MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Luiza Oleszczuk – “The Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Matthew in Baghdad was one of the targets in a string of bombings Tuesday, as Iraqi extremists conducted a series of attacks in several cities and towns across the country that killed at least 52 people in total.

Over 30 bombs were detonated and wounded an estimated 250 people. The attacks are believed to be a challenge extremists wanted to throw at security forces on the ninth anniversary of U.S. invasion of the country on March 20, 2003.

The deadliest incident occurred in the southern city of Kerbala, a city Shi’ite Muslims consider sacred, where two car bombs killed 13 people and wounded 48 during the morning rush hour, according to media reports. Other targeted areas included Baiji, Baquba, Daquq, Dibis, Dhuluiya, Kirkuk, Mosul, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato, Khalis and Dujail to the north of Baghdad, Falluja and Ramadi to the west, and Hilla, Latifiya, Mahmudiya and Mussayab to the south. Police reportedly defused bombs in Baquba, Falluja and Mosul. Experts called the day of the blasts Iraq’s bloodiest in nearly a month.

The bombing of St. Matthew church in Baghdad reportedly caused the death of two guards and wounded five other people. Officials have yet to confirm if the building was specifically targeted by terrorists because it is a Christian place of worship, or for other reasons.

The attacks were successful despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week’s Arab League summit in Baghdad, local sources said.

‘The goal of today’s attacks was to present a negative image of the security situation in Iraq,’ government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters.” Read more.

Gunmen storm Baghdad church and kill guards – “Four unidentified gunmen stormed a church in the Mansour district, western Baghdad, today killing three security guards, said a security source. The church’s fourth guard was able to escape the assault. The gunmen fled after the attack. Al-Qaeda announced previously its responsibility for storming the Sayyida al-Najat church on October 31 last year and detaining a number of hostages in the incident. Ten of civilians were killed in the attack.” Source – Kurdistan News Agency.

“JUBA, South Sudan, March 20 (CDN) — The ‘ethnic cleansing’ that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has undertaken against black Africans in the Nuba Mountains is also aimed at ridding the area of Christianity, according to humanitarian workers.

By targeting Christians among people who are also adherents of Islam and other faiths in the Nuba Mountains, military force helps the regime in Khartoum to portray the violence as ‘jihad’ to Muslims abroad and thus raise support from Islamic nations, said one humanitarian worker on condition of anonymity.

In South Kordofan state – which lies on Sudan’s border with the newly created nation of South Sudan but is home to sympathizers of the southern military that fought against northern forces during Sudan’s long civil war – Bashir’s military strikes are directed at Muslims as well as Christians, but churches and Christians are especially targeted, he said.

‘The ongoing war against Christians and African indigenous people is more of an ‘ethnic cleansing’ in that they kill all black people, including Muslims, but they give specific connotation to the war in targeting Christians to secure funding and support from the Arab and Islamic world by saying this war is a religious war,’ he said. ‘And in so doing, they get huge support from those countries.’

Aerial bombardment killed the five members of the Asaja Dalami Kuku family, which belonged to the Episcopal Church of Sudan, in Umsirdipa in the Nuba Mountains on Feb. 25, the source said.

The government in Khartoum is using Antonov airplanes to drop bombs, ‘coupled with state- sponsored militia targeting churches and Christian families,’ said the humanitarian worker.

‘The brutal state-sponsored militias are moving from house to house searching for Christian and African indigenous homes as the government continues with air strikes,’ he added.” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan: Over 500,000 Christians Have Less Than a Month to Leave North Sudan, Aid Agencies Fear Humanitarian Catastrophe – “Sudanese Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated as foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic. ‘We are very concerned. Moving is not easy … people have children in school. They have homes … It is almost impossible,’ Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Adwok, the Khartoum archdiocese auxiliary told ENInews in a telephone interview on 7 March. Sudan in February announced the deadline for the former citizens it had stripped of nationality after South Sudan’s January 2011 vote to secede. The ultimatum will affect an estimated 500,000-700,000 people, who are mainly Christians of southern origin that still live in the north…” Read more.

