MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife – “Pakistani authorities have reopened a trial against a mentally challenged Christian girl on charges of ‘blasphemy’ while a Christian mother faces a possible death sentence for allegedly making ‘derogatory remarks’ about Islam’s prophet Mohammed, lawyers told BosNewsLife Saturday, March 23.

‘A police investigator asked the Supreme Court in Islamabad to reopen the case’ against Rimsha Masih, 14, ‘saying he was pressured by the government to drop charges against her after an international outcry,’ said the Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD) group.

Rimsha was jailed August 17 in a prison near Islamabad after allegedly burning pages with verses of the Koran, viewed as holy book by Muslims. Her detention at Adiala Jail triggered international protests because of her age and a medical report confirming that she was mentally handicapped.

Amid mounting pressure, Rimsha was flown to safety on September 8 and eventually acquitted on the charges, though she remains in hiding. On the outskirts of Islamabad families are afraid to return to their Christian community in the city’s Mehrabadi district because the girl lived there.

Besides Rimsha, who may face life imprisonment, a court is also considering a death sentence against 47-year-old Martha Bibi after years of legal wrangling, BosNewsLife learned…

Bibi, who is married and has 7 children, will face a court in the city of Lahore on March 27, said her lawyer Mushtaq Gill.

‘She was detained in January 2007 in her village of Kot Nanak Sigh for allegedly making ‘derogatory remarks’ about Prophet Mohammed in an argument with a Muslim woman,’ explained Gill, who is also director of the LEAD advocacy group.

Bibi has always strongly denied the charges.

The blasphemy case was registered at a nearby police station where she ‘was arrested and put behind the bars after being beaten and tortured by Muslims,’ the lawyer said.” Read more.

• Flashback: Pakistan Islamists: ‘You Christians Have Offended Our Prophet, We Will Kill You All!’
• Flashback: Pakistan: Christian Man Murdered For Refusing To Convert To Islam
• Flashback: Pakistan: Christian Woman Brutally Tortured by Muslim Mob, Paraded Through Village Streets for ‘Anti-Islam Views’
• Flashback: Christians In Pakistan Told To Convert To Islam Or Leave, ‘Otherwise They Will Face Consequences’

Christian Today – “LAHORE, Pakistan – Christians living in tents here after Muslims destroyed more than 175 homes following a blasphemy accusation are disillusioned that authorities have not compensated them, but for some the greatest pain is what cannot be replaced.

‘I am still unable to recover from the trauma after seeing my house burnt down completely,’ said one elderly woman, Meraj Bibi. ‘It takes ages to build a house and make it into home, but these cruel people shattered our lives within minutes.’

The two streets leading to predominantly Christian Joseph Colony are packed with white and yellow tents, most donated by the Al-Khair Foundation, a British Muslim charity, and the Sindh-based ‘secular’ political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Christians of Joseph Colony lost their homes after police ordered them to leave the area in anticipation of rioting by local Muslims this month. About 3,000 Muslims gathered outside Joseph Colony on March 9, furious over an alleged remark against Islam by a Christian, Sawan Masih, in an earlier discussion with his Muslim drinking buddy, barber Shahid Imran.

‘They [the police] said that the mobs could harm our daughters, so we should vacate our houses immediately,’ said Monica, mother of a 2-year-old and wife of a sanitation worker. ‘We trusted them and thought that they would protect our belongings, but the next day we saw our homes turn into ashes.’

Another resident, Parveen Bibi, told Morning Star News that she and her family had lived in Joseph Colony for 40 years.

‘My husband and sons are sanitation workers – we keep the city clean, we keep the people’s homes clean, and yet this is how we are acknowledged,’ she said. ‘They even took the jewelry we had collected for our daughter’s wedding. And here we are now, sitting in a tent wondering when we’ll be able to sleep in our homes.’

In spite of Masih’s arrest in the wee morning hours of March 9, the mob robbed and torched more than 175 houses, two church buildings and dozens of shops and vehicles (see Morning Star News, March 11). Masih was arrested under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which calls for death or life imprisonment for those accused of blaspheming Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.” Read more.

