MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“NAIROBI, Kenya, January 10 (CDN) — A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a ‘foreign religion,’ sources said.

Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somali’as Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release. She received 40 lashes on Dec. 22 while jeered by spectators.

‘Osman was whipped 40 lashes at 3 p.m., but she didn’t tell what other humiliations she had suffered while in the hands of the militants,’ an eyewitness, told Compass, adding that whipping left her bleeding. ‘I saw her faint. I thought she had died, but soon she regained consciousness and her family took her away.’

The whipping was administered in front of hundreds of spectators after Osman was released from her month-long custody in al Shabaab camps. Nursing her injuries at her family’s home, in the days after the punishment she would not talk to anyone and looked dazed, a source close in touch with the family said. She has since been relocated.

‘Please pray for her quick recovery,’ the source said.

Janale, one Somalia’s major cities, is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Mogadishu.

Osman became a Christian four years ago and was a member of the underground church in the war-torn Horn of Africa country largely controlled by the al Qaeda-linked militants from al Shabaab.” Read more.

By Ahmar Mustikhan – “A Pakistani Christian editor has said he receives hate mails and death threats on a daily basis from Pakistan for carrying reports on the persecution of Christians in the South Asian country.

Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti, editor of the Pakistan Christian Post who doubles as founder of Pakistan Christian Congress, Thursday received one such email in whch Aasia Bibi, who is languishing in jail for alleged blasphemy, and former Punjab governor Salman Taseer and minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti, who were assassinated last year for crusading to end the blasphemy law, were called harami or bastards.

A defiant Bhatti said Christians are sons of soil not descendants of Muslim invaders. Over the centuries, Muslim invaders massacred 80 million Hindus to convert India into Islam.

Bhatti posted the hate email on his Facebook page Thursday.

“I have read some of your media and it disturbs me very greatly that your media is responsible for sympathizing with the criminal, dirty harami woman Aasia Bibi, who insulted our beloved Prophet (Peace be upon him). …. Furthermore, your media has been portraying such haramis like Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti as “shaheeds” (martyrs), they are both haramis and jahannamis (destined for hell) and gustakh e Rasool (blasphemer of prophet).”

The writer told Bhatti, ‘I would like to remind you of one very important fact. Pakistan is an Islamic nation. It is a nation for Muslims, by Muslims, of Muslims.'” Read more.

Some teachers of Bible prophecy still stubbornly insist that the number one persecutor of Christians will suddenly become a “Revived Roman Empire”. Does it stand to reason that the immense rising tide of Christian persecution we are seeing perpetrated by Islamic extremism today — an anti-Semitic and anti-Christian ideology and set of religious laws that has taken nearly 1400 years to expand to where it has today — will one day and without warning be eclipsed by the rule of some adored, charismatic leader of a yet-to-be-seen new-and-improved European Union virtually overnight? …

Qur’an Sura 9:29, “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth [Islam], even if they are of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

By Michael Carl – “Nine of the 10 worst nations for persecution of Christians are run essentially under Islamic law, and the ‘Arab Spring’ across parts of northern African has led to a surge of repression, according to the new Open Doors ‘World Watch’ list.

The other country in the 10 worst nations is North Korea, led by a fanatical communist regime that has regarded its two previous leaders as gods.

The top 10 in this year’s report are in order, North Korea, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Iran, the Maldives, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Iraq and Pakistan.

The report says the biggest jump in persecution of Christians came in two African nations on the edge of the surging “Arab Spring” movement. Sudan moved up from No. 35 to No. 16, and Nigeria moved up from No. 23 to No. 13.

The results in the report, according to Open Doors USA President Carl Moeller, can be attributed to Islamic extremism.

‘The trend is, according to the research we’re doing, Nigeria, Sudan, all across that region in Africa, where the extremism in the north is intent on pressing in on the Christian and animist south,’ Moeller said.

‘You’re seeing a lot of violence; Nigeria’s a great example of that. The southern part of Nigeria is virtually all Christian, evangelical, Pentecostal, very aggressive in its Christianity,’ Moeller said.

