MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Egypt’s Maspero massacre—where the military killed dozens of Christians protesting the destruction of their churches—dominates October’s persecution headlines. Facts and details concerning the military’s ‘crimes against humanity’ are documented in this report, and include videos of armored-vehicles running over civilians, a catalog of lies and deceitful tactics employed by Egypt’s rulers and state media, and other matters overlooked in the West.

More damning evidence continues to emerge: not only did Egypt’s military plan to massacre Christians to teach them a ‘lesson’ never to protest again, but ‘death squads’ were deployed up buildings the night before to snipe at protesters. Instead of trying the soldiers who intentionally ran-over demonstrators, the military has been randomly arresting Copts, simply ‘for being Christian.’ Finally, the fact-finding commission of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights just submitted its report which, as expected, ‘white washes’ the military’s role, including by ‘asserting that no live ammunition was fired on the protesters by the military, as the army only fired blanks in the air to disperse the protesters,’ a claim many eyewitnesses reject out of hand.

Meanwhile, not only are Western governments apathetic, but it was revealed that ‘Obama’s top Muslim advisor blocks Middle Eastern Christians’ access to White House.’ Newt Gingrich asserted that Obama’s ‘strategy in the Middle East is such a total grotesque failure’ and likened the ‘Arab spring’ to an ‘anti-Christian spring.’ Ann Widdecombe accused the British government of ‘double standards in its threats to cut aid to countries which persecute gay people while turning a blind eye to persecution against Christians.’ Even Christian pastors in the West, apparently more concerned about appearing tolerant and in ‘dialogue’ with Muslims, are reluctant to mention persecution to their flock.

Categorized by theme, the rest of October’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is hardly limited to) the following accounts, listed according to theme and in alphabetical order by country, not necessarily severity.

Churches

Afghanistan: Ten years after the U.S. invaded and overthrew the Taliban—at a cost of more than 1,700 U.S. military lives and $440 billion in taxpayer dollars—the State Department revealed that Afghanistan’s last Christian church was destroyed. The report further makes clear that the Afghan government—installed by the U.S.—is partially responsible for such anti-Christian sentiments, for instance, by upholding apostasy laws, which make it a criminal offence for Muslims to convert to other religions.

Indonesia: Muslims and authorities expelled Christians from their church and shut it down ‘for allegedly engaging in ‘proselytizing’ in a predominantly Muslim area.’ As in previous cases when churches were seized, ‘the fundamentalists were aided and abetted by the local administration.’ Also, the Muslim behind a September church attack that left three dead confessed that he was operating under his jihad leader’s orders, ‘based on the Koran and Sunna.’

Kazakhstan: The Muslim majority nation enacted new laws further restricting freedom of religion: ‘All registered churches must now re-register with the government, and only churches meeting new criteria will be registered.’ Accordingly, ‘police and secret police agents reportedly raided a worship meeting of officially registered Protestant church New Life, saying that under the new Religion Law the congregation ‘cannot meet outside its legal address.’ During the raid, a 17-year old woman was hit by a policeman, leaving her unconscious.’

Sudan: Soon after President Bashir ‘confirmed plans to adopt an entirely Islamic constitution and strengthen sharia law,’ ’emboldened’ Muslims attacked Christians trying to construct a church, ‘claiming that Christianity was no longer an accepted religion in the country.’ Likewise, authorities threatened to demolish three church buildings ‘as part of a long-standing bid to rid Sudan of Christianity.'” Read more — attacks against Christian symbols, charges of apostasy, blasphemy, proselytism, rapes and killings of Christians …

By Jibran Khan – “Karachi (AsiaNews) – Rev Jameel Sawan, from Quetta, was gunned down in Karachi in what appears to be an ambush. The Protestant clergyman was a close aide to Saleem Khurshid Khokhar, president of the Sindh branch of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) as well as a Sindh provincial lawmaker who sat in the assembly’s standing committee for minorities.

Both men had received death threats because of their fight for minority rights and support for the policies undertaken by Shahbaz Bhatti. Pakistan’s late Minorities minister who was slain on 2 March.

