FAITH UNDER FIRE Christian witness to Muslims surges after ISIS executions

21 Coptic Christians were beheaded by ISIS terrorists in February, putting Christian persecution, which has been going on for decades in the Middle East, on the world media’s radar screen.

'Declarations of faith have created fertile soil for conversations'

A worldwide Christian organization says that the horrific executions of Christians by members of ISIS in Libya in February have sparked a surge in conversations between Christians and Muslims about faith.

Tami Yeager, a volunteer coordinator with the Voice of the Martyrs, reports the “vivid video footage” “did not spark division amongst Egypt’s 10 million Christians and 73 million Muslims.”
Quite the contrary, she said, “the declarations of faith uttered by the men only moments before their death have created fertile soil for conversation between Muslims and Christians.”

Her report appeared on the VOM blog site this week as a followup to a trip to the Middle East. The Christians killed by ISIS in February were mostly Egyptians who had gone to Libya for various jobs.
The ISIS video shows black-clad executioners leading a line of Christians down onto a beach then executing them.
Yeager reported: “Militants released video footage of the martyrdom of Coptic Christian men in Libya. The footage of their martyrdom included a caption that read – ‘The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church.’ The 21 men who knelt before their persecutors were identified as ‘people of the cross,’ and asked to deny their faith or die. Many of the men are seen uttering their final words on this earth – ‘Lord Jesus Christ.’”
She said the statement of faith exhibited by the men “sparked the Bible Society of Egypt’s biggest campaign ever.”
“A Bible tract was created and sent to print within 36 hours following their public executions. Titled ‘Two Rows by the Sea,’ it carries a message of hope, comfort, and forgiveness for both Christians and Muslims alike. The Bible tract has been widely received in Egypt with 1.6 million copies distributed.”
She said one man who lost two brothers that day went on Egyptian television to thank ISIS for including their statements of faith in the video so that the world could see.
Yeager spotlighted another remarkable story:  It wasn’t discovered until later that one of the men wasn’t a Christian when he was led to his execution.
He was identified as Matthew Ayairga of Chad.
“He is believed to not have been a Christian before kneeling in the sand beside the ‘people of the cross,’” Yeager reported. “Witnessing the courage and faith of the Egyptian Christians, he also chose to follow Jesus. Mere moments before Matthew was executed, his executors are seen asking, “Do you reject Christ?’ His reply was, “Their God is my God.’”
Egypt responded to the executions with airstrikes against targets in Libya. Meanwhile, Tea Party Network News noted that President Obama was tweeting a message to sign up for Obamacare at the time of the executions.

Pope Francis denounced the slaughter.
“‘They only said ‘Jesus help me … ‘ The blood of our Christian brothers is testimony that cries out,” he said. “Be they Catholic, Orthodox, Copts, Lutherans, it doesn’t matter: They’re Christian!”
And Franklin Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, posted on Facebook that eventually ISIS will bow to Jesus.

He was lamenting the fact that when ISIS released a video of the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya, Muslim leaders were silent.

US Homeland Security Secretary Warns of Lone Wolf Attacks at 'Any Moment'

© AFP 2015/ MANDEL NGAN19:37 10.05.2015

Lone wolf terrorists pose a significant threat to the United States as they could "strike at any moment," Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Sunday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Amid growing concerns about unexpected terrorist threats, the US government is making a greater effort to make state and local law enforcement more reliable and encourage them to be "vigilant" against independent actors, Johnson told ABC.

"Because of the use of the Internet, we could have little or no notice in advance of an independent actor attempting to strike," he added.

© AP Photo/ Jack Plunkett

Pentagon Raises Security Level at All US Military Bases Due to ISIL Threat

Effective use of social media enables the Islamic State militants to reach into different countries, including the United States, and "inspire" people to support terrorism, the Homeland security secretary said.

The Department of Homeland Security is also turning to religious and community leaders in its fight against terrorism, Johnson said.

