Islamic Jihad Against Christians

By Pamela Geller

With their typical mutual respect, devout Muslims have been celebrating Christmas the world over. Jihad bombers murdered 34 people as Christians were coming out of church on Christmas morning in Baghdad, and Muslims threatened and protested against Christmas celebrations all over the world. Two days after Christmas, Lebanon’s former ambassador to the U.S. and at least four other people were murdered in a car bombing in Beirut. That same day, jihadists killed 10 people with a bomb in a restaurant in Mogadishu and three soldiers with a homicide car bombing in Kabul.

Of course, we all know that it’s Islamophobia that’s the real problem – although I suspect that the victims might not agree. And meanwhile, on Christmas, Muslims showed the respect and tolerance they demand from everyone else at a time when Christians are being mercilessly persecuted and slaughtered under Muslim rule across the world.

In Denmark, Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” held a demonstration on Christmas Eve. They were not the only ones: It is not unusual for Muslims to denounce Christmas. In November 2011, the Lebanese Muslim cleric Abu Musaab Wajdi Akkari said:

You cannot say: “Merry Christmas.” Not even if an alien came and said it to you – you cannot even say it to him, and say: “He’s just an alien. I’m never going to see him again. He’s not going to tell anyone.” No “Merry Christmas” – not from a Muslim and not from a non-Muslim. It’s not part of our religion – period! It is the concept that God was born on the 25th of December. That’s as polytheistic and heretic as you can get. When you say: “Merry Christmas,” you are saying: “Congratulations on your false religion,’ ‘Congratulations on your false understanding of life.” You are congratulating them on the most evil of polytheism and heresy.

In Turkey, according to ANI, “a Turkish Muslim youth group has condemned Santa Claus for bringing booze, drugs and immorality to the society. The Anatolia Youth Association held a demonstration in Istanbul urging residents to turn against Santa for contributing to moral decay, degeneration of their culture and leading to identity crises in their society, CNN reports. The group used an inflatable plastic Santa as a prop, littering the ground below it with beer cans, a syringe and a cross to illustrate the dangers of inviting Santa into Turkish homes, the report added.” Posters appeared in FYROM and Turkey of Muslims hitting Santa Claus.

Even Muslims in America denounced Christmas. The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, reported that “the Mufti of Washington, D.C., Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti, prohibited Muslim children from having their photos taken with Santa Claus, as this is a ‘sin’ and ‘an abomination’ that contravenes the tenets of Islam. The site emphasized that the Mufti’s position does not represent the view of most Muslims living in the U.S., and that the imam of a mosque in Maryland has even urged Muslims to celebrate Christmas along with the Christians as a means of promoting their integration in American society.”

This kind of thing happens every year. MEMRI reported last year that “on New Year’s Eve, members of the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan attacked revelers in the city of Lahore and smashed cars to protest against New Year’s celebrations, while columnists and Islamic clerics in Pakistan and India declared the occasion as un-Islamic, urging youth to refrain from emulating the West on occasions like New Year’s and Christmas.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, Islamic jihadists did their best to start a war. After a weekend of Islamic attacks against Israel, I warned that “the savages are itching for a war – it’s imminent.” And I was right.

On Christmas Eve, Hamas shot and killed an Israel civilian who was fixing the border fence along the Gaza Strip after the storm that struck Israel the week before: “The man, 22-year-old Saleh Abu Latif from the predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat, was working between Nahal Oz and Kfar Aza as a civilian employed by the Israeli Defense Ministry on repairs to a section of the Israel-Gaza border fence damaged in last week’s storm. The fence had collapsed in three locations due to the storm.”

This was typical of Muslim warfare: They struck on Christmas Eve. Religious holidays are always a favored day for war and bloodshed for devout Muslims waging jihad.

Of course, the media didn’t report any of this, and won’t until the Israelis react (which is long overdue).

And it is demanded that we respect this.

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National ID Headed for your Wallet, Purse

Just  as you were wrapping your mind around the idea that under Obamacare and the accompanying changes in the health-care system, your medical records will be floating around in some online repository, available to far too many people, you’re being told you’ll soon have a National
Identity Card and a Western Hemisphere-compliant travel document whether you want it or not, if you plan to drive in the United States.

