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Egypt: Islamist Hardliners Dance To The Beat Of A Different Drum After Hearing Christian Music Played In Public

11/07/2012 Leave a comment
Egyptian Salafist

Egyptian Salafist

By Yasmine Saleh, Reuters – “Mohamed Talaat didn’t like the fact Christian music was being played at a party to promote interfaith harmony in the Egyptian town of Minya south of Cairo, so together with a group of like-minded Islamist hardliners, he showed up to put a stop to it.

It was simply un-Islamic to broadcast Christian songs, Talaat explained.

‘Egypt is Islamic and so we all have to accept Islamic rules to halt any strife,’ he said by telephone.

Four months since Egypt elected veteran Muslim Brotherhood politician Mohamed Mursi as president, human rights activists say hardliners are trying to impose Islamist ways on society.

Although reliable data on social trends is hard to find in Egypt, many people believe that cases of religious intimidation have increased.

‘There is no doubt that the rate of strange and violent practices by strict Islamists has increased tremendously since the election of Mursi,’ said Gamal Eid, founder of The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, a human rights group.

‘We have in a few months seen many more of such incidents than we have seen in years before Mursi,’ he said.

Seemingly sporadic incidents are turning into what rights activists describe as an emerging pattern of abuses in the street by radicals, defying both the authority of the state and Mursi’s own promises to protect personal freedoms…

CHRISTIANS FEAR VIOLENCE

Egypt’s Christian minority, the Middle East’s largest, has lived with increasing fear of sectarian violence, which worsened in Mubarak’s final weeks and the early days of the interim military rule that followed his ouster in February 2011.

Weeks before Mubarak was ousted, 23 Coptic Christians were killed in the bombing of a church on New Year’s Day 2011. Five months later, with generals still in charge of the country, several churches in Cairo were torched and Christian houses and businesses destroyed. Fifteen people died and hundreds were wounded in the May 2011 religious unrest.” Read more.

Flashback: Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi Says Christians Must Convert To Islam, Pay ‘Jizya’, Or Leave Egypt, ‘Conquest Is Coming’ – “According to the popular Egyptian website, El Bashayer, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will ‘achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya,’ the additional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslims, or financial tribute… After his interviewer pointed out that the first Muslim conquest of Egypt was ‘carried out at the hands of Amr bin al-As [in 641],’ he asked Morsi, ‘Who will the second Islamic conqueror be?’ Morsi, replied, ‘The second Muslim conqueror will be Muhammad Morsi,’ referring to himself, ‘and history will record it.’” Read more.

Pakistan: Christian Pastor Telling Christians Not To Participate In Islamic Feast Is Jailed For Blasphemy, Threatened With Death

11/07/2012 2 comments

Acts 15:29, “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols … You will do well to avoid these things.”

1 Corinthians 10:19-21, “… the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”

All meat consumed by Muslims is to be Halal, and in order for meat to be considered Halal the animal must be sacrificed in the name of Allah.  According to Biblical Scripture, Allah is a false god. False gods are idols. And as we can see from the verses above, God has a few things to say to His children when it comes to food that has been sacrificed to idols: don’t eat it …

Sacrificed For The Islamic Deity "Allah"

Sacrificed For The Islamic Deity “Allah”

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post – “A pastor in Pakistan has been denied bail after he was accused of blasphemy and arrested by police, who protected him from a mob of angry Muslims.

Karma Patras was originally arrested on Oct. 13, after he held a prayer meeting at a Christian family’s house in Sanghla Hill in central Punjab province, where he was asked about the meaning and relevance of the Muslim feast of sacrifice, Eid-al-Adha. The festival, celebrated by Muslims throughout the world, honors the sacrifice to God Abraham was willing to make by offering his first-born son Ishmael, as found in the Book of Genesis. [ICA Comment: A typical Islamic distortion. The sacrifice was not of Ishmael in Genesis, but of Isaac, cf. Gen. 22:2].

As reported by persecution watchdog International Christian Voice, Pastor Patras said that the feast was strictly a Muslim one and was forbidden for Christians. Patras quoted Corinthians 10:28-29, which says: ‘But if anyone says to you, ‘This was offered to idols,’ do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness. ‘Conscience,’ I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience?’