Despite the threats, the authorities and law enforcement had failed to provide the two men with protection and a police escort. Now investigators have to determine whether the murder was motivated by religion or personal disputes.

Yesterday, Rev Sawan was coming home from a prayer service. He was stopped by three armed men in the town of Aziz. After talking to him, they opened fire killing him on the spot.” Read more.

Islamic militants preparing to behead Afghan Christian

By Aidan Clay – “The following urgent message from Obaid S. Christ, an Afghan Christian living in New Delhi, arrived in my inbox two weeks ago:

‘I just received a warning call from a person who introduced himself as an [official at the Afghan embassy]… If I don’t go to the embassy in two hours to meet him, he will arrest [me] and present me to the embassy through the Indian police… Please pray and be in contact, and if in case something happens, my wife will contact you. He was claiming that I convert people from Islam to Christianity.’

The calls continued throughout the day. ‘They were very angry and saying that they will hit me by knife and kill me,’ the exile, who changed his name after fleeing Afghanistan in 2007 when an Islamic court issued an arrest warrant for his conversion, told me in reference to the third call he received late that night.

Threats against Afghan converts to Christianity should not be taken lightly. Conversion is viewed as a serious crime in Afghanistan and Christians are frequently targeted by both the government and extremists. Earlier this year, a video was released of the beheading of an Afghan man, Abdul Latif, by four Islamist militants near Herat. The militants, who claim to be the Taliban, read a passage from the Hadiths before executing the victim: ‘Mohammad (peace be upon him) says, ‘Whoever changes his religion should be executed.’’

Neither are Afghan Christians safe outside their homeland. In September, an Afghan convert was scalded with boiling water and acid at a refugee processing center in Norway. ‘If you do not return to Islam, we will kill you,’ his attackers reportedly told him.

For Obaid, the menacing calls were not the first time he felt threatened since arriving in India. ‘Our community is a persecuted and rejected community,’ he told me last April. ‘We left behind all our belongings in Afghanistan just to save our lives by leaving Afghanistan. Here in India, we are receiving no legal and physical protection from the UNHCR Office or Indian government. We are harassed, attacked, insulted and persecuted by Indian Muslims and Afghan Muslim refugees in this city.’ ” Read more.

Study: Christians are one of the most persecuted groups in the world – “Eritrea, Nigeria, India, Malaysia, the Maghreb states and the Middle East top the list of the most oppressive countries. Analysts cite the unstable political and economic situation, the rise of fundamentalism and extremism in these nations as the main cause for growing xenophobia… Analysts believe that if xenophobia is not stopped right now, Christianity will only feature in history books in [the] future. The 21st century will thus signify not only the end of Christian history, by the twilight of the whole of civilization.” Read more.

Mark 13:13, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

By Jack Minor – “With the U.S. reportedly poised to send troops into the region, Christians in Nigeria are providing an example of how believers should stand during intense persecution.

Last year over 2,000 Christians in the country were murdered by Muslim extremists. While it is often tempting in trials such as this to pray for deliverance, the Christians in Nigeria are praying for something else.

Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, said the Christians are praying for the strength to stand strong.

Moeller said, ‘They don’t ask for us to pray that persecution would stop. They pray instead, that they would be strong in the midst of persecution, and to empower them to be bold witnesses despite the obvious persecution in many places.’

Members of the Islamist extremist group, Boko Haram, which, when translated, means ‘Western education is a sin,’ have conducted a series of attacks around the country recently. According to reports, hundreds have died, the majority of them Christians, and at least 10 churches have been burned.

Christian leaders in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, told Compass Direct News that, ‘When the Muslim extremists went to New Jerusalem, they said, any Christian they met who could not recite the Islamic creed was instantly shot and killed or slaughtered like a lamb.’

In response to the violence by the Islamic extremists, the Obama administration has announced it is sending troops into the region. While U.S. officials have refused to confirm a troop deployment, wired.com and the U.K. Guardian have both reported that U.S. troops are headed to Nigeria to help local forces battle the Boko Haram.” Read more.

