “pro-peace,” God is “pro-salvation.” God cares for the oppressed Palestinians.
It’s just that Israel is not oppressing them nor tormenting them. Their own brothers are. Let’s at least tell this truth.
— www.olivetreeviews.org

(Ghazanavi to Amir Timur)
The world famous historian, Will Durant has written in his Story of Civilization that “the Mohammedan conquest of India was probably the bloodiest story in history”.
India before the advent of Islamic imperialism was not exactly a zone of peace. There were plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes. But in all their wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honoured conventions sanctioned by the Sastras. The Brahmins and the Bhikshus were never molested. The cows were never killed. The temples were never touched. The chastity of women was never violated. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civil population was never plundered. War booty was an unknown item in the calculations of conquerors. The martial classes who clashed, mostly in open spaces, had a code of honor. Sacrifice of honor for victory or material gain was deemed as worse than death.
Islamic imperialism came with a different code—the Sunnah of the Prophet. It required its warriors to fall upon the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield. It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the Brahmins, and the Bhikshus invited their special attention in mass murders of non-combatants. The temples and monasteries were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. The magnitude of the booty looted even from the bodies of the dead, was a measure of the success of a military mission. And they did all this as mujahids (holy warriors) and ghazls (kafir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last Prophet.
Hindus found it very hard to understand the psychology of this new invader. For the first time in their history, Hindus were witnessing a scene which was described by Kanhadade Prabandha (1456 AD) in the following words:
“The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people’s wealth, took Brahmins and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious Turks.”
That was written in remembrance of Alauddin Khalji’s invasion of Gujarat in the year l298 AD. But the gruesome game had started three centuries earlier when Mahmud Ghaznavi had vowed to invade India every year in order to destroy idolatry, kill the kafirs, capture prisoners of war, and plunder vast wealth for which India was well-known.

MAHMUD AND MASOOD GHAZNAVI

In 1000 AD Mahmud defeated Raja Jaipal, a scion of the Hindu Shahiya dynasty of Kabul. This dynasty had been for long the doorkeeper of India in the Northwest. Mahmud collected 250,000 dinars as indemnity. That perhaps was normal business of an empire builder. But in 1004 AD he stormed Bhatiya and plundered the place. He stayed there for some time to convert the Hindus to Islam with the help of mullahs he had brought with him.
In 1008 AD he captured Nagarkot (Kangra). The loot amounted to 70,000,000 dirhams in coins and 700,400 mans of gold and silver, besides plenty of precious stones and embroidered cloths. In 1011 AD he plundered Thanesar which was undefended, destroyed many temples, and broke a large number of idols. The chief idol, that of Chakraswamin, was taken to Ghazni and thrown into the public square for defilement under the feet of the faithful. According to Tarikh-i-Yamini of Utbi, Mahmud’s secretary,
“The blood of the infidels flowed so copiously [at Thanesar] that the stream was discolored, notwithstanding its purity, and people were unable to drink it. The Sultan returned with plunder which is impossible to count. Praise he to Allah for the honor he bestows on Islam and Muslims.”
In 1013 AD Mahmud advanced against Nandana where the Shahiya king, Anandapal, had established his new capital. The Hindus fought very hard but lost. Again, the temples were destroyed, and innocent citizens slaughtered. Utbi provides an account of the plunder and the prisoners of war:
“The Sultan returned in the rear of immense booty, and slaves were so plentiful that they became very cheap and men of respectability in their native land were degraded by becoming slaves of common shopkeepers. But this is the goodness of Allah, who bestows honor on his own religion and degrades infidelity.”
The road was now clear for an assault on the heartland of Hindustan. In December 1018 AD Mahmud crossed the Yamuna, collected 1,000,000 dirhams from Baran (Bulandshahar), and marched to Mahaban in Mathura district. Utbi records:
“The infidels…deserted the fort and tried to cross the foaming river…but many of them were slain, taken or drowned… Nearly fifty thousand men were killed.”
Mathura was the next victim. Mahmud seized five gold idols weighing 89,300 missals and 200 silver idols. According to Utbi, “The Sultan gave orders that all the temples should be burnt with naptha and fire, and levelled with the ground.” The pillage of the city continued for 20 days. Mahmud now turned towards Kanauj which had been the seat of several Hindu dynasties. Utbi continues: “In Kanauj there were nearly ten thousand temples… Many of the inhabitants of the place fled in consequence of witnessing the fate of their deaf and dumb idols. Those who did not fly were put to death. The Sultan gave his soldiers leave to plunder and take prisoners.”
The Brahmins of Munj, which was attacked next, fought to the last man after throwing their wives and children into fire. The fate of Asi was sealed when its ruler took fright and fled. According to Utbi, “…. the Sultan ordered that his five forts should be demolished from their foundations, the inhabitants buried in their ruins, and the soldiers of the garrison plundered, slain and captured”.
Shrawa, the next important place to be invaded, met the same fate. Utbi concludes:
“The Muslims paid no regard to the booty till they had satiated themselves with the slaughter of the infidels and worshipers of sun and fire. The friends of Allah searched the bodies of the slain for three days in order to obtain booty…The booty amounted in gold and silver, rubies and pearls nearly to three hundred thousand dirhams, and the number of prisoners may be conceived from the fact that each was sold for two to ten dirhams. These were afterwards taken to Ghazni and merchants came from distant cities to purchase them, so that the countries of Mawaraun-Nahr, Iraq and Khurasan were filled with them, and the fair and the dark, the rich and the poor, were commingled in one common slavery.”
Mahmud’s sack of Somnath is too well-known to be retold here. What needs emphasizing is that the fragments of the famous Sivalinga were carried to Ghazni. Some of them were turned into steps of the Jama Masjid in that city. The rest were sent to Mecca, Medina, and Baghdad to be desecrated in the same manner.
Mahmud’s son Masud tried to follow in the footsteps of his father. In 1037 AD he succeeded in sacking the fort of Hansi which was defended very bravely by the Hindus. The Tarikh-us-Subuktigin records: “The Brahmins and other high ranking men were slain, and their women and children were carried away captive, and all the treasure which was found was distributed among the army.”
Masud could not repeat the performance due to his preoccupations elsewhere.

