MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Results Of Missed Prayers In Bangladesh

By Nozrul Islam, AsiaNews – “Dhaka (AsiaNews) – In Bangladesh, Christian children from Tripuri tribes have been taken away from their villages and forcibly converted to Islam. Local Catholic sources, who asked their names be withheld, told AsiaNews that almost 300 children have been taken to madrassas (Islamic schools).

The story is the same. So-called intermediaries, who are also ethnic Tripuri, visit poverty-stricken communities where they convince families to send their children to a mission hostel, charging between 6,000 and 15,000 taka (US$ 500 to 1,200) for school and board. After pocketing the money, the intermediaries sell the children to Islamic schools elsewhere in the country.

The latest case involved 11 children, ten boys and a girl, from Thanchi, Ruma and Lama in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Their story has a happy ending though. After six months of threats and violence, the children were able to escape thanks Hotline Human Rights Trust, a Dhaka-based civil rights organisation that defends minorities run by a Catholic woman, Rosaline Costa.

Tripuri are one of the many tribal groups found in Bangladesh. Most are Christian, both Catholic and Protestants, especially in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in south-eastern Bangladesh.

Radical Muslims are engaged in a campaign against Christian missionaries whom they accuse of proselytising and forcibly converting others in order to create a Christian majority in the area so that it can be annexed to India.

In the latest case, the first eight boys were taken in January and February and brought to the Darul Huda Islami School in Mia Para village (Gazipur). The girl was placed in a madrassa (whose name she could not tell) in Muhammadpur, Dhaka. The other two boys were brought to another Darul Huda Islami in Maddha Badda (Gulshan, Dhaka).

Their days included Arabic lessons (8-12 AM), Qur’an reading (Nurani Shikkha, 2-5 PM) and five daily prayers.

In their respective madrassas, the children found other tribal Christians, many even younger themselves. They also saw acts of physical violence when children missed prayers or refused to take part in a lesson. In fact, after she was rescued, the girl showed scars to the hand, where she was struck with a cane.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Teacher In Bangladesh Burns Children’s Legs With Hot Iron Rods After Learning They Didn’t Pray Regularly During Vacation – “Police in Bangladesh are looking for a teacher from a Muslim religious school who allegedly placed burning hot iron rods on the legs of her students for failing to offer prayers regularly. They say 14 girls, aged between eight and 12, received burn injuries… ‘It was the first day of the madrassa after our holidays. Our teacher got angry when she heard that we were not offering regular prayers during our vacation,’ said Ferdousi Akther, aged eight. ‘Then she asked her servant to heat up the rod and then she pressed it on our legs. The pain was unbearable.’ Pupils say that the teacher asked the students whether they knew the severity of the fire in hell.” Read more.

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 – “Protestant Christians have faced an upsurge since late July in raids, threats of expulsion from villages or social ostracism, threats that their children will be kept under close scrutiny in school and other harassment, Protestants have told Forum 18 News Service from Turkmenistan. At least three separate administrative trials of Protestants have taken place, leading to large fines. ‘The situation has got markedly worse since July and we don’t know why,’ one Protestant, who asked not to be identified for fear of state reprisals, told Forum 18 in late August.

Several Protestants have told Forum 18 that they fear their children will face discrimination and harassment in schools, especially in rural areas. The new academic year began in Turkmenistan’s schools on 1 September. ‘Children of believers can be singled out by head teachers and individual teachers for ridicule and can have their grades lowered because of the faith of their parents,’ one Protestant complained to Forum 18. The Protestant pointed to several such instances in the academic year that finished in the summer…

Three administrative trials of Protestant Christians are known to have taken place from late August in Lebap Region of eastern Turkmenistan. All were accused of violating Article 205 of the Code of Administrative Offences (‘violation of the law on religious organisations’), which carries a punishment of fines of between five and ten times the minimum monthly wage for refusing to register a religious community or participating in an unregistered religious community. Fines can be doubled for repeat offenders…

