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Archive for April, 2012

Thailand: ‘Hundreds and Possibly Thousands’ of Mysterious Open-Billed Stork Deaths Spark Bird Flu Fears In Ang Thong

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

Bangkok Post – “Hundreds and possibly thousands of open-billed storks have died mysteriously in Ang Thong, triggering fear of a new outbreak of bird flu.

The birds were found dead in open ground behind a deserted factory by the side of the Chamlong-Nong Jik road in tambon Chamlong in Sawangha district after residents noticed that the animals looked drowsy and lay around on the ground, causing a bad stench in the air, the kamnan of Chamlong, Suebsak Waewkaew, said.

Residents alerted authorities who inspect the site twice and then went away, Mr Suebsak said.

He demanded the authorities collect samples of the birds’ remains and move quickly to identify the cause of the mass deaths as residents living nearby were worried that bird flu might be involved.

Suthee Srisuwan, head of the provincial natural resources and environment office, said he had instructed experts to launch an investigation into the incident. An initial inspection had found huge numbers of dead birds in two locations. He would not elaborate further other than to say an investigation is underway.” Source – Bangkok Post.

Ohio: 28,000 Fish Found Dead Along 5-Mile Stretch of the East Branch Rocky River Near Strongsville

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

By Dave Arnold, newsnet5.com – “STRONGSVILLE, OHIO – The Bonnie Park Picnic Area of the Cleveland Metroparks’ Mill Stream Run Reservation in Strongsville was filled with new green leaves sprouting Tuesday and birds singing. Canadian geese pairs quietly sat awaiting their first gosling to hatch of the spring.

The park had every sign that fresh life was abundant along the East Branch Rocky River. Unfortunately, the very river that usually breeds fresh life in many forms was filled with dead fish; 28,000 to be exact.

Contacted by a tip call to the 1-800-POACHER hotline for the Wildlife Division of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources over the weekend, crews were on scene quickly to assess the depth of the fish kill.

Bonnie Park seemed to be ground zero for the spill at first, but crews found dead fish as far south as a mile from the Bonnie Park Picnic Area and as far north as the Cedar Point Road Picnic Area. The river runs south to north, eventually to Lake Erie. A total of five miles of river were discovered to have dead fish.

Director of Watershed Programs for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Frank Greenland, was in the park with his crew on Tuesday. They were part of several local and federal departments looking into just what killed so many fish.” Read more.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

California: Tiny Meteorites Found In US After Fireball

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

Sky News – “Tiny meteorites weighing about the same as a 50p piece have been found in northern California following a giant fireball that exploded over the US.

The miniature rocks were found in the Sierra foothills by Robert Ward of Prescott, Arizona, who has been hunting and collecting meteorites around the world for more than 20 years.

Mr Ward found the first piece on Tuesday morning in between a baseball field and a park on the edge of the town of Lotus.

He ‘instantly knew’ it was a rare meteorite known as ‘CM’ – carbonaceous chondrite – based in part on the ‘fusion crusts from atmospheric entry’ on one side of the rock, he said.” Read more.

Categories: Cosmic Craziness

‘A Serious Intellectual Failing’: Obama Embraces Islam – If Islamism Is OK For Egypt, Why Not America?

04/26/2012 2 comments

What a pleasant surprise. It appears that someone over at The Washington Times has come to the realization that a lobotomy wouldn’t fix a severe case of myopia. A few sessions of the “Qur’anic Cure” taken with a dose of reality and a shot of reason, however, will do wonders

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES – “The Obama administration is doing its utmost to promote the fortunes of the Islamist parties in Egypt. A State Department official declared that with the rise of these radical groups after the Arab Spring, ‘people who once might have gone into al Qaeda see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism.’ They see this as a victory. The problem is, so do the terrorists.

Last year, the White House began peddling the line that the uprisings in the Middle East were a repudiation of the al Qaeda model of seeking change through terrorism. The argument was that while America opposed violent extremism, the rise of nonviolent radical movements was just fine, and even commendable. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri quickly dismissed this claim, saying that from the terrorists’ point of view, it didn’t matter whether an Islamist victory came through violence or not. The means were unimportant except as they related to the end state: the imposition of hard-line Shariah-based laws and policies.

From Zawahri’s point of view, it makes no difference whether the caliphate is born of the ballot, bomb or bullet. The important thing is the victory of Islamism, which the White House also seems to endorse.

