Be Alert!

Moriel Ministries Be Alert! has added this Blog as a resource for further information, links and research to help keep you above the global deception blinding the world and most of the church in these last days. Jesus our Messiah is indeed coming soon and this should only be cause for joy unless you have not surrendered to Him. Today is the day for salvation! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, - Psalms 95:7

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Reprint of Frankie Schaeffer's "Christian Jihad"

Ed. Note: Obviously, the author below has not the slightest clue the content of the Scriptures in context. Sadly, what he is observing is a group of people who call themselves “Christians” who suffer from the same blindness as he does, some who are well intentioned but just deceived and others who are just following the culture they have always known. One thing is for sure, Frank Schaeffer (Jr.) is wrong in his observations, but he is doing much for the anti-Christ, truth-hating establishment that he works for and his father of lies to whom he currently belongs.

Christian Jihad? Why We Should Worry About Right-Wing Terror Attacks Like Norway's in the US
There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government -- in fact, hatred of our country.
ALTERNET - By Frank Schaeffer - July 23, 2011
The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a 32-year-old man, whom they identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections, over the bombing of a government center and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together left at least 91 people dead.

In my new book "Sex, Mom and God" I predicted just such an action. I predicted that right wing Christians will unleash terror here in America too. I predict that they will copy Islamic extremists, and may eventually even make common cause with them.

There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government in fact hatred of our country as fallen and evil because we allow women choice, gays to marry, have a social safety net, and allow immigration from other cultures and non-white races.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the killer wrote:

"Today's Protestant church is a joke," he wrote in an online post in 2009. "Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic."

It seems Anders Behring Breivik longed for a "pure" and ultra conservative religion. He was a man of religious conviction, no liberals with their jeans need apply! Liberals beware.

Norway is just a first taste of what will happen here on a larger scale.

A HISTORY of VIOLENT ACTION
There is a history to the far right, religious right extremism on the rise today, extremism so extreme that in its congressional manifestation it is risking the good faith and credit of the US in the debt calling fiasco. The Tea Party activists also want purity of doctrine.

My family was part of the far right/violent right's rise in the 1970s and 80s when we helped create the "pro-life" movement come into existence that in the end spawned the killers of abortion providers. These killers were literally doing what we'd called for.

The terror unleashed on Norway - and the terror now unleashed by the Tea Party through Congress as it holds our economy hostage to extremist "economic" theories that want to destroy our ability to function -- is the sort of white, Christian; far right terror America can expect more of.

THE "CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD"
Call this the ultimate "Tea Party" type "answer" to secularism, modernity, and above all our hated government. Call this the Christian Brotherhood. From far right congress people, to far right gun-toting terror in Norway and here at home, our own Western version of the Taliban is on the rise.

Foreigners, visitors from another planet and Americans living in a bubble of reasonable or educated people might not know this but the reality is that the debt ceiling confrontation is by, for and the result of America's evangelical Christian control of the Republican Party.

It is the ultimate expression of an alternate reality, one that has the mistrust of the US government as its bedrock "faith," second only to faith in Jesus.

To understand why an irrational self-defeating action like destroying the credit of the USA might seem like the right thing to do you have to understand two things: that the Republican Party is now the party of religious fanatics and that these fanatics -- people like Michele Bachmann -- don't want to work within our system, they want to bring it down along the lines of so-called Christian "Reconstruction." (See my book for a full account of what this is.)

In the scorched-earth era of the "health care reform debates" of 2009 and beyond, Evangelicals seemed to believe that Jesus commanded that all hospitals (and everything else) should be run by corporations for profit, just because corporations weren't the evil government. The right even decided that it was "normal" for the state to hand over its age-old public and patriotic duties to private companies -- even for military operations ("contractors"), prisons, health care, public transport, and all the rest.




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'Occupy' protests sending sharp anti-Jew message

WND [WorldNetDaily] - By Bob Unruh - October 21, 2011
The dark scourge of anti-Semitism has reared up at many "Occupy" protests across the country, and the subject could well become a campaign 2012 issue as Republicans have been quick to point out to voters that many Democrats, including the president, are aligning themselves with the protests.

