One year after the official swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari the government is considering two bills that, if passed, will further Islamise Nigeria. A bill to establish grazing reserves for the Fulani in every state would facilitate Muslim Fulani expansion deep into the Christian south. This is despite knowing the Fulani have been infiltrated by Boko Haram which uses the Fulani as a means to Islamic expansion. A bill proposing to amend the Nigerian constitution to expand the scope and jurisdiction of Nigeria's Islamic Sharia courts passed its second reading without debate on 19 May with apathetic and corrupted Christian lawmakers waving it through. Christian and Muslim students have protested in Abuja against the government's move to divide and Islamise Nigeria. Please pray for Nigeria and for her Church.
The above is an executive summary. More details can be found here.
After predominantly Christian South Sudan seceded from the Republic of Sudan in July 2011, Sudan's Arab-Islamist regime in Khartoum declared its intention to Islamise Sudan fully.
The Islamisation includes a campaign of systematic persecution, especially in the strategic major centres of Khartoum, Khartoum North (Bahri) and Omdurman.Foreign Christians have been expelled, numerous Southerners have been driven out and several churches have been seized and destroyed.
In mid-November 2014 National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) agents oversaw the partial demolition of the Khartoum Bhari Evangelical Church, a property belonging to the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SSPEC) [see RLPB 288 (26 Nov 2014)]. Then on Sunday 21 December 2014, Rev Yat Michael, an SSPEC pastor visiting from Juba, South Sudan, was arrested as he addressed the congregation at the partially demolished property.
Both pastors faced the Khartoum Bhari Criminal Court on 4 May where they were charged jointly with undermining the constitutional system (Article 50 of the Sudanese Penal Code); waging war against the state (Article 51); disclosure and receipt of official information or documents (Article 55); arousing feelings of discontent among regular forces (Article 62); breach of public peace (Article 69); and offences relating to insulting religious beliefs (Article 125). Of the five charges, Articles 50 and 51 carry the death penalty or life imprisonment if found guilty.
Morning Star News (MSN) was able to speak briefly with Pastor Michael on 7 May. 'God will intervene and protect us even in prison despite the serious charges brought against us,' the pastor said. 'Thank you all for your prayers and concerns for us over this long period of imprisonment.' According to MSN, whilst NISS officials offered to drop the charges if the SSPEC paid $12,000, SSPEC will not open itself up to extortion. The pastors commenced a hunger strike on 28 April to protest their detention. Their families are understandably anxious. Pastor Michael's wife implored MSN, 'Let us continue to pray for them so that God can help them to be released.' The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday 14 May. [Visit the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog for updates.]
Why is the United States barring a persecuted Iraqi Catholic nun — an internationally respected and leading representative of the Nineveh Christians who have been killed and deported by ISIS — from coming to Washington to testify about this catastrophe?
Earlier this week, we learned that every member of an Iraqi delegation of minority groups, including representatives of the Yazidi and Turkmen Shia religious communities, has been granted visas to come for official meetings in Washington — save one. The single delegate whose visitor visa was denied happens to be the group’s only Christian from Iraq. . . . [More...]
. . . As an articulate, English-speaking Iraqi Christian, who is not only personally a victim of ISIS but also an aid worker with a broad perspective on the suffering of the Christian community there, Sister Diana would make an exceptional witness.
Whether conscious or not of her high value in that regard, those who decided to block Sister Diana from entering this country on a visitor visa acted in a manner consistent with the administration’s pattern of silence when it comes to the Christian profile of so many of the jihadists’ “convert-or-die” victims in Syria, Libya, Nigeria, Kenya, and Iraq. In typical U.S. condolence statements, targeted Christians have been identified simply as “lives lost,” “Egyptian citizens,” “Kenyan people,” “innocent victims,” or “innocent Iraqis.”
Me: It's certainly true that the Obama administration cares not a fig about religious persecution around the world, but in addition to that, it has developed a particularly strong animosity toward reporting atrocities and persecutions committed against Christians. I have almost finished reading the remarkable story of Bob Fu [God's Double Agent], who as a Chinese advocate for religious freedom secured wonderful cooperation from the George W. Bush White House and President George Bush himself. The contrast between Presidents Bush and Obama could not be more dramatic. GWB put religious freedom high on his list of foreign policy concerns. From all the evidence, the current occupant of the White House despises Christians.
The leader of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram is taunting the families of the 200 schoolgirls the terrorist group kidnapped in Nigeria six months ago.
In a new video Abubakar Shekau laughs at the parents and tells them all the young girls have converted to Islam and have been married off.
"If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you...to die from grief," Shekau sneers.
Last month, the Nigerian government said they had reached a ceasefire agreement for Boko Haram to release the girls. Now those hopes have been completely dashed.
In the new video, Shekau wears a camouflage tunic and pants and the black and white flag of al Qaeda is by his side. He is flanked by masked and armed fighters standing in front of four military pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
Shekau denies in the video that he has agreed to any truce and says he is dedicated to fighting and dying as an Islamic martyr to guarantee him a place in paradise.
"You people should understand that we only obey Allah; we tread the path of the Prophet. We hope to die on this path ... Our goal is the garden of eternal bliss," he says.
In August, Shekau announced that Boko Haram was establishing an Islamic caliphate like the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Fleeing Nigerians have reported that hundreds of people are being detained under strict Islamic law, known as Shariah, established by Boko Haram in several towns and villages.
In a discussion on poverty so prevalent in many African countries, Jay Nordlinger of National Review makes the following observation:
There is such a thing as oversimplifying. There is also such a thing as overcomplicating. What do Africans need? The same things everyone else needs: the rule of law; property rights; an independent judiciary; accountability in government; economic freedom; other freedom. Then they will zoom. They are not born to be poor and desolate. The systems that control them make them that way.
Mankind knows pretty well what leads to prosperity and what leads to the opposite. Our experience has been ample — redundant. The road to prosperity is blocked by collectivists, tyrants, and spoilers.
Have I oversimplified? Probably, but the more common error is overcomplicating, I think.
A Christian revival is touching the northernmost reaches of Africa. In a region once hostile to the gospel, now tens of thousands of Muslims are following Jesus.
As the sun sets over the Mediterranean Sea, Muslims across Northern Africa are converting to faith in Jesus Christ in record numbers.
"What God is doing in North Africa, all the way from actually Mauritanian to Libya is unprecedented in the history of missions" said Tino Qahoush, a graduate of Regent University and filmmaker. He has spent years traveling the region to document the transformation.
If you're like me, you would welcome some clarification over what's going on in South Sudan. Elizabeth Kendal of the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin provides the needed comprehensive update. She writes:
Fighting erupted in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Sunday 15 December 2013 within the presidential guard. What followed was a rapid descent into widespread ethnic violence. This is no mere hiccup as this crisis has been brewing for some time. The violence has its roots in decades of unresolved ethnic tensions, in painful memories and wounds buried for the sake of peace. However, buried wounds do not disappear but they fester. Unless there is an immediate cessation of hostilities followed by deep and honest reflection and healing, South Sudan could disintegrate.
All through 2013 tensions were escalating in Juba between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and his Vice-President Riek Machar, a Nuer. Long-time a divisive and ambitious figure, Machar had been agitating for regime change in Juba all year, playing the ethnic card to rally his Nuer tribesmen behind him. In April Kiir reined in Machar, stripping him of some of his powers and limiting him to only those powers defined in the constitution.
As a friend correctly wrote: "The UN spends all its time on Israel, while the Arabs get away with genocide on a massive scale."
Below is a MUST READspeech given by Simon Deng, a former Sudanese slave, at the Durban III Counter- Conference held in New York City in September, 2011. The Arab atrocities in Sudan and elsewhere continue! This speech is not out of date!!! The text of the speech appears below.
