Syria: War-Weary Churches To Unite In Prayer On May 11, Asks Christians Worldwide To Join Them

05/05/2013 Leave a comment

Christian Newswire – “Most churches in Syria will unite in prayer on Saturday, May 11, in many places around the war-torn nation. This will be an extraordinary show of unity of Christian denominations in Syria, where the on-going civil war has claimed over 70,000 lives.

Syrian Christians are asking their brothers and sisters around the world to pray and fast with them on the Day of Prayer for Syria on May 11.

‘As Christians in Syria continue to suffer from the devastating effects of the two-year-old civil war including killings, kidnappings, homelessness, lack of food and shelter and closing of schools; they are also seeing that God’s hand is at work as all denominations are joining in passionate prayer,’ says Open Doors USA interim President/CEO Steve Ridgway. ‘Christians in Syria know only Jesus can bring redemption and true peace.

‘I urge you to take time on May 11 to pray with Syrian believers and for the country of Syria. Also encourage prayer in your churches on May 12. Let’s stand together as one in Christ.’

Open Doors received a letter from leaders coordinating The Day of Prayer for Syria. In part, it reads:

‘As you may know, the Christian church in Syria is experiencing a deep humanitarian crisis that is leading to the rapid loss of hope. In the face of violence and persecution, our brothers and sisters are striving to keep their eyes on the Lord and seeking His face in their country. Even in pain, suffering and death, God is using the church to accomplish His plan.

‘On Saturday, May 11, Christians from different denominations such as Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant/Evangelical are joining together in prayer and fasting to plead before the Lord for His mercy on Syria and an end to the violence. Due to the dangers of traveling in combat zones, Christians will be limited to local meetings planned all across Syria during this day. These groups will be meeting in homes, arenas and churches. Christians across Syria have asked that you join them in prayer on May 11.

‘Thank you for standing in the gap on behalf of the Syrian people and reflecting the love of Christ in your acts of worship.’

In Damascus, some of the churches will meet in an arena, but there will be prayer in several suburbs of the city. The entire Christian community in Aleppo and the surrounding area is gathering to pray.  ‘This is a huge undertaking as it (day of prayer with almost all denominations participating) has never happened in Syria before,’ said a Syrian church leader.

For more information, a list of specific prayer requests, and to make a pledge to pray for Syria, go to www.opendoorsusa.org/syria-pray.

A few prayer requests from churches inside Syria include:

  • The release of two Orthodox bishops, Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi, who were kidnapped April 23 in Aleppo, and other Christians who are missing.
  • Counseling for children who have been traumatized by violence.
  • For almost one-third of the Syrian population who are either refugees outside the country or homeless inside Syria.
  • Return of peace.

On the ground in Syria, Open Doors, working with church partners, is helping facilitate food supplies, personal hygiene products, medical assistance/medicines and financial support by paying the rent of apartments for temporary shelter for the homeless. The Displaced Peoples Project also is targeting other countries. Worldwide, thousands of Christians are being forced to leave their original family homes and villages due to persecution and ravages of war.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: ,

Nigeria: At Least 20 Killed After Violent Muslim Mob Attacks Christian Funeral

05/05/2013 1 comment

The Commentator – “At least 20 people have been murdered in a violent attack on a Christian funeral in central Nigeria’s Taraba state on Friday. A round-the-clock curfew is now in place as a result of the ‘Muslim mob’ action, according to a report by the Agence France Presse.

An aid worker told the AFP, ‘We have recovered 20 bodies from the violence so far,’ adding that the unrest had occurred in the town of Wukari, some 125 miles from the state capital Jalingo.

‘We are still going round the town in search of more bodies,’ he said on condition of anonymity. AFP reports that the source was not authorised to speak to the media about death tolls.

A curfew has been imposed in the area, said officials, in an effort to contain the violence.

Residents reported that Friday’s violence erupted when the funeral procession of a traditional chief from the predominantly Christian Jukun ethnic group marched through a Muslim neighbourhood chanting slogans, which Muslims viewed as an act of provocation.