The notion that there is a legitimate form of Islamism reflects a serious intellectual failing on the part of the Obama administration. President Obama seems to believe the Islamists are legitimized simply by participating in the political process.” Read more.

Flashback: Crucifixion and Amputation: Egyptian MP Proposes Sharia Law Punishments – “… The proposed law calls for the application of ‘Heraba,’ an Islamic penalty for criminal actions that include overt robbery, murder, forcible taking of property with a weapon and vandalizing public facilities. The penalties according to Azzazy’s bill are execution in the case of murder, or cutting one arm and one leg from opposite sides of the culprit’s body in the cases of robbery and forcible taking of property. If the taking of possessions is accompanied by murder, the penalty would be death or crucifixion, to be determined by the judge.” Read more.

Flashback: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Presidential Candidate: There is No Freedom in Islam – “Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail, Egypt’s presidential candidate and a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, has said that there is no room for personal freedom in Islam. In a recent television interview translated and reported by Jihad Watch, Ismail said that being a Muslim is like being a member of the military, where one has to go by a dictatorial code of conduct. ‘If you claim that Allah considers it your personal freedom, show me your reference? Nobody has ever said that – except for people have no understanding of Sharia,’ Ismail said.” Read more.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2012

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

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.”

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “The war on Christianity and its adherents in the Muslim world rages on. In March alone, Saudi Arabia’s highest Islamic legal authority decreed that churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis [holy warriors] in Nigeria said they ‘are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women’; American teachers in the Middle East were murdered for being Christian or talking about Christianity; churches were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by knife-wielding Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for allegedly ‘blaspheming’ Islam’s prophet Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for converting to Christianity.

The extent of this persecution is virtually unknown in the West, due to the mainstream media’s well-documented biases: the mainstream media knows that if they do not ignore or at best whitewash the nonstop persecution of Christians under Islam, their narrative of Islam as the ‘religion of peace’ would be quickly undermined. Last month alone, the New York Times ran an anti-Catholic ad, but refused to publish a nearly identical ad directed at Islam; the BBC admitted it mocks Jesus but will never mock Muhammad; and U.S. sitcoms have been exposed as bashing Christianity, but never Islam.

Categorized by theme, March’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:

Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism: Death and Prison

Egypt: A Christian man accused of insulting Islam’s prophet Muhammad was sentenced to six years in prison. Although under Egyptian law ‘defamation of religion’ is a misdemeanor, punishable by a prison sentence of one month to three years, the judge doubled the sentence to appease Muslims, including an angry 2,500-strong mob that terrorized the courtroom, and demanding death for the Christian. Similarly, an ‘anti-Christianization course‘ was initiated by an organization ‘specializing in the resistance to Christianity,’ so that Muslims will not be ‘throw[n] under the feet of the Cross.’ According to an instructor, ‘Recurring attempts at the university in Aswan to convert Muslims to Christianity or provoke them with misleading information was the impetus behind the course.’

India: A young woman was attacked and thrown out of her home ‘for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ’s name’ in a predominantly Muslim village; ‘her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious‘: In a village where ‘hard-line Muslims have threatened to kill the 25 families who initially showed interest in Christ, leaving only five frightened Christian families,’ the woman was attacked when returning from church, and called ‘pagan, among other verbal abuses.’ The mob also harassed and threatened the Christian woman who had allegedly

Read more…

Report: Some Members of Iran’s Armed Forces Are Converting to Christianity

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

Please pray for our new brothers and sisters in Christ in the Islamic world. If discovered, they will undoubtedly lose either their jobs, their relative “freedom”, or even their lives …

Mohabat News – “Obtained reports and reviews by experts and Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, show that Christianity is growing increasingly among Iranians, especially among the armed forces.

According to Iranian laws, non-Muslims are not allowed to be employed in any armed forces. In addition, it is mentioned in the employment conditions that the employee should believe and have a practical commitment to the Supreme Leader and also should believe in the Islamic Revolution and the regime of the Islamic Republic. The laws state that these conditions are binding. Failure in any one of these conditions can result in the punishment and exile of the violator…

Although news on military organizations are not reflected in the media regarding the ideologically closed atmosphere ruling on armed forces, suffice it to say that Muslim cleric Seyyed Mahmoud Alavi, the representative of the Assembly of Experts and a former representative of the Supreme Leader in the army, who was also a parliamentary candidate, was disqualified according to Section one of Article 28 of the constitution for not having a ‘practical commitment to Islam and the regime’ which this article requires for parliamentary candidates!