MUHAMMAD GHORI AND HIS LEUTENANTS

Invasion of India by Islamic imperialism was renewed by Muhmmad Ghori in the last quarter of the 12th century. After Prithiviraj Chauhan had been defeated in 1192 AD, Ghori took Ajmer by assault.
According the Taj-ul-Ma’sir of Hasan Nizami, “While the Sultan remained at Ajmer, he destroyed the pillars and foundations of the idol temples and built in their stead mosques and colleges and precepts of Islam, and the customs of the law were divulged and established.”
Next year he defeated Jayachandra of Kanauj. A general massacre, rapine, and pillage followed. The Gahadvad treasuries at Asni and Varanasi were plundered. Hasan Nizami rejoices that “in Benares which is the centre of the country of Hind, they destroyed one thousand temples and raised mosques on their foundations”.
According to Kamil-ut-Tawarikh of Ibn Asir, “The slaughter of Hindus (at Varanasi) was immense; none were spared except women and children, and the carnage of men went on until the earth was weary.”
The women and children were spared so that they could be enslaved and sold all over the Islamic world. It may be added that the Buddhist complex at Sarnath was sacked at this time, and the Bhikshus were slaughtered.
Ghori’s lieutenant Qutbuddin Aibak was also busy meanwhile. Hasan Nizami writes that after the suppression of a Hindu revolt at Kol (modern day Aligarh) in 1193 AD, Aibak raised “three bastions as high as heaven with their heads, and their carcases became food for beasts of prey. The tract was freed from idols and idol worship and the foundations of infidelism were destroyed.”
In 1194 AD Aibak destroyed 27 Hindu temples at Delhi and built the Quwwat-ul-lslam mosque with their debris. According to Nizami, Aibak “adorned it with the stones and gold obtained from the temples which had been demolished by elephants”.
In 1195 AD the Mher tribe of Ajmer rose in revolt, and the Chaulukyas of Gujarat came to their assistance. Aibak had to invite reinforcements from Ghazni before he could meet the challenge. In 1196 AD he advanced against Anahilwar Patan, the capital of Gujarat. Nizami writes that after Raja Karan was defeated and forced to flee, “fifty thousand infidels were dispatched to hell by the sword” and “more than twenty thousand slaves, and cattle beyond all calculation fell into the hands of the victors”.
The city was sacked, its temples demolished, and its palaces plundered. On his return to Ajmer, Aibak destroyed the Sanskrit College of Visaladeva, and laid the foundations of a mosque which came to be known as ‘Adhai Din ka Jhompada’.
Conquest of Kalinjar in 1202 AD was Aibak’s crowning achievement. Nizami concludes: “The temples were converted into mosques… Fifty thousand men came under the collar of slavery and the plain became black as pitch with Hindus.”
A free-lance adventurer, Muhammad Bakhtyar Khalji, was moving further east. In 1200 AD he sacked the undefended university town of Odantpuri in Bihar and massacred the Buddhist monks in the monasteries. In 1202 AD he took Nadiya by surprise. Badauni records in his Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh that “property and booty beyond computation fell into the hands of the Muslims and Muhammad Bakhtyar having destroyed the places of worship and idol temples of the infidels founded mosques and Khanqahs”.

THE SLAVE (MAMLUK) SULTANS

Shamsuddin Iltutmish who succeeded Aibak at Delhi invaded Malwa in 1234 AD. He destroyed an ancient temple at Vidisha. Badauni reports in his ‘Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh’:
“Having destroyed the idol temple of Ujjain which had been built six hundred years previously, and was called Mahakal, he levelled it to its foundations, and threw down the image of Rai Vikramajit from whom the Hindus reckon their era, and brought certain images of cast molten brass and placed them on the ground in front of the doors of mosques of old Delhi, and ordered the people of trample them under foot.”
Muslim power in India suffered a serious setback after Iltutmish. Balkan had to battle against a revival of Hindu power. The Katehar Rajputs of what came to be known as Rohilkhand in later history, had so far refused to submit to Islamic imperialism. Balkan led an expedition across the Ganges in 1254 AD. According to Badauni,
“In two days after leaving Delhi, he arrived in the midst of the territory of Katihar and put to death every male, even those of eight years of age, and bound the women.”
But in spite of such wanton cruelty, Muslim power continued to decline till the Khaljis revived it after 1290 AD.

