MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

AFP – “At least 19 people have been killed after gunmen opened fire on worshippers in an evangelical Christian church in central Nigeria.

‘The attack was from unknown gunmen at the Deeper Life Church,’ said Lt. Col. Gabriel Olorunyomi, head of the military’s Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kogi state,

‘They were doing their normal Monday evening service. When we went there we discovered the church had been attacked. Instantly we saw 15 people dead, including the pastor.’

The military has since learned that an additional four people had died from their injuries.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The JTF commander said an investigation had been launched and that it was premature to speculate as to the culprits.

Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has claimed scores of attacks on churches in northern and central Nigeria in recent months as part of an insurgency that has killed hundreds.” Read more.

Flashback: 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.

Given the fact that ancient Ethiopia is now modern day northern Sudan, I hope the writer of the article below is wrong in his assessment. But in light of what has transpired in the Islamic world over the past two years, including within the Ethiopian Muslim community, it wouldn’t surprise me if the growing tension between the Ethiopian government and the Islamist push for a Sharia-based state is indeed set to explode …

By Brad Macdonald, The Trumpet – “In April 2011, the Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry delivered a bold forecast. Here’s what he wrote: ‘Libya and Ethiopia are … going to be closely allied with Iran! … So you need to watch Libya and Ethiopia. … You need to continue to watch for Libya and Ethiopia to make a severe and rapid turn into the radical Islamic camp.’

At the time, many readers rejected this warning as absurd. This is a ‘most bizarre article,’ retorted one Trumpet reader from Ethiopia. My country is ‘one of the oldest and [most] devout Orthodox Christian nations on the planet (since third century) and a staunch ally of the United States. On behalf of U.S., Ethiopia invaded Somalia in late 2006 and kicked out ruling Islamic Courts Union …. [That] doesn’t sound like a nation doing Iran’s bidding.’

He’s right too, at least in his facts.

On May 5, 2011, when Mr. Flurry published ‘An Islamic Takeover of Libya and Ethiopia,’ he again inspired disbelief. ‘I don’t think this is a sensible prophecy,’ wrote one reader from Ethiopia, ‘especially when it comes to the situation of Ethiopia. … Please, try to study what exactly the situation is in Ethiopia. The country is dominated by Christians for centuries, and this is highly unlikely to change.’ He’s right too, factually.

There’s a larger lesson here, which we’ll get back to later. But for now, let’s follow this reader’s advice and study the situation in Ethiopia at the start of August 2012, more than 18 months after Mr. Flurry first delivered his ‘absurd’ forecast.

Last week, the Washington Times published an article headlined ‘Muslim Protests Raise Fears of Radical Islam in Ethiopia.’ According to the Times, ‘Clashes between Islamic protesters and riot police over the weekend inEthiopia have raised fears that Muslims are becoming increasingly radical in a predominantly Christian country that has been a key U.S. ally in combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa.’

Two days later, a headline in the Christian Science Monitor asked, ‘Will Ethiopian Crackdown Stir Islamist Backlash?‘ The Monitor warned that the ‘the act of civil disobedience from Muslims, who constitute at least one third of the population, is a rare sign of instability in a country seen by U.S. policymakers as a bulwark against radical Islam in the volatile Horn of Africa region.’

In recent months, there has been a measurable increase in  Read more…

By Pervaiz Khokhar, Salem News – “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. Innocent bystanders simply making trips to the store have been gunned down. Curfews have done little to make anyone feel safer or less fearful, so the Christian community simply bands together and prays.

Hundreds of these Christian residents have watched their lives and their very freedoms slip away right before their eyes. Homs, a city which has been occupied by both government and rebel forces for weeks, is now alone the site of more than 1,500 violent deaths. As the Arab Spring continues to rage throughout Syria, thousands more people have lost their lives in a movement that seeks to strip President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of its power. And as Islamic protesters clash with government forces, Christians have become hopelessly tangled in the crossfire.

The most recent fighting has left over 50 Christians dead. One victim, a young Christian boy, was killed by rebels who filmed the murder and then blamed the act on government soldiers.

Another victim, a Christian man, was taken captive by rebels before being cruelly asked by them, ‘How do you want to die?’ The man suffered a complete breakdown before he was eventually released. But the ever-present fear of persecution and violence is only part of the problem for Syria’s Christians…

Many in the Christian community, which comprises approximately 6 percent of Syria’s population (1.5 million, including Christian refugees from Iraq), have fallen into severe financial hardship since the Arab Spring uprising, primarily because they are too afraid to leave their homes to go to work. Because of the violence, a shortage of basic supplies such as gas, electricity, and many supermarket products has contributed even further to the desperate situation.

Although the Syrian church has historically enjoyed peace and religious freedom under the Assad regime, the Arab Spring has destabilized that peace, as Christians are now typically perceived as supporters of the existing government. With help from fellow Muslims in Saudi Arabia, many Islamic fundamentalists are taking advantage of the opportunity to pursue their agenda in Syria, which has significantly increased the persecution of Christians.” Read more.