The protesters generally are expressing a viewpoint that rich people need to pay much more in taxes and they, the protesters, need more from government; big banks need the heavy hand of Washington to help spread their wealth and make things "fair" and they have a "message" or want to "make a point" for the wealthy.

 But there's also a current of targeting Jews.

Protesters have proclaimed that "Zionist Jews" still "need to be run out of the country," and they condemn "Nazi Bankers Wall Street."  And Barack Obama's perspective?

"I think that it [the movement] expresses the frustrations that the American people feel," he said.

And the ranking Democrat in the U.S. House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said "I support the message."

Statements such as those opened the door for Republicans to launch their criticism of the Democrats' endorsement of the encompassing message of the "Occupy" protests - going on across the country now - that includes anti-Semitism. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=358449


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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pachamama Wants Your Children

TRUTH X CHANGE - Dr. Peter Jones - May 5, 2011 :: InsideOut article IO 78
Two years ago, President Evo Morales, of Incan/Aymaran descent, claimed the rights to all three branches of government, and his goons were eliminating opponents in the dead of night. At the time, I was teaching pastors in Cochabamba, Bolivia and so witnessed the rise of indigenous paganism as a political force. In January 2011, Morales introduced legislation that grants legal rights to the Earth and provides an ombudsman to hear nature's complaints as voiced by the all-knowing high priests of deep ecology, who claim to be spiritually in touch with Nature!

The worship of Pachamama, the fertility Goddess of Nature, is now a fundamental element in the law code of Bolivia, and Morales (in his commitment to Pachamama and to the ancient Incan religion of Bolivia) is supported by a shadow cabinet of shamans, who sacrifice llamas as part of this spirituality.

Bolivia is perhaps the first example of a Marxist state that is religiously, occultically pagan. Is Bolivia a picture of our global future-a spiritual, nature-worshiping collectivist state, where Caesar is Lord? Will ecology be the "power shift" (Van Jones's words to 10,000 young climate activists-to thunderous applause!) that joins pagan spirituality to coercive politics? An earth-worshiping "green agenda" will open the minds and souls of our youth to the iron grip of Pachamama. As Mary Poppins knew, "Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down!" Our urgent task is to teach our young people to worship the Creator, not Mother Earth.

You may think me overly sensational. Consider the fact that Bolivia just tabled a treaty at the United Nations, giving "Mother Earth" the same global rights as humans-complete with enforceable laws, by 2014. On April 22, 2011 the UN declared the second International Mother Earth Day, which the White House heralded on Easter weekend in an eight-paragraph statement-while making not one mention of Easter!

The international Pachamama Alliance's mission is to "empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture... [and] to bring forth a sustainable world." Notice the move from the Amazon "rainforests" to "the world." Van Jones, President Obama's 2010 "green jobs czar" is a board member of the Pachamama Alliance, whichclaims a close relationship with the UN Development Program. Clearly, these ideas are circulating in the highest circles of political power. Jones is also a member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which merges ecology, politics and "progressive" spirituality. Other members include the UN's Maurice Strong, Deepak Chopra, Michael Lerner, Matthew Fox, Stanislav Grof, Jean Houston, Starhawk, Brian Swimme, Richard Tarnas, Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson and Barbara Marx Hubbard, names known to those who read my books on spiritual One-ism.

This agenda is more advanced than we might imagine, thanks to the very spiritual Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev. Their 2002 Earth Charter, a document determining environmental and ethical life on the planet for all nations, was received at the UN as the "new law" for the global age. Housed in "the Ark of Hope," it was clearly meant to replace the Law of Moses. In a public lecture I attended, one of the drafters of this document showed how placing phrases in the Preamble of The Earth Charter introduced an animistic spiritual interpretation of reality (e.g. "Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe...Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life"). The "native peoples" on the committee exulted because, "for the first time an international document expressed their [religiously pagan] worldview." For now, the Earth Charter is "soft law," but proponents are working to make it "hard law" for the entire planet.

Back in Bolivia, God, the Father and Creator of nature, who calls us to care for His creation, is now identified with the "alien" religion of the gringo/Spanish who exploited Bolivian land (some of which is true, alas). Christianity must be marginalized to make way for the now legal and obligatory ancient animistic worship of Mother Earth. This is the same conflict Elijah faced, between the Lord the Creator and the worship of the forces of Nature represented by Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18).

