MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Anugrah Kumar – July 31 – “Ramadan, the 30-day annual Islamic fast which begins next week, may expose Christians to an increased risk of persecution in Muslim-majority countries and believers in the West should pray for them, Open Doors USA said as it launched a Ramadan Prayer Calendar.

‘Ramadan is a time when Christians are especially isolated in some Muslim-dominated countries,’ said Open Doors USA President Dr. Carl Moeller in a statement. ‘This is why it is so important for us to unite in prayer for persecuted Christians throughout the world.’

To help Christians pray for the persecuted, Open Doors has prepared a Ramadan Prayer Calendar having multiple prayer points and designed to help believers pray for vulnerable Christians around the world during the 30 days.

The group, which has served the persecuted church worldwide since 1955 when its founder Brother Andrew smuggled Bibles into Eastern Europe for the first time, will also send out daily emails with a story from a Muslim-dominated country, prayer requests, and a call to action. Open Doors has provided a link on its website for believers to register.

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar which begins August 1 this year, is the time when most Muslims fast from dawn until dusk, seeking to shed their sins through acts of restraint as they believe this is a time of purification accomplished through good deeds and self-control.

However, ‘the observance of Ramadan could increase pressure on believers,’ Moeller said.” Read more.

“NAIROBI, Kenya, August 1 (CDN) — Muslim extremists on Saturday (July 30) burned down a church building on Zanzibar island off the coast of Tanzania, church leaders said, just three days after another congregation’s facility on the island was reduced to ashes.

In Fuoni on the south coast of Zanzibar (known locally as Unguja), Islamic extremists torched the building of the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) at around 2 p.m., said Pastor Leonard Massasa, who oversees Zanzibar’s EAGT churches. The assailants were shouting, ‘Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children,’ Pastor Massasa said.

The EAGT church is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Zanzibar town.

‘Tomorrow is Sunday, and my members numbering 40 will not have any place to worship,’ Pastor Paulo Magungu of the Fuoni EAGT church said. With fear in his voice, the pastor added, ‘We have reported the case to the police station. I hope justice will be done.’

He reported the case at Fuoni police station immediately after it happened, he said.

In Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, another church building was burned down on Wednesday (July 27) at about 2 a.m., said Pastor George Frank Dunia of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa. The fire destroyed 45 chairs.

‘I have 36 members, and it will be very difficult for them to congregate tomorrow,’ the pastor said on Saturday (July 30). ‘The members are afraid, not knowing what other plans the Muslims are out to do. We request prayers at this trying moment.'” Read more.

“In a coordinated effort to generate fear among Iraqi Christians, the ethnically and religiously diverse city of Kirkuk witnessed another attack outside a Syrian Catholic Church on Tuesday around 6 a.m.

At least 23 people were wounded in the attack, mostly from surrounding homes. The church’s parish leader, Imad Yalda, was inside the church during the bombing and was also among the wounded.

Following the attack, two other car bombs were also found outside Kirkuk’s Christian Anglican Church and the Mar Gourgis church.

The bombs were defused by security forces prior to their explosion.

Kirkuk’s Deputy Police Chief, Torhan Abdulrahman said of the attack, ‘It was a coordinated attack to target churches at the same time.’

The Rev. Haithem Akram, of one of the targeted churches in today’s attacks said, ‘The terrorists want to make us flee Iraq, but they will fail. We are staying in our country.’

Iraqi’s Christian minority, formally standing at around 1.4 million, has been significantly downsizing its presence in the country since the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with close to 1 million having fled to other regions in Iraq or leaving the country to seek refuge.

Christians in Iraq are targeted predominately by Sunni extremists that find Christians in the country to be ‘non-believers.'” Read more.

“The head of a Christian congress in Pakistan announced recently that he will send an appeal to the United Nations to allow refugee status for Pakistani Christians because they do not feel safe in their own country.

Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti, chief of Pakistan Christian Congress, said the PCC is demanding that the Pakistani government opens its borders so that Christians may flee to bordering countries such as Afghanistan, India and China.

‘The Christians in Pakistan do not feel safe, and they want to flee for the safety of their lives. We are asking that they be given refugee status,’ Bhatti told the Pakistan Christian Post.

Bhatti said this will continue to be necessary unless the blasphemy law is repealed. He also said the Federal Minority Ministry must be restored, and there should be an end to kidnapping and enforced conversion of Christian women to Islam so that they can be married to influential Muslims against their will.

The number of kidnappings, forced conversion to Islam and gang rape of Christian women has doubled in the year 2010-2011.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Rapes Christian TODDLER After Child’s Father Refuses to Convert to Islam – “Neeha and her family lived in Islamabad, Pakistan just a few years ago. When Neeha’s father, a Christian, refused to convert to Islam his 2 year old daughter was kidnapped and mercilessly raped in a field.” Source.

By Betsy Hiel – “QENA, Egypt — When Ayman Anwar Mitri heard his apartment building had burned, the high school administrator rushed to see the damage.

He found a crowd of bearded men waiting.

They ‘beat me all over’ with charred furniture, recalls Mitri, 47, one of the Coptic Christians who make up 10 to 15 percent of Egypt’s 83 million people.

He says a rival falsely accused him of renting the apartment to two Muslim prostitutes and of having sex with them — a social and sectarian taboo that inflamed local Islamists.

‘They were chanting, ‘There is no god but Allah.’ They wanted me to convert to Islam,’ Mitri says. ‘… I was on my knees with my hands over my head. It felt like icicles falling on my body, and I prayed.’

An attacker slashed his back, an arm and a cheek with a box cutter before slicing off his right ear.

Afterward, a caller told police: ‘We took our Islamic justice; you can now take your civilian justice.’

White gauze is wrapped around Mitri’s head, covering the wound and part of his receding hair. A small cross is tattooed on his right wrist.

He says he learned his attackers — who were never charged — were Salafis.

Four days later, he says, authorities forced him into a ‘reconciliation’ meeting with the men and made him change his police statement to deny knowing the culprits.

Across Egypt, Salafis are accused of increased violence, mostly against Christians, since the Mubarak regime fell in February.

‘A month ago, you wouldn’t even dare to walk around. We were expecting them to throw acid (on us),’ says Hala Helmy Botros, 47, a Coptic activist and blogger here. ‘They were on fire, cutting off ears and making lots of threats.'” Read more.