POPULARITY
When it comes to baking cakes, most of us reach for the same ingredients—milk, eggs, butter…But Sira Garib says you can have all of the flavor with none of the animal products—good news for her customers, many of whom are vegan or have dairy allergies. Sira is the founder and CEO of Pure Vegan Cakes, which specializes in custom plant-based cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Originally from South Florida, she has baked for some pretty big names, including actress and vegan influencer Tabitha Brown—an encounter that Sira credits with taking her business to the next level.Sira stopped by the Zest studios at WUSF for a chat with Dalia Colón. In this conversation, she shares how she went from baking cakes for family and friends to being South Florida's go-to plant-based celebrity baker and developing her own line of baking mixes. She also shares advice transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle and tips for baking a better cake.Related episodes:Plant-Powered Education: Solid Rock Community School in Tarpon Springs Offers 100% Vegan Cafeteria MenuHow “Fab the Vegan” Dropped 150 Pounds, Reversed Diabetes & Became a Plant-Based InfluencerNatalia Veganizes Recipes from The Great British Baking ShowHow to Start a Cottage Food Business in Florida: Lessons from the Lentil House
When it comes to baking cakes, most of us reach for the same ingredients—milk, eggs, butter…But Sira Garib says you can have all of the flavor with none of the animal products—good news for her customers, many of whom are vegan or have dairy allergies. Sira is the founder and CEO of Pure Vegan Cakes, which specializes in custom plant-based cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Originally from South Florida, she has baked for some pretty big names, including actress and vegan influencer Tabitha Brown—an encounter that Sira credits with taking her business to the next level.Sira stopped by the Zest studios at WUSF for a chat with Dalia Colón. In this conversation, she shares how she went from baking cakes for family and friends to being South Florida's go-to plant-based celebrity baker and developing her own line of baking mixes. She also shares advice transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle and tips for baking a better cake.Related episodes:Plant-Powered Education: Solid Rock Community School in Tarpon Springs Offers 100% Vegan Cafeteria MenuHow “Fab the Vegan” Dropped 150 Pounds, Reversed Diabetes & Became a Plant-Based InfluencerNatalia Veganizes Recipes from The Great British Baking ShowHow to Start a Cottage Food Business in Florida: Lessons from the Lentil House
Wellness + Wisdom | Episode 726 What if the greatest threat to your success isn't the world around you, but the self-sabotaging lies in your mind? Bizzie Gold, Brain Pattern Mapping + Behavior Expert, joins Josh Trent on the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 726, to reveal the hidden pathways of self-deception, how subconscious patterns distort our sense of identity and drive us to repeat old destructive emotional loops we mistake for “normal” life, and the roadmap to rewiring your brain so you can finally live in alignment with your true potential. "Every person's brain pattern type has a unique set of self-deceptive tendencies. Self-deception is the fuel for everything negative that we experience in our lives. Every loop that we get stuck in, every pain and conflict that we have in a relationship, it's all a byproduct of self-deception." - Bizzie Gold
Le travail sur soi, la purification de l'âme… un vaste programme, mais surtout une nécessité pour toute musulmane en chemin !Dans cet épisode, je te partage des réflexions sur ce sujet essentiel. On parle de Tazkiyat an-Nafs (purification de l'âme), de notre discours intérieur, de cheminement vers Al Ihsan (l'excellence, le plus haut degré de foi), mais aussi d'un moment marquant de la Sira du prophète sws : la bataille de Mouta et le combat intérieur d'Abd Allah ibn Rawaha.Si le sujet te plait et que tu souhaites aller plus loin, n'hésite pas à t'abonner à la lettre des musulmanes en chemin où l'objectif est de se tirer vers le haut et de s'élever mutuellement, inchaAllah !https://musulmaneenchemin.com/newsletterHébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Walking in Wisdom: Preparing for Lent with Sirach As the Catholic Church approaches the Lenten season; we stand at the threshold of a sacred time—a time to reflect on the profound mystery of our salvation and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Lent calls us to renew our baptismal promises and deepen our spiritual journey. But why is this reflection so essential? Discover more in today's homily. A Time for Preparation Lent is a season of preparation, especially for those seeking baptism into Christ. The Church, through today's readings, imparts wisdom that arises from daily life experiences. One such reading comes from the Book of Sirach—unique among Old Testament wisdom literature because its author, Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira (or Ben Sira), identifies himself. His purpose is clear: to emphasize that true wisdom is found in following God's commandments. The depth of our understanding and spiritual growth is revealed through the choices we make and the way we live each day. Sirach Teaches Us About Wisdom Ben Sira teaches that wisdom is most clearly expressed in our speech. A person's words immediately reveal the depth of their understanding and character. Furthermore, he speaks of the heart—not merely as a physical organ but as the core of our authentic self. A heart rooted in truth manifests itself through acts of love, compassion, and charity. Our words and actions ultimately reflect the condition of our hearts. So, how do we care for our hearts? How do we nurture our true selves in faith and wisdom? Let us take to heart the lesson from Sirach, embracing the journey of Lent as a time for transformation and spiritual renewal. Listen to this Meditation Media. Walking in Wisdom: Preparing for Lent with Sirach -------------------------------------------- Image: Sirach: German Artist: Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld: 1860 -------------------------------------------- Gospel Reading: Luke 6: 39-45 First Reading: Sirach 27: 4-7 Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15: 54-58
Als der Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) vor der Kaaba angegriffen wurde, sprach er eine Dua aus, vor der sich die Quraysh fürchteten. Man versuchte ihn nämlich zu demütigen und zu beleidigen, sodass man ihm kein Glauben schenkten sollte oder man ihn wenigstens als "schwach" darstellen könnte. Die Reaktionen des Propheten Muhammad (s.a.w.) auf Beleidigungen und auch auf Gewalt zeigen uns, wie man sich zu solchen Situationen am besten verhalten soll.Unterstützt meine Arbeit: https://www.patreon.com/Issam_BayanMein Online-Shop: bayanshop.de
Sira Rodríguez es una profesional apasionada por el desarrollo personal y profesional de las mujeres. Como pedagoga, coach, terapeuta gestalt y didacta en PNL, Sira ha dedicado su carrera a acompañar a mujeres en la búsqueda de su vocación y en la construcción de una vida laboral auténtica y satisfactoria. Su enfoque se centra en el autocuidado profundo y transformador, brindando a sus clientes las herramientas necesarias para reconectar con su esencia y construir un camino profesional alineado con sus valores y propósito de vida. Encuesta para "Gente de Exito": www.recetadelexito.com/encuesta Suscribete y Visitanos en: www.RecetaDelExito.com Apple Podcast (iTunes): https://apple.co/2Igcnoh Listo para Crear tu Podcast? www.CursoDePodcastGratis.com Twitter Handle: @alexdalirizo Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/recetadelexito/ RDExito: http://recetadelexito.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recetadelexito/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexdalirizo/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rdexito?_t=8qBk0mY9HvR&_r=1 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cmJqV
Federico y Vanessa Vallecillo recuerdan a los niños afectados por la DANA de Valencia cuando se cumplen tres meses de la catástrofe. Han pasado 3 meses de la Dana y hoy, en Es la Mañana de Federico, damos voz a los grandes olvidados de esta tragedia: Los niños. Vanessa Vallecillo nos devuelve a la noche de la tragedia de la mano de Leo, Sira, Joan y Marc. Es sobrecogedor el relato de Leo que, desde el piso de arriba de su vivienda esperaba con nerviosismo a que sus padres volvieran de achicar agua. O el de Joan, que ha contado cómo vivió aquella noche alejado de su madre porque estaba trabajando en Valencia y quedó incomunicada. Unos relatos que mezclan la inocencia de la infancia y la dureza de lo vivido, con el presente más inmediato: El de miles de padres que se vieron los días posteriores a la tragedia con la tesitura de encontrar colegio para sus hijos. Carla denuncia el abandono que han sufrido por parte de las administraciones que "han delegado en los padres la responsabilidad de reubicar a sus hijos en los centros". En su caso, tiene tres y cada uno está en estos momentos en un centro distinto. También hablamos con Ruth: El colegio de sus hijos quedó totalmente derruido pero gracias al trabajo de los profesores han conseguido trasladarlo al completo a la Universidad de Magisterio de Valencia. Sira, de 7 años, explica que está encantada con el cambio pero su hermano, Leo, que sufre Asperger lo está llevando bastante mal al no tener espacios al aire libre en los que jugar. Todas estas historias demuestran que los niños, hasta en la adversidad demuestran (otra vez) que saben adaptarse mejor que nadie a todas las situaciones.
1 - Fanomezana ny fiainana koa araraoty ny miaina tsara ao anatin`izany 2 - Fixateur 3 - Aza miova amin39;ny fahamariana efa narahana 4 - Ny Sira sy ny fahasalamana (Dr Amboara) 5 - Mahari-po sy mihantra
1 - Fanomezana ny fiainana koa araraoty ny miaina tsara ao anatin`izany 2 - Fixateur 3 - Aza miova amin39;ny fahamariana efa narahana 4 - Ny Sira sy ny fahasalamana (Dr Amboara) 5 - Mahari-po sy mihantra
Traficantes de Sueños (2024). on sus autoras: Amaia Pérez Orozco, Sira del Río, Miriam Nobre y Renata Tica de SOF (online desde Brasil) y compas del Eje de precariedad y economía feminista de Madrid. Diez años después del imprescindible Subversión feminista de la economía, Amaia Pérez Orozco ha reunido en este libro seis piezas clave de la Economía Feminista, un marco político de análisis y acción que apuesta por desplazar el eje en torno al cual entendemos la economía: de los mercados y los procesos de valorización de capital a la sostenibilidad de la vida. Con esas gafas, vemos la centralidad de los vínculos y los trabajos de cuidados, y el neutro homo economicus se convierte en sujetos marcados por el género, la raza y la clase. Al poner en el centro los procesos de sostenibilidad de la vida, la Economía Feminista nos permite nombrar la tensión estructural e irresoluble bajo el capitalismo: el conflicto capital-vida.
Le couple royal d'Espagne assistera, le 9 décembre en la cathédrale de Valence, à « une messe funéraire en hommage aux victimes » des intempéries. Les 230 victimes sont presque toutes de la région de Valence. Et quatre personnes sont toujours portées disparues. Un mois après les inondations, la vie peine à reprendre un cours normal. Parmi les conséquences du torrent d'eau qui a dévasté des villes entières : l'enseignement aujourd'hui très perturbé. Althea et Sira sont heureuses d'avoir regagné les bancs de l'école après plusieurs semaines de coupures. Et malgré leur jeune âge, ce sont même les bancs de l'Université qu'elles expérimentent. Le cadre change, mais la reprise de l'école offre aux enfants un peu de « normalité ». L'enthousiasme reste teinté d'appréhension pour Ruth, une mère de famille. « Ils sont traumatisés. Ma fille, même si elle est contente de reprendre l'école, elle ne veut pas être séparée de la famille. Et, pour nous les parents, notre instinct protecteur ressort. Et, la séparation nous pèse. »Mais tous les élèves ne sont pas retournés en classe. Dans la cour du lycée Berenguer Dalmau de Catarroja, des engins sont en action. Carmen Ferrer, professeur de français, contemple les dégâts subis sur son lieu de travail, à l'avenir incertain.Si une solution a été trouvée à proximité pour un tiers des 1500 élèves, pour les autres, la proposition de déménagement, avec à la clef des cours l'après-midi plutôt que le matin, n'était pas compatible avec la réalité de l'établissement, explique Sylvie Garcia, enseignante en histoire-géographie. « Pour être transféré dans un autre établissement, il fallait minimum 20 bus pour transporter les 1000 élèves. Et puis, ce n'était pas viable. Si on leur faisait cours l'après-midi, qu'advenait-il de leurs activités extrascolaires ? Certains pratiquent le sport de haut niveau, d'autres sont musiciens et doivent aller au conservatoire. Il fallait qu'ils renoncent à une partie de leur vie. »À lire aussiEspagne: le président de la région de Valence s'excuse mais ne démissionne pas après les inondationsDes solutions inadaptées De plus, les conditions de retour de nuit inquiétaient parents et professeurs. Cette option a finalement été abandonnée et des préfabriqués seront installés un peu plus loin dans la ville. Mais, ils ne seront pas opérationnels avant mi-janvier.En attendant, les élèves ont partiellement repris les cours et à distance. Non sans quelques difficultés, en raison de connexions internet parfois défaillantes. Deux élèves vivant à côté saluent leur professeur. Lucia et Claudia confirment que l'enseignement à distance, ce n'est pas l'idéal. « On n'apprend pas tant que ça, car ce n'est pas très compréhensible. »Les professeurs doivent prendre en compte l'état émotionnel de leurs élèves. Le temps perdu ne pourra pas être entièrement rattrapé. Les professeurs devront adapter leurs programmes. Pour les élèves de dernière année des zones sinistrées, il est envisagé de retarder la date de passage des examens d'entrée à l'université.À lire aussiEspagne: la région de Valence, un mois après la crue, les séquelles et la colère
Le couple royal d'Espagne assistera, le 9 décembre en la cathédrale de Valence, à « une messe funéraire en hommage aux victimes » des intempéries. Les 230 victimes sont presque toutes de la région de Valence. Et quatre personnes sont toujours portées disparues. Un mois après les inondations, la vie peine à reprendre un cours normal. Parmi les conséquences du torrent d'eau qui a dévasté des villes entières : l'enseignement aujourd'hui très perturbé. Althea et Sira sont heureuses d'avoir regagné les bancs de l'école après plusieurs semaines de coupures. Et malgré leur jeune âge, ce sont même les bancs de l'Université qu'elles expérimentent. Le cadre change, mais la reprise de l'école offre aux enfants un peu de « normalité ». L'enthousiasme reste teinté d'appréhension pour Ruth, une mère de famille. « Ils sont traumatisés. Ma fille, même si elle est contente de reprendre l'école, elle ne veut pas être séparée de la famille. Et, pour nous les parents, notre instinct protecteur ressort. Et, la séparation nous pèse. »Mais tous les élèves ne sont pas retournés en classe. Dans la cour du lycée Berenguer Dalmau de Catarroja, des engins sont en action. Carmen Ferrer, professeur de français, contemple les dégâts subis sur son lieu de travail, à l'avenir incertain.Si une solution a été trouvée à proximité pour un tiers des 1500 élèves, pour les autres, la proposition de déménagement, avec à la clef des cours l'après-midi plutôt que le matin, n'était pas compatible avec la réalité de l'établissement, explique Sylvie Garcia, enseignante en histoire-géographie. « Pour être transféré dans un autre établissement, il fallait minimum 20 bus pour transporter les 1000 élèves. Et puis, ce n'était pas viable. Si on leur faisait cours l'après-midi, qu'advenait-il de leurs activités extrascolaires ? Certains pratiquent le sport de haut niveau, d'autres sont musiciens et doivent aller au conservatoire. Il fallait qu'ils renoncent à une partie de leur vie. »À lire aussiEspagne: le président de la région de Valence s'excuse mais ne démissionne pas après les inondationsDes solutions inadaptées De plus, les conditions de retour de nuit inquiétaient parents et professeurs. Cette option a finalement été abandonnée et des préfabriqués seront installés un peu plus loin dans la ville. Mais, ils ne seront pas opérationnels avant mi-janvier.En attendant, les élèves ont partiellement repris les cours et à distance. Non sans quelques difficultés, en raison de connexions internet parfois défaillantes. Deux élèves vivant à côté saluent leur professeur. Lucia et Claudia confirment que l'enseignement à distance, ce n'est pas l'idéal. « On n'apprend pas tant que ça, car ce n'est pas très compréhensible. »Les professeurs doivent prendre en compte l'état émotionnel de leurs élèves. Le temps perdu ne pourra pas être entièrement rattrapé. Les professeurs devront adapter leurs programmes. Pour les élèves de dernière année des zones sinistrées, il est envisagé de retarder la date de passage des examens d'entrée à l'université.À lire aussiEspagne: la région de Valence, un mois après la crue, les séquelles et la colère
In den ersten 2–3 Jahren wurde der Islam eher im Geheimen verbreitet. Doch nun begann eine neue Phase: Allah befahl dem Propheten, den Islam öffentlich zu verkünden, zunächst unter seinen Verwandten. Dies brachte viel Gegenwind mit sich, vor allem aus seiner eigenen Familie. Abū Jahl war einer seiner bekanntesten Feinde, der es sich mit seiner Frau zur Lebensaufgabe gemacht hatte, dem Propheten das Leben zu erschweren und ihn daran zu hindern, den Islam zu verbreiten. Insgesamt waren viele der Quraisch negativ eingestellt, da sie fürchteten, ihr Geschäft mit der Kaʿba in Mekka zu verlieren. Unterstützt meine Arbeit: https://www.patreon.com/Issam_Bayan
La amazona competirá la próxima semana en IFEMA en la Madrid Horse Week.