Muslims were also listening in on his answers, however, and told others about Patras’ explanation. When the pastor returned home from the prayer gathering, he was threatened by angry Muslim clerics who wanted to punish him for speaking out against the celebration of Eid-al-Adha.

The imams apparently organized an angry mob, who called Patras an infidel who has blasphemed against Islam and should be killed, attacking the pastor’s house. Police apparently rushed to the scene to try and save Patras from the beating and his house from being destroyed, but at the same time arrested him under suspicion of blasphemy.” Read more.

Indonesia: Muslim Pressure Closes Another Christian Church In West Java

11/05/2012 Leave a comment

By Jeremy Reynalds, Christianity Today – “Authorities in Bandung, West Java sealed shut the worship building of an Indonesian Christian Church (Huria Kristen Indonesia, or HKI) congregation on Oct. 23 after prominent Muslims persuaded residents to withdraw their signatures of approval for it, a pastor said.

According to a story by Morning Star News, Rev. Hari Hutagulung said that the church had gathered the signatures of 77 area Muslims in order for the 20-year-old church to apply for the proper building/use permit.

Sixty non-Christian signatures are required under Indonesian law. However, prominent Muslims persuaded many of them to withdraw their signatures, and police sealed the building last week, he said…

‘The problem arose when HKI officials began contacting all the citizens regarding the church,’ Hutagulung said. ‘There were citizens who rejected the presence of a church.’

While other churches in West Java have faced loud protests from Islamists dedicated to close them down, last week’s closure took place quietly in 10 minutes, according to weekly Tempo Media.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Protesters in ‘Moderate’ Indonesia Force Church To Close Due To ‘No Permit’ – “Protestors forced a church in Bandung, West Java, to shut down on Sunday amid claims that it was operating without a permit. The Batak Karo Protestant Church (GBKP) has been in operation since 2007. But protestors claimed that the congregation agreed not to use the building as a house of worship in a 2011 agreement… The church’s committee secretary said that although they did sign the 2011 agreement, the church has since received all the necessarily permits from the local government to hold services.” Read more.

Flashback: Indonesia: Hundreds Of Islamists Attack Christian Prayer House During Worship Service For ‘Lack Of Permit’ – “A mob of Muslim extremists attacked a Christian prayer house in Aceh Province. The building was damaged and worshippers were forced to stop the service… The fundamentalist attack was apparently caused by a lack of building permit (Izin Mendirikan Bangunan in Indonesian), a claim Christians deny. More disheartening for the members of the congregation is the fact that the attack occurred under the eyes of the police, which did not lift a finger …” Read more.

Flashback: Indonesia: Twenty Churches In Aceh Face Threat Of Demolition – “Twenty churches in Singkil regency, Aceh, have been closed down and are likely to be demolished by the local administration… ‘Under the ministerial decree, a house of worship can only be built if it has secured the approval of 90 worshipers while the gubernatorial decree requires the approval of 150 worshippers,’ Eva said Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com… Worse still, Eva said, was a local edict that forbade Muslims from approving the construction of houses of worship other than mosques, which made it impossible for the churches to fulfill the requirements.” Read more.

‘Time Is Running Out’: US Congressman Asks Why Churches In The West Are Silent On Worldwide Christian Persecution

11/04/2012 21 comments

I can think of a few reasons why: It’s convenient to ignore an inconvenient topic. It makes many comfortable Christians uncomfortable. And if the truth were made known it could even cause some of them to begin questioning a few of the popular doctrines currently being taught by the church today which are, for many Christians in the West, unquestionable …

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter – “Congressman Frank Wolf, who has been a champion of human rights, is hard pressed to understand why U.S. churches are silent when it comes to advocating for persecuted Christians.

The Republican Virginia rep. specifically called out big-name pastors such as Rick Warren and John Piper for their non-activity, especially at a time when Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Egypt are at greater risk for persecution.