The federal government says it soon will be enforcing its demands
that state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards comply with Department
of Homeland Security standards.

DHS announced  just before Christmas a final schedule for the full enforcement of the REAL ID Act of 2005.

That was set for a phased implementation beginning in January 2014
and full-scale enforcement planned no later than May 2017, at which time
 the federal government will no longer accept state-issued driver’s
licenses and ID cards that do not meet the minimum security standards
set by DHS.

For many Americans, the full implementation of the REAL ID act is
certain to trigger unfortunate memories of World War II and the modus
operandi of fascist, totalitarian states, where travelers and ordinary
citizens on the street are stopped by authorities and demanded, “Your
papers, please!”

In the U.S., the justification for the REAL ID Act of 2005 was the
concern for enhanced travel security after the 9/11 Commission
documented several of the 9/11 terrorists had valid state-issued
driver’s licenses and were able to freely board airplanes even though
they were terrorists who had entered the U.S. illegally.

Among the DHS requirements for a state-issued driver’s license to be
DHS-compliant will be the presentation by the applicant of a valid birth
 certificate, verification of the applicant’s Social Security Number or
documentation the person is not eligible for Social Security, and proof
the applicant is either a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted to the U.S.
as a permanent or temporary resident.

Further, driver’s license and IDs issued by the states will have to
meet stringent requirements as set by the federal government.

To qualify as DHS-compliant, state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards must have built-in security features to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, and duplication of the documents for a fraudulent
purpose.

They also must have features that establish the individual’s
identity, including but not limited to full facial digital photographs,
plus machine readable coded information in the form of a bar code that
captures the key printed information on the card, such as name of the
applicant, address, gender, unique driver’s license or
card-identification number, state of issuance, date of application, and
date of expiration.

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I Now Pronounce You Man and Wives ...

Turns out, marriage isn't about two people who love each other—it's about three or five or six. That was Judge Clark Waddoups' opinion in the most explosive ruling the media isn't talking about.

Late last week, the U.S. district judge's ruling should have kicked off the evening news in every major market across America. Instead, his 91-page pro-polygamy bombshell is nothing but a back-page blip. And that's no accident.

 When Waddoups struck down Utah's criminal ban on "plural marriages" last Friday, the networks started tiptoeing around the story like the cultural grenade it is.

Like us, they know the left's dirty little secret—that people who support same-sex marriage are saying "I do" to a lot more than they bargained for. While liberals insist that same-sex marriage is the ultimate goal, their demands only lay the groundwork for other relationships to demand the same entitlements. Once the courts and policymakers depart from the natural definition of marriage, the left has a legal foundation for any arrangement between consenting adults.

Judge Waddoups essentially admitted as much. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court outlawed polygamy years ago, Waddoups insists he can't possibly rest on that decision in modern society. In his words, America has "developed constitutional jurisprudence that now protects individuals from the criminal consequences intended by legislatures to apply to certain personal choices."

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court's ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) this summer only sped the process along. Polygamists popped the corked on a little champagne of their own after the June ruling, as they wait their turn for nationwide acceptance

.

"We're very happy with [the ruling on DOMA]," said Joe Darger, a Utah polygamist, "I think [the court] has taken a step in correcting some inequality, and that's certainly something that's going to trickle down and impact us. ... I think the government needs to now recognize that we have a right to live free as much as anyone else."

Proponents of polygamy are riding the homosexual movement's wave of success all the way to legitimacy.

And that's exactly what the mainstream media is afraid of. They see the potential for this debate to sway the middle and derail the same-sex marriage train. Recognizing that their destinies are very much intertwined, polygamists are using the same playbook as their same-sex marriage counterparts. Step one: Overturn the law. Step two: Demand recognition. Step three: Force acceptance.

Ten years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia predicted exactly that in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court decision rolling back sodomy statutes. With prophetic insight, he pointed to the threat to state laws "based on moral choices" against "bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution ... adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity." Anyone being intellectually honest knew this was where liberals were pushing America. Of course, the media for years laughed off groups like Family Research Council who warned that the left's goal isn't same-sex marriage but any kind of marriage.

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120,000 People Displaced by South Sudan Violence: UN

More than 120,000 people have been displaced by continuing violence in South Sudan, the United Nations said, as African leaders met Friday to find a political solution to a crisis that has exposed ethnic rifts within the country.