“NNEWI, Nigeria (AP) — A town hall meeting called by Christians to discuss funeral arrangements turned into a bloodbath in northern Nigeria when members of a radical Islamist sect opened fire with assault rifles.

At least 20 members of the Igbo ethnic group died in that attack Jan. 6. More attacks have followed, targeting the largest Christian group living across Nigeria’s Muslim north.

Many Igbos are now fleeing the north, even as state officials and others downplay the exodus, likely out of fear of sparking retaliatory violence.

The Igbo are one of the three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria. Based in Nigeria’s eastern states, the Igbo became largely Catholic after being colonized by the British. Many became successful traders who spread throughout Nigeria. In the country’s Muslim north, Igbo traders often dominate car parts sales and other markets.

That often leaves Igbo traders the most exposed during ethnic and religious violence that has routinely gripped Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960.

‘We’re everywhere there’s a clash between any two groups of people because we’re a people who live all over the place,’ said Maja Emeka Umeh, the spokesman of Anambra state in Nigeria’s east. ‘They end up killing our people.’

A failed 1966 coup, led primarily by Igbo army officers, sparked violence targeting Igbo people throughout Nigeria’s Muslim north. About 10,000 people died in the resulting riots and many fled back to eastern Nigeria ahead of secessionist leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declaring the region and much of Nigeria’s oil-producing southern delta its own nation.

Most recently, the Igbo have been targeted by the Boko Haram Islamist sect, which has killed more than 360 people this year alone, according to an Associated Press count. In a message to journalists at the start of the year, the sect threatened to begin killing Christians living in the nation’s north.” Read more.

“The death of Pope Shenouda III, who led Egypt’s Coptic Christian Church for 40 years, has increased fears among Copts that they will face persecution and discrimination as Islamic parties become more powerful.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners, many crying, packed the streets around St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo yesterday as they waited to file past the body of Pope Shenouda, dressed in ceremonial robes and sitting in the papal chair. Ashraf, 26, a blacksmith, said as he stood beside the outer wall of the cathedral that ‘the very existence of Shenouda made us feel protected’.

A tired-looking woman, who would not give her name, was sitting on the pavement holding a child. She said: ‘I wish I could get in to see the body. I feel worse that our protector has gone. God knows what is going to happen.’

Egypt’s Copts, estimated to number 10 to 12 million, complain that they are treated as second-class citizens and denied top jobs. They had hoped that the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year would reduce discrimination, but now fear their condition may worsen as the Muslim Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Salafi movement, which together have 70 per cent of the seats in the newly elected parliament, gain greater influence.

Pope Shenouda, 88, was famous as a cautious Coptic leader, all-powerful within his community, who for four decades had dealt with the Egyptian government. Born in Assiut, in upper Egypt, he was careful to give support to President Mubarak. He was briefly stripped of his temporal powers by President Anwar Sadat in 1981, for accusing the government of being tolerant of extreme Islam…

The Coptic Orthodox Church is a branch of Christianity founded in Egypt, but has devotees across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The apostle Mark is believed to have visited Egypt country in 50AD.” Read more.

Egyptian Cleric Wagdi Ghoneim Praises Allah for the Death of Pope Shenouda III: ‘May Allah Exact Revenge from Him in the Hellfire‘ – “Praise be to Allah. With the grace of Allah, the head of unbelief and polytheism, known as Shenouda, died yesterday, may Allah exact revenge from him. God’s worshippers and the trees and the animals were all relieved by his death. Egypt is relieved by his [death], because he generated sectarian strife… This dead accursed criminal, known as Shenouda, was told that the Koran says, in Surat Al-Maida: ‘And [beware the day] when Allah will say: Oh Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as gods beside Allah?’ [Shenouda] said: ‘We don’t take Christ and his mother as gods beside Allah. He Is God.’ … Are we supposed to send condolences or be sad about someone like this? We should be happy that he died. Let him go to Hell. May Allah exact revenge from him in the Hellfire – from him and from all those who follow his path.” Source – MEMRI.