By Jamie Dean – “As UN workers prepared to unload a helicopter full of food for more than 20,000 refugees in a camp in South Sudan Thursday, a series of horrifying thuds erupted, as a large plane swooped overhead, dropping bombs.

Witnesses say the plane dropped at least four bombs, with one landing in the yard of a makeshift school for 300 children gathered for an afternoon class. Thankfully, the explosive didn’t detonate. But other bombs did explode, and a local official reported at least 12 deaths.

The Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse reported that its workers in the camp were safe after Thursday’s attack. The relief agency manages distribution of food and other supplies in the sprawling refugee camp. (The area is so remote and swampy, aid workers airdropped supplies to the refugees until Samaritan’s Purse cleared a landing strip.)

While the bombs killed few people, many fear that Thursday’s attack could represent a prelude to something much worse: a wide-scale invasion of South Sudan and a return to civil war.

Authorities believe that military planes from Northern Sudan executed the bombardment on the Yida camp near the border with South Sudan. The two countries formally separated when South Sudan declared its independence on July 9. But conflicts over the disputed North-South border have left nearly 230,000 South Sudanese residents fleeing attacks from a Northern government determined to maintain control of the oil-rich borderlands.

Thousands of those refugees have fled to camps in South Sudan and Ethiopia, including the freshly attacked Yida camp some 10 miles south of the border. By Thursday afternoon, White House officials called the bombing ‘outrageous,’ and demanded that Sudan’s government cease attacks on its southern neighbor.

It was the second bombing in less than a week…

Leonard Leo of the Washington, D.C.-based United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned the recent attacks and called the bombings ‘clearly an outgrowth of Sudan’s hostility against religious freedom.’ During 20 years of civil war that spanned 1983 to 2005, the Muslim-based government in the North tried to force the predominantly Christian South to submit to Islamic law.” Read more.

“The real danger of having no Christian presence in the Middle East within the next 5 years will be one of the main topics at a up coming conference hosted by Dr. Rob Dalrymple Director of the Bible Accadamy at Cornerstone Fellowship.

Today, in the Middle East, there are about 30 million Christians and the majority of these Christians are suffering greatly. Over the last 10 years many have sought refuge in the US and various other countries to the point that the continued survival of the Church in the Middle East is being threatened.

According to Professor Habib C. Malik in his article The Future of Christians in the Middle East he discusses the decline of Christianity in the Middle East and how it has become a startling reality:

“The relic phenomenon is an alarming one and the numbers offer sobering evidence of its impending reality. In 1948 Jerusalem was about a fifth Christian; today, it is less than 2 percent. For centuries Christians used to constitute over 80 percent of Bethlehem’s population, but today they are barely a third and falling. In 1943, at the time of its independence, Lebanon was a majority-Christian country, but after thirty years of war and foreign occupation Lebanon’s Christians now make up around a third of the population and the trend is demographic contraction. It is estimated that about half of Iraq’s 1.4 million Christians have fled the country since the American invasion in 2003.”

As the country of Iraq has stabilized in the past few years, the violence against the Church has continued. Even as the Shia-dominated Iraqi government has enhanced its control, it has done little to rein in the targeting of weak Christian, Mandean, and Yazidi communities.

The Jerusalem Post also goes on to report the same finding that Professor Habib C. Malik stated in his findings: ‘…at the time of Lebanese independence from France in 1946 the majority of Lebanese were Christians. Today less than 30% of Lebanese are Christians. In Turkey, the Christian population has dwindled from 2 million at the end of World War I to less than 100,000 today. In Syria, at the time of independence Christians made up nearly half of the population. Today 4% of Syrians are Christian. In Jordan half a century ago 18% of the population was Christian. Today 2% of Jordanians are Christian.’

Rob Dalrymple Ph.D, Director of the Bible Academy is hosting a conference to bring awareness of the true state of the Church. Through stories and experiences, the speakers can speak first hand to the real suffering of the Church in the Middle East and why the church of the West must become better informed to help care for the needs of Christians, regardless of their race, gender, and social status.