Regional leaders under a bloc called IGAD are meeting Friday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to discuss South Sudan. That summit is expected to produce a roadmap for peace talks between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Riek Machar, Kiir's political rival who is accused of orchestrating a failed coup that the government says sparked unrest across the oil-producing East African country.

"We in Kenya and the region are concerned with the loss of lives and resultant humanitarian crisis and would like to see the government taking the initiative to end hostilities," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said late Thursday.

The number of internally displaced people has been rising since fighting started on Dec. 15 in the capital, Juba, before spreading across the country. Now there are sporadic military clashes in the oil-rich states of Unity and Upper Nile, potentially endangering the oil revenues that South Sudan depends on to keep the government running.

The UN said aid agencies need at least $166 million to save lives.
Machar, the alleged leader of renegade forces now in control of some parts of South Sudan, remains a fugitive wanted by the military. At least 10 of his political allies are in detention for their roles in the alleged coup plot. Machar denies there was a coup attempt, and some officials with the ruling party insist violence broke out when presidential guards from Kiir's majority Dinka tribe tried to disarm guards from the Nuer ethnic group, leading to wider military clashes along ethnic lines.

The top UN humanitarian official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said earlier this week that he believes the death toll has surpassed 1,000. The UN also is investigating alleged mass killings in the latest violence.
"We have heard reports of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions of civilians, ill-treatment, abuse and also mass graves," said Hilde Johnson, head of the UN mission in South Sudan. "Our human rights officers have been working around the clock, throughout this crisis, and they are investigating these reports and allegations."

Read more: Here

Italian Kindergarten Shuts Down Nativity Recitals to Avoid Offending Muslims: Report

TURIN, Italy, December 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A nationalist party has launched a complaint at the decision of some schools and kindergartens in the city of Turin to shut down all Christmas Nativity celebrations, or remove all mention of Christianity from them, out of fear of “offending the sensibilities” of the schools’ growing Muslim population.

Roberto Carbonero, the director of Lega Nord (the Northern League), said that if confirmed, the decision by some school principals “would be a very serious matter which is unprecedented.”

“Such a decision is completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that the city, not the individual schools, should have competence to make such decisions.
“The ‘city of inclusion’ fantasized about on the Left cannot become a ‘city of discrimination for Catholics,’” Carbonero said.

“It is not acceptable that, in favor of uncontrolled immigration...our citizens, our children, must give up their own traditions and their own culture,” he said. “I’m not staying with the school [of thought] that we should be ashamed of the Catholic base of our society and its history.”

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Duck Dynasty Family to A&E: Dump Dad and You Lose All of Us

LOUISIANA, December 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Under a beautiful photo of the entire Robertson clan posted on their official webpage yesterday, the Robertson family sent a message to millions of fans noting they are standing firmly behind their patriarch Phil Robertson. A&E television network which has raked in millions of fans for the Duck Dynasty reality show starring the Robertson clan suspended Robertson in response to a GQ interview where he expressed a Biblical view opposed to homosexuality.

“We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right,” the message reads. “We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty.”

Millions of Americans have joined facebook and other pages in support of Phil’s stand. Sarah Palin and Governor Bobby Jindal are among the conservatives who have spoken out in support of the elder Robertson’s freedom of speech.
However, it is not only conservatives chiming in to support Phil’s freedoms and condemn the A&E network. Famed lesbian writer Camille Paglia has slammed A&E’s decision as “utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist.”

“I speak with authority here because I was openly gay before the 'Stonewall Rebellion,' when it cost you something to be so," said Paglia in an interview with Laura Ingrham. "And I personally feel as a libertarian that people have the right to free thought and free speech. In a democratic country, people have the right to be homophobic as they have the right to support homosexuality -- as I 100 percent do.”

“If people are basing their views against gays on the Bible, again they have a right to religious freedom there,” she added. Paglia bemoaned that her “liberal colleagues in the Democratic Party and on college campuses have supported and promoted” the “punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist” punishment meted out to Phil.

“It's the whole legacy of the free speech 1960's that have been lost by my own party," she concluded.

The family says they have “spent much time in prayer since learning of A&E's decision,” declaring that “while some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible.”


