MidnightWatcher – Prophecy 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.”

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “The aftermath of collective punishment for Pakistan’s Christians—the inevitable byproduct of the notorious Rimsha Masih blasphemy case, concerning a possibly mentally challenged, 14-year-old Christian girl falsely accused of desecrating a Quran—was more dramatic than the blasphemy case itself. Indeed, knowing what was in store for them, some Christians even held a symbolic funeral procession, carrying a Christian leader in a coffin and digging a grave for the ‘deceased.’

Their apprehension proved too true—especially after another pretext for Muslims to riot emerged: the YouTube Muhammad video. After Friday prayers, Muslims attacked, killed, and robbed the Christians in their midst, who account for a miniscule 1.5% of Pakistan’s population. St. Paul’s Church in Mardan was attacked by hundreds of Muslims armed with clubs and sticks. After looting and desecrating the church, they set it on fire (see picture here). Next, Muslims raided a nearby church-run school; they looted and torched it, as well, and burned down a library containing more than 3,000 Christian books. Although the library also contained thousands of books on Islam—making the Muslim mobs’ actions blasphemous under Pakistan’s law—’the attack continued for more than three hours, with minimal efforts by the authorities to stop it.’

Separately, gunmen on motorbikes dressed in green (Islam’s color) opened fire on the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cathedral in Hyderabad , where they murdered at least 28 people. Their immediate target appears to have been a nun, Mother Christina. Days later, unknown men reportedly threatened workers at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Hyderabad. ‘We will teach a lesson to the Christians,’ they said, and destroyed the hospital’s windows and doors. Naeem Samuel, the bishop of Trinity Evangelical Church was assaulted, severely beaten, and injured as he exited his church.

Meanwhile, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, far from condemning such outrages, validated them by falsely accusing the Muhammad movie for all the violence—even as they exposed their double standards by refusing to denounce paintings offensive to Christians, such as ‘Piss Christ.’ The New York Times also exposed its bias by defending the anti-Christian ‘Piss Christ’ as ‘art,’ while condemning the anti-Muslim Muhammad movie as hate-speech.

Categorized by theme, the rest of September’s stories of Christian persecution around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.

Church Attacks

Bahrain: Long considered the most tolerant nation in the Arabian Peninsula, with a 30% non-Muslim population of foreign workers, Bahrain is the latest Muslim nation to exhibit intolerance toward churches: Sunni clerics strongly opposed the planned construction of a Catholic church, ‘in a rare open challenge of the country’s Sunni king. More than 70 clerics signed a petition last week saying it was forbidden to build churches in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam.’ One prominent cleric, Sheik Adel Hassan al-Hamad, proclaimed that ‘anyone who believes that a church is a true place of worship is someone who has broken in their faith in God.’

Egypt: Kasr El-Dobara, the largest evangelical church in the Middle East, located in Egypt, was besieged by ‘unknown people’ hurling ‘stones and gas bombs.’ The first gas bomb thrown at the church was described as an ‘error’ by police, but it was soon followed by Read more…

Armenia Now – “The St. Gevorg church in Aleppo’s Armenian-populated district of Nor Kyugh was set ablaze on Monday, reported Tert.am, quoting a representative of the local Armenian prelacy.

Speaking to the online paper, the spokesman, Zhirayr Reisian, confirmed that the church had become a target of rebels and that it had almost been reduced to ashes.

Reisian also said that the Mesrobian Armenian school adjacent to the church has been seriously damaged, too.

Earlier on Monday a blast near an Armenian district of Syrian capital Damascus reportedly killed 10 people and wounded around 50. Armenians were feared to be among both dead and wounded.

Later Reisian told state-run agency Armenpress that a group of 10 Christians, including seven Armenians, was kidnapped near Aleppo.

About four dozen Syrian Armenians have reportedly been killed since the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011. Hundreds of an estimated 80,000 Syrian Armenian, mostly concentrated in Aleppo, have taken refuge in Armenia since fighting between government and opposition forces reached the city last July.” Source – Armenia Now.

