Back from gone #3 Giving worries to God and believing in His promises

Exploiting tensions over immigration and home-grown jihadis

A great wooden horse (the horse being the emblem of Troy), hiding an elite force inside, and fooling the Trojans into wheeling the horse into the city as a trophy, today repeated for Europe, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein all the chiefs of the Islamic State are sitting, bearing to the Europeans death and fate! – At the Istanbul Archaeological Museum in Istanbul, Turkey

The massive influx of people fleeing the wars in their countries is frightening lots of Europeans and Americans. The refugees come by thousands and for many this could be as a Horse of Troy, bringing in also dangerous Muslim extremists.

Throughout Europe we see lots of anti-refugee activities and people trying to bring fear over others about a possible Islamisation of Europe. Others also consider this a time to save Europe from Jewish domination. Apparently Jack Sen wants to merge a host of tiny groups under his leadership and call it the ‘Jack Sen Five.’ Those who seemed to have been gone now seem to come back, like the former leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, often known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, who will make his political comeback next month by fronting the relaunch of the UK arm of Pegida, the German anti-Islam organisation whose provocative rhetoric has prompted attacks on refugees. Rallies by the Pegida movement demanding a tightening of German immigration policies in Germany and Belgium could attract many people. When we look at and hear these protesters their slogans we can hear similar reactions as Germany heard in the 1930s. This time all over Europe we start finding people of all ages marching against a multicultural society. In France the anti-immigrant party, the National Front, after the November attacks, got yesterday at the regional elections again a gain of lots of votes, giving it now a fixture of the political landscape.

The “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) founded only a few months before the 2013 Bundestag election, managed to grow very rapidly and can be considered to be the most successful new party since 1953. but the one who wanted to be sole party leader,was ousted in favour of Frauke Petry, until then Bernd Lucke his co-leader and head of the Saxonian state party. Once received a place in the European parliament only two of the seven MPs elected in May 2014 remained loyal to the party. Christian fundamentalism and the interests of the formerly landed aristocracy (von Storch) and UKIP-style euroscepticism (Pretzell) could find their place in the party, but State level leaders such as Höcke (Thuringia), Poggenburg (Saxony-Anhalt), and, more recently, Gauland (Brandenburg) have re-discovered the rhetoric of the 19th century Völkische Bewegung that pre-dated the Nazis, and are building bridges to Germany’s New Right “think-tanks” as well as to Pegida and other anti-refugee and islamophobic groups. {Kai Arzheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz and Visiting Fellow, Department of Government, University of Essex in Kai Arzheimer- Germany’s new AfD party: state of play}

The Jews from their site are fearing that the Muslims may become a potential hazard because intolerance is an integral part of their culture (according to them and many others).

The report, by the anti-racist group Hope Not Hate, chronicles 920 anti-Muslim organisations and key Islamophobes in 22 countries, noting that such groups are becoming increasingly well-resourced, particularly in the US, where eight foundations have donated more than £38m since the 9/11 attacks. In those groups we may also find people who call themselves Christian, but clearly show a lot of hate to people of an other skin colour and of an other faith than their own.

Hope Not Hate’s chief executive, Nick Lowles, warned that in Europe the hatred of Muslims

“was moving from the margins to the political mainstream”

while in the UK violence and prejudice against Muslims was likely to increase as far-right groups exploit tensions over immigration and homegrown jihadism. {Anti-Muslim prejudice ‘is moving to the mainstream’}

After the financial crisis we seen the last decade the ideas of the 1930s are flourishing again.

In the few weeks after the November 13 attacks in Paris Islamophobic attacks in London had more than tripled. In Germany and Sweden several cowardly attacks brought fire at night to state buildings which had to house the refugees.

Fundamental  Muslims and fundamental Christians

The fundamental Christians have found a counter -pole in the fundamental Muslims. The last ones do give those European conservative  and some evangelical Christians reason to make a counter movement and have them bring fear over others. They try to get others to believe that all those refugees are a danger for our religious freedom and that they will bring an end to our ‘Christian nation‘. Funny you may call it that those sympathisers with Pegida shouting out and celebrating its hatred towards refugees, Muslims, journalists, and everyone who doesn’t fit in their narrow minded world are wanting to do the same thing like the Islamic State members want to do in their region, but this time for a so called Christendom or Christian State.