The Robertson family message remains simply Christian. “We want you to know that first and foremost we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is His word,” they said. “Phil is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Phil would never incite or encourage hate.”

 

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Morgentaler’s Lawyer Will Sue BC Government for Approving Nation’s First Christian Law School

TORONTO, December 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-abortion constitutional and civil rights lawyer Clayton Ruby — known for his work on behalf of arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler and now for accused child pornographer Benjamin Levin — will make good his threat to sue the British Columbian government after it approved yesterday a new Christian law school to open at Trinity Western University (TWU) in 2016.

TWU President Bob Kuhn called it “unfortunate” that a “positive story” about a Christian university opening a law school has received such “negative attention”.

Clayton Ruby

“It’s largely an anti-Christian approach,” he told LifeSiteNews.com.

Ruby added his voice of opposition to the proposed law school along with the Canadian Council of Law Deans. Ruby had previously called the school’s Christian beliefs a “perverse” bit of “silliness”.

Ruby singled out the school’s community covenant, which requires students to reserve “sexual intimacy” for the “sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman,” something he suggested is discriminatory or “illegal" because he says it would curtail homosexual sex.

Ruby told the homosexual news service Xtra yesterday that having a Christian law school that makes its students adhere to a code of conduct is “immoral and unconscionable and we think unconstitutional”.

"We will be taking them to court,” he said, adding that he hopes the approval will be struck down.

In approving the law school, Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk noted that TWU does not receive any government funding and that it met the “degree program quality assessment criteria for private and out-of-province public institutions”.

Continued, here.

Editor Describes Pressure After Leaks by Snowden

The top editor of the British newspaper The Guardian told Parliament on Tuesday that since it obtained documents on government surveillance from a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, it has met with government agencies in Britain and the United States more than 100 times and has been subjected to measures “designed to intimidate.”

The testimony by the editor, Alan Rusbridger, gave a public airing to the debate over how to balance press freedom against national security concerns, an issue that became more acute once The Guardian began publishing material leaked by Mr. Snowden in June. 

The American and British governments have said the disclosures, which detail how the National Security Agency and its equivalent in Britain, Government Communication Headquarters, gather vast amounts of data, damage national security and help hostile governments. Journalists and transparency advocates have countered that the leak spurred a vital debate on privacy and the role of spy agencies in the Internet age. 

Mr. Rusbridger said Tuesday that the governments’ measures “include prior restraint,” as well as visits by officials to his office, the enforced destruction of Guardian computer disks with power tools and repeated calls from lawmakers “asking police to prosecute” The Guardian for disclosing the classified material in news articles. 

As he testified before a Parliamentary committee on national security, he faced aggressive questioning from lawmakers, particularly those of the ruling Conservative Party. Some asserted that The Guardian had handled the material irresponsibly, putting it at risk of interception by hostile governments and others. Others said the paper had jeopardized national security. 

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Syrian Opposition Fighters Seize 12 Nuns From Christian Village

Opposition fighters have abducted 12 nuns from a predominantly Christian village near Damascus and taken them to a rebel-held town, the mother superior of a Syrian convent said on Tuesday.
Febronia Nabhan, Mother Superior at Saidnaya Convent, said that the nuns and three other women had been seized from another convent in the predominantly Christian village of Maaloula and taken to the nearby town of Yabroud on Monday.

On the same day, Syrian rebels had captured large parts of Maaloula, around 40 miles north-east of the capital, after three days of fighting.

The state news agency Sana reported on Monday that six nuns, including the Maaloula convent's mother superior Pelagia Sayaf, were trapped in the nunnery.

A tourist attraction before the civil war erupted in March 2011, some of Maaloula's residents still speak a version of Aramaic, a biblical language spoken by Jesus. In September, rebels seized parts of the town only to be driven out within a few days by government forces.

News of the kidnapping came as Syria's state TV reported that a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest in an unspecified government institution in Damascus, killing four and wounding 17. The TV station gave no further details about the blast in the central Jisr Abyad neighbourhood.

Continued, here.

Christians Prepare to Face Increasing Persecution in India

In national elections due in the next few months, observers warn that if a Hindu Nationalist government comes to power attacks on Christians in India will increase.

