MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

For peaceful purposes …

AFP – “A Saudi court jailed a Lebanese man for six years and sentenced him to 300 lashes after convicting him of encouraging a Saudi woman to convert to Christianity, Saudi dailies reported Sunday.

The same court sentenced a Saudi man convicted in the same case to two years in prison and 200 lashes for having helped the young woman flee the ultra-conservative, US-backed Sunni kingdom, local daily Al-Watan said.

A court delivered the verdict in Khobar in the kingdom’s east, where the woman and the two accused worked for an insurance company.

The July 2012 case caused a stir in Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict version of Sharia that stipulates Muslims who convert to another religion must be sentenced to death.

The woman, known only as ‘the girl of Khobar,’ was granted refuge in Sweden where she lives under the protection of unspecified NGOs, according to local press reports.

She had appeared in a YouTube video last year in which she announced that she had chosen to convert to Christianity.” Read more.

Flashback: Saudi Arabia Arrests 53 Ethiopian Christians … For Behaving Like Christians – “Dozens of Ethiopian Christians, mostly women, have been detained in Saudi Arabia after attending a worship service in a private home, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday, February 13. The Christians – 46 women and six men including three church leaders – were arrested last Friday, February 8 … three church leaders – two of them women – were produced in an Islamic court in the eastern city of Dammam on charges of converting Muslims to Christianity.” Read more.

Flashback: Saudi Security Forces Raid Christian Prayer Meeting In Jeddah and Arrest 42 Christians, Many Beaten and Threatened With Death – “International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Saudi security forces arrested 42 Ethiopian Christians at a prayer gathering in Jeddah on Thursday… Christians in Saudi Arabia, most of who enter the country as foreign workers, are not allowed to practice their faith openly. Saudi police have been known to raid private worship gatherings in homes, arrest and deport congregants, and confiscate Christian materials, including Bibles.” Read more.

Flashback: Virtuous Saudi Police Raid House, Arrest Dozens Of Christians ‘Plotting To Celebrate Christmas’ – “The religious police in Saudi Arabia have raided a house in the Al Jawf Province and arrested 41 people, who were ‘plotting to celebrate Christmas,’ a police statement said… The ‘virtue and vice’ police, which enforce religious norms in the country, regularly launch crackdowns on Christians and Hindus living in Saudi Arabia. The attitude is encouraged by religious leaders, who justify the persecutions.” Read more.

Flashback: Exporting Terrorism: Saudis Distributing Anti-Christian And Anti-Jewish Textbooks Fueling Intolerance And Violence Around The Globe – “Textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools contain virulent forms of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry that continue to fuel intolerance and violence around the globe, says a new report. The problem is far greater than the five million students in Saudi Arabia who use these texts every day … ‘[These textbooks] are posted on the Saudi Education Ministry’s website and are shipped and distributed free by a vast Saudi-sponsored Sunni infrastructure to many Muslim schools, mosques and libraries throughout the world… It is exporting terrorism through textbooks.” Read more.

For peaceful purposes …

By Michael Bachelard, The Age – “Johanes Lokobal sits on the grass that cushions the wooden floor of his little, one-room house. He warms his hands at a fire set in the centre. From time to time a pig, out of sight in an annex, squeals and slams itself thunderously against the adjoining wall.

The village of Megapura in the central highlands of Indonesia’s far-eastern province of West Papua is so remote that supplies arrive by air or by foot only. Johanes Lokobal has lived here all his life. He does not know his exact age: ‘Just old,’ he croaks. He’s also poor. ‘I help in the fields. I earn about 20,000 rupiah [$2] per day. I clean the school garden.’ But in a hard life, one hardship particularly offends him. In 2005, his only son, Yope, was taken to faraway Jakarta. Lokobal did not want Yope to go. The boy was perhaps 14, but big and strong, a good worker. The men responsible took him anyway. A few years later, Yope died. Nobody can tell Lokobal how, nor exactly when, and he has no idea where his son is buried. All he knows, fiercely, is that this was not supposed to happen.

‘If he was still alive, he would be the one to look after the family,’ Lokobal says. ‘He would go to the forest to collect the firewood for the family. So I am sad.’

The men who took Yope were part of an organised traffic in West Papuan youth. A six-month Good Weekend investigation has confirmed that children, possibly in their thousands, have been enticed away over the past decade or more with the promise of a free education. In a province where the schools are poor and the families poorer still, no-cost schooling can be an irresistible offer.

USA Today – “ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — A police commander in Tanzania says four Saudi Arabian citizens have been arrested following a bomb attack on a Catholic church.

Magesa Mulogo said Monday that the four Saudi nationals were among six people arrested.

Mulongo said two people died in Sunday’s bombing of a newly opened church in the northern city of Arusha. Nearly four dozen people were wounded in the blast just before the church’s inaugural Mass, which was attended by the pope’s envoy to Tanzania.

Mulogo said eyewitnesses reported that the bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church. Mulogo said the driver of the motorcycle is among those arrested.” Source – USA Today.

Flashback: Grand Mufti Of Saudi Arabia Calls For ‘Destruction Of All Churches In Region’ – “According to several Arabic news sources, last Monday, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is ‘necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.’ The Grand Mufti made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait, regarding the position of a Kuwaiti parliament member who recently called for the ‘removal’ of churches (he later ‘clarified’ by saying he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait). The Kuwaiti delegation wanted to confirm Sharia’s position on churches. Accordingly, the Grand Mufti ‘stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it.’” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Prepare For Disaster’: Islamists In Tanzania And Kenya Threaten To Destroy Christian Homes And Churches – “Christians and their churches here in Tanzania and Kenya are on alert this Easter weekend in anticipation of potential attacks against them. Many have armed police guarding their buildings. A militant Islamic group known as Muslim Renewal has threatened to burn ‘homes and churches.’ They say they ‘are not finished, at Easter, prepare for disaster.’ The Al Shabaab-linked group is believed responsible for the murder in Zanzibar last month of Catholic priest, Father Evarest Mushi. It may also have been involved in the killing of Pastor Abdi Welli in Garissa, Kenya. Militant Muslims have killed church leaders and they’ve attacked more than 30 churches in Tanzania and Kenya in the past year.” Read more.

