MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

John 16:2b, “… the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.”

Qur’an Sura 8:12b, “… terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an.”

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on ‘Egypt Today,’ airing a video of Muslims slicing off a young man’s head off for the crime of apostasy — in this instance, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it …

A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or ‘narrator,’ chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: ‘Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate’; ‘Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists’; ‘Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims,’ and ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.’

Then, to cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’— Allah is greater!’—the masked man holding the knife to the apostate’s throat begins to slice away, severing the head completely after approximately one minute of graphic knife-carving, as the victim drowns in blood. Finally, the severed head is held aloft to more Islamic slogans of victory.

Visibly distraught, Tawfiq Okasha, the host, asks: ‘Is this Islam? Does Islam call for this? How is Islam related to this matter?…These are the images that are disseminated throughout the electronic media in Europe and America…. Can you imagine?’ Then, in reference to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, whose political influence has grown tremendously, he asks, ‘How are such people supposed to govern?’

Only the other day, a prominent Egyptian Salafi leader — referring to the canonical hadiths, including Muhammad’s command, ‘Whoever leaves his religion, kill him’ — openly stated that no Muslim has the right to apostatize, or leave Islam.

Any number of Islamic legal manuals make explicitly clear that apostasy is a capital crime, punishable by death. The first ‘righteous caliph,’ a model of Muslim piety, had tens of thousands of former Muslims slaughtered—including by burning, beheading, and crucifixion—simply because they tried to break away from Islam. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the most authoritative reference work on Islam in the English language, ‘there is unanimity that the male apostate must be put to death.’

Finally, a word on the ‘prayers’ or supplications to Allah made by the Muslim executioners in the video: these are standard and formulaic. In other words, these are not just masked, anonymous butchers who pray to Allah as they engage in acts of cutting throats and holding up heads, these are top-ranking Muslim leaders, who appear regularly on TV, who invoke such hate-filled prayers. See here for examples of Muslims supplicating Allah to strike infidels with cancer and disease ’till they pray for death and do not receive it;’ there are even formalized prayers in Mecca, blasted on megaphones as Muslims honor their obligation to go on a pilgrimage at least once in their lives, supplicating Allah to make the lives of Christians and Jews ‘hostage to misery; drape them with endless despair, unrelenting pain and unremitting ailment; fill their lives with sorrow and pain and end their lives in humiliation and oppression.’

‘Is this Islam?’ You decide.” Source – Gatestone Institute.

Related: The Mark of the Beast – What Your Church May Not Be Telling You

The Telegraph – “At least 15 people were killed and dozens wounded when a suicide car bomber drove into a Nigerian church compound and detonated his explosives as worshippers left an early morning service.

The bomber targeted the Living Faith church, in a neighbourhood near the airport in Bauchi, the capital of northern Bauchi state. The timed blast caught many people outside the church without any cover to protect themselves from the explosion, causing heavy casualties, witnesses said.

At least eight people were killed in the blast, as well as the bomber, Bauchi state police commissioner Mohammed Ladan said. He said security personnel stationed near the churches stopped the car from getting any closer to worshippers than it did.

More than 40 people suffered injuries in the blast, the Nigerian Red Cross said.

The powerful blast from the car destroyed part of the Harvest Field Church, sending walls of the building crashing down on worshippers still inside. Others suffered burns in the blast.

The death toll from the blast could rise. Police and soldiers surrounded the church immediately after the explosion, stopping emergency workers from going inside to collect the corpses of those killed. Witnesses who left the church after the blast said they saw as many as 10 dead.” Read more.

Christian Leader In Nigeria: Radical Islamists Cannot Be Defeated, ‘They Are Out To Wipe Out Christians And Jews’ – “Former Primate of the Anglican Communion, Peter Akinola, has told President Goodluck Jonathan that the Boko Haram insurgents cannot be defeated as they are out to wipe out Christians and Jews. He spoke at the National Christian Centre Abuja during a special inter-denominational service to mark this year’s Democracy Day. In his sermon titled: ‘Know the truth and the truth shall set you free,’ Akinola said the sect has been in existence since 1966 and cannot be defeated by the Federal Government.” Read more.

