MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

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 war on Christianity and its adherents in the Muslim world rages on. In March alone, Saudi Arabia’s highest Islamic legal authority decreed that churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis [holy warriors] in Nigeria said they ‘are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women’; American teachers in the Middle East were murdered for being Christian or talking about Christianity; churches were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by knife-wielding Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for allegedly ‘blaspheming’ Islam’s prophet Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for converting to Christianity.

The extent of this persecution is virtually unknown in the West, due to the mainstream media’s well-documented biases: the mainstream media knows that if they do not ignore or at best whitewash the nonstop persecution of Christians under Islam, their narrative of Islam as the ‘religion of peace’ would be quickly undermined. Last month alone, the New York Times ran an anti-Catholic ad, but refused to publish a nearly identical ad directed at Islam; the BBC admitted it mocks Jesus but will never mock Muhammad; and U.S. sitcoms have been exposed as bashing Christianity, but never Islam.

Categorized by theme, March’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity:

Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism: Death and Prison

Egypt: A Christian man accused of insulting Islam’s prophet Muhammad was sentenced to six years in prison. Although under Egyptian law ‘defamation of religion’ is a misdemeanor, punishable by a prison sentence of one month to three years, the judge doubled the sentence to appease Muslims, including an angry 2,500-strong mob that terrorized the courtroom, and demanding death for the Christian. Similarly, an ‘anti-Christianization course‘ was initiated by an organization ‘specializing in the resistance to Christianity,’ so that Muslims will not be ‘throw[n] under the feet of the Cross.’ According to an instructor, ‘Recurring attempts at the university in Aswan to convert Muslims to Christianity or provoke them with misleading information was the impetus behind the course.’

India: A young woman was attacked and thrown out of her home ‘for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ’s name’ in a predominantly Muslim village; ‘her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious‘: In a village where ‘hard-line Muslims have threatened to kill the 25 families who initially showed interest in Christ, leaving only five frightened Christian families,’ the woman was attacked when returning from church, and called ‘pagan, among other verbal abuses.’ The mob also harassed and threatened the Christian woman who had allegedly

Compass Direct News – “JOS, Nigeria, April 25 (CDN) — One person was killed and nine others were injured last night after suspected Islamic extremists attacked a TV viewing center in a Christian area of Jos where a crowd had gathered to watch soccer.

At about 10:15 p.m. at the viewing center, one of many such establishments popular in Nigeria for watching soccer matches, the attackers drove past the site and threw an explosive device at hundreds of Christians watching the match, eyewitnesses told Compass.

Some 10 minutes after the bombing, security agents evacuated the injured to Janvak Hospital just a few meters away. Medical personnel at the hospital were treating four of them under strict supervision of police and other security agents. Plateau state spokesman Pam Ayuba reportedly said one person died in the blast.

Soldiers and police under the Joint Military Task Force charged with keeping peace in embattled Plateau state cordoned off the area around the establishment. Authorities have not ruled out members of the Islamic sect Boko Haram as suspects.

The bombing marks the second time in two weeks that the Christian area has been attacked. Boko Haram, which seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, was suspected of a detonating a bomb a few meters from the center during Easter celebrations that injured five Christians. Various churches in Tudun Wada, Jos, commonly use the site as a base for evangelistic campaigns aimed at social venues in the area.

Christian and Muslim communities live in close but separate quarters of the Tudun Wada area of Jos, and the attacks have heightened tensions between them. The area comprises eight churches – Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Bishara 2, Angwan Yashi, ECWA Good News Church, Assemblies of God Church, Redeemed Peoples Mission, Solid Rock Church, Deeper Life Bible Church, and Christ Way Baptist Church.” Read more.

By Ashfaq Fateh, ASSIST News Service – “TOBA TEK SINGH, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Scientists say that, ‘a man or woman cannot live without air, water and food’ as these three elements play a vital role in human life.