‘The church in the West is relatively silent,’ Wolf said on ‘The Janet Mefferd Show’ this week. ‘Where are the (Dietrich) Bonhoeffers (20th century German Lutheran pastor who stood against Nazi dictatorship)? Where’s Rick Warren? Where’s John Piper? Where are the people? Why aren’t they speaking out on this?

‘I just have a hard time wondering why more in the West are not speaking out.’

Since last year, Wolf has been pushing for a special envoy at the State Department that would focus exclusively on the plight of religious minorities in South Central Asia and the Middle East. While his legislation (H.R. 440) passed in the House last year, it has been on hold in the Senate.

According to Wolf, the State Department urged Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to oppose the Senate version of the bill until a hearing is held.

Wolf said he welcomes the hearing but Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has never held it.

‘I am concerned that time is running out – both in terms of the legislative calendar for this year and in terms of the plight of these communities,’ Wolf said in a statement last week.

Some 8 million Coptic Christians in Egypt are living in fear, he said, as the Muslim Brotherhood majority government drafts its new constitution, which is expected to have Islamic Sharia law as its foundation.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Syria where Sunni Muslim rebels are targeting Christians, forcing many to flee the region.

‘I’m not surprised that the Obama administration is opposed to this (legislation) but where’s the church in the West?’ Wolf lamented. ‘I would’ve thought the church would’ve just been up in arms.’

‘We have no one advocating for them (religious minorities),’ he added. ‘The Coptic Christian community can’t understand why the West doesn’t advocate.'” Source – Christian Post.

Kenya: Islamists Kills 1, Wound 14 After Grenade Attack Against Church In Garissa

11/04/2012 Leave a comment

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE – “NAIROBI: Gunmen hurled a grenade at a Kenyan church in a town near the Somali border yesterday, killing one policeman and wounding another 14 people, the latest such strike in the volatile area since Nairobi sent troops into Somalia to fight Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents.

The attack occurred during morning prayers at the church in the northeastern town of Garissa, which is home to a large number of Somalis and where 18 people were killed in similar grenade blasts in July.

‘We have one fatality,’ said regional police chief Philip Tuimur after a policeman died of his wounds in the attack on the Utawala church at a police camp in Garissa, which lies about 140 kilometers (90 miles) from the Somali border. ‘We have mobilized our officers to track down the attackers,’ Tuimur added, without giving further details.

Kenya has been rocked by a wave of grenade attacks on cities including the capital Nairobi and the key port of Mombasa since the country sent troops into its troubled neighbor in October last year to fight the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab.

Fourteen people were also wounded in yesterday’s attack, which police said was carried out by two armed men. Most of the victims were policemen.

‘We are attending victims mostly suffering from shrapnel wounds and burns, and we are evacuating to Nairobi three of the victims due to the nature of their injuries,’ Dr. Mohamed Sheikh, medical director at the Garissa Hospital said.

The grenade ‘ripped through the roof during prayer session,’ said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, while witnesses cited by police said the attackers also fired gunshots.” Read more.

Flashback: Kenya: Al-Shabaab Claims Responsibility For Church Attacks, Will Continue To Kill 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. The latest development came even as muslim leaders in Kenya agreed to form self-defence groups to protect churches following the deadly attacks. In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the insurgents said they carried out the attacks in retaliation for Kenya Defence Forces (KDF)’s incursion in Somalia. An Al-Shabaab loyalist Sheikh Hassan Takar said that the militia killed people who did not profess allegiance to Allah.” Read more.

Syria: Last Remaining Christian In City Of Homs Is Reportedly Killed

11/02/2012 8 comments

ANSAmed – “The last Christian who was in the centre of Homs was killed, after the civilian population was evacuated due to widespread fighting.

According to the Vatican’s Fides news agency, 84-year-old Elias Mansour, a Greek-Orthodox Christian did not want to leave his home on Wadi Sayeh street – even though he knew his life was in danger – because he had to take care of his handicapped son, Adnane.