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.”

February 12 Issue of Newsweek

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Half of Iraq’s indigenous Christians are gone, due to the unleashed forces of jihad [holy war]. Many Christians fled to nearby Syria; yet, as the Assad regime comes under attack from al-Qaeda and others, the jihad now seeps into Syria, where Christians are experiencing a level of persecution unprecedented in the nation’s modern history. Similarly, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their native Egypt since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime; and in northern regions of Nigeria, where the jihadi group, Boko Haram, has been slaughtering Christians, up to 95% of the Christian population has fled.

Meanwhile, the ‘big news’ concerning the Muslim world in the month of February—the news that flooded the mainstream media and had U.S. politicians, beginning with President Obama, flustered, angry, and full of regret—was that some written-in [in Islam it is forbidden to write anything in a Korans] in Afghanistan were burned by U.S. soldiers because imprisoned Muslim inmates had been using them ‘to facilitate extremist communications.’

Categorized by theme, February’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.

Church Attacks

Algeria: Armed men raided and ransacked a church that had been formally recognized since 1958, and dismantled the crucifix. The pastor and his family, trapped inside, feared that ‘they could kill us.’ The pastor ‘has been repeatedly threatened and attacked since being ordained in 2007. In the summer of 2009, his wife was beaten and seriously injured by a group of unknown men. Then, in late 2011, heaps of trash were thrown over the compound walls while an angry mob shouted death threats.’

Egypt: Thousands of Muslims attacked a Coptic church, and demanded the death of its pastor, who, along with ‘nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building.’ They did this because a Christian girl who, according to Islamic law, automatically became a Muslim when her father converted to Islam, fled from her father and was rumored to be Read more…

“TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– At least a dozen devoted Christians from Iran’s third largest city remained in jail Saturday, March 17, as part of an attempt by authorities to discourage Muslims and Christian converts to attend church services, Iranian Christians said.

Mohabat News, a news agency of Iranian Christians and activists, said security forces began a new crackdown last month in Isfahan, 340 kilometers (211 miles) south of the capital Tehran.

The agency said security forces detained both leaders and members of churches meeting in buildings, as well as some from underground house churches.

Among the latest known Christian converts detained in the Isfahan area is Fariborz Parsi-nejad, a Christian convert, who was reportedly taken into custody on March 2 while returning home from his work.

‘Security authorities raided his home and seized him without explanation,’ Iranian Christians said.

CHRISTIANS TAKEN

The crackdown began February 22 when security forces allegedly took at least eight Christians from their homes and work places.

Most of those jailed are members of the St. Paul Anglican church in Isfahan, Christians said. Mohabat News added that among those imprisoned at local prison facilities is Hekmat Salimi, pastor of St. Paul Anglican Church, who converted 30 years ago and authored theological books and Giti Hakimpour, 78, a female pastor at the same church.

Other church members include Shahram Ghaedi, an actor, Maryam Del-Aram, 54, Shahnaz Zarifi, a mother of two and Enayat Jafari, according to rights investigators.

Another Christian, Majid Enayat, was also detained on February 22 at his workplace. He is a member of a house church, and Mohabat reported that prior to his arrest, authorities detained other members of his group.

In a separate February 22 incident Iranian intelligence officers, initially introducing themselves as representatives of the regional electricity company, raided the Isfhahan home of Christian Enayat Jafari, seizing personal belongings, including a laptop, phone cards, books, compact disks and even children’s

cartoons, Mohabat News said.” Read more.

