MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Daniel 7:25, “And he shall speak [great] words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

Revelation 13:15, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

By Tzippe Barrow – “JERUSALEM, Israel — With Islamists poised to take over governments overthrown during the ‘Arab spring,’ Christians and other minorities may soon be subject to Sharia (Islamic) law.

Some say assurance by Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafis, and Ennahda, that non-Muslims would not be mistreated under Sharia is, at best, questionable.

In Egypt, attacks on Coptic Christians have increased exponentially since the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime last year.

Egyptian Christians have been beaten, shot and stabbed to death, and their homes and churches have been fire bombed by angry Muslims.

On Monday, Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament held its first session. The Muslim Brotherhood now holds 47 percent of the seats, and the Salafist al-Nour party 25 percent.

Syrian Christians have also come under increasing persecution.

‘The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began,’ the Jerusalem Post quoted the Pakistan Christian Post.

According to the report, two Christians were gunned down recently at a bakery. In a separate incident, three attackers killed a Christian as he drove with two young children in the car.

In Libya, Muslims staged a demonstration Friday, demanding that legislation in the post-Gadhafi government would be based on the principles of Sharia, not secular, law.

‘We as a Muslim nation have taken Islamic Sharia as the source of legislation,’ National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil said in October, according to Reuters.

Jalil added that ‘any law that contradicts the principles of Islam is legally nullified.’

Many experts wonder if Sharia law can support ‘genuine’ democracy. Last July the American Thinker re-posted the ‘Top ten reasons why Sharia is bad for all societies,’ originally published in August 2005.

According to that report, under Sharia, an apostate — anyone who leaves Islam for any reason — can be put to death if they refuse to repent. Criticizing the prophet Mohammed, the Koran or Sharia law is also punishable by death.” Read more.

Is nowhere safe anymore for Muslims who’ve decided to leave Islam? If Europe doesn’t act now and introduce serious measures to eliminate this growing problem, then the answer will not be a good one. And the threats won’t only be against converts, either. It’ll begin affecting all Christians …

Världen idag (Translated) – “Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity were stabbed by masked men in Norway Haugesund last week.

The attackers shouted ‘kuffar’ – an Arabic term of abuse against unbelievers – during the attack.

The attack occurred on Tuesday evening when the two Christian Iranians were out for a walk in Haugesund. They were attacked suddenly by three masked and knife-armed men, who reportedly shouted ‘kuffar’ as they stabbed the two.

One of the first people who showed up at the scene after the attack was a nurse who saw the worst of the wound before an ambulance took the men to Hospital, writes Haugesund Avis.

According to police, one of the men was stabbed twice in the back and the other stabbed in the side. The attackers have not been caught.

The two assaulted men want to be anonymous and have not spoken out afterwards. They have lived in Norway for several years. One of them has become a Christian in Norway, the other left Islam and became a Christian in Iran and fled to Norway a few years ago after he was beaten and imprisoned for his Christian faith. Both work at a mission church in Haugesund. ‘They are very active in church and have both testified about their faith during meetings,’ says their pastor, who wishes to remain anonymous because he often travels to Muslim countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith. The pastor is certain the attack was religiously motivated. ‘I am totally convinced, since the perpetrators shouted ‘kuffar’ during the attack, I have no doubt about it.’ The pastor didn’t expect this sort of attack to happen in Haugesund, Sweden. ‘This is very dramatic and surprising, I had not counted on that. I have not heard about threats to some converts in the area.'” Source – Världen idag.

Flashback: Islamic Militants Calling Themselves ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam’ Threaten to Hunt Down and Execute Christians Who Flee Iran – “Islamic militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have been terrorizing evangelical Christians with threats to ‘repent’ or die, it was reported Sunday. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported that 11 Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against Christianity have received threats via email to ‘repent’ or face extrajudicial execution, from a group identifying itself as the ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam.’ The threatening emails that were sent to each individual on Sept. 14 aspired to extend the arm of Iranian Islamic militancy beyond the borders of Iran by implying that, although the recipients have left Iran, they have not escaped the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers.’” Read more.

