MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Catherine Herridge – “The New York Police Department has faced criticism for its surveillance of the Muslim community, but one prominent Muslim journalist defended the department in an interview with Fox News.

‘We use religion as a cover,’ said Asra Nomani, a 46-year-old journalist whose work has been published by the Wall Street Journal and The Daily Beast. Nomani, a native of India, says radical ideology is very real — and damaging to all Muslims.

‘We’re saying that you can’t go into our mosques, you can’t look at our Muslim organizations, you can’t even look at Muslims because that’s to target us,’ she told Fox News during an interview in suburban Washington. ‘But the truth is, we do have a problem in our Muslim community.’

Nomani showed Fox News a Koran from a mosque in West Virginia. She says the Koran’s Saudi publisher added negative language about Jews and Christians. This interpretation of Islam, Nomani says, is part of a larger problem.

‘I think that there is a movement in America right now to claim this concept of Islamophobia, to say that people are hating on Islam,’ she said. ‘Let’s be honest, there are people that do hate on Islam. But I think that (Police Commissioner) Ray Kelly and the New York Police Department have been targeted in this larger campaign to try to show that people are picking on Muslims.'” Read more.

Flashback: New Study Shows That 80% of Mosques in America Teach Jihad Violence and Islamic Supremacism – “… Then there was the Center for Religious Freedom’s 2005 study, and the Mapping Sharia Project’s 2008 study. Each independently showed that upwards of 80% of mosques in America were preaching hatred of Jews and Christians and the necessity ultimately to impose Islamic rule. And now comes yet more confirmation that mosques in the U.S. are teaching these things, and again the percentage is remarkably similar: around 80% of mosques are found to be teaching jihad warfare and Islamic supremacism. This study is extensive and detailed.” Read more.

Flashback: Report: Saudis Export Anti-Christian and Anti-Jewish Textbooks that Continue to Fuel Intolerance and Violence Around the Globe – “Textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools contain virulent forms of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry that continue to fuel intolerance and violence around the globe, says a new report…  ‘Because of the Saudis’ great oil wealth, it is able to disseminate its textbooks … to many Muslim schools, mosques and libraries throughout the world. ‘This is not just hate mongering, it’s promoting violence,’ she said in an interview. It is exporting terrorism through textbooks. Christians are referred to as ‘swine’ and Jews as ‘apes,’ while being blamed for much of the world’s ills.” Read more.

By JACK HEALY – “TENNA, Iraq — Iraq’s dwindling Christians, driven from their homes by attacks and intimidation, are beginning to abandon the havens they had found in the country’s north, discouraged by unemployment and a creeping fear that the violence they had fled was catching up to them.

Their quiet exodus to Turkey, Jordan, Europe and the United States is the latest chapter of a seemingly inexorable decline that many religious leaders say tolls the twilight of Christianity in a land where city skylines have long been marked by both minarets and church steeples. Recent assessments say that Iraq’s Christian population has now fallen by more than half since the 2003 American invasion, and with the military’s departure, some Christians say they lost a protector of last resort.

Their flight is felt in places like the wind-scoured village of Tenna, which has sheltered dozens of Christian migrants over the past nine years. The families fleeing Baghdad’s death squads and bombings found safety here beneath the hulking mountains, but little else besides poverty, boredom and cold. Villagers estimate that half of the 50 or so Christian homes are now empty, their families abroad.

Walid Shamoon, 42, wants to be the next to leave. He said he left Iraq’s capital in January 2011 after a confrontation with Shiite militia members set off a nightmare of escalating death threats and an attempt on his life. A brother had already been killed in a mortar attack six years earlier, so he said he quit his contract job with the Australian Embassy, giving up a $1,500 monthly salary, and came here.

These days, all he can think about is his application to emigrate to Arizona.

‘This is not a life,’ he said one recent afternoon, as a blizzard raced down from the mountains. ‘There is no improvement. There is no work.’

Many of the people now struggling in Iraq’s Kurdish north came in the wake of a suicide attack in Baghdad at Our Lady of Salvation Church in October 2010. It was the single worst assault on Iraq’s Christians since the war began, one that left 50 worshipers and 2 priests dead and that turned the church into a charnel house of scorched pews and shattered stained glass.

Christian families in Baghdad grabbed clothing, cash and a few other provisions and headed north for the Christian communities along the Nineveh plain and Kurdistan’s three provinces. They joined tens of thousands of other Christians from the capital, Mosul and other cities who traced similar arcs after earlier attacks and assassination campaigns.” Read more.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has intensified its crackdown on Iranian Christians during recent weeks. This has resulted in the arrest of a number of Christians in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Esfahan and Kermanshah. (The interview is concerning this issue).

