MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Jakarta – A suicide bomber attacked a packed Indonesian church Sunday wounding at least 27 people, some critically, and sending terrified worshippers rushing out into the streets in panic.

The morning bombing in the city of Solo, in Central Java, was the latest in a spate of attacks on minority religious groups in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Solo, a city of 500,000, is the home of militant Islamist spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, who was jailed in June for 15 years for funding a terrorist group that was planning attacks against Westerners and political leaders.

Kristanto, a worshipper, said he and his wife were getting ready to leave at the end of the service at the Bethel Injil Church when the bomb rocked the building.

‘I was about to head home when a very loud explosion shocked me. A crowd of people from inside the church rushed to the streets,’ he told AFP.

‘They were screaming and very hysterical. The peaceful Sunday has quickly become a chaotic situation.'” Read more.

Victims of suicide attack respond by forgiving bomber – “… Paul Estabrooks with Open Doors says the reasons behind the attacks may be complicated, but essentially it’s a matter of Muslim extremist agendas. ‘The strong Muslim community — and especially the extremist group among them — wants to establish Sharia law throughout the island,’ explains Estabrooks. ‘They see the church as the biggest stumbling block in the way of their plan.’ … Believers are traumatized and in need of prayer for healing, but just two days later some are already responding with Christ’s grace. One of the injured victims, Hari Daniel Restono, told Open Doors that he forgives the bomber. ‘A young, 17-year-old injured victim of this terrible explosion says that he’s already forgiven the bomber because he thought that what he was doing was the right way to practice his religion,’ says Estabrooks. This kind of forgiveness may open doors to share Christ’s love and the message of salvation.” Read more.

By Alex Murashko – “The Iranian government’s tracking of Christians in Iran has intensified over the last several months, according to Open Doors USA, an organization that provides help to persecuted believers in Jesus worldwide.

In Iran, Christians gather in house churches, which are being increasingly discovered. Members are then subjected to various forms of harassment, including imprisonment, job termination and separation from family.

Open Doors estimates that there are 350,000 Christians from a Muslim background living in Iran. The country’s current regime lost credibility following the turmoil of the 2009 elections, and in an effort to distract attention from continuing protests, it is increasingly lashing out against Christians, Open Doors USA leaders say.

Michael Wood, an American who works in the Middle East office of Open Doors USA, told The Christian Post that the house church movement in Iran is one of the fastest growing in the world. However, the Iranian government is doing its best to squelch the movement, he said.

‘Over the last few months they have made a really strong attempt to undermine what’s going on in the house church movement. They are tearing apart meeting places. If they find out somebody has been involved in a house church group they are arrested or really intimidated,’ Wood said. ‘They are listened to on their cell phones. Houses will be broken into and Bibles and Christian material will be confiscated.'” Read more.

Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

Sahih Bukhari 52:260, “… The Prophet [Mohammed] said, ‘If somebody discards his [Islamic] religion, kill him.” (Hadith)

John 16:2b, “… the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.”

By Stefan J. Bos – “RASHT, IRAN (Worthy News) – A young pastor of Iran’s largest house church movement has told an Iranian court he will not ‘recant’ his faith in Christ despite facing execution as early as Thursday, September 29, for abandoning Islam, church sources said.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani of the Church of Iran was asked by the Gilan provincial court in the city of Rasht to ‘repent’ ahead of his next hearing Tuesday, September 27. However Nadarkhani declined, according to comments obtained by BosNewsLife.

‘Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?,’ the 34-year-old church leader asked during his first hearing Sunday, September 25.

When the court told him to return ‘to the religion of your ancestors, Islam’ Nadarkhani replied: ‘I can not.’

The Court said however that Youcef Nadarkhani, whose first name is also spelled as Yousef, has ‘Islamic ancestry’ and therefore ‘must recant his faith in Jesus Christ,’ trial observers said.

Yet, fellow Christians following the trial described Youcef Nadarkhani as ‘being happy [with] his faith strong.'” Read more.