I want to thank the organizers of this conference, The Perils of Global Intolerance. It is a great honor for me and it is a privilege really to be among today's distinguished speakers.
I came here as a friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I came to protest this Durban conference which is based on a set of lies. It is organized by nations who are themselves are guilty of the worst kinds of oppression.
It will not help the victims of racism. It will only isolate and target the Jewish state. It is a tool of the enemies of Israel. The UN has itself become a tool against Israel. For over 50 years, 82 percent of the UN General Assembly emergency meetings have been about condemning one state – Israel. Hitler couldn't have been made happier.
The Durban Conference is an outrage. All decent people will know that.
But friends, I come here today with a radical idea. I come to tell you that there are peoples who suffer from the UN's anti-Israelism even more than the Israelis. I belong to one of those people.
Please hear me out.
By exaggerating Palestinian suffering, and by blaming the Jews for it, the UN has muffled the cries of those who suffer on a far larger scale.
For over 50 years the indigenous black population of Sudan — Christians and Muslims alike — has been the victims of the brutal, racist Arab Muslim regimes in Khartoum.
The UN is focused about Palestinians, while ignoring ethnic cleansing in Sudan.
In South Sudan, my homeland, about 4 million innocent men, women and children were slaughtered from 1955 to 2005. Seven million were ethnically cleansed and they became the largest refugee group since World War II.
The UN is concerned about the so-called Palestinian refugees. They dedicated a separate agency for them, and they are treated with a special privilege.
Meanwhile, my people, ethnically cleansed, murdered and enslaved, are relatively ignored. The UN refuses to tell the world the truth about the real causes of Sudan's conflicts. Who knows really what is happening in Darfur? It is not a "tribal conflict."
It is a conflict rooted in Arab colonialism well known in north Africa. In Darfur, a region in the Western Sudan, everybody is Muslim. Everybody is Muslim because the Arabs invaded the North of Africa and converted the indigenous people to Islam. In the eyes of the Islamists in Khartoum, the Darfuris are not Muslim enough. And the Darfuris do not want to be Arabized. They love their own African languages and dress and customs. The Arab response is genocide! But nobody at the UN tells the truth about Darfur.
"When you meet the unbelievers, strike at their necks..." -- Qur'an 47:4
"Extremists Slit Throats of 44 in Northeast Nigeria," from the Associated Press, August 24:
An official says suspected Islamist extremists killed at
least 44 villagers in continuing attacks in an Islamic uprising in
northeast Nigeria.
The official of the National Emergency Management Agency says the
attackers hit Dumba village in Borno state before dawn Tuesday and slit their victims' throats — a new strategy since gunfire attracts security forces.
He said the attackers gouged out the eyes of some victims who survived. The official spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to give information to reporters. [more...]
Elizabeth Kendal has written a tremendously informative report on what is going on in the Central African Republic. Those who understand how prayer can turn around difficult and dangerous situations will want to read this report. It includes commentary on past amazing answers to prayer when urgent calls have gone out. Kendal writes:
As reported in last week's RLPB 210, a rebel army known as Seleka('alliance') has seized control of Central African Republic. What international media and human rights organisations are failing to acknowledge is that while CAR is French-speaking and 76 percent Christian, the supposedly poor and marginalised yet exceedingly well-armed rebels are Arabic-speaking Muslims with many foreign jihadis in their ranks. While France (the colonial power) refused to aid the government -- something that triggered angry protests outside the French Embassy in Bangui -- French soldiers are now patrolling the streets at the behest of the rebels. Targeted attacks against churches and religious workers have led church leaders to question Seleka's intentions. Many other questions remain unanswered too, such as: 'Who backed this regime change and why?'
As if this were not bad enough, another threat hangs over the Christians of CAR: the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA is a Ugandan rebel militia that emerged to wreak terror in Uganda's impoverished and marginalised north in the 1980s. However, when the Islamic regime in Sudan started sponsoring it, LRA activities expanded to fighting all of Khartoum's 'enemies', such as Uganda and its allies in southern Sudan. LRA terror escalated markedly in late 2002 such that, in May 2003, this prayer ministry (then under the auspices of WEA RLC) launched an international prayer campaign, triggering an intensive spiritual battle. The first call to prayer (RLP 219) went out on 14 May 2003. This was immediately followed by an unprecedented mass of defections from the LRA to the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative. Kony responded on 14 June 2003 by ordering his troops to 'kill all clergy'. An urgent call to prayer was immediately issued, that God would 'bind all the demonic spirits allied with Joseph Kony and the LRA, to keep drawing defectors from all ranks of the LRA, and to effect the escape and rescue of hundreds of abducted children.' We prayed also for God to protect and bless all 'clergy, nuns, and Christian workers, especially those in front-line danger.' (RLP 224, 17 June 2003 (includes 18 months of updates)). To each request, God answered, "Yes!" Over the next 12-18 months, intercessors continued to battle against the LRA. Eventually the group was so decimated that violence had subsided greatly and redevelopment had begun.
Be among the few who pay attention to the terrible persecution being meeted out to Christians in the world today, especially by Islamists. Elizabeth Kendall of the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin reports:
** Islamists -- a powerful force in Sudan --
hold President Gen. Omar el-Bashir responsible for the loss of southern
Sudan. Of course he is responsible, for he systematically marginalised,
cheated, persecuted and fought the predominantly Christian non-Arabs of
southern Sudan while trying to impose Islam on them until all they
wanted was separation. Eventually on 9 July 2011 South Sudan became an
independent nation. Khartoum's hardline Islamists believe secession
should never have been an option, not merely because southern Sudan is
resource-rich, but because Islamists do not believe Allah's land should
ever be forfeit -- especially not at the behest of the US! In the latter
part of 2012, Arab Spring-inspired protests erupted in Khartoum only to
be hijacked by Islamists who attacked Western embassies. Rumours
abounded that a coup was imminent. Whilst some of the discontent in
Khartoum is due to economic hardship and repression, the Islamist
discontent pertains to the growing belief that el-Bashir has failed the
State by not being Islamic enough! A key opposition figure, Hassan al-Turabi, has asserted
that el-Bashir's regime should not even be regarded as Islamic!
Factions inside the regime are leveraging this discontent to increase
their power, leaving el-Bashir under pressure
to prove his Islamist credentials. This is the context for the campaign
of systematic persecution that began in late 2012 (see RLPBs 198 and 199, and for more details RLM 6 March 2013).
On 14 February doctors in Khartoum cross-amputated a man's right hand and left foot under orders from the government as a punishment for robbery. Canada responded
by condemning the deteriorating human rights situation in Sudan, noting
also the targeting of civil society organisations, particularly those
which are owned and run by Christians. Foreign Affairs Minister John
Baird called on Khartoum 'to respect the rights of Sudan's people, to
cease its intimidation of civil society and political opponents, and to
end indiscriminate bombardments of civilians'.
Five weeks ago I had a 5mm thick growth removed from my left shoulder. The pathology report came back "nodular melanoma," which I learned is a particularly aggressive form of melanoma. This has meant I've needed to spend considerable time consulting with doctors and doing independent research concerning how I should proceed to renewed vitality. Most of you know that melanoma is "not good," shall we say. Unlike many other forms of cancer, I learned it is notoriously "unpredictable" and there is no method to be rid of it once and for all.
But in truth, thanks to the prayers of many friends, and to God's sustaining grace in answer to those prayers, I am feeling very well, and in fact wouldn't be surprised if I am already healed. In personal times of prayer I have had unusual sensations that suggest that possibility, and some friends have expressed particular confidence in my healing. I am currently following natural protocols involving diet and supplements which can only further my vitality even if I am already healed, or advance healing if I am not yet fully healed.