Flashback: Losing Malmo: Sweden Surrenders Their Third Largest City … to Muslims – “Do you remember the jihadist terror campaign that ravaged Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city? Do you recall the bombings, the suicide-hijackings, and the random assassinations that finally coerced the city to surrender to Islamization? No? Funny, I don’t remember them either. Yet there is no question that Malmo has surrendered. Large enclaves of the city, like similar enclaves throughout Western Europe, have earned the dread label ‘no-go zone.’ They are unsafe for non-Muslims, particularly women who do not conform to Islamist conventions of dress and social interaction. They are especially perilous for police, firefighters, and emergency-medical technicians.” Read more.

Bible: 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 4:89, “Have no unbelieving friends. Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them.”

“KANO (AFP) – 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.

Very little is known about Shekau, but this week he appeared on YouTube, threatening more attacks and saying Boko Haram was responsible for the January 20 violence which killed 185 people in Kano in reprisal for the arrest and torture of its members.

Aged 43, he was born in a farming village also called Shekau in northeastern Yobe state.

He moved to the nearby city of Maiduguri, Boko Haram’s base, about a decade ago, according to sources familiar with the group.

Shekau studied theology under local clerics in the Mafoni area of Maiduguri and enrolled in a government-run school for Islamic studies.

He is often shown in photos wearing a keffiyeh and seated next to an AK-47, his face intense.

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 [Allah] commands me to kill the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams.'” Read more.

Nigeria: Islamists Arrive in Town of Tafawa Balewa and Start Shooting at Christians, At Least Seven Killed, Many Injured – “Early morning attacks in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state on Sunday (Jan. 22) left at least seven Christians dead and a church building destroyed. The attack on the Evangelical Church Winning All Church 2, residents of Tafawa Balewa said, was carried out by area Islamic extremists alongside members of the Boko Haram sect, with the church building and surrounding houses bombed.” Read more.

“(AINA) — A mob of over 3000 Muslims attacked Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Ameriya), Alexandria this afternoon. Coptic homes and shops were looted before being set ablaze. Two Copts and a Muslim were injured. The violence started after a rumor was spread that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, surrendered to the police this morning morning for his protection.

According to eyewitnesses, the perpetrators were bearded men in white gowns. ‘They were Salafists, and some of were from the Muslim Brotherhood,’ according to one witness. It was reported that terrorized women and children who lost their homes were in the streets without any place to go.

According to Father Boktor Nashed from St. George’s Church in el-Nahdah, a meeting between Muslim and Christian representatives was supposed to take place in the evening in Kobry-el-Sharbat. But, by 3 P.M. a Muslim mob looted and torched the home of Mourad Samy Guirgis, as well as the home of his family and three homes of Coptic neighbors. A number of Coptic-owned shops and businesses were also looted and torched. ‘We contacted security forces, but they arrived very, very late,’ Said Father Nashad. The fire brigade was prevented from going into the village by the Muslims and the fires were left to burn themselves out. ‘Those who lost their home, left the village,’ said Father Nashed.

Coptic activist Mariam Ragy, who was covering the violence in Kobry-el-Sharbat , said it took the army 1 hour to drive 2 kilometers to the village. ‘This happens every time. They wait outside the village until the Muslims have had enough violence, then they appear.’ She said that she spoke to many Copts from the village this evening who said that although their homes were not attacked, Muslims stood in the street asking them to come to their homes to hide. ‘They believed that this was a new trick to make them leave, so that Muslims would loot and torch their homes while they were away,’ said Ragy.” Read more.

Or, to be even more precise, in an Islamic coal mine …

By LYSIANE GAGNON – “This year will probably see an increased exodus of Arab Christians fleeing the mounting tide of radical Islam in the Middle East – a phenomenon that, as sad as it is, might bring a surge of new vitality to Canada’s thriving immigrant communities. Some of these exiles will choose Canada as a haven, and many of them should qualify for refugee status.

Nearly 100,000 Copts have fled Egypt since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, chased by a series of increasingly violent pogroms at the hands of fanatics while the military often looked the other way. The country’s estimated 10 million Copts are the original inhabitants of this land; some can trace their origin to the Pharaonic period. They later converted to Christianity, centuries before the Arab conquest.

There’s no doubt their situation will worsen, given the popularity of the Salafists, the hard-line fundamentalist wing of the Islamist movement who gained nearly 25 per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections.

