MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Heather Murdock, VOA – “ABUJA — Twin suicide bombers have attacked a church inside a military base in Nigeria’s Kaduna State, a volatile area known for sectarian and religious violence. Reuters news agency quotes a military spokesman as saying 11 people were killed and dozens injured.

Authorities say a bus was driven into St. Andrews Protestant Church inside a military base around noon Sunday, about ten minutes before a second suicide bomber detonated a Toyota Camry just outside.

In an e-mail to reporters, the director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Bola Koleoso, said he cannot yet confirm a casualty count but the injured have been taken to two separate hospitals.

Christian Association of Nigeria Youth Chair Diji Haruna says the church service was over when the bombs went off, but clergy and choir members were still inside.

‘Today is another bad day for Nigeria. It’s another bad day for Christians, both Christians and Muslims. Anybody that loves peace, today is a bad day for them,’ said Haruna.

The bombing took place in Jaji town about 30 kilometers from the state capital. Haruna says the military has now locked down the area. Although the bombs went off hours ago, he says information is still scarce.

‘The people that died are being carried to the mortuary and those who are injured are being carried to the hospital. It should be a military hospital in which they will still quarantine the place. You hardly get access to those places,’ said Haruna.” Read more.

Nigeria: Boko Haram Kill 3 Children Of Officer In Their Mother’s Presence – “Three children between the ages of 5,7 and 12 were Thursday slaughtered in the presence of their mother in Sulimanti ward of Maiduguri metropolis when the bread winner Mr. Aduju Zubairu an SSS personnel was away, even as five others were also shot dead during a night attack by gunmen suspected to be members of Jamatul Ahlis Sunnah Lid Daawa wal Jihad popularly known as Boko Haram. Our correspondent who was at the scene of the incident in Sulimanti, Thursday morning, where the children were slaughtered gathered that the assailants stormed the resident of the victims at exactly 1:55 am and forcefully broke the main gate, violently woke up the three children and slaughtered them before their mother.” Source – Information Nigeria.

Flashback: Nigeria: ‘Proud Soldiers Of Allah’ Vows To Take Down Government And Destroy Christianity, ‘We Will Devour You … Our Joy Is To Die In Jihad’ – “‘You, Jonathan, cannot stop us; instead we will devour you in the three months like you are boasting … We are proud soldiers of Allah; we will never give up as we fight the infidels. We will emerge as winners … for us, [death] is eternal victory to die working for Allah. Our joy is to die in Jihad for Allah … We are not doing physical human service, but Allah’s work … We are not afraid because we are not doing man’s work but Allah’s work…” Read more.

Agenzia Fides – “The historic Arabic Evangelical Church of Aleppo, in the Jdeideh district (the old town), was mined with explosives and blown up ‘by armed men, for pure sectarian hatred’: This is what Pastor Ibrahim Nasir, spiritual leader of the Arabic Evangelical Church in Aleppo says, in a statement sent to Fides Agency, referring to the explosion which occurred two days ago.

Rev. Ibrahim Nasir expressed ‘bitterness and sadness of all Syrian citizens’ for an act that makes Christians ‘inconsolable’. The message sent to Fides says: ‘Today we are announcing the destruction of the Arabic Evangelical Church, the first martyr Church. Today the Mosque of the Umayyad of Aleppo and the Evangelical Church of Aleppo met in an embrace of pain, as they were embraced, since 1848, in the worship of God and service to man. Today is the day when we cry out to Christ to say: my God, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’

In the tragedy that the Syrian people live, says the leader, ‘every church, every mosque is a haven for all those who have been forced to flee their homes.’ And states: ‘We will overcome our pain and rebuild our country, our church, our mosque and our humanity.’

The text concludes: ‘We cling with faith to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: I leave you my peace, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives you,’ thanking ‘all those who have expressed solidarity’ and praying to God ‘to pour out upon all Syrians the spirit of love.'” Source – Agenzia Fides.

