New study: wealthy, better educated Muslims more likely to wage jihad

Robert Spencer – Jihad Watch

This study makes a statement that is absurd on its face when it says that “religious practice” plays no role in “violent radicalization,” when in reality we have seen time and time again that jihad terrorists are devout, observant Muslims who appeal to peaceful Muslims by invoking the Qur’an and the example of Muhammad and portraying themselves as the true Muslims. But nonetheless, this study debunks once again one of the core assumptions of the Washington foreign policy establishment: that poverty causes terrorism, and that therefore throwing money at the problem of jihad will make it go away.

“Risk factors for violent radicalization: youth, wealth and education,” from Medical News Today, March 21 (thanks to LA):

New research from Queen Mary University of London has found youth, wealth, and being in full-time education to be risk factors associated with violent radicalisation. Contrary to popular views – religious practice, health and social inequalities, discrimination, and political engagement showed no links.

The pioneering research assessed population prevalence of sympathies for terrorist acts – a key marker of vulnerability to violent radicalisation – and their relationship with commonly assumed causes of radicalisation. The community study surveyed over 600 men and women of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Muslim heritage in London and Bradford, aged 18-45.

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Pakistan’s blasphemy law used to “kill innocent Christians without giving them a chance to prove their innocence”

Robert Spencer– Jihad Watch

Savan Masih was accused of blasphemy after a Muslim barber, who no doubt considered him an unclean Infidel (in accord with Qur’an 9:28), refused him a haircut, and they started to argue about religion. Following that, a 3,000-strong Muslim mob rampaged through a Christian area of Lahore. And no Savan Masih, if convicted, will be executed.

“NEWS ALERT: Verdict Expected In Pakistan Blashemy [sic] Case,” from BosNewsLife, March 21:

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)– A verdict was expected in Pakistan Saturday, March 22, in a controversial case involving a young Christian man charged with blasphemy against Islam, which sparked one of the country’s worst anti-Christian riots.

Savan Masih, 27, was detained in March 2013 after allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Residents said the problems began when Masih was refused a hair cut by the local barber shop’s Muslim owner, Imran Shahid. The incident triggered a heated exchange about religion between the two men, residents said at the time.

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OUGHT TO BE STRIPPED OF THEIR LEGAL STATUS

SOURCE: Christian Institute

Christian weddings should be stripped of their legal status, a justice minister has said.

Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes proposes that only secular, state-recognized ceremonies should have legal recognition in the U.K., a system adopted in France.

In practice, his proposals would mean that in order for a Christian couple to have their marriage recognized, they would need to have a secular ceremony in addition to a church wedding.

The French system is based on laïcité—a concept that separates state and religion—and Hughes says marriages on the British side of the channel should be subjected to the same principles.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat spring conference, he said, “We should do what the Belgians do and the French do.

“It can be done even in the same building on the same day, but you would have a ceremony by which the state recognizes the marriage, the wedding, and then the faith community has the ceremony which gives that the authority.”

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Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted GroupRaymond Ibrahim – Frontpage Magazine

Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the most persecuted religious group in the world?  And why is their persecution occurring primarily throughout the Islamic world?  (In the category on “Countries with Very High Government Restrictions on Religion,” Pew lists 24 countries—20 of which are Islamic and precisely where the overwhelming majority of “the world’s” Christians are actually being persecuted.)

The reason for this ubiquitous phenomenon of Muslim persecution of  Christians is threefold:

Christianity is the largest religion in the world.  There are Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of the Muslim world.  Moreover, because much of the land that Islam seized was originally Christian—including the Middle East and North Africa, the region that is today known as the “Arab world”—Muslims everywhere are still confronted with vestiges of Christianity, for example, in Syria, where many ancient churches and monasteries are currently being destroyed by al-Qaeda linked, U.S. supported “freedom fighters.”  Similarly, in Egypt, where Alexandria was a major center of ancient Christianity before the 7th century Islamic invasions, there still remain at least 10 million Coptic Christians (though some put the number at much higher). Due to sheer numbers alone, then, indigenous Christians are much more visible and exposed to attack by Muslims than other religious groups throughout the Arab world.   Yet as CNS News puts it, “President Obama expressed hope that the ‘Arab Spring’ would give rise to greater religious freedom in North Africa and the Middle East, which has had the world’s highest level of hostility towards religion in every year since 2007, when Pew first began measuring it. However, the study finds that these regions actually experienced the largest increase in religious hostilities in 2012.”

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When Witch Doctors Fail, Jesus Delivers Miraculous Healing

Gospel for Asia

Kalith and his forefathers had a deal: He worshipped them with sacrifices of goats, pigs and chickens, and they kept him from harm. So when Kalith started experiencing severe stomach pain, he couldn’t figure out why his forefathers didn’t heal him.

Kalith and his family performed the regular rituals and sacrifices as he tried medicine after medicine, but the illness continued for three years. It wasn’t until Gospel for Asia pastor Oojam asked to pray for Kalith that things began to look up.

