MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Christians burned alive by Islamists in Nigeria

“The Church of England’s ruling body called this week on the Government to ‘do all it can’ to support the protection of religious minorities in Nigeria.

In an address to General Synod, the Bishop of Durham the Rt Rev Justin Welby said violence in Nigeria had become ‘pervasive’.

‘[We are here] to consider the fate of a church that in the north of Nigeria is systematically, deliberately and progressively being eliminated,’ he said.

While he acknowledged that some attacks were being committed against Muslims, he said the ‘vast majority’ of the violence was being directed at Christians.

Nigeria is split roughly between a largely Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. Churches and Christian communities in the north have come under increasing attack from Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

Dozens of people were killed in a series of bomb attacks in Nigeria on Christmas Day. Targets included St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla.

In the weeks that followed, dozens more Christians were killed in an attack on a church in Gombe and a town hall meeting in Mubi.

The scale of the violence has caused thousands of people to flee to the south.

A report to Synod warned that the church in the north east of the country in particular had received ‘little protection, if any’.

Many Anglican churches in Jos and Kaduna have been burned down and the Bishop of Damaturu is presently in hiding further south.

‘His flock is scattered, his church destroyed,’ said Bishop Welby.

‘It is too dangerous for him to return and there is little sign at present of that changing.'” Read more.

By Mohabat News – “In the latest approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran to oppose the growth of Christianity, a Christian convert was sentenced to one year of deprivation of education by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

According to Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, Ms. Fatemeh Nouri, an art student in one of the universities in Tehran (The name of university is withheld for security reasons) was sentenced to one year of deprivation of education by the Revolutionary Court for believing in Christianity.

Ms. Nouri is a Christian convert who was arrested by security authorities on September 2011 at her residence in east Tehran and then transferred to Evin prison.

Ms. Nouri was convicted on charges of ‘attending a house church, insulting sacred figures and activities against national security’ in Revolutionary Courts branch of Moalem Street. The judge’s ruling was one year deprivation of education for her.

This Christian convert was released on 30 November 2011, after nearly three months in prison, but the sentence of deprivation of education remained in place.

Ms. Nouri’s arrest was related to the case of another Christian convert, Leila Mohammadi.” Read more.

Pakistan: Christian Denied Medical School For Not Memorizing the Qur’an – “Haroon Arif, a student from DG Khan in Punjab, could not get high enough marks to get into medical school. This is a standard situation for many young people in the country. What’s different here is that Haroon, who missed the grade by less than 0.1%, would have earned 20 extra marks if he was Hafiz-e-Quran. He tried to claim his knowledge of the Bible was equivalent, but this made no impact. ‘I deserved it and yet just because I am Christian, I have been put at a disadvantage,’ Haroon says. He found out about the discrimination on viewing the results at his test centre last month. ‘There was a separate column for Hafiz-e-Quran, and I found out that those who had memorised the holy book got 20 extra marks,’ he adds. Haroon got A grades in both matriculation and intermediate exams, but was an agonising 0.0255% behind the line for medical school in his final aggregate. This miniscule figure changed the course of his life.” Read more.

Hadith: Bukhari 9.84.57, “Muhammad said, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”

Sura 8:12b, “… terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an.”

“NAIROBI, Kenya, February 8 (CDN) — Islamic extremists from the rebel al Shabaab militia in Somalia beheaded a Christian on the outskirts of Mogadishu last month, sources said.

The militants fighting the transitional government in Mogadishu murdered Zakaria Hussein Omar, 26, on Jan. 2 in Cee-carfiid village, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) outside of the Somali capital, they said. Omar had worked for a Christian humanitarian organization that al Shabaab banned last year.

His body was left lying for 20 hours before nomads found it and carried it into Mogadishu, a close friend said.

‘We have been communicating with Omar, and he was sharing with me his life as a Christian,’ the friend said. ‘Last year he mentioned to me that his life was in danger when the NGO [Non-Governmental Organization] he worked for was banned by the al Shabaab.’

The friend said he identified the body.

