MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“NNEWI, Nigeria (AP) — A town hall meeting called by Christians to discuss funeral arrangements turned into a bloodbath in northern Nigeria when members of a radical Islamist sect opened fire with assault rifles.

At least 20 members of the Igbo ethnic group died in that attack Jan. 6. More attacks have followed, targeting the largest Christian group living across Nigeria’s Muslim north.

Many Igbos are now fleeing the north, even as state officials and others downplay the exodus, likely out of fear of sparking retaliatory violence.

The Igbo are one of the three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria. Based in Nigeria’s eastern states, the Igbo became largely Catholic after being colonized by the British. Many became successful traders who spread throughout Nigeria. In the country’s Muslim north, Igbo traders often dominate car parts sales and other markets.

That often leaves Igbo traders the most exposed during ethnic and religious violence that has routinely gripped Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960.

‘We’re everywhere there’s a clash between any two groups of people because we’re a people who live all over the place,’ said Maja Emeka Umeh, the spokesman of Anambra state in Nigeria’s east. ‘They end up killing our people.’

A failed 1966 coup, led primarily by Igbo army officers, sparked violence targeting Igbo people throughout Nigeria’s Muslim north. About 10,000 people died in the resulting riots and many fled back to eastern Nigeria ahead of secessionist leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declaring the region and much of Nigeria’s oil-producing southern delta its own nation.

Most recently, the Igbo have been targeted by the Boko Haram Islamist sect, which has killed more than 360 people this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. In a message to journalists at the start of the year, the sect threatened to begin killing Christians living in the nation’s north.” Read more.

“The death of Pope Shenouda III, who led Egypt’s Coptic Christian Church for 40 years, has increased fears among Copts that they will face persecution and discrimination as Islamic parties become more powerful.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners, many crying, packed the streets around St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo yesterday as they waited to file past the body of Pope Shenouda, dressed in ceremonial robes and sitting in the papal chair. Ashraf, 26, a blacksmith, said as he stood beside the outer wall of the cathedral that ‘the very existence of Shenouda made us feel protected’.

A tired-looking woman, who would not give her name, was sitting on the pavement holding a child. She said: ‘I wish I could get in to see the body. I feel worse that our protector has gone. God knows what is going to happen.’

Egypt’s Copts, estimated to number 10 to 12 million, complain that they are treated as second-class citizens and denied top jobs. They had hoped that the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year would reduce discrimination, but now fear their condition may worsen as the Muslim Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Salafi movement, which together have 70 per cent of the seats in the newly elected parliament, gain greater influence.

Pope Shenouda, 88, was famous as a cautious Coptic leader, all-powerful within his community, who for four decades had dealt with the Egyptian government. Born in Assiut, in upper Egypt, he was careful to give support to President Mubarak. He was briefly stripped of his temporal powers by President Anwar Sadat in 1981, for accusing the government of being tolerant of extreme Islam…

The Coptic Orthodox Church is a branch of Christianity founded in Egypt, but has devotees across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The apostle Mark is believed to have visited Egypt country in 50AD.” Read more.

Egyptian Cleric Wagdi Ghoneim Praises Allah for the Death of Pope Shenouda III: ‘May Allah Exact Revenge from Him in the Hellfire‘ – “Praise be to Allah. With the grace of Allah, the head of unbelief and polytheism, known as Shenouda, died yesterday, may Allah exact revenge from him. God’s worshippers and the trees and the animals were all relieved by his death. Egypt is relieved by his [death], because he generated sectarian strife… This dead accursed criminal, known as Shenouda, was told that the Koran says, in Surat Al-Maida: ‘And [beware the day] when Allah will say: Oh Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as gods beside Allah?’ [Shenouda] said: ‘We don’t take Christ and his mother as gods beside Allah. He Is God.’ … Are we supposed to send condolences or be sad about someone like this? We should be happy that he died. Let him go to Hell. May Allah exact revenge from him in the Hellfire – from him and from all those who follow his path.” Source – MEMRI.

Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

February 12 Issue of Newsweek

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Half of Iraq’s indigenous Christians are gone, due to the unleashed forces of jihad [holy war]. Many Christians fled to nearby Syria; yet, as the Assad regime comes under attack from al-Qaeda and others, the jihad now seeps into Syria, where Christians are experiencing a level of persecution unprecedented in the nation’s modern history. Similarly, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their native Egypt since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime; and in northern regions of Nigeria, where the jihadi group, Boko Haram, has been slaughtering Christians, up to 95% of the Christian population has fled.

Meanwhile, the ‘big news’ concerning the Muslim world in the month of February—the news that flooded the mainstream media and had U.S. politicians, beginning with President Obama, flustered, angry, and full of regret—was that some written-in [in Islam it is forbidden to write anything in a Korans] in Afghanistan were burned by U.S. soldiers because imprisoned Muslim inmates had been using them ‘to facilitate extremist communications.’

Categorized by theme, February’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity.

Church Attacks

Algeria: Armed men raided and ransacked a church that had been formally recognized since 1958, and dismantled the crucifix. The pastor and his family, trapped inside, feared that ‘they could kill us.’ The pastor ‘has been repeatedly threatened and attacked since being ordained in 2007. In the summer of 2009, his wife was beaten and seriously injured by a group of unknown men. Then, in late 2011, heaps of trash were thrown over the compound walls while an angry mob shouted death threats.’

