WHY WE MUST be 'Reaching Muslims' with the Gospel

by Elizabeth Kendal

On Tuesday 13 Jan 2015, I was privileged to be able to address the “Reaching Muslims” stream at the Church Missionary Society’s annual “Summer Under the Son” conference in Melbourne, Australia. The title given to my session was: “Reaching Muslims: Love Your Enemies”.

As an introduction, I was interviewed for about 15 minutes, which gave me the opportunity to explain my ministry as a religious liberty analyst and prayer advocate, my particular interest in Islam, while noting that while the HOW TO of Reaching Muslims is not my area of expertise, I am certainly very passionate about WHY WE MUST!

Having studied Islam seriously over many years in order to understand the phenomenon of Islamic persecution of Christians, it has become very clear to me that it is just as Jesus said in John 16:2 – “behold the day is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering service to God.” Significantly, Jesus immediately followed up his warning with an explanation: “They do this because they do not know the Father or Me” (John 16:3). So while mission might produce persecution / backlash in the short term, it is also the only solution to the problem of persecution in the long term.

I noted that only 1-2% of missionaries are focused on reaching Muslims – a sad statistic which led missionary Samuel Zwemer (1862 – 1952) (also known as the Apostle to Islam) to lament: “One might suppose the Church thought the Great Commission didn’t apply to Muslims.”

As a people saved by grace through faith, we should know that even though the battle is at the gate (see Isaiah 28:5-6) the promises of God assure us that the situation is never hopeless – actually, it is the opposite of hopeless. For as my book “Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today”  makes clear, “by grace through faith” is not merely God’s paradigm for personal salvation, it is God’s paradigm for everything. And today, in the midst of escalating conflict and persecution, God the great Savior and Redeemer is on the move.

After the interview I presented two 25-30 minute talks – the first covering the problem of persecution, and the second looking at threats to mission –with 10 minutes of Q&A after each.

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The following article is a compilation of those two talks minus all the stories and testimonies.

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WHY WE MUST
       be Reaching Muslims with the Gospel

Elizabeth Kendal  www.ElizabethKendal.com 22 January 2015
words: 4,053

People who have not experienced domestic violence or abuse, generally can’t understand why women who suffer it cling desperately to the idea that everything and everyone BUT their husband is to blame; or why children who are abused cling desperately to the idea that it simply has to be all their own fault.

The reason the victim refuses to blame the perpetrator is, because as soon as soon as they do – they lose control of the situation. If they accept that the other person has a problem, then they have to accept that they are trapped in a diabolical situation. That is terrifying.

This mindset of denial can be found among persecuted Christians who are struggling to survive in a tinderbox of anti-Christian hostility. A similar mindset of denial can also be found in the West among those who are very afraid, or those who hold utopian ideals, or those who simply don’t want confrontation.

These people will insist that the Islamic violence we are witnessing today is but an aberration caused by everything other than Islam (Britain’s fault, Israel’s fault, America’s fault, Assad’s fault -- blame it on the economy, blame it on a misinterpretation of Islam -- its our fault/due to our Islamophobia).

Others, meanwhile, will say that Islam is a problem precisely because it can so easily be read as mandating that non-Muslims be subjugated, persecuted and even killed -- and of course it has been read that way throughout its history. These people would say that the short era of relative peace we had through the middle of the 20th C was an aberration brought about by the fact that Islam was at its weakest point. This is my position.

I maintain that the escalation of Islamic persecution we are witnessing in the world corresponds directly to the escalation of Islamic strength – something facilitated by the decline of Western civilization – a decline facilitated by the West’s rejection of its own Christian foundations/roots.

I also maintain that a refutation of Islam does not imply hatred of Muslims. Muslims find this impossible to understand – in fact they generally reject it – but that is only because they have little concept of grace. Muhammad never said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.  But Jesus did.  As disciples of Jesus who have been saved by grace Christians can and must extend grace to Muslims while hating the ideology that leads to death and brings immense suffering to the Body of Christ.

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A lot of people today are lamenting the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and Asia as “unprecedented” – but the fact is – while this Islamic persecution might be unprecedented in our lifetime – it is not unprecedented; none of it is new – and that’s because the Islam texts are rich with anti-Christian polemical material.

This persecution existed before America invaded the Middle East, before the recent Islamic revival, before the creation of the State of Israel, before WWI. There is a problem with Islam – and we need to talk about it – no matter how unsettling – because this problem with Islam manifests as serious persecution of the Church.

The sex-slavery and trafficking of Christian children practiced by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, by Arab slavers in Sudan (with the sanction of the regime in Khartoum), by IS in its Caliphate in Upper Mesopotamia – is nothing new.

Historian Bat Ye’or writes concerning the Arab conquest of Ephesus in A.D. 781, “7000 Greeks were deported into captivity”; and concerning the Arab conquest of Thessaloniki in A.D. 903, “22,000 Christians were shared between the Arab chiefs or sold into slavery”.

The Turks were no better – Historian Orlando Figes writes that in 1822, when the Turks put down a Greek uprising on the Island of Chios, some 20,000 Greeks were hanged while the remaining population, some 70,000 Greeks, were deported into slavery. Even in the decades before WWI, as Britain was pressing for reforms, the Turks were still kidnapping European children – Russians, Serbs, Romanians, Bulgarians, Greeks – for sale in the slave markets of Constantinople/Istanbul.

In issue 4 of DABIQ (the magazine of IS), there is a lengthy theological treatise on slavery. The article, entitled “The return of slavery before the hour”, sights Quranic texts and hadiths, the example of Muhammad (who himself took Christian girls as war booty and had sex with them), and the teachings of leading Islamic scholars to come to the conclusion that the historic Islamic practice of slavery (specifically sex slavery) is not only good for reducing sexual impropriety, but it is totally legitimate in Islam to the extent that any Muslim who objects could be deemed an apostate.

It is simply the case that Islamic slavery was forced out of existence at a time when Islam was weak, now it is being resurrected in situations where Islam is strong.

The subjugation of Christians as dhimmis (second-class citizens) – a status that sees them denied virtually all their basic human rights – is nothing new.

This practice, that is becoming systematic, even official policy in places where Islam is strong has been linked to Islamic imperialist expansion throughout the history of Islam. Muslims invaded, lands were conquered, and Sharia Law (Islamic law) was established – not just for Muslims, but for the administration of the conquered peoples.

As dhimmis (subjugated, second-class citizens under Sharia), Christians have no legal rights: they can’t testify against a Muslim in court, which makes them easy pickings for criminals. As dhimmis, Christians have no religious rights: they can’t repair churches as the churches, like the Christians themselves, must appear unattractive, uninviting and in decline. Neither can Christians ring church bells or display any public expression of Christianity.

As dhimmis, Christians can also be forced to pay jizya (protection money/tribute, as mandated by the Quran, Sura 9:29: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.” All this is to prevent fitna (temptation or trial). For nothing tempts a Muslim to doubt their faith as much as the sight of a thriving/successful Christian.

It is simply the case that dhimmitude and jizya were forced out of existence at a time when Islam was weak, now they are being resurrected in situations where Islam is strong.

The persecution of Christians by local Muslims – their neighbours and work colleagues – persecution in the form of violent pogroms in which local radicalised Muslims turn on their Christian neighbours and colleagues – people with whom they had once lived and had worked with side by side – are on the increase. Everywhere Islam is strong, Islamic norms are being mandated and Sharia is being enforced: the blasphemer must die. This is why young Christian couple Shahbaz Maseeh (32) and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi (28) were beaten and burned alive in Pakistan on 4 November [2014]. This why the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were assassinated in Paris just last week [7 Jan 2015].

This too is nothing new! Islamic history is replete with brutal killings that have shattered families, and massacres that have totally decimated Christian communities – killings and massacres triggered often by nothing more than a petition for equality or justice (rights denied to dhimmis), or even just a rumour of blasphemy.