In a village in Serdarabad District, the Deputy Hyakim (administration chief) responsible for culture Almagul Nazarova, Lebap’s Regional Imam, local Imams and Aksakals (elders) summoned a meeting of all local residents. They threatened to ostracise or expel all local Protestants. They also warned that once school resumed on 1 September, all Protestant children would be kept under special observation…

On 25 June, police raided the home of a Protestant in Tejen, a town south-east of Ashgabad. He was at work, and only his mother was at home. When he returned that evening, he found his mother crying. ‘She told him men in civilian clothes had visited, gone into his room and seized seven of his Christian books, including Bibles, and asked many questions,’ Protestants told Forum 18. They had ordered him to come to the police station the following day to write a statement.

When the Protestant arrived at the police station on 26 June, his local police officer told him he was in trouble with the MSS secret police. An MSS officer took him into a room set up for recording, and interrogated him about his work and his religious activity. ‘He asked why he did not pray the namaz [Muslim prayers], adding that all young men of his age go to the mosque,’ Protestants told Forum 18. The Protestant responded that what he believed and what religious books he reads was his business. The MSS officer then shouted at him and threatened him.” Read more.

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “Recently an Egyptian Muslim posted a YouTube videotape of himself cursing Islam and its holy book, the Koran; then tearing it to pieces and throwing it in the garbage. Here are excerpts of what he said:

There it is, Allah’s book; this is the basic catastrophe. I don’t know what day it is of this disgusting month of Ramadan. You are making the tearing of the Quran such a big and dangerous thing… it is instinctive to tear up this book, those sons of [profanity] think they can threaten me and challenge me not to tear up the Quran, but I want to prove to them that they are nothing, and what is the big deal in tearing up this book?! There it is [he starts tearing the Quran] in the trash. Are you feeling better now? You cannot touch a hair on my head. We keep blaming Hamas and Gaza, but it is not them, it is this son of [profanity] book that I am stepping on right now. That book is the source of all evil and the real catastrophe. There is nothing new here; it is not Omar Abdel Rahman, Abbud or all the others: it is this garbage that is causing us to run in a demonic, never-ending circle that will never end.

This latest Koran desecration is a reminder of the new Egypt—not merely that there are everyday Egyptians who are sick of the Islamization of Egypt, but aghast at what is in store for them.

On a recent talk show on Al Hafiz channel dealing with this incident of Koran-tearing, after playing the video of the man tearing the Koran, one of the guests, a bearded and white-robed Dr. Mahmoud Sha’ban, visibly shaken by what he had just seen, said:

Someone like him must receive the punishment he deserves—and it is death! He is an apostate… It is clear from what he says that he is a Muslim, and must be killed as an apostate. As for that act itself, it is an infidel act, and he deserves to be struck by the sword in a public place—and as soon as possible; as soon as possible; as soon as possible. It must be announced and photographed and disseminated among the people, so that all the people may know that we respect our Koran and its words from Allah, and whoever insults it, receives his punishment from Allah. If people like him are left alone, they will only get bolder and bolder.

The next guest, Sheikh Abdul Mohsin said: ‘I support the words of Sheikh Mahmoud [who just spoke], that this man must be killed fast, that he may be an example to others, so that all learn that we have reached a new phase in respecting Islam and the holy sanctity of the Koran and Sunna. This man has become an apostate and must suffer the penalty in front of the people.’

The third and final guest Dr. Abdullah was somewhat critical of the first two Islamic scholars—not because they called for the man’s death, but because, by focusing on the fact that the man had apostatized, it seemed as if they were exonerating non-Muslims: ‘The issue of killing him is not limited to his being a Muslim and then apostatizing. No, it is known to us from the Sharia that whoever insults the Prophet or tears the Koran, his judgment is death—whether he’s a Muslim or non-Muslim.’ Read more…