Matthew 24:22, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering …”

Acts 14:22b, “… we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

To understand the spiritual underpinnings that may explain what is happening right now throughout the Muslim world, consider these two articles here and here …

“First, the Maronite Patriarch, Béchara Raï, in Lebanon, and now, the Chaldean Archbishop in Kirkuk, Louis Sako, in Iraq. The development of the Arab spring are causing concern to leaders of Eastern Christian communities, who have by now started to openly express their fears with regard to an rise in Islamic radicalism in the New Middle East. ‘The Arab Spring has created more Muslim militants,’ the Iraqi Archbishop, Sako complained, pointing out the risk of the thousand year old Middle Eastern culture of pluralism, crumbling. But the West too has made a mistake: ‘Instead of trying to impose the western model of democracy, they need to invest in youngsters’ education,’ Kirkuk’s Chaldean spiritual leader commented.

Archbishop Sako has, already, on several occasions, made lively appeals to the International community, asking it to protect Christians in Iraq who ‘risk extinction’. Indeed, ‘in Iraq, the number of Christians continues to drop. They could disappear altogether as a result of continuous persecution, threats and violence.’ Between America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 and today, there have been attacks on about sixty Churches; one bishop and three priests have been kidnapped and killed; approximately a thousand innocent Christians have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to abandon their homes in search of safety. This is why, ‘in Iraq and in other Countries, there is a risk of the Christian community becoming extinct.’

What is worrying the prelate the most is ‘the lack of a plan’, when Christians in Iraq and the Middle East have two options: ‘They can either emigrate or accept life as second rate citizens amidst numerous difficulties and fears.’ Hence the appeal: ‘We are in need of stronger support from everyone, with a clear political vision and clearly set out plans, not just to protect and encourage Christians to stay in their country, but also to promote reconciliation among the Iraqis, and human rights,’ as well as to ‘ensure governments respect the rules.’ According to Monsignor Sako, ‘the international community needs to assume responsibility’ and ‘come to a mutual agreement with local authorities’ in order to guarantee equal protection and equality between all citizens. The international community must also ‘help emigrants to return’ or, if this is not possible, they should help them remain settled wherever they have found shelter.” Read more.

Revelation 6:9-10, “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'”

Mansuur Mohammed, 25, Beheaded by Al Shabab in 2008 After Leaving Islam for Christianity

“MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (BosNewsLife)–- Hungry minority Christians in Somalia faced another struggle Sunday, September 18, after suspected Islamic militants beheaded a Christian convert and foreign aid workers were banned from reaching a dying population.

Somali Christians and human rights activists confirmed that the body of Juma Nuradin Kamil, a kidnapped Christian who converted from Islam, was found decapitated near the southern town of Hudur on September 2.

He was apparently killed after three suspected members of the Islamic group al-Shabab pushed him into a car, witnesses said.

‘Islamic radicals kidnapped a Christian brother and then beheaded him. His decapitated body was discovered’ by locals on a street, explained Jonathan Racho, the regional manager for Africa of advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).

His body was reportedly buried in secret after it lay two days in the open aid as locals feared Islamic reprisals.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility from al-Shabab, but Christians said the beheading bore the hallmarks of the al-Qaida linked group.

Al-Shabab seeks to impose a strict version of seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia, or Islamic law, and made clear it wants to rid Somalia of ‘apostates’. ‘Members of the Islamic radical group al-Shabaab have made their intentions very clear that they want to get rid of Christians in Somalia,’ Racho said.” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Islamic Militants Behead 11 Civilians in Mogadishu, ‘We Wake Up With Beheaded Bodies on the Streets Every Day’ – “Somali Islamist rebels have beheaded at least 11 civilians in the capital in the past two weeks, a campaign of terror that residents said Friday is designed to show the insurgency can still act in Mogadishu after withdrawing from their bases there earlier this month. ‘We wake up with beheaded bodies on the streets every day,’ said Abdinur Marwan, who lives in a district of Mogadishu called Hewila.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslims Behead Four Ex-Muslim Christian Orphanage Workers

Western ears often hear the word ‘moderate’ and think ‘peaceful’ or ‘free’ or ‘democratic’, thus in the minds of the naive and the willingly ignorant there’s no need for worry.  Their logic dictates that although Libya’s new constitution and laws will be based upon Sharia, being ‘moderate’ will therefore mean that we’ll have a country that is kind, that is peaceful, that is full of happy-happy-joy-joy feelings where everyone can sit around a Saturday evening campfire and sing ‘Kumbaya’ holding hands and roasting Halal marshmallows.

