Mali rebels push government region

(Photo courtesy of Magharebia)

Mali (MNN) ― A pepper of gunfire continues to play back and forth between Islamic rebels in Mali’s north and the Mali army in the south.

On Wednesday, Mali’s military attacked the rebel Islamic group called Ansar Dine with heavy weapons along the north-south dividing line, according to Mali officials. Rebels boasted of capturing soldiers in the attack.

Earlier on Tuesday, Islamist fighters reportedly pushed toward Mopti--the last government-controlled city in the north--and the army held them off with “warning shots.”

Peace talks were scheduled between the Mali government and Ansar Dine group members in the neighboring country of Burkina Faso on Thursday.
The potential for rebel forces in the northern territory--an area the size of France--to push south is troubling. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said to BBC News, “Obviously we are very concerned about the situation, and the development of essentially an entire terrorist region is of grave concern to everybody in the international community.”

While most of the world is fixated on radical Islamic presence in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, Mali has kept a low profile. Muslim extremists didn’t rise up until March 2012 in a coup that led to their north takeover. The Taureg insurgents wanted to make their own country in the north.

Paul Estabrooks with Open Doors USA says, “The first thing they did was a kind of religious ethnic cleansing. They began to do house-to-house searches. They literally warned Christians that if they didn’t get out of this new country in the north part of Mali, they would kill them--and they weren’t joking. Many Christians were killed; others were injured severely.”

The Open Doors World Watch List tracks the top 50 countries that carry out persecution of Christians and restrict religious freedom. When the 2013 World Watch List was released January 8, the results for Mali were shocking.

According to Estabrooks, “Mali was not even on the World Watch List last year, and because of all the challenges there, [Mali] has suddenly jumped to 7th place out of 50 countries. It is a significant factor.”

Members of the group Ansar Dine are applying Islamic law in their north region, even punishing moderate Muslims. There have been reports of public amputations, executions, and whippings. Several people fled to neighboring countries and are living in refugee camps.

“It’s been a fairly quiet country, so [Christians] haven’t had a strong history of persecution,” says Estabrooks. “So when it comes suddenly like it has in Mali, it’s a real challenge for believers because they haven’t really prepared for what’s going on. The fear factor is an extremely difficult thing for them to deal with.”

Estabrooks says, “It’s a highly speculative situation at the moment. I mean we just don’t know what’s going to happen. Is it possible that things could be returned to some kind of normalcy? Or if not, will the north just literally overrun the south which is what they want to do? We’re in a wait-and-see kind of situation.”

Please pray for Christians to stand strong under persecution. Pray also for their safety. Pray that they would be ambassadors for Christ and bring hope to others living in fear.

GAZA: shroud of despair descends on Christian community

Religious Liberty Monitoring: GAZA: shroud of despair descends on Christian community: "By Elizabeth Kendal

Gaza Christians

Local Christians in the Gaza Strip claim that two members of their community, Ramez al-Amash (24) and Hiba Abu Dawoud (32), were kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam.

According to Gaza's Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexious, when Ramez al-Amash disappeared his parents filed a police complaint, but the police ignored it after learning that the mastermind behind the alleged kidnapping was a senior cleric identified with Hamas. Christians are blaming Salem Salama, chairman of the Palestine Scholars Association.  "

Read more...

20,000 Muslims Attempt to Kill Pastor and Torch Church in Egypt

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

EGYPT (ANS) -- A mob of nearly 20,000 radical Muslims, mainly Salafis, attempted recently to break into and torch the Church of St. Mary and St. Abram in the village of Meet Bashar, in Zagazig, Sharqia province.

St. Mary's Church in Meet Bashar, Egypt

According to a story by Mary Abdelmassih for the Assyrian International News agency (AINA), they were demanding the death of Rev. Guirgis Gameel, pastor of the church, who has been unable to leave his home.

AINA said nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building. A home of a Copt living near the church and the residence of a church staff member were torched, as well as three cars.

AINA said the mob demanded the return Rania of Khalil Ibrahim, 15, to her father. 

She has been held with the Security Directorate. Christian-born Rania had converted to Islam three months ago after her father, who had converted to Islam two years ago and took custody of her.

AINA said she had disappeared from the village last Saturday, after claiming to go shopping. According to Gameel, she had a disagreement with her father, who had arranged a marriage for her with a Muslim man.