‘One of the persons who saw him said, ‘This is the young man who stayed in Ethiopia, and people have been saying that he left Islam and joined Christianity.”

Omar converted to Christianity seven years ago while in Ethiopia, where he lived with relatives. He returned to Somalia in 2008 and completed his university education in 2009 with a degree in accounting.

Omar had married in the latter part of 2010. He is survived by his wife, his parents (originally from central Somalia), a brother and four sisters.

Last September, the militants beheaded another young Christian near Mogadishu. The militants, who have vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity, killed Guled Jama Muktar on Sept. 25 in his home near Deynile, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mogadishu.

Earlier that month, a kidnapped Christian convert from Islam was found decapitated on the outskirts of Hudur City in Bakool region, in southwestern Somalia. Juma Nuradin Kamil was forced into a car by three suspected Islamic extremists from the al Shabaab terrorist group on Aug. 21, 2011 and murdered on Sept. 2, area sources said.” Read more.

“(AINA) — National and international rights groups have consistently criticized the recourse to the so-called ‘reconciliation meetings’ — dubbed ‘Bedouin sittings’ — that take place between Copts and Muslim assailant after every attack on Copts. The meetings are conducted under the auspices of state security. Last week a series of meetings were held by radical Muslims to decide on the fate of the Copts in a village in Alexandria, and Muslims insisted that the whole Coptic population of 62 families must be deported because of an unsubstantiated accusation levied against one Coptic man.

Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (El-Ameriya), Alexandria, were attacked on January 27 by a mob of 3000 Muslims led by Salafi leaders, who looted and torched homes and shops belonging to Copts. The violence was prompted by allegations made by a Muslim barber named Toemah that a 34-year-old Coptic tailor, Mourad Samy Guirgis, had on his mobile phone illicit photos of a Muslim woman. Mourad denied the accusation and surrendered to the police for fear for his life. Muslims looted and torched his workshop and home after he surrendered to the police, and his entire family, including his parents and his married brother Romany, were evicted from the village. He is still in police detention. (AINA 1-28-2012).

Three ‘reconciliation meetings’ were held at the El-Ameriya village police headquarters. They were attended by Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood representatives from neighboring villages, as well as church representative. Muslims demanded the eviction of all Coptic inhabitants from the village because ‘Muslim honour had been damaged.’

Many believe that the mobile phone story was fabricated as an excuse to start violence against the Copts. According to the police, the woman in question denied the story and no photos were found on Mourad’s mobile phone, according to Ihab Aziz, a Coptic-American activist who is presently in Egypt.

During the first reconciliation meeting it was agreed that only Copts who were directly involved with the Mourad incident would be evicted, and the church demanded compensation of two million pounds for the innocent Copts whose homes and businesses were torched on January 27. Muslims, especially Salafis from the neighboring villages, refused any kind of compensation and insisted on the eviction of all Copts.

On January 30 a Muslim mob attacked Copts in Kobry-el-Sharbat for the second time, and torched three Coptic homes in the presence of the security forces, ‘which took the role of an onlooker and made no effort to stop the violence,’ according to Joseph Malak, lawyer for the Coptic church in Alexandria. ‘This proves that the assailants were not afraid of the security forces or the law.’

Muslim representatives demanded the eviction of the wealthy Coptic merchant Abeskhayroun Soliman, together with his four married sons and their families, accusing them of causing sedition by shooting in the air when Muslims broke into and torched their home while the family was inside. ‘No one was wounded due to the alleged shootings, which the family says never took place. The police authorities issued an arrest warrant for two of the Soliman sons,’ said Ihab Aziz.” Read more.

“Christian converts in northern Cameroon are coming under intensifying pressure following a warning from militant Muslims to return to Islam or ‘face Allah’s wrath’.

The handwritten threat from a group identifying itself as Boko Haram was put under the door of a church leader’s house earlier this month. It called on all Christian converts to return to Islam at the mosque on Friday 13 January or face the wrath of the god of Islam.

A few days later, two turbaned men arrived by motorcycle at the church leader’s house one night while he was away. One entered the house and ordered the man’s wife and children to lie face down on the ground. He asked where the church leader was and then searched the house. The intruder told the wife to tell her husband that they would get him no matter where he was hiding.