There has been a spate of attacks on Christians and Muslims in India in the last year. Mapping of the attacks on Christians and Muslims show that the worst affected areas are Gujarat and Orissa, where the upper-caste Brahmins hold significant economic power.

They use this power to enforce their ideology which is to reduce the "Dalits" - or lowest caste - and Christians and Muslims to be second class citizens.

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In Kandhamal, Odisha, in 2008 attacks were carried out on "tribal" Christians and the agencies that helped them, with 38 Christians killed, 18,000 injured and 50,000 displaced.
World Vision, a Christian relief agency, was forced out of the area.

Before that, in 2002, some 2,000 Muslims were killed over three days in Gujarat. The chief minister, Narendra Modi, described himself as a Hindu nationalist and was accused of condoning the attacks. He is the prime ministerial for the BJP party.

A seminar held this week in Delhi by the Centre for Religious Freedom to develop a Religious Freedom Support Group was encouraged to form groups that would respond to attacks at six levels:

1) Spiritual support providing spiritual and crisis counselling and prayer support
2) Media and information
3) Legal rights- providing details of making legal complaints nationally and to international for a
4) Developing good relationships with the police for protection and action
5) Developing good relations with community leaders so that churches can be seen as a benefit to their communities 6) Direct relief – providing contacts for relief support and places of refuge

Seminar participants were encouraged to see that issues of religious freedom could not be separated from issues of social justice and economic empowerment, something which appears to go against the default position of many pastors in India.

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Edmonton Police Blunder on Hijab

By Farzana Hassan, Toronto Sun

We seek to be “inclusive” of all cultures in Canada — even the ones that shun Canadian values and conspire to undermine its democracy and diversity.

The Edmonton police service has announced its decision to design a hijab, the Muslim head covering, as part of a Muslim woman’s police uniform.

Did someone actually move this in a meeting? Was it really seconded?
This will be a slicker version of the hijab, with snaps to undo it quickly, as if this is the only problem the hijab poses.

The real problem is not with the garb itself but what it represents. This accommodating move is designed to attract more Muslim women to the police force, but it conveys the impression the Edmonton police wish to attract only hijabi women.

They seem to think all Muslim women who join the force will want to wear the hijab.
It makes you wonder why the hijab has become so intricately linked to Muslim women that both must now apparently be acknowledged in the same breath?

Automatically associating the hijab with Muslim women stereotypes them.
It implies, at the very least, that only those who wear the hijab are authentic Muslims.
The Qu’ran does not mandate the hijab, so wearing it is an odd criterion for authenticity.
This unwittingly endorses a cultural practice that is actually steeped in patriarchy.

For those of that ilk, this latest round of exalting the hijab by giving it a prominent place in a Canadian police service counts as a victory.

The proposal has been made as a “gesture of inclusion,” says Scott McKeen, an Edmonton councillor, in response to the aspirations of a community who “can feel a little skittish at times” about Islamophobia.

Sadly, this attitude, however well-intentioned, plays into the hands of those Muslims who hold moderates in contempt.

The hijab brigade is busily trying to sell the idea the hijab is “liberating”.
This partly accounts for the hosannas greeting the decision of the Edmonton police service.
How lovely it is that Muslim women can “do everything” while being suitably attired!
They can be effective law enforcement agents and their hijabs need not hinder their movements.
Many hijab supporters would love to project that view and, by doing so, shrug off all criticism that the hijab is patriarchal.

Continued, here.

Mark Driscoll on Piers Morgan, Tolerance, and Why Morality is Like Banking, Not Winetasting

"I brought him [Morgan] a nice study Bible and he thanked me, saying I was the first person ever to give him such a gift. The show was edited fairly, though I was bummed they took out the segment where I told him that one day he would be sitting across the desk from Jesus Christ to answer God's questions and that he was not ready for that day." -Mark Driscoll

(Seattle, WA)—Referring to an earlier interview he did with Piers Morgan in which the CNN television host pressed Pastor Mark Driscoll on the subject of tolerance, Driscoll has addressed the subject in a way that will surely resonate with many Christians.

He recalls asking Morgan what his definition of tolerance was. Morgan replied that he thought it was tolerating people "who may have a lifestyle or a belief that you don't agree with."