Flashback: Pakistan: Christians Forced To Flee Into The Wilderness To Escape Islamic Persecution – “In the middle of a forest in the Pakistani capital, a group of Christians has cut down trees to clear land and has begun to build a church out of branches after leaving their neighborhood in fear when one of their own was accused of violating Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws. The roughly 100 men, women and children who slept overnight on the ground in a clearing just a few miles (kilometers) from the seat of the Pakistani government are fallout from the case of a young Christian girl accused by a neighbor of burning pages from Islam’s holy book, the Quran.” Read more.

I cannot help but to remember the words of Christ as He described the horrors that would befall some of those who believed in Him as His return drew near …

Matthew 24:19,22, “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! … unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

By Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News – “Iran’s hard-line regime has intensified its violent crackdown on Christians and other religious minorities, even imprisoning nursing mothers for practicing their faith, according to a new UN report.

The March report provides a rare, detailed view into the shocking treatment of Christians in Iran, where American Pastor Saeed Abedini is serving an eight-year sentence for his alleged work with Christians.

‘The persecution of Christians has increased,’ said Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s expert on human rights in Iran. ‘It seems to target new converts and those who run house churches.’

At least 13 Protestant Christians are currently in detention centers across Iran, and more than 300 Christians have been arrested since June 2010, according to the report. In addition to Christians, the nation’s 350,000 Bahai, who form Iran’s largest non-Muslim faith, have suffered under Tehran’s repression.

While most of the cases have not made headlines, the report spotlighted some examples.

Iran’s judicial authorities sentenced Christian Pastor Behnam Irani in 2011 and church leader Farshid Fathi in 2012 to six-year prison terms. Irani was convicted of ‘actions against the state,’ because he preached Christianity, while Fathi was convicted of ‘religious propaganda.’

Abedini was sentenced in late January to eight years in Iran’s Evin prison for practicing Christianity in Iran.

Fathi was accused of distributing Persian-language Bibles and coordinating trips for church members to attend religious seminars and conferences outside the country, the report stated.

Iran’s regime shut down the home-based Janat Abad Assemblies of God Church in Tehran last year.

‘Fundamentally, it is an issue of intolerance of different views,’ Shaheed said.

There is a ‘new Islamization in part of the government’ that might explain the spike in repression targeting Christians, he added.” Read more.

Flashback: Unable To Buy Or Sell: Iran 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. The Iranian Christian, who was not identified, had reportedly been trying to obtain a business license for ‘a technical company’ in northern Iran… 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, according to Iranians with close knowledge about the situation.” Read more.

Christian Today – “Christians are calling for prayers and for peace and reconciliation in Tanzania following a horrific attack on the residence of Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa – the Bishop of Dar Es Salaam and Primate of the Anglican Church of Tanzania.

On the night of Saturday 2 March a security guard at the residence of the Archbishop was attacked by unknown assailants wielding machetes or ‘panga.’ The guard is recovering and the Archbishop has asked for prayers for healing from the physical and mental scars that such an unprovoked attack has caused.

There is no proof who led the attack, but people purporting to be Muslim Fundamentalists had threatened the Archbishop and his name was included on a list of ‘most wanted’ alongside the Archbishops of the Roman Catholic Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania.

Dar Es Salaam is Arabic for ‘the abode of peace’ and true Islam is known as the way of peace. The relationship between Christians and Muslims across the country has historically been good. Provincial Secretary Canon Dickson Chilongani said, ‘For many years we have lived in peace with Muslims and so peace and reconciliation will always be at the forefront.'” Read more.

Flashback: Tanzania: Christian Pastor Beheaded By Angry Muslim Mob Demanding That All Christian-Owned Meat Shops Be Closed – “A PASTOR with the Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) Church at Buseresere has been beheaded during religious-linked conflicts at Buseresere town, in Geita Region. A spokesperson for the Geita Regional Police Commander’s Office, Mr Denis Stephano, identified the deceased pastor as Mathayo Kachili. He said conflicts had been boiling for quite a while now in the area where a section of what are believed to be Muslim leaders had demanded immediate closure of butcheries owned by Christians.” Read more.

