Saudi Arabia cracks down on Christian prayer meeting

Dozens of Ethiopian Christians were arrested for holding a prayer meeting, though under charges of "mixing with the opposite sex": "the Saudi officials are accusing the Christians of committing the crime of mixing of sexes because if they charge them with meeting for practicing Christianity, they will come under pressure from the international human rights organizations as well as Western countries."

The women among the Christians were strip-searched and the men assaulted (http://www.christianpost.com/news/ethiopian-christian-prisoners-assaulted-strip-searched-in-saudi-arabia-68013/). It is instructive that this was a purely prayer meeting among Christian foreigners and did not involve any proselytization of any moslem or Arab.

As at early February 9 the Christians were still being held without trial. (http://www.charismanews.com/world/32553-saudi-arabia-arrests-ethiopian-christians-for-mixing-with-the-opposite-sex)

Islamists Nearly Wipe Out Christians In Syrian City

The ChristianPost, based on figures given by the Syrian Orthodox Church, reports "an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians" by members of the militant Islamist outfit, Brigade Faruq, which has links with al-Qaida. The militants have expelled 90 percent of Christians in Homs, which has faced the brunt of violence related to the uprising, and grabbed their homes, it said. They went door to door in the neighborhoods of Hamidiya and Bustan al-Diwan forcing Christians to flee without giving them the chance to take their belongings, it added.

About 10 percent of Syria's 23 million people are estimated to be Christians, who have generally supported President Bashar Assad, a Muslim from a Shiite offshoot who is autocratic but protects religious minorities. On the other hand, the majority of the Muslims in Syria are Sunni.

The ChristianPost further reports a car bomb explosion targeting pupils at a school of the Franciscan fathers in Aleppo. "By a miracle a massacre of children was avoided, at the Center of catechesis of the Church of St. Bonaventure: only because the Franciscan, sensing danger, made the children leave 15 minutes before the usual time." (http://www.rescueChristians.org/2012/03/25/syria-islamists-have-expelled-90-percent-of-Christians-in-homs/)

Islamic terrorism in France

In France, a 23-year-old Islamic jihadist named Mohamed Merah confirmed the threat of homegrown Muslim terrorism when he went on an 11 day killing spree. Before he was finally subdued, Merah, had killed three French paratroopers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi with close-range shots to the head. A French citizen of Algerian origin, Merah filmed himself carrying out the attacks that began on March 11 to "verify" the deaths. Merah later died in a hail of gunfire on March 22 after a 32-hour standoff with police at his apartment in the southern French city of Toulouse.

Incredibly, the European Union's 'Foreign Minister', Catherine Ashton of Britain, declared that "what happened in Toulouse," -- the deliberate murder of the Jewish children -- was morally equivalent to the accidental war deaths of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Read details in the articles Europe's Islamic Future Has Arrived at (http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org) and Europeans Horrified To Discover That They Must Contend With Homegrown Terrorists at (http://www.ynetnews.com/)

Moslem persecutions of Christians, January 2012

Assaults on Christians from their Moslem neighbours is not subsiding in the new year. Raymond Ibrahim, in his chronicle of January persecutions, includes reports “from Nigeria, where an all-out jihad has been declared in an effort to eradicate the Muslim north of all Christians, to Europe, where Muslim converts to Christianity are still hounded and attacked as apostates.” He posted a warning that considering the unprecedented and ever increasing flight of Christians out of some countries, "Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt." Please check these details from Raymond Ibrahim’s website at http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012.

Not so simple, saying “Merry Christmas”

Until some years ago, nobody batted an eye at the traditional “Merry Christmas” greetings at Christmas. Suddenly emerged the post-modernists, protesting the religionization of Christmas, and advocating as appropriate greetings “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings”! Now the stakes are considerably upped as in America some Islamic clerics have ruled it a grand sin for a Moslem to wish anyone a “merry Christmas”. According to cleric Al-AhMad' "saying Merry Christmas is even worse than fornication or killing someone." (http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/islamic-scholar-saying-merry-christmas-is-worst-then-fornication-or-killing-someone.html).

In Malaysia, even Christians had restrictions placed on their expression of Christmas felicitations. As reported by Malaysian Insider, “Parish priests and church youth leaders were required to get “caroling“ permits before they could "visit their fellow church members and belt out 'Joy to the World,' [or] 'Silent Night, Holy Night.'" For 30 years, it had been required that permits be obtained because Carols are conducted in public, outside residences of hosting Church members. The conditions for obtaining a permit include submission of full names and identity card numbers of the clergy at police stations. But last Christmas new conditions were added including that the full names and contact information of the house-holders that would be visited. (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/print/malaysia/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly-with-a-police-permit/)

Even in western countries, moslems are aggressively putting pressure on Christians at Christmas. For example at the university of London, apparently to appease moslem folks, readings from the Quran were featured during the Christmas service; while "a posh Montreal suburb chose rather to remove a nativity scene and menorah from town hall rather than acquiesce to demands from a Muslim group to erect Islamic religious symbols."