“I tried everything to get healing, but nothing is working in me,” Kalith told the pastor. “Pray, and if your God answers your prayer and heals me, I will [follow] Him.”

A week later, through Pastor Oojam’s prayers, Kalith was healed, and his neighbors took notice. Kalith, his wife and two other couples became the first believers in the village, and others quickly joined them.

The new congregation built a temporary church building to meet in, but even that didn’t have enough room for the growing fellowship. The building wasn’t strong enough for the local weather either. The building’s thatched roof leaked all through monsoon season.

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RUAP Media Release: A selfless Federal Budget affects the selfish mind set We must think of our children and grandchildren – If not we might have to depend on Islamic Sharia Finance

Rise Up Australia PartyGeneral Immediate Media Release 27th May 2014

Today from his office in Melbourne the National President of RUAP, Daniel Nalliah, called on people in Australia not to be selfish but instead to be selfless.

He stated, “in the past 2 weeks I have been watching many protesting the Federal Budget. Let me ask you a question, ‘Why are you protesting against the budget??

Is it because you are being led by organised gangs in Universities and Unions? Is it the media hype? Is it because you are a member of the opposition (Labor or Greens, etc.)?

Or, is it simply because we are so selfish?’

One of Rise Up Australia Party’s election campaign policies was to ‘Keep Australia debt free’. So how can we do it, and more importantly why should we do it??

I took a good look at the federal budget over the past few days and realised, that this is quite a hard hitting budget for our back pocket, but it is worth paying the price in order to Keep Australia debt free. Unfortunately, we also have very short memories. Whenever Labor takes office they dole out large sums of money, which they have promised to give before elections, in order to get elected. Perhaps, we can call it a bribe. Then of course they do what they are very good at doing, guess what?? Run the country into debt.

The Coalition Government (Liberal & National) have a reputation of putting the country back in order by cleaning up the mess Labor & Greens have created. But this is hard work. It does not come with bags of lollies, or claps and cheers.

Well, the budget is hard hitting, but let’s be self-sacrificing and think of our children and grandchildren. Are you willing to pay the price now?? Or are you going to leave our country in a mess for them??

What is most interesting is the creeping in of Islamic Sharia Finance into the Western world. Today the West is in debt to the Middle East, in particular Saudi Arabia, which demands the promotion of Islam (the worst type of Islam known as Sunni / Wahhabism) in return for their petro dollars.

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Allah’s Sword of Terror

Raymond Ibrahim of Frontpage Magazine

The first time I heard about Khalid bin al-Walid—the 7th century Muslim jihadi affectionately known in Islamic history as “The Sword of Allah”—was when I was in college researching for my MA thesis on the Battle of Yarmuk, when the Muslims, under Khalid’s generalship, defeated the Byzantines in 636, opening the way for the historic Islamic conquests.

Nearly a decade and a half later, Khalid, that jihadi par excellence, has come to personify a dichotomy for me—how the jihad is understood in the West and how it really is: officially, Western academia, media, and politicians portray it as defensive war to protect Muslim honor and territory; in reality, however, jihad is all too often little more than a byword to justify the most primitive and barbaric passions of its potential recruits and practitioners.

Based on the English language sources I perused in college, Khalid was a heroic, no-nonsense kind of jihadi—fierce but fair, stern but just.  He was the champion of the Apostasy Wars, when he slaughtered countless Arabs for trying to leave Islam after the death of Muhammad.

Modern day Muslims writing about Khalid—see for example Pakistani army lieutenant-general A.I Akram’s The Sword of Allah—had naught but praise for him, the scourge of infidels and apostates.

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Billionaire Bill Gates: ‘It Makes Sense to Believe in God’

Gina Meeks – Charisma News

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, recently revealed that his family goes to Catholic Church while also admitting his doubts about God.

“The moral systems of religion, I think, are superimportant. We’ve raised our kids in a religious way; they’ve gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in,” Gates said in an interview with Rolling Stone for the March 27 issue. “I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.”

When asked if he believed in God, the 58-year-old billionaire said, “I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.”

But he also said he agrees “with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths.”

He explains: “Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm—not all—that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs].”

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Jihadi Group in Syria Amputates Alleged Thief’s Hand

The Clarion Project

In the first of its kind, a hard-line Islamist group vying for power in Syria, live “tweeted” the amputation of an accused thief’s hand on Twitter.

The gruesome photos released by the group ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) on a live internet feed came in a series: The first one showed a blind-folded man being held next to a table with one man dressed in a traditional white robe reading a statement. Standing next to him is a man in a traditional black balaclava holding a large sword.

The second shot shows the man being retrained while the sword comes down on his hand. The last shot shows the man looking like he has fainted with his severed hand lying bloodied on the table.

ISI claimed that the man asked for the punishment “in order to cleanse his sins.”

Twitter subsequently suspended the account from its website.