THE KHALJIS

Jalaluddin Khalji led an expedition to Ranthambhor in 1291 AD. On the way he destroyed Hindu temples at Chain. The broken idols were sent to Delhi to be spread before the gates of the Jama Masjid. His nephew Alauddin led an expedition to Vidisha in 1292 AD. According to Badauni in Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, Alauddin “brought much booty to the Sultan and the idol which was the object of worship of the Hindus, he caused to be cast in front of the Badaun gate to be trampled upon by the people. The services of Alauddin were highly appreciated, the jagir of Oudh (or Avadh – Central U.P.) also was added to his other estates.”
Alauddin became Sultan in 1296 AD after murdering his uncle and father-in-law, Jalaluddin. In 1298 AD he equipped an expedition to Gujarat under his generals Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan. The invaders plundered the ports of Surat and Cambay. The temple of Somnath, which had been rebuilt by the Hindus, was plundered and the idol taken to Delhi for being trodden upon by the Muslims. The whole region was subjected to fire and sword, and Hindus were slaughtered en masse. Kampala Devi, the queen of Gujarat, was captured along with the royal treasury, brought to Delhi and forced into Alauddin’s harem. The doings of the Malik Naib during his expedition to South India in 1310-1311 AD have already mentioned in earlier parts.

THE TUGHLAQS

Muslim power again suffered a setback after the death of Alauddin Khalji in 1316 AD. But it was soon revived by the Tughlaqs. By now most of the famous temples over the length and breadth of the Islamic occupation in India had been demolished, except in Orissa and Rajasthan which had retained their independence. By now most of the rich treasuries had been plundered and shared between the Islamic state and its swordsmen. Firuz Shah Tughlaq led an expedition to Orissa in 1360 AD. He destroyed the temple of Jagannath at Puri, and desecrated many other Hindu shrines. According to ‘Sirat-i-Firoz Shahi’ which he himself wrote or dictated,
“Allah who is the only true God and has no other emanation, endowed the king of Islam with the strength to destroy this ancient shrine on the eastern sea-coast and to plunge it into the sea, and after its destruction he ordered the image of Jagannath to be perforated, and disgraced it by casting it down on the ground. They dug out other idols which were worshipped by the polytheists in the kingdom of Jajnagar and overthrew them as they did the image of Jagannath, for being laid in front of the mosques along the path of the Sunnis and the way of the ‘musallis’ (Muslim congregation for namaz) and stretched them in front of the portals of every mosque, so that the body and sides of the images might be trampled at the time of ascent and descent, entrance and exit, by the shoes on the feet of the Muslims.”
After the sack of the temples in Orissa, Firoz Shah Tughlaq attacked an island on the sea-coast where “nearly 100,000 men of Jajnagar had taken refuge with their women, children, kinsmen and relations”. The swordsmen of Islam turned “the island into a basin of blood by the massacre of the unbelievers”.
A worse fate overtook the Hindu women. Sirat-i-Firuz Shahs records: “Women with babies and pregnant ladies were haltered, manacled, fettered and enchained, and pressed as slaves into service in the house of every soldier.”
Still more horrible scenes were enacted by Firuz Shah Tughlaq at Nagarkot (Kangra) where he sacked the shrine of Jvalamukhi. Firishta records that the Sultan “broke the idols of Jvalamukhi, mixed their fragments with the flesh of cows and hung them in nose bags round the necks of Brahmins. He sent the principal idol as trophy to Medina.”

THE PROVINCIAL MUSLIM SATRAPS

In 1931 AD the Muslims of Gujarat complained to Nasiruddin Muhammad, the Tughlaq Sultan of Delhi, that the local governor, Kurhat-ul-Mulk, was practising tolerance towards the Hindus. The Sultan immediately appointed Muzzaffar Khan as the new Governor. He became independent after the death of the Delhi Sultan and assumed the title of Muzzaffar Shah in 1392 AD. Next year he led an expidition to Somnath and sacked the temple which the Hindus had built once again. He killed many Hindus to chastise them for this “impudence,” and raised a mosque on the site of the ancient temple. The Hindus, however, restarted restoring the temple soon after. In 1401 AD Muzaffar came back with a huge army. He again killed many Hindus, demolished the temple once more, and erected another mosque.
Muzaffar was succeeded by his grandson, Ahmad Shah, in 1411 AD. Three years later Ahmad appointed a special darogah to destroy all temples throughout Gujarat. In 1415 AD Ahmad invaded Sidhpur where he destroyed the images in Rudramahalaya, and converted the grand temple into a mosque. Sidhpur was renamed Sayyadpur.
Mahmud Begrha who became the Sultan of Gujarat in 1458 AD was the worst fanatic of this dynasty. One of his vassals was the Mandalika of Junagadh who had never withheld the regular tribute. Yet in 1469 AD Mahmud invaded Junagadh. In reply to the Mandalika’s protests, Mahmud said that he was not interested in money as much as in the spread of Islam. The Mandalika was forcibly converted to Islam and Junagadh was renamed Mustafabad. In 1472 AD Mahmud attacked Dwarka, destroyed the local temples, and plundered the city. Raja Jaya Singh, the ruler of Champaner, and his minister were murdered by Mahmud in cold blood for refusing to embrace Islam after they had been defeated and their country pillaged and plundered. Champaner was renamed Mahmudabad.
Mahmud Khalji of Malwa (1436-69 AD) also destroyed Hindu temples and built mosques on their sites. He heaped many more insults on the Hindus. Ilyas Shah of Bengal (1339-1379 AD) invaded Nepal and destroyed the temple of Svayambhunath at Kathmandu. He also invaded Orissa, demolished many temples, and plundered many places. The Bahmani sultans of Gulbarga and Bidar considered it meritorious to kill a hundred thousand Hindu men, women, and children every year. They demolished and desecrated temples all over South India.