Flashback: Syria: Christians Falling Into Severe Financial Hardship, Could Now Face Bloodbath From Islamist ‘Free Syrian Army’ – “The streets are most dangerous that is, unless it’s a Friday, when a few Syrian Christians dare to step outside of their homes amidst the persecution of Syria’s Christians by the Islamic rebels of the ‘Free Syrian Army. The Christians in Syria … could be facing a bloodbath. The signs are there right now, and only Russian and Chinese resistance to ‘the West’ is keeping the Syrian church from complete extermination. In many Syrian towns, lawlessness has become the norm. When government forces aren’t present, Muslims have been known to rob churches and kidnap, rape, or even kill Christian women.” Read more.

Morning Star News – “Amid threats of further losses, classes resumed this month at a Khartoum Bible school and church compound that Muslim extremists set ablaze in April, an area Christian source said.

Students and administrators at Gerif West Bible School in Sudan have yet to fully recover their losses from the April 21 attack, but the source said classes resumed on Oct. 15 even as area Muslims vie to take school land and anti-Christian messages emanate from a nearby mosque loudspeaker on most Fridays.

Muslim leaders have been asserting through the mosque loudspeaker that Christian institutions should not be permitted in Sudan, as the country should be a ‘purely Islamic state’ since the secession of South Sudan on July 9, 2011, he said.

‘We are expecting the level of persecution to rise in Sudan in the coming days,’ a pastor who works at the Bible school told Morning Star News by phone, adding that hostilities against churches and Christians were intensifying.

Islamist assailants shouting threats against Christians and ‘Allahu Akbar [Allah is greater]’ on April 21 broke down the Christian compound wall with a bulldozer and set fire to the school and a Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) building. Also damaged were a clinic, a home for the elderly and living quarters.

The hard-line Muslim sheikh who led the attack, Muhammad Abdelkrim, on Sept. 21 urged Muslims to tolerate no Christian presence and to have no dealings with them because they were ‘infidels,’ the source said.

‘We will never forgive Christians’ for not being Muslims, the imam declared during a mosque service on Sept. 21 through amplified loudspeakers, besides asserting that Christian institutions have no place in Sudan.

The attack ruined four halls used by three churches and burned the belongings of students at a dormitory. School library books, including 50 cartons of Bibles, were also destroyed. The assailants destroyed school furniture and broke into a safe and stole college funds.

Police stood by watching the destruction, according to a statement from SPEC.” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan: Bible College Bombed by Islamic Government While Students Studied in Class – “At least eight bombs were dropped in the area of Heiban Bible College Wednesday during the school’s first day of classes, according to a statement by Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham’s Christian humanitarian group, which supports the school… ‘We have been working for years in Sudan,’ Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham said on Wednesday. ‘Today our Bible school in Heiban in the Nuba Mountains was bombed by the Sudanese Air Force. No one was killed or hurt, but buildings were destroyed. Please pray for the safety of believers, and that God would intervene.’” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan: Christianity No Longer an Accepted Religion, Muslims Attack Christians Trying to Rebuild Church – “Emboldened by government calls for a Sudan based on Islamic law since the secession of South Sudan, Muslims long opposed to a church near Khartoum have attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their building, sources said. The Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) congregation in Omdurman West, across the Nile River from Khartoum, has continued to meet for Sunday worship in a building without a roof in spite of opposition from area Muslims and local authorities, the sources told Compass. Claiming that Christianity was no longer an accepted religion in the country, Muslims in the Hay al Sawra, Block 29 area of Omdurman West on Aug. 5 attacked SCOC members who were constructing the church building, the sources said.” Read more.

And it’s going to get worse. This is one way the enemy may attempt to cause the “sacrifice” and “oblations” to cease …

1 Peter 2:5, “You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Yeshua the Messiah.”

Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

By Luiz Sanchez – “A large mob in the village of Ezbet Marco, in the Beni Suef governorate, gathered around the only Coptic Church in the area on Sunday morning, forbidding Copts from neighbouring villages from entering the church.

According to Ishak Ibrahim, a journalist and researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, two Copts were injured as a result of violence brought about by the predominantly conservative Muslim crowd barring the entrance.