Egypt: Thousands of Muslims attacked a Coptic church, and demanded the death of its pastor, who, along with ‘nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building.’ They did this because a Christian girl who, according to Islamic law, automatically became a Muslim when her father converted to Islam, fled from her father and was rumored to be Read more…

“TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– At least a dozen devoted Christians from Iran’s third largest city remained in jail Saturday, March 17, as part of an attempt by authorities to discourage Muslims and Christian converts to attend church services, Iranian Christians said.

Mohabat News, a news agency of Iranian Christians and activists, said security forces began a new crackdown last month in Isfahan, 340 kilometers (211 miles) south of the capital Tehran.

The agency said security forces detained both leaders and members of churches meeting in buildings, as well as some from underground house churches.

Among the latest known Christian converts detained in the Isfahan area is Fariborz Parsi-nejad, a Christian convert, who was reportedly taken into custody on March 2 while returning home from his work.

‘Security authorities raided his home and seized him without explanation,’ Iranian Christians said.

CHRISTIANS TAKEN

The crackdown began February 22 when security forces allegedly took at least eight Christians from their homes and work places.

Most of those jailed are members of the St. Paul Anglican church in Isfahan, Christians said. Mohabat News added that among those imprisoned at local prison facilities is Hekmat Salimi, pastor of St. Paul Anglican Church, who converted 30 years ago and authored theological books and Giti Hakimpour, 78, a female pastor at the same church.

Other church members include Shahram Ghaedi, an actor, Maryam Del-Aram, 54, Shahnaz Zarifi, a mother of two and Enayat Jafari, according to rights investigators.

Another Christian, Majid Enayat, was also detained on February 22 at his workplace. He is a member of a house church, and Mohabat reported that prior to his arrest, authorities detained other members of his group.

In a separate February 22 incident Iranian intelligence officers, initially introducing themselves as representatives of the regional electricity company, raided the Isfhahan home of Christian Enayat Jafari, seizing personal belongings, including a laptop, phone cards, books, compact disks and even children’s

cartoons, Mohabat News said.” Read more.

“Al-Haqiqa has learned from church sources in Homs that the city has been emptied of almost 90% of its Christians. It is expected that a complete ‘cleansing’ of buildings owned by Christians will occur within a matter of days or weeks by armed men from the Wahhabi ‘Faruq Brigade.’ A source in the Orthodox metropolitan’s office told al-Haqiqa that armed men from the Faruq Brigade went to the homes of the Christians, house by house, in the neighborhoods of Hamidiya and Bustan el-Diwan, informing them that they must immediately leave their homes and the city of Homs. The source revealed that the lastest [sic] attempt to expel Christians by force of arms occured [sic] yesterday. It included Dr. Taleb Mashhour Gharibeh, professor of mathematics at Baath University in Homs, his brother the musician Marwan Mashhour Gharibeh (a musician in Sabah Fakhri’s group), both of whom live in the Hamidiya neighborhood, their sister Marie Mashhour Gharibeh, who lives in the Bustan el-Diwan neighborhood, as well as their father and his wife the schoolteacher Maha Habou, who live in the new neighborhood el-Wa’ar. This wave of expulsions also included the residents of a six-story building in Hamidiya, whose residents include eighteen families, almost all of whom are from the village Uyoun el-Wadi.

The church sources said that the armed men informed the owners of the homes before they departed that if they did not leave immediately they would be shot and pictures of their corpses would be sent to al-Jazeera with the message that the government had killed them. The source emphasized that all those who were expelled ‘were not allowed to take any of their possessions with them, not even extra clothes. Immediately after they left their homes, the buildings were occupied by armed men who considered it ‘war-booty from the Christians!”” Read more.

Bombings kill 30 in Syria as Christian districts targeted – “A CAR bomber yesterday targeted a security headquarters in a Christian district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, killing three and wounding 30. The explosion, the second in the city since unrest began, occurred at a time when the area is usually thronged with people on the first working day of the week. On Saturday, simultaneous suicide bombings in Damascus near an air force intelligence facility and the criminal investigation department killed 27 and wounded more than 100. The latter was in the al-Qasaa area, also inhabited by Christians. A third vehicle exploded near an army bus, killing its occupants… Sources in Aleppo have reported rebel activity north of the city and Christians have said churches have been attacked, creating the fear the community could be targeted, in the same way Christians in Iraq have been since the 2003 US occupation.” Read more.

AP – “SANAA, Yemen – A group linked to Al Qaeda claims it killed an American teacher in Yemen for Christian proselytizing.

Joel Shrum, a 29-year-old English language teacher from Harrisburg, Pa., had worked for two years in the central city of Taiz.

Yemeni officials say Shrum was killed in his car Sunday morning when assailants in military uniforms sped up next to him on a motorcycle, opened fire and then sped away. Witnesses say he was killed instantly.

A text message sent to journalists said, ‘This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims.’ It claimed Shrum was ‘one of the biggest American proselytisers.'” Read more.

Al-Qaeda makes ‘alarming’ advances in Yemen, U.N. envoy warns – “A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made ‘alarming’ advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week. ‘The scale of these attacks serves as a stark reminder of the security threat posed by al-Qaeda,’ Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the 15-nation council Wednesday, according to a copy of the briefing notes obtained by The Washington Post. ‘Despite all counterterrorism efforts, al-Qaeda in Yemen has not retreated.'” Read more.