AMlR TIMUR

The climax came during the invasion of Timur in 1399 AD. He starts by quoting the Quran in his Tuzk-i-Timuri: “O Prophet, make war upon the infidels and unbelievers, and treat them severely.”
He continues: “My great object in invading Hindustan had been to wage a religious war against the infidel Hindus…[so that] the army of Islam might gain something by plundering the wealth and valuables of the Hindus.” To start with he stormed the fort of Kator on the border of Kashmir. He ordered his soldiers “to kill all the men, to make prisoners of women and children, and to plunder and lay waste all their property”. Next, he “directed towers to be built on the mountain of the skulls of those obstinate unbelievers”. Soon after, he laid siege to Bhatnir defended by Rajputs. They surrendered after some fight, and were pardoned. But Islam did not bind Timur to keep his word given to the “unbelievers”. His Tuzk-i-Timuri records:
“In a short space of time all the people in the fort were put to the sword, and in the course of one hour the heads of 10,000 infidels were cut off. The sword of Islam was washed in the blood of the infidels, and all the goods and effects, the treasure and the grain which for many a long year had been stored in the fort became the spoil of my soldiers. They set fire to the houses and reduced them to ashes, and they razed the buildings and the fort to the ground.”
At Sarsuti, the next city to be sacked, “all these infidel Hindus were slain, their wives and children were made prisoners and their property and goods became the spoil of the victors”. Timur was now moving through (modern day) Haryana, the land of the Jats. He directed his soldiers to “plunder and destroy and kill every one whom they met”. And so the soldiers “plundered every village, killed the men, and carried a number of Hindu prisoners, both male and female”.
Loni which was captured before he arrived at Delhi was predominantly a Hindu town. But some Muslim inhabitants were also taken prisoners. Timur ordered that “the Musulman prisoners should be separated and saved, but the infidels should all be dispatched to hell with the proselytizing sword”.
By now Timur had captured 100,000 Hindus. As he prepared for battle against the Tughlaq army after crossing the Yamuna, his Amirs advised him “that on the great day of battle these 100,000 prisoners could not be left with the baggage, and that it would be entirely opposed to the rules of war to set these idolators and enemies of Islam at liberty”. Therefore, “no other course remained but that of making them all food for the sword”.
Tuzk-i-Timuri continues:
“I proclaimed throughout the camp that every man who had infidel prisoners should put them to death, and whoever neglected to do so should himself be executed and his property given to the informer. When this order became known to the ghazis of Islam, they drew their swords and put their prisoners to death. One hundred thousand infidels, impious idolators, were on that day slain. Maulana Nasiruddin Umar, a counselor and man of learning, who, in all his life, had never killed a sparrow, now, in execution of my order, slew with his sword fifteen idolatrous Hindus, who were his captives.”
The Tughlaq army was defeated in the battle that ensued next day. Timur entered Delhi and learnt that a “great number of Hindus with their wives and children, and goods and valuables, had come into the city from all the country round”.
He directed his soldiers to seize these Hindus and their property. Tuzk-i-Timuri concludes:
“Many of them (Hindus) drew their swords and resisted…The flames of strife were thus lighted and spread through the whole city from Jahanpanah and Siri to Old Delhi, burning up all it reached. The Hindus set fire to their houses with their own hands, burned their wives and children in them and rushed into the fight and were killed…On that day, Thursday, and all the night of Friday, nearly 15,000 Turks were engaged in slaying, plundering and destroying. When morning broke on Friday, all my army …went off to the city and thought of nothing but killing, plundering and making prisoners….The following day, Saturday the 17th, all passed in the same way, and the spoil was so great.that each man secured from fifty to a hundred prisoners, men, women, and children. There was no man who took less than twenty. The other booty was immense in rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls, and other gems and jewels; ashrafis, tankas of gold and silver of the celebrated Alai coinage: vessels of gold and silver; and brocades and silks of great value. Gold and silver ornaments of Hindu women were obtained in such quantities as to exceed all account. Excepting the quarter of the Saiyids, the Ulama and the other Musulmans, the whole city was sacked.”
Contributed by Rajiv Varma