Tensions have been on the rise in the mostly Christian town of Wukari since February, when a dispute over the use of a football pitch between Muslim and Christian soccer teams set off sectarian riots that claimed several lives.” Source – The Commentator.

Flashback: Nigeria: Suspected Islamists Storm Church, Threaten To Rape And Behead Congregants In Taraba State Capital – “Gunmen attacked the lodge of the Redeemed Christian Corpers Fellowship early yesterday in Jalingo, Taraba state capital. The bandits who stormed the Family House of the Redeemed Christian Corpers Fellowship (RCCF) held the parishoners hostage for hours after relieving them of hundreds of thousands of dollars and other valuables.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: 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 … We are responsible for the suicide attack on a church in Jos and also another attack on another church in Biu,’ a spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, is said to have told reporters in the northeastern city of Maiduguri over the phone.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam Tags:

Raymond Ibrahim And Robert Spencer Discuss The Ongoing Christian Slaughter Taking Place In The Muslim World

05/03/2013 1 comment

By Frontpage Mag – “Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of numerous best-selling books on Islam, recently interviewed Shillman Journalism Fellow Raymond Ibrahim about the topic of his new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute).” Source – Frontpage Mag.

Categories: Radical Islam Tags:

Islamic Militants Turn Nigeria Into Christian Killing Field

05/03/2013 1 comment

By Gary Lane, CBN News – “Last year more Christians were killed in Nigeria than any other country. The onslaught of bombings gave Nigeria the sad distinction of being the nation with the highest Christian death toll.

More than 900 Christians reportedly were killed in Nigeria in 2012, all victims of the Boko Haram group and other Islamic militants.

‘They are so radical they don’t even spare [moderate] Muslims. If Muslims are sympathetic to any cause at all…if they are sympathetic to the Christians cause, or the minorities cause, they are also termed as infidels,’ Mark Lipdo, program coordinator for the Stefanos Foundation, said.

In 2013, radicals have killed more than 120 Nigerians, most of them Christians.

Gregory Lar, an international human rights attorney, said, ‘It is happening at this time because it appears there is a new resurgence, a new Islamic awareness in the need to propagate their religion.’

The new wave of violence has caused various groups in Southern Nigeria to take up arms. They are determined to protect Christians.

Attorney Emmanuel Ogebe warns the country may be on the brink of broader conflict.

‘Because of the massive Christian Muslim population in Nigeria, there is no country on Earth that is as rich and as ready for a religious war. All the elements, all of the ingredients are there,’ he said.

Ogebe’s spoke at a recent conference sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Jubilee Campaign. Some panelists criticized the U.S. State Department’s reluctance to blame the violence in Nigeria on Islamic extremism.

‘The route they are taking is dangerous. It’s against American interests and it is not positive. It’s not sensible. The ultimate aim of this extremism–it’s not just to wipe out Christians. It will hit back here ultimately,’ Ogebe argued.

For years, Islamic militants limited their attacks on Christians to the 12 northern Nigerian states where Shariah law is in place.

Now, they are pressing into central and southern states where Christians are in the majority.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

Most Germans See Islam As ‘Different And Threatening’

05/03/2013 1 comment

It looks like more and more Germans are finally beginning to realize that tolerating the very ideology that inspired Hitler and the “Final Solution” is a bad idea after all …

By Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute – “More than half of all Germans view Islam as a threat to their country and believe it does not belong in the Western world, according to a major new study on religious attitudes in Germany.

The findings confirm the results of dozens of other surveys, and reflect a growing divide between the views of ordinary Germans and those of Europe’s multicultural elites, who, in the quest for ‘diversity,’ have been promoting mass immigration from Muslim countries for decades.

The study, entitled, Religion Monitor 2013: Religiousness and Cohesion in Germany (currently available only in German) was produced by the Bertelsmann Foundation, one of the most influential think tanks and lobbying groups in Europe, and a strong proponent of ‘progressive’ causes such as multiculturalism and global governance.

According to the survey — designed to measure the ‘most important forms and intensity of the religiosity’ of German citizens — the majority of Germans view Islam as ‘foreign, different and threatening.’