The 5th annual Destiny Community Church Christmas tree sale in Newberry and Trenton is underway. Marc Woodstuff on the global and local partners benefitting from the sale, including the Sira pregnancy center and Foster Florida
Als die Jinn bemerkten, dass der Zugang zum Himmel für sie plötzlich verschlossen war und sie nicht mehr die himmlischen Geheimnisse belauschen konnten, wurde ihnen klar, dass etwas Außergewöhnliches geschehen sein musste. In ihrer Unruhe und Neugier sandten sie Kundschafter aus, um die Ursache zu erkunden. Nach einer Weile stießen diese auf einen Mann, der in aller Ruhe den Quran rezitierte – es war der Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). Tief beeindruckt von den Worten des Quran und voller Ehrfurcht gegenüber der Botschaft, erkannten die Jinn die Wahrheit in seinen Versen. Dies war der Beginn der Da'wa unter den Jinn, denn viele von ihnen nahmen den Islam an und kehrten zu ihren Gemeinschaften zurück, um die Botschaft weiterzugeben. Unterstütze meine Arbeit
Gudstjänst 2024-10-27 Predikan av Thomas Nilsson från SIRA-skolorna i Betlehem och Jeriko. Ledning av Christina Helmersson Larsson Musik av Fredrik Andersson
Amanda Beausoleil is the Founder and Executive Director of SIRA, a nonprofit that helps people recover from self-injury through an effective and powerful peer-group support model. Amanda struggled with self-injury for 15 years. She found recovery through a self-injury peer support group in New York. In 2019 she left the corporate world and a longstanding career in fashion working for the industry's most respected brands (Saks Fifth Avenue, Tory Burch, and Coveteur) to take the peer support group and launch it into a full-fledged 501(c)3. She now brings her lived experience and professional expertise as Executive Director. Connect with Alexa below: Chief Swag Officer Sponsor this show at https://www.passionfroot.me/alexa-curtis Subscribe to Stay Fearless or Die Trying here. BUY A MEDIA LIST OR MEDIA KIT HERE!
Friday September 27, 2024 Rabi al-Awwal 23, 1446 This episode marks the khatam -- the conclusion and seal -- of our exploration of the Sira. It covers the Prophet's final days in this worldly life, his last words, his passing, how the Companions responded to this tragedy, and how they conducted his burial. It concludes with a final reflection and prayer for acceptance and connection to the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) and his timeless teachings and wisdom.
Dr. Lynn Hellerstein of Vision Beyond Sight speaks with Amanda Beausoleil, founder and Executive Director of Self-Injury Recovery & Awareness (SIRA), to talk about self-injury or nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Discover eye-opening and empathetic insights on this often-considered taboo topic through Amanda's own experience with it and her inspiring recovery. Self-injury knows no age and face, and we should all break away from the stigma of talking about it. Learn the signs and symptoms to look for in your loved ones and ways to approach them. Know that you are not alone and you can find help through peer support groups and the nonprofit SIRA with its programs and weekly Zoom meetings. Check out the ebook “Layers to Discovery,” a tailor-made literature for the self-injurer psyche, guiding those in need to find freedom, power and healing from the inside. Dr. Lynn Hellerstein, Developmental Optometrist, co-owner of Hellerstein & Brenner Vision Center, P.C., award-winning author and international speaker, holds powerful and inspiring conversations with her guests in the areas of health, wellness, education, sports and psychology. They share their inspirational stories of healing and transformation through their vision expansion. Vision Beyond Sight Podcast will help you see with clarity, gain courage and confidence. Welcome to Vision Beyond Sight! Also available on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Audible and Stitcher.
Sunday September 15, 2024 Rabi al-Awwal 11, 1446 This episode ushers the entry of the Sira into the 10th year after the Hijra and explores 'Ali's mission to Madh-hij, Abu Bakr's Hajj and the delivery of the verses of Sura al-Tawba marking the removal of paganism from the Arabian Peninsula.
Kada vam neko poput vampira toliko energije uzme tokom 11 meseci rada, naravno da je mesec dana odmora malo da bi se baterije napunila. To međutim, ne važi kada je DLZ u pitanju. Marko Vidojković i Nenad Kulačin su ponovo u etru, i nastavili su taman tamo gde su stali u sred borbe protiv litijuma, ali pojačani za stari srpski recept za uspeh - sir i proju. Desile su se još po neke stvari tipa francuskog poljupca, ili upada kosovskih specijalaca u preostale srpske institucije, kao i nova, apdejtovana verzija projekta Parizer 2.0, koje su zavredile pažnju ovog uhodanog dvojca. Gošća je doktorka pravnih nauka Aleksandra Bulatović, ali je poput mnogobrojnih svojih kolega ekoloških aktivista i ona tokom leta privedena u policiju. U međuvremenu je označena kao "ekološki terorista". U Magarećem kutku četiri jahača srpske apokalipse - onaj glavni, ona što ne ume baš da priča, onaj što je rođen sa zlatnom kašikom i onaj što za sebe kaže da je "sveti" i koji je postao vlasnik najstarije masline u Evropi.
EPISODE SUMMARY Sira returns home with Oket and is confronted by all that he's done, to her and to them. This is the finale of Godkiller, feat. Connie Chang. CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan Oh Captain, My Captain preorders OSN Book Club Anthology Kickstarter GODKILLER: Last Hope One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t Half Empty, Brute Force, Cody Martin Al'Athir, Circle of Song, Cast of Characters Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Ceridig's Heart, The Evidence Board, CJ-0 Sleep, Stephen Keech Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY Sira returns home with Oket and is confronted by all that he's done, to her and to them. This is the finale of Godkiller, feat. Connie Chang. CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan Oh Captain, My Captain preorders OSN Book Club Anthology Kickstarter GODKILLER: Last Hope One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t Half Empty, Brute Force, Cody Martin Al'Athir, Circle of Song, Cast of Characters Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Ceridig's Heart, The Evidence Board, CJ-0 Sleep, Stephen Keech Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY Sira has spent the last decade of her life like a bird in the gilded cage of an arrogant god but with the coronation tithe approaching again she will get to see home, and what's become of it. CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan OSN Book Club Anthology Kickstarter GODKILLER: Last Hope One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Half Empty, Agape, Depth of Loss, Wingfeather Cody Martin Mainframe, Wicked Cinema What We Call Home, Shimmer Persona, Lost Canyon Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY Sira has spent the last decade of her life like a bird in the gilded cage of an arrogant god but with the coronation tithe approaching again she will get to see home, and what's become of it. CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan OSN Book Club Anthology Kickstarter GODKILLER: Last Hope One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Half Empty, Agape, Depth of Loss, Wingfeather Cody Martin Mainframe, Wicked Cinema What We Call Home, Shimmer Persona, Lost Canyon Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY Sira and her village are visited by the God that “protects” them, Oket, for a great ceremony that coincides with Sira's 18th birthday. What offerings will he take from them? CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan OSN Book Club Anthology Kickstarter GODKILLER: Last Hope One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t The Last Straw, CJ Oliver Royal Catacombs, Cody Martin Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Glass Houses, Third Age and Shimmer Infiltration, Wicked Cinema Sleep, Stephen Keech Stars Align, Moments Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY Sira and her village are visited by the God that “protects” them, Oket, for a great ceremony that coincides with Sira's 18th birthday. What offerings will he take from them? CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan OSN Book Club Anthology Kickstarter GODKILLER: Last Hope One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t The Last Straw, CJ Oliver Royal Catacombs, Cody Martin Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Glass Houses, Third Age and Shimmer Infiltration, Wicked Cinema Sleep, Stephen Keech Stars Align, Moments Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY What is Godkiller? Connie and Dillin talk about this two player game as they flesh out a godkiller and the god they are destined to kill. CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan HUNT(er/ed) on Kickstarter One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t and Morphagene flute reel 2, by JamieWilson1112, courtesy of freesound.org Ceridig's Heart, The Evidence Board, CJ-0 Bazaar, Reveille Al'Athir, Circle Of Song, Cast of Characters Astral Journey, The Realist Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
EPISODE SUMMARY What is Godkiller? Connie and Dillin talk about this two player game as they flesh out a godkiller and the god they are destined to kill. CW in this series for loss of agency and religious themes. SHOW NOTES The Godkiller ashcan HUNT(er/ed) on Kickstarter One Shot News & Updates Follow the cast here! Dillin Apelyan as Sira, the Godkiller Connie Chang as Oket, the God ----------------------------------------------------- Find and call your representatives and be heard (US) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (Canada) Find and call your members of Parliament and be heard (UK) ---------------------------------------------------- Music Used in This Episode Jasmine, rivv3t and Morphagene flute reel 2, by JamieWilson1112, courtesy of freesound.org Ceridig's Heart, The Evidence Board, CJ-0 Bazaar, Reveille Al'Athir, Circle Of Song, Cast of Characters Astral Journey, The Realist Mists of Yunnan, Simple Thieves Editing and sound design by Tracy Barnett Find more of Tracy's work here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shownotes and Transcript Dr. David Wood joins Hearts of Oak to recount his transformative journey from atheism to Christianity. Sparked by profound discussions with Nabeel Qureshi during his time in jail. Focusing on apologetics regarding Islam, he emphasizes the need for Christians to address Islam's global ambitions for dominance and engage with its challenges. The conversation delves into Islam's complexities, including misconceptions, Muhammad's role, and controversial practices, shedding light on control mechanisms within the religion. Highlighting the growing curiosity to critically examine faith, the discussion urges critical engagement with Islam, support for individuals leaving the faith, and challenges foundational beliefs through historical and logical analyses. By comparing Jesus and Muhammad, the dialogue aims to encourage critical thinking and foster open discussions to prompt introspection and reshape perspectives on faith. Dr David Wood is an American evangelical missionary, Christian apologist and polemicist. He is currently head of the Acts 17 Apologetics Ministry. He is a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. After converting to Christianity, he earned degrees in biology and philosophy, and a PhD in the philosophy of religion. Connect with David... WEBSITE acts17.com X/TWITTER x.com/Acts17David YOUTUBE youtube.com/@apologeticsroadshow Interview recorded 15.7.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER x.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP heartsofoak.org/shop/ Transcript Hearts of Oak: I'm delighted to have Dr. David Wood with us today. David, thank you so much for your time. Dr David Wood: Hey, how you doing, Peter? Hearts of Oak: All good. All the better for seeing you and better for seeing you in London when you're over with the absolutely awesome conference that you and Jay and many others were involved in. So thank you for taking the time and coming over to Blighty. Dr David Wood: Yeah, that was fun. Hearts of Oak: It was good fun. Obviously, people can find you @Acts17David on Twitter and @ApologeticsRoadshow over on YouTube. Make use of both of those resources. But David, I've followed you for, I mean, quite a number of years on the engagement on Islam. And obviously I've known Jay for back when he was in London. So 17, 18 years ago, I first connected with Jay and was opened up into the world of engaging Islam and polemics and something I didn't understand before. And I've got to slowly understand and marvel at his ability to engage, as is your ability. But can I maybe step back a little bit? You've put out videos about you being an atheist and becoming a Christian. And I'm curious about that journey before we get on to your engagement on actually deconstructing Islam and taking it apart and destroying it, absolutely. But your conversion, tell us about that. Dr David Wood: I grew up as an atheist. I don't remember ever believing in God when I was a kid, but it wasn't really an issue. I wasn't thinking about it. It just wasn't an issue wherever I was. I was probably, I don't know, 13, 14 when I realized I was an atheist and eventually ended up in jail. And whenever I say that, atheists go, oh, you're saying that all atheists go to jail. No, I'm not. That was me. That was me. Okay. That was me. I'm one of the people who had a jailhouse conversion. So I got to jail and I met a Christian in there. This was a guy who had turned himself in for 21 felonies. So he became a Christian, went, turned himself in for everything he'd ever done. I thought that was the most idiotic thing I'd ever heard about in my life. So I started talking to this guy and he enraged me so much that I was, I started studying Christianity just to, just to argue with this guy. And, uh, uh, anyway, a while later, uh, took a while, but I eventually became a Christian, uh, had to serve some time, uh, got out, went to college. And so, yeah, that's, that's, uh, that's, that's the short version. If people want the law, if people want the long version, they can, they can, uh, check it out on my channel. Hearts of Oak: It's on your YouTube channel. Absolutely. What is your, cause you kind of think, I mean, I grew up pastor's kids, so very different background. Uh, you're growing up where you, you never went to church, never went to Sunday school. That just wasn't part of your upbringing. Dr David Wood: No, the only time I went to church was if I, and I never went to church when I was like little, uh, eventually we moved and we were closer to my grandmother and my aunt. But if I were visiting my grandmother or my aunt then and it was a Sunday then we'd go to church and I just remember I'd go in there and I'd sit right beside the little clock on the wall and I would just stare at that thing for the entire service and then as soon as it was done I would bolt for the door because they would have like donuts or brownies downstairs and so I'd bolt downstairs and grab a bunch of donuts and stuff. Hearts of Oak: But it wasn't on your agenda at all no you you talked about being in prison and I've read Nabil Qureshi's book and you touch on that and that having an impact on you, meeting him. And what was that connection like? Dr David Wood: Well, we just, we, we became best friends in college. So we were both on the, uh, speech and debate team at Old Dominion University. And, um, we went on, uh, uh, you go to different competitions and stuff. So this is, this is after I was locked up. So I got, uh, once I got out, I went to, uh, school, met Nabil Qureshi and we ended up sharing a hotel room on a school trip. And of course, you know, I'd been a Christian for several years now. He'd been a Muslim all his life. And I'm sitting in the hotel room and I see this guy's a Muslim, but I don't, you don't know if he's like a hardcore Muslim or, you know, liberal Muslim or something like that. So I was wondering, I'm sitting there reading my Bible in a year and I pray, I say, God, if you want me to talk to this guy, let him start it because I don't want people to accuse me of attacking the Muslim or something like that. And anyway, little, little while after that, I'm sitting there reading my Bible and he He goes, he goes, so are you a hardcore Christian? I was like, all right. Come on. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. And so we ended up, we ended up talking a lot that weekend about Islam and Christianity. We just became, we just became best friends. We got along really well. We ended up hanging out all the time together and so on. And yeah, so we spent the next basically four years arguing about Christianity and Islam. he eventually became a Christian. And when he became a Christian, I actually thought, oh, cool. I'm done with Islam right now because the only reason I was studying Islam was because my best friend was a Muslim. If he'd been something else, I'd have been studying that. And so, yeah, he became a, he became a Christian. I thought, ah, cool. I'm done with this stuff. I can get back to stuff I'm more interested in, which is almost anything. But yeah, it was actually part, part of the reason I stayed dealing with Islam was kind of watching the stand that he took for the gospel, and I was just like, wow, Muslims make really cool Christians. And by the way, there's a reason for that. There's kind of a flip side of what's a negative, and it ends up being a positive. But Islam puts all these psychological barriers in front of people, in front of Muslims, to keep them from leaving Islam. So Muslims are told their entire lives that the worst possible sin you can commit is the sin of shirk, associating a partner with Allah. So if you say Jesus is Lord, you've just associated a partner with Allah. That's the worst possible. That's a one-way ticket to hell. So saying Jesus is Lord is the worst thing you can possibly do. Two, they know they have to give up their families if they convert to Islam, or at the very least that their relationships with their families are going to be very, very, very strained. And three, the penalty for leaving Islam is death. Doesn't happen a lot in the West, but you always have to be kind of looking over your shoulder if you leave Islam. So we're Christians. We preach the good news. And when a Muslim, what a Muslim hears when we preach the good news is, oh, so you're telling me to believe this thing that's going to have to, that'll cause me to have to give up my family and maybe get my head chopped off and it's a one-way ticket to hell. And you guys call this the good news because it sounds like the worst news ever. So that's kind of a negative. Islam makes it very difficult to leave Islam. But the positive side, the positive side, I said there's There's a reversal here. The positive side is that when a Muslim says, you know what? I may have to give up my family and this may get my head chopped off. And I've been told all my life this will get me sent to hell. But you know what? I want to know Jesus anyway. That's someone who will stand up for Christ. And so, yeah, I just ended up sticking with it. Hearts of Oak: What was, what were you, before we get into that, what was your interest before? What kind of pathway may you have followed if someone like Nabeel Quresh had not come into your world and you'd understood the importance of presenting Christ to Muslims? Dr David Wood: Well, I was more interested in the objections of atheists because that was my background. So I probably would have done that. And that was the other part of it, why I ended up staying with Islam was that as I was thinking about that, like after Nabeel became a Christian, as I was thinking about what I wanted to focus on, it was just like, almost every Christian apologist out there deals with atheism. And back then there weren't a lot of Christians who were dealing with Islam. So you're talking early 2000s, like, you know, shortly after 9-11. If you went into Christian apologetics back then, you were either dealing with the objections of atheists or you're dealing with cults or or something like that, there were not a lot of people dealing with Islam. It was Jay Smith over there in the UK. There was Tony Costa in Canada. There's Samuel Green down in Australia and a couple of people in the US, but it just wasn't an emphasis. And so there was also that point where, okay, maybe I need to not be doing what I'm most interested in and do what's needed. And so I started focusing on that. Fortunately, it's a different time. Lots of people deal with to Islam now. So these are actually good days. Hearts of Oak: Well, of course, the starting point is, why would you engage with Islam? Surely Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all three of the great Abrahamic faiths. So why would you even want to engage on that when someone is following the great Abrahamic faith and therefore is good? Dr David Wood: I know you're not serious, but no, it's funny. So you've, we're told, we're told in, we're told in the New Testament what the core of the gospel is. So Jesus spent a few years with his followers. But when you look at the book of Acts, the message they actually went out and were preaching afterwards, this is the takeaway. The main takeaway for them was that Jesus died on the cross for sins. He rose from the dead and he's Lord. So you've got death, resurrection and deity. Those are the points they hit wherever they went. So that was the core of the gospel message for them. And we're also told in the New Testament that false teachers and false prophets are going to come. What are these false teachers and false prophets going to do? They're going to lead people away from that core message. And then you get down to Muhammad, and Muhammad comes along. And Muhammad says, hey, you Christians, you believe in God? So do I. You believe that God sent prophets? So do I. You believe in these revelations, these scriptures? So do I. When it comes to Jesus, you believe that he's born of a virgin? So do I. You believe that he lived the most miraculous life in history? So do I. you believe that he's the word, so do I. You believe that he's the Messiah, so do I. I agree with you on all these things. But there are just these three things we have to get past. One, he didn't die on the cross for sins. Two, he didn't rise from the dead. And three, he's not Lord. So if we can just get past those things, we'll all be on the same page. And it's like, my goodness, we've been waiting for you, buddy. You are like the perfect, you are the perfect ultimate example of a false prophet. Someone who agrees with us on all these other things and says, yeah, we're this close to being on the same page. Just drop the entire core of the Christian gospel. And so, yeah, we were warned. We were warned about Muhammad and we definitely have to respond to him. Hearts of Oak: Now, I want to go into a lot of the issues that you engage with on Islam, and especially the person of Muhammad. But you touched on people focus on atheism and see that as the threat. You obviously see Islam as a threat that's not being focused on. Tell us about that clash, because is it safer to focus on Islam? Is the people are blind to Islam? What is it? Why is the reason why the focus is on one threat and not the other? Dr David Wood: Well, it's just it was just atheism was a bigger issue in the West. So in the in the 80s and 90s, when apologetics started becoming more of an issue for people, and it was because you had Christian families and their kids are going off to college and their kids are coming back. Their kids weren't coming back Muslims. Their kids were going off to college and taking some philosophy classes and becoming skeptical. And if your kids had been raised in a church but hadn't really been given any reasons, in other words, they hadn't dealt with apologetics at all, and they didn't know how to respond to issues, and then you were actually challenged on your faith, some of those kids would just leave Christianity and become atheists. So people started focusing on that. And it's the other issue as far as cults where it wasn't Muslims knocking at your door, it was Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons. So people were responding to what was kind of an issue for them and Islam wasn't really an issue in the 70s, 80s and 90s and so on. So that by the time Islam started becoming an issue. Christian apologetics was just veered towards completely other things. And so, yeah, so yeah, that's why I started focusing on Islam. But no, it's definitely not, it's definitely not, not, not safer by any means. But as far as, as far as the, why it's so relevant, there's nothing in atheism that tells you one way or another how you're supposed to behave. So you could have an atheist who's, you know, a really mean, aggressive guy. You can have an atheist who, I don't care what people believe. Like my friend, I'm friends with the guy, the apostate prophet. His attitude is, look, I don't believe this stuff, but I don't really care what other people believe. It's not an issue for me. Like I'm an atheist. I don't believe anything happens after death. But if you believe something, what do I care? Right. And that makes sense from an atheistic perspective. So it only makes sense from an atheistic perspective to be concerned about something that's actually like causing you harm in your life or something like that. So he focuses on Islam. There's one religion out there that wants to execute me because he's an ex-Muslim. So he focuses on that. But apart from that, there's nothing in atheism that tells you you have to subjugate the world or anything like that. And you could have all different kinds of atheists. But part of Islam is the goal of ultimately subjugating the world and making all religion for Allah. law. So even with Muslims, you'll have different kinds of Muslims. So you'll have peaceful Muslims, you'll have very aggressive Muslims, but it's not like atheism where the ideology doesn't tell you what to do. The ideology tells you that your ultimate goal is to subjugate the world. And so Islam is, even with a diversity among Muslims, Islam is always going to be a bigger issue because when people take it seriously, then they have to start taking these issues seriously about confronting other people and, yeah, ultimately subjugating the world. Hearts of Oak: Well, that's a concept that doesn't really connect with Christians and those in the West. Generally, they think there's a pluralism and your freedom to believe what you think. And then Islam comes along and seems to be to want that dominance, to want to force its opinion that you can accept anything, but you must accept Islam. You don't have that freedom. I don't think that many Christians, certainly in the UK, probably the same for the US, I don't think they understand that desire to dominate that comes from Islam. Dr David Wood: Yeah, they don't. And you have lots of Christians who are, who are, you know, they might be ashamed of the history of Christianity. They might say, oh, well, you know, there were times when Christians tried to conquer people and stuff. So who are we to complain about Islam? Not realizing, well, you're not told, you weren't told to conquer the world. It's just a thing that humans do. too. So anyone might do that. You could have various ideologies where just because there are human beings involved, human beings very frequently want to make our way the way for everyone else. But Islam is different in that it actually calls for it. So as a Christian, if Christians start going around killing people, then you as a Christian could say, you're not supposed to be doing that. Here, let me show you why. Look, Jesus says right here, here. My kingdom is not of this world. He breaks it down to here. He's not fighting for an earthly kingdom. You can explain why they're wrong. You can say, look, it says right here, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. You're not supposed to hate everyone and try to kill everyone. So you have a basis within Christianity for saying, no, you shouldn't be doing that. In Islam, it's the reverse, where if you're peaceful and you just want to get along with people and so on, you can actually say, hey, if you're a Muslim, you need to be looking at what you're supposed supposed to be doing here. And so, yeah, it's just lots of people think, oh, you know, different religions have had their issues. Islam may just have a little bit of an issue now that you have some aggressive guys in it, but it can mellow out after time. But yeah, when one of the main goals of the religion is subjugating the world, that's going to keep popping up, and we keep seeing it pop up for a reason. Hearts of Oak: It is a possibly difficult issue to engage on. Okay, so moving on to um and I don't know if jihadi tears is available on your website because I love the mug Dr David Wood: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have a little online store, because I got this one made for live streams, but people asked where they could get it. So, yeah, they can get it in my little merch store. Hearts of Oak: Okay, it's available there. I just want to point that out. all right the so engaging on Islam um many people don't many people are afraid although they don't know they're afraid um where do you start is it then maybe start with the person of Muhammad um that we are told peace be upon him he is a prophet he must be respected and whether or not he exists or not I'm not very sure but how do you let's start with the person of Muhammad because Because I know that my good friend Calvin Robinson here in the UK calls it Muhammadism, those who follow Muhammad. And then you think, actually, is this about him or is it about something else? So how do you begin to tackle that issue of that individual? Dr David Wood: Well, yeah, people who call it Muhammadism and point out that it seems to be about Muhammad, absolutely correct. Absolutely correct. Correct. If you look at Islam, I mean, the word, you can learn a lot about a religion by kind of what its name is, like Christianity emphasizes Christ in the name of the religion. Islam, the word Islam means submission, and in its religious context means submission to Allah, refers to submission to Allah. And so Muslims will use that as sort of a sales pitch. Hey, Christians and Jews, you believe in God. You believe in submitting to God, right? Well, this is just the religion of submission to God. Why would you be opposed to that? Well, Islam doesn't just tell you that you must submit to Allah. It tells you how you submit to Allah. And you submit to Allah by obeying Muhammad in everything. And I'm not making that up. I'm not exaggerating this. Surah 4, verse 65, among other passages, Surah 4, verse 65. Says that Muslims can have no real faith until they make Muhammad judge in all disputes, have no resistance against anything that he decides and submit to him with full submission. And so here's the religion where you submit to Allah. OK, how do you do that? By mindlessly obeying anything this guy over here says, this guy who's an illiterate 7th century Arabian caravan robber. You have to mindlessly obey everything he says. If you have any doubt about what he says or you question anything, he says, you're not a real Muslim. And so, yeah, the religion is all about Muhammad. And it would be one thing if he was a really, really great, nice guy. It's something else entirely if he's a guy who calls for the violent subjugation of the world, a guy who says that apostates have to be beheaded, A guy who says that Jews and Christians, because they have true revelations, can accept an inferior status in society and pay tribute money to Muslims in honor in order to not be killed. But everyone else, they either have to be they have to convert or die. It's just it's just an entirely different category, especially when you look at some of you start getting down to the moral issues with with Muhammad, things like. A child marriage, he married a girl who was six years old. He consummated the marriage when she was nine years old. And you can look down to today, you have Muslims who are the world champions of defending child marriage. Daniel Hakikachu, you can consummate a marriage with a five-year-old, a six-year-old, a seven-year-old. He argues this, he defends this, he tries to defend it academically. You have Ali Dawa, who said that if his daughter was nine years old and she got her first menstrual, she got her first monthly period, then he said he would tell her she's ready to be married. And keep in mind, the Quran doesn't even require that. Aisha hadn't even reached puberty. So Ali Dawa, as revolting as it is to say, I would tell my nine-year-old daughter she's ready to be married. He's actually better than Muhammad who didn't wait, who didn't wait for a first, uh, didn't wait for a menstrual cycle. And so this is, this is the kind of guy you're dealing with. I mean, Muhammad again, had sex with a nine-year-old girl. He took