— www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/moghal_atro.html

The Evolution of ISIS

by, Suhaib Anjarini | Al Monitor https://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/the-evolution-of-isis/
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has succeeded in imposing itself as a key player in the complex Syrian equation in a relatively short time, which some consider a record time. That would be the case had ISIS been a new organization, but in fact the only thing new about it is its name. One cannot understand how ISIS has surpassed the other armed organizations in Syria that preceded it without understanding that ISIS, under a different name, is in fact older than the other groups and older than the Syrian crisis itself.
The Roots of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham:
The roots of ISIS go back to Oct. 15, 2006, when what is known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was established. That groups was formed by uniting several groups, most notably al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Mujahedeen Shura Council in Iraq, and Jund al-Sahhaba [Soldiers of the Prophet’s Companions].
ISI took Baquba, Iraq, as its capital and swore allegiance to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as the group’s emir. Baghdadi’s real name is Hamed Dawood Mohammed Khalil al-Zawi; he was born in 1959. He used to work in the Iraqi security corps, then left after he embraced Salafist ideology in 1985. He was one of the most prominent promoters of Salafist ideology. He was made head of Jaish al-Taefa al-Mansoura then swore allegiance to al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which later formed, with other groups, the Mujahedeen Shura Council in Iraq.
After Zarqawi was killed, Baghdadi was appointed as that council’s emir under the name of Abu Abdullah al-Rashed al-Baghdadi. He was then made head of ISI. In 2010, the ISI’s ministry of Sharia matters announced that Baghdadi had been killed. Afterward, the Mujahedeen Shura Council swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as ISI’s emir.
ISI Spreads to Syria:
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi played a key role in establishing Jabhat al-Nusra. But he considered Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Nusra’s leader, to be his subordinate with a duty to obey him. So Baghdadi announced the dissolution of Jabhat al-Nusra and the integration of its members into ISI, with the new organization being called the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham.
Golani refused the order, but ISIS appeared on the scene with strength anyway. ISIS quickly announced its areas of operations publicly and took control of wide areas without facing much resistance, benefitting from the Jabhat al-Nusra fighters who defected to ISIS.
Some estimates suggest that about 65% of Jabhat al-Nusra elements quickly declared their allegiance to ISIS. Most of those were non-Syrian jihadists. Entire brigades joined ISIS, among them was the Mujahedeen Shura Council led by Abu al-Atheer, whom ISIS appointed emir of Aleppo, and Jaish al-Muhajireen and al-Ansar, led by Omar al-Chechani.
Those defections allowed ISIS to take Jabhat al-Nusra’s place in controlling several regions and posts, most notably in Raqqa, parts of the Aleppo countryside, and parts of Aleppo city. Jabhat al-Nusra’s latest withdrawal was from its headquarters at the Children’s Hospital toward the old transportation building in Aleppo. ISIS also seized the headquarters of other groups in Manbaj, al-Bab and Azaz. Jabhat al-Nusra’s small posts were replaced by a large ISIS headquarters.
It should be noted that until now, ISIS has not engaged in a physical confrontation with the Syrian army, but rather fought battles with the “opposition” armed factions. “Jihadist” sources attribute that to “ISIS being at the stage of establishing and strengthening itself so that the jihad against the regime happens on solid foundations.” ISIS opened the door for new members without checking the quality of the new members. ISIS started paying $200 a month for each fighter, and thousands of men in ISIS’s area of control joined the group.
The Dispute Between Golani and Baghdadi:
A “jihadist” source told As-Safir that the reasons behind the dispute between the two men are “purely intellectual,” whereby “Baghdadi’s approach greatly differs from that of Golani’s. Baghdadi believes in the necessity of declaring the emirate, or Islamic state, immediately and declaring its emir as its leader who alone [makes decisions], and for the mujahedeen to swear allegiance to that Islamic state in the territories [it controls], be they Syrian or non-Syrian, and by not recognizing the Sharia committee judges who come from other Islamic factions. There should be no law but ISIS’s law. Also, all Islamic factions should swear allegiance to the ISIS emir or be considered outside of God’s authority. Military cooperation happens only with the battalions that declare exclusive allegiance [to ISIS]. And ISIS preachers (mosque preachers) have the right to replace the local preachers in all mosques. Moreover, all the spoils and financial resources belong to the ISIS’s treasury. The other factions, whether or not they are Islamic, have no right to that money.”
But another “jihadist” source told As-Safir, “The difference in approach is nothing more than an indirect reason. Golani and Baghdadi were in agreement on the strategies followed by Jabhat al-Nusra. Even though Baghdadi was not in full agreement with [those strategies], he agreed to temporarily adopt them because Golani held that [those strategies] would be more acceptable to the Syrian people.”
The source added, “The main cause behind the disagreement is an old personal dispute between Golani and Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who was identified as the ISIS spokesman. Then there was news that Baghdadi appointed him emir for the Syrian branch of ISIS.”
On that, the source points to a number of statements made by Adnani where he “described Jabhat al-Nusra as defectors from ISIS. And he accused Golani and his group of being disobeyers who betrayed their pledge of allegiance to Baghdadi. On another occasion, [Adnani] asserted that all the reasons for a fight between Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS are present.”
ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda:Loyalty to al-Qaeda may be the common denominator between ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra. ISIS has been under al-Qaeda’s banner since ISI was founded and inspired by the approach of Zarqawi, and from the jihadist doctrine stipulating “the loyalty of the branch is from the loyalty of the main [organization].” Therefore, ISIS’s loyalty is to al-Qaeda as long as [ISIS’s] emir Baghdadi “didn’t invalidate the allegiance” in an open manner. It should be noted that Baghdadi had refused to implement the decision of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri to dissolve ISIS while maintaining Jabhat al-Nusra and ISI intact.
On the other hand, Jabhat al-Nusra pledged allegiance to Zawahri in response to Baghdadi’s announcement about dissolving Jabhat al-Nusra. Golani denounced that decision the next day and declared that his “allegiance is only to al-Qaeda’s emir Ayman al-Zawahri as the supreme commander,” in a move that apparently was intended to use Zawahri in Jabhat al-Nusra’s dispute with Baghdadi.
https://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/the-evolution-of-isis/