By M. A. Khan – “Brave Pakistani ex-Muslim Firasar Imran – who petitioned to the Spanish government for banning the Quran for its violent and totalitarian ideology and has received many death-threats himself – has now received a letter from the ‘Ulema Majelis of Indonesia’ (Ulema Council Indonesia) and a radical Islamist group, threatening to annihilate his family living in Indonesia. Shown below is threatening email:

This letter from the nationally respected Ulema Council was followed by another from an Indonesian Islamist group, ‘Front Pembela Islam” (Islamic Defenders Front), also threatening to kill Firasat’s children in Indonesia:

The Islamic Defenders Front has been involved in numerous incidents of violence and murder of Christians and Ahmadi Muslims, as well as attack and vandalism of their places of worship.

It should be noted that Imran Firasat is married to an Indonesian woman, and his family and children live in that country.

Imran is used to threats of violence and murder from Muslims. But this time, with threats to massacre his vulnerable family and children living in Indonesia from a extremely violent and dangerous militant Islamist group, egged on by the respected Ulema Council of Indonesia, he went to the Spanish police in Madrid on May 13 to lodge a complaint. But the police treated him dismissively, refusing to take in complaint and reminded him of lodging complaints in the past too. Police officers blamed him for the threats against his family and children by going against the Islamists. Read more…

By William Maclean, Noor Khamis and Mohamed Ahmed – “(Reuters) – When Abdullahi slipped across the Kenya-Somali border to join the fighters of Islamist militant group al Shabaab in 2009, the livestock herder from northern Kenya found himself among recruits from around the globe.

There were ethnic Somalis who had grown up in Australia, Britain, France and the United States. But there was also a large number of fellow Kenyans in the group’s ranks. They included, unexpectedly, dozens of young men who did not share his Somali ancestry or language but came instead from the green, tropical heartland of Kenya where Christianity is the dominant religion.

Abdullahi, then aged about 20, initially dismissed those men as opportunists who had pretended to convert to Islam to win work as guns for hire.

Then he saw them in battle.

‘They were good fighters. I saw the way they would advise us to fight, to defend ourselves,’ Abdullahi said of his two years in al Shabaab, during which time he fought Somalia’s weak United Nations-backed government. ‘I fought one battle outside Mogadishu. Half of us died… (The Kenyans) were very brave, the way they ran towards gunfire.’

That’s exactly what worries Kenyan and Western security agencies. Al Shabaab has been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s fragile interim government since 2007 and formally became part of al Qaeda earlier this year. Abdullahi’s account is part of a mounting body of evidence – including intelligence picked up by security agencies, research by the United Nations and accounts by Muslim Kenyans interviewed for this story – that suggests al Shabaab is mentoring a new and increasingly multi-ethnic generation of militants in the region.

That could have major ramifications not just for Somalia, which has been without a working government for two decades, but also for countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, relatively stable democracies whose economies are among the steadiest in Africa. This week, Kenyan politicians blamed a bombing in central Nairobi on al Shabaab, which means ‘Youth’ or ‘Boys’ in Arabic.

Al Shabaab seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia or Islamic law. The group emerged as a force in 2006 as part of a movement that pushed U.S.-backed warlords out of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. It remains Somalia’s most powerful non-government armed group and in its propaganda, promotes the idea that many Muslims are flocking to its cause around Africa.

Washington and London have long worried the Somali group aimed to expand its influence in Africa. That suspicion was confirmed last July when a United Nations investigation found al Shabaab had created extensive funding, recruiting and training networks in Kenya.” Read more.

And if they refuse? …

By Raymond Ibrahim – “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.

In a brief report written by Samuel al-Ashay and published by El Bashayer on May 27, Morsi allegedly made these comments while speaking with a journalist at the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, adding ‘We will not allow Ahmed Shafiq [his contending presidential candidate] or anyone else to impede our second Islamic conquest of Egypt.’

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.’

When asked what he thought about many Christian Copts coming out to vote for his secular opponent, Ahmed Shafiq, Morsi reportedly said, ‘They need to know that conquest is coming, and Egypt will be Islamic, and that they must pay jizya or emigrate.’

If this interview is accurate, certainly Morsi would not be the first political Islamist in Egypt to say he wants to see the nation’s Christians subjugated and made to pay jizya (see here for more examples).

However, considering that the English language media are currently reporting that Morsi is trying to woo Egypt’s Christians and women to win more votes, it is difficult to imagine that he actually made those comments: one does not doubt that he favors the idea of a ‘second Islamic conquest’ and the subjugation of Christians; one doubts that he would be so foolish as to reveal his mind now, publicly, and thereby jeopardize his chances of winning the presidency.