I remember a tiny, deeply tanned Aymaran Christian lady, dressed in the typical billowing skirt and bowler hat perched on the top of her head, who was seated on the front row of the church where I was preaching. After the service, with tears in her eyes, she gave me a hug of Christian affection, having heard once more of the Gospel of the Savior she loves. Pray for our Bolivian Christian brothers and sisters, to speak God's truth courageously to all. And let's pray for our youth as we teach them the crucial difference between care for the earth and worship of it.

About the author: Dr. Peter Jones is Director of truthXchange, and Adjunct Professor of New Testament, as well as Scholar in Residence, at Westminster Seminary California. He has written The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back (1992), Spirit Wars (1997), Gospel Truth/Pagan Lies (1999), Capturing the Pagan Mind (2003), Cracking DaVinci's Code (2004, co-author, James Garlow), Stolen Identity (2006) and The God of Sex (2006). Peter Jones is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is married to Rebecca Clowney Jones. They have seven children and twelve grandchildren. For recreation, Dr. Jones enjoys playing jazz piano and golf.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://truthxchange.com/articles/2011/05/05/io-78-pachamama-wants-your-children/


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Saturday, October 15, 2011

Iran's Christians urgently need the West's support

LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Fleur Brading - September 30, 2011
For the first time in 20 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has issued a formal death sentence for a Christian. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, leader of the Church of Iran denomination in Rasht, was arrested in October 2009 while seeking to register his church. He has been on death row since being found guilty of apostasy, conversion from Islam, in September 2010. ...
Although apostasy does not carry a formal death penalty under Iran's penal code, judges in Rasht were able to use the supremacy of Islamic jurisprudence in Iran's constitution to sue for the death sentence based on religious fatwas, or Islamic rulings, by leading Ayatollahs. ...
There have been over 300 arrests of Christians in 35 cities across Iran since June 2010. Detainees are typically held in unsanitary prisons, sometimes in solitary confinement, with evidence of torture and interrogation tactics being used against them on account of their faith. Excessively high bail demands, some as great as $30,000, see title deeds to detainees' houses being given in return for their liberty. Those inmates whose families cannot meet these demands, such as Pastor Farshid Fathi, who was detained in a brutal crackdown against evangelical Christians over Christmas of last year, remain detained. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8799149/Irans-Christians-urgently-need-the-Wests-support.html



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Algeria: Provincial Official Orders Churches to Close

CDN / COMPASS DIRECT [Compass Direct News] - May 25, 2011
ISTANBUL - Seven Algerian churches face closure this week after the governor of their province sent them written notice that they were operating "illegally."
The notice on Sunday (May 22) from Police Chief Ben Salma, citing a May 8 decree from the Bejaia Province governor, also states that all churches "in all parts of the country" will be closed for lack of compliance with registration regulations, but Christian leaders dismissed this assertion as the provincial official does not have nationwide authority.

"All buildings permanently designated for or in the process of being designated for the practice of religious worship other than Muslim will be permanently closed down in all parts of the country, as well as those not having received the conformity authorization from the National Commission," Salma stated in the notice.
On Sunday (May 22) the governor of Bejaia sent a statement to the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) informing him that all churches in the province were illegal because they were unregistered. Registration is required under controversial Ordinance 06-03, but Christians report the government refuses to respond to or grant their applications for registration.
The controversial law was introduced in 2006 to regulate non-Muslim worship. ...

According to the governor's statement, if the churches do not comply, authorities may use force. The leaders of the churches in Bejaia have decided to conduct church services this weekend as scheduled and "see what happens," said Krim, who also expects police to show up. ...
There are more than 99,000 Christians in Algeria, less than 0.3 percent of the total population of 35.4 million people, according to Operation World. Muslims make up more than 97 percent of the population.

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/13314/article_113076.html


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Analysis: Mideast Christians struggle during Arab Spring

REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - June 23, 2011
VENICE - Middle East Christians are struggling to keep hope alive with Arab Spring democracy movements promising more political freedom but threatening religious strife that could decimate their dwindling ranks.
Scenes of Egyptian Muslims and Christians protesting side by side in Cairo's Tahrir Square five months ago marked the high point of the euphoric phase when a new era seemed possible for religious minorities chafing under Islamic majority rule.
Since then, violent attacks on churches by Salafists - a radical Islamist movement once held in check by the region's now weakened or toppled authoritarian regimes - have convinced Christians their lot has not really improved and could get worse. ...

The Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, feared the three-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad spelled a bleak future for the 850,000 Christians there.
"If there is a change of regime," he said, "it's the end of Christianity in Syria. I saw what happened in Iraq."
The uncomfortable reality for the Middle East's Christians, whose communities date back to the first centuries of the faith, is that the authoritarian regimes challenged by the Arab Spring often protected them against any Muslim hostility.
Apart from Lebanon, where they make up about one-third of the population and wield political power, Christians are a small and vulnerable minority in Arab countries.
The next largest group, in Egypt, comprises about 10 percent of the population while Christians in other countries are less than 5 percent of the overall total.
Under Saddam Hussein, about 1.5 million Christians lived safely in Iraq. Since the US-led invasion in 2003, so many have fled from Islamist militant attacks that their ranks have shrunk to half that size, out of a population of 30 million. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=226236



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Obama Should Condemn Anti-Christian Violence in Egypt


WHITE HOUSE DOSSIER - By Keith Koffler - May 12, 2011
Even as he renews his outreach to Muslims, President Obama should seek to stem the growing tide of violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt by condemning last weekend’s attacks that left a dozen people dead and scores injured.
The attacks, about which Obama has been silent, also resulted in the burning of Coptic Orthodox churches and the destruction of Christian homes and businesses.
The president needs to say more to stem religious violence that creates opportunities for Islamic extremists who want to seize power in Egypt, our most important Arab ally.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday “strongly” condemned the violence, saying, “We stand behind the Coptic Christian community and their right to practice their faith in safety and security, free of persecution.”
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Obama is preparing to try to reengage Muslims with a speech, possibly next week, that will make the case that Muslims should “reject Islamic militancy in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death and embrace a new era of relations with the U.S.”

Whether Obama views condemning Muslim violence against Christians as inopportune during the lead up to a renewed outreach to Muslims is unclear. But it’s worth noting that after Obama seemed inexplicably slow off the mark supporting the masses of Iranian protestors two years ago, there was widespread belief that he was concerned about compromising his outreach to the Iranian government.
Obama, though a Christian, seems to view his background, which includes a Muslim grandfather and several years living as a child in Muslim Indonesia, as giving him a special conduit into the Muslim world. But I doubt this type of personal outreach by one man changes the way people view the United States. And it shouldn’t interfere with other aspects of U.S. policy.

Obama commendably condemned a New Year’s Eve church bombing in Alexandria, Egypt that killed 21. But he has said little - actually nothing that I could find - about the religious killings and tensions since then, which included the deaths of 12 people Jan. 30 during a raid of Christian homes in Upper Egypt.
Obama also should speak about about the growing violence against Christians in Iraq, a country where we have some real sway. Four were killed and 171 injured in attacks over the weekend, prompting a reaction from Pope Benedict XVI.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/05/12/obama-should-condemn-anti-christian-violence-egypt/



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Christians and Religious minorities fear Syrian Islamists


THE WASHINGTON TIMES [News World Communications/Moon-Unification Church] - By Ben Birnbaum - September 25, 2011
Syrian Christians and other minorities are scared of potential government influence by Islamic hard-liners if President Bashar Assad falls, U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford says.
“A lot of Christians here are very frightened of it, frankly,” said Mr. Ford, speaking by phone with The Washington Times from the Syrian capital, Damascus.
He also said that many in the minority Allawite Muslim sect, business owners and reformers who advocate a separation between religion and state are also concerned about a rise of political Islam in Syria. ...
As many as 10 percent of Syria’s 21 million people are Christians and an additional 12 percent belong to Mr. Assad’s Allawite sect, a Shiite offshoot.
Mr. Ford said the opposition’s newly created National Council of Syria needs to assure both groups that they would not face persecution by the country’s Sunni majority in any new government. ...
It may be a hard sell for the Christians, many of whom are refugees from Iraq. An independent report, meanwhile, has revealed that nearly 93,000 Christians have fled Egypt since its February revolution. ...

Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/25/religious-minorities-fear-syria-islamists/



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Monday, October 10, 2011

Missouri student gets in trouble for wearing a religious shirt her school says is vulgar


“JESUS... HE SCARES THE HELL OUT OF YOU”


KSHB-TV NBC 41/42 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI-KANSAS [E. W. Scripps Co./Scripps TV Station Group] - By Josh Lucht - March 17, 2011
KIRKWOOD, Missouri - A Missouri student is pulled out of class for wearing a T-shirt she claimed was an expression of religious freedom, but her school says was inappropriate.

The T-shirt reads “JESUS... HE SCARES THE HELL OUT OF YOU”

The North Kirkwood Middle School says shirts with swear words, no matter the context, are not allowed in class. So when Michelle Ramirez wore the shirt to school, the principal told her she would have to change into a different t-shirt because it was a violation of the dress code.

When the school called Michelle's parents, Christina Ramirez, Michelle’s mother stood squarely behind her daughter.

"I got on the phone with Michelle, I told Michelle, 'if you feel convicted to wear the shirt, you go ahead and put it back on," says Christina.

Christina and Michelle both insist the T-shirt does not violate the school’s no-swearing policy for T-shirts because it refers to a place they actually believe in, rather than just using the word as slang.

“I don't think it's a slang word because it's all capitalized, and even though the "hell" is a different color, that it still means the same thing: that he (Jesus) does scare the hell out of you that you're not letting the devil in," insists Christina.

School officials say they don’t have an issue with the message on the shirt, just the questionable meaning of the language on it.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/national/a-missouri-student-gets-in-trouble-for-wearing-a-religious-shirt-her-school-says-is-vulgar1300372839229


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Countries With Worst Religious Freedom Grades Are Mostly Islamic

CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE (CNSN.com) [Media Research Center] - By Patrick Goodenough - August 10, 2011
Muslim-majority countries score worst across a range of measures in a comprehensive new study tracking government restrictions on religion as well as social hostilities involving religion around the world.

The study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, released Tuesday, found that nearly one-third of the world’s population lives in countries where religion-related government restrictions or social hostilities rose significantly between mid-2006 and mid-2009.

Geographically, the Middle East/North Africa region boasted the largest proportion of countries – 30 percent – where official restrictions on religion increased over that three-year period.

Digging deeper, the 117-page report reveals that countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) dominate many of the most serious measures tracked at the end of the survey period in mid-2009.

Seven of the ten countries with the highest – that is, worst – grades when it comes to government restrictions on religion were OIC countries – Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Maldives, Malaysia and Indonesia. The other three were China, Burma and Eritrea.

Of the 10 countries on that benchmark index, six are designated by the U.S. government as “countries of particular concern” for religious freedom violations – Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

A separate index in the Pew report graded countries according to levels of social hostility involving religion. Eight of the top ten countries in that index were Muslim-majority states – Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Egypt. The other two, India and Israel, have Hindu and Jewish majorities respectively, and large Muslim minorities.

In an index measuring official interference with religious practice, 18 out of 26 countries (69 percent) whose government “prohibits worship or religious practices of one or more religious groups as a general policy,” were OIC members – Brunei, Chad, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The other eight were Burma, China, Eritrea, Laos, Madagascar, Monaco, Tuvalu and Vietnam.

A grading of countries where conversion from one religion to another is restricted was also dominated by Islamic states, accounting for 25 out of 29 countries listed (86 percent). They were Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

The four non-Muslim countries were Eritrea, India, Israel and Vietnam.

Taking the conversion issue a step further, among 13 countries where there were incidents of physical violence over conversions from one religion to another, 10 (77 percent) were Muslim – Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Comoros, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. The other three were India, Mongolia and Nepal.

Sixteen out of 26 countries/territories where “religion-related terrorist groups” perpetrated violence that resulted in ten or more injuries or deaths” were OIC members – Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Yemen

The 10 non-Muslim countries were Central African Republic, China, Congo, Ethiopia, India, Israel, Nepal, Philippines, Russia and Sri Lanka. (The report does not provide a breakdown of actual attacks, but in at least some of those countries – India, Israel, the Philippines and Russia – terror activity is largely attributed to Islamist groups.)

Blasphemy, ‘defamation’
The Pew report also examined the issue of “defamation” of religion, tracking countries where various penalties are enforced for apostasy, blasphemy or criticism of religions.