The Wadi Sayeh area, inhabited by both Christians and Sunni Muslims, is still at the centre of clashes between the army and rebel troops. The rebels have barricaded themselves in the areas of Khalidiyeh, Bab Houd, Bustan diwan, Hamidiyeh and the streets of Wadi Sayeh and Ouret al shayyah, surrounded by regular army forces. A Greek-Orthodox priest told Fides that Elias Mansour was killed yesterday. In the days preceding his murder, Mansour reportedly said that nothing would induce him to leave his home, adding that, if he met the rebels, ‘He would remind them about the Ten Commandments and the Holy Scriptures.’ The funeral will be celebrated today in an Orthodox church. Meanwhile, an Orthodox priest is trying to track down his disabled son, his fate remains unknown. According to Fides, the convent of the Jesuits in the Hamidiyeh area was also hit during ongoing fighting. The structure has undergone minor damage but no victims have been reported. The Jesuits and the displaced people who are sheltering within said that they have experienced moments of fear, but are unharmed.” Source – ANSAmed.

Flashback: ‘Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing’: Syrian Violence Drives 90% Of Christians From City Of Homs, Many Fear a ‘Second Iraq’ – ” Almost all Christians in the conflict-torn Syrian city of Homs have fled violence and persecution, amid reports that their homes have been attacked and seized by ‘fanatics’ with links to al-Qaida. With ninety percent of Christians having reportedly left their homes, the violence is driving fears that Syria could become a ‘second Iraq’ with church attacks, kidnappings and forced expulsions of believers.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Deliberate and Growing’: Christian Persecution From ‘Arab Spring’ Insurgents in Syria Becoming a Steadily Growing Reality, ‘It Will Never Be the Same Anymore’ – “Refugees who have fled to Jordan from Syria are telling mission leaders supported by Christian Aid Mission about deliberate, new persecution from the ‘Arab Spring’ insurgents who are seeking to overthrow the brutal Assad regime in Damascus. Nearly 100,000 Christians so far have fled from Homs and other cities being targeted by government forces, but it is no longer just to escape the crossfire. Now, more reports are revealing that a new wave of persecution is deliberate and growing… ‘It is over; we can’t get back what we lost … It will never be the same anymore for me or my family.’” Read more.

The Telegraph: Christian Persecution Is Increasing Throughout The World, Churches May All But ‘Vanish’ From The Middle East

10/31/2012 12 comments

Matthew 24:22,27, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened… For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

By Rupert Shortt, The Telegraph – “Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.

Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as ‘Western education is sinful’), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group.

Other notable trouble spots include Egypt, where 600,000 Copts – more than the entire population of Manchester – have emigrated since the 1980s in the face of harassment or outright oppression.

Why is such a huge scourge chronically under-reported in the West? One result of this oversight is that the often inflated sense of victimhood felt by many Muslims has festered unchallenged. Take the fallout of last month’s protests around the world against the American film about the Prophet Mohammed. While most of the debate centred on the rule of law and the limits of free speech, almost nothing was said about how much more routinely Islamists insult Christians, almost always getting away with their provocations scot-free.

Innocence of Muslims, the production that spurred all the outrage, has been rightly dismissed as contemptible trash. What, though, of a website such as ‘Guardians of the Faith’, run by Salafist extremists in Cairo? Among many posts, it has carried an article entitled ‘Why Muslims are superior to Copts’. ‘Being a Muslim girl whose role models are the wives of the Prophet, who were required to wear the hijab, is better than being a Christian girl, whose role models are whores,’ it declares. ‘Being a Muslim who fights to defend his honour and his faith is better than being a Christian who steals, rapes, and kills children.’ Hateful messages breed hateful acts. Is it any surprise that mobs have set fire to one church after another across Egypt in recent years?

The deeper truth masked by all the ranting – and, it should be added, by the blinkers of many Western secularists – is that Christians are targeted in greater numbers than any other faith group on earth. About 200 million church members (10 per cent of the global total) face discrimination or persecution: it just isn’t fashionable to say so. In 2010, I set out to write a chronicle of anti-Christian persecution on several continents. Published in my book, Christianophobia, the results of my research are even more disquieting than I expected.

Abu Hamza, the 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan and other totemic figures were allowed to practise their religion openly in Britain, yet there is scarcely a single country from Morocco to Pakistan in which Christians are fully free to worship without restriction. Muslims who convert to Christianity or other faiths in most of these societies face harsh penalties. There is now a high risk that the Churches will all but vanish from their biblical heartlands in the Middle East.” Read more.