In this regard, a reporter of Hrana (Human Rights activists’ news agency) has conducted an interview with the head of Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, Saman Kamvar.

The following is a transcription of that interview:

Mr. Kamvar, as you know, groups of Christian citizens were arrested in major cities like Ahwaz, Esfahan and Shiraz. What do you think is the reason for the increased crackdown and opposition by the regime towards religious minorities, especially Christians in Iran?

These hardships against religious minorities come following the mono-dimensional view of the regime towards the political, cultural and religious issues. Their definitions of alien and non-alien are getting more restricted and more groups of people are being considered aliens. For many years it was Baha’is whose rights were being violated more than others. However, more and more violations of rights are being applied against Christians, Sufis and Shi’ite Muslims who believe in a different kind of Shi’ite faith. Today, evangelical Christians, dissident ayatollahs, Baha’is and Sunni Muslims are all under pressure, threat and terror by the Islamic Regime of Iran.

On the other hand, the ruling regime of Iran seeks its legitimacy from religion. So, it wants religion to support its legitimacy. Today, the regime of Iran crackdowns on Christians, especially Christian converts, for it is observing the growth of Christianity like never before. This fact has made them concerned. In conclusion we can say that unfortunately, the regime cannot tolerate other thoughts. What this religious regime tries to demonstrate is that there is only one legitimate religion and all other religions are illegitimate. Read more…

“Gunmen shot dead three Christians in Nigeria near the flashpoint city of Jos, hours after 10 people were killed in a suicide bombing and related violence at a church, an official said Monday.

In a separate incident in the northern city of Kano, gunmen in a car opened fire early Monday on a police station that has been the target of several attacks, wounding two officers, according to residents.

The gunmen near Jos struck late Sunday in a village south of the city where Christian-Muslim tensions ran high after the church attack, state government spokesman Pam Ayuba told AFP, though the two attacks were not thought to be linked.

‘Unknown gunmen, in an apparent ambush late Sunday, waylaid and shot dead three people and injured three others — all Christians — in Chugwi village,’ Ayuba said.

Such violence has occurred repeatedly in and around Jos, located in the middle belt region of Africa’s most populous nation between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Clashes between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups in the area have killed thousands in recent years.

‘We suspect that the attackers were herdsmen. They left with the handsets of those killed and called numbers on their phones to alert their (the victims’) relations that they were responsible for the killings,’ he said from the scene of the attack.

Ayuba, who is a native of the Christian village, said no arrests have been made. The victims included two brothers aged 25 and 30, he said.

Three other people at Dogo Garba, a nearby hamlet, were wounded by the same gunmen and were taken to a nearby government hospital for treatment, he added.” Read more.

Update: Latest reports now indicate 11 killed, many more injured …

“Jos, Nigeria (CNN) —  Tensions ran high in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday in the aftermath of an explosion outside a Catholic church that left six people dead, according to hospital and government officials.

The apparent car bomb attack happened outside of St. Finbar’s Catholic Church, according to Plateau Gov. Jonah David Jang.

A spokesman for the Plateau state government, Machias Abraham Yiljab, said three bodies were at the scene of the explosion.

Ishaya Pam, chief medical director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, said in a statement that the hospital had three bodies and was treating 14 people for wounds suffered in the explosion.

He said additional people had been wounded in the blast, but had been treated and released.

Images sent by Mark Lipdo, program coordinator for the Stefanos Foundation, showed a charred crater in the pavement, a vehicle bumper in the road and smoke rising in the distance.

Stefanos is a foundation that aims to help persecuted Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere.” Read more.

Nigeria: Islamists Declare War on Christianity, Plans to Eradicate Christians, Claims Gov’t ‘Cannot Be Prepared for What is to Come’ – “A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a ‘war’ on Christians in the next few weeks. According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group ‘will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.’” Read more.

By Fredrick Nzwili – “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…

Some church leaders fear increased persecution of Christians in the north or even forced repatriation for those who may want to stay. ‘The fears have been there from the beginning. There could be some form of harassment, and that could intensify after that date, but for forceful removal, it is hard to ascertain,’ said the Rev. Don Bosco Ochieng, a Roman Catholic priest in the Rumbek diocese.

Aid agencies are calling for the extension of the deadline, warning that it will create a logistical and humanitarian catastrophe.” 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… laiming 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. ‘We do not want any presence of churches in our area,’ shouted members of the mob as they threw stones at the Christians, the sources said.” Read more.

