Tag: Islam

Please pray for Christians in Eritrea – World Watch List #10

Christian Persecution: Please pray for Christians in ERITREA – World Watch List #10

“I am testing and experiencing the love and care of our Lord every day… The moment I entered my cell, one of the prisoners called me and said, ‘Pastor, come over here. Everyone in this cell are (unsaved). You are very much needed here.’ So, on the same day I was put in prison, I carried on my spiritual work”. – Eritrean pastor in prison

eritrea-mapPopulation: 5.6 million (2.5 million Christians – mostly Orthodox)
Main Religion: Islam/Christianity
Source of Persecution: Dictatorial paranoia

OPEN DOORS: All evangelical churches were closed in 2002 following a government ban on religious groups other than Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Islam. The government is very hard on non-traditional Christians, but members of the Orthodox Church also report on evangelical believers, and Muslim extremists are ready to take over where the government leaves off. When believers are discovered they are arrested and held in shipping containers in military camps. At least 105 Christians were arrested in 2012, and 31 Christians were reported to have died in prison.

Christian prisoners in Eritrea (Release International)
Christian prisoners in Eritrea (Release International)

Please Pray:

  • For God’s strength for Christians imprisoned in containers, especially those arrested in 2012
  • For spouses and families who are forced to live as refugees in different countries
  • For worldwide awareness of the plight of Eritrean Christians.

Persecution dynamics

Eritrea has three types of Christianity: registered historical churches, Christian-background believers (CBBs), and independent Christians. The country has a violent history with Ethiopia, and shares a long border with its ‘arch-enemy’. A government official once declared in public that there are three enemies that need to be eradicated: HIV/ Aids, the regime in Ethiopia and independent Christians. Continue reading “Please pray for Christians in Eritrea – World Watch List #10” →

Please pray for Christians in Yemen – World Watch List #9

Persecuted Church: Please pray for Christians in Yemen (World Watch List #9)

map of YemenPopulation: 25.6 million (a few thousand Christians)

The Yemeni constitution declares that Islam is the state religion and Sharia is the source of all legislation. Conversion is forbidden for Muslims and Muslim-background believers face persecution from authorities, family and extremist groups who threaten ‘apostates’ with death if they do not revert.

There is some religious freedom for foreigners here and there are a few official churches for several thousand Christian expats and refugees in Aden, but in the north, no church buildings are allowed. The country is very unstable and large numbers of expats have left the country. Evangelism is prohibited and conversion is forbidden. Yemenis who leave Islam may face the death penalty. The few hundred Christians from a Muslim background face persecution from authorities and family, and extremist groups use this threat to pressure them to recant. (Open Doors)

Yemen1Please Pray:

  • That isolated believers will find ways to meet together.
  • That vocational training programs supported by Open Doors will help Yemeni believers to stand strong.
  • Suicide bomb attacks killed over 100 in 2012. Pray for peace in this deeply divided country.

Background: Yemen, situated on the Arabian Peninsula, consists mostly of desert. The country’s main source of income comes from its petroleum industry. However, poverty is a big problem in Yemen as one in every three Yemenis is unemployed.

yemen_0364When the winds of the Arab Spring reached Yemen, the government used excessive violence to crack down on protestors. As a result of the unrest many expatriates, including Christians, left Yemen.

On March 18, 2012 an American language teacher, Joel, was shot dead by gunmen in Yemen’s second largest city, Taiz. Joel was driving to work on a Sunday morning when he was fired on by gunmen on a motorbike. The al-Qaeda-linked militant group, Ansar al-Sharia, said it carried out the attack, “in response to a Western campaign to preach Christianity among Muslims.”*

The number of Muslim background believers is estimated to be between 500 and 1 000. They are not allowed to have their own gatherings and so they meet in secret locations.

Yearly, about five to six Christian converts are imprisoned for a duration varying from a few days, up to half a year. Often, these Christians are not officially charged making it very hard to prove that they are being detained due to their Christian faith.

The government used excessive force to crack down on protestors after 10 months of mass protest caused by high unemployment levels and government corruption. In February 2012, elections were held and the Acting President and only candidate Mansour Hadi was sworn-in amid a climate of violence. The country is divided between pro- and anti-Saleh forces, the south is claiming independence. There is a strong tribal system and small al-Qaeda-linked groups struggling for power.

Shut up! – Muslim cleric at Al-Azhar warns: “The new pope must not attack Islam” – Re-blog Jihad Watch

Peanut Gallery: The Muslim “Vatican” is firing a warning shot over the upcoming Papal Conclave in Rome – Shut up about Muslim persecution of Christians, particularly Coptic Christians in Egypt. “Stay quiet and you’ll be OK.” Really…

Muslim persecution of the Egyptian Christians is widespread and increasing, but Al Azhar was infuriated not with that persecution, but with the Pope’s daring to notice it. He should have heeded the advice Muhammad Atta gave to the passengers on the plane he hijacked on September 11, 2001: “Stay quiet and you’ll be OK.” Except they weren’t.

Muslim/Christian dialogue typically goes like this: Christians tell the Muslims what they like about Islam. And then Muslims tell the Christians what they like about Islam.

