Pakistan braces for end of Ramadan; Christian workers go to prayer

Pakistan (MNN)–The 3-day Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, begins today.

Pakistan tightened security in light of militant attacks over the country’s Western alliance. Reports indicate a deployment of extra police and paramilitary rangers across the country. That’s because the country has seen many terror attacks blamed on domestic Islamic militant groups and Al-Qaeda.

Interserve’s Doug VanBronkhorst says the heightened religious fervor can cause trouble for Christian groups because of the Western association. “‘There is a public Christian presence. There are some hospitals. There are churches. In certain areas, it’s fairly visible, in terms of buildings and people. So, if somebody wants to find targets, they can be fairly easily found in Pakistan.”

However, their partners have not indicated any specific threat or danger…although, “That’s a concern, but at this point, I’m not aware of any threat to any particular place and I would hope that nothing like that would happen.”

VanBronkhorst argues Ramadan is an excellent time for Christians to pray for the Muslim world, as well as for believers who live and work there. “Pray that the holiday would end peacefully. Included in that ‘normal life’ can be the normal work of doing good, in terms of doing jobs that our people have and the opportunities to share their faith with friends and neighbors.”

Interserve teams are centered in a Christian Hospital in Peshawar with other relief work in Balakot. Their hospital partner is still looking for general surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, pediatricians, gynecologists, general practitioners, and paramedical workers.

Source Mission Network News

Organizations featured in this article:

Interserve P. O. Box 418 Upper Darby PA 19082-0418

Phone: (610) 352-0581 FAX: (610) 352-4394 Email: info@interserveusa.org URL: http://www.interserveusa.org

Grisly murder of priest in Iraq underscores Christian predicament.

**story contains some graphic details**

Iraq (MNN)–The security situation in Iraq remains grim. Islamic militants beheaded and dismembered a Syrian Orthodox priest in Mosul, Iraq.

The body of 59-year old Fr. Boulous Iskander was found Oct 11, days after his abduction. Kidnappers telephoned Iskander’s family and demanded that they pay a ransom of $350,000.

According to Voice of the Martyrs-Canada, after a series of negotiations with the family, the ransom amount was reduced to $40,000. However, they also then demanded that Iskander’s church publicly renounce the remarks that Pope Benedict XVI made about Islam last month.

After the demands were met, all contact with the kidnappers ceased. Days later, Fr. Iskander’s body was discovered in the remote Tahir city distinct of Mosul. His arms and legs had been severed and arranged around his head, which rested on his chest.

Iskander’s murder is symbolic of the rise of violence against Christians. The grisly nature of the murder is the latest in a series of recent attacks against religious minorities.

Voice of the Martyrs Canada’s Glenn Penner said, “The Christians are viewed as being linked to the West, even though there have been Christians in Iraq for many, many years. These Muslim militants, because of their hatred for the West for anything that they perceive as being ‘West’, have increasingly taken out violence against Christians throughout Iraq.”

Penner says the violent pattern now has driven many believers out of the country. There are a few workers, but, “The number of Christians in Iraq has significantly declined since the Western intervention in the country, particularly for those who are seeking to do evangelistic work in the country, it’s dangerous. Those who are caught can be attacked or even killed.”

Fr. Iskander is survived by his wife, Azhar, sons Fadi and Yohamma and daughters Fadiyeh and Mariam. Pray for the protection of Christians throughout Iraq. If you want to help the family, click here.

source Mission Network News

Organizations featured in this article:

Voice of the Martyrs, Canada P.O. Box 117, Port Credit Mississauga ON L5T 1Y6

Phone: (905) 670-9721 Alt. Phone: 1-888-29-VOICE FAX: (905) 670-7642 Email: thevoice@persecution.net URL: http://www.persecution.net

The Islamization of Europe is being interrupted by God

Europe (MNN) — 40 years ago in England there were only a few thousand Muslims. Now, there are 2 million. Mosques have increased in number from a few dozen to more than 2,000. That’s the story in England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

Greater Europe Mission’s Roy Nagelkirk, speaking from France, says as Muslim communities grow, “It puts pressure on those living those living in those communities, and there are reports of up to 50,000 French who have converted to Islam, but the question is how many of those simply live in such heavily Muslim communities it’s just easier to get along that way.”

However, Nagelkirk says there’s another side to the story. “There are people very disappointed with Islam who want to understand God in a different way, who believe God is there and it’s a matter of how to get to them.”

Jack Shiflet with the Association of Baptist for World Evangelism says there is something happening under the media radar. “There (are) more Muslims coming to Christ today than any time in the history of Islam.”

Shiflet says while five-percent of Muslims fall into the ‘radical’ category and receive all the media coverage, 50 percent of the Muslim population are considered moderate. “Those we feel like are a wonderful opportunity to share Christ — with the average Christian sharing Christ with the average Muslim,” he says.