Obama’s Quiet Change To The Definition Of ‘Spouse’ Is Going To Have Far-Reaching Consequences
8:43 PM 02/24/2015

Patrick Howley is an investigative reporter for The Daily Caller.
The Obama administration re-defined the word “spouse” Tuesday to include gay couples.
The Department of Labor quietly issued a new 52-page regulation, to be published in the Federal Register Wednesday, updating the term “spouse” to include gay couples so that gays now get job-protected leave from work to care for their gay partner or partner’s children or parents under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
The new definition applies to all gay couples who were legally married in states where gay marriage is legal, regardless of whether or not they now live in states where gay marriage is not legal. The IRS also adopted this “place of celebration” definition of residency after the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down at the Supreme Court.
The regulation is rife with progressive editorializing:
“The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division [WHD] revises the regulation defining ‘spouse’ under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993,” the regulation states. “Because of the Supreme Court’s holding in Windsor that section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional, the Department is no longer prohibited from recognizing same-sex marriages as a basis for FMLA spousal leave.”
“…the Department is aware that the language surrounding marriage is evolving and that not all married individuals choose to use the traditional terms of husband or wife when referring to their spouse.”
“The Department intended the proposed definition to cover all spouses in legally valid marriages as defined in the regulation regardless of whether they use the terms husband or wife. The Department adopts the definition of spouse as proposed.”
“Legal recognition of same-sex marriage has expanded rapidly and the Department anticipates that the number of States and countries recognizing same-sex marriage will continue to grow.”
Follow Patrick on Twitter

Kerby Anderson has a very specific article on homosexuality, other behavior, and the death of nations:http://www.leaderu.com/common/nationsdie.html

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association worked with Wheaton College to open the Billy Graham Center in 1980. Graham wanted it to be a “world hub of inspiration, research, preaching and training” for the church’s mission of evangelism. If Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) has its way, this hub will also be a platform to undermine Christian support for Israel. The organization’s anti-Israel advocacy is so strong that one of its founders and current advisory board member, Reverend Donald Wagner, is a featured speaker at American Muslims for Palestine’s (AMP) annual conference later this month. The AMP’s list of speakers includes at least 13 Islamists, most of whom are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and have defended Hamas and acts of terrorism.
View Article
http://olivetreeviews.org/component/k2/item/7587-israel-haters-invade-wheaton-college

Scripture: Romans 10:9
“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” NLT
You may have heard the time management expression, “If it wasn’t for the last minute nothing would ever get done!” Some embrace this philosophy as a way of life.
We have all heard from time to time of famous people who have gone through a death bed Christian conversion in the last few days, hours and minutes of life. It is said that Peter Jennings from ABC News fame had such an experience before succumbing to lung cancer. Stories about John Wayne seem to circulate now and again.
Nearly 400 years ago the death of William Shakespeare seems to have echoed of a similar death bed conversion. William led a documented life that would seem in no way to qualify him for a mansion in heaven.
Yet, throughout Shakespeare’s life we can see the Gospel sprinkled in —- starting with his early baptism. His books and writings constantly make reference to the Bible and Book of Common Prayer. He has referenced no less than 42 books of the Bible in his writings. William quoted from Matthew at least 150 times and from the Book of Psalms a minimum of 130 times.
Shortly before his 52nd birthday he took the time to write an inscription for his own tombstone —- It reads:
“Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.”
Clearly there are some who would make the case that before he died the famous playwright William Shakespeare had given his life to Christ. As would some for Jennings, Wayne and others. Only Christ knows for sure —- To be, or not to be: that is the question:
If you have lived a life sprinkled with the Gospel but have not given your life to Christ don’t wait for the last minute —- now would be an excellent time! Follow after me: Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins – come into my heart and be Lord of my life. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
Christian Cyber Ministries
P.O. Box 406
Cambridge MN 55008, USA

An honest answer is like a warm hug

Scripture: Proverbs 24:26

The story goes that some time ago a man disciplined his 5-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive old wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty. He spoke to her in a harsh manner, “Don’t you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there is supposed to be something inside the package?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full.” The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.

An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. And whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and Jesus. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

This begs the question, “What could I possibly do with the hugs and kisses stored up for the Kingdom of God?”

Prayer: Father help me share Your hugs and kisses with others as a reflection of Jesus. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!”

Christian Cyber Ministries
P.O. Box 406
Cambridge MN 55008, USA

(I) or (We) put on our full armor this day.
We put on the helmet of salvation. Holy Trinity, (Father God, Lord Jesus God, Holy Spirit God) we ask that you would transform and conform our minds to yours, to the extent we can handle it.
We adjust the helmet over our eyes to see through your eyes Lord Jesus. We ask for hearts of love and compassion such as you have.
We adjust the helmet over our ears to hear and obey your voice. Holy Spirit God, we ask for the gifts of Wisdom, Knowledge and Discernment that we might be effective in Your ministry this day.
We put on the breastplate of righteousness, and we thank You Jesus for Your righteousness, because we have none of our own.
We put on the belt of truth, that we may stand secure in your Word, Father God, and we thank you for this firm foundation upon which we can stand, found only in Your Holy Bible, which is without error.
We put on the shoes of the Gospel of Peace, that we may tell others the Good News, And we ask that you would allow us to share that Good News at the right time.
We take up the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the enemy. Holy Trinity, You are our Shield and High Tower, and to You alone do we run this day for protection, comfort, strength, and that perfect peace You bestow upon us, that passes all human understanding.
We take up the sword of the Spirit, the Rhema (now) Word of God, and use it this day as You bring certain passages to our minds in time of need.
Thank you Lord Jesus for placing a cloak of glory around us. Cover each of us and our households with Your precious blood.
Create in us clean hearts and renew a right spirit within us. Erect a shield around us, and let no evil befall us. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we begin our intercession.
(I) We pray for__________________________”