Unprecedented in our lifetime – yes! – BUT not unprecedented!  

People tend to forget that for a long time – a thousand years actually – Islam was the strongest force on the planet both militarily and culturally.

Over the course of a millennium, Muslim Empires – first the Arabs and then the Turks – conquered and devoured three quarters of the Christian world.

spread of Islam

We (Protestants) have paid little attention to this, presumably because Protestants were not greatly affected by the advance of Islam; rather it was those “other” Christians, particularly those of the Eastern Church.

Our indifference is pretty sad and shameful when you consider that the Eastern Church was the beating heart of the early church. The first denomination ever established was the Assyrian Church of the East, founded in the first century AD in Edessa (now Sanliurfa in Sth Turkey – just 140km due north of Raqqa – the current capital of IS) with the first Metropolitan See being established in Baghdad. It was from the East that the Gospel travelled west into Europe, south in Africa and east through Persia into China and India. And yet Protestants have had little awareness – dare I say even, little care – for the massive trauma suffered by those “other” Christians – fellow believers who have been persecuted almost out of existence.

Crusade historian Thomas F. Madden writes:
“When we think about the Middle Ages, it is easy to view Europe in light of what it became rather than what it was. The colossus of the medieval world was Islam, not Christendom. The Crusades are interesting largely because they were an attempt to counter that trend. But in five centuries of crusading, it was only the First Crusade that significantly rolled back the military progress of Islam. It was downhill from there.

Sultan Mehmed II
enters Constantinople,
29 May 1453

“. . . By the 15th century, the Crusades were no longer errands of mercy for a distant people but desperate attempts of one of the last remnants of Christendom to survive. Europeans began to ponder the real possibility that Islam would finally achieve its aim of conquering the entire Christian world.

“. . . Of course, that is not what happened,” writes Madden. “But it very nearly did. In 1480, Sultan Mehmed II captured Otranto [in south-east Italy] as a beachhead for his invasion of Italy. Rome was evacuated. Yet the sultan died shortly thereafter, and his plan died with him. In 1529 [12 yrs after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle], Suleiman the Magnificent laid siege to Vienna. If not for a run of freak rainstorms that delayed his progress and forced him to leave behind much of his artillery, it is virtually certain that the Turks would have taken the city. Germany (which was in chaos) would have been at their mercy.”    

This sounds like divine intervention to me – from a God who was starting something incredible in Germany.

The defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the Gates of Vienna in 1683 is generally regarded as the pivotal moment when, after a millennium of advance, Islam was finally stopped in its tracks. Islamic military and imperialist power subsequently began to fade and crumble beneath the expanse of the empire, the corruption of the caliphate and the rising industrial, military, scientific, technological and economic ascendancy of post-Reformation Europe.

Thomas F Madden remarks:

link to lecture

“For a thousand years after the death of the prophet, Muslim armies had managed to conquer fully three-quarters of the old Christian world, despite the efforts of generations of Crusaders to halt or turn back this advance. An impartial observer at the time might well have concluded that Christendom was a doomed remnant of the ancient Roman Empire, destined to be supplanted by the more youthful, energetic religion and culture of Islam. Yet that observer would have been wrong. Within Europe, new ideas were brewing that would have dramatic and unprecedented repercussions not just in the Mediterranean, but across the entire world. 

“. . . By the 17th Century, European wealth and power was growing exponentially. Europeans were entering a new and utterly unprecedented age. It is one of the most remarkable events in history, I think, that the Christian West – an eternally divided region, seemingly on the brink of conquest by a powerful empire – suddenly burst forth with amazing new energy, neutralising its enemies and expanding across the globe. 

“The spectre of advancing Muslim armies, which for centuries had posed such a danger to the Christian West, no longer constituted a serious threat. Indeed as the gaze of Europeans now spanned new global horizons, they soon forgot that such a threat had existed at all. . .”

The reversal of fortunes culminated in the defeat of the German-allied Ottoman Turks in WWI, the subsequent break-up of the Ottoman Empire, the denial/betrayal of Arab aspirations, and the end of the Caliphate in 1924. Islam had been humiliated. It was a shattering blow to devout Muslims.

Thinking Islam was essentially in its death-throws and would expire as soon modernity caught up with it, the West – and the Church just ignored it.

BUT Islam promises its adherents success – something Muslims are reminded of five times a day as the call to prayer rings out: “Hasten to success; Hasten to success”.  So how were Muslims to interpret their defeat, failure and humiliation?

In the 18th C, as Europe’s and Islam’s fortunes were reversing, Arab Islamic reformers were agitating for Islamic Reformation – a return to “pure Islam” as found in the Quran and the life of Muhammad (as distinct from the corrupted, worldly Islam of the Ottoman Turks). The most famous of these Arab Islamic Reformers was Mohammed Ibn Abdel Wahhab who maintained that only a return to pure Islam could guarantee Islamic success.

Eventually, the work and teachings of al-Wahhab and numerous other subsequent Islamic reformers converged with the short-comings and failures of socialism, nationalism and despotism to produce the Islamic Revolutions of 1979.

Most people are aware of the successful Islamic revolution in Iran (February 1979) – but not so familiar with the attempted Sunni revolution in Saudi Arabia (November 1979) – which, though it failed to oust the Saudi monarchy, actually worked to empower the Wahhabi clerical establishment which went on to Wahhabise Muslims and disseminate intolerant, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, pro-jihad, pro-Sharia fundamentalist Islam worldwide.

The escalating conflict and persecution we are seeing today is the result of Islamic reformation and revival – in particular 35 yrs of intensive global radicalisation of Muslims. Thirty-five years! That’s a whole generation that has risen up profoundly influenced by reformed, Wahhabi/Salafi – pure early Islam – the Islam that had success.

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We all recognise that we must be Reaching Muslims with the Gospel because Muslims are precious; they are human beings created by God in the image of God for relationship with God. Muslim individuals and families can be greatly blessed by God’s wisdom, and saved by his grace.

But that is not the only reason we must be Reaching Muslims with the Gospel.

The victims of Islamic intolerance and persecution are precious too; for not only are they human beings created by God in the image of God for relationship with God – they are beloved children of God, our brothers and sisters, the Body of Christ.

Sadly, many persecuted Christian believe that we (Western evangelicals) don’t care about them. And that’s because during the latter part of the 20th C, evangelicals have increasingly come to put their trust/faith in politics. This has led to the resurrection of the failed policy of “quiet diplomacy” – a policy that brought nothing but shame to the World Council of Churches (WCC). In the 1960s-1970s the WCC betrayed thousands of Russian priests – faithful believers who were abandoned to the gallows and the gulag under a shroud of silence for the sake of “quiet diplomacy” with the Soviets, and Marxist-Christian dialogue. Today, it is the victims of Islamic persecution who are being abandoned, betrayed – they and their advocates are being told to “shut up!” – usually by evangelicals.

This denial of reality, this lack of empathy, has done great damage to the evangelical cause with the persecuted church – which increasingly views Western evangelicals as naive, unsympathetic, appeasers. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can love Muslims AND the Christian victims of Islamic persecution. It does not have to be one or the other. Loving Muslims does not necessitate we sweep persecuted Christians under the carpet as if they are a problem, an inconvenience or an embarrassment. "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me [Jesus]" (Matthew 25:40).

We MUST be reaching Muslims with the Gospel – not only for their own sake, but for the sake of the persecuted Body of Christ – and for the sake of our children and grandchildren, so that they will not have to live with Islamic persecution.

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April 2013, secret baptism
in the Middle East:
228 Persians, 17 Afghans, 1 Pakistani

[This second talk opened with 15 mins of stories and testimonies from mission organisations, ministries and individuals, demonstrating how God is most certainly on the move among Muslims today.]

However . . . 

We are in a Spiritual battle and moves are afoot to reign in Christian witness – to have it recognised as an abuse of free speech, an abuse of human rights, an abuse of religious freedom – even to have it criminalised.