Flashback: Tanzania: Christians Increasingly Worried As Islamism Spreads At Alarming Rate, Seeks To Impose Sharia Law Upon All – “Islamisation is increasing at an alarming rate in Tanzania, according to a bishop from the country. Bishop Bernadin Mfumbusa of Kondoa warned that religious freedom and other civil liberties were under threat from intolerant radical Muslim influences sweeping in from countries neighbouring the east African nation… ‘We see more and more itinerant preachers from Saudi Arabia and Sudan entering this country – and Muslims are increasingly making political demands.’” Read more.

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News – “A new report by the International Campaign for Human Rights shows that many Christian customs in Iran are criminalized by the authorities, according to Barnabas Aid.

Although the Iranian government claims to respect the rights of religious minorities, the report found that Christian converts and members of unregistered churches can face extrajudicial punishment and even execution for apostasy. In fact, the Islamic Republic hasn’t permitted a single new church to be built since its revolution. Instead, many churches have been closed as attendance is restricted, members are monitored and their Bibles and other religious literature are routinely confiscated.

The report also reveals a systematic pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention for purposes of state security; for example, Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini was recently arrested for planting house churches that officials claimed were ‘intended to undermine national security’ by turning Iranian youth away from Islam.

When detained, Christians are often denied basic rights: they are held without charge, denied access to proper legal advice and are ill-treated, yet as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally obligated to safeguard these freedoms.

‘The egregious violations of Christians’ rights,’ said Hadi Ghaemi, Executive Director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, ‘which include not only the inability to freely practise their religion, but also the threat of torture and death at the hands of state officials, go against all international law. The international community must let the Iranian government know this is unacceptable.'” Source – Worthy News.

Flashback: Iran: Islamic Republic Refusing Business License For Convert To Christianity, Orders Businesses Not To Employ Christians – “Iranian authorities refuse to allow a young man to start his own company because he converted to Christianity and was previously detained on charges of ‘apostasy’, or ‘abandoning Islam’, Iranian Christians said Saturday, July 14… Iranian Christians said the move is part if a wider government crackdown on non-Islamic minority groups, especially Christian converts, in society. At least dozens of Christians are known to have been detained in the country. Outside prison, government offices are reportedly ordered not to employ Christians and Christians have been deprived from high school or university education, or running their own schools…” Read more.

Flashback: Lying Wonders: Iran Promotes ‘Discovery’ Of The ‘Gospel Of Barnabas’, Claims It Will Cause ‘Worldwide’ Collapse of Christianity – “‘Christian‘ archaeology undermines the Qur’an. ‘Jewish‘ archaeology undermines the Qur’an. Even ‘Islamic‘ archaeology undermines the Qur’an. But when it comes to an ideology whose foundations are grounded in lies and deception, the only facts that need apply are those that can be distorted to undermine the Truth …” Read more.

The Commentator – “At least 20 people have been murdered in a violent attack on a Christian funeral in central Nigeria’s Taraba state on Friday. A round-the-clock curfew is now in place as a result of the ‘Muslim mob’ action, according to a report by the Agence France Presse.

An aid worker told the AFP, ‘We have recovered 20 bodies from the violence so far,’ adding that the unrest had occurred in the town of Wukari, some 125 miles from the state capital Jalingo.

‘We are still going round the town in search of more bodies,’ he said on condition of anonymity. AFP reports that the source was not authorised to speak to the media about death tolls.

A curfew has been imposed in the area, said officials, in an effort to contain the violence.

Residents reported that Friday’s violence erupted when the funeral procession of a traditional chief from the predominantly Christian Jukun ethnic group marched through a Muslim neighbourhood chanting slogans, which Muslims viewed as an act of provocation.

Tensions have been on the rise in the mostly Christian town of Wukari since February, when a dispute over the use of a football pitch between Muslim and Christian soccer teams set off sectarian riots that claimed several lives.” Source – The Commentator.

Flashback: Nigeria: Suspected Islamists Storm Church, Threaten To Rape And Behead Congregants In Taraba State Capital – “Gunmen attacked the lodge of the Redeemed Christian Corpers Fellowship early yesterday in Jalingo, Taraba state capital. The bandits who stormed the Family House of the Redeemed Christian Corpers Fellowship (RCCF) held the parishoners hostage for hours after relieving them of hundreds of thousands of dollars and other valuables.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: Boko Haram: Our Goal Is To Eliminate Followers of Christ – “Terrorist organisation Boko Haram has issued a statement making clear that its goal is to eliminate followers of Christ from Nigeria and establish an Islamic state. ‘The Nigerian state and Christians are our enemies and we will be launching attacks on the Nigerian state and its security apparatus as well as churches until we achieve our goal of establishing an Islamic state in place of the secular state … We are responsible for the suicide attack on a church in Jos and also another attack on another church in Biu,’ a spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, is said to have told reporters in the northeastern city of Maiduguri over the phone.” Read more.

By Frontpage Mag – “Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of numerous best-selling books on Islam, recently interviewed Shillman Journalism Fellow Raymond Ibrahim about the topic of his new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute).” Source – Frontpage Mag.