More specifically, 51% of Germans believe Islam poses a threat to their way of life. In East Germany that figure rises to 57%, while in West Germany it reaches 49%. (The survey also shows that one in five Germans believe Judaism poses a threat to the German way of life.)

Only 25% of Germans believe that Islam has a positive influence on German society.

Although 85% Germans say that society should be open to all religions, and 67% believe that ‘every religion has a core of truth,’ fully 50% of Germans believe that Islam does not belong to Germany.

The survey also shows that Muslims possess the strongest religious identity in Germany. Some 90% of Muslims believe that religion is somewhat or very important, 40% rate themselves as very religious, and 30% of Muslims visit the mosque on a regular basis. By contrast, only 18% of Protestant Christians attend church on a regular basis.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Report: US State Department Hired Al-Qaida-Linked Group To Defend Benghazi Mission

05/03/2013 3 comments

By John Rosenthal, NewsMax – “The Libyan militia group that the State Department hired to defend its embattled diplomatic mission in Benghazi had clear al-Qaida sympathies, and had prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for some months before the deadly attack.

That organization, the February 17th Martyrs Brigade, was paid by the U.S. government to provide security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. But there is no indication the Martyrs Brigade fulfilled its commitment to defend the mission on Sept. 11, when it came under attack.

The assault claimed the lives of four Americans: Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979.

Several entries on the militia’s Facebook page openly profess sympathy for Ansar al-Sharia, the hardline Islamist extremist group widely blamed for the deadly attack on the mission. The State Department did not respond to a Newsmax request for an explanation as to why the February 17th Martyrs Brigade was hired to protect the mission.

On April 23, House Republicans released an interim progress report on their investigation into the Benghazi killings. It cited ‘numerous reports’ that ‘the Brigade had extremist connections, and it had been implicated in the kidnapping of American citizens as well as in the threats against U.S. military assets.’

The report also stated that just a few days before Stevens arrived in Benghazi, the Martyrs Brigade informed State Department officials they no longer would provide security as members of the mission, including Stevens, traveled through the city.

From June 2011 to July 2012, Eric Nordstrom, the regional security officer for Libya at the time, documented more than 200 security threats and violent incidents threatening to U.S. personnel in Libya. Some 50 of those incidents occurred in Benghazi.

Yet despite those threats, repeated requests for additional security from the mission went unheeded by the State Department, for reasons that remain unclear.

Perhaps the biggest question is why the State Department would hire a group that openly displayed its admiration for al-Qaida, and ask it to participate in the defense of its diplomatic mission.

The banner, or ‘cover photo’ of one of the group’s Facebook pages, shows an Islamic fighter, or mujahid, with a portable rocket launcher resting on his shoulder.” Read more.

Categories: Man-Made Disasters, Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

Palestinian Security Forces Spokesman Calls Terror Attack Killing 37 Israelis An ‘Honorable’ Event

05/03/2013 Leave a comment

Qur’an 9:112, “The [Muslim] Believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed.”

Spokesman of PA Security Forces on Palestine Live TV, 3/25/2013: “All the honorable [events] take place in March, starting with the Al-Karameh Day through Mother’s Day, Dalal Mughrabi’s day and ending with Abu Jihad Khalil Al-Wazir [Founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization’s military wing and planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks, including the most lethal in Israel history, the hijacking of a bus and killing of 37 civilians, 12 of them children]. All these, brave brothers in the Palestinian Security Forces, this is their day, which we celebrate today.” Watch video below.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinians Who Kill Jews Cannot Be Punished – “Because to punish Palestinians for killing Jews would, in their mind, be punishing someone simply for following the commands of their ‘prophet’ Mohammed. He was, after all, a ‘perfect example for mankind‘ to follow whose teachings are ‘the fire with which’ they ‘harvest the skulls of the Jews.’ It is therefore an act of worship to kill Jews, and an act that draws them closer to ‘Allah’ is an act that must be revered, not punished …” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Palestinian TV Glorifies The ‘Prominent Operations’ Of Terrorist That Resulted In The Slaughter Of Dozens Of Jews

05/03/2013 Leave a comment

Hadith, Bukhari 52:177, “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.'”

