MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“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Bhatti said this will continue to be necessary unless the blasphemy law is repealed.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.

By Ivana Kvesic – “Christians throughout Nigeria are fasting to invoke divine intervention and protection from the Islamic cult, Boko Haram, that has threatened to attack Nigerian Christians on the anniversary of their founder’s death.

Churches and their followers all over the country have begun a 21-day period of fasting in the hope of divine intervention to avert the looming attack.

Due to heightened insecurity, church attendance has dropped significantly in recent weeks. Less than half of those that attended church regularly can be found in attendance due to safety concerns.

Bombs have been going off on a daily basis in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, while the Nigerian capital of Abuja faced a bomb attack on a car park last month.

The anniversary attack is expected to occur on July 30, the day Boko Haram was founded by former leader Mohammed Yusuf.

Yusuf died in police custody in 2009, and was allegedly killed while trying to escape from prison.

Boko Haram, which can be translated to figuratively mean, ‘Western or non-Islamic education is a sin,’ claims that it is fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria.” Read more.

July 9, 2011: Islamist Terror Group in Nigeria to Muslims: Stay Away from Christians … Because They Are Now Targets of Attacks – “The Boko Haram menace has taken a dramatic twist with its call on all Muslims in Nigeria to stay away from Christians, Security Agents, Government institutions and functions or face death. It maintained that since the present Federal Government is not Islamic, every employee is considered an infidel marked for elimination… The deadly group urged Muslims to stay away from Christians, their houses, businesses and churches because they are targets of attacks.” Read more.

“(AINA) — An exchange of harsh words on July 25 between Ruth, a Christian woman, and Gassem Fouad, a Muslim man who had parked his tricycle in front of her home, escalated into assault by the man on Ruth and other Christian villagers, and the arrest of one Copt. After Ruth, who is 5 months pregnant, was assaulted, a Muslim mob waited for Coptic farmers to return from the fields, where they were intercepted and beaten with iron rods and pipes.

Security forces managed to contain the situation.

Six Christians, including Ruth and her sister-in-law Hannan, were hospitalized with concussions, head injuries and broken limbs. No Muslim was injured.

None of the Muslim perpetrators was arrested. Ruth’s husband, Kirillos Daniel, was accused of possessing a weapon — a rifle found thrown where the Christians were attacked, and is under detention.

In an interview on CTV Coptic TV, Father Estephanos Shehata, of the Samalout Coptic dioceses, said ‘The real reason behind this assault was the church bell, which has greatly angered the Muslims in the village.'” Read more.

“Baghdad (AsiaNews) – The year 2010 was the worst year to date for the Christian community in Iraq, it has been revealed by the organization for human rights in Iraq, Hammurabi. Many Christians were forced to leave the country in fear of killings and violence of all kinds. The death toll among Christians over the past seven years, according to Hammurabi exceeds 822 people. 629 of them were murdered for being part of the Christian minority. Others were involved in 126 attacks of various kinds and many others have been victims of military operations undertaken by U.S. and Iraqi forces. 13% of victims are women. Among the Christian victims of 2010 there are 33 children, 25 elderly and 14 religious. In 2010 Hammurabi recorded 92 cases of Christians killed and 47 wounded, 68 in Baghdad, 23 in Mosul and one in Erbil.

The director of Hammurabi, named after the Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest known collections of laws in human history, William Warda, said that constant monitoring and documentation show that all the Christian Churches in Iraq – Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syrians, Armenians – have suffered heavy losses in the number of their faithful, all over the country. The decline is particularly strong in Baghdad and Mosul, where Christians are concentrated in greater numbers. Warda said that in one year there were more than 90 Christians killed and 280 wounded, and two churches have been the target of attacks in Baghdad.” Read more.

Will the U.S. withdrawal sound a death knell for Iraq’s minorities? – “The campaign of violence against Iraq’s ethno-religious minorities sends a clear message: leave or die. Last October, an Al Qaeda linked terrorist faction held an entire Assyrian Catholic congregation hostage in Baghdad and executed priests and worshippers during Sunday mass. In response to these attacks and the international scrutiny that followed, a rightfully ashamed Prime Minister Maliki issued condolences and promised to protect religious minority groups. Yet, while this small gesture was important, it unfortunately has not tempered the level of violence that is sparking a mass exodus to Syria, Jordan and the West and a massive internal migration of thousands of Iraqi Christians. Despite Maliki’s promise of protection, local terrorist campaigns continue to make minority communities fear for their futures.” Read more.