The terrorist alert level in the United States and in Europe has been raised amid the advance of the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East and several ISIL-inspired terrorist attacks in EU member states.

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In Nowruz appeal, Obama asks Iranian people to seize 'historic' nuclear deal

Obama says nuclear deal a reasonable, if fleeting opportunity for peace, in message to the Iranian people marking the Persian new year. 

 

 

To watch Obama's Appeal to the Iranians click this link.... 

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- US President Barack Obama has made a passionate appeal directly to the Iranian people to support the path of "reason," in step with international powers, over isolation and conflict over its nuclear program, in a holiday message marking the Persian new year.

"I want to take this opportunity once again to speak directly to the people and leaders of Iran," Obama said in his video message. He issued a similar message last year when negotiations were also being held. "This year, we have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries."

Negotiations between Iran and United States are currently under way over Tehran's nuclear program on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, after nearly two years of talks. Alongside the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany, the parties seek a political framework agreement containing Iran's nuclear program by the end of the month.

"The days and weeks ahead will be critical," he said. "Our negotiations have made progress, but gaps remain. And there are people, in both our countries and beyond, who oppose a diplomatic resolution."

"My message to you—the people of Iran—is that, together, we have to speak up for the future we seek," he continued, adding that his hopes for the Persian new year, Nowruz, include "our hopes for progress between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the international community, including the United States."

While US diplomats broke off negotiations in Europe before Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, Iran's negotiating team has suggested a willingness to stay through their New Year's Eve, a particularly important cultural holiday in the Islamic Republic.

The president said that, in a sense, "Iran’s leaders have a choice between two paths." They can choose the path of continued isolation, conflict and economic decline through sanctions; or they could choose a "reasonable deal" over its nuclear program.

Calling the opportunity "historic," Obama said the diplomatic offer before Iran may not come again soon and encouraged its leaders not to miss out.

"It can lead to a better path—the path of greater opportunities for the Iranian people. More trade and ties with the world. More foreign investment and jobs, including for young Iranians," the president proposed, should a deal be reached. "A nuclear deal now can help open the door to a brighter future for you— the Iranian people, who, as heirs to a great civilization, have so much to give to the world."

Obama went on to quote Persian poet Hafez, who once wrote on the coming of springtime: Try to be joyful in your heart. For many a flower will bloom while you will be in clay.

"For decades, our nations have been separated by mistrust and fear," Obama said. "Now it is early spring. We have a chance—a chance—to make progress that will benefit our countries, and the world, for many years to come."

"It is up to all of us," he continued, "Iranians and Americans, to seize this moment and the possibilities that can bloom in this new season."

House writes its own Iran letter, but to Obama

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By Kristina Wong - 03/19/15 12:03 PM EDT

 

A bipartisan letter on Iran signed by 360 members of Congress will be sent to President Obama on Thursday, one of its House signers said. 

The letter, like one 47 Senate Republicans sent to Tehran's leaders, reminds the administration that permanent sanctions relief on Iran as part of a deal to rollback its nuclear program would require new legislation from Congress. 

It comes as international negotiators approach a March 24 deadline to reach a framework agreement.

"Should an agreement with Iran be reached, permanent sanctions relief from congressionally-mandated sanctions would require new legislation," the letter says.

"In reviewing such an agreement, Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief," it adds. 

The letter stops short of supporting legislation pursued by the Senate that would allow Congress 60 days to weigh in on any final deal before its implementation. 

However, it adds, "We are prepared to evaluate any agreement to determine its long-term impact on the United States and our allies." 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said earlier this week that he would move forward next week on the Senate bill, co-authored with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the committee. 

The letter, signed by a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the House, comes after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and 46 other Republicans sent a letter to Iran warning it that any deal might not last after Obama leaves office. 

The White House has threatened to veto any legislation that is passed before the talks with Iran are scheduled to conclude on June 30. 

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who announced the new letter, said he personally could wait until a deal was agreed to before backing congressional action on Iran, but warned the administration not to bypass Congress. 

