MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Unfortunately, peaceful co-existence with “infidels” is forbidden by the “Religion of Peace” …

Hadith, Sahih Muslim 1:33a, “The Messenger of Allah [Mohammed] said: ‘I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Mohammad is the messenger of Allah, and they establish [Islamic] prayer …”

By Stephen Gbadamosi, Nigerian Tribune – “The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed worry at the spate of killing of Christians in the country, calling on the government to set machinery in motion to affirm peaceful co-existence of the people of the country.

One which is even worse than the hate campaign that is already in motion …

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.”

Al Monitor – “A predominantly Muslim nation, Turkey has occasionally seen anti-Christian campaigns, some with tragic consequences. But the scale of protests against New Year’s celebrations this year was unprecedented. Previously, some Islamic media would denounce the festivities as un-Islamic, but never before have we seen acts threatening those who celebrate.

As fellow Al-Monitor contributor Pinar Tremblay described, members of Turkey’s tiny Christian minority were already depressed, bemoaning the increasingly subdued fashion of their Christmas celebrations and the ‘long gone memory’ of times past, when Christians and Muslims shared holidays.

The events preceding New Year’s Eve — events which were a first for Turkey — added to the gloom. It all started with posters depicting a devout-looking Muslim man punching Santa Claus, hung in various Istanbul neighborhoods. ‘No to New Year’s and Christmas celebrations,’ read the posters. They were part of a campaign led by the Anatolian Youth Association, known to be the youth branch of the pro-Islamic Felicity Party.

The group distributed fliers reading, ‘We are crying out that the New Year’s and Christmas celebrations held in our country are wrong and constitute a blow dealt to our Muslim identity.’ The flier also included the following paragraph: ‘The adoption and practice of Christmas by Muslims should be regarded as religious and cultural degeneration. One should bear in mind that such behavior is accelerating the process of alienation and estrangement from our own religious beliefs and values, and will breed a favorable ground for Christian missionary activities targeting our country and people.’

The last sentence is particularly noteworthy, since it raises concerns of a possible resurrection of the anti-Christian campaign that plagued Turkey in the 2000s and resulted in physical attacks on Christians.

In 2005 and 2006, almost all national newspapers carried reports targeting Christians, especially missionaries. The paranoia of a missionary invasion spread to such an extent that the National Security Council, where government and military leaders discuss Turkey’s top security issues, classified missionary activities as one of the country’s major security problems. The Ergenekon probe, launched in 2008 to investigate mainly alleged coup plots, revealed that the anti-missionary campaign was waged in a systematic fashion by a faction within the Ergenekon organization.

The anti-Christian campaign at the time resulted in verbal and physical attacks on hundreds of Christians and churches across Turkey.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Attacked Turkish Pastor Told to Accept Islam or Die, Joins Memorial Service for Slain Christians – “After a memorial service for three Christians who were murdered in Malatya, Turkey five years ago today, an Istanbul pastor who was attacked over Easter weekend said he’s experienced hostility from Muslims nearly all his life… ‘I’ve been verbally abused for being a Christian many times, but this was the first time I was hit, so this was surprising and made me sad,’ Serkek said… The men, whom Serkek said appeared to be about 18 years old, were agitated, and when he refused to let them in they used insulting language, he said. They threatened to kill him if he didn’t recite the Islamic testimony of faith.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Muslims Subjecting More Christians to Discrimination and Attacks, Followers of Christ Vilified in Media, Textbooks – “… Christians in Turkey continue to suffer attacks from private citizens, discrimination by lower-level government officials and vilification in both school textbooks and news media, according to a study by a Protestant group. In its annual ‘Report on Human Rights Violations,’ released in January, the country’s Association of Protestant Churches notes mixed indicators of improvement but states that there is a ‘root of intolerance’ in Turkish society toward adherents of non-Islamic faiths. ‘The removal of this root of intolerance is an urgent problem that still awaits to be dealt with,’ the report states.” Read more.

Islamists are at war with Christianity, and when at war even the children of non-Muslims are fair game for these killers …

Hadith, Sahih Muslim 4457, “The Messenger of Allah … used not to kill the children, so thou shouldst not kill them unless you could know what Khadir had known about the child he killed, or you could distinguish between a child who would grow up to he a believer (and a child who would grow up to be a non-believer), so that you killed the (prospective) non-believer and left the (prospective) believer aside.”

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Yet another Coptic Christian child was recently kidnapped in Egypt.  Thirteen-year-old Cyril Rif‘at Fayiz was abducted in the Minya district by ‘unknown persons’ who later called the child’s parents demanding one million Egyptian pounds, nearly the equivalent of $150,000 USD.

This phenomenon — kidnapping and holding Coptic children captive for large ransoms — has become a regular feature of the Egyptian landscape, particularly in Minya, Upper Egypt.  A few examples follow:

• August 2013: Copts held a funeral for Wahid Jacob, formerly a young church deacon.  He too was kidnapped by ‘unknown persons’ who demanded an exorbitant ransom from his family—1,200,000 Egyptian pounds (equivalent to $171,000 USD).  Because his family could not raise the sum, he was executed—his body dumped in a field where it was later found.  The priest who conducted his funeral service said that the youth’s body bore signs of severe torture.
• May 2013: After 6-year-old Cyril Joseph was kidnapped and the family paid ransom, he was still killed.  In the words of the Arabic report, the boy’s ‘family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body in his sewer system, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed.’
• April 2013: Ten-year-old Sameh George, another church deacon in Minya, was likewise abducted by ‘unknown persons’ while on his way to church to participate in Holy Pascha prayers leading up to Orthodox Easter. His parents said that it was his custom to go to church and worship in the evening, but he failed to return and they received an anonymous phone call from his kidnappers informing them that they had the Christian child in their possession and would execute him unless they received 250,000 Egyptian pounds in ransom money.
• April, 2013: Another Coptic Christian boy, 12-year-old Abanoub Ashraf, was also kidnapped right in front of his church in Shubra al-Khayma district. His abductors, four men, put a knife to his throat, dragged him to their car, opened fire on the church, and then sped away. Later they called the boy’s family demanding a large amount of money to ransom child’s life.

As for Coptic girls, they are even more vulnerable than Coptic boys and disappear with greater frequency.  As an International Christian Concern report puts it, ‘hundreds of Christian girls … have been abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and forced into marriage in Egypt. These incidents are often accompanied by acts of violence, including rape, beatings, and other forms of physical and mental abuse.'” Source – Raymond Ibrahim.

Flashback: Heartbreaking Video Gives Viewers A Taste Of The Growing Plight Of Egypt’s Christians – “A procession of Christians bravely vows to stand firm in the faith of Christ, even unto death. An anguished church leader cries out to the Lord to deliver His people from their turmoil. A Christian mother languishes over the abduction of her daughter. This is but a mere drop in what has now become a sea of Christian persecution …” Read more.