After this distressing incident, the family fled the village, and the other converts have gone into hiding.

Another Christian leader, who has been trying to inform church leaders about the militants’ threat, also had his house searched at night. Two turbaned men carrying a sword turned up and spoke to the man’s wife; they also searched the property and stole his computer. The leader arrived home after the pair had left.

Boko Haram is a militant Islamist group that has been wreaking havoc against Christians in neighbouring Nigeria.” Read more.

By Robert Spencer – “It is good to see Newsweek, which has been an energetically dhimmi publication, finally taking notice of the rampant worldwide Muslim persecution of Christians. It’s also quite surprising, given that in the past, Newsweek has denied the existence of the stealth jihad; billowed fogs of deception about the pro-Sharia Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as a ‘moderate’; dismissed concerns about the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a ‘conspiracy theory’; dismissed concerns about Eurabia, i.e., the Islamization of Europe, as ‘false fears’; and even called for a general surrender of the West to the global jihad.

So why is a thoroughly compromised publication like Newsweek suddenly noticing the worldwide jihad against Christians? Your guess is as good as mine, but in any case it is a welcome development to see the mainstream media finally waking up to this phenomenon, which we have been tracking here at Jihad Watch for years. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has written a fine piece for them. Because she is an ex-Muslim and an African woman, she is allowed to say things in Newsweek that Newsweek would charge me with ‘racism,’ ‘bigotry’ and ‘Islamophobia’ for saying.

For more in-depth coverage of this issue, see my April 2011 pamphlet, ‘Muslim Persecution of Christians.’ And as for Snoozeweek, in case you’re not planning a trip to the dentist this week, here is an excerpt: ‘Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,’by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Newsweek, February 6:” Read more.

‘Bloody’: Christian Persecution is ‘Coursing Through Muslim-Majority Nations from One End of the Globe to the Other’ – “We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm… The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.” Read more.

“Officials from the Malatya Municipality have demolished three buildings, including a place of worship that was under renovation, located inside an Armenian cemetery even though the Malatya governor and mayor gave permission.

A residence for the watchman, a room to bathe the bodies of the dead and a place of worship were pulled down when nobody in charge of the cemetery was around on Thursday. The municipality officials said the place of worship was being built without official permission, and argued that there was nothing illegal about the demolishment.

Citing the intolerance towards Armenians as the reason behind the municipality’s move, Turkish media outlets reported on Friday that the municipality had the facilities pulled down because of hundreds of petitions submitted by locals who opposed the construction of a place of worship for Armenians, thinking that a church was being built.

Malatya Mayor Ahmet Çakır gave verbal permission for building the place of worship on orders by Malatya Governor Ulvi Saran. The cost of the building was met by an İstanbul-based philanthropist foundation of Malatya Armenians, HAYDER. The blueprint of the place of worship was drawn up by renowned Turkish-Armenian architect Kevork Özkaragöz.

Garo Paylan, member of the board of directors of HAYDER, said in a statement that both the governor and the municipality were quite warm to the idea of renovating the demolished buildings at the cemetery four months ago.

‘However, our cemetery does not belong to us anymore, it belongs to the municipality. Therefore, we asked the municipality for renovation, but they said they can’t do it even though they will allow us to do it,’ he said.

The renovation work started in the cemetery in Malatya, where there is only about 100 Armenians left.

‘It is important for those people to bury their loved ones according to their religious practices. Since there are no churches left in Malatya, the only place that they can have a religious ceremony is in the cemetery,’ he said.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Secular Opposition Laments the Rise of Islamism in Turkish Government and Society, Christians Under Increasing Pressure – “In a Turkey with a secular constitution and a government and population of the Muslim faith, the social-democrat opposition has denounced an attack by the government and the presidency on the tradition of Ataturk festivities, symbol of the state’s secular nature. The alarm has come on a day in which a daily paper provided details on a report by the Association of Protestant Christian Churches noting numerous ‘attacks’ on Christian communities.” Read more.