Syria: More Al Qaeda-Inspired Groups Joining Rebels, ‘Islamic State’ Declared In Aleppo – “Fears of the growing influence of Al Qaeda-inspired groups inside Syria increased Monday with the release of video claiming the embattled city of Aleppo is now an ‘Islamic state’ and that 13 radical factions jointly rejected the country’s new opposition coalition. The statement appears to be a reaction to the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, the newly formed alliance of opposition groups trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime… Jabhat al-Nusra, an organization that Western intelligence officials have linked to Al Qaeda and that has claimed responsibility for a string of bombings in Aleppo and the capital, Damascus, is purportedly one of the 13 groups…” Read more.

Syria’s New Opposition Seeking To Win Over Powerful Islamist Rebel Combat Units – “Syria’s new opposition leaders are struggling to win over powerful Islamist rebel combat units, whose radical elements question whether the ‘hotel warriors’ of the fledgling coalition can offer their fighters any real support. Islamists have established themselves as the most effective, best armed and fastest growing units in the 20-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad… While the coalition has won formal recognition from Turkey, France, Britain and Gulf Arab states, the response from many Islamist fighters has been skeptical or downright dismissive. ‘We are with the coalition – for now. We want to see what it is going to do for us,’ said a fighter from one of the biggest Islamist brigades in the capital Damascus.” Read more.

BBC – “A rumour that a Christian man blasphemed against Islam has sparked a riot in the northern Nigeria town of Bichi, police have said.

Residents said four people were killed and shops were looted.

The riot came on the day the incoming head of the Anglican Church, the Rt Rev Justin Welby, launched an initiative to promote religious tolerance in Nigeria.

Religious clashes have claimed thousands of lives in Nigeria since military rule ended in 1999.

The militant Islamist group, Boko Haram, has also been waging an insurgency since 2009 to impose strict Sharia across Nigeria, which is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and a Christian and animist south.

‘Learning about religions’

Nigeria’s Kano state police chief Ibrahim Idris said ‘misinformation’ had triggered the riot, AFP news agency reports.

‘Rumours went round that someone blasphemed the Prophet [Muhammad] and there was a breakdown of law and order,’ he is quoted as saying.

The BBC’s Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai in Kano, the main city in northern Nigeria, says that a heavy contingent of soldiers and policemen have been deployed to Bichi to restore order.

It is a small town about 30km (18 miles) from Kano.

Mr Idris said the riot broke out when a Christian tailor mispronounced the name of a dress while chatting with his Muslim neighbour in Hausa, the main language spoken in the north, changing the meaning to ‘the Prophet has come to the market’, AFP reports.

Angry Muslim youths then attacked Christian-owned shops, looting and burning them, he said.

Residents said four Christians were killed, but Mr Idris could not confirm this.” Read more.

Here’s an update on this article from November 9th. There’s the possibility that the weapons used to execute the group of Christians may have come from the CIA, not to mention those used to kill US Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi, Libya on the anniversary of 9/11 …

Description: “As if ‘Benghazi-gate’ was not sufficiently horrific, in a cruel twist of fate, American-backed Islamic insurgents in Syria are now thought to be using their CIA-supplied weaponry to kill Christians.

Video footage of a November first attack posted on YouTube shows members of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ executing 28 men that were initially claimed in French Press reports to be members of the Syrian army. However, the President of the US-based, Christian relief group, the Religious Freedom Coalition, William Murray, claims to have positively identified at least two of the victims as belonging to the Syrian counterpart of his relief ministry, a claim supported by an independent human rights activist. Murray says those executed did not have weapons, and were not members of the military. As for the identities of those in the firing squad, Murray says they fly the black flag of jihad and Al Qaeda.”

By ASSIST News – “The Sudanese government has stepped up bombing of its own non-Arab civilians in Christian areas of Sudan’s South Kordofan state the past month, killing a 1-year-old baby and wounding others, sources said.

According to a story by Morning Star News, since South Sudan split from Sudan in a referendum last year, ethnic Nuba peoples in Sudan’s South Kordofan state believe the government’s goal of squashing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLA-N) rebels carries an increasingly evident goal of ridding the area of non-Arab peoples and Christianity.

Citizen journalists at online news site http://www.nubareports.org claim that 81 of 102 bombings in South Kordofan in Oct. hit civilian areas under no ground attack. The bombings were not meant to provide air support for ground forces, and they did not hit SPLA-N soldiers.

