MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s official news agency says four people have been killed in fighting in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria’s civil war.

The state-run National News Agency says 12 others were wounded in the clashes Sunday. Tripoli has been the scene of frequent sectarian clashes during the Syria civil war.

The fighting has sometimes spilled across Syria’s borders, raising concerns of a regional war.

Last week the Lebanese army sent additional troops to Tripoli to try to prevent clashes that followed reports of 17 Lebanese men killed after entering Syria to fight alongside the mostly Sunni rebels. The Syrian rebels are trying to topple President Bashar Assad, whose regime is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot Shiite group.

Tripoli has sizeable Sunni and Alawite communities.” Source – Montreal Gazette.

Flashback: Hezbollah Considering Military Coup If Assad Falls – “Hezbollah’s leadership is considering the possibility of taking control of Beirut and effectively carrying out a military coup in Lebanon should the current Syrian regime fall, the al-Arabia network reported Tuesday. According to the report, Hezbollah members have expressed concerns over the escalation of the civil uprising in Syria, which could lead to the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime. The Syrian president is an ally of the Lebanese Shiite group. Sources close to Hezbollah noted that it was due to those concerns that the Hezbollah leadership was examining various scenarios – including a ‘broad maneuver on the ground,’ similar to the takeover of Beirut in May 2008. However, the current plans apparently include a much more extensive maneuver which may expand to a military coup. ‘As soon as Hezbollah will sense that the collapse of Assad’s regime is imminent, armed cells will quickly begin operating to seize control of Beirut’s eastern and western parts,’ one of the sources told al-Arabia.”Read more.

By Chana Ya’ar, INN – “Too little, too late: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi backed down on Saturday and annulled a controversial decree raising his authority above that of the judiciary, but demonstrators are threatening to continue their protests. Security forces have moved into place, and it appears that more clashes between rulers and ruled in Cairo are likely, despite similar scenes barely two years ago.

The decree, issued last month, enraged the populace and prompted judges and prosecutors to strike for days. Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, where Egypt’s January 25 Revolution swelled in 2011 to topple former President Hosni Mubarak from his decades-long regime, again was packed with protesters who clashed with police for days.

But Morsi’s decision to reverse the decree, reached over the weekend, wasn’t enough, offering ‘nothing new’ and appearing to be ‘an attempt to dodge’ opposition demands,’ Popular Current spokeswoman Heba Yassin told Bloomberg News.

The groundswell of roaring opposition that grew over the past month vowed to keep up the pressure against a draft Constitution Morsi had also rammed through.

‘We have broken the barrier of fear,’ tweeted Mohamed ElBaradei, newly elected opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate on his account on the Twitter social networking website. ‘A constitution that aborts our rights and freedoms is a constitution that we will topple today.’

The draft document, written by an Islamist committee, allegedly infringes on general freedoms, and fails to protect the rights of women and minorities. The National Assembly committee that authored the draft was boycotted by secular, liberal and Coptic Christian lawmakers.” Read more.

More Egypt Protests Called After Morsi Cancellation Falls Short – “Egypt’s liberal opposition has called for more protests on Sunday after the president made concessions overnight that fell short of their demands to rescind a draft constitution going to a referendum on Dec. 15. Morsi met one of the opposition’s demands overnight, rescinding his Nov. 22 decrees that gave him near unrestricted powers. But he insisted on going ahead with the referendum on a constitution adopted by his Islamist allies. The opposition National Salvation Front called on supporters to rally Sunday against the referendum.” Source – Breitbart.

By Raymond Ibrahim, Frontpage Mag – “Inasmuch as Salafis are vile and violent, so too must they be credited with being refreshingly frank and honest, especially in comparison with the ‘moderate’—that is, mendacious—Muslim Brotherhood.

To understand this, one must first understand that Salafis are simply modern day Muslims who closely pattern themselves after the very earliest Muslims, specifically those generations that coincided with Islam’s so-called ‘Golden Age,’ beginning with Muhammad’s rule, followed by the first four ‘righteous caliphs,’ circa. 622-656.¹

Along with the Quran, Salafis slavishly follow the hadith accounts—the many words and deeds of Muhammad as well as his closest companions.  In other words, they espouse the mentality of 7^th century Arab jihadis and usurpers.

Whereas a few decades ago, knowledge of the word salafi was limited to Muslim scholars and theologians—the so-called ulema, literally, ‘they who know’—today, millions of Muslims identify with Salafism.  Similarly, although the word was popularized in Egypt, where the Salafi party won the most votes second to the Muslim Brotherhood, many Muslims, past and present, have conformed to its identity, though under different epithets; for example, Saudi Arabia’s ‘Wahabbis’ and al-Qaeda are Salafis.