Moeller said the northern part of Nigeria is completely different.

‘The north is dominated politically and religiously by extremist elements typified by the radical group Boko Haram,’ Moeller said.

Boko Haram, a name that comes from the region in Nigeria that has seen the uptick in anti-Christian violence, means ‘Western education is a sin.'” Read more.

By Raymond Ibrahim – “The Nigerian church bombings, in which the Islamic group Boko Haram [‘Western Education Is Forbidden’] killed over 40 people celebrating Christmas mass, is just the most obvious example of anti-Christian sentiment in the Muslim world. Elsewhere in this region, Christmas time for Christians is a time of increased threats, harassment, and fear, which is not surprising, considering Muslim clerics maintain that ‘saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone.’ A few examples:

• Egypt: The Coptic Church is being threatened with a repeat of ‘Nag Hammadi,’ the area where drive-by Muslims shot to death six Christians as they exited church after celebrating Christmas mass in 2010. Due to fears of a repetition,the diocese ‘cancel[ed] all festivities for New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve.’
• Indonesia: In a ‘brutal act’ that has ‘strongly affected the Catholic community,’ days before Christmas, ‘vandals decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto … a cross was stolen and the aspersorium was badly damaged.’
• Iran: There were reports of a sharp increase in activities against Christians prior to Christmas by the State Security centers of the Islamic Republic. Local churches were ‘ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year’s celebrations as a show of their compliance and support’ for ‘the two month-long mourning activities of the Shia’ Moslems.’
• Malaysia: Parish priests or their church youth leaders had to get a police permit—requiring them to submit their full names and identity card numbers—simply to ‘visit their fellow church members and belt out ‘Joy to the World,’ [or] ‘Silent Night, Holy Night.'”
• Pakistan: ‘Intelligence reports warned of threats of terrorist attacks on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,’ adding that most church security is ‘inadequate.’ Christians also lamented that ‘extreme power outages have become routine during Christmas and Easter seasons.’

Meanwhile, if Christians under Islam are forced to live like dhimmis—non-Muslims under Muslim authority, and treated as second-class citizens—in the West, voluntarily playing the dhimmi to appease Muslims during Christmas time is commonplace: the University of London held Christmas service featuring readings from the Quran (which condemns the incarnation, that is, Christmas); and ‘a posh Montreal suburb has decided toremove a nativity scene and menorah from town hall rather than acquiesce to demands from a Muslim group to erect Islamic religious symbols.’ Read more…

John 16:2b, “… a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.”

By Mike Pflanz – “It was the latest in a series of attacks blamed on radical Islamists who have vowed to wage a religious war on Nigeria’s Christians and drive them from the country’s majority-Muslim north.

Several dozen Christians had come together for a meeting in a town hall in Mubi, in Adamawa state, to mark the deaths the day before of several people killed in the town.

Up to four gunmen surrounded the building and opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles, killing up to 20 people and leaving another 15 badly injured.

‘We started hearing many gunshots through the windows,’ said Okey Raymond, 48, who was at the meeting.

‘Everyone scampered for safety, but the gunmen chanted: ‘God is great God is great’ while shooting at us.’

Mr Raymond said he hid under a table and escaped through a rear door. The gunmen also carried knives and machetes, the local police commissioner said.

No arrests have been made in the attack, and no one has claimed responsibility.

A purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mubi is close to the Cameroon border and is not in an area covered by a state of emergency declared by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president, following two weeks of sectarian violence.

The country’s population of 160 million people is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.” Read more.

Killings of Christians, Protests Roil Nigeria – “Gunmen stormed a shopkeepers’ meeting in northeast Nigeria and killed at least 20 members of a predominantly Christian ethnic group, apparently following through on an Islamic militia’s ultimatum to kill Christians if they fail to leave the country’s largely Muslim north. The lethal attack against Christians, the second in as many days, poses new challenges to President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. Under his rule, religious violence has surged again in Africa’s most populous nation, whose population is roughly split between Christians and Muslims.” Read more.