"There really cannot be any marginalization of Congress. Congress really needs to play a very active and vital role in this whole process, and any attempts to sidestep Congress will be resisted," Engel said Thursday morning at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. 

"We would hope that we could get a prompt response from the White House. It's truly a very bipartisan letter expressing Congress' strong feelings about things that need to be in the agreement," he said.

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‘Jihadi John’ apologizes to his family

By Post Wire Services

March 7, 2015 | 10:52pm

Modal Trigger

Photo: Twitter/Reuters

Mohammed Emwazi has apologized to his family for the shame he has heaped on them after being unmasked as the ISIS butcher from Britain known as Jihadi John.

The Sunday Times of London reports that Emwazi, 26, a British computer science graduate, had conveyed his message of regret from Syria via a third party.

He is said to be sorry for the “problems and trouble the revelation of his identity has caused” for his parents and siblings, according to an informed source.

However, Emwazi has not expressed any remorse for his barbaric actions, which have included the on-camera beheadings of a number of Western hostages.

The Londoner’s family, originally from Kuwait, have been forced into hiding after Emwazi was identified as Jihadi John 10 days ago.

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Islam experts: No-go zones looming for America

Back Jindal's view non-assimilation is trouble because Muslims 'supremacist at core'

Published: 3 days ago

Bob Unruh

The “no-go zones” in some Western nations, where law enforcement has lost control because of the influence of Islamic law, are coming to America.
That’s according to several Islam experts interviewed by WND who believe the kind of Muslim enclaves that have developed in Europe due to a lack of assimilation will eventually arise in the U.S. as the Muslim population grows.
The contention that “no-go” zones exist is controversial, as evidenced by the widespread ridicule that arose when an analyst said in a Fox News interview shortly after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris that the major English city of Birmingham was a “no-go” zone itself.
The analyst apologized, but only for exaggerating his point, not for asserting “no-go” zones exist.
As WND reported, the government of France has identified 751 Zones Urbaines Sensibles, or Sensitive Urban Zones, that the state does not fully control, citing Middle East foreign policy expert Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum.
The zones are enclaves where Muslim immigrants have chosen not to assimilate, and law enforcement has lost some degree of control.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently told Fox News interviewer Neil Cavuto that the zones are inevitable in America if the country doesn’t insist that immigrant Muslims assimilate.
He said Islamists are setting up their own culture within the United States “to overturn our culture.”
“We need to recognize that threat,” he insisted.
He said there are neighborhoods that could be defined as a no-go zone.
“You can call them whatever term you want, but absolutely there are neighborhoods, we have communities of people that don’t want to integrate or assimilate,” he said.
See the interview: 

Islam analyst and expert Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch told WND the zones “aren’t here.”
“But they’re coming as the Muslim population grows,” he warned. “We already see areas such as Dearborn, Michigan: It isn’t a no-go zone — police don’t fear to enter there and non-Muslims aren’t menaced for non-adherence to Shariah norms — but police did the bidding of the Muslim community a couple of years ago and arrested some Christian missionaries solely for the crime of preaching to Muslims. A Shariah crime, not a crime according to any U.S. law.”
David Yerushalmi of the American Freedom Law Center, which has fought legal battles over the Dearborn disputes, said there aren’t any no-go zones in American right now, but Dearborn comes close.
There, evangelical Christians were attacked with rocks and bottles by a Muslim crowd for talking about their faith on public property during an annual Arab festival. When police arrived, they ordered the Christians to leave or face arrest.
Several legal cases over the incident have been resolved in favor of the Christians, but a major one, handled by AFLC, is still under way. It has been granted the highly unusual step of a hearing before a full federal appeals court, which previously denied the Christians’ claims.
Yerushalmi said there have been times when first responders have declined to go into certain riot areas for a time because it “would incite the crowd to more violence.”
He said there aren’t the numbers of Muslims in the U.S. population at the moment to form such no-go-zones.
“However, you have demographics which are changing,” he warned.
Islam analyst Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs not only believes the zones are coming, she’s already prepared a strategy to fight them.
“There aren’t large-scale no-go zones here as there are in Europe, but they are coming, because Islam by its very nature is against assimilation into a kaffir (non-Muslim) society. It is supremacist at its core – Islam must dominate and not be dominated,” she told WND.
“So while Muslims have assimilated here to a greater degree than they have in Europe, there are growing Muslim areas in some cities (Dearborn, Newark, etc.) and these will continue to grow. Then there are rural Muslim camps where firearms training and other alarming things have been reported,” she said.
She asserted the U.S. should end immigration from Muslim countries.
Geller argued “there is no reliable way to tell a jihadist or jihadi sympathizer from a ‘moderate.’”
She called on Muslim groups in the U.S. “to renounce the aspects of Islam that contradict constitutional freedoms, or face sedition charges if they try to advance those elements.”
Geller said that when the U.S. Muslim population “grows to the levels we see in European countries, we will face exactly the same thing that Europe is experiencing now.”
Her 18 points to address the problem include:

• Profiling of Muslims at airports and in hiring in professions in which national security and public safety could be compromised.
• Investigating foreign funding for mosques in the U.S.
• Watching for mosques where violence is advocated.
• Including an accurate depiction of Islam and its violent doctrines in school textbooks.
• Stopping foreign aid for countries using Shariah, or Islamic law.
• Denying citizenship to those who support Shariah.

Onetime Muslim terrorist Walid Shoebat has posted a piece online by Keith Davies explaining that no-go zones in the U.K. are areas where even serious crimes are not reported, because they are handled by Shariah rather than British law enforcement.
“Numerous murders and rapes are not reported in these no-go zones because of local justice systems,” he wrote.
WND reported last year that President Obama had thanked Muslims for “building the very fabric of our nation” and claiming they were in part responsible for “the core of our democracy.”
But his comments didn’t align with statements from some of the Founders.
For example, in 1801, President Jefferson sent the Navy to the Barbary Coast to stop Islamic pirates’ reign of terror on U.S. merchant ships. Jefferson read the Quran to understand what was motivating the pirates, and he learned that the Muslim holy book commanded the faithful to “plunder and enslave” non-Muslims.
In 1814, after Tripoli broke its truce and began attacking U.S. ships again, former President John Adams wrote Jefferson a letter advising that Islam’s founder was “a military fanatic.” In another writing, he condemned Islamic law as “contemptible.”
His son and future president, John Quincy Adams, went further, arguing that the essence of Islam is “violence and lust: to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature.” He suggested the Quran’s commands to fight and conquer other lands “in the cause of Allah” were at odds with democracy, peace and the Judeo-Christian ethic on which America was founded.
“The precept of the Koran is perpetual war against all who deny that Muhammad is the prophet of God,” he added. “The vanquished may purchase their lives by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Muslim creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike by fraud or by force.”
Amid the controversy over the recent Islamic terrorism in Paris, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she may sue Fox News for its references to no-go zones in the city.
Pipes said that as far back as 2006 that France’s Sensitive Urban Zones ranged from two zones in the medieval town of Carcassonne to 12 in the heavily Muslim city of Marseilles. Most towns and cities have at least one, he said.
Pipes regularly has updated a 2006 post citing references by politicians, civil leaders and journalists to “no-go zones” in Britain, Germany and Sweden, as well as France.
Soeren Kern, senior fellow of the Gatestone Institute, wrote in 2011, “Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of ‘no-go’ areas in European cities.”
“Many of the ‘no-go’ zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Shariah law,” he wrote. “Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.”
And Spencer noted that in 2002, the New York Times’ David Ignatius wrote of France that “Arab gangs regularly vandalize synagogues here, the North African suburbs have become no-go zones at night, and the French continue to shrug their shoulders.”
Jindal also referenced the zones in a speech in London last weekend.
He said in his prepared remarks that “in the West, non-assimilationist Muslims establish enclaves and carry out as much of Shariah law as they can without regard for the laws of the democratic countries which provided them a new home.”
“It is startling to think that any country would allow, even unofficially, for a so-called ‘no-go zone,’” Jindal said. “The idea that a free country would allow for specific areas of its country to operate in an autonomous way that is not free and is in direct opposition to its laws is hard to fathom.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, a “civil rights” group founded as a front by the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the FBI, expressed disappointment in what it called “Muslim bashing.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/islam-experts-no-go-zones-looming-for-america/#e8w2hKd54CcSiCRK.99