The one saving grace of Salafis, that serves non-Muslims who wish to learn the truth concerning Islamic law and teachings, is that they are immensely proud of their Islamic heritage—as one would have to be to meticulously uphold the practices of 7^th century desert people.  Like the earliest Muslim conquerors drunk with power and pride, convinced that Allah was on their side and they can do no wrong, today’s Salafis are unabashed when it comes to the things of Islam—from evoking them to upholding them.

Unsurprisingly, then, it is Salafi-minded Muslims who routinely evoke and uphold any number of things deemed absurd or evil in a Western context—from trying to enforce a canonical hadith that compels women to breastfeed adult men (ironically, to protect their ‘chastity’) to drinking camel urine for good health, to calling for the destruction of all churches.  In all cases, Muhammad said so.

While examples are legion, consider this poetic ode to the importance of truth in Islam—in the context of disavowing Christians and Read more…

Still satisfied with that Muslim Brotherhood win, Mr. Obama? …

By Mohamad Jarehi, Al-Masry Al-Youm – “Al-Masry Al-Youm spent three hours in total in the torture chambers established by the Muslim Brotherhood at the gates of the Ittihadiya Palace in the suburb of Heliopolis. The central torture chamber, which is located in front of the gate facing the Omar Ibn Abdel Aziz Mosque on al-Merghany Street, is secured with a cordon and iron barriers, where the Central Security Forces (CSF) prevent the access of any persons without the authorization of the Brotherhood.

We entered the chamber with a great difficulty, after a fellow journalist from the Misr 25 TV channel facilitated. The channel is owned by the Brotherhood. There are brigades and police officers in military uniforms, as well as others in civilian clothes from al-Nozha police station, who oversee the beatings, whippings and torture. Fifteen others from the group, distinguished by their strong bodies, are supervised by three bearded and well-dressed men who decide who will be in the chamber and who may leave, even if the person is a member of the Brotherhood.

The torture process starts once a demonstrator who opposes President Mohammed Morsi is arrested in the clashes or is suspected after the clashes end, and the CSF separate Morsi’s supporters from his opponents. Then, the group members trade off punching, kicking and beating him with a stick on the face and all over his body. They tear off his clothes and take him to the nearest secondary torture chamber, from which CSF personnel, members of the Interior Ministry and the State Security Investigations Services (SSIS) are absent.

It is hard to determine how many locations there are, given that the torture chambers are established as near as possible to where a person is arrested. Before the interrogation process starts, they search him, seize his funds, cellphones or ID, all the while punching and slapping his face in order to get him to confess to being a thug and working for money.” Read more.

Islamist Vigilantes Begin to Police Egypt – ” As Egyptians debate how deeply Sharia should influence the new constitution, and in the face of clashes that left five dead on Wednesday, some extremists have taken to the streets to enforce their own interpretation of ‘God’s law’. In recent months, these self-appointed guardians of public probity have accosted Muslims and minority Christians they accuse of violating the provisions of Islamic law.” Read more.

Isaiah 19:2, “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom.”

France24 – “Protesters rallying in Cairo against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi say they are still using peaceful tactics for now — but that their opposition movement could soon tip into violence.

‘We will use any means necessary to bring down the regime,’ warned Ahmed Dewedar, 25, a protester camping out in the capital’s Tahrir square. ‘There will be no stability until our demands are met.’

Seven deaths and hundreds of injuries on Wednesday, when pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators clashed outside the presidential palace, presaged what could come.

Although that scale of bloodiness has not yet returned, a hardening of positions on both sides underscores the potential for sustained street brutality.

‘We could have stormed the presidential palace on Wednesday but we didn’t, we stayed peaceful,’ said fellow activist Mahmud Ghazawi, 35. ‘But we won’t be peaceful for ever.’

Thousands of protesters converged on the palace again on Friday in a new show of opposition, one clearly infused with steely determination.” Read more.

Morsi Supporters Resort To Religious War, ‘Now Is The Battle For Islam’ – “Islamist backers of Mohamed Morsi are resorting to religious rhetoric to galvanise support for the Egyptian president as the country’s political stand-off showed little sign of resolution… Pro-government clergy took over the pulpit at al Azhar mosque, the country’s premier house of worship, and urged thousands of supporters of Mr Morsi to fight not for a president or a new constitution but for their religion. ‘Now is the battle for Islam,’ a Morsi supporter told thousands gathered at the mosque …” Read more.

Flashback: Salafi Leader In Egypt: To Conspire Against Islamist President Morsi Is To Conspire Against God – “Salafi (ultraconservative) leader and member of the constituent assembly, tasked with rewriting the constitution, Saeed Abdel Azeem, said that conspiring against Egypt’s ruler (President Mohamed Mursi) is equal to conspiring against God… He added in his Eid speech on Sunday in Alexandria’s Shohadaa Square that Egypt will return to being ruled by Islam and Prophet Mohamed’s Sunnah and not democracy, socialism or nationalism.” Read more.

