MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Given the fact that ancient Ethiopia is now modern day northern Sudan, I hope the writer of the article below is wrong in his assessment. But in light of what has transpired in the Islamic world over the past two years, including within the Ethiopian Muslim community, it wouldn’t surprise me if the growing tension between the Ethiopian government and the Islamist push for a Sharia-based state is indeed set to explode …

By Brad Macdonald, The Trumpet – “In April 2011, the Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry delivered a bold forecast. Here’s what he wrote: ‘Libya and Ethiopia are … going to be closely allied with Iran! … So you need to watch Libya and Ethiopia. … You need to continue to watch for Libya and Ethiopia to make a severe and rapid turn into the radical Islamic camp.’

At the time, many readers rejected this warning as absurd. This is a ‘most bizarre article,’ retorted one Trumpet reader from Ethiopia. My country is ‘one of the oldest and [most] devout Orthodox Christian nations on the planet (since third century) and a staunch ally of the United States. On behalf of U.S., Ethiopia invaded Somalia in late 2006 and kicked out ruling Islamic Courts Union …. [That] doesn’t sound like a nation doing Iran’s bidding.’

He’s right too, at least in his facts.

On May 5, 2011, when Mr. Flurry published ‘An Islamic Takeover of Libya and Ethiopia,’ he again inspired disbelief. ‘I don’t think this is a sensible prophecy,’ wrote one reader from Ethiopia, ‘especially when it comes to the situation of Ethiopia. … Please, try to study what exactly the situation is in Ethiopia. The country is dominated by Christians for centuries, and this is highly unlikely to change.’ He’s right too, factually.

There’s a larger lesson here, which we’ll get back to later. But for now, let’s follow this reader’s advice and study the situation in Ethiopia at the start of August 2012, more than 18 months after Mr. Flurry first delivered his ‘absurd’ forecast.

Last week, the Washington Times published an article headlined ‘Muslim Protests Raise Fears of Radical Islam in Ethiopia.’ According to the Times, ‘Clashes between Islamic protesters and riot police over the weekend inEthiopia have raised fears that Muslims are becoming increasingly radical in a predominantly Christian country that has been a key U.S. ally in combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa.’

Two days later, a headline in the Christian Science Monitor asked, ‘Will Ethiopian Crackdown Stir Islamist Backlash?‘ The Monitor warned that the ‘the act of civil disobedience from Muslims, who constitute at least one third of the population, is a rare sign of instability in a country seen by U.S. policymakers as a bulwark against radical Islam in the volatile Horn of Africa region.’

In recent months, there has been a measurable increase in  Read more…

By Pervaiz Khokhar, Salem News – “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. Innocent bystanders simply making trips to the store have been gunned down. Curfews have done little to make anyone feel safer or less fearful, so the Christian community simply bands together and prays.

Hundreds of these Christian residents have watched their lives and their very freedoms slip away right before their eyes. Homs, a city which has been occupied by both government and rebel forces for weeks, is now alone the site of more than 1,500 violent deaths. As the Arab Spring continues to rage throughout Syria, thousands more people have lost their lives in a movement that seeks to strip President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of its power. And as Islamic protesters clash with government forces, Christians have become hopelessly tangled in the crossfire.

The most recent fighting has left over 50 Christians dead. One victim, a young Christian boy, was killed by rebels who filmed the murder and then blamed the act on government soldiers.

Another victim, a Christian man, was taken captive by rebels before being cruelly asked by them, ‘How do you want to die?’ The man suffered a complete breakdown before he was eventually released. But the ever-present fear of persecution and violence is only part of the problem for Syria’s Christians…

Many in the Christian community, which comprises approximately 6 percent of Syria’s population (1.5 million, including Christian refugees from Iraq), have fallen into severe financial hardship since the Arab Spring uprising, primarily because they are too afraid to leave their homes to go to work. Because of the violence, a shortage of basic supplies such as gas, electricity, and many supermarket products has contributed even further to the desperate situation.

Although the Syrian church has historically enjoyed peace and religious freedom under the Assad regime, the Arab Spring has destabilized that peace, as Christians are now typically perceived as supporters of the existing government. With help from fellow Muslims in Saudi Arabia, many Islamic fundamentalists are taking advantage of the opportunity to pursue their agenda in Syria, which has significantly increased the persecution of Christians.” Read more.

Revelation 17:5-6a, “And on her forehead a name [was] written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus …”

By Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Mag – “Murfreesboro, a city in the heart of Tennessee, and, Marseille, France’s second-largest city and its largest city on the Mediterranean coast, have few things in common. The two cities are separated by nearly 5,000 miles, and by equally wide divisions of language and culture. And yet Murfreesboro and Marseille are connected by a common challenge. Both cities have struggled against the creeping rise of the mega mosques.

The mega mosque in Marseille has been the subject of an extended legal fight going back a decade. The one in Murfreesboro had a briefer history of being on the wrong side of the law. But in both cases elected officials did their best to aid the mega mosques while ignoring local residents and the law.

The mega mosque business is booming around the world. The Marseille mega mosque has a proposed capacity of 7,000 seats which would make it the largest mosque in France, overshadowing the Ervy mosque which has a mere 5,000 seats. Both of these French mega mosques would have been dwarfed by a proposed London mega mosque with 12,000 seats and usability targets as high as 40,000. If the London mosque is ever built, it will dominate the Mosque of Rome, currently the most mega of all the mega mosques of Western Europe.

The Ground Zero Mosque, located near the site of the most brutal Muslim atrocity inflicted on the West in centuries, had a more modest 2,000 seating capacity plan, but would be vertically taller than most of the mega-mosques with a proposed 100,000 square feet of space. This would make it larger than the Marseille mega mosque, the Murfreesboro mega mosque and the London mega mosque. But despite their differences in size, all four mega mosque projects have followed the same pattern of lawsuits, public protests, exposures of shady mosque backers and public officials eager to look the other way.

The Cologne mega mosque in Germany has also followed the same pattern and is set to become the biggest mosque in Germany. But big is never big enough. The Stockholm mega mosque was finished in the year 2000 and has a capacity of 2,000, but a decade later there was already a proposal to replace it with an even larger mega mosque. At its current size the Stockholm mega mosque had already managed to feature sermons in support of Islamic terrorism and serve as a recruitment center for Al-Qaeda. At several times the size the situation could only get worse.

In yet another common pattern of mega mosques, the Read more…

By Kristen Chick, CSM – “Afaf Ibrahim Fanous walks through her brother’s former home, pointing out the fire-blackened walls, charred doorways, and gaping holes in the bathroom where the fixtures used to be.

The thick dust and cobwebs that have settled on the ruined house since last year don’t hide the signs of the fire and looting that took place during clashes between Muslims and Christians in this small village in the rural Nile valley. As Ms. Fanous reaches a balcony on the third floor, overlooking another burned house, this one with a cross on the outside walls, she begins to weep – but not over the ruined house.

Police arrested and tried 20 people – 12 Christians and eight Muslims – for their involvement in the clashes, during which Muslim crowds attacked and burned dozens of Christian homes and shops and Christians fired guns from their rooftops. One of the those arrested for the violence, which killed two people, was Fanous’s brother.

All Christians on trial, including her brother, were sentenced to life in prison, while all Muslim defendants were acquitted.

To Fanous, it felt like another, unbearable, injustice added to the initial attack. ‘All the attackers are free; they weren’t punished. But the people who tried to defend their homes are all in prison,’ she says.

It has been a difficult 18 months for Egyptian Christians. During the period between former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and the election of a civilian president, in which Egypt was under military rule, there were at least 12 incidents of serious sectarian violence, often involving Christian homes or churches being attacked and burned. On New Year’s Eve, 2011, a bomb ripped through a church in Alexandria, killing nearly two dozen people. In October, Army soldiers and unidentified civilians attacked a mostly Christian protest in Cairo, killing 27 people.” Read more.

New Egypt Government Puts Brotherhood In Key Posts – “Egypt’s Islamist president swore in his first new government Thursday, led by a devout Muslim and including five members of his Muslim Brotherhood in unglamorous but ideal ministries for a group whose long-term aim is to Islamize the most populous Arab nation. The Cabinet is a far cry from the inclusive administration that President Mohammed Morsi has repeatedly promised. No other political factions came on board to join. Women and Christians received only token representation, and figures from the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak last year were left out.” Read more.