Meanwhile I am trying to discern how best to invest my time. I may return to subtantial blogging, or I may continue to blog lightly. I am not yet sure. I appreciate your prayers, and wish God's blessing on all my readers.
In
1992, during its war against South Sudan, Khartoum declared a jihad
against the 'rebellious' Nuba: the African tribes of the north's Nuba
Mountains who along with the southerners were resisting Islamisation and
racist Arab supremacy. A government-sponsored fatwa legitimised the
jihad by labelling Muslim 'rebels' as 'apostates' and Christians as
'kaffirs [infidels / unbelievers] standing as a bulwark against the
spread of Islam', and affirming that 'Islam has granted the freedom of
killing both categories'. Nothing has changed -- same genocidal regime,
same racial and religious hatred, same jihad, same aim: genocide.
Reporting
on the situation across Sudan's 'new south' -- Abyei, South Kordofan
and Blue Nile -- Dr Mukesh Kapila, the former UN Humanitarian
Co-ordinator in Sudan (2003-04) laments: 'The ethnic cleansing is
largely complete. . . . Rebel areas are depopulated and largely empty.'
He says that in Blue Nile, some 450,000 people have been affected with
fields and villages being razed as Sudanese radio calls for the region
to be 'combed' and cleansed of Africans who are de-humanised as 'black plastic bags'. He reports that in South Kordofan -- where soldiers have been ordered to 'sweep out the trash' (i.e. the Africans) and 'eat them alive'
-- displaced families have retreated to remote cave networks where food
is scarce. Whilst many are determined to remain, saying 'This is our
country', others are simply too weak to attempt the long trek south. It
is a journey that is itself incredibly dangerous, for Khartoum wants the
Nuba not just gone, but dead -- unable to return. A delegation from HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust) recently confirmed that on 12 December 2012 1700 civilians from Ulu Payam (Kirmuk County) left for South Sudan,
only to be attacked en route by SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) ground troops.
Many were killed and many children scattered, with only 700 of the
original 1700 arriving in Maban, South Sudan.
Dr Kapila adds: 'What I've seen in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile is all that I've seen in Darfur, plus the addition of modern technology.
Ten years after, we have precision guided missiles, land mines which I
don't remember seeing in Darfur, anti-personnel bombs, cluster bombs
which I did not see in Darfur, we see MiG fighters which I don't
remember seeing in Darfur, and we have a much more precision-guided
approach with distance over the horizon artillery. So this is not just
another Darfur; quite possibly, it is worse than Darfur.'
Human
Rights Watch estimates that a total of 900,000 African (non-Arab)
Sudanese are now affected. Having razed the farms and villages, the
regime maintains a blockade on humanitarian aid, using starvation as a
weapon of mass destruction. This has long been the regime's preferred
method of mass killing: engineering a famine and just waiting as the
population turns skeletal and quietly drops into the dust. Khartoum has a
long history of this type of warfare -- indeed President Omar el-Bashir
has perfected mass murder and his conscience is untroubled. Despite
this, the US administration has assured Khartoum that it is not seeking regime change but rather normalising relations. This is because the US believes friendship with Khartoum is in its geo-strategic interests
on the spurious grounds that it thinks Khartoum could be helpful in the
fight against terrorism. In truth, the West's interests would be better
served if it feared the LORD!
Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail of the
Anglican Cathedral in Kadugli only survived the ethnic-cleansing of
Kadugli (the capital of South Kordofan) because he was receiving medical
treatment in the US when Kadugli was invaded and ethnically cleansed in
June 2011. This week Bishop Andudu and Dr Kapila will attend the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa to lobby for action to end the suffering in Sudan's 'new south'. They have identified Friday 25 January 2013 'Heads of State meeting on Sudan' as a key test of the AU's 'credibility'.
Bishop Andudu is praying the AU will soon take action and send
humanitarian aid, implement a ceasefire and send a delegation to the
conflict areas. 'That [would] be very helpful,' he said.
HISTORICAL NOTE: In 1913 the newly formed Sudan United Mission (SUM) Australia-New Zealand began sending pioneer missionaries into the Nuba Mountains.
The first 'Sudanese Church of Christ in the Nuba Mountains' was planted
in 1914. By 1936 there were 33 Australian and New Zealand SUM
missionaries working in the Nuba Mountains alongside others
who had arrived from various missions (in particular Church Missionary
Society) and from the USA. After Sudan became independent in 1956 under a
repressive Muslim, Arabist government, the missionaries, sensing their
time was limited, redoubled their efforts in Bible translation. By the
time the missionaries were forced to leave in 1962, Australian SUM (now
Pioneers) missionaries had translated the New Testament into five Nuba
languages. Today the Nuba are predominantly Christian. Germany, the USA, New Zealand and particularly Australia, all have strong spiritual ties (does that imply responsibilities?)
to the people of the Nuba Mountains. May this centenary year be the
year the battle is turned back. Remember - our struggle is not primarily
against flesh and blood. (Ephesians 6:12)
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL --
* intervene in Sudan, so that 'the wicked will be caught in the schemes that they have devised' (Psalm 10:2b ESV).
* 'Break the arm [the machinery of action] of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none' (v15);
may the machinery of evil -- the government in Khartoum, the Sudan
Armed Forces, the military hardware -- be disrupted so that forces of
liberty, justice and equality might be able to rise against it.
* show Omar el-Bashir and all who wield power in Khartoum (vv3-13) that YAHWEH reigns and is King forever (v16).
*
see the suffering of the victims (Ps 10:14), hear their cry (v17a),
strengthen their hearts (v17b) and provide them with justice (v18a) 'so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more' (v18b).
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE ------------------------------------------------------------------ RACIAL-RELIGIOUS GENOCIDE IN SUDAN'S 'NEW SOUTH'
According
to Dr Mukesh Kapila, the former UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Sudan
(2003-04), the ethnic cleansing of Sudan's 'new south' -- Abyei, South
Kordofan and Blue Nile -- 'is largely complete'. He comments that due to
advances in technology, this war is 'worse than Darfur'. Displaced
Africans (non-Arabs) unable to reach the massively over-populated
refugee camps in South Sudan have retreated to remote caves. Having
destroyed their food supply, the Arab-Islamist regime is blockading all
humanitarian aid and using starvation as a weapon of mass destruction.
These Africans are predominantly Christian. Christianity in the Nuba
Mountains dates back nearly a century to when pioneer missionaries from
Sudan United Mission Australia-New Zealand planted the first church
there in 1914. Please pray for the Lord to intervene in Sudan.
Elizabeth Kendal of the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin reports:
As was reported in RLPB 187
(28 Nov), up to 20 Christians were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday
25 November in a twin suicide bombing at St Andrew's Protestant Church
inside the Jaji military barracks in Kaduna. Investigations indicate that the bombers
may have been residents of the barracks and might have built the bomb
on site, which would explain why they were granted access to the church
without being searched. This raises fears that other military
establishments could be similarly targeted. That same week Boko Haram
gunmen attacked the headquarters of the Police Special Anti-Robbery
Squad in Abuja, freeing 30 detainees and killing two policemen. Guards
were under strict orders not to shoot. But Nigeria is at war! In Boko Haram's own words (29 November), 'Jihad [holy war] started now, jihad started now, O enemies of Allah.'