Christian Persecution Increased Most In Sudan, Nigeria, Report Says – “Sudan and northern Nigeria saw steeper increases in persecution against Christians than 48 other nations where Christians suffered abuse last year, according to an annual ranking by Christian support organization Open Doors. Sudan – where northern Christians experienced greater vulnerability after southern Sudan seceded in a July referendum, and where Christians were targeted amid isolated military conflicts – jumped 19 places last year from its 2010 ranking, from 35th to 16th, according to Open Doors’ 2012 World Watch List. In northern Nigeria, a rash of Islamist bombings, guerrilla-style attacks and increased government restrictions on Christians contributed to the region leaping by 10 on the list, from 23rd to 13th place.” Read more.

BY JOHN SAINSBURY – “Egypt’s Coptic Christians are carrying a heavy burden this Christmas, which they observe on Jan. 7. What should be a joyous occasion also follows closely on the first anniversary of a church bombing in Alexandria, which killed 23 people and left close to a hundred injured. Bloody confrontations between Copts and Muslims followed, even as Muslim leaders, including the Muslim Brotherhood, denounced the bombing and appealed for calm.

The perpetrators of the bombing have never been identified, compounding Coptic anxieties. The Mubarak government was quick to blame ‘foreign elements,’ specifically a shadowy Palestinian-based organization called the Army of Islam.

But no group has taken responsibility for the attack, and the official investigation was so badly bungled that conspiracy theories quickly acquired currency. Accusing fingers point to the Mubarak regime itself, then on its last legs, as the perpetrator. Its alleged motive was to sow discord between Muslims and Christians and then step in as the only force capable of restoring peace.

In the bewildering climate of rumour and counter-rumour, the one sure thing is that sectarian violence at Christmas has become depressingly routine. On Jan. 7, 2010 (Christmas Day in the Coptic calendar), gunmen murdered eight Christians in Nag Hammadi as they were leaving midnight mass. This year tension is high in the province of Asyut after a Coptic student allegedly posted pictures of the Prophet Mohamed on Facebook, an act of blasphemy in Muslim eyes. An angry mob threatened to lynch the student and, reportedly, some Coptic homes have been burned down.” Read more.

Egyptian Bishop Warns of Another Massacre in Nag Hammadi – “Bishop Kyrillos, the Coptic Orthodox bishop of Nag Hammadi, received last week several threats of attacks to be carried out on churches in Nag Hammadi, either on New Year’s Eve or Christmas Eve on January 6. ‘I do not want another Nag Hammadi Massacre to happen again,’ he said in an interview on the Egyptian independent TV Channel Al Tahrir… The Nag Hammadi diocese will cancel all festivities for New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve, and will end the midnight service early and not after midnight as is the norm.” Read more.

Flashback: Massacre of Christians in Nag Hammadi, Egypt (Video)

Here’s an update on this story …

Beasts of the Earth (Rev 6:8)

Agence France-Presse – “KANO, Nigeria – Gunmen stormed a church in northern Nigeria Thursday and killed six people as they were praying, the pastor said, as an ultimatum from Islamists for Christians in the region to leave expired.

‘It was around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT),’ John Jauro told AFP of the attack in the city of Gombe.

‘I was leading the congregation in prayers. Our eyes were closed when some gunmen stormed the church and opened fire on the congregation. Six people were killed in the attack and 10 others were wounded.’

He said there was confusion as worshippers sought to flee at the Deeper Life Christian Ministry Church.

‘The attackers started shooting sporadically. They shot through the window of the church, and many people were killed including my wife,’ Jauro told Reuters. ‘Many of my members who attended the church service were also injured.’

A police spokesman declined to comment until Friday, saying he was on his way to the church with the state police commissioner.

The attack comes after a purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram on Sunday issued a three-day ultimatum for Christians living in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north to leave the region.

There was however no claim of responsibility for the attack.

The ultimatum came after President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday declared a state of emergency in parts of four states hit hard by violence blamed on Boko Haram, particulary Christmas bombings that killed 49 people.