Then again, his remarks are reported in the context of a private meeting at the headquarters of the Brotherhood’s political party. Perhaps Morsi thought he was speaking to a fellow Islamist who would not expose him? Perhaps he was frustrated at having to win Copts over and was ‘venting’? Stay tuned.” Source – Gatestone Institute.

Mohabat News – “CBN — According to the Daily Caller, the regime has ordered Iranian intelligence to infiltrate church groups in major Iranian cities.

Agents are identifying pastors and other Christians, targeting them for arrest and torture in prison.

Former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Reza Kahlili, verified the crackdown. He said Iran’s ayatollahs are frustrated with the large number of Muslims who are now embracing Christianity…

Q: Reza Thanks for joining us. What can you tell us about this latest crackdown? How extensive is it?

A: It’s been an order to the Iranian intelligence apparatus  specifically the guard’s intelligence to monitor the activities of Iranians for converting to Christianity, to suppress them, make arrests, terrify them and finally to torture them. And according to a source within the guard’s intelligence, they have tens of thousands of files for Iranians for converting to Christianity. This is a big concern for the government. They don’t know how to handle it. In one city, just the city of Shiraz with over one million population, according to the source, they have thirty thousand files of Iranians who they have confirmed that they have converted to Christianity. But the source says that tens of thousands more are unknown to the intelligence apparatus.

Q: How is this recent effort different from the ongoing attacks that Christians have faced from the Iranian government over the years?

Well, let me make one thing clear. Before the Islamic revolution, many in Iran, the youth, the elderly, though they did not adhere to the Islamic rules or practice Islam, they respected Islam. But today, that respect is visibly gone and they oppose the religion and what it prescribes. They are very outspoken about it.  People are joining the move to convert to the Christianity.

Q: Give us some examples; can you say specifically what is happening against the Christians there?

A: Well, according to this source, who himself was in the intelligence unit, and he saw and he witnessed some of the tortures being done. What they do they raid homes where teachings are taking place, they arrest them, they are taken and sometimes they beat their wives in front of their eyes to break them down, to force them to come before television and make false confessions. The source says that one of those arrested, a male, after three months in total darkness, and then he was all of a sudden brought to the courtyard, where he immediately lost his eye-sights. So, it is unimaginable what they do with the Christian converts.” Read more.

Flashback: Iranian Authorities Demand Christian Church To Hand Over Names Of All Its Members – “In addition to the increased restrictions against Iranian Christian converts, the Ministry of Intelligence has now ordered the leaders of the central AOG church in Tehran to compile a list of the names and National ID numbers of its members and submit it to the security authorities. According to Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, reports from Tehran indicate that leaders of the central AOG church of Tehran asked their congregation in Sunday May 6 service to voluntarily present them with a list of their names and National ID numbers so that they submit the list to the officials. This reveals the identity of Christian converts and enables security authorities to record detailed information about the Christians.” Read more.

Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [Shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Compass Direct News – “JOS, Nigeria, May 29 (CDN) — In Nigeria’s Plateau state, Christian leaders said more Christians have died at the hands of Muslim extremists than the 35 that the military reported thus far in May.

A Compass reporter was among a group of journalists that came under attack from Islamic extremists this month. In three local government areas in Plateau state, armed Fulani herdsmen attacked 15 Christian villages, killing and maiming Christians, destroying homes and leaving more than 1,000 villagers displaced, sources said.

The villages – Jwol, Foron, Tahoss, Bangai, Sopp, Werem, Danjol, Rinyam, Rim, Kak, Gwamrim, Gwom, Fang, Lwa and Riyas – are located in the local government areas of Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, and Riyom.

Villagers said the attackers were Muslim Fulani herdsmen likely supplied and instigated by Islamic extremist groups. Sources told Compass that Muslim gunmen invaded Rinyam village on May 9 at about 12:30 a.m. and shot seven Christians in their homes, though increasingly assailants are using only machetes and knives to avoid notice by soldiers charged with keeping order.

‘Seven people were shot dead, including two children,’ said Daniel Dem, an area legislator in the Plateau State House of Assembly. ‘Three were severely injured. They are now receiving medical attention at the Vom Christian Hospital.’

In Rim village, Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed one Christian, Bulus Dakumbi, and injured two others, now receiving treatment at Vom Christian Hospital.