When it comes to ‘non-moderate’ Islamic governments we think of the theocracy that rules Iran.  We think of the Taliban of Afghanistan.  We think of Hamas ruling in Gaza.  Or Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Yet for a ‘moderate’ Islamic government we’ll often envision Indiana Jones chasing after lost relics in a nation like Egypt.  We’ll think of a moderate country like Indonesia.  Or a moderate society in Malaysia.  Or a moderate state such as Turkey.  Yet Egypt is where Christians have been persecuted and killed for centuries, before and during Mubarak, and now at an increasing pace post-revolution.  In Indonesia Islamic teachers are attacked for speaking against violence, and a television station is forced to pull a film promoting religious tolerance because some Muslims were offended and threatened to riot.  In Malaysia the government can now charge non-Muslims with ‘blasphemy’ for simply quoting from the Qur’an ‘insincerely’, where at least one Muslim group has declared jihad against Christians simply for disagreeing with them.  Turkey is responsible for — and continues to deny — the genocide of over one million Armenian Christians.  And the examples don’t end there.

The fact of the matter is this: there will always be persecution of Jews and Christians in Muslim countries, regardless of any ‘moderate’ label, either directly from the government itself or from the local Muslim population.  And a ‘moderate’ Libya will be no different …

The Mark of the 'Moderate Islamist'

“Libya will be a modern, democratic state founded on ‘moderate Islam’, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the prime minister of Libya’s interim National Transitional Council, has told a cheering crowd in Tripoli.

Joined in Martyr’s Square by several dozen revolutionary leaders, and backed by a firework display, Jalil told the thousands of flag-waving supporters that Libya would not be a secular state.

Jalil said: ‘We strive for a state of the law, for a state of prosperity, for a state that will have Islamic sharia law the basis of legislation.’

‘We are a Muslim nation, with a moderate Islam, and we will maintain that. You are with us and support us – you are our weapon against whoever tries to hijack the revolution.’

Urging the crowd not to take retribution against political opponents, Jalil said that ‘moderate’ Libyans should accept their differences without resorting to fighting.

‘Absolutely, there will be tensions. There will be different views. That’s the whole point of the revolution … The main thing now is how to solve these conflicts in a peaceful way, not resort to armed fighting.'” Read more.

Libya: Rebels ‘execute 85 mercenaries, including 12 Serbs’ – “Libyan rebels who control most of the country after defeating Muammar Gaddafi’s military, have executed 85 foreign mercenaries, including 12 Serbs, in the city of Misrata alone, Serbian media reported on Tuesday. Belgrade daily Press said the executions took place in the state insurance building in Misrata after it was taken by the forces loyal to rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC). Among the killed mercenaries, who fought on Gaddafi’s side, were also nine Croats, 11 Ukrainians and ten Colombians, the paper said. The report was also confirmed by Zagreb daily Vecernji list whose correspondent in Misrata, Hasan Hajdar Dijab, said many mercenaries had been killed in fighting, but those arrested were shot in the head.” Read more.

Obama’s Libyan Rebel ‘Allies’ Are Rounding Up and Jailing Thousands of Black Africans – “Rebel forces and armed civilians are rounding up thousands of black Libyans and migrants from sub-Sahara Africa, accusing them of fighting for ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi and holding them in makeshift jails across the capital. Virtually all of the detainees say they are innocent migrant workers, and in most cases there is no evidence that they are lying. But that is not stopping the rebels from placing the men in facilities like the Gate of the Sea sports club, where about 200 detainees — all black — clustered on a soccer field this week, bunching against a high wall to avoid the scorching sun.” Read more.

“‘It is the duty of every Muslim to kill those who leave Islam.’ This statement was made on Radio Sweden recently when an Imam from Rinkeby (Stockholm) was allowed to speak about how people should act against Somalis who convert to Christianity.

The program with the death threats against converts was broadcast by the Somali department of Radio Sweden and was a follow-up on a previous segment about a group of Christian Somalis who came to Rinkeby Square to evangelize. They also got to talk about it in the radio report.