“Al-Haqiqa has learned from church sources in Homs that the city has been emptied of almost 90% of its Christians. It is expected that a complete ‘cleansing’ of buildings owned by Christians will occur within a matter of days or weeks by armed men from the Wahhabi ‘Faruq Brigade.’ A source in the Orthodox metropolitan’s office told al-Haqiqa that armed men from the Faruq Brigade went to the homes of the Christians, house by house, in the neighborhoods of Hamidiya and Bustan el-Diwan, informing them that they must immediately leave their homes and the city of Homs. The source revealed that the lastest [sic] attempt to expel Christians by force of arms occured [sic] yesterday. It included Dr. Taleb Mashhour Gharibeh, professor of mathematics at Baath University in Homs, his brother the musician Marwan Mashhour Gharibeh (a musician in Sabah Fakhri’s group), both of whom live in the Hamidiya neighborhood, their sister Marie Mashhour Gharibeh, who lives in the Bustan el-Diwan neighborhood, as well as their father and his wife the schoolteacher Maha Habou, who live in the new neighborhood el-Wa’ar. This wave of expulsions also included the residents of a six-story building in Hamidiya, whose residents include eighteen families, almost all of whom are from the village Uyoun el-Wadi.

The church sources said that the armed men informed the owners of the homes before they departed that if they did not leave immediately they would be shot and pictures of their corpses would be sent to al-Jazeera with the message that the government had killed them. The source emphasized that all those who were expelled ‘were not allowed to take any of their possessions with them, not even extra clothes. Immediately after they left their homes, the buildings were occupied by armed men who considered it ‘war-booty from the Christians!”” Read more.

Bombings kill 30 in Syria as Christian districts targeted – “A CAR bomber yesterday targeted a security headquarters in a Christian district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, killing three and wounding 30. The explosion, the second in the city since unrest began, occurred at a time when the area is usually thronged with people on the first working day of the week. On Saturday, simultaneous suicide bombings in Damascus near an air force intelligence facility and the criminal investigation department killed 27 and wounded more than 100. The latter was in the al-Qasaa area, also inhabited by Christians. A third vehicle exploded near an army bus, killing its occupants… Sources in Aleppo have reported rebel activity north of the city and Christians have said churches have been attacked, creating the fear the community could be targeted, in the same way Christians in Iraq have been since the 2003 US occupation.” Read more.

AP – “SANAA, Yemen – A group linked to Al Qaeda claims it killed an American teacher in Yemen for Christian proselytizing.

Joel Shrum, a 29-year-old English language teacher from Harrisburg, Pa., had worked for two years in the central city of Taiz.

Yemeni officials say Shrum was killed in his car Sunday morning when assailants in military uniforms sped up next to him on a motorcycle, opened fire and then sped away. Witnesses say he was killed instantly.

A text message sent to journalists said, ‘This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims.’ It claimed Shrum was ‘one of the biggest American proselytisers.'” Read more.

Al-Qaeda makes ‘alarming’ advances in Yemen, U.N. envoy warns – “A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made ‘alarming’ advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week. ‘The scale of these attacks serves as a stark reminder of the security threat posed by al-Qaeda,’ Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the 15-nation council Wednesday, according to a copy of the briefing notes obtained by The Washington Post. ‘Despite all counterterrorism efforts, al-Qaeda in Yemen has not retreated.'” Read more.

“If the pope called for the destruction of all the mosques in Europe, the uproar would be cataclysmic. Pundits would lambaste the church, the White House would rush out a statement of deep concern, and rioters in the Middle East would kill each other in their grief. But when the most influential leader in the Muslim world issues a fatwa to destroy Christian churches, the silence is deafening.

On March 12, Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is ‘necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.’ The ruling came in response to a query from a Kuwaiti delegation over proposed legislation to prevent construction of churches in the emirate. The mufti based his decision on a story that on his deathbed, Muhammad declared, ‘There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula.’ This passage has long been used to justify intolerance in the kingdom. Churches have always been banned in Saudi Arabia, and until recently Jews were not even allowed in the country. Those wishing to worship in the manner of their choosing must do so hidden away in private, and even then the morality police have been known to show up unexpectedly and halt proceedings.