Robert Spencer unmasks the sham in the following article – well worth the read.
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Muslim cleric at Al-Azhar warns: “The new pope must not attack Islam” 
posted by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch

Cairo - Islamic district - Al Azhar Mosque
Cairo – Islamic district – Al Azhar Mosque

In other words, the new pope must not speak the truth about jihad and Islamic supremacism — or else. The papacy of Benedict XVI offered numerous illustrations of this. “Muslims Seek Dialogue With Next Pope,” by Harvey Morris for the New York Times, March 1:

LONDON — As the Catholic Church’s cardinal electors gather at the Vatican to choose a new pope, Muslim leaders are urging a revival of the often troubled dialogue between the two faiths.

During the papacy of Benedict XVI, relations between the world’s two largest religions were overshadowed by remarks he made in 2006 that were widely condemned as an attack on Islam.

Not by rampant, worldwide Muslim persecution of Christians. No, that didn’t hurt relations at all. Only Benedict’s remarks were at fault. Continue reading “Shut up! – Muslim cleric at Al-Azhar warns: “The new pope must not attack Islam” – Re-blog Jihad Watch” →

Muslim Persecution of Christians: December, 2012 – Re-Blog

December, 2012
December, 2012

Peanut Gallery: Raymond Ibrahim’s stated purpose in cataloging these monthly incidents of “Muslim persecution of Christians” is twofold:

1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.

2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.

Whether or not it is “systematic and interrelated,” you can decide for yourself. But it certainly is pervasive. And for the Christians on the receiving end, it can be terrifying… and sometimes horrific.

Prayer: As you read through the list, please pray for those people and places that God places on your heart.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  – Ephesians 6.12 ESV

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Muslim Persecution of Christians: December, 2012
“Siad Deserved to Die Because He Was Not Committed to the Islamic Religion.”

by Raymond Ibrahim – February 6, 2013 at 4:00 am

Sweden: “Quite frankly we are at a loss why the Migration services [in Sweden] are so determined to deport [him]. People with weaker cases get permission to stay in Sweden, but not him.”
— Attorney for Reza Jabbari, a convert to Christianity seeking asylum in Sweden. If the Swedes return him to Iran, he is likely to face imprisonment or be sentenced to death for apostasy.

As usual, the month of Christmas saw an uptick in Christian persecution under Islam, in a variety of forms, from insults to murders. In Iran, Pastor Youssef Nadarkhani—after being imprisoned and tormented for years for converting to Christianity, then recently released thanks to international pressure—was rearrested again, on Christmas Day, to serve the remainder of his 45 days, which the court had earlier decreed could be served in the form of probation. In Syria, near Christmas, Islamic rebels beheaded Andrei Arbashe, a 38-year-old Christian man, and fed his body to dogs. In Nigeria, Christmas mass celebrations in several churches, were, once again, turned into scenes of carnage; and in Pakistan, Christians spent yet another “Dark Christmas.”

There were also the usual fatwas [Islamic legal decrees], forbidding Muslims to acknowledge Christmas: in “moderate” Indonesia, the nation’s top Muslim clerical body said that Muslims should not offer Christians greetings such as “Merry Christmas,” and that Muslims are forbidden from attending any Christmas celebrations. In Egypt, the Committee for Rights and Reform issued a similar fatwa, forbidding Muslims to congratulate Christians during Christmas. Even in the West, in Australia, the Lakemba Mosque issued a fatwa warning Muslims that it is a “sin” to wish people a Merry Christmas, because Christmas Day is among the “falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid … and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them [Christians].” Continue reading “Muslim Persecution of Christians: December, 2012 – Re-Blog” →

“Dhimmitude” – a word you should understand

Peanut Gallery: As events unfold in the Middle East, “dhimmitude” is a word you should understand- it directly affects Christians living in Islamic countries and explains why they are so often mistreated (see earlier post “Muslim Persecution of Christians”). islam for dhimmis

“dhimmitude […] represents a behavior dictated by fear (terrorism), pacifism when aggressed, rather than resistance, servility because of cowardice and vulnerability. […] By their peaceful surrender to the Islamic army, they obtained the security for their life, belongings and religion, but they had to accept a condition of inferiority, spoliation (plundering) and humiliation. As they were forbidden to possess weapons and give testimony against a Muslim, they were put in a position of vulnerability and humility.”[9] (Wikipedia)

To put it simply, non-muslims (dhimmis) living in Islamic countries are second-class citizens with little, or no, protection under Sharia law. They are essentially at the mercy of the enforcing religious authority.

If you read the entire Wikipedia article you will find that my characterization of “dhimmitude” and “dhimmis” is disputed by some scholars as “past history” and could be described as Islamophobic.  But disputed or not, there is growing evidence that Western observers of Islamic countries have turned a blind eye to the current wide-spread reality of “dhimmitude,” particularly in rural, or lawless, areas that are outside normal Western scrutiny. (I refer you again to “Muslim Persecuton of Christians.”)

This current post, however, was prompted by an article by Andrew G. Bostom posted on pjmedia.com, “Muhammad Morsi’s Islamic Jew-Hatred, Bernard Lewis’ Islamic Negationism” – asking the question: “Why do the media’s Middle East pundits ignore the Jew-hatred intrinsic to Islamic doctrine?”

The answer lies in the willful denial of the historic realities (past and present) of “dhimmitude.” Jew-hatred (and Christian persecution) are intrinsic to Muhammad Morsi’s Sharia inspired worldview. But it simply doesn’t fit the Western pundits’ “Arab Spring” narrative.

Continue reading ““Dhimmitude” – a word you should understand” →