Iraq already lost half of its million-strong Christian population – driven out by the sectarian infighting that followed the U.S.-led invasion and by numerous terrorist attacks against their churches.

The next wave of refugees is likely to come from Syria, whose more than one million Christians, an educated and active community, have been under the protection (and thus accused of collaboration) of the Alawite regime – a classic pattern of the secular Middle East dictatorships, from Saddam Hussein to Mr. Mubarak to Bashar al-Assad, that protected their religious minorities while ferociously repressing militant Islamists.

It’s probably only a question of time before the Assad government is overthrown – and then the Sunni Muslims who form the majority in Syria will turn against both the Shia Alawites and the Christians.” Read more.

“BAUCHI CITY, Nigeria, January 24 (CDN) — Early morning attacks in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state on Sunday (Jan. 22) left at least seven Christians dead and a church building destroyed.

The attack on the Evangelical Church Winning All Church 2, residents of Tafawa Balewa said, was carried out by area Islamic extremists alongside members of the Boko Haram sect, with the church building and surrounding houses bombed.

Yunnana Yusufu, a pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Tafawa Balewa, told Compass that the assailants arrived in the early morning hours and began shooting at Christians in the town, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Bauchi City.

‘I saw seven dead bodies of some of the Christians killed,’ Yusufu told Compass by phone. ‘The situation is terrible, and I am about to go out to other parts of the town, to see the extent of the damage caused by the attackers.’

Yusufu said that many other Christians were injured.

‘Some of them have been taken to the General Hospital here, while others are being treated at home by medical personnel who are Christians,’ he said.

All churches have cancelled services…

Police also reported that bombs were thrown at a Catholic church building and an evangelical church building in Bauchi City, causing little damage and no deaths or injuries.

Bukata Zhadi, secretary of the Christian Elders Council in Tafawa Balewa, said attacks on Christian communities in the area have been incessant, with Sunday’s attack bringing to 10 the number of Christians killed in the past two weeks in Tafawa Balewa.” Read more.

Mohabat News – “Pressures and threats against Christian converts are increasing tremendously inside Iran. Severe sentences are being issued for converts with an Islamic background and this is the primary reason these converts flee their homeland and apply to the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for refugee status. However, it seems that UNHCR decision makers do not understand the seriousness of this issue.

Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News notes that before the Islamic revolution all religious minorities, including Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians could conveniently and securely speak about their faith. After the Islamic revolution and after the Islamic regime came to power, although it stressed freedom of religion, this was just one side of the story. The regime proceeded to break its own constitution, generated a terrorizing atmosphere and put growing pressure on churches through its security organizations.

People with different beliefs, especially Christians, were subjected to arrest, imprisonment, threat and torture. The string of executions of outstanding Iranian Christian figures and pastors is a prime example of that. The laws are even being tightened more and more as time goes by. Such pressures and threats as well as heavy sentences cause Christian converts with an Islamic background to flee their homeland and seek refuge through the UNHCR office in Ankara. However, interviewers and decision makers at the UNHCR fail to understand their grievous situations and often turn down their asylum appeals.

Yousef Fallah Ranjbar is one of these asylum seekers who is currently awaiting a decision on his case in Turkey. Like other asylum seekers in Turkey, Fallah Ranjbar had to work in order to survive. However he was brutally assaulted by his Turkish employer with hot water and his body was severely burned.

In a recent contact with the Association in Support of Iranian Asylum Seekers in Turkey, Ranjbar related some tragic facts and explained what has happened to him during these years.” Read more.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL – “There has been a wave of violence targeting Iranian and Syrian Christians over the past month, say Christian news reports.

In addition, Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been on death row since 2010 for seeking to register his home-based church, refused to renounce his Christian beliefs in exchange for his release from prison. He was also jailed for questioning the role of Islam as the dominant form of religious instruction in his children’s school.

According to a report on the website of the International Christian news agency BosNewsLife, ‘Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has rejected an offer to be released from prison if he publicly acknowledges Islam’s prophet Mohammed as ‘a messenger sent by God,’ well-informed Christians and rights activists said’ earlier this month.

While Iran’s opaque judicial system coupled with the lack of access for most Western media makes it difficult to verify the new coercion against Nadarkhani, the reports are considered reasonable in light of the Iranian regime’s intense crackdown on its Christian population over the years.