Driscoll's answer was, "Yes, we have to [tolerate]. When Jesus says, 'Love your neighbor,' He knows you're not going to agree with all your neighbors, but He wants you to love them, to seek good for them, to care for them."

Expounding on the issue, Driscoll continues, "Our conflict was around the old definition of tolerance (which I hold) and the new definition of tolerance (which he, Morgan, holds).

"The old view of tolerance assumed that (1) there is objective truth that can be known/ 2) various people, groups and perspectives each think they know what that objective truth is and (3) as people/groups disagree, dialogue and debate their conflicting views of the truth, everyone involved will have an opportunity to learn, grow, change and possibly arrive together at the truth.

"The new tolerance is different from the old tolerance. The new view of tolerance assumes that (1) there is no objective truth that can be known; (2) various people, groups and perspectives do not have the truth but only what they believe to be the truth and (3) various people, groups and perspectives should not argue and debate their disagreements because there is no truth to be discovered, and to assume otherwise only leads to needless conflicts and prejudices.

"Today morality is more like wine tasting than banking," concludes Driscoll. "In banking, there is a right and wrong answer…but we don't see morality like banking anymore. Instead, we see it more like wine tasting. In wine tasting, everyone has their favorite blends and no one is necessarily right or wrong—it all depends on individual palates.

The problem is, the God of the Bible sees morality like banking, not wine tasting. This is why Jesus referred to sins as "debts" in the world's most famous prayer (Matt. 6:12).

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Terrorization of Egyptian Christians Intensify; Pray

There is a perception that Christians can be attacked with impunity. "If you hurt a Christian, no one is going to do anything to you. No one is ever brought to justice in any sectarian violence against Christians… There has to be a stop to this." -Mina Thabet

(Cairo, Egypt)—Three months after the Egyptian Army liberated Delga from militant Muslims, Islamists and criminals are terrorizing Christians in other towns across Egypt, human rights activists said. (Photo: Watani Weekly)

According to the Middle East Correspondent of Morning Star News, Islamists in the towns are again charging Jizya, a Koranic fine on non-Muslims also known as the "submission" or "humiliation" tax, after a lull following the retaking of Delga on Sept. 16, said human rights activists within the country. In several towns across Egypt, Muslim extremists and criminals have set up a cottage industry persecuting Christians for profit, the activists said.

"Extortionists using the threat of kidnapping, torture and murder are seizing money, land and other property from Christian's throughout the southern part of the country but mainly in Minya and Assiut governorates," said the story.

Mina Thabet, founding member of the Maspero Youth Union said, "What you are dealing with now is some criminals attacking Christians – Christians who own shops and things like that. He added that in the case of militant Islamists, persecuting Christians is seen "as a religious duty."

Continued, here.

Coins Depicting Jesus Uncovered?

Referring to discovered coins that may depict Jesus, Dr. Tim White of Northwest University says, "The 3D imaging analysis of early coins with possible pictures of Jesus is very intriguing." 

(Gonzales, TX)—In what appears to be a very significant discovery of Art and Art History from the 1st century A.D., historian, historical archaeologist, and imaging inventor Ronald Stewart, ThD, PhD is stating that he has possibly uncovered hand-struck coins minted sometime between 33-47 A.D. which have images and depictions of Jesus Christ—many which correlate to well-known Biblical events. Research is ongoing, but these initial findings would be a major development throughout art history, Christianity, Near Eastern history, and numismatics.

Prior to this unique discovery, the earliest known depiction of the face or likeness of Jesus Christ was in 235 A.D., in what is known as "The Healing of the Paralytic." This has long been a concern for believers (and others), insofar as there were no (extant) drawings, painting, or other images of Jesus for the 200 years immediately after Christ's death.
Likewise, the earliest image of Jesus on a coin showed up in a Byzantine gold coin estimated to be from 692 A.D.

Examples of readily-identified Biblical stories of Christ which Stewart has seen on these coins include: Jesus healing the blind man, Jesus raising Jarius' daughter from the dead, and Jesus being bound and dragged on His way to Pontius Pilate.
In order to arrive at his conclusion, Stewart has relied on his own advanced imaging technology called Infinite Microscopic to Macroscopic Imaging, a system that has been used and improved upon for the past 25 years. This imaging system has been used by the federal government, select State and county agencies, private museums in the USA and the UK, and other researchers and archeologists over the past several years.