Only looking at the UK we can find that Yaxley-Lennon can get more more than 109,000 followers on Twitter. He is lauded as an inspirational figure by both the militant and political wings of the counter-jihad movement. Other UK-based groups include Liberty GB, an anti-immigration political party, whose chairman is Paul Weston, the former Ukip parliamentary candidate. He is named as a regular contributor to the Gates of Vienna blog, where he writes about impending civil war against Muslims and “white genocide” in Britain. That the Gates of Vienna website inspired Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and as such it is deeply troubling that they are continually available to inspire others.

Wilders delivering a speech in 2010

The Dutch politician and leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid – PVV), Geert Wilders, raised a Roman Catholic, but left the church at his coming of age, but feels our nations are in danger of an “Islamisation” which has to be stopped soon before we shall be trampled by people who shall dominate us and shall not give us any freedom to run around like we want. For him the Quran is such a dangerous poisonous book as Mein Kampf .

Tolerance becoming a less popular act

Europe which would call herself democratic has opened and closed certain doors to bring a sort of selective politics whereby certain parties are silenced and where certain groups tried to silence others. The so called open mindedness spoken off in the 1950s seems to be far gone and the idea of a Europe for all sorts of people living in freedom with each other has come more and more under pressure. We also can see that the social media are more and more used to shun others and to be a means of putting pressure  onto others.

Many who call themselves Christian forget that the person they call the founder of Christendom or Christianity was a man of peace and tolerance. That master teacher, rabbi Jeshua, today better known as Jesus Christ, had a loving spirit not excluding others because they were not like minded or because they did not want to believe the same things he did.

That master teacher who did not want to do his own will, but managed to do the will of his heavenly Father, the Only One True God, told others about his loving Father and how that Holy Spirit wants us to come together as children of God, respecting all creatures (man, animals and plants). Today in Christendom we see again the discord between different Christian groups and a growing intolerance against other thinking denominations and in particular non-trinitarian denominations, like we could see in the 1930–1940s when several of our brothers and sisters were put in camps and killed by the German Nazis.

Putting worries aside

Lots of people are also afraid many mosques shall come to be build in their region; – Ortaköy Mosque, along the Bosphorus, in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whilst globally, anti-Muslim sentiment is growing in the wake of the attacks in Paris and concerns over the continuing refugee crisis, we should be careful not to be taken by such fear bringing people. Wrongly at least half of those surveyed in Italy and Greece by a Pew Research Center thinktank study in 2014 of seven European Union countries had a negative opinion of Muslims living in their country, with the most favourable rating of 72% in France. But a YouGov poll in the spring of this year, after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, showed 40% of French people held negative views of Muslims, the same level as in the UK.

In case those people would have a strong faith they should not be afraid that such strong faith would be erased by the fewer minority adepts of the Quran. Those who belong to the Christian faith should when they are real disciples of Jesus Christ  continue in the way of life Jesus presented to them.  That is a life where the person has an open attitude to all others and with a willingness to help everybody.

When giving a hand to those entering Europe and showing your willingness to help them it would be strange if they would act against you. concerning loosing the faith we are warned:

“Let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)

First of all when a believer in God trust Him instead of following those men who are trying to mislead many and to use them for their own rapport making them more powerful, the faithful to God shall receive enough knowledge from the Word of God to guide them through the difficulties and to this period of time.

Safeguarding the heart

As believers in God and following His sent one, Jeshua, the Messiah we are counseled:

“More than all else that is to be guarded, safeguard your heart, for out of it are the sources of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Jesus showed that it is from the heart that wicked reasoning, adultery, murder, and so forth, emanate. These things would lead to death.

18 However, whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and those things defile a man.+ 19 For example, out of the heart come wicked reasonings,+ murders, adulteries, sexual immorality,* thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. 20 These are the things that defile a man; but to take a meal with unwashed* hands does not defile a man.” (Matthew 15:18, 19, 20)

We should always check what people say and see if they live according to what they are preaching are telling the world. Guarding against such heart reasonings by supplying the heart with life-giving spiritual nourishment, the truth from the pure Fountain of life, will keep the heart from going wrong and taking the person out of the way of life.

6 For setting the mind on the flesh means death,+ but setting the mind on the spirit means life and peace;+ 7 because setting the mind on the flesh means enmity with God,+ for it is not in subjection to the law of God, nor, in fact, can it be. 8 So those who are in harmony with the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8)

When hearing all those protesters and the ones opposing to those with an other faith, we should take care of our imperfect mind and heart which can be like a watch that is going either too fast or too slow or having a pendulum going from one site to the other. Being guided by it could bring us serious trouble. We need to calibrate our mind and heart by God’s reliable standards.

