Christianophobia – A Faith Under Attack

Colorado Springs, December 21 2012 (World Watch Monitor) — By Steve Rabey

Jesus warned his followers that they would experience persecution, a prediction that was already coming true before the books of the New Testament were completed. Today, Shortt argues, “the greatest curbs on religious freedoms take place in Muslim majority countries.”

Take Egypt, where Christianity grew deep roots in the centuries before Mohammed. Today, there are more than 10 million Christians among a population of more than 80 million. But Christians have faced increasing pressures in recent decades, and the overthrow of a dictator and a historic election that promoted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi have complicated matters even more.

The book documents how attacks and bombings of churches have increased since the election; forced emigration is shrinking the Christian population; Coptic Christians (the largest group of Egyptian Christians) face systematic obstacles to promotion in the army, police and legal professions; Coptic women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam; and Muslims who convert to Christianity may be shunned, harassed, physically harmed and even killed.

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Christians are targeted — by independent groups or governments — in some 131 countries world-wide

JewishWorldReview.com | At the height of the Nazi Holocaust, the wretched human cargo spilling out of cattle cars onto the platforms of Auschwitz was immediately subject to a brutal selection by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, whose flick of a finger to the left meant immediate death in a gas chamber; to the right, slave labor and slow death from starvation or disease.

Fast forward to 2012 Nigeria, where a latter-day incarnation of selection has been used—this time not against Jews, but against Christians.

Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth. Among its chief blessings are oil and a large array of religious, tribal and language groups. Yet conflict, violence and terrorism are part of reality there, too.

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Uganda’s President Publicly Repents

Teresa Neumann (Breaking Christian News – Nov 27, 2012)

“We want to dedicate this nation to You so that You will be our God and guide. We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfil what the Bible says in Psalm 33:12: ‘Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord. A people You have chosen as Your own’ . . . And I hereby covenant Uganda to You, to walk in Your ways and experience all Your blessings forever.” -President Yoweri Museveni

(Uganda)—A report in Uganda’s leading daily newspaper, New Vision, states that at the National Jubilee Prayers in Namboole, President Yoweri Museveni made history when he openly repented of his sins and the sins of Uganda.

The following is the text of Museveni’s repentance speech:

Father God in Heaven, today we stand here as Ugandans, to thank you for Uganda. We are proud that we are Ugandans and Africans. We thank you for all Your goodness to us.

I stand here today to close the evil past—especially in the last 50 years of our national leadership history. [We are] at the threshold of a new dispensation in the life of this nation. I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to repent. We ask for Your forgiveness.

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‘Militant Islam’ Greatest Threat to Middle Eastern Christianity, Says Think Tank

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter – December 26, 2012

A British think tank has released a lengthy report claiming that militant Islam is the greatest existential threat to Middle Eastern Christianity, bringing Christian communities in the region “close to extinction.”

The London-based Civitas, also known as the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, published the report in December. “Christianity is in serious danger of being wiped out in its biblical heartlands because of Islamic oppression,” reads a statement from the group issued Sunday.

“But Western politicians and media largely ignore the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the wider world because they are afraid they will be accused of racism.”

Titled “Christianophobia” and written by reporter and Religion Editor for The Times Literary Supplement Rupert Shortt, the report details the persecution of Christians in Burma, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

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Persecution of Christians in 10/40 Window Up by 400 Percent, Says GFA

By Jeff Schapiro , Christian Post Reporter – November 1, 2012

The persecution of Christians in the 10/40 Window has increased by 400 percent over the last 10 years, which is why Gospel for Asia (GFA) is calling on Christians to spend an entire day, not just a few minutes, fasting and praying for the persecuted church.

“Americans who have not experienced persecution do not fully understand what it means to have their lives threatened, homes destroyed, rights violated and loved ones imprisoned, all because of embracing faith in Jesus Christ,” said K. P. Yohannan, GFA founder and president, in a statement. “In the 14 countries we serve, persecution of this sort has become a normal way of life, especially for those directly involved in mission work.”

The 10/40 Window is a section of the world – between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator – that encompasses those nations that have been least reached with the Gospel message. These nations include China, India, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria, just to name a few.

On Sunday, Nov. 4, churches across the U.S. took time to pray for persecuted believers around the world as a part of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), but GFA says a simple “nod” toward the problem isn’t enough.

The organization hopes churches will do more than say a brief prayer as a part of their morning worship services on Sunday. Instead, GFA wants them to intercede for their Christian brothers and sisters for the entire length of their services. The organization is also encouraging those who are physically able to fast for the persecuted church, and, if possible, take a day off from work to spend time in prayer.

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Seven Egyptian Christians sentenced to death for anti-Islam video

Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 by Deacon Benjamin – Times of India

CAIRO: A Cairo court on Wednesday sentenced to death seven Egyptian Christians tried in absentia for participating in an anti-Islam video that was released on the Internet in September and prompted violent protests in Muslim countries.