In an e-mail to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and author of the book A New Shoah, wrote ‘After the ethnic cleansing of Jews in 1948 from the Arab countries, Islamic fundamentalism is now trying to push away the Christians from the region. They want to establish a pure Islamic environment and the mass exodus already began under our noses.’

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Christian Post wrote last week on its website, ‘The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began. A reliable source in the country, who cannot be identified for their own safety, told Barnabas Aid that children were being especially targeted by the kidnappers, who, if they do not receive the ransom demanded, kill the victim.'” Read more.

Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) Calls on UN to Protect Christians of Syria – “A prominent international human rights organization is calling upon the United Nations and the international human rights community to act quickly and decisively to save the Christians of Syria, who are being increasingly threatened and victimized by Islamic supremacists. Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) notes with sorrow the one hundred dead in Syria in the recent and ongoing series of kidnappings and murders of Christians. SION President Pamela Geller said in a statement: ‘We deplore the manifest lack of respect for human life and the dignity of the human person. We call upon the United Nations Security Council and UN Commission on Human Rights to schedule an immediate meeting to discuss how to protect the Christians of Syria.'” Read more.

By Luiza Oleszczuk – “An Afghan Christian widow and three of her daughters were denied refugee status by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi for the second time last month, and currently face imminent deportation to their home country where they could face imprisonment for apostasy and a potential death sentence.

The widow and her daughters, whose names have not been released for security reasons, received a deportation notice from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs after their first application for asylum was rejected in October 2009, International Christian Concern (ICC), a global Christian advocacy group, informed The Christian Post. When the mother reapplied in July 2011 with her three daughters and a fourth daughter, who is widowed with a child, only the widowed daughter and the child were accepted. The others are no longer permitted to correspond with the UNHCR office and are currently living in India as illegal immigrants, ICC said.

‘All members of the family left Afghanistan for the same reason, all of them are Christians, and all are facing the same kind of problem,’ Obaid S. Christ, a leader of the Afghan Christian community in New Delhi, told ICC. ‘If two members of the same family are recognized as refugees and four others are denied, there is definitely something wrong with the UNHCR judgment system. We believe that the UNHCR office blindly closed their application without making any inquiry, investigation, or considering the new facts and real danger that these women are facing back in their home country.'” Read more.

Flashback: Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan, Says State Department – “There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department. This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime… The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that ‘there were no Christian schools in the country.’” Read more.

By Emele Onu and Mustapha Muhammad – “Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) — The death toll from yesterday’s bomb blasts in the northern Nigerian city of Kano rose to at least 165, a human rights official involved in the rescue effort said.

‘The death toll has risen to 165 by the last count,’ Shehu Sani, the president of the Civil Rights Congress who is helping to ferry the dead and wounded to hospitals, said today by phone from Kano. The dead included journalist Enenche Akogwu, Lagos-based Channels Television said in a statement.

‘We will not fold our hands and watch enemies of democracy perpetrate unprecedented evil in our land, and I want to re- assure Nigerians and the international community that all those involved in that dastardly act would be made to face the wrath of the law,’ President Goodluck Jonathan said in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Abuja.

The Boko Haram Islamic group claimed responsibility for the blasts that struck eight government buildings, its spokesman, Abu Qaqa, said by phone. Authorities in Africa’s top oil producer blame Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is a sin,’ for a series of bombings and attacks in the mainly Muslim north and Abuja over the past year.

‘The full horror of last night’s events is still unfolding, but we know that a great many people have died and many more have been injured,’ U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said today in a statement.” Read more.

Nigeria: Christians Told to ‘Leave, Convert or Die’ as Nation’s Leader Says Protecting Christians Against Religious Cleansing Now Nearly Impossible – “Another religious persecution watchdog group is drawing attention to the dangerous situation in Nigeria. There has been a spike in violence against Christians in Nigeria and a terrorist group called Boko Haram is taking credit. International Christian Concern spokesman Jonathan Racho points out that more than 80 Christians have been martyred in the north in the past few weeks. ‘The Christian leaders in Nigeria are expressing their concern that these killings could amount to religious cleansing,’ says Racho. ‘They are calling for help. They are calling for prayers.’ Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed concern in a recent statement that it is nearly impossible to protect Christians.” Read more.