However, the reports indicate that despite this limitation ‘Christianity’ is growing among military personnel and their family members. It is only because of their sensitive situation that few news reports about this are leaking out.

The situation of Christian staff within the armed forces, however, is concerning. Because of their job, they can never apply for a passport and so they have to leave the country via underground means for fear of their lives.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Militants Calling Themselves ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam’ Threaten to Hunt Down and Execute Christians Who Flee Iran – “Islamic militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have been terrorizing evangelical Christians with threats to ‘repent’ or die, it was reported Sunday. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported that 11 Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against Christianity have received threats via email to ‘repent’ or face extrajudicial execution, from a group identifying itself as the ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam.’ The threatening emails that were sent to each individual on Sept. 14 aspired to extend the arm of Iranian Islamic militancy beyond the borders of Iran by implying that, although the recipients have left Iran, they have not escaped the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers.’” Read more.

Flashback: Fearing ‘The Growth of Christianity Like Never Before’ Iranian Authorities Escalate Crackdown on Christians in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Esfahan and Kermanshah – “The Islamic Republic of Iran has intensified its crackdown on Iranian Christians during recent weeks. This has resulted in the arrest of a number of Christians in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Esfahan and Kermanshah… ‘Today, the regime of Iran crackdowns on Christians, especially Christian converts, for it is observing the growth of Christianity like never before. This fact has made them concerned… What this religious regime tries to demonstrate is that there is only one legitimate religion and all other religions are illegitimate… During past years underground or house churches were the main targets of arrests and pressures. However, gradually the Islamic regime’s authorities also included evangelical churches among their targets.'” Read more.

Former Moroccan Jihadist Comes to Know Christ Through ICC-Sponsored TV Program, ‘I Became a New Person in Christ’

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

“Hasan was a devout Muslim from a conservative Moroccan family before he heard about the love of Christ on an ICC-supported satellite television broadcast.

‘I loved and feared Allah,’ Hasan wrote to an ICC ministry partner. ‘I was terrified of death, especially from the torture in the grave that Islam teaches about. I wanted to please Allah to get to paradise, so I learned more about Islam and followed the teachings of Sharia law. I joined militant groups and jihad groups so I could get the highest reward from Allah.’

‘However, I started doubting Allah’s nature because he commands us to kill infidels and Jews. When I asked about this teaching, nobody would give me a straight answer. I started asking God to lead me and help me, and then, as if it was planned all along, I turned on the television and heard about Christ and the Christian faith for the first time. I watched the television program everyday and started reading the Bible online. I could see the love of Christ in his teaching and his life. What a difference from the teachings of Islam! I eventually believed in the Lord Jesus and his teaching. My life changed and I became a new person in Christ.’

ICC-supported satellite television and radio is sharing the love of Christ to Muslims throughout the Islamic world. In many countries, Muslims rarely have opportunities to hear the Gospel. Please pray that new believers like Hasan grow in faith and find a church body to fellowship with.” Source – ICC.

Nigeria: Suspected Islamic Bombers Attack Center in Christian Area of Jos

04/26/2012 Leave a comment

Compass Direct News – “JOS, Nigeria, April 25 (CDN) — One person was killed and nine others were injured last night after suspected Islamic extremists attacked a TV viewing center in a Christian area of Jos where a crowd had gathered to watch soccer.

At about 10:15 p.m. at the viewing center, one of many such establishments popular in Nigeria for watching soccer matches, the attackers drove past the site and threw an explosive device at hundreds of Christians watching the match, eyewitnesses told Compass.

Some 10 minutes after the bombing, security agents evacuated the injured to Janvak Hospital just a few meters away. Medical personnel at the hospital were treating four of them under strict supervision of police and other security agents. Plateau state spokesman Pam Ayuba reportedly said one person died in the blast.

Soldiers and police under the Joint Military Task Force charged with keeping peace in embattled Plateau state cordoned off the area around the establishment. Authorities have not ruled out members of the Islamic sect Boko Haram as suspects.

The bombing marks the second time in two weeks that the Christian area has been attacked. Boko Haram, which seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, was suspected of a detonating a bomb a few meters from the center during Easter celebrations that injured five Christians. Various churches in Tudun Wada, Jos, commonly use the site as a base for evangelistic campaigns aimed at social venues in the area.

