MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Revelation 13:12a, 15b, “It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast … and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.”

By Monica Mark, The Guardian – “The leader of Nigeria’s Islamist militant group Boko Haram has called for more attacks against schools, describing western education as a ‘plot against Islam’, in a video released days after his fighters killed 46 students in an assault on a dorm.

In the 15-minute recording released at the weekend, Abubakar Shekau said schools would continue to be targeted ‘until our last breath’.

‘Teachers who teach western education? We will kill them! We will kill them in front of their students, and tell the students to henceforth study the Qur’an,’ he said, gesticulating energetically while dressed in military fatigues and a traditional hat.

Shekau denied that his fighters killed children. ‘Our religion does not permit us to touch small children and women, we don’t kill children,’ he said, reading from sheets of paper as he cradled a Kalashnikov. He also dismissed talk of a ceasefire. Last week the government said it had signed a deal with Shekau’s second-in-command.

With its ability to launch attacks reduced by a military crackdown, Boko Haram is redrawing the battle lines in Nigeria’s four-year insurgency by going after softer targets. A recent spate of attacks on schools is part of a two-pronged strategy that plays up the extremists’ ideology against western institutions while also providing a stream of potential new recruits as frightened parents pull their children out of education.

Unschooled and unemployed children are increasingly being recruited – sometimes forcibly – to fill the ranks of Boko Haram and unleash violence against their peers, the Guardian has learned. Witnesses say many are plied with dates stuffed with tramadol – a narcotic used to tranquilise horses – before being sent on missions.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: 30 Killed After Boko Haram Gunmen Attack Boarding School, Many Children Burned Alive – “Islamic militants attacked a boarding school in northeast Nigeria before dawn Saturday, killing 29 students and one teacher. Some of the pupils were burned alive in the latest school attack blamed on a radical terror group, survivors said. Parents screamed in anguish as they tried to identify the charred and gunshot victims. Farmer Malam Abdullahi found the bodies of two of his sons, a 10-year-old shot in the back as he apparently tried to run away, and a 12-year-old shot in the chest.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: Suspected Islamists Massacre Entire Christian Family, Including Five Little Children – “Christians in central Nigeria could mourn their dead Sunday, February 24, after the massacre of a Christian family while sectarian clashes killed one person and left churches, homes and mosques burnt, officials said. In one the worst incidents since Thursday, February 21, suspected Muslim attackers used machetes and guns to murder 10 members of the same Christian family in Plateau state, with half the victims under the age of six, the military and government confirmed.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: Islamists Tie Up And Slit Throats Of At Least 15 Men, Women And Children In Maiduguri – “SUSPECTED radical Islamist gunmen have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats and killing at least 15 in the troubled region’s latest attack. The assault happened early on Friday morning in the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri. The gunmen, suspected of being members of Boko Haram, shouted religious slogans and later ordered people to gather up into a group, said Mshelia Inusa, a primary school teacher in the village.” Read more.

And what the Ottoman Turks left behind was the genocide of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians. The West is often all too willing to rebuke Israel when they defend themselves against Palestinian death-loving terrorists, but are all too often indifferent when it comes to the plight of Middle Eastern Christians just trying to survive …

By Joseph Puder, Frontpage Mag – “The destinies of Syria and Lebanon have been intertwined since the days of French colonial rule, in between the two world wars.  It is for this reason that the ongoing civil war in Syria has had its impact on Lebanon.  Lebanon is more divided on the issue of the Syrian uprising than any other country in the region.

The Syrian regime has dominated its smaller Lebanese neighbor since the mid-1970s.  It has loyal allies and sworn enemies.  The Syrian crisis threatens to escalate tensions between and within Lebanon’s largest religious communities, all of whom have a complex relationship with Syria’s President Bashar Assad. The Shiite-Muslims of Lebanon overwhelmingly support the Syrian government of Bashar Assad.  Hezbollah, in particular, has a close alliance with Assad.  The vast majority of Sunni-Muslims in Lebanon support the largely Sunni-led uprising in Syria. The Christians are divided between political parties that rely on Assad’s support.  Gen. Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, is allied with Hezbollah and Assad, while those Christian parties who are part of the March 14 Movement (allied with the Saudis and the U.S.) strongly oppose Syria and the Assad regime’s influence in Lebanon.

Joseph Hakim is a Lebanese native and President of the International Christian Union (ICU).  In Hakim’s view, the jihadi forces within the Syrian opposition and Hezbollah on the other side, have used the conflict in Syria to ethnically cleanse the Christians.  According to Hakim, the indigenous Christian minority in Syria is being ‘forced out of their native cities, towns, and villages.’  Hakim bemoaned the passivity of the free world as it witnessed Christians being slaughtered, churches firebombed, priests being beheaded, and bishops kidnapped. ‘I feel that I am being accurate in calling what is happening genocide.’

As far as Hakim is concerned, there is a coordinated effort to force the indigenous Christian communities in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria out of the Middle East. He sees the conflict in Syria as a war between the Shiite forces sponsored by Iran and supported by Hezbollah on the Assad regime side, with the Sunni jihadist side being sponsored and supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey.  In the Lebanese context, however, Hakim considers Saad Hariri as the leader of the Sunni forces, and fears that he is taking orders from the Saudis, which will ultimately result in Al-Qaida insertion into Lebanon. That is true particularly in Sunni-majority cities like Tripoli and the Palestinians camps. ‘Hezbollah,’ Hakim maintained, ‘is the strongest party in Lebanon, and it is much stronger than either the Lebanese Army or the government.’

Hakim cited the recent clash near Sidon, Lebanon’s third largest city, as an example of how Read more…