MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

‘Turkish nationalists’ see Islam as a ‘unifying force of the country’, yet some try to claim that their attacks against Christians have ‘nothing to do with Islam.’  Yet every single ‘Turkish nationalist’ is Muslim.  Are the deniers really that ignorant?  Or is this yet again another blatant example of taqiyya?

Thomas Seibert – “ISTANBUL // When a Protestant minister in the city of Izmir left his church one day this month, he saw a man pointing a weapon at him and shouting: ‘Stop proselytizing! You will pay!’

The attacker in front of the Dirilis Kilisesi, or Church of the Resurrection, was quickly overwhelmed, but the incident on the evening of April 1 was a reminder of the hatred that some radical Turkish nationalists feel for Christian missionaries. Radical nationalists in Turkey are not opposed to Christian missionaries for religious reasons, Ferhat Kentel, a sociologist at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, said about the hatred against missionaries.

‘It is an effort by nationalists to create enemies, a perception of threat,’ Dr Kentel said. ‘It has nothing to do with Islam. It is an ideological phenomenon.’ He said the fear of missionaries was ‘a symbol for dangers coming from outside’. Turkish nationalists see Islam as a unifying force of the country that will be undermined if Christians are allowed to proselytize.”  Read more.

“‘Convert or die’.  Masih Gill, a Christian from the city of Mardan, in the province of ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ (Northern Pakistan), was threatened with these words by a group of Muslims with whom he had been speaking, after the recent episode of the burning of the Koran in the US.

This event caused violent reactions in Pakistan (three churches attacked in a week) by Muslim extremists. Nearly one dozen UN guards were killed on April 1, while two were beheaded. Local sources say that Masih Gill simply defended his faith, saying that Christians respect all religions and do not nurture hostility towards anyone. The Muslims then threatened Gill. They also said that they would charge him before Pakistani authorities with blasphemy.”  Read more.

By Ruth Moon – “The governments of the Netherlands, Great Britain, and other European countries have refused asylum to many Iraqis, including thousands of individual Christians. But this year, evangelical leaders and human rights groups are pushing to resettle Christian refugees in groups to help them maintain their church identity.

The stream of Christian refugees from Iraq and surrounding countries has increased in recent years, though exact numbers do not exist because refugees are not counted by religious affiliation, said Grégor Puppinck, director of the European Center for Law and Justice, the European arm of the American Center for Law and Justice.” Read more.

By Lambert Mbom – “While the Obama administration cited human rights atrocities in Libya as part of the reason for U.S. and U.N. military intervention there, neither the State Department nor the United Nations have apparently condemned an outbreak of violence in western Ethiopia, led by Muslim radicals. Since early March two Christians have reportedly been killed, more than 3,000 displaced and at least 69 churches destroyed.

Also, leading human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First appear not to have publicly condemned the attacks.”  Read more.