In August 2007, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène – presented his report on “the manifestations of defamation of religions and in particular on the serious implications of Islamophobia . . .”

According to Diène  (a Senegalese Muslim), "defamation" of Islam arises out of "baseless Islamophobia" which expresses itself as "hatred of Muslims" which in turn gives rise to "extremism".
His conclusion: those who "defame" Islam [say bad things about Islam] must be held accountable for Islamic extremism [violence].

Special Rapporteur Diene also concluded that anti-Semitism is essentially political and is Israel's fault; and Christianophobia is caused by aggressive and "unethical" missionary activity – mostly by evangelical groups that "exploit freedom of expression" to defame religions.

[See: UNHCR: Watershed Days, By Elizabeth Kendal, 18 Sept 2007]

Do you see what he is saying? He is saying that when it comes to persecution, Muslims alone are innocent victims – for unlike Islamophobia (which is apparently baseless), anti-Semitism and Christianophobia are not baseless, but are valid responses from exploited and threatened peoples.

The UN Special Rapporteur concluded by recommending that our International Human Rights covenants be re-interpreted and amended – and that complementary standards be adopted to clarify the relationship between freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

The UN subsequently went on to pass Resolution 16/18 which fully supports freedom of speech and freedom of religion with the complimentary proviso that “defamation” [criticism] of religion be recognised as incitement – which according to the ICCPR article 20 must be prohibited by law. Anti-free speech campaigners will no doubt seek to exploit the Paris killings in exactly the same way that they exploited the Cartoon Intifada.

[See: UNHCR Res 16/18 - History of a Resolution’, by Elizabeth Kendal, 21 Aug 2011]

ALSO taking up that call for “complementary standards” was the World Council of Churches, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the World Evangelical Alliance.  

Motivated by the UN Special Rapporteur’s report, representatives from these bodies got together and, guided over the next five years by regular  inter-religious dialogue, produced a document entitled:
"Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World; Recommendations for Conduct." After its release on 28 June 2011, it quickly came to be known as the "Rules for Christian witness".

My response, entitled ‘Christian mission and persecution,
Why the new rules for Christian witness will not solve the problem of persecution,’ can be found on Religious Liberty Monitoring, 6 July 2011

The "Rules for Christian Witness" affirm Christian humanitarian service, but with the complementary proviso that exploitation of situations of poverty and of vulnerable people has no place in Christian outreach.

Sounds good! Yet in reality the only way to avoid the charge of exploitation is to refrain from all Christian witness while serving the poor, hungry, sick, harassed and helpless.

And while it is fine to denounce the offering of allurements and rewards, one needs to understand that in un-free environments basic delivery of aid, health care, sanitation or education is considered allurement, and the offer of heaven is considered a fraudulent reward.

According to the rules, Christians must "reject all forms of violence, even psychological or social, including the abuse of power in their witness".

But India's Hindutva protagonists regard conversion as violence. The Iranian regime has deemed evangelical Christianity, cultural terrorism. Even Doudou Diene, the UN's Special Rapporteur, warned in his Aug 07 report that the "legitimate expression of ideas" could in reality be "ideological violence". 

Is it psychological violence to call someone a sinner? To say that they are “lost”; to warn them of judgment?

What is abuse of power in witness? Can a coach witness to an athlete? Can a teacher witness to a student? Can an employer witness to an employee?

I think it is very significant that “abuse of power” and “fraudulent conversion” (i.e. language straight out of the Rules for Christian Witness) were the charges leveled against 51-yr-old Lebanese Christian Henna Sarkees in May 2013 after he, a supervisor in an accounting firm in Saudi Arabia, witnessed to a Muslim employee who then became a Christian.

The convert – a 26-yr-old female Saudi accountant – subsequently fled the country; and on the 11th May 2013, a Saudi court sentenced Sarkees to 300 lashes and six years in prison for abuse of power and fraudulent conversion through deception/brainwashing. The woman's parents appealing – they want Sarkees to remain in jail until their daughter returns to Saudi Arabia. [Saudi Arabia actually issued an Interpol Red Notice for this woman.]

Unless these rules manage to stop all Christian witness, then they will not prevent persecution.  For the fact remains – to some, the evangelist is the fragrance of life – to others, the stench of death (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).

All these rules will do is enable certain Christian elites to say: "Well that murdered missionary, that imprisoned evangelist, must have said something they shouldn't to someone they shouldn't to have brought this upon themselves. But hey – it's not our fault – we told them not to!" Then they can wash their hands of it and the dialogue can continue.

Now dialogue is imperative – but not at the expense of truth – not if it demands that the persecuted be betrayed and abandoned.

Though it be divisive and offensive and increasingly risky, the Gospel must not be silenced.

Tertullian once famously remarked: “Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” 

While there was persecution in Carthage, Tunisia, at Tertullian’s time (AD 200), it was nothing compared to what would come from the 7th C with the armies of Muhammad and the arrival of Islam. Had Tertullian been right, then with all that martyrs blood poured out in Carthage churches should have been springing up like mushrooms.

The Bible is clear – particularly if you consider the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 – the seed of the Church is the Gospel; and we are called to scatter that seed.

As a keen gardener – with half an acre of terraced cottage garden in the hills – I can tell you that no amount of blood and bone will make poppies grow if you fail to scatter the seed.

I believe the blood of the martyrs works very much like blood and bone – and the sweat of the labourers and the tears of the intercessors work very much like irrigation; they prepare the soil – but without the seed it is all pretty pointless.

If blood, sweat and tears prepare the soil – then might not our great redeeming God use an abundance of blood, sweat and tears to make hearts receptive to the Gospel? I believe that is exactly what he is doing.

In many countries, witness to Muslims comes with severe risk; in some countries the window has all but totally closed. In Somalia today, the remnant of a very young church is now deep underground thanks to al-Shabaab. Many Christians have fled, many have been martyred – the first among them, 25yr-old Mansur Mohammad  – a believer for 5 yrs – who, in 2008 was dragged before a kangaroo court, charged as a murtad (traitor to Islam) and then, because he refused to renounce Christ, beheaded.

Most witness to Somalis now takes place in Kenya and in the West among the Diaspora. Most Somalis in the Diaspora have relatives and friends in Somalia with whom they maintain contact. Lead a Somali Muslim to Christ in Australia, and you will touch Somali Muslims in Somalia. The same is true of Pakistani Muslims, Iranian Muslims, Saudi Muslims, Malay and Indonesian Muslims etc. Reaching Muslims locally will have global impact.

As I said earlier, we can love and evangelise Muslims AND care for the persecuted Church – they are NOT mutually exclusive. Indeed we must to both – and we can do both, precisely because we are people of grace.

We have an opportunity to be Reaching Muslims now as God moves among them preparing their hearts by applying the sweat of the labourers and the tears of the intercessors (of which we need much much more) and the blood of the martyrs.

May we be faithful with the seed that their sacrifice be not in vain.

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
‘Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today’
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)
This book provides a Biblical response to suffering, persecution and existential threat.

Elizabeth is currently writing a book on the Christian Crisis in the Middle East, due for release later this year.

Sudan: Khartoum's rulings are totally consistent with Islam

By Elizabeth Kendal

The Case of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag

Professing Christians, Daniel Wani (a South Sudanese US citizen) and Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag were married in Khartoum, Sudan, in 2012.

In August or September 2013, a man claiming to be Meriam's Muslim brother, lodged a criminal complaint against her in Halat Kuku Court of Khartoum North, claiming that Meriam was a Muslim and therefore illegally cohabiting with a Christian man. Meriam was charged with adultery under article 146 of the Sudan Criminal Code while Daniel was accused of proselytising a Muslim.