Flashback: Tanzania: Mob Of Islamists Destroy Dozens Of Churches, ‘We Want The Heads Of All The Church Pastors’ – “Dozens of Christian worship places have been destroyed by Islamic extremists in Tanzania and church leaders are fleeing its heavily Muslim island of Zanzibar, as the persecution of Christians spreads throughout East Africa… a mob of Muslim protestors carrying clubs, swords and machetes invaded two churches shouting ‘We want the head of Bishop Shayo’ … When they failed to break into the church, the mob moved on to the Anglican church of Reverend Emmanuel Masoud where the crowd broke windows and were seen hacking at the doors while chanting: ‘We need the head of Masoud!’ and We want the heads of all the church pastors in Zanzibar!’” 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.

For peaceful purposes …

Christian Today – “Christian children fleeing from gunmen saved their lives by hiding among the rock formations towering over the eastern side of this northern village, but a 6-month-old baby and a 13-year-old girl never got the chance.

The infant, Alexander Blessed, and the girl, Happiness Adamu, were the youngest of five people from five churches who were slain. Christians were still gathered in and about a home where a funeral for the village chief had taken place in the predominantly Muslim state of Kaduna when, under cover of darkness on a Saturday night (Feb. 23), marauding, black-clad gunmen arrived from the west and began firing.

Eleven Christians were hospitalized with wounds, including Martha Blessed, who was shot as she tried to protect her infant son. Bullets broke both legs of another 13-year-old Christian girl, Gloria Livinus, of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Aduwan.

The raid came as a shock as area Christians had been living without enmity toward anyone, said John Audi, 45-year-old grandson of the village chief and a member of St. Patrick’s church.

‘We were all scattered, and some that were shot were crying,’ he told Morning Star News. ‘We all ran for cover where we believed we could avoid being hit by the bullets.’

Witnesses reportedly said the gunmen spoke in Fulani dialect, but church leaders said the area had been free of the land and property conflicts that have marked relations between Muslim, ethnic Fulanis and predominantly Christian tribes. Islamic extremist groups have increasingly incited Fulani Muslims to attack Christian areas, and witnesses reportedly said the assailants carried sophisticated weapons.

Area church leaders questioned how the shooting could have gone on for three hours without response from authorities in a north-central state that has been blanketed with military security forces to counteract terrorist violence.

‘This village was attacked for three hours, yet no help came to our people here,’ said the Rt. Rev. Danlami Bello, bishop of the First African Church, Kafanchan Diocese, whose headquarters are in Aduwan. ‘These attacks have gone unhindered without security agencies coming to the scenes of the attacks to assist Christian victims.'” Read more.

• Flashback: Nigeria: Muslim Fulani Herdsmen Attack Christian Village, Kill Women And Children In Church, Scores Dead
• Flashback: Nigeria: At Least 3 More Christians Gunned Down and Hacked to Death After Suspected Ambush by Muslim Fulani Herdsmen
• Flashback: Nigeria: More Than 80 Killed After Suspected Fulani Muslims Storm Christian Villages
• Flashback: Nigeria: Islamic Extremists Causing Widespread Alarm, Killing Many More Christians Than What’s Being Reported

Osun Defender – “Kano State has been thrown into pandemonium as a bomb just went off at New Road, Sabon Gari area of the city.

A witness told PREMIUM TIMES that the bomb exploded at the hub of a commercial Luxury Bus park usually filled with commuters going from Kano to the South.

Another witness said an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, was planted near the park causing one of the buses to go up in flames.

A recent report showed that four dead bodies have been brought in to the accident and emergency ward of Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and many men, women and children wounded.

Recent report claims that over 60 passengers were killed while dozens got injured following the explosion.

Several other casualties have also been evacuated to other hospitals across the town for emergency treatment.

The blast affected both passengers in the bus that was about to exit the park and many others within the vicinity of the park.

The blast caused a stampede with many people getting hurt and cars crashing.

Details are still sketchy with some sources saying the explosion emanated from a car parked beside the bus while others claim it was from within the bus.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Police in Kano, Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident. He however, said he has not gotten the full details.

The area has now been cordoned off by soldiers and police officers.

At the moment, no one can confirm the status of casualties in this attack as effort to contact the police or JTF was not successful as at the time of compiling this report, however residents say the area was combed by JTF.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Boko Haram, which has frequently attacked the city, was a prime suspect. A spokesman for security forces in Kano state, Ikedehia Iwehia, said dead and wounded were being evacuated.

The sect often targets Christians.

