MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

The history of forced conversions in Islam extends all the way back to nearly 1400 years ago, and, truth be told, even as far back as nearly 14 seconds ago …

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization.

Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with ample precedents. Indeed, from its inception, most of those who embraced Islam did so under duress, beginning with the Ridda wars and during the age of conquests, and to escape dhimmi status. This is a simple fact.

Yet, when one examines today’s cases of forced conversions with those from centuries past, identical patterns emerge, demonstrating great continuity. Consider:

Days ago in Pakistan, two Christian men were severely beaten with iron rods and left for dead by a group of Muslims, simply because they refused to convert to Islam. According to Compass Direct News, they were returning from a church service when they were accosted by six Muslims. After they discovered they were Christian, the Muslims:

then started questioning them about their faith and later tried to force them to recite the Kalma [Islamic conversion creed, ‘There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger’] and become Muslims, telling them that this was the only way they could live peacefully in the city. They also offered monetary incentives and ‘protection’ to Ishfaq and Naeem [the Christians], but the two refused to renounce Christianity.

‘After cajoling the two Christians for some time,’ the Muslims pretended to go away, only to ram their car into the Christians: ‘The Muslims [then] got out of the car armed with iron rods and attacked Ishfaq and Naeem, shouting that they should either recite the Kalma or be prepared to die…severely beating[ing] the two Christians, fracturing Ishfaq Munawar’s jaw and breaking five teeth, and seriously injuring Masih…. [T]he two Christians fell unconscious, and the young Muslim men left assuming they had killed them.’

Contrast this contemporary account with the following anecdote from some 500 years past (excerpted from Witnesses for Christ, pgs.62-64):

In the year 1522, two Christian brothers in Ottoman Egypt were denounced by local Muslims ‘mostly out of jealousy and envy’; so the emir arrested them and ‘began flattering them and asking questions about their faith.’ The brothers made it clear that they were firm adherents of Christianity. ‘The Muslims in the audience became enraged with the brothers when they heard their answers, and they began screaming and demanding they must become Muslims.’ The brothers responded by refusing to ‘deny the faith we received from our forefathers, but we will remain unshaken and very firm in it until the end.’

The Muslim judge deciding their case told the Christian brothers that if they simply said the Kalma and embraced Islam, they ‘would be given many honors and much glory’; otherwise, they would die.” Read more.

An addendum to this story …

By Chana Ya’ar – “Egypt is back to ‘business as usual’ with the Islamic majority harassing and attacking its Christian minority.

A group of Muslims burnt down part of a church Friday – the Islamic Sabbath – in the village of Marinab, according to a report published in the daily Al Masry Al Youm. The village, situated close to the town of Edfu in the Aswan Governorate, is located some 800 kilometers south of Cairo.

Security sources said Muslims rampaged through the village in what appeared to be a pogrom, clashing with the Christian residents and destroying their shops. Central Security Forces cordoned off the village ‘to control the clashes,’ according to the newspaper report.

Christian websites reported in September that a group of Salafi Islamists had threatened the Christians, warning them not to leave their homes in the village unless they first removed the church dome. Saint George’s Church had been restored earlier in the month, according to the report.

A gang of Salafi Muslims boasted to a victim they were torturing in March, ‘We won’t leave any Christians in this country,’ according to a report published several months ago in the Wall Street Journal. The attackers were never arrested…

Since the revolution, there have been numerous murders by Muslims visited upon the Coptic Christian community, which comprises about 10 percent of the 83 million-strong Egyptian population.” Read more.

Report: 100,000 Christians Have Left Egypt Since March Due to Escalating Intimidation and Attacks From Islamists – “The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations (EUHRO) published a report today on emigration of Christians from Egypt, saying that nearly 100,000 Christians have emigrated since March 2011. The report, which was sent to the Egyptian cabinet and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), warned that this emigration has been prompted by the escalating intimidation and attacks on Christians by Islamists. ‘Copts are not emigrating abroad voluntarily,’ said Naguib Gabriell, the director EUHRO, ‘they are coerced into that by threats and intimidation by hard line Salafists, and the lack of protection they are getting from the Egyptian regime.’” Read more.

In an effort to somehow ‘justify’ killing Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, Iran scampers to change the crime punishable by death from ‘apostasy‘ to ‘rape’.  Not only does the suicidal death cult of the Iranian leadership wish to destroy the Western world because we’re all unbelieving ‘infidels’ who reject Islam, they must also want us dead because, apparently, they believe we’re all stupid, too …

By Daniel Tovrov – “Iran said on Saturday that Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for rape, not for the crime of abandoning Islam.

Previous reports indicated that Nadarkhani was found guilty of apostasy because he converted to Christianity as a teenager. Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death by hanging for the crime, which is technically not in Iran’s penal code but is a religious doctrine enforced by an official fatwa.

‘His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,’ Gholomali Rezvani, the Gilan province deputy governor, told Farsn news agency. ‘He is guilty of security-related crimes.’

However, a December 2010 court ruling issued and signed by Supreme Court judges Morteza Fazel and Azizoallah Razaghi mentions the religious charges against Nadarkhani and nothing more.

‘Mr. Youcef Nadarkhani, son of Byrom, 32 years old, married, born in Rasht in the state of Gilan, is convicted of turning his back on Islam, the greatest religion the prophesy of Mohammad at the age of 19,’ the document states.

‘He has often participated in Christian worship and organized home church services, evangelizing and has been baptized and baptized others, converting Muslims to Christianity. He has been accused of breaking Islamic Law that from puberty (15 years according to Islamic law) until the age of 19 the year 1996, he was raised a Muslim in a Muslim home.

‘During court trials, he denied the prophecy of Mohammad and the authority of Islam. He has stated that he is a Christian and no longer Muslim. During many sessions in court with the presence of his attorney and a judge, he has been sentenced to execution by hanging according to article 8 of Tahrir–olvasileh.’

After the subpoena, the Supreme Court eventually ruled that the death penalty, on grounds of encouraging ‘other Muslims to convert to Christianity,’ should be upheld.” Read more.

Where are the protests over Pastor Nadarkhani? – “It is obvious that, faced with mounting outrage around the world – there have been protests from the White House, for example — the Iranian regime has resorted to trumping up spurious accusations against a man they are persecuting on account of his Christian faith. By seeking to deny the verdict of apostasy that was handed down two years ago, they are trying to conceal above all that Pastor Nadarkhani has been imprisoned for two years and is sentenced to hang because of an Islamic religious precept. In other words, this barbarism is yet another religious crime being perpetrated by the regime against an Iranian citizen for no reason other than he has transgressed the laws of Islam enforced by a fanatical regime of religious zealots… It is still possible to save this man’s life if enough protest is made. British political leaders should be making their voices heard very loudly against this barbarity by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Have you been hearing them? No, nor have I.” Read more.

By Wayne King – “A group of hard-line Muslims attacked a church building in Upper Egypt this afternoon, torching the structure and then looting and burning nearby Christian-owned homes and businesses.

The 3,000-strong mob of hard-line and Salafi Muslims gutted the Mar Gerges Church in the Elmarenab village of Aswan, then demolished much of its remains, multiple witnesses at the scene said. The mob also razed four homes near the church and two businesses, all Christian-owned. Looting was also reported.

Michael Ramzy, a villager in Elmarenab, said the attack started shortly after Muslims held their afternoon prayers.

‘Imams in more than 20 mosques called for crowds to gather and destroy the church and demolish the houses of the Copts and loot their properties,’ Ramzy told local media.

The Mar Gerges burning is the third church in Egypt in seven months to be burned down by a mob. Additionally, numerous other churches have been looted or otherwise attacked this year, including a New Year’s Eve bombing at the Two Saints Church in Alexandria that left 23 dead and scores critically wounded.

No casualties have yet been reported in today’s attack.

The tension in Elmarenab started the last week of August, when Muslim extremists, many of them thought to be members of the Salafi movement, which patterns its belief and practices on the first three generations of Muslims, voiced anger over renovations taking place at the church and anything perceived as a Christian symbol that could be seen from the outside.