While Daniel was found to be innocent of proselytising, Daniel and Meriam's marriage was deemed null and void on the grounds that it is illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man. Meriam (27) was subsequently charged with adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes. When she countered the adultery charge by insisting that she was a Christian, the charge of apostasy was added, and on 17 February the now pregnant Meriam was imprisoned in Omdurman Federal Women's Prison along with her first-born son, Martin Ibrahim (now 20 months).

On 11 May, the court informed Meriam that she would be given three days to recant and return to Islam, warning her that if she failed to comply she would be found guilty of apostasy and sentenced to death by hanging.

At her sentencing on Thursday 15 May, a Muslim cleric asked her again to return to Islam. After Meriam replied, "I am Christian not apostate", the judge sentenced her to death by hanging. According to the Sudan Tribune, "[Meriam] Ibrahim for her part, didn't show any reaction to the judge’s ruling" (i.e. she understood the consequences of her choice and was fully prepared and unsurprised). The 100 lashes for adultery will be delivered once Meriam has recovered from giving birth. The death sentence will be delivered in two years time, after Meriam has finished nursing the infant.

Now 8-months pregnant, Meriam's health has deteriorated in prison, as has Martin's, and Daniel is deeply concerned about the conditions under which she will give birth.

Despite being found innocent of the charge of proselytising, Daniel still stands to lose everything he loves. As he explains: "The revoking of this marriage means that my son is no longer my son and the one coming is not my son too, will not be my son - so this innocence means nothing and I will appeal for myself and I will appeal for my wife."

According to reports, Daniel's appeals to the US Embassy in Khartoum, went unheeded for far too long.  He told Al-Jazeera, "Considering I am an American citizen, I am disappointed with the American Embassy's position from the beginning of the whole case. At the start of the issue, I reported it to them but they didn't take much interest, particularly the consulate. They said they didn't have time. In fact last time, they said they didn't care much about the case. They came late - they intervened when they saw the issue was getting press attention - but the intervention was late."

Rattled by the international outcry, Sudanese authorities have opened an escape hatch. Speaking on Radio Omdurman on Friday 16 May, Sudan's parliamentary speaker, al-Fatih Izz Al-Din, downplayed the ruling, noting that the death sentence was a preliminary ruling which could be appealed in the various stages of the judicial process. Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abu-Bakr Al-Sideeg assured Reuters that Sudan is committed to human rights and religious freedom.

Eut even if Meriam is acquitted on appeal or released on compassionate grounds, this family will remain gravely imperilled, at risk of Islamists prepared to take the law into their own hands, sparing no effort to ensure Islam and Sharia are not mocked. This family needs to be rescued from Sudan.

Khartoum's rulings are totally consistent with Islam

Islam is a political and material religion, advancing political goals (the imposition of Sharia, the constitution of Islam) and promising material rewards (as the call to prayer states, twice: "hasten to success").  Ultimately everyone will submit to Islam and Sharia, either willing or by compulsion / force. "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) As such, Islam knows no separation of religion and politics. Islam is a political religion.

According to the Qur'an, fitna -- that is anything that "averts people from the way of Allah"; anything that "causes disbelief" and therefore chaos -- is to be regarded as the greatest of all evils. Fitna is worse than killing (i.e. killing is the lesser of the two evils) -- and fitna must be purged (Sura 2:217). Be assured, nothing generates fitna like the presence of joyful, thriving apostates. Furthermore, apostasy is regarded as a betrayal of the Muslim nation akin to treason. According to Islam and Sharia, the penalty for apostasy is death. This is backed up by the famous Hadith (saying of Muhammad): "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Sahih Bukhari vol 9, book 84, number 57).

Concerning Men: All schools of Sharia (Islamic law) agree that an adult male convicted of apostasy must be killed (unless he is not of sound mind), and that boys convicted of apostasy must be imprisoned until they are of age and then, if they persist in their apostasy, they must be killed.

Concerning Women: Three of the four main Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence -- the Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i schools -- teach that women apostates must likewise be executed. Only the Hanafi (from Kufa, Sth Iraq) and Shia schools teach that women apostates should be imprisoned until they recant. [This is essentially because they view women as so insignificant that they are actually incapable of generating fitna, and therefore do not require elimination.]

Sudanese Islamic jurisprudence follows the Shafi'i school.

Generally, scholars interpret Sura 4:137 as grounds for a Muslim having three chances or three days to repent / recant before forgiveness is denied.

For an excellent study on apostasy in Islam, see:
Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam
BY Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (published Dec 2013)

Unlike Christianity, where religious identity is a matter of personal faith, in Islam, religious identity is a political matter, a matter for the Islamic state or nation.

In Islam, a child inherits their religion from their father and is registered as such from birth. Consequently, Muslim men are free to marry Christian women; in fact in some quarters, Muslim men are actually encouraged to marry Christians -- sometimes they are even financially rewarded for marrying Christian women -- for this not only removes child-bearers from the Christian community, it also ensures the children of Christian women are deemed Muslim from birth.

Conversely, Islamic law bans Muslim women from marrying Christian men. Any Christian man who wants to marry a Muslim woman must first convert to Islam to ensure her children are born Muslim.

When a Muslim parent abandons Islam, they automatically lose custody of their children because it is imperative that the children be raised Muslim.

When a nominal-Christian father converts to Islam in order to take a Muslim woman as a second wife, his Christian children are deemed and registered Muslim upon his conversion. From that point, his forcibly converted daughters are obliged by law to marry Muslim men and bear Muslim children, while his forcibly converted sons, even though free to marry Christian women, will produce Muslim children that must be raised as Muslims following Islam and Sharia.

Add to all this, the fact that Muslims are captives for whom leaving is forbidden upon penalty of death, and you have a truly brilliant  (albeit insidious) strategy for permanent exponential growth of the Muslim community; growth that is guaranteed not only at the expense of other religious communities, but even in the virtual absence of religious conversions. 

Clearly, anyone who says the rulings in Khartoum are a "blatant violation . . . of Islam and Sharia" (WEA RLC, 16 May) is either misinformed or is seeking to misinform.

"Most Muslims believe the Qur'an is about justice, which is also the purpose of Sharia," says WEA RLC's Godfrey Yogarajah.

Well, maybe it's time for "most Muslims" to wake up! Doubtless there are just as many Qur'anically illiterate Muslims who have no idea what Allah demands, as there are Biblically illiterate Christians who have no idea what the God of the Bible demands. There is a lot of ignorance, fantasy and wishful thinking all around.

Islam underpins not only these rulings out of Khartoum, but much Islamic violence, much Islamic repression and many thousands of honour killings committed annually along with the impunity afforded the perpetrators.

According to Islam and Sharia (as distinct from individual Muslims), Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag  is a Muslim because she was born to a Muslim father. According to Islam and Sharia, Daniel Wani should have converted to Islam before marrying Meriam in 2012. Had Daniel complied, submitting to Sharia, then the marriage would have been legal, the children would be Muslim, and Muslims and the state would be happy. While Daniel may have failed in his responsibilities according to Islam and Sharia, the Islamic state will ensure that wrongs will be set right by denying Daniel custody of his own children and ensuring they are raised as Muslims.

Let the debate begin

Some sources are at pains to point out that Meriam was raised as a Christian by an Ethiopian Christian mother, making the ruling unfair and unjust as she never apostasised because she was never a believing Muslim. Others say Meriam was raised Muslim by a Muslim mother from a Muslim tribe and that she disappeared for several years before turning up again professing Christ and married to a Christian man.

The details however are totally irrelevant and must not be allowed to become a distraction. Every human being -- no matter how or where they were raised and irrespective of their occupation or status -- must be free to seek after God.

The debate must be about Islam's total lack of liberty, its inherent inhumanity and its gross unreasonableness in suggesting that a good God would compel people to worship and serve him against their heart and conscience.

