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‘A Sign Of Things To Come’: Eritrean Government Arrests 150 Christians Found Praying Together

10/27/2013 1 comment

Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

Acts 14:22, “… continue in the faith … we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

Asmarino Independent – “Release Eritrea, a UK based charity, has learnt that Eritrean security forces, raided a prayer meeting and arrested 150 Christians found praying together in Maitemenai, a suburb to the north of Asmara. It is thought that the believers had gathered to pray about the escalating refugee crisis and the trouble in the country that has been of concern to many Eritreans in recent days.

The gathering is said to have been under the auspices of an underground fellowship known locally as ‘Hiyaw Amlak’ (Living God). The fellowship is part of a wide network of underground fellowships that have been in operation throughout the country since 2002, when the Eritrean government shut all churches not belonging to the officially sanctioned religious groups.

Although no details of the whereabouts of all the prisoners have been disclosed officially, friends and families of the detained believe at least some of them are held at the 4th Police Station near an area known as Edaga Hamus in the adjoining district, from where the raid and arrests occurred.

The arrest has alarmed underground church leaders, who fear that this may be a sign of things to come.” Source – Asmarino Independent.

Flashback: Eritrea: Authorities Subject 39 Christian High School Students To Beatings, Hard Labor Because Of Their Faith – “Eritrean authorities are punishing 39 Christian high school students by subjecting them to beatings and hard labor, according to Open Doors. Sources told Open Doors that after completing their mandatory four-month military training, the students were arrested for their ‘Christian beliefs and for their commitment to Christ’ and are being held at the SAWA military training center; sources also report that Eritrean authorities are threatening them with long prison sentences should they fail to renounce Christ.” Read more.

Flashback: Eritrea: Government Beats, Detains 125 Christians For ‘Illegal’ Worship, ‘Christians Are Treated Like Enemy No. 1′ – “Over the past week, 125 Christians have been beaten and detained in Eritrea. ‘Police arrested these church members from homes and workplaces during broad daylight and then marched them through town to the police station while beating them,’ an investigator for Open Doors reported to Worthy News. Among the 125 Christians, 45 men and women were arrested on Feb. 27 for worshiping outside highly regulated government-approved churches in Eritrea.” Read more.

Flashback: Eritrea: Christian Persecution Is Now ‘At Its Highest Level Ever And Getting Worse’ – ““A Christian leader in Eritrea says that religious persecution in the northeast African country ‘is at its highest level ever and getting worse,’ World Watch Monitor (WWM), the news outlet of Open Doors, a Christian charity reports… The total number of Christians arrested in Eritrea this year has risen to 191 after the detention of 37 students from the College of Arts and Sciences Adi Kihe and five men from the Church of the Living God in Asmara, according to WWM. Up to 3,000 Christians are imprisoned because of their faith in Eritrea.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam Tags:

Anti-Christian Terror Continues To Grow Throughout The Middle East And South Asia

10/27/2013 1 comment

1 Peter 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you … but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”

Matthew 24:29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect …”

Colossians 3:12-13, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another …”

By Steven B. Nasatir, The Washington Post – “The persecution of any religious minority anywhere by anyone is an evil injustice. It requires all persons of conscience to speak out and, when possible, take action.

The upcoming 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht makes this an auspicious time to raise awareness about the contemporary violence targeting religious minorities and their places of worship. Of particular concern are attacks against Christian minorities that have occurred with alarming frequency from Syria to Egypt, from Iraq to Pakistan, and from Kenya to Sudan.

November 9 marks 75 years since the pogrom against Jews committed by mobs throughout the Nazi Reich. Often called Kristallnacht, or the ‘Night of Broken Glass,’ when rioters killed or injured hundreds of Jews; burned over 1,000 synagogues; destroyed 7,000 Jewish-owned shops and businesses; vandalized cemeteries and schools, and; sent 30,000 Jews to German concentration camps. It marked a turning point in the escalating campaign of persecution culminating in the Holocaust.

These events, seared into Jewish collective memory, make us doubly aware—and duty bound—to raise our voices when the deadly brew of religious bigotry and wanton violence are mixed.

Today in Syria, a once thriving Christian population—a community nearly as ancient as that country’s once great Jewish community—has been depopulated by 25 percent, according an estimate the Patriarch Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham shared with the BBC.

In September, The Associated Press reported that Syrian Christians in Maaloula—a community dating to the birth of Christianity and that still speaks Aramaic—were driven out or forcibly converted to Islam by rebels aligned with al-Qaeda.

‘It is chaos, it is violence, it is blood, it is death. Life has been paralyzed. We have lost everything,’ said Archbishop Theophile Georges Kassab of Homs.

In Egypt, some supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi last summer unleashed their rage against that nation’s Christians, a historic community constituting 20 percent of the country’s population. Mobs burned dozens of Christian schools, convents, monasteries, institutions, and churches of any, and all Christian denominations. And just days ago, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside a Coptic Christian church during a wedding, murdering four, including an 8-year-old girl.

‘It never happened before in history that such a big number of churches were attacked on one day,’ Bishop Thomas, a Coptic Orthodox bishop in Assiut told Al Jazeera.” Read more.

Flashback: World Largely Ignoring Christian Tribulation

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: