MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Revelation 13:17, “… no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

BosNewsLife – “TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– Iranian authorities refuse to allow a young man to start his own company because he converted to Christianity and was previously detained on charges of ‘apostasy’, or ‘abandoning Islam’, Iranian Christians said Saturday, July 14.

The Iranian Christian, who was not identified, had reportedly been trying to obtain a business license for ‘a technical company’ in northern Iran.

However he did not receive the required clean criminal background report from Iranian police because he was jailed two and half years ago on charges of converting to Christianity and attending house church services, said Mohabat News, a news agency of Iranian Christians and activists.

It came as a setback for the man, who was reportedly released on bail, and had hoped to restart his life with his company.

‘After he submitted his application, completed all the paper work and was fingerprinted’, police sent a letter to the Revolutionary and Public Court of his northern city claiming he had ‘a criminal record’ and was an ‘apostate’, Mohabat News reported…

‘The subject person is accused of apostasy and has a criminal record accordingly!’, the May 26, 2012, letter reportedly said.

Iranian Christians said the move is part if a wider government crackdown on non-Islamic minority groups, especially Christian converts, in society.

At least dozens of Christians are known to have been detained in the country.

Outside prison, government offices are reportedly ordered not to employ Christians and Christians have been deprived from high school or university education, or running their own schools, according to Iranians with close knowledge about the situation.” Read more.

Flashback: Christian Bishop in Egypt: Christians Are Currently Experiencing Their Worst Time in Recent Centuries, Many Now Unable to Buy or Sell – “Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Christians are being violently killed under the eyes of the international media… Problems are also experienced in day-to-day life because calls are often made in the media not to buy from Christian merchants or to sell anything to Christians. Businessmen are therefore faced with a struggle for economic survival. Christians are indirectly excluded from employment, for example by job advertisements specifying ‘a female employee with headscarf’.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamists Destroy Christian Businesses: ‘If Anyone Decides to Reopen His Store, We Will Kill Him’ – “… [T]he managers [of Christian businesses] have received threatening letters, which state that the exercise ‘will be blown up.’ The attacks are the result of a ‘campaign’ that targets ‘all that is contrary to Shariah,’ promoted by Islamists who want to radicalize the country. Unfortunately, the source adds, there is no ‘moderate movement’ capable of containing the fundamentalist drift.” Read more.

By Joseph DeCaro – “TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)– Both the Central Assembly of God Church in Tehran and its summer campsite have been closed by the Islamic authorities, according to the Farsi Christian News Network.

Officers of the Revolutionary Guards closed the Jennat-Abad Church along with its campsite, the ‘Garden of Sharon,’ once a popular site for Christian gatherings and conferences; eye witnesses’ reported a large notice posted on the gates warning of severe consequences should anyone try to enter the premises.

These latest closures follow the official termination of Friday Persian (Farsi) language services and the compulsory cancellation of all Bible classes as well as any distribution of Christian literature.

After the Iranian New Year celebrations, Islamic state security insisted that church leaders reveal the National ID numbers of their congregations, causing some to stop attending services.” Source – Worthy News.\

Flashback: ‘A New Wave Of Persecution’: Former Revolutionary Guard Member Describes The Crackdown On Christians In Iran – “According to the Daily Caller, the regime has ordered Iranian intelligence to infiltrate church groups in major Iranian cities. Agents are identifying pastors and other Christians, targeting them for arrest and torture in prison. Former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Reza Kahlili, verified the crackdown. He said Iran’s ayatollahs are frustrated with the large number of Muslims who are now embracing Christianity …” Read more.

By SAHAR BADRAN – “Violence remains a fact of life in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, nine years after US forces deposed Saddam Hussein. While all sects have fallen victim to relentless bombing and shooting attacsk, members of the city’s once-numerous Christian community say they are being singled out.

Two waves of killings and intimidation in 2008 and 2010 sent Christians fleeing from Mosul in such haste that the United Nations had to arrange emergency assistance. Umm Ishwa, 50, abandoned the city for a safer village even earlier, and has stayed there since.

‘We left Mosul when my son, a doctor, was assassinated near his clinic in 2006,’ she told dpa. Mosul, 400 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad, remains one of the most violent places in Iraq despite a government security campaign. The authorities admit they still have much to do.

‘Attacks targeting Christians in the city are still continuing, in addition to daily violence,’ says General Ahmad Mohammed al-Jabouri, director general of the Mosul police. ‘And that is despite the security measures that have been taken, which include deploying all kinds of security as well as a special intelligence effort.’

