MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Raymond Ibrahim, Jihad Watch – “Just as Islamic terrorists feed off of Christian minorities by kidnapping and ransoming them, especially in lawless regions—like ‘liberated’ Iraq and on-its-way to being ‘liberated’ Syria—last Sunday, four armed and masked men kidnapped a 12-year-old Coptic Christian boy, Abanoub Ashraf, as he was walking to his church in ‘Arab-Spring-liberated’ Egypt. Right before he reached the St. Paul Church in Shubra al-Khayma district, the men put a knife to his throat, dragged him to their car, opened fire on the church, and then sped away. The kidnappers later called the family asking for five million Egyptian pounds in ransom—almost the equivalent to one million U.S. dollars, likely an impossible amount to raise.

During a live interview with Wael Ibrashi concerning this incident, Coptic Bishop Marcus said that, while the immediate motive behind the kidnapping is money, the other purpose is to frighten Christian families from sending their children to church. Otherwise, why kidnap him from right in front of the church door? (Considering that some Egyptian clerics consider attending church as worse than attending bars and brothels, the kidnappers likely deem this the ‘altruistic’ side of their greed and hate.) The kidnappers also covered their faces only right before they pounced on the boy, displaying their confidence that there would be no repercussions.

When Ibrashi asked the bishop ‘previously [during Mubarak’s era] there always used to be guards; who removed the guard from the church?’ a dejected sounding Bishop Marcus responded, ‘I don’t know; ask security not us.’ Similarly, according to the 12-year-old’s distraught family, while the local security agency has portrayed itself as doing all it can to discover the boy—that, is, on Egyptian media—’it has not contacted us, nor asked us about anything whatsoever.'” Source – Jihad Watch.

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.

By BosNewsLife Asia Service – “At least 18 people were injured Wednesday, April 3, when angry Muslims attacked a dozen Christian shops and churches in Pakistan’s city of Gujranwala, Christians told BosNewsLife.

Among the seriously injured people was one man who was earlier reported to have died, but he survived, investigators said.

The violence in the city’s Francis Colony area followed Muslim anger about Easter Sunday prayers in local churches and a dispute among Muslim and Christian youngsters over loud music, BosNewsLife established.

Adding to tensions was a Muslim cleric who rebuked Christian boys for ‘disrespecting Islam’ by playing music on their mobile phones near a mosque, residents said.

Tuesday’s fighting between Muslim and Christian boys soon spiraled out of control with local imams reportedly using mosque loudspeakers to encourage violence against ‘Christian infidels.’ …

On Wednesday, April 3, the area turned into a war zone, with police apparently firing with live ammunition at rioters and heavily armed Muslim mobs shooting back at security forces and Christians.

‘At least one Christian man nearly died after he was seriously wounded by shooting and fighting, but he survived following hospital treatment,’ added Sardar Mushtaq Gill, director of Christian advocacy group Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD).

More details about the injured man were not immediately available, but LEAD said it was investigating. ‘It is not yet clear whether he was shot by a Muslim mob or police,’ Gill said.

He said at least 18 people were injured including several with bullet wounds, who were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Christian-owned shops and churches were targeted and more than a dozen cars, buses and other vehicles were set on fire, Christians and investigators said.” Read more.

‘This is the second in a series of posts about dwindling Christian communities in the Middle East’ by Global Post …

By Lauren E. Bohn, Global Post – “It’s been close to two years since Evon Loga Gabrieul’s 17-year-old son died, but she can’t step into his pristine gray-scale bedroom without breaking down.

‘They murdered him, and nothing’s changed. The country, my family…they both will never be the same,’ she weeps, peering at the charcoal log of grades the meticulous high-schooler used to chart his progress and a possible way out of his rundown, forgotten village in rural Egypt.

Ayman Labib, a Christian, was beaten to death by Muslim classmates in a murder case that punctuates the protracted sectarian tension between Christians and Muslims in southern Egypt, where a bulk of Egypt’s Christians live. Two boys have been convicted of his death and are now serving three-year prison sentences. But for a forgotten community in Egypt’s hinterlands, there’s a feeling that justice has not been served.

Since the uprising that ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, sporadic but intense sectarian demonstrations across Egypt reflect rising fears in Egypt’s Coptic community (which make up an estimated 5 to 10 percent of Egypt’s total population) that the uprising has empowered a predominantly Muslim Egyptian society that is at best indifferent to the Christian minority’s concerns.

With a president who staunchly hails from the Muslim Brotherhood and a new constitution that critics say offers religious minorities, especially Copts, little to no assurances, existential fear has pervaded villages like the Labib family’s.

Christians in Egypt, especially in the rural south, have long complained of systemic discrimination and violence. Among a laundry list of grievances, critics say Copts are woefully underrepresented in Egypt’s military, judiciary, diplomatic corps, academia and almost all electoral bodies. Christians face state-imposed restrictions on the right to build and maintain churches, regulations that Muslims don’t face when building mosques.

In some extreme publicized cases, Christians have claimed that fundamentalists have wrongly accused them of forced conversions and kidnappings of Muslim women. Some conflicts have violently escalated into rioting and church burnings, such as one a year and a half ago on a Christian center in Aswan. The incident triggered protests in Cairo outside the government’s television center known as Maspero, which the military brutally put down, leaving 27 dead. 26 of the victims were Christian.” Read more.

Flashback: Christian Persecution From ‘Arab Spring’ Insurgents In Syria Is Deliberate and Growing, ‘It Will Never Be the Same Anymore’ – “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.’ He said he had to flee with his family at night, because anti-Christian persecution in Syria is becoming a steadily growing reality.” Read more.

By BosNewsLife Africa Service – “Nigerian Christians appealed for prayers Tuesday, April 2, after Easter season violence in troubled central Nigeria left as many as 80 people dead and displaced some 4,500 others.

At least 19 people were killed since Easter Sunday when gunmen believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders attacked the mostly Christian Atakar group in Kaura district, a remote area of Kaduna state, officials said.

Witnesses said the attacks on three communities, including the Mafang and Zilang villages, killed many women and children. Kaduna police spokesman Aminu Lawan told reporters his forces were still investigating.

Ataka Christians live near Plateau state where authorities claimed fighting between cattle herders, who are mainly Fulani Muslims, and Christian villages killed nearly 60 people in recent days.

The area is on the uneasy dividing line between Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and largely Christian south…

Christians said that following Sunday’s violence, thousands of villagers fled to the nearby hills.

Local government official Kumai Badu said in published remarks that some 4,500 people were displaced and two camps had been set up to house them.

Some who returned later to assess the extent of the damage were also murdered, according to rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Assailants also razed several homes, Christians said.

Many of those displaced by the destruction are reported to be staying in the local Amisi Primary School, as well as in nearby Fadan Attakar and Mifi villages.

‘We request prayers for, and extend our condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives during the tragic events of last week,’ said Reverend Yunusa Nmadu, the chief executive officer of CSW-Nigeria.

‘We also call on the relevant state governments to provide urgent assistance to the injured and displaced,’ Nmadu added.

The latest violence came after at least 36 people died and dozens of houses were burned in neighboring Plateau state when ethnic Fulani Muslims raided Christian villages in the week leading to Easter.” Read more.