Most countries ensure the fundamental rights to its citizens to ensure the availability of all these three elements. Citizens pay taxes to get pure drinking water and other facilities.

However, the story of Christians living in village # 700/42, Pirkadiayana, Tehsil Kamalia, District, Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, Pakistan, is a different one where their supply of water was on the condition that they not only had to pay the required water tax and also a pay a Muslim cleric of a mosque in the village.

In Pakistan, municipal corporations (MC) supply drinking water through their water supply schemes. Underground pipelines have been laid and a citizen applies for the connection and government then connects the house with a water supply, thus the citizen gets drinking water. The bill is collected annually.

In villages and remote areas, the government in installs the water supply system and then asks locals to form their management committees to run the system and develop their own system of collection, time table, repairs, payment of electricity bills and issuing connections. The committees run the system and try to provide water connections without any religious discrimination.

Now ASSIST News Service-Pakistan has come to know about the story of this village where poor Christians have been forced to pay water tax as well to the local Muslim cleric.

ANS-Pakistan decided to highlight this story which shows the miseries faced by Christians and an example of their unity and faith to work together despite the challenges.

The 244 Christian families of Pirkadiayana village paid extra charges to a Muslim cleric from the local Mosque from 1997-2009 to get drinking water…

‘We were forced to accept the demands of the management committee as they were powerful and if we refused to pay, our women and children had to fetch drinking water from miles away and our most of the time was spent in this exercise. Therefore, there was no alternative.'” Read more.

Sudan Tribune – “(KHARTOUM) – The secretary-general of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yasir Arman, has blamed ‘racist’ statements of Sudan’s President Omer Al-Bashir for encouraging a mob of fundamentalist Islamists to attack a church in the capital Khartoum.

An Evangelical Church in the Sawafi area of Khartoum was attacked and set on fire Friday by a group of fundamentalist Islamists mobilized by hard-line cleric Mohamed Abdel-Karim despite a police cordon in the area.

A pastor named Yusuf Matar Kodi told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Sunday that the group had ‘burned Bibles and torched the school for training clergy on the farm, as well as the residence of the students.’

In a press statement on Monday, Arman said that the assailing group had been motivated to burn the Church as police forces ‘stood and watched’ by the ‘racist’ statements of Al-Bashir.

Arman was referring to a number of derogatory remarks Al-Bashir has made against leaders of South Sudan following the latter’s military takeover two weeks ago of oil-rich Heglig region on the disputed borders between the two neighbors.

In separate occasions, Al-Bashir described the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan as ‘an insect’ whose members must be disciplined by ‘the stick,’ in what some have linked to a well-known Arab phrase that says ‘don’t buy a slave without the stick.'” Read more.

By Christian Today – “Christians in Mali are in a ‘desperate plight’ following last month’s military coup, international Christian aid agency Barnabas Fund has warned.

Government forces collapsed in the north following the coup, allowing separatist and Islamist rebels to seize control of the country’s three northern regions.

Around 215,000 people have been displaced from their homes, many of them crossing into Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

Many Christians have sought safety in Mali’s capital, Bamako, where they are being fed and sheltered by a network of churches.

A Barnabus Fund contact in Mali reports that churches in the towns of Gao and Timbuktu were destroyed in the takeover, with the congregations abandoning their homes and fleeing south.

‘Horrible crimes have been made against the population – massacres, rape of women, obligation to wear the veil, chasing Christians,’ the source reports.” Read more.

Flashback: Mali: Christian Leader Beheaded as Islamists Terrorize Country, Create List of All Christians They Intend to Execute by Beheading – “A Christian leader has been beheaded and others are being threatened with similar treatment as Islamic militants run amok in Mali, West Africa. Christians have fled the town of Timbuktu in the north of the country where harsh Sharia Law has already been imposed amid reports that churches in Gao, 200 miles to the east, have been completely destroyed… ‘We have escaped in the wake of horrible death threats as the Islamists have a list of all the Christians in Timbuktu whom they intend to execute by beheading.’” Read more.