the wife of his own adopted son after he caused the divorce by seeing her practically naked and started lusting after her and, uh, eventually married her after he caused the divorce when his adopted son's like, Oh, oh, if you want her, then you take her. And so he bought, owned, sold, and traded black African slaves. Those are the guys who institutionalized the African slave trade long before the United States ever existed. They're just amazing stories about the issues that this guy had. And they're in the Muslim sources. They're right there in the Muslim sources. So I'll just share one story that sort of gives you an idea of what you're dealing with here. Once Muhammad got caught in the bed of his wife, Hafsa, having sex with his slave girl. Now he was allowed to have sex with his slave girls. They understood that they didn't want it happening in their own beds, right? His, his wives didn't want him having sex with his slave girls in their beds. That was the issue. So Hafsa goes out to run some errands. She comes back early. Muhammad is in her bed with his sex slave. She objects to this. She goes and complains to the other wives and then to stop his wives from complaining. Like, what are you, you're rolling around with a slave girl in our bed, the bed that I sleep in. And then I'm about to go to bed there and you were just, you know, in there with your slave girl. So he, so in order to deal with his wives complaining, he says, fine, look, I'll never, I swear by Allah, I will never have sex with that slave girl again. And so then his wives are, oh, okay, that's fine. And then he gets the revelations in that are the opening verses of Surah 66. Anyone could read these, the opening verses of Surah 66, Allah tells him to break his oath. He said, I didn't tell you, I didn't tell you to break that. I didn't tell you to make that oath. I didn't tell you to swear that to me. And so he says, hey, you break that oath. And so Muhammad went back to having sex with his slave girl. He eventually, that's Mary the cop. That one was Mary the cop. He eventually got her pregnant. So, but I mean, think about this. This is Muhammad swears an oath to Allah. Allah tells him to break the oath because, well, I didn't tell you to make that oath and therefore you can break it. Well, think about that. Like 99.9999999% of all oaths that anyone ever takes were not commanded to you by God. So that means anyone could just break any oath at any time because God didn't order you to do it. And that's what you actually find in the Muslim sources that Muhammad is constantly being told, here's the justification for this horrible behavior that you're doing. And it comes from God. God is the one who's justifying your behavior right now. And if you look at the justifications, it makes all sorts of really, really terrible behavior completely acceptable. Hearts of Oak: So you're telling us that you can come up with voices in your head and then you can announce that is the way according to God to live by. And then you can do whatever you like. I don't know what to make of that. Dr David Wood: It is. is if you have enough people following you, if you get enough followers, you can silence anyone who criticizes you. I call this, this is a version of what I call Islam's 99-1 rule. And I usually talk about that in the context of apologetics with, I mean, Islamic apologetics with people like Zakir Naik. Because you sit there and listen to Zakir Naik, if you have any idea what he's talking about, you know, if you understand the issues that he's talking about, you know he's spouting complete nonsense. But the audience he's talking to, they don't know about any of this. They just agree with whatever he's saying And so the rule that has always been part of Islam is, If you're telling a crowd something Even if you're making it up If 99% of the people are just going to go along with what you say and believe you And 1% are going to object and go I'm not sure about that Or no, I know you're wrong about this Or this sounds suspicious to me If only 1% of people are going to object The 99% can silence the 1% So it's always been the way to do things in Islam So if you go out and you convince a bunch of people in Arabia to mindlessly agree with anything you say, and someone objects and says, hey, wait, I think we have a problem here. Well, the 99 can silence the one. And so that's been built into Islam from the beginning. It's the same in Islam now. Hearts of Oak: So you approach Islam, and what part of it do you tackle? You've got the Quran itself with its gibberish stories. You've then got the theology and all the books written about it. You've got Muhammad's life story. You've got all the practices that happen. I mean, you look at this range, and it's much more complicated. In Christianity, you have the Bible. You've got Genesis to Revelation. Revelation, you read it. It's fairly simple. You can understand the vast majority, if not the whole of the Bible. Maybe we'll leave a bit of Revelation aside in some of the other books. But I mean, it's simple to understand. The Islam seems to be much more complicated and convoluted and purposely designed to confuse people. So how do you start with unpacking it? Dr David Wood: Islam is extremely confusing. If you just start reading the Quran, you're going to be confused. Like when I see Christians who say, hey, I'm interested in doing Christian apologetics and dealing with Islam and so on. Should I read the Quran? I usually tell them that's going to confuse you at the beginning. Hold off on that. You might want to look up certain, you might want to look up the verses on certain topics that you're interested in. But as far as just sitting down and reading the Quran, you're not going to get anything out of it. You're probably going to give up around midway through surah two you're going to give up and so if you think that's essential to doing apologetics with Islam you're going you're not going to last long because you're going to give up and say this is too confusing uh but yeah the Quran's just it's completely disorganized it jumps around when they arranged it they basically arranged it from longest apart from the opening prayer uh they basically arranged it from longest chapters the shortest chapters so the chapters are completely out of out of like historical order um and so very confusing there You can only figure out. These passages mean or what the correct order is by going outside the Quran to these massive multi-volume collection of stories called the Hadiths and to the Sira literature and so on. And the impact that that has had on the Muslim community over the centuries is that, keep in mind, when I cited Surah 4, verse 65, that you can't have any resistance against anything Muhammad has said. You can't come up with your own interpretation of things. That's the sin of innovation in Islam. That's a one-way ticket to hell. If you come up with your own interpretation, your own understanding, that's a one-way ticket to hell. So the result of the Quran being very, very confusing and requiring these massive multi-volume collections of other sources and commentaries in order to understand what the Quran is even saying, the impact, the practical impact that it's had on the Muslim community over the centuries is you don't want to just read the Quran for yourself, because if you do, you're going to misunderstand some things and you might fall into some massive sins as far as coming up with your own understanding, misunderstanding passages, and you're actually... Going against Muhammad's understanding on some of these issues. And so you're actually in a lot of trouble not realizing it. So you don't want to do that. So the impact that this has had is you either need to learn all of it. So you learn the Quran and the commentaries, the Hadith, the Syria, you learn all of that so that you understand the Quran accurately, or sit down, shut up and listen to what your scholar says. The scholar who understands all this stuff, listen to what that guy says. And so your average Muslim, and this is shocking because we think of Muslims as very knowledgeable about their religion because we see them go to the mosque, we see them dressed in a certain way. No, Islam emphasizes that Muslims need to understand these basic practices and they need to do these things. They need to fast during Ramadan. They need to dress a certain way. They need to take the pilgrimage. But as far as understanding their book, it was shocking to me how little Muslims know about their book. In fact, the vast majority of times, the vast majority of times when I'm quoting the Quran to Muslims, they have no clue what I'm talking about because they're just not familiar with it. And that's kind of sad because you're trying to expose Muhammad by quoting these passages and they don't know what you're talking about. But there's a positive side to that as well. Namely that when you're showing Muslims what the Quran says about all these issues, the question that rises in their mind is, wait a minute, why have I never heard this from my Imam? Why have I never heard this from my Sheikh? Why am I hearing these things from this Christian only? And so there can be a kind of light switch moment eventually like, wait a minute, have they been filtering information from, have they been hiding this stuff from me? Have my leaders been hiding this information about the Quran and Muhammad from me? And why am I getting this stuff from the Christian and so on? So that can actually encourage them to start studying Islam for themselves. And at which point they're going to be on their way out of Islam. Hearts of Oak: It doesn't be a perfect setup for a cult because you do something that is only accessible to a few people in a language that only Allah can speak in. That's a bit of a bummer that you have a God that can only speak in one language, but that you've only got one language and the vast majority don't understand it. And therefore, they just do what they're told to do in a robotic fashion. It does seem like a perfect setup for having a worldwide cult. It is. It's considered a big religion just because of the size of it. If it were smaller, you would consider it a cult. But yeah, cult tactics are at the core of Islam. If you look at the tactics of any cult, that's exactly what Muhammad was doing the entire time. When you engage with people when they begin to see through the nonsense that is in front of them um and realizing that they are born you're born a Muslim as a Christian you you make a choice later in life but Islam you're supposedly born into it and you're stuck with that when they begin to realize what they're born into doesn't really make sense um it's it's difficult for an individual to walk away because Islam is not just a religious belief, but it's tied to many cultures. And there's a huge difficulty to walk away from that which defines you as a person, I guess. Dr David Wood: Yeah this ties into what I was saying earlier about Islam placing these psychological barriers, in the way of Muslims so if Muslim leaves in the west the main issue he has to deal with is okay I might be shunned by my family and when I say family I don't just mean mom and dad I mean aunts uncles cousins your entire community if you are in an area let's say of London where the, you've got the Muslim community and your family is part of the Muslim community and so on you say I don't really believe this. Your life gets very, very difficult. So the inclination would be lots of times to just, okay, I'll just keep going with the flow. I'll deal with this at some point later in life. That's in the West. If it's in a Muslim country and you're leaving Islam, that's a different story entirely because now you might have to deal with legal authorities. You can have to deal with your family just doing something to you and so on. But yeah, Islam makes it very very, very difficult, regardless of where it happens. Islam always makes it very difficult to leave Islam. And as far as how Christians should respond to this, keep in mind, Muslims are in a position very similar to the first century. If a Jewish teenager heard the preaching of Jesus and wanted to go follow Jesus, well, that might lead to problems with his family if his family rejected Jesus and so on. And so it's kind of a similar situation, but it's interesting because some of the same principles would apply where Jesus tells people that they may have to give up various things, but you're actually getting more. So you may have to give up, you may lose your family, but you're getting a much bigger family. And so Christians actually need to make this common knowledge among Muslims that, hey, if you guys have to give up your family, if you are shunned by your family because you leave Islam, guess what? We're going to take care of you. You have a much bigger family out here waiting for you. Hearts of Oak: Tell me about how you engage it. What for you is the big thing? I saw you having a celebration with Jay on the holes in the Qur'an and how that's come out, the different Qur'ans. Then you have the history that Islam teaches, and you find out that that begins to unravel as well. Which part of it do you see as being the main focus maybe at the moment or over the last few years, certainly for your work personally? Dr David Wood: Well, I've always been pretty much the same in that you have the arguments that Muslims are using to show that Muhammad is a true prophet. So we want to respond to those kinds of arguments. But also, what are the arguments that are most effective in dealing with Islam? So what are the arguments you use to expose Islam? What are the arguments that are most effective at exposing Muhammad and the Quran? and then how do you respond to the arguments that Muslims use to show that Islam is true. So those are the kind of issues that I've always focused on. And if you look at the arguments that Muslims used over the past several decades, the reason the holes in the narrative. Talking about the holes in the narrative about the preservation of the Quran, the reason that was such a big issue was that was one of their main arguments, if not their main argument for a couple of decades, was this argument from perfect preservation. They argued that the Quran has been miraculously preserved, dot for dot, letter for letter, and so on, from the time of Muhammad. I have Muslim apologetics books that say that there has not been one single letter changed in any single Quran manuscript, any single copy of the Quran from the time of Muhammad to the day. It's complete nonsense. It was a lie. This goes back to what I was calling the 99-1 rule. If If you're going to tell a group of people, hey, the Quran's been perfectly preserved, it's a miracle. Because you might wonder, if you're not familiar with this, you might be wondering, wait, why would a book being perfectly preserved be a miracle? I mean, if I take a copy of some book on my shelf and I find out this book is just, it's never changed or something like that, why would that mean that it's from God? But the reasoning is that if every time someone sits down to copy the Quran, they are miraculously preserved from making any sort of like scribal error or something like that, then this seems like it's god preserving it so that's the idea problem is it was it was just complete nonsense I mean if you if you go to the Muslim sources about the compilation of the Quran you find entire chapters came up missing because uh Muslims didn't recite those enough and they forgot them because early on they were trying to preserve it through memory um you find large passages of the Quran came up missing over 200 verses were lost just from surah 33 because the only people who had those passages memorized died in battle and they actually had a copy but Aisha's sheep He ate the only copy. So, I mean, you go to the Muslim sources and Allah can't even protect the Quran from a sheep. And you're talking about this perfect, miraculous preservation. So verses are lost. So that's what you find when you look at the Muslim sources. Then you can examine manuscripts. You can put manuscripts side by side. You find all kinds of differences, tens of thousands of differences when you examine Quran manuscripts. scripts. And then you get to the issue of different kirat in the world today. So there are actually different versions of the Quran that are used in different parts. Since the Ottoman Empire was the main empire of Islam, since that was the caliphate for centuries, their version, the version of the Quran that was popular with them, the Haftz Quran, that became most popular. And that was