Run by an aid worker who remained in South Kordofan after his Christian humanitarian organization was forced to evacuate when military conflict escalated last year, Nuba Reports’ stated goal is to credibly report attacks on civilians as the government has forbidden media and aid agencies access to the area.

A Russian-made Antonov plane on Oct. 28 dropped six bombs in Hajar Jalab and six bombs in Tongoli village in Delami County in South Kordofan.

Morning Star News said they killed 1-year-old Mahdi Elimen and wounding Magdi Elimen, 13; Mohib Elimen, 11; Mordi Elimen, 9; Malaki Elimen, 4; and their mother, Kadija Sied, 35, according to Nuba Reports. The family’s religious affiliation was not confirmed, but sources said the area is populated almost entirely by Christians.

‘Our people are dying every day as result of aerial bombardment because they are Christians,’ a pastor said during a recent funeral for bombing victims.

A source who returned from three months in South Kordofan told Morning Star News he witnessed air strikes in Al Labu, Al Hibael, Al Atamur and Um Serdeba, areas hit with 20 bombs in two days in October.

Sudan dropped 15 bombs on Um Serdeba on Oct. 30, according to Nuba Reports, and also bombed Karkaia and Al Latmore villages. The attacks wounded a 9-year-old girl whose family is Christian, a source told Morning Star News.” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan Imam: ‘We Will Never Forgive Christians For Not Being Muslims’, Suggests That Christianity Must Be Eliminated Throughout The North – “Students and administrators at Gerif West Bible School in Sudan have yet to fully recover their losses from the April 21 attack, but the source said classes resumed on Oct. 15 even as area Muslims vie to take school land and anti-Christian messages emanate from a nearby mosque loudspeaker on most Fridays. Muslim leaders have been asserting through the mosque loudspeaker that Christian institutions should not be permitted in Sudan, as the country should be a ‘purely Islamic state’ since the secession of South Sudan on July 9, 2011, he said. ‘We are expecting the level of persecution to rise in Sudan in the coming days,’ a pastor who works at the Bible school told Morning Star News by phone, adding that hostilities against churches and Christians were intensifying.” Read more.

Hadith: Bukhari 9.84.57, “Muhammad said, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”

Morning Star News – “NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists from Somalia’s rebel Al-Shabaab militants on Friday (Nov. 16) killed a Christian in Somalia’s coastal city of Barawa, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said.

The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months, Christian sources said. Mose drew suspicion when he returned to Barawa, in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle Region, in December 2011 after spending time in Kenya, underground Christians in Somalia told Morning Star News.

Kenya’s population is nearly 83 percent Christian, according to Operation World, while Somalia’s is close to 100 percent Muslim.

A crowd assembled in the coastal city on Friday morning to watch the slaughter of Mose, the sources said.

‘His body was split into two, then carried away, only to be dumped near the beach of Barawa city,’ a Christian source who witnessed the murder told Morning Star News.

Other witnesses, Muslims, independently described the same scene. They and the Christian witness told Morning Star News that the Islamic extremists accused Mose of being a spy for foreigners and of embracing the ‘foreign religion of Christianity.’

Loved ones of the deceased did not risk immediately recovering the body, fearing that the militants would consider them guilty by association and kill them as well. A source said a Muslim fisherman who came upon Mose’s body this morning (Nov. 17) lamented, ‘What a brutal murder – why did the Al Shabaab kill this man? Did he deserve such a brutal death because he associated with the Christian people in Kenya?'” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Shabaab Vows To Continue Killing Those Who Do Not Worship Allah – “Somalia militia group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s twin attacks on two churches in Garissa County that left 17 people dead… An Al-Shabaab loyalist Sheikh Hassan Takar said that the militia killed people who did not profess allegiance to Allah. ‘The mujahedeen (holy warriors) punished with their hands those believing and worshipping other than Allah,’ he said. ‘The militants will continue until such practice is eliminated.’ He added” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Muslim Extremists from Al Shabaab Behead Another Christian for Leaving Islam – “Islamic extremists from the rebel al Shabaab militia in Somalia beheaded a Christian on the outskirts of Mogadishu last month, sources said. The militants fighting the transitional government in Mogadishu murdered Zakaria Hussein Omar, 26, on Jan. 2 in Cee-carfiid village, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) outside of the Somali capital, they said. Omar had worked for a Christian humanitarian organization that al Shabaab banned last year.” Read more.

