MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

“COSMOPOLIS, Wash. (AP) – The Muslim 11th-grader in northern Iraq approached her Christian teacher one day last fall and declared quietly, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ She’d been reading about Jesus and believed what she read, she explained, but her parents would never let her become a Christian.

The teacher, Jeremiah Small, responded in what those who knew him described as a characteristically thoughtful manner.

‘I encouraged her to consider what she had read and explained that it wasn’t my place to tell her to be a Christian,’ he wrote in an email to friends that day, asking them to pray for her conversion. ‘Keep reading and let the object of your faith take shape and its character be proven.’

Small, of Cosmopolis in southwestern Washington, was shot to death Thursday at the Classical School of the Medes, a private Christian academy in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq’s most peaceful region. The gunman, an 18-year-old, then shot himself in the head as other students scattered from the room.

No motive was evident; students reported that a brief quarrel preceded the shooting, but the cause was unclear.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Servant Group International, which employed him, said it was stunned. Small had taught history and literature at the school since 2005, returning year after year because of the changes and hope he saw in the lives of his students, the organization said in a news release.

‘He was a beloved teacher and friend,’ the statement said. ‘His love for his students extended beyond the classroom, and he regularly led hiking trips, camping trips and other outdoor activities with the students.’

Small was the eldest of seven siblings from a deeply religious family. His parents, Dan and Rebecca, ran the Shiloh Bible Camp in Cosmopolis for about a decade. Dan Small confirmed his son’s death on his Facebook page, writing, ‘Our oldest, Jeremiah was martyred in Kurdistan this a.m.,’ though it wasn’t clear if there was a religious motive for the killing.

Jeff Dokkestul, a board member at Servant Group International, insisted that the purpose of the three Medes schools in the region is to provide a classical education – not to proselytize to the students, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. His organization provides some of the curriculum and teachers, he said.

Servant Group’s website lists its mission: ‘Through outreach, education, and discipleship, SGI teams work to share the truth and beauty of Jesus with our Muslim friends. Our hope is to see the gospel bless and transform Muslim families and communities for generations to come.'” Read more.

Because it was “evil”, and we all know how much radical Islamists hate “evil” things, especially when they’re “inhumane” and “savage.” Given the history of the Obama Administration, don’t be surprised if senior advisers to the President begin urging him to call the Afghan clerics to apologize for the apology. In other recent news, Islamists burn down seven non-Muslim schools in Nigeria, an Imam rapes a fourth-grade child at a mosque in Bangladesh, and an “I-Would-Do-It-Again” child-killing Muslim terrorist is given her own talk show in Gaza …

Revelation 18:3, “For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries …”

By Hamid Shalizi – “(Reuters) – Senior Afghan clerics said on Friday the burning of Korans at a NATO base last month was an ‘evil act’ that must be punished, a demand that could deepen widespread public anger over the incident.

‘The council strongly condemns this crime and inhumane, savage act by American troops by desecrating holy Korans,’ members of a council of clerics said after meeting President Hamid Karzai, according to a statement issued by his office.

‘The council emphasized that the apology for this evil act can never be accepted. Those who committed this crime must be publicly tried and punished.’

Despite apologies from President Barack Obama and other senior U.S. officials, the desecration of the Korans at Bagram air base ignited a wave of anti-Western fury across Afghanistan, including protests that killed 30 people.

The Koran burnings are a setback to the Western campaign to win the hearts and minds of Afghans in order to weaken the Taliban and force the Muslim militant group to negotiate an end to the war now in its 11th year.

A joint investigation, conducted by U.S. military officials and members of the Karzai government, has concluded that five U.S. soldiers were involved in the incident on a NATO military base, officials said on condition of anonymity.

But the joint probe of the incident, one of three being conducted, did not provide specific recommendations on possible disciplinary action the soldiers might face, the officials said.

A separate U.S. Army probe, which has not yet been completed, may contain such recommendations.” Read more.

U.S. Ambassador Doesn’t Rule Out ‘Proceedings’ Against U.S. Troops Who Burned Qurans – “The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan has not ruled out military proceedings against U.S. troops involved in the disposal of Qurans by burning them. ‘If there are to be proceedings, they are going to be U.S. proceedings under the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) — and I don’t think there is any question or doubt on the part of the Afghan government that that is exactly how it’s going to go,’ Ryan Crocker told Fox News Wednesday night.” Read more.

The United Nations calls on the US military to punish the Qur’an burners for their ‘grave mistake’ – “Kabul – The United Nations joined Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday in calling on the US military to take disciplinary action against those who burned copies of the Qur’an at a NATO air base, calling the incident a ‘grave mistake’. Despite an apology from US President Barack Obama, the burning of the Muslim holy book at the Bagram base north of the capital ignited a wave of anti-Western fury across the country… ‘After the first step of a profound apology, there must be a second step … of disciplinary action,’ Jan Kubis, special representative for the UN secretary-general in Afghanistan, told a news conference.” Read more.

In Benghazi — the ‘symbolic seat of the revolution’ where the flag of Al Qaeda now flies — another symbolic act is speaking loud and clear: Tomorrow we’ll erase the Jews and the Christians, but today we’ll erase the memory of their dead. Maybe another apology from Obama is needed to really calm things down this time …

“Residents of the city of Benghazi in Libya were caught on film last Friday as they shattered tombstones of fallen British and Italian soldiers from World War II, most likely in retaliation for the Quran burnings at the NATO base in Afghanistan last week, which later led US President Barack Obama to issue a public apology.

The YouTube clip shows a group arriving at the cemetery and breaking off the crosses on the tombstones. One of the headstones had a Star of David on it, and while their target was retaliation against the Christian soldiers, it did not stop them from continuing in their destructive efforts.

One of them men is even overheard telling another: ‘Come see, there’s Israeli writing, Hebrew, on the tombstone.’

Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) has already condemned the actions on the official council website.” Read more.

Flashback: Insult to WWII heroes: Graves of British troops smashed and desecrated by Libyan Islamists in protest over U.S. soldiers’ Koran burning – “A furious mob has desecrated dozens of Commonwealth War Graves in a Libyan cemetery amid continuing fury in the Middle East over the burning of the Koran by U.S. soldiers. Headstones commemorating British and Allied servicemen, killed during World War II campaigns in the Western Desert, lay smashed and strewn across Benghazi Military Cemetery. Protesters rampaged through site on Friday, despite efforts by America to calm tensions sparked when it emerged U.S. soldiers had burned Muslim holy books in a pile of rubbish at a military base in Afghanistan.” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Qaeda Plants Its Flag in Benghazi, Libya – ‘Whomever Speaks Ill of This Flag, We Will Cut Off His Tongue’ – “Earlier this week, I went to the Benghazi courthouse and confirmed the rumors: an al Qaeda flag was clearly visible; its Arabic script declaring that ‘there is no God but Allah’ and a full moon underneath. When I tried to take pictures, a Salafi-looking guard, wearing a green camouflage outfit, rushed towards me and demanded to know what I was doing. My response was straightforward: I was taking a picture of the flag. He gave me an intimidating look and hissed, ‘Whomever speaks ill of this flag, we will cut off his tongue. I recommend that you don’t publish these. You will bring trouble to yourself.’” Read more.