MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Mathias Hariyadi – “Jakarta (AsiaNews) – A group of extremists from the Islamic Defender Front (FPI) have shut down a Protestant church in Jatinangor, in Bandung sub district, last Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. As in previous occasions in which Christian places of worship were seized and religious activities interrupted, the fundamentalists were aided and abetted by the local administration.

Recently, rumours spread according to which the Protestant church was a haven for a ‘community of newly baptised’. Extremists also accuse Rev Bernard Maukar, head of the Christian community, of engaging in proselytising in a predominantly Muslim area.

Arief Saefolah, village chief in Mekargalih (where the church is located), said he had the right to close down the place of worship as ‘illegal’ because it was within his jurisdiction. ‘This area is under my authority,’ he told the Christian community. ‘Please, get out as soon as possible.’

Tensions had been rising until last Friday’s showdown. Saefolah and other local security officials (Satpol PP), plus 30 FPI members, seized all Christian properties, including chairs, musical instruments, tables and cars.” Read more.

Over 50 Christian churches shut down in Indonesia since 2010 – “Jakarta (Agenzia Fides) – In 2010, 47 churches were shut down in Indonesia and in the first 4 months of 2011 9 Christian places of worship have been shut down or demolished: this is what ‘Jakarta Christian Communication Forum’ (FKKJ) reports to Fides, these churches are considered ‘illegal’ or ‘unauthorized’, and this is why the civil authorities, in Java and other provinces of Indonesia, imposed the closure and suspension of all activities of worship. In a note sent to Fides, the Forum of Christians in Jakarta, which includes leaders of all denominations, asks itself ‘why is this only applied to the Christian churches and not other places of worship’, noting a discriminatory practice, which implies a subtle pressure on the believers in Christ. Local authorities sometimes fail to give an answer to this question. The official reasons for the closure of churches speak of ‘houses used as places of worship, without a license’ or without the minimum number of 60 faithful. But it is, in most cases, the measures taken following protests from Muslim radical groups…” Read more.

By Luiza Oleszczuk – “A Christian teen was reportedly raped in Pakistan by three Muslim men while she was working, it emerged Tuesday and her case, according to an international advocacy group, is part of a troubling trend in which Muslim men use sexual assault as a weapon against Christian girls.

The International Christian Concern (ICC), an advocacy group, reported the event on their website Tuesday, after an investigation. Regional Manager for South Asia, Jonathan Racho, told The Christian Post that one of the organization’s reporters talked to the young woman in person.

The incident took place on Sept. 16, ICC has established. The 18-year-old girl, whose name was not revealed for security reasons, was working alone on a Muslim farm in the Village of Muphat Pura, in Kasur district. At 5 p.m. local time, three relatives of her Muslim employer came to her and allegedly raped her.

Later, they warned her not to report the rape to anyone or else they would kill her and her brother, who also works on the farm, the teen told ICC.

‘I am very sad about what happened to me,’ she reportedly said.

She explained that if she reports this case, it will be difficult for her and her family to live in the area.” Read more.

Christine M. Flowers: The very real persecution of Christians in the Arab world – “… while Christians are free (and in some cases pressured) to convert to Islam, Muslims are barred from converting to Christianity. In a notorious case now in the headlines, Yusuf Naderkhani, a Christian pastor, has been sentenced to death in Iran for refusing to renounce his faith, to which he’d converted as a teen. And Gabriel Said Reynolds recently wrote in Commonweal that an Egyptian Christian who petitioned the government to allow his daughters to receive a Christian education was forced into hiding after receiving death threats when his request was made public. So Christians in the Middle East can be forgiven if they don’t embrace the Arab Spring with as much fervor as their Muslim brothers and sisters because – to put it bluntly – the devil they know is at least more predictable than the devil they don’t – which is, without a doubt, Islamic fundamentalism.” Read more.

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

By Herbert Pinnock, The Christian Post – “Islamic militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have been terrorizing evangelical Christians with threats to ‘repent’ or die, it was reported Sunday.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported that 11 Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against Christianity have received threats via email to ‘repent’ or face extrajudicial execution, from a group identifying itself as the ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam.’

The threatening emails that were sent to each individual on Sept. 14 aspired to extend the arm of Iranian Islamic militancy beyond the borders of Iran by implying that, although the recipients have left Iran, they have not escaped the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers.’

The emails conclude by offering the 11 Christians ‘the opportunity to repent and ask forgiveness from the presence of the Hidden Imam,’ defined as the 12th Imam, the Messiah-figure in Shia theology, and the Great Allah. Otherwise, each individual would be killed according to the Fatwa given by Mehdi the Hidden Imam.

According to CSW, the Rev. Samuel Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries, who has been closely involved in the house church movement in Iran, has indicated that he and his network of churches are taking the threat very seriously.

This threat is similar to the coercion of Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian Christian pastor who was tried and found guilty of apostasy in September of 2010 due to the charge that he abandoned his Islamic religion and converted to Christianity.” Read more.

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.