The English version of the prayer reads as follows:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
— Wikipedia
St. Francis and the Way of Nonviolence
This essay is an excerpt from JOHN DEAR’S book, “You Will Be My Witnesses,” available from Orbis Books.

Francis came alive to me in 1995 when I attended a week-long international conference of 800 Catholic peace activists in Assisi, Italy. The presentations were excellent, but I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and peace that radiated from Assisi, that I skipped the talks, wandered through the churches, strolled through the streets, and hiked the nearby fields and hills. I prayed at Francis’ tomb, meditated in the little chapel of the Portiuncula, which he built by hand, and toured San Damiano. Two years later, after a second pilgrimage to Assisi, I took the long bus ride to La Verna, the mountaintop where he received the stigmata shortly before his death. During those holy days, I understood anew Francis’ life of prayer, poverty, penance, preaching, and peace. His prayer became embedded in me: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
Francis embodies the Gospel journey from violence to nonviolence, wealth to poverty, power to powerlessness, selfishness to selfless service, pride to humility, indifference to love, cruelty to compassion, vengeance to forgiveness, revenge to reconciliation, war to peace, killing enemies to loving enemies. More than any other Christian, he epitomizes discipleship to Jesus. His witness continues to shine throughout the world.
Francis was born in 1182 and spent a wild youth running around Assisi in northern Italy, until he joined the crusades, became a soldier, and went off to kill people in battle. But he ended up in prison for a year, became sick, and went home to recover. There he underwent a conversion, and decided to spend his life serving Jesus.
One day, while praying at the church of San Damiano, the crucifix spoke to him and said, “Go rebuild my church which is falling down.” Francis thought God wanted him to physically rebuild the collapsing church building, so he started making repairs on the church and other church buildings. But over time, Francis realized God wanted him to rebuild the entire Church around the world, through prayer, poverty, and peace.
Francis began to preach through the narrow streets of Assisi, saying “Pace e Bene!” meaning, “Peace and goodness to you!” Today, we might dismiss his greeting as sweet and quaint, but back then, he was laughed at and dismissed as a crazy fool. In those days, everyone was violent. Francis preached nonviolence, and in response, people threw rocks at him. For the first five years, he was ridiculed by everyone. He, in turn, blessed them, loved them, prayed for them, and eventually reconciled them with one another.
One day Francis met a man with leprosy and was so appalled by the disease that he turned away. Then he realized that Christ is present in the poorest person, so he turned back to the man and served him, even kissed him. From then on, Francis gave his life to those who were poor and marginalized. In the process, he decided to become as poor as possible, to wed “Lady Poverty.” He slept outdoors and in caves, served those who were hungry and sick, led prayer services, and fixed broken churches. Others soon joined him, and the order of “Friars Minor” eventually was formed.
When officials demanded a rule for his order, Francis opened his missal three times at random to the words: “If you will be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor.” “Take nothing for your journey.” “If anyone wishes to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up the cross and follow me.” These Gospel verses became his rule.
Francis knew up close the sins, domination, and corruption of the Church, but he loved it. He thought the best way to change priests and bishops was to call them to God. Once he was urged to condemn a priest who was living with a woman and their children. When he went to the famil’s home and met the priest, he bent down and kissed the man’s feet.
Francis did far more than love animals, preach to the birds, and build the first nativity crèche. He renounced violence and war, and announced that he and his followers would be people of nonviolence and peace. In his most dramatic episode, he joined the crusades, not as a warrior but this time as a practitioner of Gospel nonviolence. In 1219, he began a year-long, unarmed walk right through a war zone from Italy to northern Africa, where he managed to meet the Sultan, Melek-el-Kamel, the leading Muslim of the time. Before the meeting, Francis begged the Christian warrior commander, Cardinal Pelagius, to stop the killings and the wars. The Sultan was so impressed by Francis’ kindness and gentleness, that he announced, “If all Christians are like this, I would not hesitate to become one.” He offered Francis gifts and a large sum of money, but Francis turned it all down.
Francis’ journey through the war zone to meet the Muslim leader is the equivalent of traveling to Iraq today. Instead of killing the Sultan, he loved the Sultan and proved himself a true practitioner of Gospel nonviolence. Cardinal Pelagius, on the other hand, reflected the culture’s ongoing justification of war and killing, even in the name of Jesus. He was no different than the priests, military chaplains, bishops, and cardinals today who support war, the bombing of Iraqis, and the maintenance of weapons of mass destruction. He refused to hear Francis’ call to conversion and nonviolence, just as many church leaders today refuse to hear the call.
According to my friend, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, scholars now state that Francis’ real crisis began on his journey back home. First of all, the crusaders wanted to kill him as a heretic, so the Sultan’s soldiers had to protect him from the other Catholic warriors. Then, when he arrived home, the friars began to grumble. They did not like his “politics,” his outreach to the Muslim enemies. Eventually, they turned against him. To press the point, Francis added to his “later Rule” that all friars are to love their enemies “as the Lord commands” (Chapter X and Admonitions). “Francis took the message of Jesus absolutely seriously, as if it were personally directed toward him,” Brazilian Franciscan theologian Leonardo Boff writes. “He accepted it totally.” Today’s “rule,” however, is: Refuse to love your enemies. Refuse to meet with your enemies. And always, always, refuse to support those who do love your enemies.