To force the Copts to acquiesce to their demands, the Muslim extremists blockaded the entrance to the church and threatened Copts on the streets, in effect making them hostages in their own homes.

On Sept. 2, a meeting was held with military leaders and village elders in which the local leadership of the Coptic church agreed to strike all crosses and bells from the outside of the church. Normalcy returned briefly to the village, but by early the next week, the same people making demands for the removal of the crosses demanded the removal of newly constructed domes.” Read more.

“KHARTOUM, Sudan, September 29 (CDN) — Failure by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Islamic militia to distinguish between combatants and civilians in territorial battles in South Kordofan state is due in part to a desire to rid the area of Christianity, local Christians say.

A Christian in the Leri East area of Kadugli who escaped SAF Intelligence agents 18 days after his June 20 arrest from his home said he saw six other Christian detainees taken away, one by one, to be executed over the course of two weeks.

‘They were insulting us, saying that this land is an Islamic land and that we were not allowed to be in this land,’ he told Compass. ‘I saw them take my fellow Christians brothers and shoot them in the forest near the place where we were detained.’

While the SAF and its paramilitary allies have targeted members and supporters of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement forces, the Christian, who requested anonymity as he is still in hiding, said he was detained simply because he was a Christian. A convert from Islam 10 years ago, he said he was scheduled to be executed the day he escaped.

‘I was already dead, so I did not fear being shot dead – I was not worried about my safety any more; after all, I was under their mercy as they thought, but God was in control,’ he said.

A former aid worker with a Christian humanitarian agency, he said he was praying throughout the ordeal.

‘I was praying despite the fact they were threatening me that I would face the same fate of the six brothers who were shot dead in the forest,’ he said.

After the miracle of being able to escape during a lull in their vigil, God rescued him from other potential dangers in his trek to freedom, he said.

‘I was interrogated three times at three different check-points, but God covered their eyes to keep them from discovering me,’ he said. ‘I think God is teaching me that I still have a mission to accomplish; that was why he rescued me from the hand of Muslims.'” Read more.

More and more it is no longer a question of if, but when …

By Reza Kahlili – “The terrorist group Hezb’allah, based in Lebanon, is establishing ‘resistance cells’ worldwide under the direction of Iran, according to Mohammad Hussein Babai, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the province of Golestan.

The cells are already infiltrating the United States with the help of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and drug cartels.

The Iranian Student News Agency, which is close to the Guards, reported last week that Babai, during a press conference, revealed that these jihadist cells began forming after the 2006 Lebanon war between Israel and Hezb’allah, and with the current Islamic Awakening, they have expanded their operations.

Their mission, Babai said, is to help create an Islam-dominated world.

This is the first time that a high-ranking Revolutionary Guard commander in the Islamic regime of Iran has revealed the presence of such jihadist cells in the world.

‘Today we are a witness to our power and authority in the world,’ Babai said, ‘and because of our Islamic Revolution [of 1979], now there is an Islamic Awakening that, with the leadership of the dear supreme leader, Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei, will become stronger and more resilient.’ The West refers to the Islamic Awakening as the Arab Spring.

Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, who is a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution and an important theorist of the Islamic regime in Iran, said in a televised speech last Friday that ‘today we must get ready for a global operation, and our forces should expand their operation throughout the world.'” Read more.

Flashback: ‘What Are You Waiting For?’ – Al-Qaeda Calls on US Muslims to Buy Guns and Start Killing Americans – “I’ve believed for some time now that when this does come it will, with the right ‘triggering event’, not be isolated. It will be wide-scale. As we all know, there are millions upon millions of Muslims living in Western nations today. If an event were to occur in the world that would be eschatologically pivotal for Muslims this would be sure to awaken any radical elements within the Muslim population, regardless of where they live, and even radicalize some of those who were previously considered ‘moderate’. The arrival of al Mahdi, for example, could become the ‘triggering event’ that has the potential to precipitate a sudden surge in Islamic terrorism all over the globe. If we are complacent into believing that any such scenario could never happen or is highly unlikely, we don’t need to look far before we come face to face with the sobering reality that Islamic terrorist cells are, today, already forming within our own borders.” Read more.