On
Saturday night 1 December a band of jihadists attacked Kupwal, a remote
village in Chibok Local Government Area (LGA). (That is about 160km
south of the Boko Haram stronghold of Maiduguri in Borno, Nigeria's most
north-eastern state.) They invaded the Christian district and according
to survivors entered 'carefully selected' homes, slitting the throats of the occupants. They then set fire to homes and sacked the whole neighbourhood to chants of 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is the greatest). [See Qur'an, Sura 7:4 ] At least 10 people were killed whilst dozens escaped with serious and life-threatening injuries. Observers believe Boko Haram was either responsible or at least complicit.
On
Sunday morning 2 December, some 50 Islamic gunmen in cars and on
motorbikes attacked a police station, immigration and customs offices
and three churches in Gamboru Ngala,
Ngala LGA. (That is 140km north of Maiduguri, Borno State, near the
border with Cameroon.) Before launching their attack, the jihadists
destroyed the mobile phone masts to prevent communication and so
compound the crisis. With shouts of 'Allahu Akbar' they opened fire on police, killing five. The churches were torched and Christians living and doing business in the border town were targeted. About two weeks earlier, leaflets had been distributed
in which the Islamists declared their intention to impose Taliban-style
rule, e.g., women were told to wear the veil and cigarettes were
banned. A tailor was subsequently shot for continuing to make clothing
the Islamists deemed un-Islamic.
In a 30 November column, author and analyst Raymond Ibrahim explained
why persecution such as that described above is 'Islam's Achilles'
heel'. Persecution committed by dominant Muslims in Muslim communities
-- i.e. Muslims who cannot claim to be 'oppressed' or 'aggrieved' --
against vulnerable minority Christians is simply impossible to justify.
Such persecution exposes Islam as supremacist, totalitarian, intolerant
and imperialistic; as a movement that will not rest until the 'other' is
totally subjugated. 'And to Allah prostrates whoever is within the
heavens and the earth, willingly or by compulsion, and their shadows [as
well] in the mornings and the afternoons.' (Qur'an, Sura 13:15)
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL --
* rise up on behalf of his traumatised and terrorised people and intervene to rout the enemy and deliver his Church.
'And
he [King David] said, "The LORD has burst through my enemies [the
Philistines] before me like a bursting flood." Therefore the name of
that place is called Baal-perazim [the Lord who bursts through]' (2
Samuel 5:20b ESV).
* bring healing and comfort to his
bleeding, broken and grieving people; may he provide all their needs and
make his loving presence felt so as to sustain their sorely-tested
faith, that they might be 'more than conquerors through him who loved us' (from Romans 8:31-39 ESV).
*
give the Nigerian authorities divine wisdom and insight, strength and
commitment that they might excel in their battle against the enemies of
the state and the enemies of the LORD.
* re-assure the church in
northern Nigeria of his protection who is their 'strong city' (Isaiah
26:1). May the church in the south, and indeed the rest of the world,
join this battle by praying for the north (Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians
1:11).
* bless every Nigerian missionary and every witnessing
Nigerian with divine courage and power from the Holy Spirit, for this is
first and foremost a spiritual struggle (Ephesians 6:12).
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE ------------------------------------------------------------------ THE TERROR OF JIHAD IN NIGERIA
A
full-blown Islamic jihad is raging in Nigeria and it is terrifying for
the Christians of the north on the front-line. On Saturday evening 1
December jihadists attacked the Christian district of a remote village
in Borno State. Entering 'carefully selected' homes, they murdered the
occupants before sacking and burning the entire neighbourhood to shouts
of 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is the greatest). Ten were killed whilst dozens
fled with serious and life-threatening injuries. On Sunday morning 2
December jihadists attacked another village in Borno close to the
Cameroon border. With shouts of 'Allahu Akbar' they opened fire on
police, killing five, before torching numerous government facilities and
three churches. Only weeks earlier, Christians were threatened with
violence if they did not leave the area. Please pray for Nigeria.
The Voice of the Martyrs is standing with our persecuted Nigerian family
this Christmas. We invite you to join us by sponsoring a CHRISTMAS CARE PACK or a VILLAGE OUTREACH PACK to bless our Nigerian brothers and sisters.
Each CHRISTMAS CARE PACK includes a backpack filled with gift items such as a children's Bible, school supplies, a toy and some basic toiletry items.
Each VILLAGE OUTREACH PACK
includes a small library of materials that will help a pastor or
evangelist further the gospel in Nigeria. These packs include a DVD
player, a JESUS: He Lived Among Us
DVD, a Bible and other Christian literature, a flashlight and rain
boots. Many of these outreach packs will be used in the most dangerous
parts of Nigeria.
Please CLICK HERE to sponsor one or more of these gifts and remind Nigerian Christians that they are not alone this Christmas season.
I should have noted this event a few days ago. It's significance is greater than the Western press can grasp.
While
America grows increasingly hostile to faith, Uganda is showing the
world what can be accomplished when leaders embrace it. During the 50th
anniversary of his country's independence, President Yoweri Museveni
stood before the world and publicly led Uganda in a prayer of personal
and national repentance. " I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf
of my predecessors to repent. We ask for your forgiveness," he said.
"We confess [our] sins, which have greatly hampered our national
cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic transformation."
After a lengthy confession that included everything from sexual
immorality to pride, bitterness and rebellion, Museveni took the very
powerful step of dedicating Uganda to God. "We want Uganda to be known
as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly
rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfill what the Bible says in
Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. A people you
have chosen as your own."
It was an inspirational moment for the nation, which has stood--often
alone--for traditional values, abstinence, and families despite
tremendous pressure from the West. "The Museveni prayer is a model for
all Christian leaders in the world," Rev. Scott Lively believes.
Unfortunately, the media is so threatened by religion that it refuses to
leave another country alone to pursue its own views on sexuality and
faith. Since Museveni's speech, the press has ridiculed Uganda for
bending its knee to a higher power--the same higher power that Americans
have to thank for our great nation. In times like these, President
Musevni's humility should be emulated, not criticized. It is
faithfulness like his that will raise Uganda's status as a new power in
Africa.
Elizabeth Kendal offers a tremendously valuable summary of what has been happening in Eritrea.
Eritrea,
in the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea coast, has one of the most
brutally repressive dictatorships in the world. The population is
equally divided between Christians (90 percent Eritrean Orthodox) who
live mostly in the highlands and Muslims who live mostly in the coastal
lowlands. Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia in 1991 and Isayas
Afewerki has been the president since independence was declared and
internationally recognised in 1993. In 2001, in the wake of a two-year
border war with Ethiopia (1998-2000), Afewerki began cracking down hard
on anything that could be viewed as a threat to national unity. He
cancelled elections and closed all independent media.
Opposition figures -- politicians, activists and journalists -- were
removed, mostly to underground 'secret prisons' for the 'disappeared'.
In May 2002, reportedly at the behest of the Eritrean Orthodox Church (EOC),
the government began cracking down on 'foreign' and 'non-traditional'
religion. A Biblical revival and renewal movement had exploded within
the EOC. While some priests accommodated or even embraced the movement,
others resisted, forcing those desiring a more evangelical Christianity
to leave the EOC for Protestant fellowships. The exodus has caused great
angst in the hierarchy of the EOC. Now only state-sanctioned Muslim,
Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Mekane Yesus (Evangelical
Lutheran) denominations are legal and worshipping in a Protestant
fellowship is a criminal offence. However, by mid-2005 the authorities
were oppressing the EOC as well,
specifically those EOC priests supportive of the renewal movement and
protesting religious persecution. When EOC head, Patriarch Abune
Antonios, complained about the persecution of his priests, Afewerki had
him deposed, placed under house arrest and replaced with a government
administrator.
By the end of 2010 an estimated 3000 Eritrean
Christians of all denominations (mostly Protestant) were incarcerated
purely for their faith; today the number is estimated at around 1500.