By George Whitten, Worthy News – “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 human rights chief said Monday, November 12.

‘As of May [about] 25 churches and convents have been destroyed. This destruction is mostly confined to [semi-autonomous] Zanzibar where the population is 99 percent Muslim and openly hostile to Christians,’ explained William Stark, regional manager for Africa of advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC)…

The mob burned down five churches, including the Seven Day Church, the Anglican Church and the Assemblies of God Church, Christians said Other property belonging to Christians in the area was also destroyed including a car belonging to the Anglican Church pastor, according to ICC investigators.

‘As the riots continued, the Evangelical Assemblies of God Church in Tanzania was pulled down. In the following days, unrest in the Muslim community continued, leading to the destruction of more properties across the country and the lives of Christian leaders being threatened,’ Stark said in a statement obtained by Worthy News.

The violence also spread to Zanzibar, where on October 18, a mob of Muslim protestors carrying clubs, swords and machetes invaded two churches shouting ‘We want the head of Bishop Shayo’ as they tried to enter his Roman Catholic church, Christians claimed.

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!’

Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God in Zanzibar, said in a statement that, ‘These chants caused a lot of panic and some pastors, fearing for their lives, fled the island of Zanzibar to the mainland of Tanzania,’ though the government later ‘intervened and provided security.'” Read more.

Flashback: Tanzania: Muslim Family Severely Beats and Threatens to Kill Christian Convert – “On Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, Christians live in a climate of fear. It’s a place where a young man flees the island to escape death threats from his Muslim family, and a Christian who accidentally burned pages of the Quran opts for jail by entering a guilty plea rather than face certain death from a furious mob. Yusuf Abdalla, 23, fled to Moshi, mainland Tanzania, after his family threatened to kill him in June. Having converted to Christianity in October 2010 after hearing the gospel on the radio, he was enrolled at a vocational school in Zanzibar city to learn tailoring when his family found out in March that he had left Islam.” Read more.

Flashback: Tanzania: Muslim Men In Zanzibar Still Beating Their Wives Despite Efforts To Minimize Domestic Violence – “DESPITE ongoing efforts to minimize domestic violence, promote gender equality and empower women, new study in Zanzibar indicates that many women are still beaten and bullied by men including Muslim clerics … but the number of cases being reported to the police remain few, mainly because most women opt to tolerate violence in order to keep her family together. ‘Women have testified to have been bullied and beaten by men, but they think it is improper to report the case. Some get hurt severely in the domestic violence, but treat themselves silently to save the husband or partner,’ the report says.” Read more.

News 24 – “Kano – Gunmen have shot dead five Christian residents of a town in a restive north-eastern Nigerian region previously hit by deadly Islamist attacks, the police said on Sunday.

The gunmen stormed the home of five Christian ethnic Igbos from eastern Nigeria in Gaidam town late on Saturday and shot them dead before fleeing, state police commissioner Patrick Egbuniwe said.

‘The gunmen broke into the home of the Igbo iron welders after they had closed from work and shot them dead. The attackers escaped and no one has been arrested for the attack,’ he told AFP.

Gaidam, which lies 135km from the Yobe state capital Damaturu and near the border with Niger, is the hometown of state governor Ibrahim Gaidam.

It is not clear if the assailants killed them because they were Christians.

Boko Haram

Egbuniwe did not say whether Boko Haram was behind the killing.

In November last year, the Islamist militant group launched co-ordinated bombings and shooting attacks on the town.

Armed with Kalashnikov rifles, the Islamists hurled explosives at Gaidam police station, freed suspects, stole arms, rampaged through the town, burning six churches, a high court, a shopping complex and robbing a bank.

On Friday, gunmen killed three policemen and set ablaze three churches and a school in the town of Bonny Yadi in the volatile state, a military spokesperson said.” Read more.