“The seven accused persons were convicted of insulting the Islamic religion through participating in producing and offering a movie that insults Islam and its prophet,” Judge Saif al-Nasr Soliman said.

The low-budget video, produced privately in California, denigrated the Prophet Mohammad and triggered anti-US protests and attacks on Western embassies around the Muslim world.

The convicted persons included Egyptian-American Nakoula Bassely Nakoula, who is currently serving a one-year-jail term in Los Angeles after an American court convicted him of probation violations that stemmed from his role in the movie.

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Why Christian Persecution Is Islam’s Achilles’ Heel

November 30, 2012 By Raymond Ibrahim Comments 

Which of the following three headlines is most difficult for the media—including the usual array of liberal pundits, apologists, academics, and politicians—to whitewash or rationalize away?  Which most exposes Islam’s inherent intolerance?

A)   “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims fire rockets into Israel

B)   “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims riot and commit acts of violence in Europe

C)   “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims torch a Christian church in a Muslim country

The answer is C—Christian persecution.

Why?

Because in both scenarios A and B, Muslims will always be portrayed and seen as the “underdogs”—and hence always exonerated for their behavior.  No matter how violent or ugly, no matter how many Islamic slogans are shrieked—thus placing their behavior in a purely Islamic context—Muslim violence against the West and Israel will always be dismissed as a product of the weak and outnumbered status of Muslims—their status as underdogs, which the West tends to romanticize.  And so they will always get a free pass, without further ado.

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‘Hands-off Christmas and Good Friday’

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS – 10th Nov 2012

Johannesburg – A group of Christian demonstrators handed over a memorandum to Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor on Saturday to oppose a proposal to remove Good Friday and Christmas as public holidays.

“Hands-off Christmas and Good Friday,” said the group outside Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.

The group of around 100 protesters which were led by head of the African Christian Democratic Parties Reverend Kenneth Meshoe delivered a memorandum of understanding to Pandor to oppose a motion by the Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.

The commission was allegedly exploring the idea of requesting government to scrap Good Friday and Christmas from the national calendar. They alleged that the celebrating of the two Christian holidays discriminated and excluded other religious denominations.

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Franklin Graham Evangelizes Nearly 100,000 in South Sudan

Charisma News – Bob Paulson – BillyGraham.org (BGEA)

“Hope for a New Nation” brought the gospel home to nearly 100,000 people Friday and Saturday at John Gerang Memorial Park in Juba, and the people received the message with joy.

Both days began in sweltering heat, with the sun beating down on the thousands in attendance. People found shade where they could, or used umbrellas or even a washcloth on their heads to fight the heat.

In spite of the heat, the 500-member choir sang for more than a half hour straight in a jubilant offering of praise to God that had many in the crowd swaying and dancing as well.

As the sun sank lower, offering relief from the heat, The Tommy Coomes Band and Dennis Agajanian also presented songs of praise. Then Franklin Graham preached from the Word of God: The story of Bartimeus the blind man on Friday, and the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector on Saturday.

These are simple stories of how God met people in their need, but God obviously drove the message into hearts. Both evenings, when Graham gave the invitation to receive Christ, people young and old alike ran forward to the platform. Over the two nights, more than 6,270 responded to the invitation.

As the inquirers were being counseled on Saturday, Bishop James Lagos Alexander, national coordinator for the Festival, said: “I think this is a great feeling. And it’s telling me that God is answering our prayers.

“And today, it’s wonderful. So God is reigning in this nation. God is blessing this nation. God is pouring in and bringing hope to this nation. And God’s Name will be exalted. And South Sudan is not going to be the same. God has visited us yesterday and tonight, and we’re not going to be the same. And the churches of this land are not going to be the same. Praise the Lord. May His Name be praised!”

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Defending Sudan’s Christians from Islamist Terror

October 23, 2012 By Mark D. Tooley 

The Church of England’s Archbishop of York continues to distinguish himself as a frequent fly in the ointment of political correctness by defending British culture and Christianity. Himself a Ugandan refugee from the horrors of Idi Amin, John Sentamu is thankful for the civilization that has protected and elevated him.  It’s perhaps no great surprise that a Church of England commission assigned to nominate the next Archbishop of Canterbury, who would be their church’s and the global Anglican Communion’s senior prelate, declined to nominate Sentamu.  Amid allegations of adamant resistance by some to the Archbishop of York, who is a strong and sometimes polarizing figure, the commission instead has so far failed in its duty and nominated nobody.   The Church of England is left dangling.  Almost certainly the Archbishop of York would provide greater leadership and clarity than the often left-leaning, poet intellectual who is currently the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Further evidence of Sentamu’s leadership emerged in an October 17 speech he delivered to the House of Lords in defense of the besieged and mostly Christian people of South Sudan.  The South Sudanese won their independence from the brutal Islamist regime in Khartoum last year after decades of vicious war in which millions perished.  Yet Sudan’s tyrants still threaten the south just as they continue to wage war against various Muslim minority groups in northern Sudan that don’t subscribe to Khartoum’s nasty brand of radical Islam.