Dr. Dalrymple stated that Christianity and the Middle East is a conference that will provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing the Christian community in the Middle East. Friday November 18th 6-9PM and Saturday the 19th 9-3PM, 348 North Canyons Parkway, Livermore, CA.” Source – PRWeb.

By Shayne Looper – “‘It’s just the beginning.’ That’s what one of the attackers said while bombing a church in eastern Kenya last week. Two people were killed and three others injured in the attack, which authorities believe was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab.

This month at least 65 people were killed in the city of Damaturu in northeastern Nigeria, when Islamist insurgents bombed churches, mosques and police stations. The Boko Haram militant sect claimed responsibility.

In October, government soldiers opened fire on a church in Bhamo District in Kachin state in Burma, just as the congregation was preparing for Sunday services. No one was injured in the gunfire, but the soldiers burned the property and detained five church leaders.

In Somalia, a 17-year-old Christian was beheaded this past September by Islamist extremists. The boy’s parents, who hold a Bible study in their home, had left for work and he was getting ready to go to school…

Persecution of Christians did not end in the fourth century with Constantine. In fact, it has been estimated that more Christians were killed in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteen centuries combined. And the 21st century, as these recent occurrences suggest, has not gotten off to a very promising start, either.

Recognizing that Christians were suffering unprecedented persecution worldwide, the World Evangelical Fellowship launched the first International Day of Prayer in 1996. Each year on the second Sunday in November, millions of Christians around the world join together to pray for fellow-believers who are being persecuted.

These Christians take seriously the biblical injunction to: ‘Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.’ (Hebrews 13:3).

Besides prayer, people can help the persecuted by writing letters to government officials, appealing for the release of specific prisoners. In some cases it is possible to write directly to persecuted believers who are in prison. Check out www.prisoneralert.com for more information.” Read more.

Politically correct incompetence abounds, yet very little of this is mentioned in the dhimmedia.   I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Obama Administration is somehow involved with the likely demise of the USCIRF.  It is, after all, an independent monitor which sheds light on the persecution of Christians around the globe, particularly in the Islamic world.  But to the Islamist’s leftist enablers, the truth doesn’t set anyone free.  It just offends Muslims …

By Patrick Goodenough – “(CNSNews.com) – For more than a decade, an independent, statutory monitor has been advising the U.S. executive and legislative branches on international religious freedom, drawing attention to the persecution of people of faith under Muslim, communist and autocratic regimes from Riyadh to Rangoon. But by this time next week, it may have to close its doors.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will shut down unless the U.S. Senate approves a reauthorization bill before then, or unless funding is included in a new continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through the end of the year.

Last September the House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming vote a bill extending the USCIRF’s life for another two years. The bill was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it has been held up – by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), according to published reports.

Durbin’s office has not responded to inquiries and requests for comment.

If the Senate does not pass the bill before the current temporary authorization expires next Friday, and the commission is not covered in a new CR, it will cease to operate.” Read more.

Obama’s War on Christianity Continues, ‘It Now Seems Obama’s Contempt For This Nation is Personal and Isn’t Even Something He Bothers to Mask’ – “Usually around Christmas time we can count on a variety of stories where bizarre leftist worshipping of political correctness imposes itself on civilization with obsessive efforts to eradicate the word ‘Christmas’ itself, and public displays of faith… It’s one thing for the usual liberal Gestapos or the odd atheist to pull that craven cart through society, but now even more disturbingly it appears President Barack Obama himself isn’t even remotely trying to hide his contempt for Christianity and its importance to our great nation. Just a few days ago, Obama and the White House went out of its way to issue a special proclamation for Eid al-Adha, the Muslim ‘festival of sacrifice.’ … All of that is well and good, but what struck me about this special message was the reminder that this very same president deliberately ignored Easter this year, the most holy of Christian holidays, by snubbing Christians here and around the world.” Read more.