 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,+ And your ways are not my ways,” declares Jehovah. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So my ways are higher than your ways And my thoughts than your thoughts.+ (Isaiah 55:8, 9)

when we trust God we can give Him are worries and ask Him to share His thought with us. This He did already for many ages. In the Bible we can find lots of His thoughts to guide us through life. those given words we should trust.

The phrase “In God We Trust” has long appeared on U.S. paper currency and coins. In 1956, the U.S. Congress passed a law declaring that expression the national motto of the United States. Ironically, many people — not just in that land but throughout the world — put greater trust in money and material wealth than they do in God. — (Luke 12:16-21.) we also can see that when they fear they could loose some money or that they have to share with others, they will come in disagreement and would like to exclude the others, like now the refugees.

When we really bear God in our heart and allow Him to guide us we should not worry so much. though it is one thing to claim that we trust in God, it is quite another to show it by our actions. As true Christians, we must do more than simply say that we trust in Jehovah. Just as “faith without works is dead,” so too any claim that we trust in God is meaningless unless we back it up by our actions.

26 Indeed, just as the body without spirit* is dead,+ so also faith without works is dead.+ (James 2:26)

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Preceding articles:

Back from gone #1 Aim of ungodly people

Back from gone #2 Aim of godly people

To be continued: Back from gone #4 Your inner feelings and actions

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Additional reading

1. Paris attacks darkening the world
2. Economic crisis danger for the rise of political extremism
3. Impact of the crisis on civil society organisations in the EU – Risks and opportunities
4. Walking alone?
5. A small trouble is like a pebble
6. Try driving forward instead of backwards
7. God Feeds The Birds
8. Rejoicing in the day
9. Some one or something to fear #1 Many sorts of fear
10. Some one or something to fear #3 Cases, folks and outing
11. Why is it that Christians don’t understand Muslims and Muslims do not understand Christians?
12. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
13. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
14. Give your worries to God
15. Look for today
16. Joy: Foundation for a Positive Life
17. Home-stayers and their to do list

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Further literature

1. How the Migrant Crisis is Tearing Europe Apart
2. The new German “Wutbürger” – A short history of PEGIDA
3. Pegida – The German Taliban
4. Pegida holds first anti-immigration rally after Paris attack
5. Happening: Anti-Migrant Demonstranten in Dresden Carry Russische Flaggen
6. November 9th – PEGIDA Munich blocked from racist march on historically charged date
7. Neo-Nazis No-Show Their Annual March in Dresden. Is Pegida to Blame?
8. 
9. Pegida Munich – photographer handcuffed
10. Pegida Can Be Tamed
11. Diverse, Tolerant, Open – We Don’t Want Pegida
12. You Don’t Belong Here, Pegida Told
13. Pegida Marches through Stormy Munich as Citizens Block Road
14. Kai Arzheimer- Germany’s new AfD party: state of play
15. What to say?
16. #HenrietteReker – Something is rotting in Germany (and we are not talking about Volkswagen)
17. PIGIDA
18. Meanwhile Back In The Czech Republic
19. Tommy Robinson has a Right to Speak
20. @FellowLiberals: Are We Lying To Ourselves About How “Tolerant” We Are?
21. God, Help Me Not to Hate Those Who Hate
22. Promoting tolerance and respect through music
23. We’re all still friends in Sarajevo
24. Restoring Radical Empathy
25. Pakistanization of India?
26. India blames industrialised nations for deadly floods
27. The intolerance debate
28. Why Don’t Moderate Muslims Denounce Terrorism?
29. Map of the day II: Googling up racism
30. Our Cowardly Presidents #1: On Campus
31. The full response (or “Pseudo-Secularlism” versus “Hindutva” Agenda)
32. A House Divided: How Hatred Aimed At Any Group, Is an Assault On Us All
33. Jamal Bryant’s Hypocrisy and Intolerance
34. Not Easily Offended
35. How Dare He Feel Insecure?
36. Extremism
37. Auf der Flucht
38. Und Pegida sagt den Tischspruch.
39. Neue 10 Positionen der PEGIDA
40. Woher kommen die sogenannten “Flüchtlinge”?
41. Das Spiel mit der Angst
42. Ambassador Opher Aviran
43. Die Kraft ist in euch selbst
44. Wat is de toegevoegde waarde van Pegida?
45. Druk van tegenprotest houdt ruimte voor Pegida klein
46. Praktische informatie Stop Pegida in Rotterdam
47. Hatet viser sitt ansikt

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