MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News – “DAMASCUS, SYRIA (Worthy News)– Christians are being targeted by Muslim rebels according to the Vatican and other sources amongst besieged Syrian Christian communities.

According to reports by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency, the US-backed Syrian Army are sacking churches and issuing threats that all Christians will be cleansed from rebel-held territory.

‘The picture for us is utter desolation,’ said Bishop Philip Tournyol Clos, a greek-Catholic Melkite Archimandrite. ‘The church of Mar Elian is half destroyed and that of Our Lady of Peace is still occupied by the rebels. Christian homes are severely damaged due to the fighting and completely emptied of their inhabitants, who fled without taking anything.’

Asked whether it was the Free Syrian Army that was telling Christians to get out, Agnes Miriam, Mother Superior of the Monastery of St. James at Qara in the Diocese of Homs, said ‘yes … it was commander on the ground, Abdel Salam Harba, who decided that there was to be no more negotiations with Christians.’

She said Christians refused to back the rebels, so the rebels used them as human shields.” Source – Worthy News.

Flashback: ‘Lawlessness’: Christian Killed In Qusayr Syria, Others Treated As It Were ‘The Days Of The Ottoman Caliphate’ – “The Christian Maurice Bitar was killed in Qusayr, near the town of Homs where the Christian population – about a thousand people out of 10 thousand who lived there before the beginning of the violence – has been forced to flee after the ‘ultimatum launched by an armed faction in the opposition forces led by General Abdel Salam Harba… According to Fides sources, ‘the situation is unsustainable in the area and exposed to total lawlessness.’… The fate of Christians in Qusary, concludes the source, could soon touch the 10 thousand faithful who live in other villages in the area, such as Dmeineh, Rableh and Hamra.” Read more.

Flashback: Syria: Death Stalks Syrian Christian Ministry, But ‘I Will Not Stop Until I Am With Jesus’ – “An indigenous missionary from nearby Lebanon crossed the border to baptize a believer last week. Instead, he had to bury the believer — shot in the head as a martyr for his recently-found faith in Jesus Christ… ‘This has been one of the longest weeks of my life,’ the missionary told Christian Aid. ‘To visit Syria, I had to sneak in through the mountains and not go by normal roads. ‘I went there to bury a friend who died last week. I was supposed to be baptizing him, but I ended up doing his funeral.’” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Deliberate and Growing’: Christian Persecution From ‘Arab Spring’ Insurgents in Syria Becoming a Steadily Growing Reality, ‘It Will Never Be the Same Anymore’ – “Refugees who have fled to Jordan from Syria are telling mission leaders supported by Christian Aid Mission about deliberate, new persecution from the ‘Arab Spring’ insurgents who are seeking to overthrow the brutal Assad regime in Damascus. Nearly 100,000 Christians so far have fled from Homs and other cities being targeted by government forces, but it is no longer just to escape the crossfire. Now, more reports are revealing that a new wave of persecution is deliberate and growing… ‘It is over; we can’t get back what we lost,’ said one discouraged Christian refugee here in Jordan. ‘It will never be the same anymore for me or my family. We’ve lost hope.’” Read more.

By Monia Ghanmi, Magharebia – “A recent video from a self-avowed al-Qaeda member called for holy war against the Tunisian government, raising fears among citizens that extremist violence could escalate.

The June 11th message from 30-year-old Salim Abou Ahmed Ayoub, purportedly the second in command of al-Qaeda in Tunisia, called on citizens to wage a holy war against the government in order to establish an Islamic state and wipe out unbelievers. The online video also directly attacked President Moncef Marzouki, calling for him to be overthrown.

The tape came just a day after al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri issued his own message threatening Tunisia, and after a discovery by Iraqi intelligence services of invitations to al-Qaeda leaders to go to Tunisia and expand their military operations, in order to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Together with a recent wave of salafist violence, the news is worrying many Tunisians who fear the country could become a target for terrorist attacks.

Salim Abdouli is concerned that al-Qaeda supporters in Tunisia will try to impose their agenda on the state and society through violence.

‘Terrorism by hard-line salafist groups in Tunisia will become a reality very soon,’ he commented. ‘We should not underestimate or ignore it, instead dealing with and responding to it before it’s too late.'” Read more.

Flashback: Tunisia: Muslims Behead Man For Refusing To Renounce His Faith In Jesus, ‘There Is No God But Allah And Muhammad Is His Messenger’ – “A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or ‘narrator,’ chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: ‘Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate’; ‘Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists’; ‘Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims,’ and ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.’” Read more.

Flashback: Tunisia: Radical Islamists Hold Anti-Semitic March In Central Tunisia, ‘Jews, Jews, The Army Of Mohammed Is Back’ – “Thousands of Salafist Muslims marched on Kairouan in Central Tunisia, as part of the extremist Islamic movement’s annual assembly. The exclusively male attendees, many of whom were dressed in Afghan military uniform or waving Salafist black flags, marched through the city and raised a banner over the minaret of its mosque, the oldest in Africa… Organisers of the Salafist assembly had instructed marchers to remain ‘calm’ and not to talk to reporters. Many participants however defied their request not to chant slogans, reciting ‘We are all the children of Osama (bin Laden)’ and ‘Jews, Jews, the army of Mohammed is back’.” Read more.