Obama’s Christian Problem – White House Overlooks Christian Persecution While Pandering to Islam – “The Obama administration has been obsessed with Muslim outreach and recently tried to mend fences with the Jewish community. Given the state of the world, however, the White House ought to be focused on helping the world’s oppressed Christians. The United States has been wary to intervene in matters affecting Christians in the Middle East for fear of validating terrorist narratives that the West is engaged in a new crusade against Islam. The result of this passive policy has been to allow Islamic extremists increasingly to dominate the debate, often with tragic consequences.” Read more.

Critics: Eric Holder’s willful ignorance about the religious roots of Islamic terrorism is endangering Americans – “Attorney General Eric Holder is stereotyping Muslims in America, and his willful ignorance about the religious roots of Islamic terrorism endangers Americans and marginalizes Muslim reformers, say experts on Islamist terror groups. That assessment was prompted by Holder’s announcement during a Tuesday congressional hearing that American Muslims ‘have the same desires that we all have.’ His declaration came during an answer about the training manuals used by some FBI trainers, which have drawn furious criticism from Islamist lobby groups. Those manuals, Holder said, contain training lessons that ‘can really undermine, really undermine, the really substantial outreach efforts that we have made and really have a negative impact on our ability to communicate effectively, as we have in the past, with this community.’” Read more.

“NEW DELHI, November 10 (CDN) — Police in India’s Kashmir Valley detained and beat converts from Islam and were expected to arrest Christian workers after Muslim leaders alleged that Muslim youth were being ‘lured’ to Christianity.

Police in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley picked up seven converts who were recently baptized in All Saints Church in Srinagar, a local Christian who spoke to the converts after their release on Nov. 2 told Compass. Srinagar is the summer capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and the main city of the Kashmir Valley.

The source, who requested anonymity, said police beat the converts and asked if Christians had given them money for their conversion. Most of the converts were from Budgam district, about 18 miles from Srinagar, and pastors there fearful of being arrested were in hiding, he added.

Senior Superintendent of Police of Srinagar Ashiq Bukhari was not available for comment.

Police got the names of the converts and pastors from a video recording of the baptism provided by Kashmir’s grand mufti (the highest official of religious law), Bashir-ud-din Ahmad. The video was later posted on YouTube.

The Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church, told Compass that he had been summoned by the mufti, who is also the head of the sharia (Islamic law) court. He said he would meet Ahmad on Nov. 17.

The court had issued the summons for Saturday (Nov. 12), but Pastor Khanna had a prior engagement.

India, home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population, has a few sharia courts pertaining only to civil matters.

Ahmad alleged that Pastor Khanna, whose church is affiliated with the Church of North India (CNI) denomination, was converting young Muslim men and women by offering money, and that therefore he must be arrested. The mufti told media that the video was definitive evidence that Muslims were being ‘lured’ to Christianity, although it only shows the baptism ceremony.

Pastor Khanna said the young men converted of their own will and without his persuasion.

The Indian constitution provides for religious freedom, including the right to propagate and the right to change one’s religion.

The pastor told Compass that the former Muslims, who were baptized at his church facility in August, were willing to sign affidavits saying there was no duress or allurement.

‘That’s what they told the police also,’ he said.” Read more.

Romans 8:35-37, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

“Washington, D.C. (November 10, 2011) – 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.

The radicals initially targeted police stations and business centers carrying out suicide bombings that killed more than 50 people but went on to attack the Christian dominated neighborhood known as Jerusalem, where they burned down 11 churches and killed anyone who identified themselves Christians.

‘It was a direct attack against Christians. They asked: ‘Are you a Christian or a Muslim’ If you said you were a Christian, they killed you. They were selective. They attacked 11 churches, they didn’t attack any mosques. After the incident, I saw someone who was slaughtered like a lamb in front of a church,’ said Idris Garba, the Yobe State chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Damatauru is the capital of Yobe State.

Garba also told ICC that Christians are now leaving Damaturu because of inadequate security adding that ‘the government has not shown any concern to the Christian community. The government doesn’t consider Christians human beings. It’s terrible. We have not received any help from anywhere.'” Read more.