Christian and Muslim communities live in close but separate quarters of the Tudun Wada area of Jos, and the attacks have heightened tensions between them. The area comprises eight churches – Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Bishara 2, Angwan Yashi, ECWA Good News Church, Assemblies of God Church, Redeemed Peoples Mission, Solid Rock Church, Deeper Life Bible Church, and Christ Way Baptist Church.” Read more.

Pakistan: Christian Villagers Forced To Pay Muslim Cleric to Get Drinking Water

04/25/2012 Leave a comment

By Ashfaq Fateh, ASSIST News Service – “TOBA TEK SINGH, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Scientists say that, ‘a man or woman cannot live without air, water and food’ as these three elements play a vital role in human life.

Most countries ensure the fundamental rights to its citizens to ensure the availability of all these three elements. Citizens pay taxes to get pure drinking water and other facilities.

However, the story of Christians living in village # 700/42, Pirkadiayana, Tehsil Kamalia, District, Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, Pakistan, is a different one where their supply of water was on the condition that they not only had to pay the required water tax and also a pay a Muslim cleric of a mosque in the village.

In Pakistan, municipal corporations (MC) supply drinking water through their water supply schemes. Underground pipelines have been laid and a citizen applies for the connection and government then connects the house with a water supply, thus the citizen gets drinking water. The bill is collected annually.

In villages and remote areas, the government in installs the water supply system and then asks locals to form their management committees to run the system and develop their own system of collection, time table, repairs, payment of electricity bills and issuing connections. The committees run the system and try to provide water connections without any religious discrimination.

Now ASSIST News Service-Pakistan has come to know about the story of this village where poor Christians have been forced to pay water tax as well to the local Muslim cleric.

ANS-Pakistan decided to highlight this story which shows the miseries faced by Christians and an example of their unity and faith to work together despite the challenges.

The 244 Christian families of Pirkadiayana village paid extra charges to a Muslim cleric from the local Mosque from 1997-2009 to get drinking water…

‘We were forced to accept the demands of the management committee as they were powerful and if we refused to pay, our women and children had to fetch drinking water from miles away and our most of the time was spent in this exercise. Therefore, there was no alternative.'” Read more.

Speak The Truth No More: Senior US General Orders Top-to-Bottom Review of Military’s Islam Training Material

04/25/2012 Leave a comment

That’s right. How dare the armed forces, tasked with the responsibility of protecting the nation and its people, endeavor to learn more about the true nature of the enemy we’re fighting and what drives their hungry death-loving suicidal ambitions. That might provoke even more of them to attack us. No, America’s leadership continues instead to move forward with the type of reason that can only be described as the unwanted byproduct of a self-imposed lobotomy, the dim-witted idea that if we smile and speak gentler and kinder words to the enemy, maybe we’ll bridle the savage monstrosity. Unfortunately, despite all their efforts, it’s becoming increasing obvious that it isn’t the Beast that is being tamed. The Beast is taming them

Revelation 17:2, “With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”

By Spencer Ackerman, Wired – “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday ordered the entire U.S. military to scour its training material to ensure it doesn’t contain anti-Islamic content, Danger Room has learned. The order came after the Pentagon suspended a course for senior officers that was found to contain derogatory material about Islam.

The extraordinary order by General Martin Dempsey, the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. armed forces, was prompted by content in a course titled ‘Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism’ that was presented as an elective at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. The course instructed captains, commanders, lieutenant colonels and colonels from across all four armed services that ‘Islam had already declared war on the West,’ said Lt. Gen. George Flynn, Dempsey’s deputy for training and education.

‘It was inflammatory,’ Flynn told Danger Room on Tuesday. ‘We said, ‘Wait a second, that’s really not what we’re talking about.’ That is not how we view this problem or the challenges we have in the world today.’

The strong response by the Pentagon brass illustrates growing sensitivity around the issue since Danger Room’s investigation of anti-Islam material in the FBI’s counterterrorism training last September. That story sparked strong condemnation of the training material from the U.S. Attorney General on down, and prompted the White House to order a review of U.S. counterterrorism training last October.

Despite that White House order, the ‘Perspectives’ course, taught since 2004, not only evaded review, but had defenders in the Joint Forces Staff College that taught it.