Her father, Khalil Ibrahim, went to the police on Saturday and accused the priest of being behind her disappearance, and said she had gone to live with her Coptic mother.

AINA said a Salafi mob of 2000 went to the priest's home and destroyed his furniture and his car, surrounded the church and pelted it with stones. They demolished a large section of the church fence. In the evening security forces announced that they had found Rania in Cairo and that she was not abducted by Christians. She was brought to the police station in Meet Bashar.

“After hearing this news yesterday everyone was relieved,” AINA reported Coptic activist Waguih Jacob said.

He added, “However, the Copts noticed that the Muslims did not completely disperse, but were hovering in all streets.”

AINA said the few security forces stationed in front of the church were dismissed as the village seemed to return to peace.

But the mob became more angry when they heard that Rania refused to go back to live with her father, and returned in much greater numbers.

AINA reported some Coptic eyewitnesses said a number of Muslim villagers tried to prevent the Salafis from assaulting their Christian neighbors, and some stood as human shields to protect the church until security forces arrived.

Bishop Yuaness, Secretary to Pope Shenouda III, said that they have been in contact with authorities “at the highest levels.”

AINA said Marian Malak, a Coptic member of parliament, contacted Egyptian Prime Minister El-Ganzoury, who ordered sending reinforcements to contain the crisis.

Bishop Tadros Sedra, of Minia el Kamh and Zagazig Coptic diocese, said that military and police forces have arrived in great numbers and have dispersed Muslims from outside the church and Gameel’s home. He confirmed that security will stay in the village for at least two weeks.

AINA said US-based Coptic Solidarity International, issued a press release strongly urging the international community, through the United Nations Human Rights Council, to appoint a special rapporteur for the Copts in Egypt. That particularly in light of the recent evictions, property confiscations and attacks against Copts.

---

Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City." Additional details on "Homeless in the City" are available athttp://www.homelessinthecity.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net.

---

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

Bloody Ramadan in Iraq

Iraq’s day of carnage on Monday may result in this year’s Islamic fast month of Ramadan matching last year’s when it comes to deadly violence in the country, CNSNews.com reports. Some 70 people were killed in multiple attacks across the country, with the choice of targets pointing to the strong likelihood that al-Qaeda-linked Sunni militants were responsible. 


The surge of violence comes roughly halfway through Ramadan. When Ramadan began at the beginning of August, the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued a statement calling on Muslims “to respect the sanctity of this blessed month and put an end to all forms of enmity and blood-shedding.”

Pakistani Muslims Convicted for Beating Christian to Death

Court gives life sentences to three men who killed merchant for refusing to convert to Islam.

By Jeff M. Sellers

 

LOS ANGELES, July 22 (Compass Direct News) – Three Muslims convicted of killing a Christian in Pakistan’s Punjab Province for refusing to convert to Islam last year have been given life sentences, according to attorneys for the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) in Pakistan.

 

The Sessions Court in Mian Channu on July 7 convicted Ghulam Rasool, Amjad Iqbal and Kashir Saleem of torturing and killing Rasheed Masih on March 9, 2010, and sentenced them to life in prison, which in Pakistan is 25 years. The court also ordered each convict to pay 100,000 rupees (US$1,153) to Masih’s family. A fourth suspect, Muhammad Asif, was acquitted. 

“The ECLJ also plans to file an appeal in the Lahore High Court concerning the acquittal of the fourth defendant,” said Asif Aqeel, director of the Lahore-based, ECLJ-supported Community Development Initiative. “The callous treatment by the police presented lots of challenges in proving that Masih was killed by the defendants. However, extensive work by our legal team in Pakistan and in the United States resulted in a conviction for the three defendants in this case.”

 

Masih’s family said they were grateful to ECLJ attorneys for assisting the court in making its judgments.

 

Aqeel said Masih’s brother, Asi, said that Muslim businessmen were jealous of Rasheed Masih’s success as a potato merchant in Mian Channu, Khanewal district because he was a Christian. When the 36-year-old victim met with the defendants at their farmhouse to discuss business on March 9, 2010, they asked him to convert to Islam. When he refused, the four Muslims beat him to death with iron rods, Aqeel said.

 

A bystander informed Asi Masih, who said he then called police.

 

Police officers along with the victim’s brother found Masih smeared with blood. They rushed him to a hospital, but he died on the way after stating to police that he was tortured by Rasool and his accomplices, Aqeel said.