“While such laws are sometimes promoted as a way to protect religion, in practice they often serve to punish religious minorities whose beliefs are deemed unorthodox or heretical,” it said.

It found 21 Muslim countries in that category – Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Western Sahara and Yemen.

The study also found 23 non-Muslim countries where penalties are enforced for such criticism of religion – Austria, Brazil, Burma, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iceland, India, Italy, Malta, Mauritius, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

“Eight-in-ten countries in the Middle East-North Africa region have laws against blasphemy, apostasy or defamation of religion, the highest share of any region,” it said. “These penalties are enforced in 60 percent of the countries in the region. In Europe, nearly four-in-ten countries (38 per cent) have such laws and nearly a third (31 per cent) actively enforces them.”

The report did not, however, draw a distinction between the types of penalties enforced in Muslim and non-Muslim countries for breaching these laws.

A study by Human Rights First, released last March, documented more than 70 cases in 15 countries where the enforcement of blasphemy laws resulted in problems of various kinds since 2007.

Of the 70 cases, only four were not in Muslim countries. They were in Austria (where a woman was fined for “denigrating” Islam during a lecture); India (where nine people were charged over a magazine article said to have injured the sentiments of Hindus); Sri Lanka (where a convert from Buddhism to Islam was accused of offending Buddhism); and Poland (where a provocative rock star was accused of insulting religious sentiments in the predominantly Catholic country).

By contrast, the vast majority of the cases documented in the report took place in Islamic countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan – and included lengthy prison terms and the imposition of the death penalty, as well as extrajudicial retribution such as mob attacks and killings.

‘Repressive’
One country that did not feature in the Pew survey’s country scores was North Korea – not because it is not a problem, but because of difficulties obtaining accurate information in the reclusive Stalinist state.

“The sources clearly indicate that the government of North Korea is among the most repressive in the world with respect to religion as well as other civil liberties,” the report said. “But because North Korean society is effectively closed to outsiders, the sources are unable to provide the kind of specific and timely information that the Pew Forum coded in this quantitative study.”

The religious freedom advocacy group Open Doors has listed North Korea at No. 1 on its annual World Watch List of countries most hostile to Christians for the past nine consecutive years.

The rest of the top 10 on its 2011 list were Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Laos. Apart from communist Laos, all are OIC member-states.

Unedited :: Link to Original Posting



FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.







Saturday, October 08, 2011

Egypt: Christians asked to bow in submission to Allah :: Persecution During "Arab Spring"

WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - February 21, 2011
JERUSALEM - In what Egypt's Christians fear may be a sign of things to come, a senior Islamic cleric asked Christians to bow in Muslim prayer in an act of submission to Allah.
On Friday, famed Egyptian theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a spiritual leader to the Muslim Brotherhood who hosts a popular Islam-themed television show on Al Jazeera, led the Islamic prayer services in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's uprising.
While he repeatedly offered nods to Egypt's Coptic Christians, unmentioned in most news media accounts of the ceremony was that Qaradawi asked all in attendance, specifically singling out Christians, to bow in Islamic prayer.
A Coptic Christian at the event told WND the request was intimidating.
"Whether he meant to or not, this was asking Christian to bow in an act of submission to Islam and Allah," said the Christian, who asked that he named be withheld.
"There were maybe 250,000 people at the rally. Almost all were Muslims. So when we (Christians) are asked to bow, and we are in the extreme minority in the crowd, it is intimidating."
The Christian witness said thousands of Christians in attendance at the rally did not bow.
A Coptic Christian leader told WND he believes Qaradawi's request may reflect a larger emerging Islamic role in Egypt.
Qaradawi's speech was, in part, focused on political Islam, replete with his quoting verses of the Quran.
While he asked the entire rally to bow in Islamic prayer, he also used his speech to reassure the Christian minority of their place in Egypt, telling the crowd that "in this square sectarianism died."
He discarded the customary Islamic clerical opening of "Oh Muslims," in favor of "Oh Muslims and Copts."
He praised Muslims and Christians for standing together in Egypt's revolution and even hailed what he called the Coptic Christian "martyrs" who once fought the Romans and Byzantines.
Then he asked the Christians to bow in Muslim prayer.
"I invite you to bow down in prayer together," he said. ...
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=266385