‘Between 2005 and 2011,’ al-Jabouri explained, ‘our operational command recorded the assassination of some 69 Christians, including university students, priests, female employees and housewives. The last attack targeting Christians was in March 2012 when armed men killed a Christian man, his wife and injured a four-year-old child.’

‘We are working to bring about a quiet life for the Christians,’ he adds.

Some 25,000 Christians lived in Mosul, which with a total population of almost 2 million is Iraq’s second-largest city. Many more live in the surrounding Nineveh province.” Read more.

Flashback: Iraq’s ‘Twilight of Christianity’: Fleeing Islamic Extremism, Exodus From North Signals Iraqi Christians’ Slow Decline – “Iraq’s dwindling Christians, driven from their homes by attacks and intimidation, are beginning to abandon the havens they had found in the country’s north, discouraged by unemployment and a creeping fear that the violence they had fled was catching up to them. Their quiet exodus to Turkey, Jordan, Europe and the United States is the latest chapter of a seemingly inexorable decline that many religious leaders say tolls the twilight of Christianity in a land where city skylines have long been marked by both minarets and church steeples. Recent assessments say that Iraq’s Christian population has now fallen by more than half since the 2003 American invasion, and with the military’s departure, some Christians say they lost a protector of last resort.” Read more.

This is the kind of “study” I’d expect from Barack Obama’s own Muslim faith adviser. What other conclusion could we expect from an administration that openly embraces Islam? …

By AWR HAWKINS, Breitbart.com – “In the wake of the news that an Islamist group affiliated with the United Muslim Nations International has announced their intentions to destroy Christianity and wipe it from the face of the earth, a U.S. government-sponsored study has been released that says ‘Muslim terrorists are widely misunderstood and don’t wish to impose Islam around the world as is commonly believed in the West.’

Back on earth, Islamist leader Sheik Farook al-Mohammedi has announced the ‘Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity’ and to ‘Islamize’ countries like the United States. But never fear, the U.S. government-sponsored study says that Islamists are ‘not an aggressive offensive foe seeking domination and conquest of unbelievers, as is commonly assumed.’

Nevermind that the one constant in Islamist history is conquest, and that even now, in the wake of the Arab Spring, Christians in the Middle East increasingly find that their options are limited to either recanting their faith, being whipped (or otherwise punished), or being killed.

By the way, our Department of Defense paid millions to fund this worthless study. Which is a shame when you think that they could have just spent $2 for a cup of coffee in Starbucks, surfed the internet for 15 minutes while drinking it, and discovered enough information in that one search to prove that Islamists are daily issuing the same ultimatum to Westerners the world over: convert or be conquered.” Source – Breitbart.com.

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.’… ‘Islamic Power has returned upon the face of the earth and the Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity and there is nothing you can do about it,’ al-Mohammedi said. He makes his objective clear.” Read more.

Flashback: Rising Islamic Leader Declares ‘We Will Launch a Campaign of Islamic Conquest Throughout the World’, ‘Exterminate’ Christians Who Get In the Way of Sharia – “A rising leader in the radical Islamic movement in Egypt that has become a major political player since the demise of Hosni Mubarak’s regime says Christian churches may need to be blown up and Christians exterminated to allow the advance of Islamic law, or Shariah. The comments come from Sheik ‘Adel Shehato, a senior leader with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist group… The sheik, a senior jihadist leader, responded to a question about using violence against Christians, who make up a substantial minority in Egypt.” Read more.

Flashback: Boko Haram: Our Goal is to Eliminate Followers of Christ – “Terrorist organisation Boko Haram has issued a statement making clear that its goal is to eliminate followers of Christ from Nigeria and establish an Islamic state. ‘The Nigerian state and Christians are our enemies and we will be launching attacks on the Nigerian state and its security apparatus as well as churches until we achieve our goal of establishing an Islamic state in place of the secular state…” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Brotherhood Elder: ‘Jerusalem Belongs to Us, and the Whole World Belongs to Us … the Caliphate Will Return’ – “We are the children of Islam, the children of prophecy, the children of ‘there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah.’ … we will return, as the day of Qurayza from long ago… we will return, as the day of Khaybar from long ago… Jerusalem belongs to us. Al-Aqsa belongs to us… and the whole world belongs to us… The caliphate will return to us, on the platform of prophecy.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘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…” Read more.