Revelation 17:5-6a, “And on her forehead a name [was] written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus …”

By Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Mag – “Murfreesboro, a city in the heart of Tennessee, and, Marseille, France’s second-largest city and its largest city on the Mediterranean coast, have few things in common. The two cities are separated by nearly 5,000 miles, and by equally wide divisions of language and culture. And yet Murfreesboro and Marseille are connected by a common challenge. Both cities have struggled against the creeping rise of the mega mosques.

The mega mosque in Marseille has been the subject of an extended legal fight going back a decade. The one in Murfreesboro had a briefer history of being on the wrong side of the law. But in both cases elected officials did their best to aid the mega mosques while ignoring local residents and the law.

The mega mosque business is booming around the world. The Marseille mega mosque has a proposed capacity of 7,000 seats which would make it the largest mosque in France, overshadowing the Ervy mosque which has a mere 5,000 seats. Both of these French mega mosques would have been dwarfed by a proposed London mega mosque with 12,000 seats and usability targets as high as 40,000. If the London mosque is ever built, it will dominate the Mosque of Rome, currently the most mega of all the mega mosques of Western Europe.

The Ground Zero Mosque, located near the site of the most brutal Muslim atrocity inflicted on the West in centuries, had a more modest 2,000 seating capacity plan, but would be vertically taller than most of the mega-mosques with a proposed 100,000 square feet of space. This would make it larger than the Marseille mega mosque, the Murfreesboro mega mosque and the London mega mosque. But despite their differences in size, all four mega mosque projects have followed the same pattern of lawsuits, public protests, exposures of shady mosque backers and public officials eager to look the other way.

The Cologne mega mosque in Germany has also followed the same pattern and is set to become the biggest mosque in Germany. But big is never big enough. The Stockholm mega mosque was finished in the year 2000 and has a capacity of 2,000, but a decade later there was already a proposal to replace it with an even larger mega mosque. At its current size the Stockholm mega mosque had already managed to feature sermons in support of Islamic terrorism and serve as a recruitment center for Al-Qaeda. At several times the size the situation could only get worse.

In yet another common pattern of mega mosques, the Read more…

By Kristen Chick, CSM – “Afaf Ibrahim Fanous walks through her brother’s former home, pointing out the fire-blackened walls, charred doorways, and gaping holes in the bathroom where the fixtures used to be.

The thick dust and cobwebs that have settled on the ruined house since last year don’t hide the signs of the fire and looting that took place during clashes between Muslims and Christians in this small village in the rural Nile valley. As Ms. Fanous reaches a balcony on the third floor, overlooking another burned house, this one with a cross on the outside walls, she begins to weep – but not over the ruined house.

Police arrested and tried 20 people – 12 Christians and eight Muslims – for their involvement in the clashes, during which Muslim crowds attacked and burned dozens of Christian homes and shops and Christians fired guns from their rooftops. One of the those arrested for the violence, which killed two people, was Fanous’s brother.

All Christians on trial, including her brother, were sentenced to life in prison, while all Muslim defendants were acquitted.

To Fanous, it felt like another, unbearable, injustice added to the initial attack. ‘All the attackers are free; they weren’t punished. But the people who tried to defend their homes are all in prison,’ she says.

It has been a difficult 18 months for Egyptian Christians. During the period between former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and the election of a civilian president, in which Egypt was under military rule, there were at least 12 incidents of serious sectarian violence, often involving Christian homes or churches being attacked and burned. On New Year’s Eve, 2011, a bomb ripped through a church in Alexandria, killing nearly two dozen people. In October, Army soldiers and unidentified civilians attacked a mostly Christian protest in Cairo, killing 27 people.” Read more.

New Egypt Government Puts Brotherhood In Key Posts – “Egypt’s Islamist president swore in his first new government Thursday, led by a devout Muslim and including five members of his Muslim Brotherhood in unglamorous but ideal ministries for a group whose long-term aim is to Islamize the most populous Arab nation. The Cabinet is a far cry from the inclusive administration that President Mohammed Morsi has repeatedly promised. No other political factions came on board to join. Women and Christians received only token representation, and figures from the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak last year were left out.” Read more.

“Nigeria (MNN) ― They’re responsible for murdering 32 people on Christmas Day. They set off 10 car bombs in 24 hours to kill over 250 people. They’ve owned up to bombings, drive-by shootings, anti-Christian and anti-government warfare. For the last several months, they’ve aimed deathly explosives at churches on an almost weekly basis.

Hundreds have died at the hands of this terror group, but who exactly are they?

After all the talk on Mission Network News about Boko Haram targeting Nigerian Christians, we wanted to give our readers and listeners a profile of this terror sect. With Ramadan still in its beginning days, this is a crucial time to understand and pray.