"I am excited by this work. This is exactly the kind of in-depth research of which Christians need to stay apprized. The 3D imaging analysis of early coins with possible pictures of Jesus is very intriguing," says Dr. Tim White-adjunct professor at Northwest University and senior pastor of Washington Cathedral.

Dr. Stewart plans on displaying the coins at some pending exhibits throughout the USA in 2014.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu: Iran Agreement a 'Historic Mistake'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting by mounting a sharp attack on the agreement reached Saturday night between Iran and Western powers over the nuclear issue.

Netanyahu stated, "For the first time, the world's leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment in Iran while ignoring the UN Security Council decisions that they themselves led. Sanctions that required many years to put in place contain the best chance for a peaceful solution. These sanctions have been given up in exchange for cosmetic Iranian concessions that can be cancelled in weeks."
"Implications of this agreement threaten many countries - including, of course, Israel. Israel is not bound by this agreement," Netanyahu affirmed. "What we achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement; it is a historic mistake."

He continued, "Today the world has become a more dangerous place, because the most dangerous regime in the world took another step towards achieving the most dangerous weapon in the world."

Read more, here.

‘Nigerian Islamists Force Christian Women to Convert’

BERLIN – The Al-Qaida-linked Islamic group Boko Haram unleashed a new tactic in its war to obliterate Christianity in northern Nigeria: convert or die.

Two gunmen from Boko Haram kidnapped Hajja, a 19- year-old Christian in July as she picked corn near her village in the Gwoza hills, a remote part of northeastern Nigeria where a six-month-old government offensive is struggling to contain an insurgency by Boko Haram.

“If I cried, they beat me. If I spoke, they beat me. They told me I must become a Muslim but I refused again and again,” Hajja told Reuters in an interview.

The Islamists threatened her with a knife pressed to her throat and said her options were to convert to Islam or die.

Aaron Jensen, a spokesman for the United States government’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, “We have seen reports of forced conversion and enslavement.

The United States strongly condemns any acts of forced conversion or enslavement if true. These alleged actions violate fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom of conscience.”

Boko Haram is generally translated as “Western education is sinful.” In a telephone interview with the Post about Boko Haram and radical Islamist groups, David Cook, a professor of religious studies at the Houston-based Rice University, said Boko Haram’s methods are “part of a pattern you can find in a lot of groups, Salafi Jihadists, for example, in Syria.”

Cook, a leading expert on Boko Haram, estimates core membership to be a few thousand to perhaps as many as 5,000.

Tiffany Lynch, senior policy analyst at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, told the Post by email that “Boko Haram’s stated goal is the implementation of Shari’a nationwide and in 2012 called on all Christians to leave northern Nigeria. With this goal, Boko Haram attacks churches during worship services to maximize its killing, kills individual Christians, forces Christians to convert to Islam or die, kills persons engaged in what it believes is ‘un-Islamic’ behavior, and kills Muslim critics.”

Read more, here.

The Danger of Turning Religion Into an Idol

Trevor is a good pastor friend. While having lunch with him one day, I could tell he was overwhelmed. When I inquired about his tired appearance, he replied, “I’ve been busy working for God for nearly four decades, and I’m exhausted.” Tears started welling up in the corner of Trevor’s eyes. “Pete, do you ever wonder how much is enough? How good is good enough?”
I just listened.

“Most of my ministry has been spent living in fear that I’m not good enough for God," he continued. "From day to day I question whether or not He really loves me. And if I’m honest, most of my ministry has been fueled by this fear. And the harder I try, the more I feel like I’m failing.”

My friend is hardly alone in his struggle. Many of us in ministry wrestle with trying to please God with our good deeds. I call this the “spiritual treadmill,” a condition that causes us to work harder and harder and never feel like we’re really making any progress toward pleasing God.

Make no mistake: The spiritual treadmill is a trap. It’s a lifestyle that leads us into believing freedom will exist at the next level. It causes us to think if we could do just a little more for God, then we’d know He loves and accepts us. But once we reach our goal, the spiritual bar gets raised. We end up falling short and feel the need to make up for our failures.

This striving is nothing new to our generation.

Continued, here.

