Magic Statistics

Many Christians from the south Philippine island of Mindanao are converting to Islam, and some of those converts now espouse Islamist terror. The recently arrested terrorist Ahmed Islam Santos, who converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1993, founded a group called Rajah Solaimon Group, which has strong connections with the Islamist terror group Abu Sayyaf.

The most extreme act of Abu Sayyaf was to bomb a ferry . . . on February 27, 2004, which was carrying 900 people. In the ensuing fire and panic, 116 people lost their lives. Christian Science Monitor reports that police have said that a Catholic turned Muslim confessed to setting a bomb on the ferry.

These converts do not see themselves as converted as much as "reverted". They generally call themselves the Balik. The name means "return". There are two explanations. Those who "revert" are said to be reverting to the faith of Islam that would flourished [sic], but for the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century . . .

The other notion of being a member of Balik Islam is based on the premise that all people are naturally born Muslim, but have been misled by false (Catholic) teachings. By accepting Islam, one is "returning" or "reverting" to that initial Muslim state. . . .

The subject of Balik Islam had come into the news again because security forces have recently announced that last week in Zamboanga on the island of Mindanao, they had captured the second in command of the Rajah Solaiman Group, Pio de Vera. The announcement came shortly after the publication of a report by the International Crisis Group on the danger posed to the nation by radicalised Muslim converts.

A summary and a pdf download of the full ICG report, entitled "Philippines Terrorism: The Role of Militant Islamic Converts" can be obtained here. In this and another summary it is said that Santos had originally been a member of Abu Sayyaf before he founded the Rajah Solaiman Group (RSG) in 2002. The need for the group, which is named after the Muslim ruler of Manila at the time of the Spanish conquest, came about to draw military attention away from the Abu Sayyaf group based in Basilan.

Read the whole thing.

In 2001, Mercer County, Kentucky, provided space for a display entitled Foundations of American Law and Government in the County Courthouse. The display included such documents as Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta, the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The display was prepared and paid for by a private citizen.

The Ten Commandments? Hold it right there! Predictably, the ACLU got its knickers in a twist and sued, alleging violation of the separation of church and state. The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has just rendered a decision in favour of the county and against the ACLU. Clayton Cramer explains:

Because the Ten Commandments were simply one among many historical documents of relevance to the development of American law, and given no special prominence–and because there was no evidence that the objective of including the Ten Commandments was religiously motivated–the Court of Appeals allowed it.

The court curtly tossed aside the slogan separation of church and state as irrelevant:

[T]he ACLU makes repeated reference to the separation of church and state. This extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.

What's more, the court laid into the ACLU itself, calling its very goal unreasonable (legalese for out to lunch):

Religion does not become relevant to standing in the political community simply because a particular viewer of a governmental display feels uncomfortable. . . Our concern is that of the reasonable person. And the ACLU, an organization whose mission is to ensure that . . . the government [is kept] out of the religion business, does not embody the reasonable person.

Ouch! That's gotta hurt. Maybe the ACLU will sue those judges for violating separation of church and state causing discomfort.

The collect for today, the Feast of St Thomas, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty and everliving God, who for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son's resurrection; Grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 2:19-22
The Gospel: St John 20:24-31

St Thomas’s name is believed to come from an Aramaic word meaning twin, but it is not known whose twin he was. He is included in all the lists of the twelve apostles, but he is mentioned most often in St John’s Gospel, where he is called "Didymus" ("twin" in Greek) three times (11:16; 20:24; 21:2).

St Thomas appears to have been an impulsive man. He says he is prepared to go with Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus even if it means death (John 11:16). At the Last Supper, however, he confesses his ignorance about where Jesus is going and the way there (John 14:5). It was in response to this that Christ said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

After the resurrection, Thomas was unwilling to believe his fellow disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:24). He would not believe, he declared, unless he actually touched the wounds. Eight days later, Jesus gave "Doubting Thomas" the evidence he had asked for, whereupon Thomas confessed him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus then pronounces a blessing on all those who have not seen and yet believe.

The last mention of St Thomas in the New Testament occurs in John 21, where he is named as one of the seven disciples fishing on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus appears to them.

Nothing is known for sure about St Thomas’s activity after Pentecost, but early church writers say that he was active in missionary work in the East–in Parthia, Persia, and/or India. The most ancient tradition holds that he journeyed as far as Malabar (present-day Kerala) on the south-west coast of India and was martyred at Mylapore, near Madras. A large number of Indian Christians in the area call themselves "Christians of St. Thomas". (See also this.) Although the tradition that St Thomas evangelized India cannot be definitely verified, Pope Paul VI declared him apostle of India in 1972.

A Gnostic gospel entitled "Gospel of Thomas" was discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. Although used extensively by the Jesus Seminar, no reputable scholar has claimed that this work was actually written or compiled by St Thomas.

Caravaggio’s shockingly realistic painting The Incredulity of St Thomas can be seen here.