ISIS, an outgrowth of the Al Qaeda-linked ISI (Islamic State in Iraq) was formed in Iraq nearly a year ago but was disowned by Al Qaeda Feb. 3 for being too extreme. The group, composed of mainly foreign jihadis, has become a major player in the war against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

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Daughter of Egyptian Military Intelligence Chief Left Islam

By Mark Ellis God Reports

As a child she was taught to believe the Jews were monsters that wanted to kill Arab children. By God’s grace, she overcame a culture of hatred and found a new reason for hope after she settled in the United States.

“I grew up in a culture of jihad and martyrdom,” says Nonie Darwish, the founder of Former Muslims United. Although born in Cairo, she spent her childhood in the Gaza Strip because her father, Colonel Mustafa Hafez, headed Egypt’s military intelligence there. (Egypt controlled Gaza until 1967.)

Her life changed dramatically at only eight-years-old when her father was killed by an explosive device planted in a book by a double-agent working for Israeli intelligence.

After her father’s assassination, her mother moved the family back to Cairo. She lived there during a turbulent period, which included the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel. “In school, we recited poetry wishing ourselves to be martyrs in the jihad against Israel,” she recalls.

In the mosque, messages were filled with the call to jihad. She heard curses at the end of every service against infidels, Jews, and non-Muslims. “I bought all the propaganda like everybody else,” she notes. “I really believed it as a child.”

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Awesome Presence of God in Western Suburbs of Melbourne / Live webcast this Sunday 25th May with Pr Daniel / Mildura, VIC on Sat 31st May & Sun 1st June

Dear family & friends in Christ,

1) We thank and praise God for His awesome presence last weekend at the meetings held in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.

Pr Daniel with a team from CTFM ministered at 3 meetings, where many people from different churches came to hear the word of God.

Glory to God the people were mightily blessed at the meetings, with some weeping aloud as the presence of God swept through the place.

People were greatly encouraged and challenged through the word of God and the power of real life testimonies shared by Pr Daniel.

Several times people jumped out of their seats and started shouting with great joy.

Pr Daniel stated, “It somewhat seemed like a Holy Ghost riot breaking out. I get so excited when I see people getting set free from all types of bondages. It is so sad when a church only goes through its pre-planned programs and you can predict what is going to happen next?? This is why many people have stopped going to church, as many have told me how boring church is.

But the great difference is when you are open to the Holy Ghost you just cannot predict as to what’s going to happen next. This gives me great joy. As the agenda of the church service is surrendered to the Holy Ghost. I thank God for Pastors who are willing to do so.”

2) Pr Daniel will be ministering God’s prophetic Word and praying for people this Sunday 24th May at the 9.30am & 6:30pm worship services at CTFM at 30 Star Crescent in Hallam, Melbourne.

Please note that the morning service will be live webcast at www.reformationharvestfire.com beginning at 10:30am (AEDT).

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Why Some Women Keep Living With Abusive Men

2/6/2014 J. Lee Grady – Charisma News

In the nation of Colombia, where I ministered last month, a woman is killed by her husband or partner every four days. The problem is so serious that sociologists have coined a new term for it: femicidio, or femicide.

I’ve often quoted the statistics about domestic violence, but when I was in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, I saw the scars up close. The emotional pain I encountered while praying with and counseling women there was excruciating. Some were gang raped as teenagers. Others were sexually molested by relatives. Many had been slapped, punched, choked, kicked or attacked with knives or iron rods by husbands or boyfriends.

Celia (not her real name) had the saddest story. She gave her life to Christ a few years ago, but she maintained an on-again, off-again relationship with a boyfriend whom she admitted was abusive. He screamed at her constantly, he pushed her to the floor on one occasion, and he often told her she was inferior to his other girlfriends.

Yet Celia couldn’t stand it when he stopped calling her. She wanted his attention, even when he called her names and bragged about his sexual conquests with other women.

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Girls are being forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan, but because they are Christian nobody cares

14 April 2014  |  Nasir Saeed, CLAAS UK Forced conversion to Islam of Christian and Hindu girls continues to rise in Pakistan. A recent report launched by the MSP (Movement…

Continue ReadingGirls are being forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan, but because they are Christian nobody cares

Rwandan Genocide 20th Anniversary: Survivor Talks Forgiving the Man Who Murdered His Family

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter – April 6, 2014|

To mark Monday’s 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, where close to 800,000 people were killed, one survivor working with Operation Christmas Child has shared his personal story of visiting and forgiving the people who murdered his family. He also revealed that the country has experienced remarkable healing and growth in the past couple of decades.

“It was a miracle that God opened up the opportunity for me to meet one of the guys, the guy who killed my uncle, and I was able to share that message of love and forgiveness, and to be able to plant the seeds of hope and love in his life. And [tell him] that Christ also came and died for him, and He loves him just as much as He loves me,” Alex Nsengimana shared with The Christian Post.

“It was probably one of the toughest days of my life, but also one of my most freeing days, because I was able to let go and was able to have the peace that only Jesus Christ can offer.”

Nsengimana was only four years old when he lost his biological mother to HIV in Rwanda. He never knew his father, but had a great relationship with his grandmother, who took care of him, his younger brother and his older sister.

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