ISIS executes 13 teens for watching soccer

Demonstrators chant Islamic State slogans in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, northwest of Baghdad. Photo: AP

ISIS jihadists publicly executed 13 teenage boys for watching a soccer match.

The young fans were reportedly watching an Asian Cup match between Iraq and Jordan on TV last week when they were caught by the militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which ISIS, or the Islamic State, controls.

The group of teens was executed in public by a firing squad that used machine guns, according to Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group that exposes ISIS atrocities.

Before the kids were killed, their “crime” was announced over a loudspeaker, reports said.

“The bodies remained lying in the open and their parents were unable to withdraw them for fear of murder by the terrorist organization,” RIBSS posted on its website.

The boys were slaughtered because they were said to be violating Sharia law by watching the game.

Iraq beat Jordan 1-0 in the Jan. 12 match, which took place in Brisbane, Australia.

A few days earlier, the Islamic State released a gruesome video showing two men being flung off a tower in Mosul.

Before the execution, a masked fighter using a hand-held radio announced to a crowd of onlookers that the condemned duo had been found guilty of engaging in homosexual activities.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State is winning the war against heavy winter storms battering Iraq and Syria, huge swaths of which they control.

US military officials told The Post the terrorists are completely unfazed by brutal weather conditions that have plagued Syrian and Iraqi refugees currently being helped by the United Nations.

“[ISIS] is a well-funded group, able to purchase cold-weather equipment,” said one US military official.

“Also, while there are some foreign fighters, the vast majority of [ISIS] are from the area, so they know how to adjust for weather conditions,” the official added.

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Islamic State issues photos of toddlers in gun trainin

This undated image posted online in November shows children at a purported Islamic State group training camp in Raqqah, Syria. More images released this week show children training with toy guns.

(Associated Press)

By Nabih Bulos

 

 

Islamic State releases photos of gun-toting toddlers in training

In the wake of a video purporting to show a child executing two prisoners, Islamic State militants released images Thursday of toddlers practicing their skill with toy guns.

"Lions cubs ... raised in the land of the Caliphate," the caption reads for the series of six photos shared online by supporters of the militant group, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria. The pictures show small boys playing, rather grimly, with toy assault rifles.

 Two images depict a child somberly aiming down the sight of a mock M-16 from a kneeling and a prone stance. Another picture features a toddler, appearing to be no older than 3, cradling a gun with a forlorn expression on his face.

According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant groups, the photos were issued from the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqah, Syria.

mic State has put a premium on the use of propaganda and has made savvy use of social media. It routinely uploads images and videos of children engaged in religious study or prayers. It has also shown children at play with the corpses of dead prisoners, using decapitated heads as soccer balls and shouting slogans supporting Islamic State.

The militant group blitzed through large areas of Syria and Iraq in June, wresting control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, before marching toward the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. An offensive two months later on Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq spurred a wide-scale U.S.-led aerial campaign to stop the group's progress.

Human rights groups have accused Islamic State of using child soldiers. Residents of areas under its control claim the group sends its fighters to schools to recruit children.

A video released Tuesday showed a boy who appeared to be about 12 using a gun to apparently execute two men who were identified as Russian prisoners of Islamic State.

The Sunni extremists espouse a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, with punishments including amputations, crucifixions and beheadings. It has unleashed a wave of attacks on the region's minorities, with systematic kidnappings and massacres.

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Bulos is a special correspondent.