Whilst most prisoners are held in shipping containers in desert camps,
some are kept in underground cells. The conditions are inhumane:
children and the elderly are amongst the prisoners sharing skin
diseases, dysentery and other horrors in confined, unventilated spaces.
Torture is routine. An Amnesty International report published in May 2004
details the tortures suffered by Christian prisoners.Several Christians
have died in custody and others have perished in the desert trying to
escape.
Because Eritrea has no independent media, news of
persecution is difficult to obtain for it must be leaked at great
personal risk. Open Doors (OD) reports that on 30 October
a Christian by the name of Adris Ali Mohammed (31), a Muslim convert
from the town of Tesenai, died in custody. Adris had spent almost two
years in a suffocating dungeon located in Eritrea's Aderset Military
Camp, where some 100 Christians are believed to be detained. According
to sources, Adris had stood firm through two years of terrible suffering
and systematic torture aimed at forcing him to renounce his faith.
According to OD, 'Military officials secretly buried Adris outside the
camp.'
The repression has created a refugee crisis with many Christians amongst them. In July The Guardian reported
that the Eritrea military runs a business kidnapping Eritrean refugees
out of refugee camps in Sudan and trafficking them into the Sinai where
they are sold to Bedouin gangs 'who use starvation, electrocution, rape
and murder to extort up to $40,000 from relatives in the Eritrean
diaspora for their release'. (See also NYT, 31 Oct 2012,
for horrific details.) According to Strategic Policy magazine (4, 2012)
Maj-Gen. Tekle 'Manjus' Kiflai has been identified as the 'co-ordinator
of the human smuggling operation' which reportedly serves as 'a major
revenue source for the PFDJ', the ruling People's Front for Democracy
and Justice. This very powerful Maj-Gen. Tekle, an ethnic 'Christian',
is rumoured to be a possible successor to Afewerki. Eritrea also funds,
arms and trains anti-Ethiopian forces across the region, as well as
rebels fighting against the Government of South Sudan.
But change
is looming. For many years Afewerki had been funded and propped up by
Gadhafi (Libya) and Mubarak (Egypt). With these two backers now removed,
Eritrea's principal ally is US-allied, Islamist Qatar which is fully
occupied trying to orchestrate regime change in Damascus, Syria.
Furthermore, Afewerki is so unwell that when he disappeared in March,
rumours circulated that he had died. Eventually he quelled those rumours
by making an appearance on State TV on 29 April. Afewerki allegedly has
a liver complaint for which he has received medical treatment in Qatar.
Whilst Eritrea is ripe for change, the rot runs deep.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL --
* interpose himself in Eritrea to bring deep and radical change;
may he bring judgment on all who trade in suffering and terror and
bring an end to belligerence and repression. May he open the door to a
new era of justice, liberty and peace, to his glory.
'In my
distress I called upon the LORD . . . and my cry to him reached his
ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the
mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. He rescued me,
because he delighted in me.' (Psalm 18:6,7,19b ESV)
* have
mercy on his sorely persecuted Church. Lord, comfort and protect them,
sustaining them in body and soul, especially prisoners and refugees.
Lord, provide all their needs, fanning their faith into flame so they
may not lose hope; may their trust be in you.
* redeem this era
of intensive persecution by refining and unifying the Eritrean Church
and use their stories of faithfulness to soften the hearts and open the
eyes of multitudes.
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE ------------------------------------------------------------------ CHRISTIAN PRISONERS & REFUGEES SUFFERING UNIMAGINABLY IN ERITREA
Eritrea
has one of the most brutal dictatorships worldwide and the repression
has created a refugee crisis. Since May 2002 Christians have been
severely persecuted and an estimated 1500 are suffering torture and
appalling prison conditions today, simply for their faith. With no
independent media, news is extremely difficult to obtain. Open Doors
reports that on 30 October a Christian Muslim convert, Adris Ali
Mohammed (31), died in custody after two years of systematic torture
aimed at forcing him to renounce his faith. Christians in refugee camps
are no safer as the Eritrean military runs a lucrative operation on
behalf of the government, trafficking them to Bedouin gangs in the
Sinai. Please pray for Eritrean Christians and that God will effect deep
and radical change in Eritrea.
Multiple sources have confirmed that about 25 to 30 Christian college
students were massacred at a university in northeastern Nigeria late
Monday night, causing Christians to pray for a “change of heart” among
the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram to put a stop to the continued
violence.
While there is speculation as to the motive of the massacre, sources
close to the human rights watchdog Open Doors USA confirm that the
massacre was performed by Boko Haram.
The killings reportedly occurred in the late night hours on Oct. 1,
when masked gunmen went door-to-door in the off-campus housing section
of Federal Polytechnic College in Mubi, a city in the remote Adamawa
State in northeastern Nigeria.
Open Doors USA sources confirmed that the gunmen separated
the Christian students from the Muslim students, addressed each victim
by name, questioned them, and then proceeded to shoot them or slit their
throat. [more details here]
Mead, a professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College, blogs at Via Meadia. I have read him daily for the past week and find he generally shines a spotlight on areas not well covered elsewhere. Short current blog posts:
Religious liberty specialist Elizabeth Kendall reports: [my bolding]
Evidence indicates that the Nigerian al-Qaeda-linked terror group Boko Haram has transformed numerous suburban homes across the north of Nigeria into bomb-making factories. Several militants have been killed recently in Maiduguri, Damaturu and Kaduna when bombs exploded accidentally. Boko Haram's targets include schools, police stations, banks, government buildings and churches. Apart from these strategic bombings, the militants also roam the streets killing people randomly. Bauchi State Police Commissioner Aduba Ikechukwu says these militants are well armed, carrying sophisticated weapons including machine guns, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Boko Haram's aim is to make Nigeria ungovernable so they might extract concessions towards the Islamisation of Nigeria. Al-Qaeda supports Boko Haram as a way of furthering its own goal of establishing a sanctuary and base of operations in Northern Nigeria from where it can launch jihad into West Africa.
On Sunday 4 March Egypt-based news website Bikya Masr spoke by phone to a spokesman from Boko Haram who told them that Boko Haram is preparing to launch a 'war' against Christians. He said the campaign, which will involve numerous co-ordinated attacks, is part of a 'plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country'. He also boasted that the government 'cannot be prepared for what is to come'. Such a threat indicates that Boko Haram may be preparing to launch a wave of co-ordinated suicide bombings targeting Christians. The Boko Haram spokesman told Mikya Masr, 'We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay.'
Witnesses quoted by Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) report that Egyptian security forces did not intervene promptly to repel the onslaught and defend the Christians. Even the teams of firefighters delayed their intervention, arriving only 90 minutes after the assault, and when most of the buildings were already in flames. A source adds that a hut belonging to a Coptic Christian was burned to make room for the construction of a mosque. Moreover in the area there are now 300 Muslim places of worship, compared to only one Christian church even though Christians are 50% of the local population.
According to the Copts, the anti-Christian violence is related to the upcoming parliamentary elections: the Salafis, in fact, want to prevent the religious minority from voting which, with its 20 thousand members, can shift the balance of power in the area. The Copts are close to the Muslim moderate wing, which opposes the Islamist front. A witness confirmed that “no Copt from Rahmaniya-Kebly could vote” and that “the Salafis will win the elections.”
Christmas time is often a dangerous period for Christians who live in hostile areas. But thanks to your generosity, "The Voice of the Martyrs" can help persecuted Christians at Christmas time and throughout the year. As we prepare to celebrate our Savior's birth, let's also remember those around the world who are persecuted for their faith in him. Join us in praying for them and fellowshipping with them this holiday season.
Since the Arab Spring uprisings that began a year ago and spread throughout the Arab world, attacks on Christians and churches have increased across North Africa. You can help thousands of Christians across North Africa by supporting VOM's 2011 Christmas Care project.
