"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour
Mark Lorenzo Villanueva’s “improvised bomb made with large amounts of ball bearings, nails, screws and other objects” sounds a good bit like the bomb that two other ISIS operatives, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, threw in New York City the other day. Expect to see more of them, since virtually nothing whatsoever has been done for years to stop ISIS activity in the U.S.
Homemade bomb found in Villanueva’s home, FBI photo
Long Beach man pleads guilty to sending money to Islamic State, possessing homemade bomb
A Long Beach man pleaded guilty Tuesday to sending payments to suspected members of Islamic State and for illegally possessing a homemade bomb, according to authorities.
Mark Lorenzo Villanueva, 29, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California. Villanueva has been in custody since August.
According to his plea agreement, Villanueva began messaging a person claiming to be an Islamic State fighter living in Syria in February. The person told Villanueva how to send money to him overseas.
Villanueva allegedly sent more than $1,600 knowing it would be spent on ammunition, weapons and other supplies, authorities said. Villanueva also discussed conducting Islamic State operations in the United States.
Law enforcement searched Villanueva’s home in August and found an improvised bomb made with large amounts of ball bearings, nails, screws and other objects, according to the release. The device was not federally registered as required by law…
Hamit Coskun is a native of Turkey who now lives in the U.K., where he sought and was granted the status of political refugee. Coskun is an ex-Muslim who detests Islam, and to make clear his feelings about both Turkey and Islam, he set fire to a Qur’an outside the Turkish Embassy. The Crown Prosecution Service then prosecuted him for this act of what was termed “blasphemy,” and convicted him. He appealed the conviction and was acquitted by a higher court; then the Crown Prosecution, in turn, appealed that decision to acquit and tried to reinstate his conviction. But the High Court has just dismissed that appeal, standing up for the right of Hamit Coskun to express his contempt for Islam by setting a Qur’an on fire.
In a humiliating defeat for Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the High Court has dismissed an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) seeking to overturn the acquittal of a free-speech activist previously convicted of burning a Qur’an.
The CPS appealed to the High Court in November 2025 after the Southwark Crown Court dramatically reversed the sentence of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court against Hamit Coskun, who set fire to the Qur’an outside the Turkish Embassy in London on February 13, 2025.
Coskun, a 50-year-old political refugee from Turkey, committed an “act of desecration” while driven by a “deep-seated hatred of Islam and its followers,” provoking Muslims to commit acts of violence, the CPS had argued, seeking a conviction under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
Judge John McGarva convicted Coskun in June 2025, ruling that he had committed a “religiously aggravated” offense. However, Justice Joel Nathan Bennathan quashed the verdict in October 2025, declaring: “There is no offense of blasphemy in our law.”…
As Judge Bennathan said in his opinion quashing the verdict convicting Coskin of blasphemy, there is no “offense of blasphemy” in British law. But there is such an offense in the law of Islam, the Sharia, and it was that “offense of blasphemy” that British judges were attempting to accept, and apply. Judge Bennathan was having none of it. According to him freedom of expression “must include the right to express views that offend, shock, or disturb,” even if it involves burning a Qur’an, “an act that many Muslims find desperately upsetting and offensive,” Bennathan emphasized, handing a victory to the ex-Muslim atheist whose mother’s family was killed in the Armenian genocide.
The CPS told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) that its case was “always that Coskun’s words, choice of location and burning of the Qur’an amounted to disorderly behaviour, and that at the time he demonstrated hostility towards a religious group.”
Yes, that’s exactly what he did. He was making a statement against Islam; he chose to do so for maximum effect right outside the Turkish Embassy. He did indeed “demonstrate hostility towards a religious group” — Muslims whose ancestors, he knew, were responsible for the murder of his Armenian mother and for another 1.2 million Armenians between 1915 and 1920. Why should he be punished for expressing his view?
The Coskun case will enter the history books as a major step toward retaking intellectual territory that had been conceded to the “sons of Allah,” a sign that we in the West do not punish what any religious group, including Islam, finds offensive.
In the U.K., after the High Court overturned the conviction of Hamit Coskun, no one should worry from now on that “blasphemy” will become a crime. Do what you want, whether you are a refugee from an Islamic regime, or simply a level-headed Western Infidel, to express your opposition to Islam. Hold up a placard depicting 54-year-old Muhammad holding the hand of nine-year-old Aisha. No one can argue that pedophilic coupling did not take place; it’s in the Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim.
Or do as Hamit Coskun did in London and Martin Frost did in Manchester, and burn a Qur’an if you wish, to demonstrate your antipathy toward the faith. You have that right. Or perhaps, most devastating of all, simply hold up a poster that does nothing more than quote from the Qur’an and hadith. Have people at an anti-Islam rally carry posters that say just this: “Muslims are the best of peoples” (Qur’an 3:110) and “Non-Muslims are the most vile of created beings.” (Qur’an 98:6). On other placards have two quotes from Muhammad that can be found in the hadith: “I have been made victorious through terror” and “war is deception.” The display of those four quotations will send Muslims into a rage, not because they are false, but because, far more devastatingly, they are true.
UK: Free Speech Union launches legal war on Labour’s ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ policy strategy
“Blasphemy by the backdoor” is an accurate way to describe the British government’s new definition of “anti-Muslim hate.”
It took years for patriots in Britain (and America) to gain the level of momentum that is now being seen in the significant pushback against forceful attempts to erode the cornerstone of free societies: the freedom of expression. Such freedoms do not exist in those Muslim countries which are oppressed under the Sharia.
Islamic supremacists knew exactly who would help them to establish Sharia tenets in the West: leftists.
Kudos to Britain’s Free Speech Union, established by Lord Young of Acton. It’s doing an honorable duty to Britain in the face of a weak, ruinous government that continues to undermine Britain — its traditions, Bill of Rights, and rule of law.
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Anti-Muslim hostility definition: Free speech group launches legal war on Labour’s plans: ‘Back door blasphemy law’
Free speech campaigners are launching a legal challenge against the Government over plans to introduce an official definition of “anti-Muslim hostility”, warning it could become a “blasphemy law by the back door”.
Campaigners warn the outcome of the case could shape the future boundaries of free speech in Britain, particularly when it comes to discussion of religion, belief and cultural issues.
The challenge is being mounted by the Free Speech Union, which says the proposal risks silencing legitimate debate about religion and could lead to tens of thousands of complaints every year.
The group is also challenging the Government’s decision to appoint an “anti-Muslim hostility tsar” tasked with overseeing how the definition is applied.
Critics fear the move could suppress free speech by encouraging organisations and institutions to punish people accused of offending Muslims – even when no law has been broken. They say existing legislation already protects people from discrimination….
A major legal dispute in Germany has ended with a court ruling that a Muslim woman cannot serve as a judge while wearing a hijab in the courtroom.
A court in the state of Hesse upheld a rule banning visible religious symbols for judicial officials while they are performing their duties. The court said the restriction is meant to preserve the appearance of neutrality and impartiality in the justice system.
The woman argued that the rule violated her religious freedom and limited her professional opportunities. However, the court concluded that the state’s obligation to maintain a neutral courtroom outweighs an individual’s right to display religious symbols while serving in a judicial role.
The decision has sparked renewed debate across Germany about how to balance religious freedom with the principle of secularism in public institutions.