This is not a small-time radical imam trying to stir up his followers with fiery hate speech. This was a considered, deliberate and specific ruling from one of the most important leaders in the Muslim world. It does not just create a religious obligation for those over whom the mufti has direct authority; it is also a signal to others in the Muslim world that destroying churches is not only permitted but mandatory.

The Obama administration ignores these types of provocations at its peril.” Read more.

Flashback: Obama’s Christian Problem – White House Overlooks Christian Persecution While Pandering to Islam – “The Obama administration has been obsessed with Muslim outreach and recently tried to mend fences with the Jewish community. Given the state of the world, however, the White House ought to be focused on helping the world’s oppressed Christians. The United States has been wary to intervene in matters affecting Christians in the Middle East for fear of validating terrorist narratives that the West is engaged in a new crusade against Islam. The result of this passive policy has been to allow Islamic extremists increasingly to dominate the debate, often with tragic consequences.” Read more.

Today it is all churches in the region. Tomorrow it is all churches in the world …

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

Qur’an Sura 3:85, “And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers [in hell].”

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah

By Raymond Ibrahim – “According to several Arabic news sources, last Monday, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is ‘necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.’

The Grand Mufti made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait, regarding the position of a Kuwaiti parliament member who recently called for the ‘removal’ of churches (he later ‘clarified’ by saying he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait). The Kuwaiti delegation wanted to confirm Sharia’s position on churches.

Accordingly, the Grand Mufti ‘stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it.’

As with many grand muftis before him, the Sheikh based his proclamation on the famous tradition, or hadith, wherein the prophet of Islam declared on his deathbed that ‘There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula,’ which has always been interpreted to mean that only Islam can be practiced in the region.

While the facts of this account speak for themselves, consider further:

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah is not just some random Muslim hating on churches. He is Read more…

“FORT ABBAS, Pakistan, March 12 (CDN) — 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.

Police in Khichiwala, Bahawalnagar district, in Punjab Province, charged 26-year-old Shamim Bibi, mother of a 5-month-old girl and resident of the village Chak No. 170/7R Colony, in the Fort Abbas area, under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s ‘blasphemy’ statutes after neighbors accused her of uttering remarks against Muhammad. She was arrested on Feb. 28.

Speaking ill of Muhammad in Pakistan is punishable by life imprisonment or death under Pakistan’s internationally condemned blasphemy laws.

The young woman’s brother, Ilyas Masih, and her brother-in-law, Shahbaz Masih, told Compass that she had been wrongly accused because she had resisted pressure to convert to Islam four days before her arrest.

‘Nazeeran, sister of Shamim’s husband Bashir Masih, and her nephew Nadeem and niece Bella accepted Islam on Feb. 24 and called on her to do the same,’ Masih said. ‘She refused, telling them that she was satisfied with Christianity and did not want to convert.’

He said the newly-converted Muslims persisted in trying to force her to convert, but she resisted.

‘Shamim told them that she had complete faith in a living God, and that there was no reason for her to start ‘worshiping graves,’’ Masih said.

That remark was not the one deemed ‘blasphemous.’ Rather, on Feb. 27 her neighbors accused her of making derogatory remarks – as yet unknown – on a separate occasion about Muhammad while in her courtyard.

Ansar Ali Shah, a local prayer leader in Chak 170/7R Colony, claimed that Shamim Bibi’s neighbors, Hamad Ahmed Hashmi and Abdul Qayyum, told him and other Muslims that they had heard the Christian woman making derogatory remarks about Muhammad in her courtyard, according to the First Information Report (FIR No. 30/12) registered by the Khichiwala police station. But there is no indication in the FIR of what, exactly, Shamim Bibi was alleged to have said.

As word of the allegation spread, a large crowd of villagers besieged her house and demanded ‘severe punishment for the infidel,’ claiming she had hurt their religious sentiments, sources said.” Read more.