Bangladeshi Christians told to close church, convert to Islam

Published 03 October 2013  |  World Watch Monitor

A local government official in central Bangladesh has halted the construction of a church, forced Christians to worship at a mosque and threatened them with eviction from their village unless they renounce their faith.

The Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church in Bilbathuagani village, Tangail district, about 100 kilometres north of Dhaka, was created Sept. 8 by a group of about 25 Christians who had been meeting secretly for three years.

However, local council chairman Rafiqul Islam Faruk joined around 200 demonstrators September 13 to protest against the start of the building of the church.

The following day, the Christians were summoned to his office. More than 1,000 Muslims waited outside, following an announcement at all local mosques to gather at the chairman’s office.

Ordered to embrace Islam

Mokrom Ali, 32, told World Watch Monitor he was forced to accept Islam. (more…)

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Heathrow Airport worker challenges ‘anti-Islam’ dismissal

Nohad Halawi is contesting her dismissal from a Heathrow Airport duty free counter where she worked for over a decadeCHRISTIAN TODAY – Published 04 October 2013  |  Mark Caplin

Nohad Halawi is contesting her dismissal from a Heathrow Airport duty free counter where she worked for over a decade

A Christian woman who was dismissed from her work at a Heathrow airport beauty counter over claims she was “anti-Islam” is taking her case to an employment appeal tribunal today.

Nohad Halawi denies the accusation, which arose after a conversation she had with a colleague, in which she described him as a “man of God”, was taken by another Muslim colleague to be a criticism of Islam.

She is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, which says that although the dispute was resolved by her manager, another Muslim colleague started spreading false rumours that Mrs Halawi was “anti-Islam”.

This led to the management taking the decision to suspend and withdraw her airside pass, which is required to work at the airport.

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US Plans To Force Israel To Accept A Palestinian State With Jerusalem As The Capital

US Plans To Force Israel To Accept A Palestinian State With Jerusalem As The Capitalhttp://thetruthwins.com

If Israel and the Palestinians do not agree on a “two state solution” by the end of this year, the Obama administration plans to propose its own solution and force it on the two sides in early 2014.

For Obama, the goal is to have this agreement in place in time to influence the November 2014 mid-term elections. Unfortunately for Israel, the Palestinians have absolutely no incentive to move off of their current demands because Obama has been promising them a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital since very early in his presidency.

So the Palestinians have no motivation to negotiate in good faith since they already know that they are going to get what they want in the end anyway. Ultimately, Obama plans to force Israel to give up the West Bank, East Jerusalem and control over the Temple Mount in exchange for a “promise of peace” that is not even worth the paper that it will be printed on.

Obama made the following statement about Israel earlier this year…

“Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.”

Not only does Obama believe that he knows what is best for Israel, he also plans to force them to do it. (more…)

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John McCain and ‘Allahu Akbar’

Freedom Center – David Horowitz – September 4, 2013 By Robert Spencer

Tuesday morning, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) got a bit hot under the collar when Brian Kilmeade of Fox News noted that the Syrian rebels whom Barack Obama and McCain want to aid militarily were shouting “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!” as rockets hit Syrian government offices. McCain’s response to Kilmeade demonstrated not only his ignorance of Islam, but his abysmal misjudgment of what is happening in Syria. And on the basis of that ignorance, he is aiding Obama’s rush to yet another war.

“I have a problem,” Kilmeade said, “helping those people screaming that after a hit.” That incensed McCain, who shot back: “Would you have a problem with an American or Christians saying ‘thank God? Thank God?’ That’s what they’re saying. Come on! Of course they’re Muslims, but they’re moderates and I guarantee you they are moderates.”

Wrong on all counts. In the first place, it does not mean “thank God,” as McCain seems to have affirmed when he said, “That’s what they’re saying.” Allahu akbar means “Allah is greater” – not, as it is often translated, “God is great.” The significance of this is enormous, as it is essentially a proclamation of superiority and supremacism. Allah is greater – than any of the gods of the infidels, and Islam is superior to all other religions.