-------------------------------

for suggest prayer points: see
SUDAN: Christian woman faces death for apostasy
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 261 | Wed 21 May 2014

--------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah speaks to Christians today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)

Islamic intolerance is devouring Pakistan

Islamic intolerance is escalating unchecked across Pakistan as Islamic fundamentalism emanating from mosques and madrassas cultivates hatred which is then fuelled by the impunity the persecutors enjoy.

As chaos and lawlessness escalate, religious intolerance and hatred are unleashed without restraint, and the situation for Christians deteriorates.

The following reports represent the tip of the iceberg. All are recent.
(Credit to Compass Direct News for their phenomenal reporting on the plight of Pakistan's minority Christians.)


KYBER PAKHTOONKHWA (formerly North West Frontier Province).

On 14 June, Samuel John, a Christian psychology professor at the University of Peshawar, was savagely bashed outside his home by a group of five students for refusing to convert to Islam. When his wife rushed to his aid, she too was beaten. Both required hospitalisation, with the professor in a critical condition. The police refuse to register a First Information Report (FIR), and John continues to be threatened with death unless he converts to Islam or leaves the University.

PUNJAB PROVINCE.

Sunil Masih, Shazia Masih and Nasir Naeem, three Christian 8th grade students in Danna village, southern Punjab, have long faced pressure from teachers to convert to Islam. On 16 June, after their parents complained, the principal backed his staff, agreeing that the students should convert to Islam or leave the school. When the police refused to help, the three Christian families fled the area.

On 19 June, Rehmat Masih (85), a Christian of Faisalabad district, was arrested and jailed after a hard-line Muslim named Muhammad Sajjid Hameed filed a false blasphemy charge against him. Hameed and Masih had both made application for the same parcel of land.

Christian policeman Jamshed Masih was recently transferred to the predominantly Muslim Mustafa Colony in Jhelum, south of Islamabad. However, local Muslims unwilling to have the Christian family living amongst them, immediately began conspiring against them.

On 21 June, a mob led by local Muslim religious leader Maulana Mahfooz Khan descended on the family's home after Masih had left for work. Sensing trouble brewing, Masih's wife, Razia, had already phoned her husband and asked him to come home urgently. Khan accused the eldest son (11) of blasphemy, drawing a crowd. As Razia pleaded for mercy someone in the crowd hit her on the head with a hard object, causing her to bleed and her children to cry. The agitated crowd began baying for blood, and by the time Jamshed Masih got home, his wife and four children lay murdered -- massacred. Masih tried to file a complaint, but the Station House Officer refused to register a FIR.

On 1 July Rev. Rashid Emmanuel (32) and Sajid Emmanuel (30), leaders of United Ministries Pakistan, were falsely accused of blasphemy. They were supposed to have written a blasphemous document and signed their names to it (a highly unlikely scenario in any case, except for someone with a death wish).

Over 10 and 11 July many hundreds of enraged Muslims marched through the predominantly Christian colony of Dawood Nagar. Spewing abuse and obscenities, they called for the immediate death of the two Christian brothers. According to Compass Direct News, while Islamic extremists led the protests, most participants appeared to be teenagers who pelted the main gate of the Waris Pura Catholic Church with stones, bricks and shards of glass and pounded the gate with bamboo clubs.

It was widely expected that the brothers would soon be exonerated as handwriting experts had notified police that the signatures on the papers denigrating Muhammad did not match those of the accused.

On 19 July 2010, the brothers were shot dead outside the Faisalabad courthouse by five masked men. The bodied of the slain brothers showed signs of torture. The killings have caused religious tensions in Faisalabad to soar.

In Farooqabad in eastern Punjab, on the night of 21 July, three Muslim co-workers of a Christian man allegedly raped his 16-year-old daughter at gunpoint. Then, on 29 July, after Masih complained to police, two other Muslims who work for his employer, kidnapped him and took him to the employer's farmhouse where they allegedly shackled and tortured Masih, leaving him in critical condition.

In Rawalpindi district, students from the local Jamia Islamia Madrassa have been harassing Christians in the villages around Gujar Khan. According to a local pastor, they routinely beat Christian children and throw stones at the church. 'They openly announce that "the Christians are our enemies, we should not talk to them, eat with them or do business with them".' (NOTE: the Qur'an repeatedly commands Muslims to maintain enmity towards and separation from Christians.) On 22 July, a 12-yr-old girl from a local Christian family was gang-raped by 7 or 8 madrassa students. A teacher who witnessed the incident overheard one of the 16-strong student-mob saying: 'We will teach these Christians a lesson they will never forget'.

When the girl's distraught parents subsequently went to the police station to file a complaint, the officer in charge refused to register it, yielding to local Muslim pressure. According to the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), 'Such vicious incidents are not being stopped by the government, and day by day the rate of rapes of Christian girls is escalating instead of plunging.' (As would be expected when rape is rewarded with impunity.)

SINDH PROVINCE.

On 13 July 2010, Dr. Abdul Jabbar Meammon, his driver, another Muslim doctor and two other men, beat, tortured and gang-raped Christian trainee nurse Magdalene Ashraf at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi, Sind Province. In an effort to cover up their crime, the three Muslim men then attempted to kill Magdalene by throwing her out of a window on the hospital's 4th floor. While Magdalene survived the attack, she is a critical condition with serious head and shoulder injuries.

Magdlene told the Christian Lawyers' Foundation (CLF) that a nurse named Sajjad Fatima had set her up, sending her to Dr Meammon's room on false pretenses. When Magdalene entered Dr Meammon's office, he grabbed her. “When I resisted and tried to escape, nurse Fatima slapped both my cheeks and pushed me into Dr. Jabbar,” Ashraf said. “I cried out but no one arrived there to rescue me. They not only gang-raped me, they also tortured me physically and ruthlessly beat me.”

Dr Jabbar Meammon, a known sexual predator, has been charged with attempted murder. No-one has been charged with rape or assault. Meanwhile, as Dr Meammon and his legal team work on his contrary story (where he the victim!), Ashraf's family is receiving threats.

On 15 July, Pastor Aaron John, Rohail Bhatti, Salman John, Abid Gill and Shamin Mall were shot dead -- massacred -- and six others were wounded when a dozen masked men opened fire on them as they exited their church property in Sukkur, Sindh Province.

Students from a local madrassa (Qur'anic school) have been threatening the church since 2008, and according to reports, while the gunmen had young physiques like those of students, their manner of attack indicated they were trained militants.

The church members had been meeting to discuss security in the light of a threatening letter the church had received in May from Islamic extremist group Sip-e-Sahaba warning the Christians to leave the area because they were not welcome and were polluting the land.

The police and ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive.

A church member told Compass Direct News that, not only had the police refused to register a FIR in relation to the threats, they have also yielded to Muslim pressure and refused to register a FIR in relation to the Sukkur massacre.

FLOODS

Pakistan's devastating floods are the result of unprecedented monsoonal rains AND bad governance, for Pakistan has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.

Pakistan today has less than 5 percent forest cover. (Five percent is the official government figure, but the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says forests only amount to about 2.5 percent of the country's total area.)

The floods have wiped out millions of homes AND, accord to TIME magazine, some 17 million acres of agricultural land have been submerged, and more than 100,000 animals have perished.
A humanitarian crisis of monumental proportions is unfolding.

Further to this, Bishop Humphrey Peters of Peshawar warns that aid is unlikely to reach marginalised minority Christians.

Meanwhile, the people's anger, hunger and desperation, combined with the government's virtual collapse in credibility, and the Army's diversion into rescue and relief, provides the al-Qaeda-Taliban with a phenomenal window of opportunity. As TIME magazine notes, it will be difficult -- suicidal in fact -- for the government to crack down on Islamic fundamentalist and militant groups -- like the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, an Islamic "charity" with alleged links to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba -- when these groups are extending aid and assistance to the displaced and are receiving donations from the "urban middle class of Punjab, who are turning increasingly to religious conservatism".

Is the battle for Pakistan essentially already over?