PA TV (Fatah), 4/16/2013: “The Eilabun tunnel operation in 1965 (bombing of Israel’s National Water Carrier), the shelling of the northern settlements (i.e., northern Israel) in 1981, in between the Savoy Hotel operation in Tel Aviv in 1975 (11 killed), the blowing up of a truck bomb that same year (15 killed in Jerusalem), and the birth of Dalal’s Republic in 1978 on the Haifa-Tel Aviv road (37 killed in a bus hijacking) – these are the prominent operations planned and supervised by Abu Jihad, the most noble of men.”

Categories: Radical Islam

Fighting Terror With Willful Blindness

05/03/2013 Leave a comment

eric-holder-articleBy Terry Heinrichs, American Thinker – “The so-called ‘Global War on Terror’ is as far removed from previous wars we’ve fought as football is from hide-and-seek. In the 20th century, wars were generally fought by countries with clearly defined uniformed combatants bearing military insignia, carrying arms openly, and targeting military personnel rather than civilians. Where civilians were casualties, they were mainly collateral rather than targeted damage.  By contrast, our war with Islamic jihadists is not against any country but against religiously inspired zealots, who wear no uniforms, display no insignias, conceal their armaments, and who hide among, as well as target, civilians.

True, spies, saboteurs, and fifth columnists operated in previous wars outside regular defined battlefields and, thus, also violated the laws of war, but, by contrast, their activities did comparatively little damage. Today, however, terrorist attacks are the preferred method of jihadist warfare, and, as a result, gathering information necessary to prevent them is more important than it was for any previous war. Indeed, acquiring the necessary information is even more important now than in 2001 because Obama has adopted a kill first drone strategy rather than a capture and interrogate policy.

That terrorists are active today on the home front means it is especially necessary to find out who they are, where they are, how many there are, who or what they are targeting, as well as how, where, and when they plan to strike. Moreover, given the destructiveness of weapons today (biological, chemical, and radiological), along with their relative ease of concealment and the difficulties of tracing responsibility, the task for us is close to herculean.

Gagging the Terrorist

Hence, the extraordinary, almost bizarre, nature of the administration’s handling of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev given that it is clear he has information we need to know. Indeed, he was apparently talking to the FBI in the hospital for 16 hours before a magistrate judge, likely acting on orders from higher-ups, went out of her way to Mirandize him, something judges are not constitutionally empowered to do. As a result, Tsarnaev apparently shut up altogether. He is now being held as an ordinary domestic criminal free to talk when he, not we, want, when he could have been held as an enemy combatant and interrogated for at least 30 days, had Obama chosen, without ever getting a glimpse of a lawyer.

However, given the administration’s choice, and given that they decided to try him as they might an ordinary shoplifter, was it necessary to Mirandize him to protect his constitutional right not to incriminate himself? Read more…

Categories: Radical Islam

Unsealed: A Closer Look At Revelation 6 And “The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse”

05/02/2013 190 comments

By ICA

Revelation 6:1, “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see…”

Recommended: See How The Book Of Revelation Foresaw Islamic Teachings

Were John’s apocalyptic snapshots and descriptions of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” in the Book of Revelation pointing to events that would only take place nearly 2000 years after the visions were first revealed? All too often, many of today’s Christian teachers and Bible prophecy experts have repeated the belief that the entirety of the Book of Revelation, with the exception of the first three chapters, are to be understood in futuristic terms only. I have done this myself in the past. Whether it be the Seven Seals or the Seven Trumpets or the Seven Bowls of wrath, everything contained therein and described by John from Revelation 4:1 onward must be treated as little more than a description of apocalyptic earth-shattering events that we, as Christians, will never witness taking place upon the world in which we live, events that can only begin to come to fruition after an imminent rapture has suddenly removed all followers of Christ from the face of the earth to deliver them from the impending wrath of God and the last-days Beast of Revelation. If we take the time to engage in a careful examination of the text, however, we may begin to see that some of the events often understood as yet to come, are events that are already taking place today.