“Algeria (MNN) ― Algeria is earning its keep as country number 23 on the Open Doors World Watch List for the worst persecutors of Christians.

Voice of the Martyrs, Canada and Voice of the Martyrs, USA recently cited two separate accounts of persecution in Algeria.

An Algerian Christian was sentenced to five years in prison for “shaking the faith” of Muslims last May. Currently, ‘Kadar’ is awaiting a decision on his appeal.

Kadar, who regularly shares his faith with Muslims in the city of Oran, was discussing his belief in Christ with a man at an outdoor food court last May when the man became angry and accused Kadar of insulting Muhammad. Police arrested Kadar and found a large amount of Christian materials in his apartment.

After Kadar was convicted, the judge gave him the maximum sentence of five years in prison even though the prosecutor had recommended a lesser sentence. Kadar is now out on bail awaiting the decision.” Read more.

Mohabat News – “Farshid Fathi, a Christian prisoner who had been held in the notorious Evin prison for 15 months without being granted any leave permission, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison by a Revolutionary Court in Iran.

According to Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, reports have been received stating that Farshid Fathi, a Christian prisoner, received a 6 year sentence by the Iranian Revolutionary court.

Farshid Fathi, whose trial had been postponed several times by judicial authorities, was eventually tried on January, 2012 in a court based in Evin prison after more than one year of uncertainty.

Although the details of his court session have not been published, a knowledgeable source according to the issued verdict said that the court announced his accusations as, ‘action against the regime’s security, being in contact with foreign organizations and religious propaganda’.

The source told Mohabat News that Mr. Fathi’s case will be sent to an appeal court after his attorney submits his appeal of the 6 year prison sentence. The source believes that the appeal court might change this ruling.

This sentence has been issued after Mr. Fathi was held in custody illegally and in total uncertainty for the past 15 months.

Issuance of such an unjustified sentence by the Islamic Republic’s judicial system for a Christian convert whose only crime is practicing his Christian faith, contravenes international laws and the Human Rights convention that the Islamic Republic has signed and is obliged to follow.” Read more.

Bishop Stephanos was right …

Compass Direct News – “ISTANBUL, April 20 (CDN) — A recent ‘reconciliation meeting’ between members of a Muslim mob that attacked a Christian-owned school in Egypt and school administrators was nothing less than an attempt at legalized extortion, the director of the school said.

In exchange for peace, members of the sword-wielding mob that stormed the school last month without provocation – and held two nuns hostage for several hours – initially demanded in the meetings that the school sign over parcels of land that include the guesthouse the Muslim extremists attacked.

Magdy Melad, manager of the Notre Dame Language Schools in Aswan Province, told Compass that despite the risk of more attacks, he refused the assailants’ demand. Doing so, he said, would set a precedent in Aswan of Muslims attacking and seizing Christian-owned property and then using reconciliation councils to give the appearance of legitimacy.

‘If we give in to that, they will take everything,’ Melad said.

He conceded that although he escaped with the property, and the victims escaped with their lives, he may have given away something more precious – he agreed not to prosecute any of the hundreds of people who attacked his school.

‘The only thing we had to give away was our rights,’ Melad said sardonically, adding that the threat of future violence forced him to make the agreement. ‘This was all against the law.’

‘Reconciliation meetings’ are held throughout Egypt after incidents of ‘sectarian’ violence in order to restore calm. Increasingly used during the administration of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the meetings are loosely based on traditional Arabic tribal councils. Supporters of the reconciliation process, mainly government and Islamic leaders, say the meetings offer a way to defuse tensions. Those who oppose the process, including numerous human rights groups and Coptic rights activists, say the meetings are just a way to pressure powerless groups and people into giving away what little rights they have.” Read more.

Jakarta Globe – “Conflict between members of a persecuted church in Bekasi and residents was captured on video and posted online on Thursday, showing the residents violently resisting attempts by the churchgoers to pray in their sealed-off house of worship.