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Deadly Kenya grenade attack hits children in church

BBC News Africa – 1st Oct 2012

One child has been killed and three seriously hurt, police say, in a grenade attack on a church’s Sunday school in the Kenya capital, Nairobi.

The attacker targeted St Polycarp’s church on Juja Road.

A police spokesman blamed sympathisers of Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamist militant group, angry over Kenya’s role in the UN-backed intervention force.

A mob later rounded on Somalis living near the church with sticks and stones in a suspected revenge attack.

Police chief Moses Nyakwama told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that 13 people had been injured in the revenge attack, in the suburb of Eastleigh.

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Jesus Moving in Muslim World Through Dreams, Visions

9/7/2012 – Charisma News – Steve Yount 

As a missionary, Tom Doyle has made dozens of trips to the Middle East. But when he first heard the stories of God working in a supernatural way there, he had trouble believing them.

Then, in the words of one of his friends, “God showed me that my theology does not determine his actions,” Doyle and co-author Greg Webster write in the just-released Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World.

Doyle fell in love with the Middle East on his first biblical tour of the Holy Land. After 20 years as a pastor in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, he felt called to full-time ministry in the Middle East in 2001 and accepted e3 Partners‘ offer to direct its ministry there. He has since become a vice president for e3, a church-planting ministry that works in more than 40 countries.

The book is a collection of never-before-told stories from the front lines of the campaign to bring the gospel to the world of Islam. In his 11 years working in the Middle East, Doyle has met former Muslims who were first introduced to Jesus through either a dream or a vision.

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Christian Students Executed by Boko Haram in Nigeria; Believers Pray for ‘Change of Heart

By Katherine Weber , Christian Post Reporter – October 3, 2012

Multiple sources have confirmed that about 25 to 30 Christian college students were massacred at a university in northeastern Nigeria late Monday night, causing Christians to pray for a “change of heart” among the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram to put a stop to the continued violence.

While there is speculation as to the motive of the massacre, sources close to the human rights watchdog Open Doors USA confirm that the massacre was performed by Boko Haram.

Emily Fuentes, the communications and public relations coordinator for Open Doors who recently visited Nigeria and spoke to Christian leaders about Boko Haram, told The Christian Post that believers around the world can agree that prayer is the “only thing that will change the people of Boko Haram.”

“There are people who are turning to Christ who used to be in the Boko Haram, and God is changing their hearts,” Fuentes told CP.

“A lot of Christians believe that God will change these peoples’ hearts,” she added.

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Muslim Immigrants Five Times More Likely to Commit Crimes than Australians

Posted by Daniel Greenfield Bio ? on Sep 27th, 2012 

According to the Victorial Police Commissioner...

Sudanese and Somali-born Victorians are about five times more likely to commit crimes than the wider community, a trend that must be addressed to prevent Cronulla-style social unrest, police warn. The most common crimes committed by Somali and Sudanese-born Victorians are assault and robbery illustrating the trend towards increasingly violent robberies by disaffected African youths.

Are they mugging Australians because they are “disaffected” or because they make money that way?

‘Property is one of the issues, so they’re stealing iPhones or money or things of value,” Mr Cartwright said.

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Islam’s Universal Economic Failure

Posted by Daniel Greenfield Bio ? on Aug 1st, 2012

If Romney accomplished nothing else during his Israeli visit, he did manage to offend every single Palestinian Arab terrorist group, all of whom, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and the DFLP, issued press releases denouncing him. American media outlets have been denouncing him for saying that the GDP Per Capita differences between Israel and the Palestinian Authority represent a contrast in values.

The official media narrative is that these differences are the results of oppression, checkpoints and blockades. But then why does the IMF put Israel’s GDP Per Capita well ahead of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia has no Israeli checkpoints, no Israeli soldiers or planes flying overhead. It has wealth literally pouring out of the ground with a fifth of the world’s petroleum reserves. And yet the IMF puts it 13 places behind Israel and the World Bank puts it 8 places behind Israel. The only Muslim countries with a better GDP Per Capita than Israel are small monarchies drowning in oil.

The non-oil Muslim countries who are closest to Israel are Malaysia and Lebanon, 32 and 33 places behind Israel. Both countries also have sizable non-Muslim populations. Muslims make up only 50 percent of Lebanon and only 60 percent of Malaysia. No Muslim country without oil has a better GDP Per Capita than a Muslim country with sizable Christian or Buddhist minorities.

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