In a 4 Aug 2010 column for Dawn (Pakistan), Rafia Zakaria (a US-based attorney who teaches constitutional history and political philosophy) writes that while the Pakistani army might be having some military successes against the Pakistani Taliban, the Taliban's "social project of producing a radicalised Pakistan attracted to literal and intolerant interpretations of faith is flourishing. Examples of such societal radicalisation abound, a notable one being the lack of public outcry against the rampant persecution of minorities who do not fit into the idealised mould of the Sunni Muslim Pakistani citizen."

See: Everyday intolerance
By Rafia Zakaria, for Dawn, Wednesday, 04 Aug 2010

In lamenting the Islamisation of Pakistan, Zakaria notes not only the persecution of religious minorities -- Christians, Ahmadis and Hindus -- but also the banning of Facebook (deemed blasphemous, the ban was supported by 70% of Pakistanis), and the banning of Teray Bin Laden, a comedy film that pokes fun at Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and features Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar. "The affinity for bans suggests the increasing prevalence of a worldview that wants to eliminate perspectives that are repugnant, rather than develop intellectual arguments against them."

Zakaria deplores the Islamisation of college campuses, noting that some have banned "Western dress", and decries the rise of Islamic vigilantism.

Zakaria expresses a widely held fear that, "while the Pakistani military may be winning the territorial conflict, the war for the Pakistani psyche may already have been lost."


This post is an extended version of Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 069 | Wed 18 Aug 2010, "PAKISTAN: SITUATION CRITICAL".

EGYPT: what happens when Islamic totalitarianism meets Christian freedom?

In 1980, Egypt amended its constitution to elevate Sharia (Islamic law) as "the principal source of legislation". This provision -- which is now common in Muslim constitutions, including the new constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq -- renders constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and equality before the law illusory. For Sharia's principal aim concerning religious liberty, is to eradicate apostasy (rejection of Islam) through the elimination of fitna (anything that could tempt a Muslim to reject Islam) and the establishment of dhimmitude (the humiliation and subjugation of Jews and Christians as second class citizens; crippling systematic discrimination; violent religious apartheid). There is no religious liberty in Islam, for Islam survives as religious totalitarianism that refuses rejection.

In Egypt, as in virtually all Muslim states, a person's official religion is displayed on their identity card. According to Sharia, every child born to a Muslim father is deemed Muslim from birth. According to Sharia, a Muslim woman is only permitted to marry a Muslim man. (NOTE: This is the main reason why Christian men convert to Islam, and why female converts to Christianity will risk life and liberty to secure a falsified/illegal ID, for without a Christian ID they cannot marry a Christian.)

If a Christian father converts to Islam (as some do for any number of pragmatic reasons, such as a desire for a Muslim wife or a better job), his Christian children are automatically deemed Muslim. They have no say in this and may not apostasise: i.e. return to Christianity. If a Muslim parent converts to Christianity they automatically lose custody of their children.

Egypt's Great Apostasy Debate

In 2007, a Muslim convert to Christianity, Mohammed Hegazy (24), applied to have his identity card changed. Not only was it his desire that his ID card reflect reality, he did not want his unborn child to be automatically deemed Muslim from birth. When his application was declined, Hegazy sued the Interior Ministry for his constitutional right to religious freedom (Article 46 ).

The court ruled against Hegazy on the grounds that Sharia prohibits apostasy. Death threats rang out and Hegazy, his wife and new born daughter were forced to retreat "underground", driven into hiding, to a life on the run.

In August 2008, Maher el-Gowhary stepped up in defence of Christian freedom for the sake of his own daughter, Dina (14). El-Gowhary (55), who had quietly converted to Christianity 35 years earlier, wanted his true religious identity acknowledged and his ID card corrected before his daughter turned 16. For when Dina turned 16 the state would issue her with a Muslim ID card that would condemn her to a double life and rob her of her freedom.

Religious leaders issues fatwas calling for the blood of Hegazy and el-Gowhary to be shed. In September 2008 the two men were shot at and only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

In June 2009, the court ruled against el-Gowhary on the grounds that Sharia prohibits apostasy and conversions would pose a threat to the "public order". When el-Gowhary and his daughter subsequently tried to leave Egypt, their passports were confiscated.

As Mary Abdelmassih reports, the el-Gowhary's plight and the Islamic totalitarianism of Egypt became more widely known, nationally and internationally, after Dina wrote to President Obama, pleading for help. (Dina was clearly unaware that Obama was powerless to help her since the global financial crash of August 2008 had largely robbed the US International Freedom from Religious Persecution Act 1998 of its economic leverage.) Subsequently, in April 2010, Dina was attacked with acid which caused the jacket she was wearing to ignite. Fortunately she was with her father who rescued her so that she was able to survive unharmed.

In early July, Maher el-Gowhary told ZDF German TV: "We live in constant fear ever since radical shaikhs have called for my blood to be shed because I left Islam. We are mostly afraid of the uneducated people on the street, our future is ruined. We are discriminated against; I do not believe that we will receive justice."

On 5 July 2010, as Maher el-Gowhary was walking with his lawyer, he was ambushed by militants who abused him as an apostate, shouted 'Allahu Akbar', and stabbed him several times in the neck. Despite being seriously wounded, Maher el-Gowhary is too afraid of the authorities to go to hospital.

See: Muslim Egyptian Girl Who Converted to Christianity Subjected to Acid Attack
by Mary Abdelmassih, AINA, 17 April 2010-07-14
AND
Muslims Attempt to Behead Apostate in Egypt
Written by Mary Abdelmassih, 08 July 2010

It is unsurprising that el-Gowhary, a peaceful and honest man, is afraid of the authorities, for Egyptian police are infamous for their corruption and brutality. They routinely torture with impunity (even promotion!).

NAGLA AL-IMAM

Late last year, Nagla Al-Imam (36) -- an Egyptian attorney, Sharia expert and prominent human rights activist -- publically announced that she had converted from Islam to Christianity. Nagla was subsequently abandoned by her husband, her family and her friends. She lost her source of income as she lost her attorney's license and Egypt's State Security Administration confined her to house arrest.

In early July 2010, Egyptian security officials took Nagla Al-Imam into custody, bashed and threatened her. She responded on 8 July by posting a video to the internet of herself (bruised and battered) and her two young children singing a Christian lament wherein Christ's comforting and strengthening presence is requested through the high waves of persecution.

According to reports, Nagla Al-Imam and her children subsequently "disappeared", and Al-Tarek, which is the TV station Nagla al-Imam broadcasts from, was vandalised by Egyptian security forces.

This is what happens when Islamic totalitarianism meets Christian freedom.

Islam -- a religion of peace, love and human rights? I don't think so.

Religious Liberty Trend - Islamic imperialism: Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo

Date: Monday 5 February 2007
Subj: 4. RL Trend - Islamic imperialism: Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (RL) TRENDS: 2006-2007

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TREND - ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM: SOMALIA, BOSNIA, KOSOVO
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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines imperialism as: "The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations."

Islam is an imperialistic political system that employs a religious component for political and imperialistic gain. It is natural therefore that Islamic reformation and revival should result in renewed zeal for Islamic imperialism. While Muslims as human beings are extremely varied, holding beliefs ranging from irreligious to indifference to secular to moderate to extremist and from liberal to fundamentalist, the agenda of orthodox, Quranic Islam is absolutely radical and imperialistic.

Islamic imperialism is advanced in myriad ways: through jihad and pro-Sharia Islamist political movements; economically and culturally through the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and vast oil profits. These profits are used strategically to disseminate Islamic ideology and advance Islamic politics and culture, as well as to transform free nations (such as numerous Christian-majority African nations) and institutions (such as numerous Western universities) into submissive debtors.

For this annual trends posting I will focus on two regions where Islamic imperialist zeal and rhetoric rose to dangerous levels through 2006: the Horn of Africa, and the Balkans.