While the media covers the bombings, effigy burnings and other radical Muslim violence, Shiflet says it’s having another affect on moderate Muslims. “When they see tragedy going on, or bombs going off because of protests for cartoons and what have you, God is working,” he says. “He’s teaching the Muslim people that Islam is not what they thought it was.”

However, Shiflet says while the evangelical church among former Muslims is small, he’s praying for a miracle. “I dream about the Muslims coming to Christ in Europe and provoking Europeans much the same way that (the Apostle) Paul was hoping that Gentile faith would provoke the Jews.”

In the meantime, funding and personnel for Muslim outreach is desperate. Shiflet adds, “We’re trying to train Europeans so that they would have the knowledge of how to effectively relate to their Muslim neighbors and co-workers with the Gospel and give them effective tools so they’ll know how to talk with Muslims in a way that Muslims can understand.”

Organizations featured in this article:

Greater Europe Mission
18950 Base Camp Road
Monument CO
80132
Phone: (719) 488-8008
FAX: (719) 488-8019
Email: Info@GEMission.com
URL: http://www.gemission.org

Association of Baptists for World Evangelism
PO Box 8585
Harrisburg PA
17105
Phone: 717-774-7000
FAX: (717) 774-1919
Email: abwe@abwe.org
URL: http://www.abwe.org

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Islam

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by Martin Abegg PhD regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls. He thinks the Scrolls will be completely translated within the next year. During his presentation he stated the the vast majority of textual variants that exist in the Dead Sea Scrolls (when compared to the Jewish Torah or the Christian Old Testament) are for example the way that Americans spell the word “color” and how much of the rest of the English speaking world spells it this way “colour”. He included another variant with this example. In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible there is a repeated phrase, it is: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob….
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain the phrase as, The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob….

One exciting find was the last verse of Psalm 145. It is an acrostic meaning that each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 145 has 21 verses the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. The Scrolls contain the 22nd verse.

Dr Abegg says that Bibles are now being updated to include substantial changes, although there are no changes which influence the message or the textual meaning of the Bible.

I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Abegg and I noted how wonderful it was that on most any Bible it has column notes indicating where variations occur in ancient tests; Biblical translators have gone to great pains to maintain a transparency regarding textual differences.

Here is where Islam fits with this post. The Holy month of Ramandan has just passed and it is a holiday that recognizes the miracle of the transmission of the Quran to Mohammad. The rationale of the transmission of the Quran was that the Old (Jewish Bible) and New Testaments had been corrupted — intentionally. The Dead Sea Scrolls date to about 300BC, which means they existed nearly 1000 years before Mohammad was born. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered the oldest Old Testament text dated 1008AD. Fourteen hundred years seperate the text which our Bible’s use a prime source and the Dead Sea Scrolls, both texts agree with each other — this is the miracle, the miracle of the uncorruptable Word of God.

Christians face continued difficulties throughout the Middle East.

International (MNN)–It was supposed to be a time of reconstruction, liberty and optimism–that’s what the government leaders promised from the great change rolling over the Middle East over the last three decades…

What really happened was that security went from bad to worse and a cycle of threats, abductions and death began.

As people grew apprehensive and fearful, the government of this country came down even harsher to quell the potential of rebellion.

Islamic law, as applied in hardliner countries, says a Muslim who converts to another faith can face the death penalty.

Words of Hope’s Lee DeYoung says while he can’t reveal the country, he can confirm that in recent years, pressure on Christians has increased. “In at least one country that is very tightly closed, among the most restricted in the entire Islamic world, the situation has become more intense for at least some believers.”

Some of their partners have been bringing reports back that are causing quite a bit of concern. “We’ve heard reports of people who gather together have in some cases been harassed by some officials and even detained.”

DeYoung says many believers expect continued harassment and persecution. Yet, they still find ways to encourage the hope of Christ.

In support of that, DeYoung says WOH will continue to broadcast Gospel programming because radio is strategic to an underground church. “We sense that radio broadcasts become even more important where it’s becoming more difficult for believers to gather together face to face, but listening in the privacy of their own home, radio broadcasts can have a real impact.”

Continue to pray for believers throughout the Middle East. Many face troubles for daring to walk in Christ’s footsteps. Pray that their faith will sustain them through the hardships.

source: Mission Network News

Organizations featured in this article:

Words of Hope P.O. Box 1706 Grand Rapids MI 49501-1706

Phone: (616) 459-6181 FAX: (616) 459-1706 Email: woh@woh.org URL: http://www.woh.org

New PodCast – NoorPod

ArabsforChrist.org and MidEastOutreach.com have partner to start a new PodCast. We have are calling it NoorPod. Noor means Light, thus the name NoorPod=LightPod.

We plan to bring you reports, news, updates and interviews from and about the Middle East. You can click on the left under NoorPod, if you wish to listen on line.

