28 December 2008
Church bells strike false note with Muslims
The Muslim community in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region is opposing plans to include church bells in a proposed new regional anthem. Local authorities had earlier set a competition to compose an anthem for the region.
The work is still being composed and officials say the last thing they want to do is to hurt people's feelings.
The Muslim community wanted the regional governor to change some of the rules of the contest. Using the sound of church bells was mandatory and Muslim leaders thought this alienated other ethnic and religious groups.
"There should be no political or religious themes in the anthem. It should be something that uplifts people and brings them together. I think including religion goes against this." Said Gayaz Zakirov, spiritual leader of the region’s Muslims.
The national anthem contains church bells, which are seen as a sign of Russian tradition as much as a sign of Orthodox woship.
"The tradition of bellringing is a very ancient tradition, dating from Old Testament times, which was adopted by the Orthodox Church,” said Orthodox priest Igor Pchelintsev.
The authorities have now decided to scrap the competition and hire a professional composer instead. Hopefully, the end result will be something that all sides can agree on
POASTED BY / http://www.russiatoday.com/
12:46 Posted in RUSSIA | Permalink | Comments (2) | 
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Dear Friends, I am really surprised by these muslims who live in an Orthodox country yet don't want the authorities there to just include ringing bells in the anthem just because that would refer to Russia's Christian history even though in muslim countries like Egypt that has a large percentage of Chrstians they have the islamic prayers at any national event and we haven't seen anyone coming to say that civil events shouldn't be free of any religious references. Moreover, a country that is a hotbed for terrorsts lke saudi arabia Christians and people of any other faith are not allowed to worship the Lord even in their homes. they are demanding from the Christian nations to do for them what they will never grant us in their countries.
Posted by: Hany | 03 January 2009
Dear concerned about,
As much as I was appalled by the basphemies of these muslims against their Lord and God Jesus Christ whom they don't know even though in their coran they have it said that Christ (Eissa) in islam is THE WORD of allah and spirit of his spirit. so, it seems they want to imprison the Word and Spirit of ther allah by imprisoning The Lord and God Jesus Christ. As for your comment I find it amazing that someone would raise the banner of ratonality yet speak so irrationally. It seems that you haven't read any real scholarly work about the real archeological findings that prive the minute accuracies of God's Word. It seems also that you know nothing about the thousands New Testament Manuscripts that includes the Sinaiticus Codex that contains all the books of the New Testament and it goes back to the third century, there is also the Copticus Codex goes to the end of the second century, The John Rylands Manuscript of parts of the Gospel of St John that goes back to between 85-95 A.D. according to the most recent studies this manuscript is preserved in the John Rylands library in Manchester, England. There are 5686 ancient Greek manuscripts of the new Testament most of them go back to the first four centuries of the Christian era. There are 10000 latin Manuscripts of the New Testament, 2000 Abyssinian Manuscripts. 4101 Slavic manuscripts, 2587 Armenian Manuscrpts , The Besheta Syriac manuscripts and many others. These manuscripts are divided among the Bodmere library in Geneve Switzerland, La Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, The British Museum, the national museum in Washington, the Vatican library, the library of El Baramous Monastery in Egypt. There are also alot Scholarly books written about the veracity of the biblical manuscripts and the inerrancy of God's Word that gives witness to the God of the Universe who came down to die for me and you to free us from our sins and who rose again from the dead to destroy death and grant us eternal. So, instead of believing in him , you blaspheme his holy name by saying some stupid words that show total ignorance not about Our Lord and his Word but about Scientific and Scholarly research. I would like to point to some the scholarly works written by the early church fathers whose works have come down to us like St Clement of Rome who was a direct disciple of St Paul and St John, and who was the fourth bishop of Rome; St Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred for the faith in 107 A.D., St Polycarp of Smyrna who was martyred for the faith in 155 A.D., St Justin (104-166A.D.), Tatian , St Irenaeus the bishop of Lyon in 177A.D., Athenagoras (120-172A.D.), St Theophile of Antioch (120-182A.D.), St Clement of Alexandria at the end of the second century, Origen (185-253), St Cyprianus (205-258) and many others who wrote extensively on Our Lord and God Jesus Christ and his Divinity and they also wrote about all the canonical books of the New Testament. Even the heretics and those who ddn't believe in the Lord wrote a lot about him , about his virtues and about his miracles among these is the famous first century jewish historian Falvius Josephus and the jewish scholar Tryphon (104-140A.D.), Lucien(120-170) the epicurian philosopher, the letter of Pliny the young to the roman emperor Trajan and the blasphemous celse who even admitted the miracles of the Lord and whose had his blasphemies refuted and debunked by Origen of Alexandria.This has been just a miniature of the overwhelming evidence of the Lord and God Jesus Christ and the great martyrs who had suffered a lot for their faith in the true God who came in human flesh as attested to by St. Paul. My advice to you and those muslims who deny the Lord and God Jesus Christ who created us all, redeemed us all, and will come back to judge us all; to kneel down asking the Lord to forgive your sins and to sanctify you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness , to give you true freedom (the freedom from sin and death), and to grant you at the end his eternal life. Be sure gentlemen that the Lord and God Jesus Christ will forgive your ignorance if you humbjy accepted his Truth and returned from your blasphemous way and he will grant you eternal life at the end. By the throughout the history there had many people like you who hated the Lord and God Jesus Christ yet after he touched them with his saving grace they changed completely and became his ardent apostles like St Paul, St Augustine, St Moses the Black, L'abbe Rance, the Sadhu Sindar Singh and Bernard Gilardino.
Posted by: Hany | 03 January 2009
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