THE HORN OF AFRICA (HOA)

The year 2006 saw the rise and fall of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). For background see WEA RLC News & Analysis postings "Somalia: Igniting jihad in the Horn of Africa" (28 July 2006) and "Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia: Death and Danger in the Horn of Africa" (20 Oct 2006).

The rise of the ICU under the leadership of the belligerent al-Qaeda-linked Sheik Aweys, a vocal proponent of the creation of an Islamic Caliphate over a Greater Somalia, meant that conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia was inevitable.

In December 2006 the Ethiopian Army and soldiers loyal to Somalia's UN-sponsored Transitional Federal Government (TFG) routed and all but crushed the ICU. It is imperative that Somalia's government receive maximum international support to secure the state and improve the lives of the Somali people, thereby securing their hearts and minds.

It is estimated that during the December offensive around 3,000 ICU militants abandoned their uniforms and diffused back into the civilian population in Mogadishu where they remain hidden.

Al-Qaeda deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, has called for an Iraq-style Islamist insurgency. Al-Qaeda will doubtless attempt to incite Islamic irredentism and imperialism in Somalia, and separatism in Ogaden, the eastern region of Ethiopia that is home to some four million ethnic Somalis. This would certainly lead to an escalation in persecution of Christians in Muslim-dominated regions of the HOA.

Inflamed Islamic imperialist zeal would doubtless also invigorate the Islamist movement in Khartoum, and this could seriously rattle the tenuous peace in Southern Sudan. The tensions in the HOA will doubtless also lead to an escalation in Eritrea (historic enemy of Ethiopia and ally of the Islamists) of persecution against the Church, including the previously tolerated Orthodox Church.

The degree to which the wider HOA becomes a theatre for an Islamic imperialist insurgency (jihad) will depend largely on the commitment and ability of those charged with keeping the peace in Somalia to persist with conviction in the long operation of mopping-up terrorists and jihadists as they emerge.

Several terrorist incidents occurred during January 2007. If Islamic terrorists and jihadist manage to establish a base of operations for imperialistic jihad in the HOA, then Western and Christian interests and assets will be at risk from Addis Ababa to Juba, Djibouti, Asmara, Mogadishu and Nairobi.

THE BALKANS: SITUATION EXPLOSIVE

While the Balkans remained relatively peaceful through 2006, the issues that emerged onto centre stage last year are reminiscent of those issues that were a prelude to war in the 1990s. The two great issues are essentially related to Islamic imperialism:

* the status of Bosnia's Serbs;

* the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo.

BOSNIA

The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was dealt with thoroughly in a lengthy posting entitled "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Religious tensions rising" (19 September 2006). That posting included a detailed overview of the historical context that has given rise to the present position. This is hugely important because at present the history of the Serb nation, a Christian nation of Eastern Orthodox tradition, is buried deep beneath a veritable mountain of lies and revisionist propaganda, myth and demonisation courtesy of belligerent Islamist imperialist forces and their Western allies.

That posting was followed up with one entitled "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Fragile stability threatened by Islamisation" (12 October 2006).

The 1992-1995 Bosnian war was essentially over the status of Bosnian Serbs. In 1992 the Bosnian Serb rejection of the Islamist Izetbegovic's illegal, unconstitutional move to declare Bosnia independent from Yugoslavia triggered war. As Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs) fought for an independent, united, Muslim Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs fought to retain their liberty and autonomy as they had no desire to be reduced to a Christian minority in an Islamic state, let alone be further separated from their fellow Serbs.

The Dayton Accords of 1995 ended the Bosnian war by establishing an independent Bosnia divided into two autonomous entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation, which today is under immense strain, and the Republika Srpksa (RS, Serb Republic).

Hard-line Islamists have never accepted the Dayton Accords and view it as a betrayal by their war-time allies, the US. For RS to be part of an independent Bosnia, yet autonomous and not under Muslim rule, is totally against the Islamist order. Izetbegovic only signed the Dayton Accords because he feared that without I-FOR (the international peace keeping force) on the ground, Serbia and Croatia would attempt to divide Bosnia between them and that Bosnia alone would not have the capacity to resist. Izetbegovic knew the Bosniacs needed both the US to keep the peace and Iran to re-arm and advance the Islamist agenda.

The loudest voice against the "partitioning" of Bosnia and Herzegovina was war-time Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, Haris Silajdzic. Over the years Silajdzic has been persistently critical of Izetbegovic for making what he believed were too many concessions.

On 1 October 2006, Haris Silajdzic was elected as the Muslim representative in Bosnia's tripartite presidency. Central to his election campaign was his proposal that RS be dissolved. Silajdzic uses words that impress the West, such as united, democratic and non-sectarian. But what he is advancing is the Islamic agenda to put all Bosnian territory and citizens under Muslim rule.

Further to this, Bosnia is under immense pressure from the West to move from the "Dayton phase" to the "European phase". Before it can join the EU, Bosnia is being advised that it must undergo constitutional reforms aimed at strengthening the central government at the expense of the entities. Some of these reforms are unacceptable to the Bosnian Serbs as they lessen their autonomy. The Orthodox Serbs are especially determined to retain autonomy in the area of policing as they do not want to be under a centrally administered, Muslim-dominated police force. Islamist imperialists and their naive supporters then label Serb resistance to dhimmitude as racist and ultra-nationalist!

The situation in Bosnia is explosive. Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholic) are both becoming agitated by the Islamist imperialistic rhetoric that is rising in an increasingly Islamised Bosnia. The situation today closely resembles 1992.

KOSOVO

Ever since the Serbs liberated themselves from Ottoman (Islamic) rule (1912-1913), "Kosovars" (descendents of Albanian Muslims who migrated into Kosovo during the Ottoman era) have been complaining of "occupation" and agitating along secessionist lines. And the secessionism is both pan-Islamic and nationalistic in character.

The contemporary Kosovar vs Serb contest for Kosovo has really been going for almost a century now. Both sides have attempted to advance their status by diminishing the "other" when circumstances permitted. The Serb cause however, was particularly hurt by the Nazi-Muslim alliance in World War Two.

Yugoslavia came under Nazi occupation in April 1941, and while the Croats, Bosniacs and Kosovars were all allies of the Axis powers, the Serbs were aligned with the Allies. The Nazis, who viewed the Serbs as a threat to the Nazi advance in the Balkans, classed the Serbs as a "lesser race" to be exterminated along with Jews and Roma/Gypsies. Islamic imperialists joined Muslim Waffen-SS units, such as the mostly Bosniac Handschar Division in Bosnia and the mostly Kosovar Skenderbeg Division in Kosovo, and massacred Serbs with impunity.

The Axis powers created a "New" or "Greater Albania" by annexing territory from Montenegro and Serbia, including Kosovo and the western part of southern Serbia that is today part of Macedonia. Wide-scale ethnic cleansing occurred, aimed at creating an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo, or "Kosova". The fascist Prime Minister of Greater Albania, Mustafa Kruja, and the Muslim leader of the Albanian National Committee, Bedri Pejani, both called for the total extermination of all Orthodox Serb Christians in Kosovo. Pejani also advocated for the union of Greater Albania with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Nazi-allied Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini, approved the plan as being in the interests of Islam. However the Nazis, recognising that an Islamic super-state was not in their long-term interests, rejected the idea and kept the Muslim Bosniacs and Kosovars geographically separated.

Through the WW2 Nazi-Muslim holocaust in Yugoslavia, some one million Serbs, sixty thousand Jews and eighty thousand Roma were exterminated.

The Islamic imperialist agenda being advanced through the Nazi-Muslim alliance during WW2 was scuttled when the Allies won the war. However, while resistance to Nazi occupation came from both the Partisans (Communists, led by Marshall Tito, a Croat) and the Loyalists (loyal to Yugoslavia's ruling Serb monarchy), Winston Churchill elected to abandon his Serb allies and support the Communists for political expediency (peace with the Soviets). This guaranteed a Communist victory and further suffering for the Serbs.