“Christians in northern Nigeria’s Borno state, already forced to abandon worship services due to attacks by Islamic sect Boko Haram, are bracing for a massive assault to commemorate the death of the extremists group’s leader at the end of the month.

Christians are streaming out of Maiduguri, about 540 miles northeast of the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where some of the worst-hit churches are located. Churches are shutting down as many of their members have lost their lives in attacks that have not ceased even after security agencies were enlisted to confront the assailants.

Compass witnessed most church buildings were shuttered and guarded by soldiers and police in the Maiduguri areas of Wulari-Jerusalem, Railway Station, Bulunkutu, Damboa Road, and Bayan NNPC. Some churches bold enough to open were compelled to reschedule their worship services in order to outmaneuver militants who knew that most services start at 10 a.m.

‘As you can see, the town is unsafe, and it is just appropriate for any church leader to be reasonable and safe,’ a pastor with The Apostolic Church who declined to give his name for fear of attack told Compass. ‘We took the decision to hold a one-and-a-half-hour service earlier than our usual time so that our people can return home in time because of the threat.'” Read more.

Luke 9:23-24, “Then He said to [them] all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.'”

“The death sentence handed down for apostasy to evangelical house church pastor, Yousef Nadarkhani, has been upheld by the third chamber of the Supreme Court.

Charges altered after arrest

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, a leader in the evangelical Church of Iran denomination, was arrested in his home city of Rasht on 13 October 2009 while attempting to register his church. His arrest is thought to have come after he questioned the Muslim monopoly on religious instruction for Iranian children. He was initially charged with protesting, however the charges against him were later changed to apostasy and evangelising Muslims.

Appeal unsuccessful

In September 2010 Pastor Nadarkhani was found guilty of apostasy, and a death sentence was delivered verbally in court, even though there is no such sentence codified in Iranian civil law. Written confirmation of the sentence was delivered on 13 November 2010 by the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Since then he has been held in Lakan Prison.” Read more.

Iran’s Supreme Court: Renounce your Christian faith to save your life – “Iran’s Supreme Court says an evangelical pastor charged with apostasy can be executed if he does not recant his faith, according to a copy of the verdict obtained by a religious rights activist group… Those who know him say he is not likely to do that, for if he were disposed to giving it up, he would have done it long ago.” Read more.

“The first attempt of mediation by the ‘All Pakistan Minorities Alliance’ (APMA) in the case of Hatim Farah, a Catholic girl who was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam, has failed in the courts.  Farah was also forced to marry a Muslim man in the city of Zeehan in the southern Punjab region of Pakistan.

APMA, which was founded by Shabhaz Bhatti – a Christian politician who was murdered earlier this year by Muslim terrorists – is the best known organization defending Christians in Pakistan.  The case of Farah, explain local sources, is emblematic of the approximately 700 cases that occur every year in Pakistan for Christian girls kidnapped and converted to Islam. This is why Paul Bhatti, leader of the APMA and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for religious minorities has committed himself on this case.

A team of APMA lawyers and activists in Punjab have taken an interest in the case in recent days, trying to arrange a meeting between the Farah and her family, to ensure her health, physical and mental condition and, above all, to get absolute certainty – confirmed without conditions, threats or coercion of any kind – of her desire to go back home and leave the Muslim family where she is now.

A member of the APMA reportedly said, ‘We asked, through local authorities, for a private meeting with Farah. The Muslim’s family who has made her his wife says that she is consenting. If they are sure and if this were true, why prevent the family and lawyers from seeing and listening to her version directly? This impediment for us is really suspicious’.” Read more.

By Doug Bandow – “Ugly reality has dashed the high hopes of the ‘Arab Spring.’ Although the dream of democratic reform lives on, only Tunisia appears on course. In Egypt, the fall of Hosni Mubarak has encouraged religious intolerance and persecution, especially against the Coptic Christian community.