Al-Islam.org states this obliquely: “Allahu akbar implies that God is superior to all tangible and intangible, temporal and celestial beings.” This may seem to be an innocuous theological statement until one recalls that Islam has always had a political aspect, and Islamic jihadists always shout “Allahu akbar” when attacking infidels. It is a declaration of the superiority of their god and their way of life over those of their victims. 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta also stated that it was meant to make the infidels afraid. He wrote instructions to jihadists that were found in his baggage: “Shout, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers.”

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Monash University Journalism Article on Rise Up Australia Party

Dear friends, We’re forwarding the following Monash University Journalism Article by Jackson Stiles regarding Rise Up Australia Party for your interest. The picture shows Pastor Daniel Nalliah flanked by two Israeli…

Continue ReadingMonash University Journalism Article on Rise Up Australia Party

IRAN: FOUR CHRISTIANS SENTENCED TO 80 LASHES FOR DRINKING COMMUNION WINE

IranFor Immediate Release – 23 October 2013 – Christian Solidarity Worldwide

A court in the Iranian city of Rasht has sentenced four members of the Church of Iran denomination to 80 lashes each for drinking wine during a communion service.

The verdict, dated 6 October, charges Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi (Youhan), Mehdi Dadkhah (Danial) and Amir Hatemi (Youhanna) with drinking alcohol and possession of a receiver and satellite antenna. They received the verdict on 20 October and have ten days to appeal the sentence.

Behzad Taalipasand and Mehdi Reza Omidi (Youhan) were detained on 31 December 2012 during a crackdown on house churches by the Iranian government.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said, “The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalise the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord’s Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably. We urge the Iranian authorities to ensure that the nation’s legal practices and procedures do not contradict its international obligation under the International Convent on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to guarantee the full enjoyment of freedom of religion or belief by all of its religious communities.”

(more…)

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Premier Barry O’Farrell condemns Jewish attack as community on alert folllowing Bondi bashing

by: Clementine Cuneo, Leigh Van Den Broeke and AAP From: The Daily Telegraph - October 28, 2013 NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says there will be zero tolerance for religious discrimination…

Continue ReadingPremier Barry O’Farrell condemns Jewish attack as community on alert folllowing Bondi bashing

US should condemn Saudi Arabia religious abuses

Christian Today –  24 August 2013  |  Mark Caplin

The World Evangelical Alliance has said the US government must do more to hold Saudi Arabia to account on religious liberty.

Saudi Arabia has been on the US State Department’s Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list since 2004.  Countries on the list can be subject to economic sanctions but the WEA states in a new report that these have been waived in the case of Saudi Arabia since 2006.

The WEA suggests the US is having little impact in improving religious rights in the Wahhabi Sunni kingdom and points to the recent sentencing of cyber activist Raef Badawi to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for offending Islam and violating the kingdom’s cyber crime law.

Similar sentences this year include that handed to a Christian Lebanese man accused of helping a Saudi women convert to Christianity. The Saudi Gazette reported that he was sentenced to six years in prison and 300 lashes, and the daughter sentenced to six years and 300 lashes, although she reportedly fled to Sweden.

(more…)

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Over 11,000 Egyptian Youth Gather in Desert to Dedicate Their Lives to Christ

Open Doors Staff (Oct 9, 2013)

“I was surrounded by a massive crowd of people who were taught to love and forgive. Their genuine spirit of love and angelic worship did not leave my thought!” –a Muslim journalist

Given the precarious political and security situation in Egypt, including the death of 53 over the weekend in fighting between security forces and former president Mohammed Morsi supporters, it is hard to imagine that a huge Christian youth conference being held for three days by over 11,000 youth from 250 churches from all denominations could actually be a reality.

But from Sept. 26-28 the “One Thing 2013” youth conference took place for the fifth year in a row in a stadium inside a church conference facility out in the desert 70 miles north of Cairo.

Thousands of youth gathered to seek God’s will not only in their own lives, but in their own country of Egypt as well. It was a major operation to transport thousands from their home cities, towns and villages to the conference venue. About 4,000 youth came all the way from various southern Egyptian cities, even though Egypt’s train system was suspended due to security threats.