An Overview Of History: The Islamic Beast Of Revelation – The Past And The Present

After careful study, I have come to the conclusion that, judging from the description of events and their sequence provided for us in Scripture, the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” described in the first four Seals of Revelation 6 are four separate

Read more…
Categories: Anything Else, Cosmic Craziness, Earthquakes, Famines and Crop Destruction, Man-Made Disasters, Pestilence, Radical Islam, Theology and Eschatology, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: , , , ,

One Nation Under Siege: Pentagon Confirms It May Court Martial American Soldiers Who Share Their Christian Faith

05/01/2013 7 comments

Classifying evangelical Christianity and Catholics as extremists isn’t enough. Tip of the hat to otcaaron for the link …

By Ken Klukowski, Breitbart – “The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: ‘Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense…Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis…’.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians–including chaplains–sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of ‘treason,’ and of committing an act of ‘spiritual rape’ as serious a crime as ‘sexual assault.’ He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are ‘enemies of the Constitution.’)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime–possibly resulting in imprisonment–for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)–whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military, even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the clergy could give spiritual counseling without saying anything that might be perceived in that fashion.

In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), said Read more…

Categories: Anything Else, Man-Made Disasters Tags: ,

A Kingdom Divided: Sunni Rebels In Syria Issue Warning Against Shiite Hizbullah After Nasrallah Vows To ‘Not Allow Syria To Fall’ To Apostate Sunnis

05/01/2013 1 comment

Daniel 2:41, “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.”

INN – “The Syrian opposition on Wednesday denounced threats from the head of Hizbullah and warned the Lebanese Shiite group against any intervention in the Syrian conflict.

‘The Syrians and the Lebanese hoped… that the Hizbullah leadership would stop their attacks on Homs and Damascus and take into account the gravity of the situation in the region,’ the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement, according to the AFP news agency.

‘But they heard nothing but threats… and warnings against setting the region on fire and an admission of their interference in Syrian affairs,’ the key opposition grouping said.

Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged on Tuesday evening that members of his group are fighting inside Syria and suggested Iran and other states could intervene to support the Syrian regime against rebel fighters.

President Bashar al-Assad has ‘true friends in the region who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel and ‘takfiri’ groups,’ he said, according to AFP.

‘If the situation gets more dangerous, states, resistance movements and other forces will be obliged to intervene effectively in the confrontation on the ground,’ he added.

‘You will not be able to bring down the regime militarily,’ Nasrallah told Syria’s rebel forces. ‘The battle is still long.’

The Syrian opposition has long accused Hizbullah of dispatching fighters to battle alongside government forces, and the Coalition called on the Lebanese government ‘to immediately put an end to Hezbollah military operations in the regions close to the Syrian border.'” Source – INN.

Lebanese Sign Up For Jihad AGAINST Hezbollah, Parade Pro-Assad Syrian Through Streets With Noose Around Neck – “Lebanese youth from the city of Saida, south of Beirut, began on Wednesday to sign up for ‘armed Jihad in Syria’, Al Arabiya reported. The youth were responding to a call a day earlier by Sunni cleric Ahmad Assir, who called on Lebanese youth to fight the Hizbullah terrorist group. Individuals in charge of enlisting the youth told Al Arabiya that ‘hundreds’ have signed up so far and that the number is expected to reach thousands.” Read more.

Report: Turkey-Backed Sunni Muslim Rebels In Syria Beheaded 20 Shiite Muslims – “The Shiite towns of Nubbol and AlZahraa a home for over 60,000 Syrians had been under siege for the last 10 months now by the ‘rebels’. The towns have reached the end of their rope. Children started dropping dead because of hunger. Knowing the danger still some of the residents ventured out, to bring food and supplies. That’s what happened to the latest group, twenty Shia men, who left to bring food to their families and children a week ago. Turkey-backed Al-Qaeda FSA hang some of the heads on the entrance of the towns.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War