Primacy of Islam and Shari'a Law Expected to Remain in Egypt's Constitution
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE (CNSN.com) [Media Research Center] - By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor - February 21, 2011
An article in Egypt's constitution that affirms Islam as the state religion likely will remain untouched despite hopes among the country's Christian minority that the recent uprising would usher in an era of greater tolerance for non-Muslims.
A committee considering amendments to the 1971 constitution said in a statement Sunday that article II would not be amended, the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported.
Article II reads, "Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic is its official language. Principles of Islamic law (Shari'a) are the principal source of legislation." ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/primacy-islam-and-shari-law-expected-rem   

In Ethiopia, Muslims burn 69 churches
BAPTIST PRESS [Southern Baptist Convention] - By Melanie Clinton - March 17, 2011
ASENDABO, Ethiopia -- Muslims have killed at least one Christian and wounded several others in anti-Christian violence in western Ethiopia, according to International Christian Concern, an organization that helps persecuted Christians worldwide.
ICC also is reporting that Muslims have burned down 69 church buildings, 30 Christian homes, a Bible school, a Christian orphanage and a church office.
The anti-Christian attacks started March 2 after Muslims allegedly accused Christians of desecrating the Quran, the Islamic holy book. Violence continues to affect residents of the area. During the initial days of the attacks 3,000 Christians were displaced; ICC reports those numbers now have climbed to 10,000.
Although Ethiopian Orthodox churches are predominant throughout the country, at least the first 55 churches burned belong to evangelical denominations, according to Sam Parkman* [Name changed] , a Christian worker who served in Ethiopia from 2007-10. ...
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=34859

Pakistan's minister for religious minorities assassinated
ECUMENICAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL - March 2, 2011
Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistan's Minister for Religious Minorities and the only Christian cabinet member, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated on 2 March outside his home in Islamabad. He was the second high-ranking Pakistan government official murdered this year after expressing opposition to the country's law that makes criticism of the Prophet Muhammad a capital crime. ...
Before escaping, the assassins dropped leaflets around the scene that stated Bhatti was murdered due to his opposition to the blasphemy law. The pamphlets said the Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda were responsible for the slaying. ...
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-03/pakistans-minister-religious-minorities-assassinated 

4 Americans on hijacked yacht dead off Somalia
... sailing around the world since 2004 handing out Bibles
CBS NEWS America [CBS Corporation]/ASSOCIATED PRESS - February 22, 2011
[...] The experienced yacht enthusiasts from California and Washington are the first Americans killed by Somali pirates since the start of attacks off East Africa several years ago. One of the American couples on board had been sailing around the world since 2004 handing out Bibles.
Their deaths appeared to underscore an increasingly brutal and aggressive shift by pirates in their treatment of hostages. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/22/501364/main20034691.shtml   

Critics Slam U.S. Government, Media for 'Weak' Response to Anti-Christian Attacks
FOX NEWS [News Corporation/Murdoch] - February 15, 2011
At least 65 Christians have been killed in attacks across the Muslim world in recent months, sparking sharp criticism from human rights groups that charge the U.S. government and media aren't doing nearly enough to speak out against the violence.
Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
http://morielbealertblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/critics-slam-us-government-media-for.html

Ex-Lebanon Leader: Christians Target of Genocide
CBS NEWS America [CBS Corporation], ASSOCIATED PRESS - January 3, 2011
BEIRUT - Extremist groups are waging a "genocide" against Christians in the Middle East, a former Lebanese president said Monday, after a New Year's suicide bombing of a church in Egypt killed 21 people. ...
"Massacres are taking place for no reason and without any justification against Christians. It is only because they are Christians," said [Amin] Gemayel, who leads Lebanon's right-wing Christian Phalange party. "What is happening to Christians is a genocide," he said. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/03/world/main7208414.shtml

Christians Under Siege in the Muslim World
TIME [Time Warner] > Photos

Ed. Note: One headline says it all. TIME Magazine now has a running photo feature of the attacks on Christians in Muslim countries.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2040755_2223532,00.html

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Saturday, September 24, 2011

WikiLeaks Revelations on Israel

The latest round of cables released by WikiLeaks details the intimate security concerns of Israel's intelligence community; Israel-US ties.
ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Gavriel Queenann - April 8, 2011
The latest media-barnstorm by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange reveals the private concerns and assessments of Israel's intelligence services, the Guardian reports.