eventually what was used in compiling the 1924 Cairo edition of the Quran, the Haas version. So for most, for lots of Muslims, they're reading, they're reading that version of the Quran, but they're, that's not universal. You can go to, you can go to other parts of the Muslim world and they use different, different versions of the Quran. And so it was just a, it was just complete nonsense. It was a lie. It was at some point, some Muslim leaders just made this up and they spread the lie. And then people's confidence in Islam is based on this lie. It's the same thing with the scientific miracles arguments where they said the Quran is filled with all these scientific miracles. It's the same thing with arguing that because of Muhammad's amazing character, he must be a true prophet. No one could be this awesome and amazing if he weren't a prophet. These arguments only work in an atmosphere of ignorance. They only work in an atmosphere where no one knows about any of this. And guess what? That was the situation in the West when Muslim Da'is, their version of evangelists, these are people who invite people to Islam, when their preachers came to an area and started saying, oh, our book's been perfectly preserved, dot for dot, letter for letter. There are all these scientific miracles. Muhammad's the greatest man ever. No one was in any position to respond to any of this. And so they were able to actually convince people and win converts based on complete total deception. And so one of the main goals of me and many others over the years has been just to respond to these. And fortunately, over time, they collapse. You don't find lots of Muslims using the perfect preservation argument anymore. You won't find any other dawah guys using this anymore, unless they know they're talking to someone who is completely clueless. They wouldn't dare try that with Bob from Speaker's Corner or Chris. They wouldn't dare try that with anyone nowadays, because they know it's a lie and they know it's been exposed. Same thing with the scientific miracles argument. They wouldn't dare use that with any knowledgeable Christian. They would only use that if they walk up to someone, hey, do you know anything about Islam? Oh, you don't know anything about Islam? Oh, let me tell you about Islam. They'll use it there. And so if you know that their arguments only work in an atmosphere of ignorance, because they're based on complete deception, the way to respond to that is to just. Make an informed population. Make sure that there's always someone around who knows about this stuff. And the dawah, the dawah will never work. So that's one side of it. And the other, the other side is actually challenging Islam, exposing the Quran, giving arguments that Muhammad is a false prophet. And there's just, just plenty of that out there. Hearts of Oak: Because again, you grew up in the West and you have criticism of Christianity. If you, I grew up pastor's kid and massive criticism at school and debate and argument. and you have that, Islam seems to be a protected characteristic where you don't have. So your experience with Nabel, talking to him and beginning to expose, most Muslims do not get that. Most kids at school, when they learn about Islam, they learn it's perfect. With Christianity, they may be told, actually, there may be concerns of this or this historical document, and they have criticism early on. Islam doesn't have that. So it is difficult, I'm assuming, for a Muslim to walk away from something that they believe is perfect and their whole world is based on. Dr David Wood: And that's why actually responding to the arguments and using arguments to expose Muhammad is so absolutely essential. And fortunately, Christians are catching on to this because back when I was starting, the main response I got from Christians was, look, if you want to preach the gospel to Muslims, just preach the gospel. Don't ever criticize Muhammad or the Quran. That's just going to drive them away. And they had no idea how dangerous that idea was. So I'll just give an example. You mentioned Nabil. Nabil told me after he became a Christian, after he became a Christian, he said, we spent years examining the evidence for the death of Jesus, for his resurrection, for the reliability of the New Testament, for belief in his divine nature. We spent years going over all this. And he said, I was actually thinking, when we would go through the evidence, when we would watch lectures and debates, when we would read books on these issues, he said, I would be thinking. Wow, Christians have a much better case than I thought they did. They actually have good reasons for everything they believe here. He said he was realizing that as a Muslim, but he said what kept him being a Muslim at that time was he was thinking, but even if they can show me with 99% certainty that Christianity is true, that all these claims are true, even if they show me with 99% certainty that all these claims are true, I'm still 100% sure that Islam is true because of the the scientific miracles, because of the perfect preservation of the Quran, because of the character of Muhammad, because of all these things that were just based on lies. So think about this. You have Christians in the West saying, don't criticize Islam. Don't criticize Islam because that's just going to drive Muslims away when their heads have been filled with lies and they think that they have an airtight case. And so you're saying, hey, don't respond to what they think is an airtight case and is nothing but lies. Don't respond to that. And so what? You're just going to leave them with this 100% confidence in Islam that is based on lies and you don't want to deal with that. So I have to say, by experience, just my experience over the years, I would estimate that probably 95 to 97% of Muslims who leave Islam, it only happened after their confidence in Muhammad was shaken. That's when they were able to take an alternative seriously. So it's really, really important to expose those lies and that deception to show these problems with Islam. And again, fortunately, fortunately, Christians have woken up to this over the years because back, this is actually kind of funny. When I was starting, so years ago, and I would hear this, don't ever criticize Muhammad or the Quran. That's something you never do. That'll never work. And I'm thinking, wait a minute. I know from experience that works. I know from experience that works. And so I actually tried to figure out where are Christians getting this idea? Is it just because Christians in the West have become obsessed with being super nice? Where's this idea coming from? And I was able to trace it to two sources where they were getting this idea. One, there were Christian missionaries in Muslim countries who would come back to the US because churches back here are supporting their work. And there were Christians who are missionaries in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia and so on. And they would come back to the the U.S. and you'd say, oh, wow, we've got a missionary to the Muslim world here. Hey, come tell us about witnessing the Muslims. And the Christian missionary would say, yeah, and don't ever criticize Muhammad or the Koran. Well, that makes sense in Saudi Arabia, right? You have to be careful in Saudi Arabia. That makes sense. It doesn't make sense over here. What are you talking about? In fact, you could say, okay, if it's really difficult to criticize Muhammad and the Quran over there, fine, we can do it over here and we'll put it online. We'll get the message out for you. But the takeaway for people was, okay, just don't ever criticize Muhammad or the Quran. That's just going to lead to problems. So they're hearing that from Christian missionaries. But then the other source was they were hearing it from Muslim speakers at interfaith meetings, right? So they're actually going in there to an interfaith meeting where you have Christians and Jews and Muslims all gathered together. And the Muslim speaker would say, hey, it's great that we're building these bridges here. It's great that we're all getting along. Isn't this great? And as a Christian, you're saying, yeah, it's great. It's great being in a room with Muslims and everyone else. It's great. And so you say, hey, if you want to keep this going, just remember one thing. Never criticize Muhammad or the Quran because that would just destroy all these great bridges we're building. It would just destroy it all. So remember, never, ever criticize Muhammad to the Quran. That's just going to drive Muslims away. And then you'll never get along with Muslims ever again. And Christians go, oh, okay. And then they tell me this stuff and I'm sitting there thinking, are you serious? You think that the Muslim speaker is giving you accurate information about how to lead Muslims out of Islam? Are you serious? Are you joking? You believe that? You believe that this guy is trying to give you a good methodology for leading Muslims to, are you serious? Are you joking? And so, but that was so common back then that it was just, look, you just, I'm just going to have to show them. And so the, what's happened over the past two decades is basically the, the people who are blasting away at Muhammad and the Quran, that's where everyone sees Muslims leaving Islam. And all the people who say, don't do that, they don't see anyone leaving Islam. And so Christians have just realized over the past couple of decades, wait a minute, this is just, this is very effective. It's actually very effective criticizing Muhammad and the Quran. Hearts of Oak: On because of it just to finish off um I mean jay talks always I'm sure you do about the book and the man the book of the man and you look at you compare as a Christian as Christians we want to present Christ because we believe that Jesus actually is a solution actually he is the way the truth and the life and you compare him to Muhammad and you think well you've got this This violent, bloodthirsty warlord that just wants to get his own way and makes up theology because he hears stuff in his head. That's not really the person I would like to follow. So when you compare them side by side, there does seem to be only one option. But yet in many Muslim countries, I guess people have not seen who Jesus is and therefore do not have the option of following him. Dr David Wood: Yeah, that's correct. If you listen to, because Muslims have their information filtered for them, they think of Muhammad as this really, really great, wonderful guy who, if you were to put him side by side with Jesus, you'd say, wow, these are both really, really wonderful guys. But that's just because their information has been filtered from them. Lots of Muslims, I mean, lots of Muslim leaders understand that there are all these issues. And so they hide this from Muslims. And so they're not going to hear it from anywhere else. They have to hear it from us. They have to hear this. They have to hear this information from us. What's amazing is there's a radical difference between Jesus and Muhammad, even in the Muslim sources. Like you could just completely ignore the Bible if you just look at Jesus in the Muslim sources. So he's called the word of Allah. No one else is called the word of Allah. And Muhammad didn't even know what that meant, which we know what that means. In the beginning was the word. The word is with God. God, the word was God. The word became flesh. We know why Jesus is called the word. This has to do with his deity. Muhammad didn't know that. He just thought this was a name for Jesus. But in the Quran, Jesus is the word of Allah and he's called a spirit from Allah. And Muslims haven't thought through the theology of this. But when Allah creates something, he says, be, and the thing pops into existence, right? So a book, be, and something, a book will pop into existence. Chair, be, and the chair can pop into existence. That's how Allah creates. But when you're talking about Jesus, Jesus is the word of Allah That's something spoken out by Allah That's like something that originates from within Allah And Allah's speech is eternal So what? Jesus is the eternal word? What's going on? Are you not thinking about this? And then the spirit, a spirit is something that Allah breathes out Allah breathes out the spirit. And so here it sounds like Jesus is from within Allah, which makes him different from all the rest of all the rest of creation. So Jesus is the word of Allah. He's a spirit from Allah. He's sinless in Islam. He's called faultless in the Koran. And in the Hadith, you find out that Satan touches every child that's born into the world, including Muhammad. But he couldn't touch Jesus. He was he was prevented from touching Jesus. So Jesus ends up sinless even in Islam. Jesus lives the most miraculous life in history in Islam. Jesus does things like he creates in the same way that Allah creates. This is in the Quran. I'm not talking about Christianity. I'm talking about in the Quran. Allah creates Adam by fashioning Adam out of clay, and then he breathes the spirit into it, and then Adam comes alive. life. Jesus says, hey, look at this. He does it with a clay bird. He makes a bird out of clay, breathes the spirit into it, and then the bird comes alive. He creates in exactly the same way Allah creates in the Quran. So he's performing all these miracles. He's the Messiah. All these things are unique about Jesus, make him completely different. And you look at Muhammad, even in the Muslim sources, he's awful. He's terrible. So you can actually compare Jesus and Muhammad even in the Muslim sources and making a pretty airtight case that Jesus is superior to Muhammad. When you actually really, really go into the history of Muhammad and you look at the Jesus of the Bible, it's night and day. But Muslims don't know that, and they're not going to ow that until we show it to them.
Sira was a playful 4-year-old filled with vibrant life.
The phrase "Mental Health issues" is quite the buzz in today's world. Christian Counselor Zach Clinton has years of experience as a professional counselor, and has written a book entitled "EVEN IF." Also, Sira Botes, originally from South Africa, has developed a helpful strategy for families who have a loved one dealing with dementia or other memory issues.
Çdo mëngjes zgjohuni me “Wake Up”, programi i njëkohshëm radio-televiziv i “Top Channel” e “Top Albania Radio”, në thelb ka përcjelljen e informacionit më të nevojshëm për mëngjesin. Në “Wake Up” gjeni leximin e gazetave, analiza të ndryshme, informacione utilitare, këmbimin valuator, parashikimin e motit, biseda me të ftuarit në studio për tema të aktualitetit, nga jeta e përditshme urbane e deri tek arti dhe spektakli si dhe personazhe interesantë. Zgjimi në “Wake Up” është ritmik dhe me buzëqeshje. Gjatë tri orëve të transmetimit, na shoqëron edhe muzika më e mirë, e huaj dhe shqiptare.
School of Knowing and Serving God Session for House church leaders. This session is currently going on in CMFI headquarters, Koume - Bertoua. It stretches from 20th - 27th of June 2024. Listen and be blessed, Amen
Le 11 janvier, Sira commande 50 pots de savon noir et 50 gels douches auprès d'une boutique en ligne de produits cosmétiques. Elle verse 533 € avec une promesse de livraison sous 21 jours. Malheureusement, on ne lui envoie rien dans les temps. Et, alors qu'elle réclame un remboursement, elle reçoit un colis 4 mois plus tard avec de mauvais produits. De nombreux autres clients sont en litige avec cette société. Tous les jours, retrouvez en podcast les meilleurs moments de l'émission "Ça peut vous arriver", sur RTL.fr et sur toutes vos plateformes préférées.
Exact figures are not available. However, it is estimated that nearly one in 5 individuals have self-injured themselves at some point in their lives. The highest likelihood of this behavior emerges in young people between the ages of 14 and 22 years old. My guest on Perspectives is Amanda Beausoleil. She was motivated by her own struggles with self-injury to build a solution for others. That solution is SIRA, The Self-Injury Recovery & Awareness organization. It's a nonprofit that helps people recover by use of an effective and powerful peer-support group model. The services SIRA offers are not bound by geography as anyone in need can seek access to SIRA's resources.
Sunday May 19, 2024 Zul Qa'da 11, 1445 This episode concludes discusses the expedition of Dhat al-Salasil and some of its legal and moral lessons and introduces the finale of the Sira, the Conquest of Mecca, discussing the background of the tribes that caused the treaty of Hudaybiyya to be broken.