If you want to subscribe in Itunes follow these steps:

1. From Itunes go to the top left menu and select “Advance”,
2. Then select “Subscribe to Podcast…” and enter:
3. http://mideastoutreach.com/noorpod/noorpod.xml

After that all you have to do is right click on NoorPod, and select Update Podcast.

Just exactly what is a PodCast?

Think of a podcast as a radio show. Each show consists of a series of individual episodes that you can listen to how you want on your PC, using your MP3 player, or with just a web browser.

You can listen to these episodes one at a time (say using your web browser) or you can ’subscribe’ to the entire podcast series using software on your PC like Itunes. When you subscribe to a podcast, all new shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer as they are published. And if you have an MP3 player like Ipod, the next time you sync your device, your podcasts will be downloaded for listening on the go.

30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World

An annual international prayer mobilization. It is not our intention with this prayer focus to disparage Islam or Muslim sentiments in any way. We recognize that humans and the Muslim world are far too complex to simply or easily condense or explain with a mere booklet.

At the same time, as Christians, we yearn that all the world’s people(s) will have an opportunity to understand the grace of God incarnated in Jesus Christ. To this end we inform ourselves, pray for, and support respectful opportunities to make that grace known among Muslims. Instead of giving in to generalizations, anger or fear toward all Muslims, let’s use this proven tool to direct our concerns and prayers more constructively

Click below to go to the 30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus website.

Sponsered by: 30-Days.net

Response to Diana: Muslim/Muslim conflict in Iraq

I am wondering about the fighting in Iraq. I thought that they would slow down their attacks because of the fasting and time of prayer during Ramadan. Any insight? -Diana

Below is some history, but halting violence during a holdiay is a secular Chrisitan custom because the New Testament abhores violence so there is justification to halt attacks. In Islam this concept isn’t present. The New Testament instructs Chrisitans to love your enemies and repay goodness for evil. In the Quran it instructs the person who is praying to keep his sword close so he is ready to go to war. (Since I posted this article the news reported the radical Islamic terrorists have called for Muslims to kill infidels during the month of Ramandan – it is their Muslim duty) For a Muslim peace comes when all believe as he believes. Christians must rationalize the Bible to commit violence (and millions have). A Muslim must rationalize the Quran to commit peace (and millions have).
The situation in Iraq is complicated to say the least. Let me give you the broad strokes of the core issues of the Muslim/Muslim conflict in the Middle East.

Sunni Muslims consider themselves “the rightly guided” therefore; all other Muslims are – walking the wrong path. There are certainly many Muslims who disagree with other sects and are willing to live and let live.

Iraq is unique because of its geographic location. About 200 years after Muhammad was born the Persian Muslims had already been in power for about a century. The Arab Muslims were concerned about the Persians having too much power the Persians were sensitive to the their concern so they built a new city outside of Persia proper and named the city Baghdad. The Persians ruled the Islamic Empire for 500 years from about 750AD to 1258AD. After the Abbasid Dynasty (Persian) collapsed from the Mongolian Conquest there was a period of turmoil and the new center of the Islamic Empire’s power was around modern day Turkey. Eventually, the Muslims conquered the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) in 1453 AD and assumed all of the Byzantine territory.

After 1258 AD when the Abbasid Empire collapsed Baghdad became a backwater; however, Islam has had a continuous history where the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment have intersected much of the Western world’s history and Westerners generally don’t identify with Western culture of 500 years ago. Many Muslims do identify with ancient history and in fact they identify with Mohammad’s generation. Regardless of whether Baghdad was a center of power yesterday or 750 years ago it is fresh in their cultural reference.

Shia Islam actually has it roots in North Africa dating to around 800 AD, the schism actually began much early. The split in Sunni/Shia Islam is related to who should be the inheritor of imperial power. Muhammad is regarded as Allah’s Messenger but the Quran is silent on whom, if anyone should assume power after Muhammad’s death. There is reference to an Islamic one world power with a caliph as it guide. This would be the caliphate that the Islamic terrorists want to establish. At any rate, the Sunnis believe the inheritor of imperial power should be based upon a person’s qualifications, his knowledge and judicial prowess. The Shia believes that it is based upon lineage; a person (Imam) must be from the lineage of Muhammad.

Many centuries ago Shia Islam found a home in Persia, modern day Iran, the vast majority of Shiites live in Iran. Shia Islam is actually more militant than Sunni Islam.

These sects are battling over who will govern Iraq; Sunnis (a minority in Iraq) have governed Iraq for centuries. Iraq has very ancient ties to Iran (Persia) the Shia have an opportunity to govern as a democracy and most are willing to do so but they make up 60% the population which means that they have sufficient numbers to pretty much do what they want to do – democratically.

In Iraq there are the rightly guided (Sunni) who are losing power to those who they consider to be marginal Muslims at best (Shia). My belief is that most Sunnis are not happy with this but would accept a democracy with a reasonable amount of representation. It is the radical bloodletting Islamic terrorists who are ruining Iraq and threatening the West.