‘I was there when they preached about Christianity. I also spoke with the guys who converted,’ said Kenadid Mohamed, the reporter who did the segment.

Rinkeby is a suburb of Stockholm where many Somalis live, and the evangelizing Somalis got a crowd who understood the language.

‘Some saw it as a provocation that they came and preached about Christianity outside the [mosque] during Ramadan,’ says Kenadid Mohamed.” Read more.

By Bob Unruh – “Muslim extremists are using a relatively new tool in their attempt to intimidate and bully Christians, with death threats sent by text-messaging to Christian church leaders, a new report confirms.

The report comes from Compass Direct, which monitors and reports on Christian issues around the globe. The situation has developed in Sudan.

‘We want this country to be purely an Islamic state, so we must kill the infidels and destroy their churches all over Sudan,’ Compass Direct sources in the African nation have reported that one text message said.

The texts were dispatched to leaders of at least 10 churches in the Khartoum area, and came in recent weeks, the report said.

Christian church leaders in the region have been at risk for years, even with the recent declaration of a new nation, South Sudan, which suggests some small level of separation from the Muslim-dominated north Sudan.

But sources for the ministry organization say that Islamists have continued to make targets out of Christians.

In fact, Muslim extremists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh arrive every few weeks for training in secret camps before they are dispatched on various “missions” around Sudan to destroy Christians and their churches, according to sources inside Sudan.” Read more.

“VWANG FWIL, Nigeria (Reuters) – Gunmen killed 14 members of an extended family in a midnight raid on a village in central Nigeria on Saturday, witnesses said, continuing a two week cycle of violence between Muslims and Christians in which at least 70 people have been killed.

A Reuters reporter on the scene with local officials saw 14 bodies from the raid. Witnesses said they were all from one Christian family, and had been shot or hacked to death by Muslim Fulani herdsmen.

‘In the night around 12.30 a.m. we heard a strange noise. Those people who came to attack us were speaking the Fulani language and they were pointing at houses. They all dressed in military uniforms,’ said local council chairman Moses Dalyop.

‘One pregnant woman who was in labour was among those killed. They shot victims and (others) were macheted to death.’

Plateau state has been caught up in a spiral of tit-for-tat killing between Christian and Muslim gangs since the end of last month, when a group of youths attacked and killed several Muslims as they gathered for prayers at the end of Ramadan.

The U.N. human rights office called on Nigeria on Friday to halt the violence in Plateau, in which it said 70 people had been killed since early August.

The latest killing would bring that number to more than 80 — a separate Reuters tally runs to 74 at least.” Read more.

Acts 14:22, “… we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

By Raymond Ibrahim – “This series was developed in order to collate some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1. Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2. Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not ‘random,’ but systematic and interrelated—that it is ultimately rooted in a Sharia inspired worldview.

As will become evident, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya; overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis (second-class citizens); and simple violence. Oftentimes it is a combination of the aforementioned.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and even throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it is clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Sharia, or the supremacist culture borne of it.

Categorized by theme, August’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians includes (but is not limited to) the following anecdotes, listed according to theme and in alphabetical order by country, not necessarily severity of atrocity:

Attacks on Christian Symbols: Churches and Bibles

Indonesia: Two churches were set aflame; officials downplayed these atrocities by arguing that the buildings were ‘only made of board’ and not real churches. A mayor also proclaimed that churches cannot be built on streets with Muslim names, even as Muslim majority regions reject the building of any churches.

Iran: Officials launched a Bible burning campaign, confiscating and destroying some 7,000 Bibles, many publicly burned. Likening their tiny Christian minority to the ‘Taliban and parasites,’ the regime also ‘cracked down’ on Christians (who make up less than 1% of the entire population), arresting many, the whereabouts of which remain unknown.

Iraq: Two churches were bombed: the first damaged the church and wounded 23; the second damaged the church (a third church was targeted but the bomb was defused before going off).

Nigeria: Two churches were bombed, including a Baptist church no longer in use due to previous Muslim attacks; when officials arrested Islamist leaders, a third Catholic church was torched.” Read more – Apostasy and Forced Conversions, General Oppression, Violence, and Murder of Christians