Show Notes and Transcript A warm welcome for the return of Anni Cyrus, host of "Live Up to Freedom" to provide a detailed analysis of Iran's history and its impact on the Middle East. She traces Iran's journey from Zoroastrianism to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, highlighting the societal changes and challenges faced under the Islamic regime. Anni explores Iran's relationships with neighbouring countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, shedding light on power struggles and religious divisions in the region. She also discusses Iran's media censorship, political landscape, and foreign policy towards Israel, emphasizing the use of proxies for influence. We end with reflections on the possibilities for change in Iran and its implications for regional stability. Aynaz “Anni” Cyrus is the founder of ‘Live Up To Freedom', she was born in 1983 into an Islamic family in Iran, after the Islamic Revolution removed the Shah and turned the “mini-America” of the Middle East into an Islamic tyranny. Given no choice, Aynaz was labeled as a Muslim by birth. Under Sharia (Islamic Law) she grew up under total Islamic dominance by her father, a Sheikh, and her mother, a Quran teacher. At age nine, Aynaz rejected Islam completely in her heart and mind. It happened on her 9th birthday when the Islamic state, in a public ceremony, declared the absurdity that she would be, from that day forward by law, an adult woman. Over the next six years, Aynaz suffered terrible, but legal by Islamic Law, abuses and punishments at the hands of many Islamic males of Iran. After being forcibly sold by her own father into an extremely violent marriage, Aynaz desperately sought escape from her hell as a child bride. Even after being visibly battered one last time, the Islamic courts denied her a divorce from the man who was clearly bound to beat her to death. So at age 15, facing death by one way or the other, Aynaz got herself smuggled out of Iran, to save her own life. Knowing nothing of the life of freedom for women and girls outside of Iran or Islam, she ran into what she calls “The Unknown.” But her running was a crime, for which, to this day, she stands condemned to death by stoning under Sharia. Aynaz then gained asylum in Turkey through the United Nations. But, as an unaccompanied minor, she was obligated to wait three more years. Finally, at age 18 her petition to become an American citizen was approved. After a further delay following 9/11, Anyaz was allowed entry into the United States on August 8, 2002. She became a naturalized and proud American citizen in 2010. Since 2011, Aynaz has produced the popular Internet video series, “The Glazov Gang”, hosted by renowned author in the counter-jihad movement, Dr. Jamie Glazov. Aynaz also appears in many of the show's hundreds of segments. Years of her media appearances are found in public speaking venues, interviews, videos, and articles, published in affiliation with The David Horowitz Freedom Center, Jihad Watch, Breitbart, American Thinker, Worldview Weekend, and American Truth Project, to mention a few. Connect with Anni….. WEBSITE liveuptofreedom.com GETTR: gettr.com/user/AnniCyrus X x.com/LiveUpToFreedom INSTAGRAM instagram.com/aynazcyrus TELEGRAM t.me/Liveuptofreedom Interview recorded 19.4.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... WEBSITE heartsofoak.org PODCASTS heartsofoak.podbean.com SOCIAL MEDIA heartsofoak.org/connect SHOP heartsofoak.org/shop *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on X twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin Transcript (Hearts of Oak) And I'm delighted to have Anni Cyrus back with us again. Anni, thank you so much for your time today. (Anni Cyrus) Absolutely. My pleasure. It's been a while. It has. That's exactly what I was thinking. It has been a while. And current events bring us together with the madness and chaos over in the Middle East. And who better, I thought, than asking on is Anni Cyrus. But first, people can find you @LiveUpToFreedom. Tell us about your show. Just give people, give the viewers, if they don't follow you, give them a taster of what they can find and what you put out. Absolutely. So Live Up to Freedom, which is also the name of my show, we produce two shows a week at the moment, hoping to somehow get to five days a week. But the majority of information that is produced on Live Up to Freedom is related to Middle East, Islamization, Sharia, and the dangers of red-green axis. 90% of the time, this is the type of educational programming. I mean, I don't force my opinion, but I will give you evidence from the Quran, from the Sira, from the Sura, every single one evidence coming from their own word, proving the fact that the possibility of us coexisting, not really possible. I'm with you 100%. And I do want your opinion, full force. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to getting your thoughts. But maybe I can ask you, we have watched what has happened with Israel, obviously, and then watched what has happened with Iran responding. Most of the viewers, whether they're US-based or UK-based, have zero concept of how Iran fits in the Middle East. They may have an understanding of, if they know history, of the Persian Empire. So it is a history that stretches back thousands of years. But today, few people in the West have an idea, I guess, of how Iran fits in. But obviously, you're Iranian-born. You live in the States at the moment. Maybe just touch on that about Iran and how it fits in with that, I guess, illustrious history over the thousands of years? How does Iran kind of fit in to the Middle East jigsaw? Sure. So let me start from here. Since you brought up the Persian Empire, let me just set the record straight about Persians versus Persian Empire. There's this thing going on lately that Persians don't exist because Persia doesn't exist. I want to make it very clear. Iran, as you know it today, is what was of Persia. So by nationality, we are Iranians. By race, we are Persians. Why is this important? Because there's a difference between nationality and race. And that's where actually we get all confused between racism, if you're criticized Islam, because a lot of nations now carry Islam. If you say something against Islam, they're racism Islam. Their race could be Persian, could be Indian, could be Arab. Now, Arab race has a breakdown. Again, Syrian Arabs have their own DNA. Saudi Arabian Arabs have their own DNA. However, there's one group of Arabs that don't have DNA, Peter, and that is Palestinians. The reason it's important to say we're Persians, nationality Iranian, is because we can make the point of there is no such a race as Palestinians. If you would do a DNA test on anyone in Palestine claiming to be Palestinian, you would find the DNAs of Syrian Arabs. You would find Iraqi Arabs. You would find even Egyptian blood. But you wouldn't find a Palestinian race blood because it doesn't exist. Now, I'm going to pull a leftist here and say, if you're willing to call them Palestinian by race, well, I identify as a Persian, so you're going to call me a Persian. That being said, Persian Empire down to a smaller size, down to a smaller size to today, which is a tiny bit of Islamic Republic of Iran, has always been the heart of Middle East. Literally the heart. Depending on how Iran beats, Middle East operates. That's why it's the heart. You go back, we're not going to even go 2,700 years ago. Let's not do that. We could. Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, freed the Jews in Babylon, told them you're free, and there you go. Temple Mount is there. That's how much Persia or Iran has been the heart. But recent, 45 years ago, 47, 50 years ago, when Iran was under the kingdom of Shah Pahlavi, you look at Middle East, there was peace. Prosperity, lots and lots of import and export financially, economy of Middle East was in good shape. Every neighbour country was also in good shape as far as culture, freedom, education goes. Islamic regime took over in a matter of 45 years. Not only Iran itself with all the resources Iran has, and I'm just going to name a few. Iran is number one land of making saffron. We have the second top quality pistachio. I'm not going to even go into the oil industry because everybody's aware of that. And then considering between Afghanistan and Iran, you have the two only countries producing opium. Well, I know some people misuse it, but it still is important material we need. So with all the resources, Iranian people, more than 82% are living life under the line of poverty by international standards. Same thing with the neighbours. You got the Turkey, you got Pakistan, you got Afghanistan, Azerbaijan. That is how much Iran's operation has affected not only Middle East, but over here with Western countries. I hope that answered the question. Oh, it does. I want to go back because we look at Islamic connection with Iran. But if you go, I mean, long time prior to the Islamic revolution in, it was 79, you've got from different breakups of the kingdom. And before that, you had from, I think, from the 20s, the Iranian state. So Islam was not in it. Tell us kind of how Iran kind of fits into that, where it's now known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. But before that, Islam wasn't in the name. Does that mean Islam was not part of the culture? Sure. Yes. So if we go back way back, way back, about 2,700 years ago, all the way to about 1,800 years ago, that period of time, majority of Iranians were known as Zoroastrians. There were some other atheists, there were Jews, there were Christians, all that. But then the Battle of Mohammed started 1,400 years ago. Now, what was the Battle of Muhammad? Muhammad started from Mecca, then went to Medina, then conquered Saudi Arabia. Now, who was the competition? Who was the biggest challenge? Persian Empire. Persia was standing up. They even sent messengers to the king of that time saying, have your people convert to Islam and we'll leave you alone. The king was like, no, we're good. We're not going to force anybody. So the very first time, the very first attack of Islamic attack, which in history books, you read them as Arab attacks. Yes, there were Saudi Arabians, but the attack wasn't about race. It had nothing to do with land versus land or people versus people. It was Mohammed continuing to conquer of Islamization to basically, you know, the global caliphate, which then global was just that area. The first attack happened. They couldn't conquer. The second one couldn't conquer on and on and on and on for a long time. In meantime, some of the Iranians or Persians decided to convert by choice, by choice, until one of the Iranians who by choice converted decided to become a traitor and basically start cooperating with the Arabs. That was the first time I want to say about probably 800, 700 years ago is when the first time of conquering people of Persia happened. A lot of Zoroastrians escaped. They went to India. That's why you see somewhat the biggest population of Zoroastrians are found in India. They took refuge in India. Some converted, some were killed, some became dhimmis and gradually either converted or died and fast forward all the way to almost, I want to say, 90, 92 years ago, when one of the kingdoms of Iran on the Qajar, or you guys pronounce it Qajar dynasty, they actually ruled under Islam. The king in the kingdom decided we will rule under, the full hijab came to the country. The full mosque building started. And then Pahlavi dynasty returned that. They didn't get rid of Islam, but they did return the country into America, freedom of religion. If you want to be a Muslim, be a Muslim. If you want to be Christian, be a Christian, anything. Until the first king, Pahlavi, decided to actually ban Sharia in Iran. Nobody was allowed to wear hijab, mosques were shut down. And surprise, surprise, England and France got involved and told him that you're going to lose power if you don't give them their freedom back. So the decision was the father will step down, the son will take over. And they will allow Sharia to continue. On top of that, they will allow one representative of Islam or Muslim community of Iran to step into Congress. The rest is history. Literally 20 years later, Islamic revolution happened and it has never gone back. But it's not just Iran, I guess, has a history. Think Egypt having a long history. Lebanon, I know, reading the Bible and you hear about the cedars of Lebanon. And then you think of Saudi Arabia and you think of the House of Saud. But a long time before that, there were different emirates in that area. And some of those countries have been artificially created, maybe like Jordan. But other countries actually have got a history of thousands of years. How does that work? Because as a Brit, I think of Europe and the struggle with the nations in Europe for dominance with France, Spain, with the UK. What is that kind of struggle like in the Middle East with those countries that have a long history? Well, another country we can name is Afghanistan. If you look, Afghanistan is a pretty recent conqueror of Islamization. Right around 1979 when Iran was conquered, very shortly before that, Afghanistan was conquered. Afghanistan has a long history of battling back and forth and by the way I sometimes feel like people of Afghanistan are not getting the credit they deserve they have such a long and pure history, cultural music involved in art involved they have some of the most unique musical instrument you find out there that is now westernized and used but nobody knows because everybody thinks Afghanistan was, you know, Islamic country from day one, and Afghans were all Muslim. That is not what it is. Now, that battle, with Saudi Arabia, you need to realize when Mohammed, you know, came up and said, I am the prophet, the majority of people in Saudi Arabia were. I can't pronounce the English, when you believe in more than one god, polygamous? Is that the word? Polytheism? There you go, polytheism. So with Saudi Arabia, there is a much deeper root of Islam. It was literally the first introduced religion that unified the country. It did, or nation. But the rest of Middle Eastern countries those who are not as you said artificial those that existed they were none of them has any roots, none of them, that's the thing sometimes we have this saying in Middle East is like, oh you're just a Muslim born, meaning you're not really Muslim and I'm like, that doesn't exist, it doesn't because nobody the root, except of Saudi Arabia, there is no other race or nation that was the start. So that the struggle for every single Middle Eastern country back and forth between this. Now, again, I even during the Pahlavi kingdom, Peter, nobody minded Muslims. Nobody did because it wasn't the constitution. You wanted to be a Muslim, be a Muslim. But then on the other end of the city, you would find, you know, restaurants and bars and concerts. And women with short skirts. The struggle in Middle East even as recent as two years ago in Afghanistan. It's the matter of literally forcing this Islam into the country rather than allowing it, which is one of my main arguments. if this religion is such a religion of peace, why is it that wherever it goes it's forced, feared, blood involved. If it's so peaceful why can't they get people to convert on their own, but rather have to force them to do it. So that has been the struggle of last literally 1400 years. Today, you find people from Saudi Arabia who reject Sharia. They don't want their constitution to be Sharia anymore. Now, do we have Sharia-based constitution in Western countries? No. But are many of them already living life under Sharia? I would say, for example, London is a great city to name. I have not been to London because they won't let me come to England. But the last time I left London was January of 2011. And sometimes when I look at some of the videos or live feeds coming from London, like that's not where I was. That's not what I remember of London. So not to make it even longer than I did, if Western countries don't realize that there needs to be an absolute cap and limitation, the struggle of Middle East will start coming here, where you constantly have the battle of Islamization, de-Islamization, Islamization, de-Islamization, and gradually the culture will disappear. I hate to say it, when I look at my fellow Iranians today, there isn't much of Persian culture left anymore. it's something of a confused Arab versus Persian, versus Sharia, versus Western. It's a very mixed up where, sadly, you can't really pinpoint anything left of that land or country or culture and behaviour of the people. Half of the Farsi they speak, I don't even understand. I'm like, what is that? Any of the leaders, they started talking. I'm like, okay, you're not a speaking Farsi. It's full on Arabic at this point. Tell me, when I talk, and I want to get up to the current day where we are, but I'm curious because I talk to a lot of my African friends, especially in church, and you realize that African nations are tribal-based and there is more allegiance to the tribe than there is to the nation. We look at Nigeria and it's completely separated on tribal lines. What is it like for a country like Iran? Iran is a large country, nearly 90 million, so it has influence in that regard. How does it work when people call themselves Iranian or me? How has it worked prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979? Where is that kind of identity and connection for Iranians who lived there prior to the revolution? That's actually an interesting question. One of the top things I did a few years ago, one of the things I mentioned about Iran that many people are not aware of is the majority of Iranians are actually bilingual by about age 9 or 10. Because Iran, as of today still, it has, if you look at the map, the south versus northeast versus west. They are tribes, not the African style of tribe, but they do have their own tribes where you have the Kurds who are still within their own culture. Their customs are still the old school, traditional Kurdish. They speak the Kurdish language at home and then they speak the Farsi language, which is the country's language. And then you have the Turks in Tabriz and some of those areas. Again, the food and the music and the language is the Turkish. And again, this is because you shrunk this huge empire down into the small size of the country. A lot of tribes are still in there. You have the Fars, literally, who are the pure Persians, the only non-bilingual people of Iran who only speak Farsi, have the traditional customs of Persia, the way they do their Norse versus the rest of the provinces. Says it's different however somehow for some reason it has always been united regardless of who's from which side or which background, doesn't matter if you're the Arab of the south or if you're the Kurd or you're the Turk or you're the Fars it has always been united until the Islamic revolution, where the country became divided based on Muslims versus non-Muslims. And when I say non-Muslim, Peter, I don't mean Christian or Jew. No, I mean non-Muslims in eyes of the government. Those like Mahsa Amini, who don't wear the proper hijab. Those who don't do the prayer the right way. Those who wear the makeup. Those who have boyfriend or girlfriends, which is against Sharia. Those are the secondary group of people. Tell me about when you think 45 years ago, the revolution, what does that mean for freedom within the country? I know it's claimed to be 99% Muslim, but not just religious, but general freedom within the country. What is it like to live in the current, I guess regime or government in Iran? I'm so glad you asked that I was having a discussion with a friend of mine literally yesterday about this, that it has come to a point where the the lack of freedom isn't, isn't just about your, what you say or what you wear or what you eat anymore. The lack of freedom has gotten to a point where a majority of Iranians, especially the younger generation have lost absolute motivation, that the answer always is, well, so what? Like, why don't you go get a job? It's like, then what? Why don't you go to school? Do what