Flashback: Egyptian Cleric: It Is Permissible To Kill Anyone Who Protests Against Islamist President Morsi – “The legitimate president is Dr. Mohamed Morsi, and anyone who goes out to (to protest) on August 24 … will be committing the crimes of hiraba and high treason against the country, against Allah, against His Messenger, and against the believers. Therefore, I convey the following fatwa to the Egyptian people: Confront these people, and if they fight you, fight them… If some of you are killed by them, you will go to Paradise, and if you kill them, no ‘blood money’ will be warranted, because their killing is permissible.” Read more.

If these Sunni Islamists are all too willing to use chemical weapons against Syria’s Shi’a Muslims, you can be certain they’ll be just as willing to use them against Syria’s Christians as well …

By Paul Joseph Watson – “A shocking You Tube video shows alleged Syrian rebels testing chemical weapons on lab rabbits before making threats to use them against Syria’s pro-Assad Alawite population.

The video is particularly pertinent given reports yesterday that claim President Bashar Al-Assad has ordered the Syrian military to load ‘the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs,’in preparation for fighter jets to drop the bombs on the civilian population. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied that it will use chemical weapons in its war against opposition rebels.

The evidence contained in the video suggests that the rebels are just as likely to be considering the prospect of using chemical weapons. The clip, obtained by the Syria Tribune, shows lab equipment and chemical containers. Some of the containers display English writing and some bear the label of Tekkim, a Turkish chemicals company.

The video shows a poster on the wall with Arabic text which reads ‘The Almighty Wind Brigade (Kateebat A Reeh Al Sarsar).’ The man in the clip then begins to mix the chemicals in a beaker which subsequently emits gas. Rabbits contained inside a glass box begin to have random convulsions, collapse and die.

‘You saw what happened? This will be your fate, you infidel Alawites, I swear by Allah to make you die like these rabbits, one minute only after you inhale the gas,’ states the man in the video.” Read more.

The Syrian Revolution’s Dire Threat To Christians: ‘If An Islamic State Becomes The Reality … Expect A Full-Out Genocide Against Christians’ – “The Syrian Revolution geared toward the establishment of an Islamic state. As this revolution’s fire burns, therefore, it is no surprise that Islamists are massacring Christians. If an Islamic state becomes the reality in Syria, and the developments reveal that that will soon be the case, we can expect a full-out genocide against Christians to be implemented by the Islamists in Syria. The fall of Assad will mean a mass cleansing of anybody who believes in the Bible, since the Assad regime protects the Christian population.” Read more.

Flashback: Horror In Syria: ‘Free Syrian Army’ Rebels Executing Soldiers Were Reportedly Executing Christians – “Reports from Syria indicate members of the Free Syrian Army have started executing Christians while claiming they’re shooting Syrian soldiers. A video of a Nov. 1 attack in which black-clad Syrian rebels reportedly killed 28 men has been posted on Youtube.com. An Agence France-Presse story on the attack identified the victims as Syrian soldiers. But Religious Freedom Coalition President William Murray said two of the victims were associated with his cooperating organization in Syria, which distributes aid. The victims were not soldiers, he said, but civilians from the same neighborhood, ‘so they were all probably Christians.’” Read more.

Caution: Video May Be Disturbing To Some

Revelation 13:15, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

PM News – “More than 1,000 Nigerians have fled to neighbouring Niger after six people were killed in an attack on their village blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram, the United Nations said Thursday.

The 1,042 refugees crossed the northern border into the Niger region of Diffa after the November 30 attack, and have been taken in by families in two villages near the regional capital, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a bulletin.

A teacher in the village confirmed the attack to local media. He said the attackers told villagers they were looking for ‘politicians’ and ‘coldly killed’ six people, including a police officer, after the victims were unable to recite verses of the Koran.

A security source said Niger’s army has deployed reinforcements along its border with Nigeria, a focus of worry for Nigerien authorities who have often assured they are taking measures to stop Boko Haram’s activities from spilling over into Niger.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria — a country roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south — is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead there since 2009, including killings by the security forces.” Source – PM News.

Flashback: Nigeria: Deliberate Targeting of Christians in Islamist Attack that Killed 150 in Nigeria, ‘If You Said You Were a Christian, They Killed You’ – “International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on November 4 members of a radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, killed more than 150 people and bombed 11 churches in the northern Nigerian city of Damaturu. While the press painted this as an attack targeting the police, Christian sources on the ground are reporting to ICC that the majority of the victims are Christians, who were deliberately targeted because of their faith.” Read more.