For a gift of $25, you can sponsor a Christmas Care Pack for a North African child who lives in an area where Christians are persecuted. Each pack includes items such as clothing, toiletries and school supplies as well as a gospel storybook to help encourage children in their faith. You can also help North African evangelists spread the gospel throughout the region by sponsoring a Village Outreach Pack. Your gift of $75 will provide church leaders with a small library of gospel materials.
I know that you will join me in praying for our persecuted family this Christmas. Pray for God's protection over them, and pray that they may know his love in deep and significant ways during this season.
Today is the "International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP)". As an example of worldwide persecution of Christians, Gary Lane reports on the situation in Nigeria. The following video also features a short interview with Nina Shea, a member of the U.S. commission for International Freedom and co-author of the book, 'Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide):
(I am experiencing technical problems. For some reason the video refuses to load. I haven't had that trouble before. For Lane's report, click the link above or click through to the "continue reading" option below.)
Militants from Boko Haram, whose name means “Western Education Is Sin” in the regional Hausa language, bombed churches and police stations and killed 150 infidels in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday. The radical Islamists want Shariah law in Nigeria.
Occasionally people ask me what I mean by referring to Misunderstanders of Islam on this site, or ask me to stop baiting the irony-deficient by doing so. In doing so, I am making a point, of course: we're constantly told by the mainstream media, government and law enforcement that Islam is a peaceful religion that doesn't justify terrorism, and that those who think otherwise are laboring under "misconceptions" or misunderstandings about the religion. Yet that explanation leaves us with the curious phenomenon that so many Muslims apparently misunderstand Islam -- not simply in the fact that they commit violence, but in that they do so explicitly and proudly in the name of Islamic teachings on jihad warfare against unbelievers.
Turkey's Erdogan is in Somalia these days. Obama is on Martha's Vineyard. Erdogan has a tactical and strategic plan for the Horn of Africa. It's not clear Obama has. J.E. Dyer writes:
The US at the moment is perilously close to being used for the purposes of others, like a dying and dithering empire. In spite of the significance of the setback for Al-Shabaab in Somalia, to everything from the piracy problem to dominance in the Middle East, the US is nowhere to be seen in the strategic aftermath of this tactical victory. We have no idea what to do with it. But Erdogan does.
Investors Business Daily (cited by Jim Loft) noted that South Sudan's statehood was largely the work of President Bush and U.S. Christians. President Obama, as usual, couldn't bring himself to credit Bush. In his statement, Bush went unmentioned. Pathetic. See photos of the new South Sudan President, Salva Kiir, wearing the black cowboy hat given him by President Bush.
Michael Gerson writes of the challenges facing the new nation.
<p>South Sudan celebrated its independence from Sudan July 9th. It was the fruit of President Bush's efforts -- and Christians -- as the new South Sudan President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, graciously and thankfully acknowledged. But Obama couldn't bring himself to offer any public credit to President Bush. He could only offer vacuous statements. Pathetic. Investor's business Daily <a href="http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=577937&p=1" target="_blank">reports</a>:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em><strong>Freedom:</strong> As South Sudan joyfully celebrated its independence from Sudan, President Obama hailed it as the fruit of partnership, togetherness, hope and unity. South Sudanese, however, hailed President Bush.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Proudly wearing the black cowboy hat given to him by President Bush, South Sudan's new president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, couldn't have made a stronger statement about who made his country's independence possible after 50 years of warfare.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>"It was George Bush and the Christian fundamentalists who heard the cry of South Sudan," affirmed a South Sudanese man quoted by the Los Angeles Times.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>But to hear the White House — in its official recognition of the new republic, as well as on the White House blog and in an op-ed published earlier this year, President Bush had nothing to do with this.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>"Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible," wrote Obama, as if such events just .. . happen.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Fact is, these events didn't just happen.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>In 2005, President Bush put South Sudan at the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. Knocking heads, he forced the murderous Islamofascist government of Sudan to negotiate with the South Sudan rebels, including their right to secede. That hard work led to today's result — and with it, the first chance South Sudan has ever had to break free of its oppression.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Obama made sure to thank the African Union, civil society groups and even Sudan itself. But recognition of President Bush was relegated to nothing more than a nameless "U.S. leadership" that "played a part." Christian groups that made it their cause were also ignored.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p>
In his five-star review of How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind," Amazon reviewer C. Stephens wrote:
Thomas Oden writes, "Christianity would not have its present vitality in the Two-Thirds World without the intellectual understandings that developed in Africa between 50 and 500 C.E. The pretense of studying church history while ignoring African church history is implausible." (10) Yet, in his book "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind," Oden purports that for centuries Western intellectuals have in fact ignored or downplayed the momentous contributions of African Christians to church history and theology. According to Oden, today's Christian mind has its roots in the writings and teachings of the early church leaders from Africa, in the struggles of the early church martyrs from Africa, in the lives of the desert Fathers of Africa, and in the early Christians who fled Africa taking their faith throughout the Mediterranean cities. Oden suggests that it is critical for contemporary African Christianity to learn of its prestigious heritage--to learn that Christianity is a vital, traditional African faith rather than a foreign imposition.
He writes, "The profound ways African teachers have shaped world Christianity have never been adequately studied or acknowledged, either in the Global North or South." (9) This is a story that Oden believes needs to be told throughout African villages and cities and must especially reach the African child. He believes it is a story best told fully by young African scholars. The story of African Christianity conveys extraordinary faith, courage, tenacity and intellect that must serve as inspiration and guides not only for African Christianity but for universal Christianity today.
Two stories: [Note: Additional elections for governors and state assembly members for the country's 36 states are scheduled for April 26th. Prayer against a full blown jihad needed.]
Muslim supporters of losing Nigerian candidate Muhammadu Buhari have slaughtered at least 153 Christians since the election this weekend. Youths stage running battles with soldiers in the northern city of Kano shortly after Goodluck Jonathan was declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election. The defeated opposition candidate in Nigeria’s presidential polls has rejected the results, but urged calm amid a rush to help some 25,000 displaced by deadly post-election riots. (AFP/Seyllou Diallo)
Christian candidate Goodluck Jonathan defeated Buhari 57 percent to 31 percent in the election held this past weekend. [more .]
For the third time in just the past few years, and the second time in 2011 alone, Christians have been attacked and killed, allegedly by Muslim mobs, over a disputed election result across Africa's vast expanses.
For those of us who have a somewhat sketchy grasp of Sudan's history and why the south has been voting all week for independence, Faith J.H. McDonnell offers a valuable historical summary.
After decades of marginalization and persecution by its own government, this month, January 2011, South Sudan is deciding its own future. The last step of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan's National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) provides the South with a Referendum on Secession. On January 9, the South Sudanese all over the world began voting for either continued unity with Sudan or independence as a free nation. The voting will continue until Saturday, January 15 at 5:00 p.m.
Why Independence?
Few doubt that the South will vote for separation and independence. Of all the people around the world that have been besieged by Islamic supremacism, the South Sudanese are those who have most strongly and consistently resisted. And it has been a costly resistance. Over 500,000 died in the first phase of the genocide, the Anyaya ("snake venom" in the Madi language) Rebellion, 1955-1972. When war began again in 1983, it left over 2.5 million dead and over 5 million displaced throughout South Sudan and other disputed areas. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees, the massive loss of civilian life (as of 2001, one out of every five South Sudanese had died as a result of the war) was the largest civilian death toll of any war since World War II.
This important article helps us see slavery in an enlarged context. (HT: The Corner) Harvard Professor Gates writes:
... While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and
the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and
Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves
played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially
for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These
included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon
of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the
Kongo of today’s Congo, among several others.