I’ve included the video in question at the end of the article. These are the rebels that the Obama Administration is supporting. Caution, this will be disturbing to some. Viewer discretion is strongly advised …

By MICHAEL CARL – “Reports from Syria indicate members of the Free Syrian Army have started executing Christians while claiming they’re shooting Syrian soldiers.

A video of a Nov. 1 attack in which black-clad Syrian rebels reportedly killed 28 men has been posted on Youtube.com. An Agence France-Presse story on the attack identified the victims as Syrian soldiers.

But Religious Freedom Coalition President William Murray said two of the victims were associated with his cooperating organization in Syria, which distributes aid.

The victims were not soldiers, he said, but civilians from the same neighborhood, ‘so they were all probably Christians.’

He argued that even a brief review of photos of the attack indicates the victims were civilians.

‘They were not armed and never were combatants,’ Murray said.

A human rights activist working in Syria whose name has been withheld for security reasons said two of the men were Christians.

‘Two of the men I am sure were Christians and were first kidnapped from their neighborhood, then taken out and shot,’ the activist said.

Act for America President and Founder Brigitte Gabriel said it’s well known that the Syrian rebels are executing Christians.

‘The Syrians without a doubt are executing Christians. They are notorious for their tactical torture of their enemies,’ Gabriel said.

‘Those people rising against Assad and being crushed are all Muslim Brotherhood whom Bashir Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, crushed 30 years ago in Hama,’ Gabriel said.

Gabriel added that the rebels feel empowered, which only fuels their hatred of Christians.

‘Now they are feeling empowered after what they saw in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. They feel this is their opportunity. They despise the Christians living in Syria and would love to either Read more…

The State Department and Senate Democrats will do everything possible to avoid highlighting the devastating trend of Christian persecution throughout the Middle East and other Muslim majority nations. After all, to acknowledge that any serious problem exists would be incompatible with the Obama Administration’s pro-Islamic doctrine and would only serve to undermine the image of “democracy and freedom” it wishes to portray of the Arab Spring, a movement that it has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on, and continues, to fully support …

By Faith J. H. McDonnell – “Recently, U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urging the State Department not to block legislation on the creation of a special envoy to focus on persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East and South Central Asia. Introduced by Wolf and U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the bipartisan bill, H.R. 440, to establish such a position passed overwhelmingly (402-20) in July 2011. But the legislation is being held up in the Senate by Foreign Relations Committee member Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) at the request of the State Department.

Wolf has a special passion for the persecuted. He and U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) were the first Western government officials ever allowed to enter a Soviet political labor camp. In 1989 they visited the notorious Perm Camp 35 in the Ural Mountains and met with 23 political prisoners and dissidents. In succeeding years Wolf has championed the human rights of the persecuted and oppressed from China to Sudan. His tenacious appeal for an intercessor for vulnerable populations in the increasingly Islamized Middle East and South Central Asia is just the latest of many fights for global justice and religious freedom that are now related in his autobiography, Prisoner of Conscience: One Man’s Crusade for Global Human and Religious Rights.

In the October 25, 2012 letter to Clinton, Wolf warned that ‘time was running out — both in terms of the legislative calendar for this year and in terms of the plight of these communities.’ Both the House-passed legislation and companion bill introduced by Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Carl Levin (D-MI) are ‘languishing in the Senate.’ The congressman, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, noted that the introduction of the bill ‘pre-dated the so-called ‘Arab Spring,’’ but that ‘the dramatic changes in the region over the year have only made these communities more vulnerable.’

Minority religious groups are at more risk than ever due to the increasing power of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic supremacists. For instance, says Wolf:

• In Egypt, ‘roughly 8 million Coptic Christians live in fear, especially with the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood and various Islamist elements, and there is ‘widespread and virulent anti-Semitism in the government-controlled media.’

• Iraq’s ‘once vibrant Christian community has been halved from 2003 to the present day’ and ‘large percentages of the country’s smallest religious minorities, including Chaldo-Assyrian and other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yezidis,’ as well as the tiny Jewish population, ‘have fled the country in recent years, threatening these ancient communities’ very existence in Iraq.’

• ‘Shabbaz Bhatti – Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member – was Read more…