Muslim Persecution Of Christians: September, 2012

10/31/2012 1 comment

Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “The aftermath of collective punishment for Pakistan’s Christians—the inevitable byproduct of the notorious Rimsha Masih blasphemy case, concerning a possibly mentally challenged, 14-year-old Christian girl falsely accused of desecrating a Quran—was more dramatic than the blasphemy case itself. Indeed, knowing what was in store for them, some Christians even held a symbolic funeral procession, carrying a Christian leader in a coffin and digging a grave for the ‘deceased.’

Their apprehension proved too true—especially after another pretext for Muslims to riot emerged: the YouTube Muhammad video. After Friday prayers, Muslims attacked, killed, and robbed the Christians in their midst, who account for a miniscule 1.5% of Pakistan’s population. St. Paul’s Church in Mardan was attacked by hundreds of Muslims armed with clubs and sticks. After looting and desecrating the church, they set it on fire (see picture here). Next, Muslims raided a nearby church-run school; they looted and torched it, as well, and burned down a library containing more than 3,000 Christian books. Although the library also contained thousands of books on Islam—making the Muslim mobs’ actions blasphemous under Pakistan’s law—’the attack continued for more than three hours, with minimal efforts by the authorities to stop it.’

Separately, gunmen on motorbikes dressed in green (Islam’s color) opened fire on the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cathedral in Hyderabad , where they murdered at least 28 people. Their immediate target appears to have been a nun, Mother Christina. Days later, unknown men reportedly threatened workers at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Hyderabad. ‘We will teach a lesson to the Christians,’ they said, and destroyed the hospital’s windows and doors. Naeem Samuel, the bishop of Trinity Evangelical Church was assaulted, severely beaten, and injured as he exited his church.

Meanwhile, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, far from condemning such outrages, validated them by falsely accusing the Muhammad movie for all the violence—even as they exposed their double standards by refusing to denounce paintings offensive to Christians, such as ‘Piss Christ.’ The New York Times also exposed its bias by defending the anti-Christian ‘Piss Christ’ as ‘art,’ while condemning the anti-Muslim Muhammad movie as hate-speech.

Categorized by theme, the rest of September’s stories of Christian persecution around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.

Church Attacks

Bahrain: Long considered the most tolerant nation in the Arabian Peninsula, with a 30% non-Muslim population of foreign workers, Bahrain is the latest Muslim nation to exhibit intolerance toward churches: Sunni clerics strongly opposed the planned construction of a Catholic church, ‘in a rare open challenge of the country’s Sunni king. More than 70 clerics signed a petition last week saying it was forbidden to build churches in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam.’ One prominent cleric, Sheik Adel Hassan al-Hamad, proclaimed that ‘anyone who believes that a church is a true place of worship is someone who has broken in their faith in God.’

Egypt: Kasr El-Dobara, the largest evangelical church in the Middle East, located in Egypt, was besieged by ‘unknown people’ hurling ‘stones and gas bombs.’ The first gas bomb thrown at the church was described as an ‘error’ by police, but it was soon followed by Read more…

Syria: Islamist Rebels Burn Down Church In Aleppo, Ten Christians Kidnapped

10/31/2012 Leave a comment

Armenia Now – “The St. Gevorg church in Aleppo’s Armenian-populated district of Nor Kyugh was set ablaze on Monday, reported Tert.am, quoting a representative of the local Armenian prelacy.

Speaking to the online paper, the spokesman, Zhirayr Reisian, confirmed that the church had become a target of rebels and that it had almost been reduced to ashes.

Reisian also said that the Mesrobian Armenian school adjacent to the church has been seriously damaged, too.

Earlier on Monday a blast near an Armenian district of Syrian capital Damascus reportedly killed 10 people and wounded around 50. Armenians were feared to be among both dead and wounded.

Later Reisian told state-run agency Armenpress that a group of 10 Christians, including seven Armenians, was kidnapped near Aleppo.