Once a great civilization, Egypt long ago turned into an impoverished backwater. Only a large population and strategic location today deliver geopolitical importance. Hosni Mubarak ruled for three decades, but under him the Egyptian people enjoyed neither prosperity nor liberty. In fact, Mubarak was exhibit A for America’s foreign policy conundrum: stability or democracy? He held the Muslim Brotherhood in check, maintained a cold peace with Israel, and kept the Suez Canal open. For that he was richly rewarded with tens of billions in “foreign aid,” which he used to build an authoritarian kleptocracy — one that treated the needs of most Egyptians as an afterthought. Washington occasionally pushed for reform, but never too hard, lest stability be sacrificed…

While the ‘government does not actively persecute or repress Christians, a prejudicial legal framework has created a permissive environment that allows Egyptian officials and private individuals to discriminate against Christians freely and with impunity,’ noted Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.” Read more.

Tunisia: Secularists Fear Gradual Religious Takeover by Militant Islam – “Many Tunisians fear the growing assertiveness of militant Islam following a June 26 attack on a Tunis cinema which showed a film advocating secularism. A gang of some 100 bearded men shouting ‘God it great’ stormed Cinema Afrique, smashing windows and attacking the audience of the film Neither Allah, nor Master by Tunisian-French director Nadia El-Fani, a known critic of Islamization.” Read more.

Muslim Brotherhood Leader of Tunisia Calls for an End to Israel – “Arab media has reported an interview with Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi in which he calls for and predicts the end of Israel… Ghannouchi maintains that altogether the Arab revolutions are positive for the Palestinians, and threaten to bring Israel to an end. He says that the Palestinian problem lies at the heart of the Nation [umma], and that all the land between the mosque in Mecca and Jerusalem represents the heart of the Islamic Nation…” Read more.

“(AINA) — The number of Christian girls abducted and coerced into converting to Islam since the Egyptian “January 25 Revolution” has skyrocketed, according to Father Filopateer Gamil of St. Mary’s Church in Giza. ‘More than two to three girls disappear everyday in Giza alone,’ he said. ‘The cases that are brought to public attention are few compared to what the numbers actually are.’

Many Christians blame the military council for not intervening to put an end to this problem, which has escalated after the Revolution because of the ’emergence of Muslim Salafists,’ says activist Mark Ebeid, ‘who believe strongly that converting a Christian Infidel is in some ways like earning a ticket to paradise — not to mention the earthly remuneration they get from the Saudis.’

Jackline Ibrahim Fakhry, 17, disappeared from a town on the outskirts of Cairo, prompting her parents to stage a sit-in until her appearance. They accused 31-year old Muslim Shokry Abdel-Fatah, who used to take lessons with her mother (a teacher) of kidnapping her. After she returned, Shokry said in a television interview that he has loved her since she was nine years old. He brought her to Alexandria where she met many sheikhs to convert, but she refused.” Read more.

“The Boko Haram menace has taken a dramatic twist with its call on all Muslims in Nigeria to stay away from Christians, Security Agents, Government institutions and functions or face death.

It maintained that since the present Federal Government is not Islamic, every employee is considered an infidel marked for elimination.

This came on the heels of reports that the group just stormed the divisional police headquarters in Toro Local Government area of Bauchi state, carting away arms and ammunition. It was not clear if any police officer was murdered.

The deadly group urged Muslims to stay away from Christians, their houses, businesses and churches because they are targets of attacks.

… ‘This is a government that is not Islamic. Therefore, all its employees-Muslims and non-Muslims are Infidels. This is a Government which naturally fights Islam because Muslims were killed were killed in Zagon Kataf, in Jos and Southern Kaduna but the perpetrators have never been prosecuted by the so-called existing laws of the land. Mosques were destroyed and punishment for this is death. Therefore, we have the right to kill them all. But if there are people who profess Islam and do not take part in Government or Western Education, their blood and wealth are sacred unless otherwise.'” Read more.

Mohabat News – “The Iranian Government security forces arrested a university student in front of his home based on the accusation that he has evangelized and propagated Christianity at the university he has been attending. So far there is no information on his condition or his whereabouts.

According to reports collected by Iranian Christian New Agency, ‘Mohabat News,’ reporters on Thursday June 30, 2011, a 24 year old young man named Mostafa Zangooyee, was arrested by plain-clothes security officers as he was leaving his home and was to taken away to an undisclosed location.

Security officers subsequently contacted the parents of the young man and informed them of the arrest and the charges against their son.

The arresting officers stated that the charge against this young man was evangelization and the propagation of the Christian faith in the university campus.” Read more.