Flashback: Sudan: President Al-Bashir Moves Forward with Rewriting the Country’s Constitution to Implement Sharia Law – “Sudanese leader Omer Hassan Al-Bashir is moving forward with rewriting the country’s constitution to implement Shariah law, according to reports from organizations with links inside the Muslim-dominated nation. International Christian Concern’s North Africa specialist Jonathan Racho says that a Shariah-compliant constitution will mean more suffering for Sudan’s remaining Christians. ‘This new law (Shariah compliant constitution) is going to affect a significant number of Christians who live in places like Khartoum (the capital city). There are still a significant number of Christians in Sudan,’ Racho said.” Read more.

Welcome to the ancient land of the Pharaohs, where the dictates of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “[Repressed] Freedom and [Anything But] Justice Party” will warmly welcome you to a new era of Egyptian society …

“CAIRO, Egypt, March 7 (CDN) — A priest in Egypt was sentenced this week to six months in jail for a minor construction violation at his church building, while no one in a mob that burned the same structure down has been arrested.

The Rev. Makarious Bolous of the Mar Gerges Church in Aswan was sentenced on Sunday (March 4), but neither the imams who called for the attack nor the Muslim villagers who destroyed the church building last September have been charged with any crime.

Bolous said the ruling, coupled with the absence of prosecution against those who burned down the church building, is clear evidence of persecution and a legal double standard between Christians and Muslims.

‘I feel it is unjust,’ Bolous said. ‘It’s not fair.’

The lower court that made the ruling also fined Bolous 300 Egyptian pounds (US$50). Bolous remained free Tuesday (March 6) awaiting appeal.

Local government officials said the building was 2.5 meters taller than what they had approved on a series of architectural drawings. Bolous said the citation was issued days after the fire.

The priest said the charges surprised him. A significant percentage of construction projects in Egypt are done without permits, he said, and even when permits are issued, adherence to their stipulations is casual and enforcement is lax. The village where the church building once stood is surrounded by homes that have two or three extra floors built outside of permitted specifications and by others that were built with no permit at all, according to Bolous.” Read more.

In the New Egypt, It’s ‘Punish the Victim and Crush the Innocent’ – “The Copts are the Christians of Egypt who represent about 12% of Egypt’s 84 million people. Over the past two weeks, a new and ugly campaign has been waged against Copts. At least eight Coptic families have been evicted from their homes in the al-Nahda village, Amereyah, near Alexandria, following unconfirmed accusations against a Copt of having an affair with a Muslim woman. Even though the accused quickly surrendered himself to the police for investigation, some 5000 village people, incited by Salafists and other Islamist groups, went on a violent rampage, collectively punishing the few Coptic families that live in the area, burning and ransacking their houses and their property. To make things worse, a ‘council’ dominated by these Islamists was convened, in the presence of and approval of the area’s chief of the police. This “council” decided to evict eight families from the village.” Read more.

Christian Pastor Beheaded by Islamists in 2009

By Michael Carl – “Members of the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram are vowing to ‘eradicate Christianity’ in Nigeria.

Reports coming out of Nigeria over the past several days show that the group whose name means ‘Western education is evil’ is launching a new terror campaign aimed at killing Christians and Jews in northern Nigeria.

The Nigerian news site Bikya Masr reports that the jihadi group has declared war on all Christians living in northern Nigeria.

Human-rights group International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho confirms the reports and says the news is ‘alarming.’

‘The reports indicate that members of Boko Haram recently declared a war on Christians in northern Nigeria. The group vowed to eradicate Christians from certain areas in Nigeria,’ Racho said.

‘The spokesman for the group (Boko Haram) say the group will launch a number of attacks targeting Christians,’ Racho said. ‘So there are alarming developments even as we speak.’

Estimates put the casualties in Boko Haram’s campaign at more than 100 dead since Christmas.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs press service IRIN reports that in the past 48 hours, more than 100 children have fled Nigerian for Chad to escape Boko Haram’s violent rampage.

Human Rights Watch also reports that since Christmas, Boko Haram has burned more than a dozen schools.

Racho confirms the casualty figures.

‘Boko Haram has already killed hundreds. Since Christmas alone, the group has martyred about 100 Christians in northern Nigeria,’ Racho said.

‘They think they have not met their goals for eradicating Christians,’ Racho said. ‘They are prepared for more bloodshed.'” Read more.

Boko Haram Continues Deadly Church Attacks, Frees Members from Prison – “Radical Islamic group Boko Haram attacked two churches, a police station holding prisoners, and a government building in the town of Konduga in a rampage of violence that killed at least two people and sent residents running for their lives Tuesday night. Boko Haram, reportedly translated as ‘Western Education is Forbidden,’ aims to avenge Muslim deaths and eradicate Western beliefs and practices. Boko Haram is responsible for several deadly attacks throughout Nigeria, including the bombing of the U.N. headquarters, and the bombing of a prison that held many of the group’s members — the bombing allowed many of those members to escape.” Read more.

By David Eto – “LAGOS: A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a ‘war’ on Christians in the next few weeks.