with it? You literally have Uber drivers it's not Uber, it's called a snap I think in Iran, when they pick you up snap, you sit in the car and by the way for those of you, yes I have not been back to Iran but I do have people who are in Iran or just came back from Iran so the information comes from there, now I'm not smuggling myself back. You start talking to the driver and he will tell you that he holds a darn PhD, Peter, but there's no job for him, either because he doesn't belong to IRGC or SEPA or this group of Islam or that group of Islam, or it's the fact that somewhere somehow when he was younger, got arrested and has some sort of morality police stamp on his resume. So he won't be hired or it's the matter of, he is not a Muslim. He's a Baha'i. He can't admit he's a Baha'i. They're going to kill him, so he'd rather drive his own taxi than go get killed. It's just literally there is zero motivation to do anything with your life because one way or another, you'll be blocked by this regime. Genuinely, they wake up in the morning, change their mind about the latest law, and there's nothing to stop them. There is nothing that could stop them from changing the laws every hour. Every house supreme leader can literally wake up this morning and say colour red is forbidden for women, I dare you wear red, They will arrest you. They will probably put you in detention centre. They will drag you to Sharia court and then probably, I don't know, lash you a couple of lashes and you home. Make an example out of you. Nobody else can avoid a wreck. Now, I'm making this up as an example, but to that, the small detail of life is being controlled. Tell us how, within the country, what does it mean for the media? What does it mean for, I mean, some countries like Dubai want to be outward. Focused but still want to be Islamic where other countries like Saudi it's maybe less, so it's wanting to have that pure Islam and there is a less focus on being outward looking, when you think of Iran you think of something which is a closed box because of the devotion to Islam and that cuts off the West so what does that mean within, for education, for media? Okay, so we need to explain something before we even answer that question. By we, I mean me. I identify as... Media in Iran. There is no... private or alternative media. There's just one type of media, which is owned by government, ran by government, approved by government, everything government. There are, I believe six channels of cable, only six. One is dedicated to news. One is dedicated to sports. And the other three, one is dedicated to religion actually. Most of the time, it's like some Mullah sitting there dissecting and fat buzz and Corona and stuff. And then there are two, that is a combination movies, TV series, commercial news, a little bit, things like that. Now, why am I breaking it down is because it is so extremely controlled that it's only six, Only six. For example, the sport channel, you'll never find any kind of female competition inside or outside of Iran out there. You just don't. They cover all of the European leagues, right? The soccer leagues. And you literally see that if they pass by a female audience in a stadium who is wearing makeup or open hair, you literally see them blurred out and then you come back to zoom back in. To that extent what is being aired inside the country's control You can make a movie in Iran, but before you make a movie you got to take your script and your crew names to this department that's going to read the script, either approve it or tweak it then approve it or reject it, if you get approved on your script then you go make the movie, but before you air the movie Peter they will watch how you make this script. If they find one scene, just one scene that they don't like, they'll have you go either redo it, edit it, come back again. A movie can take seven years to be released or two minutes to be rejected. Doesn't matter how much you spend on your movie. It's done. Won't never come out. So that's the internal. Now, they have one, Tenseem is the name of it. I actually report from it a lot. They have one, let's say, kind of like an article or text formatting website that is tied to the regime. And then they have their own Islamic Republic of Iran's broadcasting website. Those are the ones that are being fed propaganda and lies to be published because we outside have access to that. We read that where it makes it look like the country is flawless and people are super happy and the elections are going fantastic, that is the one for external use that is mainly filled with propaganda And how does politics work? How does, are there elections, were there elections before, how does that work in the country? Yes there are, there are selections. There are selection election however it's in your best interest to show up for this election, because one they can create a lot of propaganda video and put it out, number two, now in Iran when you vote they actually stamp like you use your index on a stamp and they you put it on your birth certificate which Iranian birth certificates are like a lot of booklets, now if you have that a printer means you voted. And for example, at the end of the year, when they're giving away coupon for chicken or egg or oil or whatever it is, if you have that fingerprint, you get your coupon. If you don't, well, good luck, go buy it out of your own pocket. So it's a selection coordinated to look like an election. And if you don't show up, well, there are consequences. [Hmm tell me how it, is the focus with Iran with the leadership, is it for dominance within the region and then you're clashing with the other Islamic nations or is it with the destruction of Israel because Iran and Israel don't border, think isn't Iraq between them if I my middle eastern geography is bad so feel free to correct me, but how does it fit in, what is the goal? Is it regional stability and power within the region, or is it focused on hatred towards Israel? Can I go with all of the above? Is that an option? Internally, the regime or the mullahs, internally, main focus is to re-establish a stability. Because literally from 2009 and the Green Movement, on and on and on, they have lost that stability. Every time there's an uprising, it's becoming a stronger, longer, stronger, more planned. So they're trying to gain that stability they had for the first, I don't know, 27 years of their power. That's number one internally. Now, how do they gain that is by creating some sort of dilemma or war for the people of Iran to stand down because they're, at the end of the day, if you look at the history of Iran-Iraq war for eight years, eight years, people of Iran fought. And I can tell you, I have heard directly from the soldiers or from children of those soldiers that they have always said, we didn't fight for the mullahs. We fought for our country. Okay. So with that, if there is a war going on, even if it's a small, even if it's not a major, it doesn't have to be an eight years war, but the regime can reestablish that stability inside. They do have hatred for Israel. I repeat, when Khomeini arrived in Tehran in 1979, he was driven from the plane airport to the biggest and most, I don't know why it's famous, but famous cemetery in Tehran. They put a chair, he sat on it, and he started talking. The very first thing that came out of his mouth was, let the plan begin. We're going to take down the great Satan and wipe Israel off the map. Now, 47 years ago, they already said what they're planning to do. So that's that. They want to wipe Israel off the map. Is it mainly religious beliefs? Yes. But also, it's the fact that they know that as long as Israel exists, Iran will not be able, in any shape or form, or the government of Iran, rest easy knowing they have the land forever. But you've got a, I mean, you could have countries coming together with a focus on a common enemy, which is Israel for everyone. But then you've got, you've got obviously Lebanon and Syria basically failed states, but then you've got Turkey and Saudi and Egypt and the Emirate, Dubai wanting to assert themselves. So is there no coming together against a common enemy? Because Iran seems to be very much still out in the cold in regards to relations with other nations around it. That's a good question. I highly doubt that Iran and Saudi Arabia would ever come together. Again, going back to 1400 years ago, this battle didn't start yesterday and it's not going to end tomorrow. That Saudi Arabia versus Iran, or better yet, Arabs versus Persians war, a battle has been going on for a long time. And is Saudi Arabia targeting Israel enough to put themselves in this scenario? I doubt it. As far as Turkey is concerned, right now, Erdogan is doing a lot of talking. But remember, Erdogan needs to be very careful because they don't want to be kicked out of EU. This much of the country is in Europe. The rest is in Middle East. They worked so hard to squeeze themselves into EU. He's going to have to be very careful because he won't have the allies he has today. If he's kicked back into full on Middle East, that's when Iran is going to come after him. Iran and Turkey on paper, it might seem all good, but Iran and Turkey don't get along either. All the way from the Caliph of Sunnis until today, the Sunni versus Shia scenario has been going on between Turkey and Iran. So I know Erdogan does a lot of talking. I don't believe unless Russia gets involved, Turkey won't get involved. That's the only time Turkey will get involved because now Turkey has the approval of Russia to get involved and back Iran. So let me jump up to the present day. And if my research serves me correct, I don't think Iran has actually struck at Israel since the revolution. And this seems to be from what I've understood knowing little about Iranian politics but it seems to be the the first attack on Israel. Is that correct and how does what Iran have done, the attack on Israel, how does that change things in the region? You are correct. Yes since 79 until today there has never been a direct, a strike or attack from Iran toward Israel. But I go back to the fact that we need to acknowledge they are playing it this way, but we need to remember this attack directly was by IRGC. IRGC is Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It is not Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Were they put together by Khomeini? Absolutely. Do they belong to the government of Iran? No, there are their own entity freely guarding all Islamic nations. That's why you have their children such as Hezbollah and Houthis and Hamas out there. That being said, I don't, this is not going to be pleasant to a lot of your audience, but I'll say it. Iran's strike or IRGC's strike or Israel's airstrike. Neither one of them were strikes. This just doesn't look like anybody's planning to do anything major. Both Iran and Israel have the military needs, means, sorry, wrong word. To do real damage if they wanted to, This whole, in Farsi, we laugh and say, you know, they knock at each other's door and run and hide. Seems like that's what they're doing. They send a couple of missiles, yeah, 300, lots of missiles and drones, but then they call and say, heads up, in about an hour, hour and a half, fix up your iron dome so we're about to arrive. When was the last time Hamas gave a heads up? Right? October 7th happened, catching everybody off guard. And they left a mark. You know what I mean? This Iran Saturday strike and this Israel striking back, which by the way, Iran is absolutely denying the existence of this attack back. And that's what you need to look at. Iran goes saying, okay, we attack, this is it. If you attack back, we're going to be in a split second, we're going to destroy Israel. Israel attack back and Iran denies it. It ignores it, never happened. Does that look like something is about to change in the Middle East? No. This is all tied back to Western countries. In America, we're in election year. We're in election year. Whatever happens over there can definitely help Biden over here. Europe is in pretty much a lot of chaos. The tests run up. Are they going to sit back and let us do whatever we want to do? Or are they going to dare try to rescue and get attacked in their own countries with our sleeper cells? That's all there is to this I'm not downplaying anything but I know both countries, I've heard and I've seen the capability of both ends, this doesn't look like something that's going to turn into world war three, that's not going to happen No you're right when I read the reports a day before, 100 rockets are going to be fired over and talking to people and they said seriously who gives their enemy that much notice and then the next day 100 came over to the number. So you've got that a show of strength and I get that as a show of strength, especially drones taking three to four hours and it shows you what you can do, but with Iran having so many proxies, I mean Hezbollah are a serious threat to the region and seemingly much more dangerous than Hamas are and they're embedded in Lebanon and Syria. How does that play and does Iran not just use a proxy like Hezbollah to attack Israel instead of firing over what, drones that take four hours? That's not a serious attack, but Hezbollah do seem to be serious. Yes, exactly. And that's where I put my thought process. I'm like, OK, you have Hezbollah and you have Hamas. And again, I go back to October 7. It shocked all of us. Not because we weren't expecting Hamas to be so barbaric. No, it was the fact that nobody called anybody to say, okay, so tomorrow at your music festival, we're coming. That's how you do serious damage. You have Hezbollah, you have Hamas. And I'll go back to what I've said many times, and I've been accused of many things. Israel is not going to take on Iran. You know why? Israel has what it takes to take on Hamas, and they never did. They haven't. I was looking on my Facebook page, and last year, this week, is exactly when this Hamas-Israeli situation was going on, and Biden was on the phone asking for a ceasefire, which Israel ended up doing the ceasefire. Every year. It's a pattern. It just happens. But for anybody to either get excited or get nervous that something's going to come out of this, no. Hezbollah is regrouping, yes. Israel is talking about possibly going into Lebanon, yes. Is any of this going to put an end to this back and forth? I highly doubt it. I do. In no shape or form is it in benefit of anyone involved with globalist groups or elite or deep state. None of whom have any interest in ending this conflict in Middle East. So it's not going to end one way or another, and it's not going to even start. Again, it's that time of the year where everybody needs to get a little dusty in Middle East, and then everybody's going to go home and next year we'll repeat. That's just the way things go. Unfortunately, as much as I wish somebody would finally put their foot down and say enough is enough, nobody's going to do that. They are just giving a break to Hamas for now. While Hezbollah is regrouping IRGC is doing a lot of manoeuvring, And that's it. Now, why is Israel not standing up? Well, that one is a question for Netanyahu. It's interesting watching because, obviously, Israel didn't deal with Hamas before. It's now been forced to deal with Hamas. And Israel are going to do what it takes. That's how it seems. And whatever force is needed for them to secure their security, they will go for. But I guess the Islamic nations have been happy for Hamas to be a thorn in the side and for the Palestinians to be a thorn in the side of Israel because that keeps Israel's defence spending high, it keeps their a threat level high, it keeps that fear, it's perfect to kind of keep Israel nervous and not let them kind of relax a constant state of war I guess. What does it mean if Hamas are removed to a degree? Does it then, do those nations around think, what's next? Does Hezbollah then have to come in and provide that? What does that mean for stability? Because it does seem the country has been happy to sit back and let Hamas do the, let's piss off Israel role. Well actually to emphasize on your point, Hamas and Palestinians were put there exactly for that purpose, now I brought this up a couple of times that we call, I don't, but Western countries you call them Palestinians but if you talk to them, talk to Rashida Talib, for example, and listen to their chants on the streets of UK, France, US, Canada, anywhere, you don't hear Palestine, you hear Philistine. It's Philistine. The enemies of Jews, Philistine. They were picked. This name wasn't specifically picked. Their location wasn't specifically picked. That's one of the reasons when it comes to the argument of Palestinians versus Israel or the Gaza border. I just opened this up. First of all, you don't find an Arab-speaking person who can say Palestine. Again, my mother tongue of Farsi was not Farsi. It's Parsi. Parsi, the language of the Pars people of Persia. It turned into Farsi because in Arabic language there is no character as P they don't say Pepsi they say Bepsi, how do you expect them to say Palestine, no we have turned that into Palestine so we hide the fact that they are the Philistinians the enemies of Jews, so they are put in place and named specifically for that reason. Now, if Israel for any reason would finally come to realize that let's just take him out once and for all, and yes, taking out Hamas is very much doable. And that way, they will force the hands of IRGC and Hezbollah of Lebanon to actually take action. That's when Israel will have what they need legally by international law to actually overthrow the regime of Iran. But they won't. Yeah, and with the Palestinian, we've had Robert Spencer on maybe a month or six weeks ago, and I enjoyed his Palestinian myth book. So 100% with you that it is a made-up terminology. Can I just finish off on Iran and you've been great at giving us a broad sweep I think to help us understand, because many of us are completely unaware of not only where the countries fit in together but where Iran fits in, but what does it mean for Iran and freedom because you want individuals to be able to choose where they live, how they live and to decide they don't want the constant state of tension with their neighbours. What does it mean for Iran going forward? Is there a chance of a revolution in Iran from the people to overthrow the regime and have something which cares about people's rights and freedoms? Or do you not have any great hope for that happening in the near future? This might come as a surprise if... Lord willing, comes November, and we get President Trump back in the office. Within months, there will be an uprising in Iran. The last two times people of Iran tried, unfortunately, once was during Hussein Obama, once was Biden, they couldn't get the help they needed. They couldn't get the Biden regime or Obama regime to put sanctions and pressure on the regime. So they ended up losing a lot of lives, either by being killed or being imprisoned and tortured daily. So they went home. I know for a fact, if President Trump is back in office, people of Iran will try again. Will they be successful? That's when the Israeli government comes to picture. Again, Iran by itself, people of Iran, first of all, remember, they don't have a Second Amendment. Not only that, there are no illegal guns to be bought either. The borders are extremely protected in Iran. You can't even smuggle them into the country. So they're always empty handed. Secondly, the very first thing that happened is the regime cut down, cuts off the internet access to the people, which adds the agony of now what? How do we get the message out? How do we get the people to put pressure on the government? So Israel and America's government play a huge role of what will happen internally in Islamic Republic of Iran next. We need all these sanctions back. We need a lot of economic pressure back on Iran, and we need Israel to keep pushing back. Then people of Iran will have what it takes to finally overthrow these people. Am I hopeful? Always. There's always hope. As Robert Spencer said, it's not over until it's over, and it's not over yet.