Marshall Tito divided Yugoslavia along ethnic lines in order to destroy the hegemony of the Serbs who were the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia. While the various ethnic minorities lived in their ethnic regions, Serbs, though concentrated in Serbia, were scattered over the whole nation. Dividing Yugoslavia along ethnic lines left millions of Serbs as religious and ethnic minorities under the rule of those who had attempted genocide against them in World War Two. Tito also re-cast the borderless regions of Kosovo and Metohija as a single, bordered province within Serbia. Tito was keen to form a federation with Communist Albania so he denied the Serbs who had been ethnically cleansed from Kosovo during WW2 the right to return. In an effort to appease Kosovar separatists, Tito granted Kosovo autonomy in 1974.

When Kosovo's autonomy was revoked in 1989 on account of rising persecution of Serbs and sectarian unrest, Kosovar separatism increased, even to the extent that the Kosovars set up a parallel government. Milosevic dissolved Kosovo's Kosovar legislature after it unilaterally declared Kosovo independent. While Albania recognised the "Republic of Kosova" the international community did not because at that time it still respected International Law and the UN Charter and would not re-draw international borders just to appease separatists, Islamic imperialists or terrorists.

Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since 1999. During this time, around 150 historic Serbian monasteries and churches have been destroyed while some 400 mosques have been built. Meanwhile it is estimated that more than 1,000 Serbs and Roma (no Jews, because the KLA drove out all the Jews in 1999) have been kidnapped, killed and disappeared, while around 230,000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed.

On Friday 2 February 2007, UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented his proposal on the status of Kosovo. Ahtisaari has proposed that Kosovo have supervised independence.

The Kosovars have accepted the proposal while the Serbs naturally reject what is essentially a plan to excise 15 percent of Serbia's territory, which includes its historic spiritual heartland of Metohija and cede it to Kosovar Muslim separatists.

Ahtisaari's proposal now goes to the UN Security Council where Russia and China will oppose it while the US and the UK will support it.

The UN cannot declare Kosovo independent without unleashing a torrent of secessionist claims across the globe and Kosovo, which claims to be special and unique but isn't, would be the precedent for them all. Russia and China would both be threatened, which is probably one of several reasons, along with appeasement of Islamists and attraction to myth, why the US and the UK are supporting it.

The Serbs are advocating for Kosovo to have autonomy within Serbia (see http://www.kosovocompromise.com/ ). However Kosovars and other Islamist imperialists will doubtless accept nothing less than full independence.

The situation in the Balkans is explosive and Kosovo may well prove to be the fuse.

Bali Analysis

Date: Tuesday 29 October 2002
Subj: Bali Analysis
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator


In this posting, Rev. Dr. Mark Durie of Australia offers an analysis of the 12 October 02 terrorist bombings at Kuta Beach Bali. Dr. Mark Durie is the author of many articles and books on Acehnese language and culture. He is an Anglican pastor and was formerly head of the Department of Linguistics and Language Studies at the University of Melbourne. His insights on Bali and Indonesia come from years of extensive research and experience of Indonesian culture (primarily in Aceh) as well as a continued deep interest in Indonesian affairs.

- Elizabeth Kendal

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BALI ANALYSIS by Rev. Dr. Mark Durie
Putting the Bali Bombings into the Wider Indonesian Context.

In all the discussion of the Bali tragedy this past week, many Australians have searched for a reason why so many innocent people have been killed. Surely such hatred must have some explanation? Could it be something we have done? Was it East Timor? The 'war on Iraq'? Our lifestyle? Our indifference to world poverty?

STRATEGIC GOALS OF ISLAMIST ORGANISATIONS

This bomb attack, and others like it, must be understood in terms of the strategic goals and world view of the Islamic terrorist organizations which carry them out. All these groups aim to establish the Islamic shari'a or 'Islamic way' as the law of the land. They oppose existing regimes in Muslim countries, which are rejected as un-Islamic. A second belief they share is that jihad is the best method for bringing this objective about. Countless books, tracts and training schools emphasize these two principles.

"UNITY IN DIVERSITY" UNDER ATTACK

At the time of independence from the Dutch in 1945, calls for Indonesia to become an Islamic state were successfully resisted. The authors of Indonesia's constitution opted instead for pluralism, affirming a diversity of religions including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Bhuddism. The national motto is 'Unity in Diversity'.

However during the 1980's President Suharto, to prop up his ailing presidency, began to court Islamic radicals, who rapidly grew in influence. One of the effects of this political shift has been an escalation of attacks on Christian communities in Indonesia. The Barnabas Fund (UK) reported at the end of 2000 that half a million Christians have become internally displaced; more than 5,000 people have been killed; and as many as 7,000 have been forcibly converted to Islam. Local Muslim communities have also experienced great suffering in the violent confrontations.

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Churches attacked or destroyed in Indonesia since Independence

Years Churches attacked
1945-1965 2
1966-1975 46
1976-1985 89
1986-1995 104
1996- present Over 500

Source: Indonesian Christian Communications Forum

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AGGRESSIVE DRIVE FOR SHARI'A

There are renewed calls today for Indonesia to become a shari'a state. However an obstacle to imposition of the shari'a, apart from the many moderate Muslims, is the handful of provinces with significant Christian populations, or, in the case of Bali, a majority Hindu population.

In November 2000 the Laskar Jihad militia announced "We intend during this Ramadan to ... carry out various activities paving the way for full shari'a at least in places that have now become exclusively Islam, such as the islands of Ternate, Tidore and Bacan." This is a kind of code for religious cleansing of Christians from those regions. The town of Poso in Central Sulawesi used to have a population of 40,000, mostly Christian. By the end of 2002 it had been reduced to an exclusively Muslim population of 5,000, with all of its churches destroyed. Reports of the Laskar Jihad's operations in Ambon and Sulawesi describe a systematic progression through villages and towns, sometimes using equipment such as bulldozers, petrol tankers, rocket launchers and other military hardware. Villages are looted, burnt out and razed to the ground.

The Laskar Jihad is known to include fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's top political and security minister, has said of them "They also play a role in defending truth and justice that is expected by Muslims in Indonesia. For me, as far as what they are doing is legal and not violating the law, then this is OK."

The Laskar Jihad has proven links to the Al Qa'ida, which by its title is officially dedicated to world-wide jihad against "Jews and Crusaders" (Crusaders means "Christians" in terrorist-speak). An Al Qa'ida training centre near Poso was used by the Laskar Jihad as a staging base for many attacks against local Christians, constantly frustrating local attempts at reconciliation between Muslims and Christians during 2001. More recently the Laskar Jihad have proclaimed West Papua as their next theatre of operations. Thousands of militants have been gathering there to prepare the way for the next jihad campaing. Although the Laskar Jihad claim to have disbanded just hours before the Bali atrocity, their troops remain in Papua.

The shift from jihad against Indonesian citizens to attacks on foreigners heralds a new phase in the struggle. Yet the goal of this operation must still be measured in terms of the way it could forward the pro-shari'a cause. It has certainly greatly weakened Hindu Bali and, by dealing the tourist trade a deadly blow, it will serve to isolate Indonesia from Western scrutiny and influence. Forcing Megawati to take action against militants could hasten her political demise, and leave the way open for a more acceptable replacement. It also helps the shari'a cause that the operation was conducted in Bali, where Muslims would be much less likely to have been hit as collateral damage.

SECTARIAN VIOLENCE OR JIHAD?

The label 'sectarian violence', used so irresponsibly by the media for all this terror, has served to conceal and minimize the overall impact of the radical jihad groups' activities within Indonesia. The world has allowed destabilization, terror and displacement to advance a very great way already.

As we mourn the lost, and express sympathy and sorrow for the suffering of survivors from the Bali attack, let us work and seek for peace in Indonesia, a return to religious harmony, and a stable future for this great nation.

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