Turkish Military Linked to Christian Murders

Nearly six years into the court trial over the murder of three Christians in southeastern Turkey, documents have emerged confirming that secret military units were involved in those assassinations and others.

Malatya’s 3rd Criminal Court is forcing prosecutors and the military to turn over previously secret documents, throwing light on a shadowy network believed to be behind several decades of assassination and coup plots in Turkey.

The court is conducting the trial of five men accused of stabbing, torturing and then slashing the throats of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske in the Malatya office of Zirve Christian Publishing on April 18, 2007.

Earlier this month, the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office handed over to the Malatya court confidential intelligence files seized from the General Staff’s Tactical Mobilization Group archives, known as the “Cosmic Room” in the Turkish media.

According to the most recent indictment in the Zirve case, the documents confirm the existence and illegal activities of secret military units involved in extrajudicial surveillance and assassinations of members of Turkey’s Christian minority communities.

“These documents have made it easier for us to see the big picture of what kind of an organization this is,” Zirve plaintiff lawyer Erdal Dogan told Taraf newspaper on Sept. 16.

Continued, here.

Number of Christian Martyrs Continues to Cause Debate

The debate over the precise number of Christians martyred each year continues.
In May, a Vatican spokesman told the United Nations Human Rights Council that as many as 100,000 Christians are martyred each year.

That figure stems from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, recognised as “home to the world’s leading scholars of Christian demographics” according to Judd Birdsall, formerly of the US State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and currently a PhD student at Cambridge University.

While CSGC researchers estimated that around one million Christians were martyred in the first 10 years of the 21st Century, leading to an average of around 100,000 a year, Birdsall said he “found this figure puzzling”. While he said he admires CSGC’s “rigorous and interesting” work, his colleagues’ annual reports for the State Department contained “accounts of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of martyrs.

Some Christian organizations place the number as high as 1,000. Why the discrepancy?”  
One such organization is Open Doors International, which works in more than 25 countries to support Christians who face many levels of “persecution” - from extreme harassment and discrimination to torture and death.

Continued, here

Saudi Arabia: Torturing of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians

Images of defenseless Ethiopian Christians at the hands of Saudi Arabian Muslims cause deep sadness and anger.

Murders, gang rapes, beatings, mass arrests and brutal behavior of the security forces are some of the evils that are taking place there.

See the video below depicting these barbarous and brutal activities:

Former Muslims Use Online Opportunities to Preach Christ

WINNIPEG, MB—Paul Omari used to be a devout Muslim, passionate about teaching and converting Christians to the Islamic faith. But since he and his wife, Najat, became Christians 10 years ago, their focus has changed. Today, they reach out to the Arab world to do the opposite: tell Muslims about Jesus Christ.

"We have a heart to reach Muslim people," Paul says. "I want to share the gospel with my people to tell them what I've found."

To do that, the Omaris—who attend Gateway Church in Winnipeg—lead the Arabic and Muslim ministry of TruthMedia, a division of Power to Change Ministries

The Omaris use Internet technologies like Skype, Facebook, emails, interactive websites and chat rooms to reach out to Muslims around the world. Interested Muslims can receive presentations about the gospel in the privacy of their own homes, away from any public monitoring which could get them in trouble.

"In most Muslim countries, sharing the gospel will bring you trouble—it will bring you to court and maybe you will be killed by Islamic extremists," says Paul, who was born in Morocco, North Africa and studied in France to be a computer engineer.

Paul and Najat evangelize to Muslims, disciple new Christians, provide them with resources such as PDFs of the Bible, and connect believers in Muslim countries to underground churches they can be baptized and discipled in.

Continued, here.

Rejoice in the Lord Always

When members of your immediate family are under attack, you feel the pain.

The Devil knows this and that is why like a roaring lion, he is waiting to spot the weakest member of the herd to attack.

I am pleased to announce that this is what is happening with me. Pleased you may say and the answer is yes.

Yes, I am on the Enemy’s radar and I think it may be due partly to the fact that the readership of this blog has been going up.

Lives are changed as people all over the world come to realize that we live in perilous times and our only hope is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thus, keep on reading but most important keep on praying for the salvation of many and for all of us who belong to God to receive divine strength and wisdom to withstand the Enemy. And when things look bleak and we are down, remember this:

 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet, I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. ( HAB 3:17-18 )

El Greco