Danger Room first learned about the course last month, and determined that one of its guest lecturers was Stephen Coughlin, who has taught FBI and U.S. Army audiences that Islamic law is a danger to U.S. national security. We sought comment from a representative for the Joint Forces Staff College, who defended the propriety of the course.

Feedback from students has been ‘mostly positive, usually around the 90% range,’ Steven Williams, a spokesman for the college, e-mailed Danger Room on Mar. 14. ‘Students generally appreciate thought-provoking discussion and the freedom to consider critical perspectives.’

The Pentagon, though, told a very different story Tuesday. Flynn disclosed that since an unspecified ‘revision’ of the course in the summer of 2011, multiple officers who attended the course had raised internal objections about its presentation of Islam and Muslims. He estimated that about 20 officers attend each eight-week elective course, which is offered four times a year.

Flynn said he heard about the objectionable material on Friday after a colonel enrolled in the course complained about the anti-Islam lessons.” Read more.

Iran Preparing for ‘The Last Six Months’ Prior to the Reappearance of the ‘Islamic Messiah’

04/25/2012 28 comments

By Reza Kahlili – “Despite the recent declaration by Iran that it does not want a nuclear bomb and statements by regime officials that they are willing to negotiate over the nuclear issue, indications from within Iran signal massive preparation for an all-out war as part of its destiny.

Nine years ago a Revolutionary Guards arm, the Holy Defense, published a book, ‘The Last Six Months,’ in which it describes the conditions needed in the last six months prior to the reappearance of the last Islamic messiah. The book was distributed in the hundreds of thousands to all Guards, Basij and army bases throughout the country.

Islam’s Shiites believe their 12th Imam, Mahdi, will reappear at the end of times and kill all the infidels, raising the flag of Islam in all four corners of the world.

The book admonishes the military forces that they must be prepared to do their duties during those six months and that there will be many signs to help the faithful to understand the transition, which will center on Iran.

The book, which relies on Islamic hadiths by the Prophet Mohammad and his descendants from centuries ago, describes the 9/11 attacks and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as signs that the time is near. But it also prophesies much more significant signs that would launch the six-month time frame for the reappearance of Mahdi: an attack on Syria and then an attack on Iran.

Both those events are looking increasingly likely as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad continues to murder his own people and Iran continues its quest for nuclear weapons.

Mahdi will only reappear, Shiites believe, when Israel is destroyed and the U.S. is brought to its knees; two-thirds of the world’s population will die in a nuclear exchange, and with this chaos and havoc engulfing the earth, the ‘coming’ will unfold.

As revealed in the Iranian secret documentary ‘The Coming Is Upon Us,’ it is believed within the Islamic regime that Read more…

A Significant Number Of Hezbollah Sympathizers And Terror Cells Are At Work In The US

04/24/2012 2 comments

By Michael Carl, WND – “A preliminary report issued by the U. S. House Committee on Homeland Security estimates that there could be ‘hundreds, maybe even thousands’ of Hezbollah agents operating in the United States and specifically in New York City.

The report issued following last month’s hearings says that the exact number of operatives is hard to determine.

‘Pinning down a reliable estimate of the number of Hezbollah operatives who now reside inside the U.S. is difficult because of their operational security expertise,’ the report states. ‘But some officials estimate that, based on cases uncovered since 9/11, there are likely several thousand sympathetic donors, while operatives probably number in the hundreds.’

Center for Security Policy Senior Fellow Clare Lopez agrees there are a significant number of Hezbollah sympathizers and terror cells at work in the U.S.

‘During the recent Rep. Peter King hearings on Capitol Hill on Iran and the Hezbollah threat to the homeland, New York Police Department Intelligence Chief Mitch Silber was one of the witnesses,’ Lopez said. ‘Although it was King who referred to ‘hundreds’ of Hezbollah operatives on American soil, Silber did not contradict him and added his own testimony about Iranian U.N. ‘diplomats’ conducting what appears to be, in fact, pre-attack surveillance casing.’

Although Silber hasn’t responded to WND’s request for an interview, he did testify before the committee that Hezbollah is known to have scouted for terrorism targets after the 9/11 attacks.

‘We believe this is neither an idle nor a new threat,’ Silber said. ‘Between 2002 and 2010, the NYPD and federal authorities detected at least six events involving Iranian diplomatic personnel that we struggle to categorize as anything other than hostile reconnaissance of New York City.'” Read more.