As the church is the only church in the area, it is very hard for Copts in neighbouring villages to pray elsewhere. As the mob maintained their blockade of the church skirmishes occurred, and two Copts identified by Ibrahim as Sobhi Saleh and Ibrahim Sadeq reportedly suffered from fractured arms and feet. Cars were also damaged in the scuffle.

‘During Ramadan priests and Copts from Ezbet Marco were asked to not allow Copts from outside the village to pray in the church because the Muslims in the area believe they dress inappropriately,’ Ibrahim added. The women’s attire does not conform to traditional dress.

The police surrounded the church to protect it from being attacked and, according to eyewitnesses that had spoken to Ibrahim, managed to diffuse the situation and arrest some people suspected of participating in the mob.

‘This is not only a problem in this village,’ Ibrahim said. ‘It is a big problem across Egypt.’ Two months ago, in the Al-Amareya district in Alexandria, Muslims demanded the local church refuse to receive Christians from outside the village. ‘What can the people do,’ Ibrahim said. ‘They don’t have [a] church in their area and therefore must go to nearby villages that do have one.'” Read more.

Flashback: Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi Says Christians Must Convert To Islam, Pay ‘Jizya’, Or Leave Egypt, ‘Conquest Is Coming’ – “According to the popular Egyptian website, El Bashayer, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will ‘achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya,’ the additional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslims, or financial tribute… After his interviewer pointed out that the first Muslim conquest of Egypt was ‘carried out at the hands of Amr bin al-As [in 641],’ he asked Morsi, ‘Who will the second Islamic conqueror be?’ Morsi, replied, ‘The second Muslim conqueror will be Muhammad Morsi,’ referring to himself, ‘and history will record it.’” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Group: ‘Christianity Should Be Destroyed And Wiped From The Face Of The Earth’, It Is ‘Evil’ and ‘Demonic’ – “A Muslim group has released its plan to ‘wipe Christianity from the face of the earth,’ Islamize the West and establish an Islamic system of world government – placing those who resist ‘under a police state.’ The 23-page booklet, ‘The Global Islamic Civilization: The Power of a Nation Revived,’ is the brainchild of the United Muslim Nations International, a group led by Sheik Farook al-Mohammedi. The document outlines a plan for Muslim world domination and the re-establishment of the Caliphate. Al-Mohammedi leaves no doubt about his view of Christianity. ‘Christianity should be destroyed and wiped from the face of the earth … It is an evil demonic and Anti-Christ system, all Christians are in complete Ignorance.’ The sheik includes a veiled threat in his remarks.” Read more.

Here’s an update on yesterday’s suicide car bombing at a church in Nigeria …

allAfrica – “Kaduna State was yesterday thrown into another round of pandemonium following a suicide bomb blast that rocked the Saint Rita’s Catholic Church at Ungwa Yero in Malali, Kaduna North LGA. The church has a capacity to accommodate over 1,000 worshipers.

The blast, which affected mostly women and children, killed at least 15 people and severely injured about 150 including the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Bonet Micah…

The bishop said: ‘I feel more pained in my heart over this unfortunate incident as 90 per cent of the victims are children. We pray for their quick recovery and fortitude to bear the loss of those who died in the process. My appeal is to the Christians, especially the Catholic youths, not to consider reprisal as an option as this will rather create more tension and add to the already bad situation’…

‘The people that were mostly affected are my choir members and the little children, although some other members of the church like those on the altar and the priest were also affected. Two persons died instantly including the suicide bomber, but there were over 150 others injured with some in critical condition right now,’ he said.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: ‘Proud Soldiers Of Allah’ Vows To Take Down Government And Destroy Christianity, ‘We Will Devour You … Our Joy Is To Die In Jihad’ – “‘You, Jonathan, cannot stop us; instead we will devour you in the three months like you are boasting … We are proud soldiers of Allah; we will never give up as we fight the infidels. We will emerge as winners … for us, [death] is eternal victory to die working for Allah. Our joy is to die in Jihad for Allah … We are not doing physical human service, but Allah’s work … We are not afraid because we are not doing man’s work but Allah’s work…” Read more.