According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group ‘will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.’

Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.

The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.

But the spokesman said the government ‘cannot be prepared for what is to come.’

He said, without giving specific details, ‘we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.'” Read more.

Flashback: Islamist Leader in Nigeria: ‘I Enjoy Killing Anyone that God Commands Me to Kill the Way I Enjoy Killing Chickens and Rams’ – “Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but has re-emerged to lead Islamist group Boko Haram from the shadows as it carries out a bloody onslaught in northern Nigeria… A video released on YouTube earlier this month portrayed a markedly different man compared to earlier images — he appeared considerably heavier, for example — but a Western diplomat said ‘we assessed it was Shekau.’ He was seen as the second-in-command of Boko Haram at the time of a 2009 uprising put down by a brutal military assault which left some 800 people dead… In another part of the message, he says, ‘I enjoy killing anyone that God commands me to kill the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams.’” Read more.

“Lahore: A Christian woman was brutally tortured and paraded in the streets of a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province by a mob for her alleged ‘anti-Islam views’, local residents and police officials said today.

Some 30 residents of Kot Meerath village of Sialkot district, 80 km from Lahore, dragged Seema Bibi out of her house on February 26 and paraded her in the streets after shaving her head.

She was targeted by the mob for her alleged ‘anti-Islam views’, members of the Christian community said.

Following the assault, Seema Bibi and her family left the village to save their lives, local residents said.

‘She and her family had been facing threats from a group of extremist villagers. She left the village as she had no other option,’ said Aslam Masih, a resident of Kot Meerath.

Regional police chief Muhammad Amin told reporters that 26 people had been arrested on charges of torturing Seema Bibi and a case had been registered against them.

Amin said police had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Seema Bibi and her family.

Amin said the arrested people had tortured and assaulted Seema Bibi for her beliefs.

Police had stepped up their vigil due to tensions between Muslims and Christians in the village, he said.” Source – Times of India.

AFP/NEWSCORE – “MADARGANJ, Bangladesh — Three American missionaries were injured in northern Bangladesh on Wednesday after their car was attacked by a mob who suspected they were converting Muslims into Christians, police said.

Police arrested two teachers and a student from an Islamic seminary in Madarganj, 120 miles (200 kilometers) north of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, following the attack.

At least 200 angry locals chased the missionaries’ car and threw stones at it, leaving three with cuts from broken glass, the district police chief said.

The missionaries were part of a group ‘of seven Presbyterians who were attacked by the Muslim villagers. They have been given first aid and moved to a safer place,’ Abdur Razzaq told AFP.

The US citizens were accompanied by a Bangladeshi Christian convert to assess a piece of land for setting up a church, a school and a hospital to conduct missionary activities in the largely Muslim area, he said.

‘We could not arrange security for the Americans as they did not inform us or other security agencies in advance about their visit in such a remote place,’ Razzaq said.

Muslims make up around 90 percent of Bangladesh’s population of 150 million. Although Islam is the state religion of the country, there is no bar on missionary activities.” Source – New York Post.

By Mohabat News – “Inquiry court for Masoud Delijani, a Christian convert was held in Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah. He had been arrested by plain clothes security forces in a house church gathering.

According to reporters of Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, Masoud Delijani has been sentenced in the Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah province to three years in prison.

Knowledgeable sources reported that the Christian convert was sentenced to three years in prison by the Revolutionary Court while the judicial process in this show-off court was unclear. He was also denied the right to choose his own advocate and was not even given the chance to defend himself against the charges.

This sentence has been issued although the Islamic Republic constitution clearly states that all defendants have the right to access a lawyer and according to the law, the court should provide the means so that the accused will have access to a lawyer.

Masoud Delijani, a school teacher in Kermanshah, is now being held in Deizal-Abad prison of Kermanshah to serve his three year prison sentence. The central prison of Kermanshah, also known as Deizal-Abad is described as deplorable by knowledgeable sources.

The wife and family of Mr. Delijani are not in a good mental state knowing he should remain in prison for 3 years. Received report indicates that his wife is only allowed to have a brief visit with him every two or three weeks from behind a glass and through the intercom.

It should be remembered that Masoud Delijani was arrested by plain clothes intelligence officers on March 17, 2011, together with his wife and nine other Christian converts when they had gathered in a house church for a service. Then, on July 9, 2011, after being held in custody, mostly in solitary confinement for 114 days, and after being severely pressured both mentally and physically, he was temporarily released on a bail of 100 million Tomans (about 100,000 USD).

While waiting for a call from the court, he was again arrested two weeks later and tried in the Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah. The court charged him with having faith in Christianity, holding illegal house church gatherings, evangelizing Muslims and action against national security.” Read more.