At Gwarim village, Muslim gunmen killed five Christians: Dinnatu Danbwarang, 48; Simi Joseph, 26; Rose Dalyop, 25; Jafates Samuel, 4; and Christiana Samuel, 7.

At Wereng village near Kuru Station, three members of a Christian family were killed when Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked the village: Philip Francis Pam, 37; his wife Simi Francis, 28; and their only daughter, who was a few months old. Christian residents told Compass that the Muslim killers entered the family’s bedroom at 10 p.m. as they slept and murdered them.” Read more.

Nigeria extremists cause widespread alarm – “In brutally poor neighborhoods and mansions alike, this city choked by military checkpoints seethes with rumors, paranoia and conspiracy theories. Even academics like to assert a favorite: The homegrown Islamic extremist movement that is terrorizing northern Nigeria is a CIA creation. Others are convinced that the extremist group known as Boko Haram is a plot by the southern-led Nigerian government to create an eternal crisis in the north. How else to explain Boko Haram’s transformation from a group of radicals stashing homemade weapons to an organization that has half the country on military alert and U.S. lawmakers warning of threats to American interests? But outsiders have a more chilling explanation: The group has capitalized on ties to a neighboring Al Qaeda offshoot and access to large amounts of explosives, ammunition and weapons, some of which may be flowing out of Libya since the fall of Moammar Kadafi’s regime. That has not only made the group a danger to the Nigerian government, which appears uncertain how to deal with an increasingly bloody insurgency here in the mostly Muslim north, but has also raised the specter of a broader holy war.” Read more.

By Abdul-Rahman Abubakar – “Former Primate of the Anglican Communion, Peter Akinola, has told President Goodluck Jonathan that the Boko Haram insurgents cannot be defeated as they are out to wipe out Christians and Jews.

He spoke at the National Christian Centre Abuja during a special inter-denominational service to mark this year’s Democracy Day.

In his sermon titled: ‘Know the truth and the truth shall set you free,’ Akinola said the sect has been in existence since 1966 and cannot be defeated by the Federal Government.

He said Nigerians should not be deceived by the antics of Boko Haram, saying the sect is involved in a Jihad against Christians.

According to the cleric, ‘We have ignored the truth. Boko Haram must be seen in the right context. It is a continuation of the past. Shun all political claims that Boko Haram is not against Christianity. It is. It has been going on since 1966. They are committed to Jihad. You can’t stop them.

Responding, Jonathan said in spite of the security challenges posed by the Boko Haram, the country will remain indivisible.

Jonathan said, ‘No individual or group no matter their ambition or selfish purpose will be able to divide this nation. Nigeria will never disintegrate.'” Read more.

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’ – “Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has threatened to bring down the Federal Government led by President Goodluck Jonathan within three months. Purported leader of the sect said this in his second video posted on the Internet yesterday… ‘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 … we will finish you and end your government … 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.

Over the past ten years, Islam has erupted like an angry volcano — particularly since the rise of the “Arab Spring” in 2011 — with Christian persecution and the elimination of Christian places of worship yet again and again in Zanzibar and elsewhere becoming a spontaneous, habitual Islamist tendency. Considering all the layers of ashes now accumulating throughout the Muslim world, it seems to me that we have a convincingly good reason for Webster’s to now include “Islam” alongside its definitions of “destruction” and “lawlessness” …

By Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala, Reuters – “Hundreds of supporters of a separatist Islamist group set fire to two churches and clashed with police during protests in Zanzibar over the weekend against the arrest of senior members of the movement, police and witnesses said.

Police accused the Uamsho (Awakening) group of ordering its supporters on to the streets – but the movement’s leadership denied having any part in the unrest.

Clashes broke out in the historic commercial and tourism centre of Stone Town on Saturday night and continued until Sunday afternoon, witnesses told Reuters.

The reports of attacks on churches will raise fears of an escalation in religious tensions in the predominantly Muslim island ruled by a semi-autonomous secular government. Several bars were attacked last year.

Shops remained closed and people stayed in their homes on Sunday as riot police patrolled the streets of Stone Town, witnesses said.

‘There is a lot of tension, people are hiding in their houses. All the streets are empty, it’s the only the police who are out there,’ resident Mai Zuberi told Reuters by phone.

‘There were clashes all night on Saturday and the violence continued until noon today. All the roads were blocked in the Stone Town area,’ Zuberi added.” 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.