 

Police, however, denied that Masih ever gave such a statement and refused to charge or arrest the defendants, Aqeel said. A large number of Christians blocked an intercity highway and demanded that the killers be arrested. Police conceded after the Christian community’s five-hour protest.

 

The Rev. Iqbal Masih of the Mian Channu Parish of the Church of Pakistan told Compass last year that Rasheed Masih was a devoted Christian, and that both he and his brother Asi had refused the Muslims’ pressure to convert to Islam. The Muslims had been threatening both brothers for six months before the murder, according to Asi Masih.

 

An autopsy by Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Mian Channu revealed 24 wounds on the body of Masih, according to a copy of the report obtained by Compass.

 

The European Centre for Law and Justice, headquartered in Strasbourg, France, is an international Non-Governmental Organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in Europe and worldwide.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

*** Photos of Rasheed Masih at his funeral are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

 

**********

Copyright 2010 Compass Direct News

Franklin Graham: Christians Around The World in Grave Danger

The Muslim Brotherhood, with the complicity of the Obama administration, has infiltrated the U.S. government at the highest levels and is influencing American policy that leaves the world's Christians in grave danger, warns internationally known evangelist Franklin Graham"The Muslim Brotherhood is very strong and active here in our country," Graham tells Newsmax. "We have these people advising our military and State Department. We've brought in Muslims to tell us how to make policy toward Muslim countries.
"It's like a farmer asking a fox, 'How do I protect my hen house?'"
That same Muslim Brotherhood is fomenting much of the rebellion and the deteriorating social order roiling the Middle East, forcing millions of Christians to flee for their lives, says Graham, son of beloved evangelist Dr. Billy Graham, and founder of The Samaritan's Purse international charity.
"Under [Egypt's Hosni] Mubarek and [Jordan's] King Hussein and other moderate leaders, Christians had been protected," Graham says. 11 million Christians live in Egypt and I ear for them, because if the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, you're going to see a great exodus of Christians. Same thing in Tunisia and Lebanon. I fear for the church because the Muslim Brotherhood is going to be a very terrible thing."
Story continues below.
The Rev. Franklin Graham predicts an exodus of Christians from the Mideast and North Africa if the Muslim Brotherhood rises to power there. The radical group is shaping U.S. policy, the evangelist says in a Newsmax.TV video.
A new report from the Roman Catholic aid agency Aid to the Church in Need supports Graham's contention that the persecution of Christians world­wide has worsened exponentially in the past few years.
According to the report, Christians face increased suffering in 22 countries around the world, with Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Nigeria being among the worst countries to be a Christian in today.
The persecution has gotten markedly worse over the past two years according to the organization.
"The proportion of countries with a worsening track-record of anti-Christian violence and intimidation would be higher were it not for the fact that in many cases the situation could scarce­ly have been worse in the first place" the report's authors wrote.
More than 75 percent of religious persecution in the world is currently being carried out against Christians, the report concludes.
The Vatican formed a special committee late last year to address the flight of Christians and the rise of militant Islam in the Middle East. In his New Year's message, Pope Benedict XVI said Christians suffer more than any other religious group because of their faith
Asked if President Barack Obama was doing enough to protect Christians at home and abroad, Graham says, "No. If anything it's the opposite."
"Muslims are protected more in this country than Christians," he says. "The president has made many statements but he doesn't back them up. We have to do more to protect the Christians in the Muslim world. Their lives are in danger."
In recent weeks, Obama administration officials have stepped up the defense of their inclusive stance toward Muslims in their ranks. Deputy national security advisor, Denis McDonough, said last week that President Obama is actually trying to prevent terrorism by "dispelling the myths that have developed over the years, including misperceptions about our fellow Americans who are Muslim."
"When it comes to preventing violent extremism and terrorism in the United States, Muslim Americans are not part of the problem, you're part of the solution," McDonough said at an interfaith forum in Sterling, Va.
Graham, however says what Obama is really doing is "giving Islam a pass" rather than speaking openly about the "horrific" treatment women and minorities receive.
"We certainly love the Muslim people," Graham said in an earlier interview with Newsmax. "But that is not the faith of this country. And that is not the religion that built this nation. The people of the Christian faith and the Jewish faith are the ones who built America, and it is not Islam.