Findings vary about when the Boko Haram (translated ‘Western education is a sin’) was started, but dates vary between the mid 1990s and 2002. In a special report on the threats of Boko Haram to the United States, the U.S. House of Representatives noted that Boko Haram began as a religious study group. But when Nigerian civil service worker Mohammad Yusef took over, the group made a radical shift. In no time, they were calling themselves the Nigerian Taliban.

From 2002 to 2009, Boko Haram laid moderately low, engaging in only small scale run-ins with local police. But in July 2009, Boko Haram members launched an attack against a police station, resulting in a five-day stand-off and over 700 deaths.

Although the group was forced underground after that pestilent encounter, in 2010 they re-emerged more radical and violent than ever before. Most agree the group has gained a great deal of outside funding, and violence has been escalating ever since.

But the ‘why’ questions still loom.

Why, for instance, does this group exist at all? And why target Christians? How do they benefit from killing Christians, government officials, and innocent by-standers?

Rae Burnett with Christian Aid Mission says the motivation for all of these things is, unsurprisingly, religious.

‘Their agenda is Sharia. It is to establish Islamic rule in Nigeria,’ says Burnett. ‘If you look at the Quran, what you see is that there are two ways Muslims are instructed to deal with non-Muslims: that is to convert them, or to kill them.’ Read more…

Qur’an Sura 9:123, “O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty.”

“Washington, D.C. (August 3, 2012) –International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on August 1, Saudi Arabia deported the last of the 35 Ethiopian Christians who were detained for holding an all-night prayer vigil. Saudi security officials assaulted, harassed and pressured the Christians to convert to Islam during their incarceration.

‘We have arrived home safe. We believe that we are released as the result of the pressure exerted by ICC and others,’ said one of the prisoners speaking to ICC. He also said, ‘The Saudi officials don’t tolerate any other religions other than Islam. They consider non-Muslims as unbelievers. They are full of hatred towards non-Muslims.’

The Christians were detained on December 15, 2011 while holding a prayer service at a private home. ICC was the first organization to break the news of the arrest on December 17. The Saudi officials originally accused the Christians of ‘mixing with opposite gender’ but when pressured by the U.S. officials, they started giving other reasons for the detention, including: being in the country illegally, and engaging in drug and human trafficking… ICC’s Jonathan Racho said, ‘Saudi Arabian officials clearly demonstrated their utter disregard for religious freedom by arresting, mistreating and deporting the Christians for holding a prayer meeting. The Saudis deceive the international community by pretending to promote tolerance among followers of different religious beliefs; however, in reality they don’t tolerate any other religion besides Wahhabi Islam. The international community must pressure Saudi Arabia to respect religious freedom.'” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Unprecedented’: 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 … at the home of an Ethiopian Christian in the Al-Safa district of Jeddah. Those attending the service were reportedly beaten and threatened before being arrested. ‘Security officials broke [into] the house and captured… beat and threatened them for death… They divided the men and the women and they are torturing them [in prison],’ an Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian immigrant community living in Europe wrote in a desperate appeal for help to the ambassadors of European embassies in Riyadh on Friday.” Read more.

“(AINA) — The sectarian strife between Muslims and Christians which took place last week in the village of Dahshur has prompted over 120 Christian families to flee their homes today after news that a Muslim man who had suffered 3rd degree burns in the incident died this morning in a Cairo hospital. Before his death, the father and brother of Moaz Hassab-Allah told the media yesterday that should he die, ‘the whole village will avenge his death.’

Coptic villagers were terrorized today after a Muslim Brotherhood cleric roamed the village vowing that the village church of St. George will be burned down, its pastor and all the entire Christian inhabitants killed and their homes torched after the burial of Moaz tonight, reportd Coptic activist Maariam Ragy.

Coptic professional garments presser Sameh Samy accidentally burned the shirt of his Muslim client Ahmad Ramadan. ‘They agreed to meet after the Muslim breaks his fast and settle the damage,’ said father Takla of St, George’s church to MidEast Christian News, ‘however, Ramadan came back before the appointment.’ He added that after breaking their Ramadan fast nearly 2000-3000 Muslims congregated; Mr. Samy locked his launderette and his home.

Fighting broke out between the Muslims and Sameh’s family, during which Molotov’s cocktails, firearms and knives were used. The priest explained that Sameh faced this huge mob in ‘self-defense,’ threw a Molotov’s cocktail which hit the passer-by Moaz.

‘This made the villagers extremely angry and they torched his home and his launderette and his brother’s home after they looted the contents, a loss of nearly 400,000 Egyptian pounds. They prevented the fire brigade from reaching the fire,’ said Takla. The mob wounded Sameh, his father, his cousin and another Copt. Father Takla said that over 500 moderate village [Muslims] stopped the Salafist mob from storming the church, until security forces arrived and secured it.

Prosecution ordered the arrest of five Muslims, while Sameh Samy, his father and brother were detained pending investigation on charges of attempted murder and possession of explosives. Today, prosecution renewed their detention for 15 days and changed the charged to contemplated murder. No Muslim has yet been arrested.” Read more.