The documents on Israel and the Middle East come as Assange agreed to be interviewed by the Hebrew-language Yedidot Acharonot this week to defend his organization from charges of anti-Semitism.

According to the cables,

Israel Forecasted Mideast Upheaval in 2007
Classified documents from 2007 - long before unrest swept though the Mideast - revealed Director of Military Intelligence Major-General Amos Yadlin had told Americans that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is unlikely to survive another war with Israel.
Mossad Chief Meir Dagan echoed the sentiment at the time, further expressing his concern over the instability of several Middle East regimes.
Dagan intimated the Israel's security community felt that the regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were unstable - an assessment proved right in early 2011.

Tantawi Obdurate On Arms Smuggling
Mohammed Tantawi, the head of the interim junta ruling Egypt who has expressed solidarity with the Palestinian Authority, was an obstacle to efforts to stop arms smuggling within the Gaza strip, according to Israeli security forces in 2009. The cables also revealed praise for former Egyptian intelligence minister Omar Suleiman, who was described as "supportive".
Egypt is the primary route for weapons and munitions into the Gaza strip, and the US has been facilitating co-operation between Israel and Egypt to tackle this for several years. Israel routinely bombs smuggling tunnels transiting the southern Gaza boundary in retaliatory strikes.

Bahrain-Israel Cooperation
The King of Bahrain, whose Sunni-ruled Arab state has recently been shaken by Shiite protests, has had friendly links with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. The US learned of the contacts during a private conversation between US ambassador, William Monroe, and King Hamad of Bahrain in the king's palace on 15 February 2005.
Monroe reported back to Washington: "He [the king] revealed that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (ie [sic] with Mossad) and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas."
Such cooperation is not overly surprising in light of tenion between Sunni-Arab states and Shiite Iran in the Persian Gulf. The Mossad has had back-channel contact with Arab counterparts, most notably Morocco and Jordan (prior to the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty) in the past.

Hizbullah Ready To Slam Israel With 400-600 Rockets Per Day
Hizbullah's mounting capability to strike directly at Tel Aviv rests on an arsenal of more than 20,000 missiles.
Israeli intelligence chiefs briefed their US counterparts during a regular Joint Political Military Group (JPMG) session on November18, 2009 about the scale of potential Hizbullah attacks from Lebanon when hostilities next erupt between Iran's Shiite terror proxy and the Jewish State.
Washington was told, "Hizbullah possesses over 20,000 rockets ... Hizbullah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day. A Mossad official estimated that Hizbullah will try to launch 400-600 rockets and missiles at Israel per day - 100 of which will be aimed at Tel Aviv. He noted that Hizbullah is looking to sustain such launches for at least two months."

Israeli Leaders Muddled On Gaza
Other cables detail secret talks between Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin and US diplomats over the role of Hamas in Gaza. On November 12, 2009 the embassy reported the views of Major General Yoav Galant, then head of Israel's Southern Command, that Hamas needed to be "strong enough to enforce a ceasefire."
Galant told the Americans: "Israel's political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the well being of Gaza's civilian population."
Galant was to be made Israel's chief of defense staff earlier this year, but the appointment was canceled due to scandal.

Arab-Israeli Leaders Flirting With The Enemy
Diskin also offered the Americans the Shin Beth's stance on the of Israeli Arabs, of whom he said many "have taken their liberties too far."
Diskin said some Israeli-Arab leaders see themselves as Arabs and Muslims first, and Israeli citizens last. He also criticized Arab MKs, saying they were "flirting with the enemy."
He allegedly said "…these people don’t spread Israel's democratic values and principles, and abuse their diplomatic immunity." He also attributed the problem to Arab refugees who returned to Israel and "brought bad ideas" with them.
The Shin Bet Chief was quoted as having criticized the Israel Police in the documents, saying it was their "incompetence" that forced the Shin Bet to involve itself in former Balad Chairman Azmi Bishara's supposed espionage case, saying his organization "would welcome him back to Israel."
Bishara fled Israel in 2007, and is facing a lengthy prison sentence should he return.

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.