At a large gathering of friars, according to legend, Francis insisted that they were not to own anything, and that they were to beg for their food, serve the poor, and preach the good news of peace, “sometimes using words.” Tensions mounted. The friars wanted to build houses, so they rejected Francis and his orders. They did not support his nonviolence or his voluntary poverty.
Francis was so distraught that he eventually resigned the administration of the order. He fell into a severe depression and walked off to a hermitage on the mountain of La Verna, where he spent his last years in solitude, prayer, penance, sickness, hunger, and sorrow.
Yet it was there, in that spiritual darkness, that Francis plumbed the depths of contemplative nonviolence. “My Lord Jesus Christ,” he prayed, “grant me two graces before I die. The first is that during my life I may feel in my body as much as possible the pain which you, dear Jesus, sustained in the hour of your most bitter passion. The second is that I may feel in my heart, as much as possible, the excessive love with which you, Son of God, were inflamed to willingly endure such suffering for us sinners.” He spent long days on the mountaintop reflecting on the martyrdom of Jesus.
One morning in 1224, a seraph with six wings flew toward him. Up close, Francis realized it was a vision of the Crucified Christ. All of a sudden, Francis was filled with both intense pain and a universal, sacrificial, unconditional love for the whole human race. Rays of light shot out from Christ’s wounds and, after the vision, Francis discovered the stigmata on his body. After months of suffering, he asked to be taken back to Assisi where he died outside the Portiuncula on October 3, 1226. Recent scientific studies of his bones concluded that Francis suffered from both leprosy and starvation.
Bill McNichols first visited Assisi and La Verna on a snowy winter day. He thought about Francis in poverty, walking in the snow, freezing yet praising God for the snow. In the first icon, “St Francis, Wounded Winter Light,” Francis points to God in the snow with a reverence for nature. He is a beggar, suffering from the cold, bearing the wounds, gesturing in prayer, beseeching God for the gift of peace. He is neither powerful, proud, rich, or violent.
The second icon shows Francis receiving the stigmata from the crucified seraphic Christ. The mountains of Taos, New Mexico, stand in the distance. This icon was commissioned by the Church of St Francis of Assisi in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, which Georgia O’Keefe made famous by her paintings. It now hangs over the back door of the Church, so that parishioners in the beautiful, historic church head out into the world thinking about Francis and Jesus.
‘We have only just begun to practice the Gospel,” Francis told his followers as he died. Today we hear Francis tell us to embrace simplicity and poverty, serve those who are poor and needy, live in peace and nonviolence, love one another including our enemies, spend our days in contemplative prayer, and be devoted servants of Jesus and his Gospel. “While you are proclaiming peace with your lips,” he wrote, “be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.” He once explained, “If you own possessions, you need weapons to protect them and so we do not own anything and we are at peace with everyone.”
Francis’ logic points the way toward personal, social, and global justice and peace If each one of us practiced Gospel simplicity, voluntary poverty, and downward mobility, like Francis, we would share the world’s resources with one another, have nothing to fear from others, and live in peace with everyone. If the whole world, especially the First World nations, practiced the Franciscan ethic of social justice and nonviolence, hunger and warfare would end. The United States comprises only 4% of the world’s population, yet it controls over 60% of the world’s natural resources. It maintains the world’s largest arsenal of weapons, including 20,000 nuclear weapons, theoretically to prevent other nations from taking back the resources we have stolen from them. If we applied Francis’ Gospel ethic toward ourselves, we would return the natural resources to the world’s poor; relinquish the world’s oil fields to their rightful owners, including Iraq; dismantle our nuclear weapons; and live in peace with everyone. In the process, we would learn, like Francis, to trust the God of peace.
Francis is not just for the birds. His life example and witness hold the key to the solutions of all the world’s problems. He may be the greatest of Jesus’ witnesses.
“I have done my part,” Francis said to the friars around him as he died. “May Christ teach you to do yours.” May we all do our part, like Francis, and become instruments of Christ’s peace.
http://www.johndear.org/articles/way_of_nonviolence.htm

True story. You will be pleased that you read it, and I believe you will pass it on. It is an important piece of America history It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.
Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.
Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket of shrimp.
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.
Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’
In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave.
He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant … maybe even a lot of nonsense.
Old folks often do strange things,
at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.
Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida . That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better.
His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker . He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.
Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive.
The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.
It was a seagull!
Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it – a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait … and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull… And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.
Reference:
(Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”, pp..221, 225-226)
PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America ‘s first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.
As you can see, I chose to pass it on.
It is a great story that many don’t know…You’ve got to be careful with old guys, You just never know what they have done during their lifetime.”