Hossam Ouf is currently a research fellow at the Chair of Hadith Studies and Prophetic Tradition at the Center for Islamic Theology in Tübingen, where he researches and teaches Hadith and Sira. He also received his doctorate in 2022 from the University of Tübingen. His dissertation entitled “Hadith Transmission and Confessionality: A Comparative study of “al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ” of al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870) and “al-Kāfī” of alKulaynī (d. 329/940) in the Sunni and Twelver Shiite hadith sciences.” He completed his master's and bachelor's degree in Islamic Theology in the German language at AlAzhar University in Cairo, Egypt. His master's thesis was also on the topic “The Hadith Criticism of al-Khaṭṭābī (931-998): An Analytical Study of Matn Criticism in the 10th Century A.D./4th Century A.H.” His research interests include Islamic Theological Hadith Research, classical and modern approaches to hadith sciences and the hadith transmission, comparative Hadith research, Sunnis, Shiites, Muʿtazilites, Hadith hermeneutics and hadith exegesis, and classical and modern exegetical approaches to mushkil al-ḥadīth.
ԼուրջCast-ի այսօրվա հյուրը ոճաբան, իմիջմեյկեր, Սիրամի բրենդի հիմնադիր ՝ Սիրա Մինասյանն է, ում հետ խոսել ենք #ճային հագնվելու կարևորության, #քաղաքական գործիչների #ոճ ի և սահմանը չհատելու կարողության մասին։ ArmComedy թիմը ներկայացնում է ԼուրջCast
Mark Minck was radically impacted about 6 years ago, at a breakfast sponsored by SIRA, a crisis pregnancy center in Alachua County. His career was put on hold, as Mark guided the efforts to put a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution as a citizen's initiative. After two election cycles, and a looming deadline, the Human Life Amendment campaign failed to hit its required signature goal. But the issues of concern remain, and in 2024, loom larger than ever before.
EP 133 | Muhammad: Fact or Fiction? with Al Fadi | Redeeming Truth In this fascinating and controversial episode of Redeeming Truth, host Jon Benzinger joins former Muslim Al Fadi to unpack the complex figure of Muhammad in Islam. They dive deep into Islamic sources about Muhammad's life, including obscure Hadith and Sira, analyzing his marriage to Aisha, his commands to kill opponents, and more. Al Fadi candidly discusses aspects of Muhammad that Muslims don't like to talk about. They also debate whether Muhammad truly existed, examining arguments from critical scholars like Dr. Jay Smith and Robert Spencer. According to Al Fadi, Muhammad likely did exist but his story was greatly amplified over time for political reasons. This is an eye-opening discussion about the deep connections between early Islamic history centered around Muhammad and trends we see today like jihadism and anti-semitism. Don't miss this brave conversation! GIVE TO THE MINISTRY: https://redeemeraz.org/give Click here to Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCenfIkvDIJa4Qb4WgsH8hkw?sub_confirmation=1 REDEEMING TRUTH MEDIA: http://redeemingtruthmedia.org/ Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/redeemerbibleaz/ For more information about Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona, or to help support this ministry, please visit us at https://www.redeemeraz.org Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/redeemeraz Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/redeemeraz Never miss a sermon, find our Redeeming Truth Podcast in your favorite player, and subscribe!
El expresidente ha ganado con más de la mitad de los votos y le saca 30 puntos al segundo, Ron De Santis. Además, esta madrugada Irán ha lanzado misiles en Irak y en Sira contra objetivos del Estado Islámico y cerca de la embajada de Estados Unidos. En España, este martes se debatirá en el Congreso modificar el artículo 49 de la Constitución para suprimir el término "disminuido", es un pacto de PP y PSOE.
Life serves as a classroom through the people we encounter, where every interaction, be it joyful or challenging, offers an opportunity to learn. As the Prophet PBUH said, 'The believer who engages with others and patiently endures their harm receives greater reward than one who avoids people and is not patient with their harm.' (Source: Sunan Ibn Mājah 4032) This episode shares several lessons learned from my relationships. Understanding when to nurture a relationship or when to let it go, for better or worse, holds significant importance. My hope is that this episode aids you in navigating your own relationships. - This episode is sponsored by Rabata. After our successful collaboration last school year, we're excited to announce that registration for our Spring 2024 semester is now open. The Ribaat Academic Institute offers online courses imparting traditional Islamic knowledge specifically for women, taught by female scholars. With over 50 courses, including Sira, Tajwid, Fiqh, Hadith, and more like 'The 99 Names of Allah' and 'Lessons from the Life of the Prophet (s),' it aims to deepen your relationship with the Quran. Affordable courses, country discounts, and scholarships are available. Register today at rabata.info/islamicfeelings --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/islamicfeelings/support
Let's be honest: as much as social media aims to connect people to each other and inspire, it can also be a very toxic space that makes us feel like we're behind and negatively impacts not only our mental health but also our imaan. In this episode, I am joined by the beautiful Ghena from Deen and Chai, a fellow Islamic Lifestyle content creator who really inspires me and has so much wisdom to share Allahuma barek. We first talk about our journeys on social media, how we personally deal with comparison and finally share with you a few pieces of advice on how to get out of the unhealthy comparison trap, get the best out of social media and build a strong community of sisters. This episode is sponsored by The Ribaat Academic Institute, an online program that provides traditional Islamic knowledge for women, by women. All classes are held live online by female scholars and recordings are posted after class. You can choose from over 50 courses ranging from Sira, to Tajwid, to Fiqh and Hadith, classes like The 99 names of Allah, Reflections from the Quran but also Arabic, and Quran Memorization course to help you build a deeper relationship with the Quran. The great news is, courses are affordable and country discounts and scholarships are available! Registration for Spring 2024 opens today so make sure to visit rabata.info/themizaan and register today. As usual, I hope you'll enjoy this episode insha'Allah, make sure to share and leave a 5 star review if you do! About my guest: Ghena's Instagram: instagram.com/deenandchai Ghena's YouTube: youtube.com/@deenandchai My links: Instagram: instagram.com/inbalance.podcast Instagram: Instagram.com/themizaan YouTube: youtube.com.themizaan All my links: snipfeed.co/themizaan
Sunday December 10, 2023 Jumada al-Ula 26, 1445 This episode ushers the discussion of Sira into the seventh year after the Hijra in the post-Hudaybiyya environment, and looks at the Prophet's many letters sent to various rulers outside of Arabia, focusing on his letters to the Negus of Abyssinia, the Kaisar of the Byzantines, the Kisra of the Persians, and Muqawqis of the Copts.
Triggerwarnung: In beiden Fällen geht es um Gewalt gegen Kinder und im zweiten Fall um selbstverletzendes Verhalten. Verbrechen, die sich gegen die jüngsten Mitglieder unserer Gesellschaft richten, sind besonders schwer zu ertragen. Warum man trotzdem über sie berichten sollte, erzählen wir in dieser Folge von “Mordlust – Verbrechen und ihre Hintergründe”. Jana ist überglücklich: Sie ist gerade mit dem Mann, mit dem sie ihr Leben verbringen möchte, in eine eigene Wohnung gezogen und einen neuen Job hat sie auch. Da ist nur dieses Geheimnis, das sie hat und von dem sie will, dass niemand es erfährt, um damit ihre Beziehung nicht zu gefährden. Doch dafür muss am Ende ein Mensch mit seinem Leben bezahlen. Gerit und Sira warten voller Vorfreude auf die Geburt ihrer kleinen Tochter Aylin. Niemand kann ahnen, dass sich der Säugling schon bald in größter Gefahr befindet und dass eines seiner Elternteile dafür verantwortlich sein wird. Die meisten Tötungsdelikte von Neugeborenen ähneln sich stark - zum Beispiel was das Tatmotiv, den Tatort und die Täter:innen angeht. In dieser Episode erfahrt ihr, was hinter sogenannten Neonatiziden steckt. Außerdem widmen wir uns Müttern, die nach der Schwangerschaft nicht etwa von Glücksgefühlen erfüllt sind, sondern mit Depressionen oder Psychosen zu kämpfen haben. Interviewpartnerin in dieser Folge: Dr. Christiane Hornstein, Ärztliche Leiterin Mutter-Kind-Behandlung im Psychiatrischen Zentrum Nordbaden **Kapitel** 1. Fall “Jana” 2. AHA: Negierte Schwangerschaft 3. Fall “Sira” 4. AHA: Postpartale Depression 5. Postpartale Psychose 6. Erkrankungen in der Familie & Gewalt als “Auslöser” 7. Plötzlicher Kindstod **Credit** Produzentinnen/Hosts: Paulina Krasa, Laura Wohlers Recherche: Paulina Krasa, Laura Wohlers, Isabel Mayer Schnitt: Pauline Korb **Shownotes** Hilfetelefon Schwangere in Not: 0800/40 40 020 oder https://shorturl.at/LOTU2 Schatten & Licht e.V.: Initiative peripartale psychische Erkrankungen: https://shorturl.at/emCEY *Fall “Jana”* Urteil Landgericht Ravensburg: 2 Ks 21 Js 11407/17 (2) BGH Beschluss 1 StR 196/18 Schwäbische Zeitung: Babymord: Mutter sah ihr Kind als Störfaktor: https://shorturl.at/jtuyS Südkurier: Ravensburger Prozess gegen eine 23-Jährige wegen Kindstötung: “Ich wollte, dass es ruhig ist”: https://shorturl.at/jKL37 Stuttgarter Nachrichten: Kindstötung: Mutter bestreitet jeden Vorsatz: https://shorturl.at/ftFMV Südkurier: Totschlag statt Mord: 25-Jährige aus dem Landkreis Konstanz muss wegen Kindstötung acht Jahre statt lebenslang in Haft: https://shorturl.at/gQTX8 Schwäbische Zeitung: Getötetes Baby: Richter nicht überzeugt, dass Vater von dem Kind wusste: https://shorturl.at/jozNW *Fall “Sira”* Urteil LG München II: 1 Ks 33 Js 4143/13 Garmisch-Partenkirchener Tagblatt: Kindstötung erschüttert den Ort: Archiv TZ: Mutter (24) tötet ihr zwei Monate altes Baby: https://shorturl.at/ryKV7 Merkur: Baby-Mord: “Papa, was habe ich getan?”: https://shorturl.at/iR017 Merkur: Erstochenes Baby: Totschlag statt Mord: https://shorturl.at/hnrtG Abendzeitung München: Mutter ersticht ihr zwei Monate altes Baby: https://shorturl.at/afDJ1 *Diskussion* Spiegel: Pflanzen sollen versteckte Gräber verraten: https://shorturl.at/euBSZ Spektrum.de: Verdrängte Schwangerschaft: Plötzlich Mutter: https://shorturl.at/LPW14 Polizei & Landeskriminalamt Nordrhein-Westfahlen: Neonatizid: Die Tötung von Neugeborenen: https://shorturl.at/imqyL Tagesspiegel: Mutter ließ neun Babys sterben: Sabine H. darf das Gefängnis verlassen: https://shorturl.at/cemvT ZEIT: Tödliche Mutterliebe: https://shorturl.at/cOU47 MDR: Biomarker für SIDS: Offenbare Ursache für plötzlichen Kindstod gefunden: https://shorturl.at/gpsBF **Partner der Episode** Du möchtest mehr über unsere Werbepartner erfahren? Hier findest du alle Infos & Rabatte: https://linktr.ee/Mordlust
Patch 27.2 notes are out! and I talk about the Balance changes before playing Curse Warlock on the ladder. You can find the deck import link below the following contact links. Join our Discord community here or at discord.me/blisterguy. You can follow me @blisterguy or the podcast @walktoworkHS on twitter. Subscribe to my Youtube channel. You can support this podcast and my other Hearthstone work at Patreon here. # 2x (1) Chaotic Consumption # 2x (1) Drone Deconstructor # 1x (1) Sir Finley, Sea Guide # 2x (1) Tour Guide # 2x (2) Defile # 2x (2) Drain Soul # 2x (2) Thornveil Tentacle # 2x (3) Dragged Below # 2x (3) Reverberations # 2x (3) Scourge Supplies # 2x (3) Sira'kess Cultist # 2x (4) School Teacher # 1x (5) Lady Darkvein # 1x (5) Symphony of Sins # 1x (5) Za'qul # 2x (6) Abyssal Wave # 1x (7) Dar'Khan Drathir # 1x (9) Sargeras, the Destroyer # AAECAcbbBAblsATmvQSH6gTOkgX5xgWm+wUM56AE/rQElrcE3L0E4r0EpZIFyOsF9fgF7v0Fuf4F8YAG16IGAAA=