The video, uploaded by Ferry Putra on Vimeo, began with members of the Filadelfia congregation of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) preparing to march toward the church, situated in Jejalen Jaya village in Tambun Utara, Bekasi, on Sunday.

They were set to hold Mass on the sidewalk in front of their sealed-off church, which by law they are allowed to use.

The residents, many of whom wore Muslim attributes, however, were quick to blockade them, urging the Filadelfia congregation to disperse.

The congregation insisted on advancing, and clashes were only narrowly averted when police and officials intervened.

The officials told the churchgoers to hold their mass at the local subdistrict office, but the latter refused, saying it was too far, about five kilometers from the sealed-off church.

They then held the Mass on the road, with scores of the residents trying to disrupt it by running a motorcycle through it and then playing loud music.

Tambun Utara subdistrict head Suharto and local police precinct head Comr. Andri Ananta were seen in the video trying to tell the churchgoers to bow to the residents’ demands.” Read more.

Flashback: Indonesia: Anti-Christian Incidents Nearly Double in 2011, Worst May Be Yet to Come – “Acts of violence and intolerance against Christians in Indonesia almost doubled in 2011, with an Islamist campaign to close down churches symbolizing the plight of the religious minority. The Indonesian Protestant Church Union, locally known as PGI, counted 54 acts of violence and other violations against Christians in 2011, up from 30 in 2010. The number of such incidents against religious minorities in general also grew, from 198 in 2010 to 276 in 2011, but the worst is perhaps yet to come if authorities continue to overlook the threat of extremism …” Read more.

Pakistani Muslims Beat and Burn Christian Pastor For Preaching ... To Christians

By JRS Gill, Pakistan Christian Post – “No one really knows the size of Pakistan’s Christian minority, nor of the entire population. The most recent census — conducted in 1981 — gave a rough count of 84 million people of whom not quite a million were Christian. The unofficial 1990 estimate is 108 million, with an explosive birth-rate of nearly 4 percent. That could soon mean up to 2 million Christians in this land of Islam.

The data published by the Pakistani government this January shows that the number of Christians in the country is approximately 3, 8 million. Their condition today can be described as catastrophic. In 1986, a law on blasphemy was adopted in Pakistan to become a tool for persecuting religious minorities. This law is often used to squaring personal accounts and to seize other people’s property. This law has become a tool for the tough persecution of religious minorities, especially Christians. Last year, at least 161 people were sentenced under the law of ‘blasphemy’ in Pakistan. Nine people accused of ‘blasphemy’ and ‘outrage against Islam’ were executed extra judicially. Even Muslim legal scholars admit that 95% of all the accusations of ‘blasphemy’ are false.

Christians are deprived of their rights under this law because a Muslim can report an outrage against Islam without providing witnesses or proof. The law on ‘blasphemy’ demands that the accused should be immediately sentenced. Recently the death sentence for Asia Bibi – who, asked about her faith, replied that she was a Christian and was accused of ‘blasphemy’ – was reconfirmed. As of February 1, 2012, over 580 000 people in 100 countries signed an appeal to the Pakistani government to release Asia Bibi. At present, her health is in critical condition.

A young mother has been falsely accused of ‘blaspheming’ Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, because she rebuffed attempts by relatives who had converted to Islam to force her to renounce her Christian faith, family members said.” Read more.

Your Jewish News – “A Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.

The church in Khartoum’s Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.

Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full scale war in recent months over the unresolved issues of sharing oil revenues and a disputed border.

Last week, South Sudanese troops seized Heglig, which the southerners call Panthou, sending Sudanese troops fleeing. The Khartoum government later claimed to have regained the town.

The witnesses and several newspapers said a mob of several hundreds shouting insults at southerners torched the church. Fire engines could not put out the fire, they added.

One newspaper, Al-Sahafah, said the church was part of a complex that included a school and dormitories. Ethiopian refugees living in the Sudanese capital also used the church.” Read more.