Gates goes on to spell out how the slave trade system worked.
. . . The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University
estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved
by Africans and then sold to European traders. The sad truth is that
without complex business partnerships between African elites and
European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World
would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred.
I thought it particularly remarkable to read that
In 1999, for instance, President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin astonished an
all-black congregation in Baltimore by falling to his knees and begging
African-Americans’ forgiveness for the “shameful” and “abominable” role
Africans played in the trade. Other African leaders, including Jerry
Rawlings of Ghana, followed Mr. Kerekou’s bold example.
Gates asks and answers an important question:
Did these Africans know how harsh slavery was in the New World?
Actually, many elite Africans visited Europe in that era, and they did
so on slave ships following the prevailing winds through the New World.
. .
A few days ago I posted Mark Steyn's reflections, "The U.S. is in the Express Lane to Declinistan." Posting such an article gives me no pleasure. Quite the opposite. I want to see the U.S. flourish and function as a shining beacon of hope for the rest of the world. Anyone with eyes open, however, sees the rot and corruption and irresponsibility taking over the nation and its governance.
Which brings me to David Murrin's new book, Breaking the Code of History: A Map for the Future. I had never heard of Murrin before reading a John Derbyshire post over at the Corner. Murrin granted CNBC a 7 minute video interview which is MUST VIEWING. Murrin believes in cycles of history and projects the West's rapid decline. Especially noteworthy is how rapid he foresees the change taking place. Contra Mark Steyn, he sees China as the rising colossus. I agree with Murrin.
Oh my... if this doesn't turn your stomach! (From the U.K. Telegraph). (HT: Drudge) So all religions are the same, are they? Oooh boy...
The Telegraph's sub-heading reads, "Witch doctors in Uganda have admitted their part in human sacrifice amid concerns that the practice is spreading in the African country."
One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken
their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to
killing at least 70 people including his own son. . .
According to officials trying to tackle it, the crime is directly
linked to rising levels of development and prosperity - and an
increasing belief that witchcraft can help people get rich quickly. . .
"They go and capture other people's children. They bring the heart
and the blood directly here to take to the spirits," he said.
"They bring them in small tins and they place these objects under the tree from which the voices of the spirits are coming."
Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs is frustrated and angry that Rifqa Bary isn't getting better, wiser, and shrewder legal representation. Rifqa's parents are being represented by a CAIR-appointed lawyer who is outmaneuvering Rifqa's lawyers. Read about the developing situation here.
Embedded in Geller's post is a plea from Wafa Sultan that was originally published here. Sultan is an expert on Islam. Of her Geller says: "Author, writer, speaker, Sultan was born to a Sunni Muslim family in Baniyas, Syria. Sultan trained as a psychiatrist in Syria and is a US naturalized citizen."
Sultan writes: (my bolding)
I was born and raised as a
Muslim in Syria. I practiced Islam for thirty years of my life. Now I
am a known human rights activist striving to save our future Muslim
generations from the impact of the violent, hateful Islamic doctrines
embedded in the Sharia. My life is also threatened, not only by my own
extended family, but by countless men who consider themselves devout
Muslims. Under Sharia, if a Muslim leaves Islam or converts to another
religion he / she is an “apostate,” to be killed. Under Sharia every
Muslim has the right to kill such an apostate without any questions asked. [more . .]
Me: That American "educated elites" refuse to believe the universal testimony of apostate killings under Sharia [Islamic law] is quite incredible. Beyond that, it is disgusting. Political correctness refuses to believe that a religion could be so barbaric. Naivete and political correctness go together. At some point, people will invariably recognize the politically correct for the fools they are, but by then it may be too late. Let us hope and pray that Rifqa Bary survives her Muslim "apostasy" and that the U.S.legal system awakens to the danger in which she remains.
Incidentally, we may send New Year's cards to Rifqa at the following address:
Rifqa Bary c/o Angela Lloyd 255C Drinko Hall 55 West 12th Avenue Columbus, OH 43210.
Last weekend I was able to watch a few of the "Values Voter Summit" speeches "live" via streaming internet, but not all. Now the Family Research Council has made them available as webcasts for leisurely viewing. Of those I saw, I found William Bennett's comments on his two-volume textbook, America: the Last Best Hope, both entertaining and instructive. He makes history "live" and made me want to go out and buy his two books.
A far different talk was given by Dr. Ergun Caner, the President of Liberty Theological Seminary, and a man who was raised a Muslim. If you don't watch any other speech, this would probably be the one to see, especially if you have an interest in Islam and would like to hear the story of how one Muslim became a follower of Jesus. Caner's talk is powerful, personal, insightful, and entertaining, and well worth the 25 minutes it takes to watch it.
You can find these two speeches, and many more, here.
Travis Kavulla defends the Pope's position on condoms and AIDS in his article, "Benedict Has It Right." Me: I find Kavulla's points weighty. Kathryn Jean Lopez offers useful commentary as well.
What a stunning article! (HT: Hot Air) This is a "must-read," a great conversation starter. After reading this article, it is hard for me to understand how Matthew Paris remains an atheist. I'll give him credit for this: he is extraordinarily objective in his observations and perceptions. This may be one of the best pieces of Christian apologetics I have read in a long time.Read it!
Though Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California rightly awarded President Bush the “International Medal of Peace”for his humanitarian work in Africa, the Left has refused to salute President George W. Bush and his noble efforts. Mona Charen says that if President-elect Obama continues Bush's policies, Obama will be given the Nobel Prize and canonized. But it is Bush who deserves the credit he rarely receives. Charen writes:
From the beginning of his administration, President Bush
has pushed for more aid to Africa.Motivated perhaps by his deeply felt
Christian faith (relieving poverty in Africa has become a major
charitable push among evangelicals), the president has pressed for
greater aid to Africa across the board. The original PEPFAR legislation
(President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which passed in 2003, was
the largest single health investment by any
government ever ($15
billion). At the time the initiative was launched, only about 50,000
sub-Saharan Africans were receiving antiretroviral treatment for AIDS.
Today, 1.7 million people in the region, as well as tens of thousands
more around the globe, are receiving such treatment. PEPFAR has also
funded efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS
virus, provided compassionate care to the sick and dying, and cared for
5 million orphans. One aspect of the program has been to reduce the
stigma of the AIDS diagnosis in Africa.
In July of this year, the president requested that
funding for PEPFAR be doubled to $30 billion. The new funding will be
used to train 140,000 new health-care workers. It would also address
other illnesses, like tuberculosis, that often complicate AIDS.
Why didn't HIV/AIDS "experts" take seriously Uganda's great progress against AIDS when that country stressed marital faithfulness? The Rev. Sam. L. Ruteikara, co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee writes:
In the late 1980s, before international experts arrived to tell us we
had it all "wrong," we in Uganda devised a practical campaign to
prevent the spread of HIV. We recognized that population-wide AIDS
epidemics in Africa were driven by people having sex with more than one
regular partner. Therefore, we urged people to be faithful. Our
campaign was called ABC (Abstain, or Be Faithful, or use Condoms), but
our main message was: Stick to one partner. We promoted condoms only as
a last resort.
Because we knew what to do in our country, we succeeded. The proportion
of Ugandans infected with HIV plunged from 21 percent in 1991 to 6
percent in 2002. But international AIDS experts who came to Uganda said
we were wrong to try to limit people's sexual freedom. Worse, they had
the financial power to force their casual-sex agendas upon us. . . .
The case of Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed in Sudan
after her pupils named their class teddy-bear Mohammed, has shown up
once again the spinelessness of the Foreign Office which has turned
Britain into an international laughing stock.