‘I ran for my dear life and managed to get out of the park after the second blast. Many people are lying dead. See, my clothes are covered in blood,’ said witness Ibrahim Bello, holding up a blood-soaked shirt.

A reporter who was at the scene counted 25 bodies. However, Channels TV reports that 60 people were killed and dozens were injured.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: Muslim Extremists Killing Christians in Two States in Effort to ‘Cleanse’ Islamic Land, Entire Christian Families Among Those Killed – “Muslim extremists bent on ridding Nigeria’s volatile middle region of Christianity killed five Christians in Niger state on Thursday (Sept. 22) and three others the previous week in the north-central state of Kaduna, including a 13-year-old girl, sources said. Suspected militants from the Boko Haram Islamic sect in the Niger state town of Madala went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran, eyewitnesses told Compass. If the Christian traders were unable to recite the verses, the gunmen shot and killed them, they said.” Read more.

By Luiz Sanchez, Daily News Egypt – “The Maspero Youth Union (MYU) confirmed on Saturday that four Egyptian Copts were detained at a checkpoint on Friday in the Libyan city of Misrata. MYU claims that those detained are being held because they are Christians.

Beshoy Tamri, a member of MYU, said the Egyptian government must do more to protect the rights of its citizens abroad. ‘We think that if our government was serious about protecting our people there, they would send lawyers to help,’ Tamri said. ‘The truth is that our country does not respect Egyptians living abroad.’

The Libyan embassy in Cairo, meanwhile, has announced it is suspending all services indefinitely but has not provided a reason.

In response to the arrests, Pope Tawadros II met with several Coptic movements on Friday, the MYU political bureau member Mina Magdi El-Qess said. He added that the pope is in contact with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Kamel Amr, and is exerting all possible efforts to release the four detainees.

Magdi El-Qess said that the MYU will do what they can to show support.

The National Salvation Front (NSF), Egypt’s largest opposition bloc, condemned the arrests and similar incidents of assault on Egyptians in Libya. In a statement released on Saturday the NSF said it was worried about the repeated attacks on Copts and Christian places of worship.

‘Egyptians are also being deported from Libya in a humiliating manner far from humanitarian standards and without taking the appropriate legal action or guaranteeing the rights of Egyptian workers,’ the NSF statement read.

The statement said the NSF is keen to preserve the historical relationship with Libya, and called on authorities to take responsibility and defend the rights of Egyptians working in the country.

The NSF said they are surprised and displeased by the Egyptian authorities’ slow response to the situation. The NSF said the government is behaving in a similar fashion to the Mubarak regime, referring to the swift reaction of the presidency in sending delegates to negotiate the release of Muslim Brotherhood members in the United Arab Emirates whilst ignoring Egyptians in Libya.” Read more.

Egyptian Christians Describe Torture At The Hands Of Libyan Captors – “A group of Egyptian Christians who were detained in Libya where they had gone for work say they were tortured to the point they wanted to die. The Copts, who were swept up last month in a raid on a Benghazi market and held on charges of proselytizing because they had Christian symbols on their stalls, told MidEast Christian News the para-police organization the Ansar el-Sharia forced them to make pro-Islam declarations and insult the late Coptic Pope Shenouda. The claims came a day after another Copt arrested in the roundup was buried after dying while in Libyan custody. His family says he was tortured, as well.” Read more.

UPI – “Boko Haram militants in Nigeria destroyed 50 of Borno state’s Catholic churches, a priest charged.

The Rev. Jerome Ituah of Christ the King Catholic Parish in Kurudu, a populated area of the Abuja Capital Territory, made the accusation Saturday, saying he witnessed the destruction, Leadership Newspapers reported.

‘Out of the 52 Catholic churches in Maiduguri diocese, 50 of them have been destroyed by Boko Haram. Yet the faithful are not discouraged of their faith. You would always see them worshiping under rain and sun in open places at the site of their destroyed places of worship,’ Ituah said.

Ituah, who was in Maiduguri to lead a retreat with priests and the bishop of the diocese there, called on Catholics in Kurudu to pray for their counterparts in Maiduguri and elsewhere in northern Nigeria.” Source – UPI.