As an example of tawriya in action, a Sheik has suggested a way out to bail out pious moslems from the "great sin" of having to acknowledge Christmas; while at the same time not sounding antagonistic. On YouTube, a Sheikh suggests Muslims to tell Christians, "I wish you the best." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-ssc7MB32Sk). He explains the ingenuity of this new Christmas greeting: whereby the latter might "understand it to mean you're wishing them best in terms of their [Christmas] celebration." (here the ‘wily’ sheikh giggles), you actually “mean in your heart I wish you become a Muslim." Of course, in the thinking of the learned Sheikh, being a muslim is the best for anybody. Such “creative lying” is fully endorsed in Islam and is known as Tawriya. For more on this Islamic doctrine, see http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/02/raymond-ibrahim-tawriya---new-islamic-doctrine-permits-creative-lying.html.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the planet, Christmas carols, greetings and symbols were the least considerations as Islamic militants went on a killing spree. In Northern Nigeria, the major assaults of the period inclued the Boko Haram massacre of over 40 people at St Theresa’s (in Madalla, Niger state) and MFM Church (Jos, Plateau State) on Christmas day. (see http://www.galaxytvonline.com/news/main-news/boko-haram-40-killed-in-christmas-massacre)

What Can Be Learned From the Tragic Life of Whitney Houston

In a Feb 19 article with the above title, Todd Strandberg of Rapture Ready examined the awful price people pay for being pop celebrities. Todd wrote:

“Being a pop singer is one of the most dangerous occupations on the planet. There are dozens of websites that track the premature death of musicians. One of the most extensive sites that I found averaged all the deaths and came up with a life span of 36.9 years. The average for the general population is 75.8 years.”

Referring specifically to the death of singer Whitney Houston who was found in the bath of her Beverly Hilton hotel room with her face underwater, Todd noted that “Houston had a long history of drug problems;" and that, "Los Angeles cops are said to have found six prescription pill bottles—Xanax, Lorazepam, Ibuprofen, Midol, Amoxicillin, and Valium." It seemed obvious enough that “a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol” is the cause of Houston’s death.

At 68, the longevity of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is often talked about. But Todd attributed that to just uncommon luck. But then he added, “Since Mr. Richards looks and talks like he died in 1980, there is something to be said about the quality-of-life factor.” Back home in Nigeria, many will agree that the quality of life factor is certainly a reality in the case of reggae maestro, Majek Fashek. See The Westerner (Compass), May 6)

This is how Todd concluded his thought-provoking article:

“People take drugs to escape from pain, and it's not the physical kind. Whitney Houston wasn't doing handstands the day before she died. I don't think she needed narcotics for back pain. Before Michael Jackson died, he was taking enough drugs to tranquilize a team of horses. ….

“The pain that celebrities are trying to escape from is the realization that success can't bring happiness. Mike Tyson is one of the best examples. The former heavyweight boxing champion manage to do the seemingly impossible: He blew the $300 million he earned from his career. He had excessive spending on mansions and expensive cars, but these items would hold their value. What put him in the poorhouse was women and parties that would cost $200,000 per night.

“The tragic death of people like Whitney Houston is a warning for us to be ready. Even though you and I are nobodies in the eyes of the world, we have a precious commodity that dead celebrities no longer possess: the opportunity to seek God's will.

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). [http://www.raptureready.com/nm/393.html]

Much Ado About A Church Building

How many mansions have been built for Nigerian politicians by building contractors over the decades? From Minna, to Abuja, to Lagos, the landscape is littered with such donations. And what moslem mansion is ever complete without the mandatory mosque!

Yet for all these mansions and mosques built and donated to individuals, never had we have national dailies filling both front and back pages (see eg The Punch, April 5, 2012) with sharp, derogatory commentaries – day after day – on any of such donations. But now, even a supposed national Party (never mind its fielding of Moslem-Moslem candidates in the last presidential election) feels very strongly that a donation of a Church building to a Community should be ground enough to impeach the President! Afterall it’s the President’s village we are talking about, and the idea for the project came up in course of some informal discussion the President was involved with!

One would have thought that an accusation of wrongfully receiving a Church auditorium could only have been leveled at a Pastor or a General Overseer!

Anyway, we have no problems with people playing their do-or-die dirty politics the way they feel; but taking the Church for granted is becoming increasingly fashionable these days. In particular, people whose social agenda (homosexual advocates, etc) are being frustrated by the Church are now teaming up with politicians to have a swipe at the Church. This trend is not novel, and should be expected. “The bloodthirsty hates the righteous… “ says the Scriptures. In fact these new sexuality wannabe “change agents” are still far behind their mentors in other lands. In a place like the US for instance, activists with considerable public funding, have produced such “works of arts” as Piss Christ - a picture of a crucifix dipped in urine (see vol 9 no 2; http://www.churcharise.org/archives/Vol%209%20No%202,%20March%20-%20April%202006,%20print%20version.doc); while not one of them will dare even toy with a cartoon of Islamic figures.

One question for all the sharp-mouthed suddenly- bold commentators hauling insults and invectives at the Church in their bid to get at the President: could any of them have DARED to write half of what they are writing, were it a mosque that was involved? Certainly none who has been in journalism by the time of the 2003 Miss World riot saga (http://www.churcharise.org/archives/6_3.pdf) . Thank God, there is no iota of possibility of a journalist being hounded by any Christian group – fanatical or mainstream. But that does not mean journalist shouldn’t be able to exhibit a little common decorum.

The point of this article is not to protest or instigate Christian reactions to these antics of frustrated pawns of the new age movement. It is to encourage the Church to appreciate the level of desperation of the enemy as he watches the little time he has left ebbing away (see Rev 12:11-12). It is also to remind these foot soldiers of the New World Order that they are on a futile assignment - and will be better off considering relocation from their current placement on the wrong side of history. The Lord Jesus has said it, and so has it been written: “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against her.”