Around 7,000 young people had to commute each day back and forth from Cairo, Alexandria and other nearby cities in order to attend the conference. To make sure people came and left on time inside curfew hours, and buses safely commuted everyone, was a daily miracle. None of these hundreds of cars, vans or buses engaged in any minor or major road accidents—something that Christian Egyptians don’t take for granted.

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Despite Death Threats, Blasphemy Charges, Youngren Gospel Festival Reaches Thousands

Bill Roberts

Last week’s gospel festival in Makassar, Indonesia, was planned as an outreach to the 2.6 million-strong Makassar people with less than 500 believers. No one could have predicted the outcome—capacity crowds, amazing healings, death threats and on the last day Peter Youngren being called to the police headquarters to be interrogated for ‘blasphemy against Islam,’ a crime that carries a five-year prison sentence.

After pressure from Muslim extremists and with only one day to go until the festival, the city mayor canceled the permit for the event to be held on the huge open grounds in the center of the city. It seemed that all was lost, but God had other plans.

“In spite of everything that happened, this has been one of the most amazing weeks in 30 years of gospel ministry because of how God turned this around,” Youngren says.

The Youngren ministry has conducted 26 gospel festivals in Indonesia since the year 2000, and only twice has a stadium or outdoor venue been canceled due to security reasons.

“The other two times we felt a sense of loss that we had missed an opportunity to present the gospel, but this time was different,” explains Youngren.

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The Blood of Christians on Obama’s Hands

Townhall.com ^ | September 10, 2013 | Scottie Hughes

Thirty-five miles northeast of Damascus is a small Christian village built into the mountains of Syria. Until yesterday, the most interesting thing about this town called Maaloula was that its 6,000 residents are among the last in the world who still speak Aramaic – the language Christ spoke as a boy in a carpentry shop, as man giving a sermon from a mount, and on the eve of his death and resurrection when he broke bread and poured wine and said, “This is my body…. This is my blood.”

Yesterday, according to reports by eyewitnesses, the Christians of Maaloula were attacked by a vicious army with no respect for human life and a special hatred for the Christians it calls infidels. They were driven from their homes. They were murdered in their streets.

Based on the recent rhetoric from President Obama and his administration, you might at first assume that the Syrian dictator and his army were responsible for this hate crime against the innocent Aramaic-speaking Christians of Maaloula. But the truth is quite the contrary. As has been the case in many prior attacks on Syria’s Christian minority, the culprits were al-Qaeda-linked rebels – the very same rebels Mr. Obama is preparing to help by bombing the Assad regime.

This past Sunday, as President Obama and his administration ratcheted up the usual media spin machine to promote their agenda, I was hoping pastors across the United States would stand up with moral courage and tell their congregations the truth about the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Syria. I was hoping that they would ratchet up the calls for the truth about who our enemies are. However, this administration and their media puppets have done such a good job of confusing the situation, many of those pastors have no idea who our enemy is.

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Blunt words about Muslim backwardness

Mark Steyn – Jewish World Review Sept. 9, 2013/ 5 Tishrei, 5774

In 2010, the bestselling atheist Richard Dawkins, in the “On Faith” section of the Washington Post, called the pope “a leering old villain in a frock” perfectly suited to “the evil corrupt organization” and “child-raping institution” that is the Catholic Church. Nobody seemed to mind very much.

Three years later, in a throwaway Tweet, Professor Dawkins observed that “all the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. They did great things in the Middle Ages, though.” This time round, the old provocateur managed to get a rise out of folks. Almost every London paper ran at least one story on the “controversy.”

The Independent’s Owen Jones fumed, “How dare you dress your bigotry up as atheism. You are now beyond an embarrassment.”

The best-selling author Caitlin Moran sneered, “It’s time someone turned Richard Dawkins off and then on again. Something’s gone weird.” The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Chivers beseeched him, “Please be quiet, Richard Dawkins, I’m begging.”

None of the above is Muslim. Indeed, they are, to one degree or another, members of the same secular liberal media elite as Professor Dawkins. Yet all felt that, unlike Dawkins’s routine jeers at Christians, his Tweet had gone too far. It’s factually unarguable: Trinity graduates have amassed 32 Nobel prizes, the entire Muslim world a mere 10.

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