Gombe is outside the areas affected by the state of emergency decree.

On Wednesday night, bomb blasts hit two northeastern cities that are included in the emergency declaration.

No casualties were reported after the bomb attacks in Maiduguri and Damaturu, claimed by the same purported spokesman for Boko Haram who issued the ultimatum to Christians.” Read more.

Compass Direct News — “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, said a representative from the Jakarta-based Wahid Institute, a Muslim organization that promotes tolerance.

Rumadi, who goes by a single name, said his Wahid Institute also observed an attempt to institutionalize intolerance in this archipelago of about 238 million people, of whom about 88 percent Muslim. At least 36 regulations to ban religious practices deemed deviant from Islam were drafted or implemented in the country in 2011.

A Jakarta-based civil rights group, the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, noted that both the government and groups in society were responsible for the incidents, with the main violators including religious extremist organizations such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

Indonesia’s hot-bed of extremism is West Java, the most populous province that includes the nation’s capital city of Jakarta. This province alone witnessed 160 incidents against religious minorities. In the 1950s, West Java was the base of an Islamist group, Darul Islam, whose splinter groups are still active, fighting the ‘secular’ government and religious minorities.” Read more.

Flashback: Massive Increase of Radical Islamism Spreads Throughout Indonesia, Including ‘Top-Quality’ Universities – “The suicide bombing of a church in Central Java on Sept. 25 pointed not only to a new level of attacks on religious minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country but to a political bent that accommodates Islamist extremism. ‘Radicalization of Islamic teachings and understanding is a problem in Indonesia,’ admitted Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, director general of Islamic Community Guidance under the Ministry of Religious Affairs. ‘There’s a need to re-explain the concept of jihad.’ Pino Damayanto, aka Ahmad Yosepa Hayat, who blew himself up wounding over 20 members of the Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (Bethel Full Gospel Church) in Solo on Sept. 25, apparently believed it was his religious duty to kill ‘the enemies of Islam,’ according to his understanding of ‘jihad.’” Read more.

Hadith: Bukhari 9.84.57, “Muhammad said, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”

By Mike Tighe – “An Iranian pastor facing death a death sentence for refusing to renounce his Christian faith and embrace Islam is expected to spend another year in jail, awaiting an appeal on his death sentence, while government authorities try to force him to convert to Islam.

However, the delay could be a ruse and the Iranian government could kill him in secret, warns the founder of Present Truth Ministries, which was the first to report on Pastor Yosef Nadarkhani’s arrest in October 2009.

That’s the most recent development in Nadarkhani’s religious and political nightmare of more than two years, according to The Christian Post.

Nadarkhani, who has been jailed since he was arrested and charged with apostasy, came within two days of being hanged in September until Iranian court officials — perhaps influenced by international outrage from the Rev. Franklin Graham, House Speaker John Boehner, and other notables around the world — decided to let him appeal the sentence.

The 34-year-old Nadarkhani, who became a Christian at the age of 19, was tried and convicted in December 2010. The pastor of several home congregations in a small Christian community called the Church of Iran, he has refused repeatedly to recant his faith.” Read more.

Iran: Security Authorities Ratchet Up Anti-Christian Campaign with Threats and Intimidation, Bans Selling of Bibles – “Again this year, as Christians and churches in Iran are preparing for Christmas and New Year celebrations, it seems that the security authorities are planning to repeat their violent and inhuman acts of last year to intimidate Iranian Christians. Reports received by Mohabat News from different cities of Iran indicate that security authorities are expanding their anti-Christian projects to exercise tighter surveillance of churches in order to crack down on Christians and attempt to terrorize them… This time, the security agents showed no mercy even to the children of the church and raided their Sunday School class with their faces covered.” Read more.