Flashback: Nigeria: Suspected Islamists Target Christians For Slaughter In Borno State, Burn Down Their Homes, Churches – “Suspected Islamist fighters went on the rampage in northeast Nigeria overnight, killing 10 Christians with guns and machetes and burning down their houses, witnesses said on Sunday. The attack happened in a village called Chibok, in a remote part of northeastern Borno state, at the heart of an insurgency led by Islamist sect Boko Haram.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: Christians Paralyzed Amid Islamic Extremist Attacks Across The Northeast, Fear Venturing Outside Day Or Night – “‘The crisis has created a lot of hardship for Christians, as even movement to eke out a living is restricted,’ said the Rev. Daniel Yumuna, a district secretary of the EYN. ‘Businesses of our church members have all collapsed because they face attacks regularly, and living generally has been made very difficult here not only for our church members but for all other Christians in this part of the country.’” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: At Least 12 Christians Murdered By Islamists During Christmas Celebrations In Borno State – “Christmas Eve attacks by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Nigeria’s Borno state – already reeling from the slaughter of at least 10 Christians earlier this month – took the lives of six people at a Baptist church, as gunmen killed six others in Yobe state the same night. According to Morning Star News in Borno state, where Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is based, six Christians were slain at First Baptist Church in Maiduguri on Christmas Eve.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigerian President Warns End Times May Be ‘So Close’ As Islamists Continue Massacring Christians – “… President Goodluck Jonathan questioned whether deadly Islamist attacks on churches in his country and other violence worldwide could be signs of coming ‘end times’. ‘We received information from our personnel in Chibok that some attackers stormed a church during Sunday service yesterday and killed 15 people,’ Kanar told AFP… The attack followed another gruesome killing Friday that saw attackers slit the throats of 15 Christians in a pre-dawn raid in Musari, also in Borno state, where Boko Haram has been based.” Read more.

For peaceful purposes …

By Shamim Masih, Daily Times – “HUNDREDS of Pakistani Christians became homeless in Badami Bagh, Lahore, on Saturday, March 9 after an attack by a mob of 3000 fanatics. Two hundred homes in the Joseph Colony were turned to ashes and poor Christians of the neighbourhood are now living in the streets, desperate for food and other needs. Their children cannot attend school or college due to the destruction and fear. Many residents have expressed great dismay and sorrow, and depression is seeping through the entire community.

One Sajid Masih said, ‘I feel helpless and unable to do anything for myself and my family’, as he broke into tears. Christians around the country are incensed by the recurring theme of blasphemy allegation followed by attacks and burning down of their vulnerable communities. They have held protests across the country in a concerted effort to vent their disgust at the recent incident and to show solidarity with the victims.

In Youhanabad and Kot Lakhpat, Lahore police used the opportunity to beat the innocent Christian protesters. They shot tear gas shells at them and beat them with sticks. Yet when the Muslim attack took place they stood back and watched till the town had been razed to the ground. There were protests in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Jhelum and Sahiwal, to name but a few.

Jhelum controversy: Muslims of Jhelum city have threatened to burn Christians home in response to the protests. Now the community is living in fear of reprisals for their simple act of condemning violence and the blasphemy laws of Pakistan. According to sources, on March 12, 2013, when Christians of Jhelum city went to protest against the violence in Joseph Colony, chanting slogans ‘Repeal Blasphemy Law’ and ‘Blasphemy law is Black Law’, local imams called on Muslims from the mosque loudspeakers to gather and punish those Christians who were decrying the blasphemy law. Local radicals have pressured the area police station to lodge a First Investigation Report – FIR under 295-C PPC against Christians who chanted slogans against the blasphemy laws.” Read more.

Flashback: Christians In Pakistan Told To Convert To Islam Or Leave, ‘Otherwise They Will Face Consequences’ – “Last Sunday when Church service was over, more than dozen Muslim criminals gathered in front of Church and started harassing Christian girls who were leaving after services. Ahmed Bhatti and Muslim home owners of area ordered their Christians tenants to convert to Islam otherwise vacate their properties. They have vacated some shops that were run by Christians. One Christian man had his Gospel music on in the shop; they beat him up and kicked him out from that shop on gunpoint. Ahmed Bhatti on his microphone was shouting, ‘I am giving Christians this invitation to convert to Islam otherwise they will face consequences’ while announcement was made gathering of Muslims were raising Islamic Slogans.” Read more.