About four dozen Syrian Armenians have reportedly been killed since the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011. Hundreds of an estimated 80,000 Syrian Armenian, mostly concentrated in Aleppo, have taken refuge in Armenia since fighting between government and opposition forces reached the city last July.” Source – Armenia Now.

Flashback: Syria: Christians Falling Into Severe Financial Hardship, Could Now Face Bloodbath From Islamist ‘Free Syrian Army’ – “The streets are most dangerous that is, unless it’s a Friday, when a few Syrian Christians dare to step outside of their homes amidst the persecution of Syria’s Christians by the Islamic rebels of the ‘Free Syrian Army. The Christians in Syria … could be facing a bloodbath. The signs are there right now, and only Russian and Chinese resistance to ‘the West’ is keeping the Syrian church from complete extermination. In many Syrian towns, lawlessness has become the norm. When government forces aren’t present, Muslims have been known to rob churches and kidnap, rape, or even kill Christian women.” Read more.

Iran: More Converts To Christianity Sentenced To Prison For Promoting The Faith Of Christ

10/31/2012 Leave a comment

Mohabat News – “The initial trial of an AOG church pastor and three ministers of the church was held, while other Christian believers in other cities of Iran await their trial.

According to « Mohabat News » reporters, court session for four Christian converts was held in Ahwaz.

The official trial of four Christian converts was held on October 15, 2012 at Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz. The court was chaired by the judge Seyyed Mohammad Bagher Mousavi.

The four Christians who had been arrested on December 23, 2011 are: the pastor of the AOG church of Ahwaz, Farhad Sabokrouh and his wife, Shahnaz Jeizan together with two other church ministers, Naser Zamen Dezfuli and Davoud Alijani (Also known as David).

The reports received at Mohabat News indicate that in the first day of the trial, referring to the article 500 of the Islamic penal codes the judge announced these four Christian converts guilty and sentenced each of them to one year in prison, totally four years for all.

The Revolutionary Court announced their charges as ‘Converting to Christianity, inviting Muslims to convert, as well as propagating against the Islamic regime through promoting Evangelical Christianity’.

The article 500 of the Islamic penal code mentions, ‘Anyone who propagates against the Islamic Republic or in interest of groups and organizations opposing the Islamic regime in any ways may be sentenced to three months to one year in prison.’

Also, the two-page petition issued by the court says that the belongings of these Christians that are referred to as ‘the means of committing crime’ may be confiscated.

It is worthy to mention that as part of searching these Christians’ homes, security authorities confiscated their personal belongings including their computers, books, cellphones, DVDs as well as sound equipment and music instruments used at the church.” Read more.

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.

Sudan Imam: ‘We Will Never Forgive Christians For Not Being Muslims’, Suggests That Christianity Must Be Eliminated Throughout The North

10/31/2012 Leave a comment

Morning Star News – “Amid threats of further losses, classes resumed this month at a Khartoum Bible school and church compound that Muslim extremists set ablaze in April, an area Christian source said.

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.

Islamist assailants shouting threats against Christians and ‘Allahu Akbar [Allah is greater]’ on April 21 broke down the Christian compound wall with a bulldozer and set fire to the school and a Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) building. Also damaged were a clinic, a home for the elderly and living quarters.

The hard-line Muslim sheikh who led the attack, Muhammad Abdelkrim, on Sept. 21 urged Muslims to tolerate no Christian presence and to have no dealings with them because they were ‘infidels,’ the source said.

‘We will never forgive Christians’ for not being Muslims, the imam declared during a mosque service on Sept. 21 through amplified loudspeakers, besides asserting that Christian institutions have no place in Sudan.

The attack ruined four halls used by three churches and burned the belongings of students at a dormitory. School library books, including 50 cartons of Bibles, were also destroyed. The assailants destroyed school furniture and broke into a safe and stole college funds.

