MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

BosNewsLife – “A young Kyrgyz girl is forced to work in a sewing workshop after being tortured by her parents in Kyrgyzstan because she converted to Christianity, well-informed investigators said Tuesday, December 18.

The troubles began when the girl ‘accepted Jesus [Christ]’ as her Lord and Savior ‘during a church meeting’ despite opposition towards Christians in this heavily Islamic nation, explained aid and advocacy group Open Doors.

‘When her parents found out about her decision, they were very upset and took her home to their village’ where she was soon mistreated, the group told BosNewsLife in a statement.

‘They wanted her to recant and renounce her faith in Christ, so they began to beat her systematically till she lost consciousness.’ Yet the girl, who was wrongly identified as ‘Almas’ amid security concerns, ‘did not give in’, added Open Doors…

‘It was winter when all of this happened, so her parents put her into a cold room and kept her there for several days. Still they were unable to break her spirit,’ said Open Doors, which is in close contact with local believers.

‘They then started pulling her hair and put her face against the stove, burning her face. In spite of this, she remained faithful,’ the group claimed.

Her parents reportedly also burned all her Christian literature and decided to closely watch their daughter. ‘They put her to work in a sewing workshop, where she is forced to work from early in the morning till late in the evening.’

Sewing sweatshops are believed to be widespread in the country where many struggle with crippling poverty. ‘It has become virtually impossible for Almas to have any contact with her Christian friends,’ Open Doors said.

The findings come amid reported growing pressure on minority devoted Christians in this country of some 5.5 million people, where roughly 75 percent is Muslim…

In a surprise move, President Almazbek Atambayev reportedly signed new censorship amendments to Kyrgyzstan’s Religion Law on December 7.

Rights group Forum 18 has warned that new legislation will effectively ‘increase state control over religious literature and other materials’, potentially impacting the printing and distribution of Bibles and other Christian publications.” Read more.

NOW – “Two priests from the Coptic Orthodox Church in Sudan have been arrested after the religious conversion of a Muslim in the Islamist-run state, church sources said.

‘I understand there was someone from the Arab origin that accepted Christ and was baptized by them,’ leading to their arrest within the past few days, one religious leader told AFP.

Other religious sources confirmed the incident but Khartoum’s Coptic Bishop Elia was not immediately able to comment.

Under the 23-year Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s minority Copts have not experienced the violence suffered by their brethren in Egypt, where sectarian attacks surged after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and saw Islamists rise to power.

But a little-known group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Nilien States sent a statement to Sudanese journalists on Tuesday threatening violence against Copts unless the woman who converted and was ‘kidnapped’ by the Christians is returned.’ Source – NOW.

Flashback: Sudan: Christians Under Increasing Pressure As Sharia Law Imposes Amputation, Crucifixion, Stoning – “Hudud, a specific category of punishment within the penal code of sharia (Islamic law), is unspeakably barbaric in Sudan. And this barbarism has not diminished in recent years… Even more shocking, women—and girls—are sentenced to be stoned to death under Sudanese hudud for adultery… Cross-amputation—the amputation of the right hand and left foot—is almost incomprehensibly cruel, yet it too persists… Crucifixion is also a punishment under Sudanese hudud. It is the punishment for apostasy (leaving the faith of Islam), but other crimes as well… the criminalization, subject to the death penalty, of apostasy; the efforts by the government in Khartoum to impose its restrictive interpretation of Shari’ah (Islamic law) on Muslims and non-Muslims …” Read more.

By Lisa Daftari, Fox News – “A 32-year-old Iranian who is a U.S. citizen and a Christian convert has been imprisoned without notice of any formal charges while visiting his family in Iran, according to his wife and attorneys in the U.S., who are now hoping that a media campaign will help set him free.

The Rev. Saeed Abedini, who lives in the U.S. with his wife and two young children, was making one of his frequent visits to see his parents and the rest of his family in Iran, his country of origin and where he spent many years as a Christian leader and community organizer developing Iran’s underground home church communities for Christian converts.

On this last trip, the Iranian government pulled him off a bus and said he must face a penalty for his previous work as a Christian leader in Iran.

He is currently awaiting trial at Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin Prison, where he has been incarcerated since late September.

‘When he became a Christian, he became a criminal in his own country. His passion was to reach the people of Iran,’ Naghmeh, his wife, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News.

‘He comes from a very close-knit family, and he loved evangelizing and passing out Bibles on the streets of Tehran. This was his passion,’ she said.

In July, Abedini left his wife and kids to go to Iran to visit family and continue a humanitarian effort he began years ago to build an orphanage.

After a short visit to a nearby country, Abedini was traveling back into Iran to catch his flight back to the U.S. when members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stopped his bus near the Turkey-Iran border and pulled Abedini from the bus, confiscating his passports and subjecting him to intense interrogation, according to his wife.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Islamic Republic Refusing Business License For Convert To Christianity, Orders Businesses Not To Employ Christians – “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… 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…” Read more.

Morning Star News – “Gunmen in central Somalia on Saturday (Dec. 8) killed an underground Christian who had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam, area sources said.

Two unidentified masked men shot Mursal Isse Siad, 55, outside his home in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu, for leaving Islam, Muslim and Christian sources told Morning Star News. The assailants fled immediately after the murder.

Siad’s oldest daughter (name withheld), 15, said her father was killed ‘because he failed to attend the mosque for prayers and used to pray at home. He used to share with us about Jesus.’ She said that he had received messages on his mobile phone stating, ‘We know what you are doing, and you must stop, otherwise you risk your life.’

Siad’s 42-year-old wife (name withheld), three daughters and two sons have fled the area, fearing for their lives.

A Christian source in Mogadishu confirmed the killing, and a Muslim resident of the Beledweyne area also said Siad was killed for leaving Islam.

‘Siad deserved to die because he was not committed to the Islamic religion,’ the resident said…

As the gunmen were masked, she was unable to say whether the assailants were local. The area is under government control and there is no indication that the killers belonged to the Al Shabaab rebels who have vowed to rid the country of Christianity, but the Islamic extremist insurgents are present in Buulodbarde, 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, and Christians believe a few Al Shabaab rebels could be hiding in Beledweyne.” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Muslims Gather To Watch Convert To Christianity Beheaded By Al-Shabaab Islamists – “Islamic extremists from Somalia’s rebel Al-Shabaab militants on Friday (Nov. 16) killed a Christian in Somalia’s coastal city of Barawa, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said. The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose… A crowd assembled in the coastal city on Friday morning to watch the slaughter…” Read more.