Flashback: Officials in Iran Frantically Refute Claims That Christianity is Spreading Through ‘Exclusively Islamic’ Cities – “The Iranian media is desperate to refute claims that Christianity is spreading among Iranian youth and through cities considered to be almost exclusively Islamic… but there are definite contradictions in fact to this statement. On October 2, the government-supported news website, Javan-Online, acknowledged that the acceptance of Christianity was becoming a trend and reported 200 house churches were discovered in just a few months in the traditionally Islamic city of Mashhad. Many high ranking government officials and Islamic religious leaders have also made statements expressing concern over the spread of Christianity.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Christian Convert from Islam Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Having ‘Baptism Performed in Turkey’ – “… a Muslim who converted to Christianity six years ago, was sentenced to six years in prison by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Seyyedian’s lawyer, said that his client’s charges are ‘propaganda against the regime’ and ‘acting against national security.’ ‘The judge said that by having his baptism performed in Turkey, he propagated against the regime.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Evangelical Christians are ‘corrupt and deviant, like the Taliban’ – “While we were busily preparing the second round of turkey, stuffed to satisfaction with seasonal excess, the homes of more than 70 Christians in Iran were invaded. In the early hours of 26th December, armed, plain-clothed, ‘special’ security officers forcefully entered the homes of Christians while they slept, and proceeded to abuse them verbally and physically. They were handcuffed and taken for interrogation. Among those arrested were five married couples. One couple was separated from their two-year old child. Another couple was forced to leave their baby still at the breast. A number of single young women were also among those taken.” Read more.

“Islamic militants in Nigeria gave Christians three days to leave the north following President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of a state of emergency in four northern states.

Boko Haram, a Taliban-inspired group that has carried out a series of raids and bombings in the north and the capital, Abuja, also said Muslims should leave the south of Africa’s top oil producer.

The group urged ‘our fellow Muslims to come back to the north because we have evidence that they would be attacked,’ Abu Qaqa, a spokesman for the group, said today in an e-mailed statement. ‘We are also giving three days ultimatum to the southerners living in northern Nigeria to move away.’

Boko Haram, which means ‘Western education is a sin,’ says it’s fighting to establish sharia law in the north. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country of more than 160 million people, is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Qaqa said the state of emergency declared on Dec. 31 ‘was meant to attack Muslims and not to restore normalcy.’

Jonathan declared the emergency in parts of Borno, Yobe, Plateau and Niger states and set up a special counterterrorism unit within the armed forces after attacks left at least 43 people dead and 73 wounded in a Christmas day bombing of a church near Abuja.” Read more.

“(AINA) — Bishop Kyrillos, the Coptic Orthodox bishop of Nag Hammadi, received last week several threats of attacks to be carried out on churches in Nag Hammadi, either on New Year’s Eve or Christmas Eve on January 6. ‘I do not want another Nag Hammadi Massacre to happen again,’ he said in an interview on the Egyptian independent TV Channel Al Tahrir. On January 6, 2010 6 Copts were killed and more than 15 injured in a drive-by shooting of worshippers as they left church after celebrating the Coptic Orthodox Christmas Eve’s mass, which falls on January 6 according to the Julian Calender (AINA 1-7-2010).

The Nag Hammadi diocese will cancel all festivities for New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve, and will end the midnight service early and not after midnight as is the norm.

‘I have reported to the police all the threats received and asked for protection. I told them that I am ready to ask our youth to organize committees to protect the churches,’ said Bishop Kyrillos. ‘Yesterday I sent an appeal to Field Marshall Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the prime minister and the interior minister, asking them to secure Nag Hammadi, which has experienced repeated acts of violence.’

At the end of 2009, despite warnings by local church authorities in Nag Hammadi of possible violence during the Coptic festivities in January 2010, police had not bolstered security for Christmas.

Bishop Kyrillos believes that the reason behind these new threats is his unwavering support for the Copts of his diocese, who are plagued by an escalating series of kidnappings. The Bishop councils his parishioners not to give in to the kidnappers by paying the ransoms, but instead to report the crime to the police. ‘I cannot and will not stay inactive while I see the terrified Coptic families paying all what they have, and sometimes what they do not have, to get their children back.'” Read more.

Leader of Egyptian Al-Tagammu’ Party: The Christians in Egypt Have Every Right to Be Scared (Video)