Police stood by watching the destruction, according to a statement from SPEC.” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan: Bible College Bombed by Islamic Government While Students Studied in Class – “At least eight bombs were dropped in the area of Heiban Bible College Wednesday during the school’s first day of classes, according to a statement by Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham’s Christian humanitarian group, which supports the school… ‘We have been working for years in Sudan,’ Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham said on Wednesday. ‘Today our Bible school in Heiban in the Nuba Mountains was bombed by the Sudanese Air Force. No one was killed or hurt, but buildings were destroyed. Please pray for the safety of believers, and that God would intervene.’” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan: Christianity No Longer an Accepted Religion, Muslims Attack Christians Trying to Rebuild Church – “Emboldened by government calls for a Sudan based on Islamic law since the secession of South Sudan, Muslims long opposed to a church near Khartoum have attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their building, sources said. The Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) congregation in Omdurman West, across the Nile River from Khartoum, has continued to meet for Sunday worship in a building without a roof in spite of opposition from area Muslims and local authorities, the sources told Compass. Claiming that Christianity was no longer an accepted religion in the country, Muslims in the Hay al Sawra, Block 29 area of Omdurman West on Aug. 5 attacked SCOC members who were constructing the church building, the sources said.” Read more.

Egypt: Angry Muslim Mobs Barring Christians From Attending Church, ‘It Is A Big Problem Across Egypt’

10/29/2012 Leave a comment

And it’s going to get worse. This is one way the enemy may attempt to cause the “sacrifice” and “oblations” to cease

1 Peter 2:5, “You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Yeshua the Messiah.”

Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

By Luiz Sanchez – “A large mob in the village of Ezbet Marco, in the Beni Suef governorate, gathered around the only Coptic Church in the area on Sunday morning, forbidding Copts from neighbouring villages from entering the church.

According to Ishak Ibrahim, a journalist and researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, two Copts were injured as a result of violence brought about by the predominantly conservative Muslim crowd barring the entrance.

As the church is the only church in the area, it is very hard for Copts in neighbouring villages to pray elsewhere. As the mob maintained their blockade of the church skirmishes occurred, and two Copts identified by Ibrahim as Sobhi Saleh and Ibrahim Sadeq reportedly suffered from fractured arms and feet. Cars were also damaged in the scuffle.

‘During Ramadan priests and Copts from Ezbet Marco were asked to not allow Copts from outside the village to pray in the church because the Muslims in the area believe they dress inappropriately,’ Ibrahim added. The women’s attire does not conform to traditional dress.

The police surrounded the church to protect it from being attacked and, according to eyewitnesses that had spoken to Ibrahim, managed to diffuse the situation and arrest some people suspected of participating in the mob.

‘This is not only a problem in this village,’ Ibrahim said. ‘It is a big problem across Egypt.’ Two months ago, in the Al-Amareya district in Alexandria, Muslims demanded the local church refuse to receive Christians from outside the village. ‘What can the people do,’ Ibrahim said. ‘They don’t have [a] church in their area and therefore must go to nearby villages that do have one.'” Read more.

Flashback: Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi Says Christians Must Convert To Islam, Pay ‘Jizya’, Or Leave Egypt, ‘Conquest Is Coming’ – “According to the popular Egyptian website, El Bashayer, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will ‘achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya,’ the additional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslims, or financial tribute… After his interviewer pointed out that the first Muslim conquest of Egypt was ‘carried out at the hands of Amr bin al-As [in 641],’ he asked Morsi, ‘Who will the second Islamic conqueror be?’ Morsi, replied, ‘The second Muslim conqueror will be Muhammad Morsi,’ referring to himself, ‘and history will record it.’” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Group: ‘Christianity Should Be Destroyed And Wiped From The Face Of The Earth’, It Is ‘Evil’ and ‘Demonic’ – “A Muslim group has released its plan to ‘wipe Christianity from the face of the earth,’ Islamize the West and establish an Islamic system of world government – placing those who resist ‘under a police state.’ The 23-page booklet, ‘The Global Islamic Civilization: The Power of a Nation Revived,’ is the brainchild of the United Muslim Nations International, a group led by Sheik Farook al-Mohammedi. The document outlines a plan for Muslim world domination and the re-establishment of the Caliphate. Al-Mohammedi leaves no doubt about his view of Christianity. ‘Christianity should be destroyed and wiped from the face of the earth … It is an evil demonic and Anti-Christ system, all Christians are in complete Ignorance.’ The sheik includes a veiled threat in his remarks.” Read more.