Her freedom
has been left to depend on the ostensibly freelance efforts by two
Muslim peers, Lord Ahmed and Lady Warsi, who have been in Khartoum
lobbying for her release. .
Mr Miliband should have thrown the ambassador and every Sudanese
diplomat out of the country, cancelled all visas and stopped British
aid to Sudan.
And he should also have denounced the
religious precepts which produced such a barbaric response to a
preposterously imagined slight.
Moreover, the only reason
Mrs Gibbons was placed in this predicament at all was: because, for more
than two decades, the British Government has kow-towed to the Islamist
rogue regime in Sudan. (More . . - Melanie Phillips proceeds to chronicle the history and nature of the Sudanese government and the situation in Britain)
Update - National Review asked a number of distinguished observers to offer their thoughts. These included Bay Yeor, Jonathan Foreman,Tawfik Hamid, Victor Davis Hanson, Paul Marshall,
Update 12/29/07 - Ms. Gibbons has been sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation from Sudan. Michelle Malkin asks, "Where are the human rights groups, the feminists, the moderate Muslims?" E.D. Hill and Michelle Malkin discuss the situation in this video interview. Note: the U.S. gave Sudan $2.6 billion in aid in 2005-2006.
** The Times of London carries the story here. Excerpts:
Teachers at the school, in central Khartoum only a mile from the River Nile,
said that Ms Gibbons had made an innocent mistake by letting her pupils
choose their favourite name for the toy as part of a school project.
A British primary school teacher arrested in Sudan faces up to 40 lashes for
blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad. . .
Her colleagues said that they feared for her safety after reports that groups
of young men had gathered outside the Khartoum police station where she was
taken and were shouting death threats. . .
Philip Jenkins writes about Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. Jenkins says:
The most important figure today in the Anglican Communion, a worldwide
federation of churches with some 75 million adherents, is probably a
man few people in the West know anything about : Archbishop Peter
Jasper Akinola, of Nigeria. An uncompromising traditionalist, Akinola
presides over the most vibrant and almost certainly the largest
Anglican community in the world-at a time when the Anglican world's
true center of gravity has shifted to Africa.
It was no small
matter, then, when Akinola went public this past summer with blistering
denunciations of proposals to consecrate openly gay bishops and to
sanctify gay marriage . . . (more)
A recent Washington Post story described the impact that
Christians from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are having on the
Danes. Immigrants have started more than 150 churches in Denmark. These
churches not only minister to foreign-born residents, but increasingly
to native Danes as well.
Karsten Nissen, a Lutheran bishop, called the immigrant Christian
churches “a gift to our Danish Lutheran Church” that helps Danes
understand how Christians are supposed to live.
According to Bess Semer-Pederson, who runs Alpha Denmark, a course
that teaches the basics of Christianity, Denmark “[needs] these
immigrant churches, because they are bringing a message that we have
forgotten.” (more)
... Doctors are not winning -- and probably cannot win -- the war
against the epidemic, because it is spreading far more quickly than
doctors are treating its victims. Even as billions of dollars are spent
expanding access to antiretroviral drugs, the goal of controlling AIDS
in Africa remains remote.
"At
the moment, I just see a never-ending sea of disaster," said [Francois] Venter,
37, the dark-haired, long-limbed president of the Southern African HIV
Clinicians Society.
Underlying his frustration are grim statistics: For every South African who started taking antiretroviral drugs last year, five others contracted HIV, the same ratio as on the continent as a whole, U.N.
reports say. A South African turning 15 today has a nearly 50 percent
chance of contracting the virus in his or her lifetime, research shows
What's the problem? There's been an insufficient emphasis on AIDS prevention. Instead, the emphasis has been on treatment, less on curbing behavior. As the Post article says,
The problem is not the medicine, which is among the most
On
a hot sabbath, i am prompted to say that Darfur is a catastrophe that
could and should be solved in an hour or so. The killers largely
operate from helicopters and small fixed wing aircraft. We could
destroy them all in an hour or so. But that would be "wrong," because
it would violate the current hymnal.
Go tell the victims. Explain
why sanctions are better, because it makes the Western politicians feel
pious. Even though black Africans are being slaughtered.
And
while you're at it, tell the starving people of Zimbabwe why their
killer and oppressor, Robert Mugabe, is left untouched by the entire
outside world. Explain why St Nelson Mandela doesn't give a damn, while
you're at it.
The Middle East is tough. These African horrors are
relatively easy to fix. But nobody does a damn thing except talk about
sanctions...and then largely fail to enact and/or enforce them.
When
did Western leaders become vulgar Marxists? These evils do not have
economic causes and are unlikely to be defeated by economic means
(remember the Iraqi sanctions?). They have political causes and can be
defeated by superior fire power.
In a hard-hitting article, hear what Nina Shea (whom I've never met but consider a hero), has to say about Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir:
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir should hang
in the halls of infamy somewhere between Hitler and Pol Pot. But few
Americans recognize that he and his National Islamic Front regime are
directly responsible for the death of a staggering 2.4 million of his
countrymen, the displacement of seven million more, as well as the
enslavement and misery of hundreds of thousands of others, including
tribal people in northern Uganda. Representing the interests of only a
handful of small northern tribes, Bashir’s regime has devoted itself to
marginalizing and making war on Darfur and most of the rest of Sudan’s
citizens since seizing power 18 years ago. . .
As president of the nation’s National Islamic Front (NIF) government
and a general, Bashir is the person most responsible for the Darfur
genocide, which so far has taken an estimated 400,000 lives and
displaced two million western tribal people. He presides over an air
force that carries out aerial bombardment and strafing of Darfur’s reed
tukul villages, and a military that arms and protects the groups that
torment the region by land, the Janjaweed tribal militias. His forces
have attacked relief centers, refugee camps, and rebels gathered for
peace talks. His senior officials have opposed the deployment of U.N.
peacekeepers, and, as President Bush stated this week: “President
Bashir’s actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of
promising cooperation while finding new methods of obstruction.”
Click through for much more on Bashir, Sudan, and surrounding countries.
My hat is off to Kim Cannon and Elise Bare, high school students written up in this newspaper article.
"We saw a three-minute video about AIDS in Africa, and by
the end of it, we knew we had to do something, " Bare said. "How can
you know this exists and do nothing?"
Kim and Elise are selling T- shirts to support World Vision's work with AIDS sufferers and their families. The T-shirts say on the front: "ONE LIFE" and on the back: " DO SOMETHING"
Elise points out the following:
- 8,000 people in Africa die everyday from HIV-AIDS.
- 15 million children have lost one or both parents due to HIV-AIDS in Africa. This is the equivalent of the total number of high school students in America.
- In three years, this number of orphaned children is expected to rise to 20.2 million. Don't you think we should do something?
- In the small country of Swaziland, 1 out of every 3 people is HIV positive. Swaziland has a population of 1,138,000. That's a lot of people with AIDS
- World Vision is a U.S. government -supported program which provides food, health care, schooling, caring counselors, and education about AIDS to help children in Africa whose parents died of the disease. Without World Vision, 12-year-olds are raising themselves--and their siblings.
- Every 17 dollars raised by World Vision is matched by the government and can provide for a child for a year. So for every 3 or 4 T-shirts we sell, a child's life is saved. How amazing is that?
Our t-shirts are $10 each, and half the cost goes directly to World Vision (the other half pays for the shirt!)
While
America grows increasingly hostile to faith, Uganda is showing the
world what can be accomplished when leaders embrace it. During the 50th
anniversary of his country's independence, President Yoweri Museveni
stood before the world and publicly led Uganda in a prayer of personal
and national repentance. " I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf
of my predecessors to repent. We ask for your forgiveness," 
