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German blogs, Jihad Watch & Atlas Shrugged are discussing the apparent Christian cross seen worn by Neda in an AP photo.

Father Ly on trial in 2007 Hanoi, Vietnam, Jul 3, 2009 / 07:33 pm (CNA).- On Wednesday 37 members of the U.S. Senate called on President Nguyen Minh Triet to release Fr. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a longtime human rights advocate.The bipartisan group of Senators, led by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) cited “serious flaws” concerning the priest’s arrest, trial and imprisonment. They asked the Vietnamese president to facilitate Father Ly’s “immediate and unconditional release from prison” and to allow him to return home and work without restrictions on his “internationally guaranteed” freedom of expression, association...

Father refuses to give al Shabaab extremists information about house church pastor. Islamic extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father. Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, 55-year-old Musa Mohammed Yusuf himself was the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Kismayo in Somalia. He had received instruction in the Christian faith from Salat Mberwa. Militants from the Islamic extremist...

Pakistan) ICC Report: “Muslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in Pakistan” – ICC reports: “This morning 100 Christian houses and churches were set on fire by local Muslims in the city of Kasur South, east of Lahore, Pakistan” – “The riots were incited by broadcasts from local mosques” – “This incident is similar to a February 1997 attack when thousands of Christian houses and churches were burned and hundreds of Christians were injured” – “So far 9 burned women and 4 children have been transferred to Lahore for further medical treatment” – “All of them have been injured by...

Muslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in PakistanJuly 1, 2009, 02:01:44 PMCountry:PakistanMuslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in PakistanRiot Incited via Mosque Loudspeakers; Mob Throws Acid on Women and Children07/01/09 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) - This morning 100 Christian houses and churches were set on fire by local Muslims in the city of Kasur South, east ofLahore, Pakistan. The riots were incited by broadcasts from local mosques. This incident issimilar to a February 1997 attack when thousands of Christian houses and churches wereburned and hundreds of Christians were injured.ICC partners received the news this morning and went...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Mauritania Kidnapping Threat CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Sub-Saharan Africa - Mauritania 27 Jun 2009 U.S. Embassy Nouakchott released the following SMS Warden Message on June 27: Embassy advises American citizens in Nouakchott of a credible threat of a kidnapping attempt tonight, June 27. Americans should exercise utmost security and remain securely locked in their residences and take extreme caution while in vehicles or offices. RELATED REPORTS 23 Jun 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: MAURITANIA SECURITY AWARENESS FOLLOWING U.S. CITIZEN MURDER 12 Jun...

Fear of massacre grips Christian village in Egypt Whenever Muslims are seen “dancing and chanting ‘Come to Jihad’ and the ‘Cross is the enemy of God” outside the homes of grossly outnumbered indigenous Christians, who are further oppressed by the state, massacres become very real possibilities. More on this story. “Fear of Massacre Grips Christian Village in Egypt; Crops Destroyed,” from AINA, June 24: (AINA) — Fears of an impending massacre has gripped the Christian Copts in the village of Ezbet Boshra, El Fashn, which was scene to Muslim mob attacks on Copts on Sunday (AINA 6-22-2009). Egyptian State Security...

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery. But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was...

(Lamentations 1:17) A phrase came out of Nazi Germany, "Today the Jews." As the Jews began to be persecuted under Adolph Hitler, the fact is most Germans sat back and said/did nothing. Their attitude was that what was happening to the Jews didn't affect them. The fact is if you sit back in silence while one group is targeted, you will wake up tomorrow and it is YOU who is the target! I'm really shocked that most Americans are saying nothing about what the government has done to several thousand car dealers around the nation. These were viable private businesses,...

The commandant of the Marine Corps has appointed one of his deputies to decide the next step in the case against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who was charged with dereliction of duty after 24 Iraqi civilians were slain in the city of Haditha in 2005. Lt. Gen. George Flynn, deputy commandant for combat development and integration, was named the new convening authority over the Chessani matter last week, a Marine Corps spokesman said Monday. Flynn was given the task by Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps. Conway was handed the Chessani case last month after a military judge...

Note: The following text is a quote: June 14, 2009 Taliban shoots 11 year-old Christian boy in head Meanwhile, the Pakistani embassy in D.C. considers such stories "exaggerated." "Pakistan: Christians ready to die for their faith," from Spero News, June 14: An 11-year-old boy was shot in the head while attending church near Karachi. Christians live in dread of the Taliban, which is demanding conversion to Islam or death. ‘I am sorry I could not speak to you then because we were just about to begin the funeral service for Irfan, an 11 year-old boy who was shot in the...

WASHINGTON, DC (MetroCatholic) - International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9. The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop. When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning...

A young Christian man was raped and brutally murdered in Pakistan for refusing to convert to Islam, and police are doing nothing about it, the victim's brother and minister told FOXNews.com. Pakistani police reportedly found the body of Tariq "Litto" Mashi Ghauri — a 28-year-old university student in Sargodha, Pakistan — lying dead in a canal outside a rural village in Punjab Province on May 15. He had been raped and stabbed at least five times.

Cairo (AINA) -- In another incident of abduction and forced Islamization of Coptic minor girls, 16-year old Nermeen Mitry was abducted by a Muslim man to coerce her into converting to Islam. She was successfully recovered on the same day by her family, who did their own investigation and search to locate her. Nermeen was abducted from El-Mahalla by Muslim Hossam Hamouda in conspiracy with his aunt Leila Attia; she was hidden away by a third person called Nasser Abu Deif from Assuit in Upper Egypt, at the home of one of his female relatives called Rasha Soliman in Zagazig....

A young Christian man was raped and brutally murdered in Pakistan for refusing to convert to Islam, and police are doing nothing about it, the victim's brother and minister told FOXNews.com. Pakistani police reportedly found the body of Tariq "Litto" Mashi Ghauri — a 28-year-old university student in Sargodha, Pakistan — lying dead in a canal outside a rural village in Punjab Province on May 15. He had been raped and stabbed at least five times. "They have sexually abuse him, torture him with a knife on his testicle and genitals," Ghauri's brother, 24-year-old Salman Nabil Ghauri, said. "They have...

You might recall back in 2008 when Diantha Harris, a teacher from a North Carolina grade school, made a YouTube splash for having verbally berated a soldier's young daughter that said in class she was for John McCain instead of Barack Obama for president. Of course the righty blogs immediately went wild for the story, but eventually the Old Media came to the teacher's rescue and reported that the teacher never meant any harm. The story appeared on cable and local TV for several days last November. Well, last month another teacher found himself making news -- or not making...

China seeks to exorcise ‘evil cult’ it invited in By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing Published: June 9 2009 17:38 | Last updated: June 9 2009 22:48 Zhang Erping first heard about Falun Gong in 1994 at an introductory talk organised by the Chinese consulate in New York. Falun Gong members in Taipei mark the 10th anniversary of the crackdown on the spiritual movement within China At the time, the Chinese Communist party was promoting the nascent spiritual movement abroad, along­side traditional cooking and handicrafts, as part of its “cultural propaganda to the west”. “I still have pictures of me with...

WASHINGTON -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a young Christian man from Pakistan was caught in a compromising situation with the daughter of a radical Muslim family but refused to convert to Islam despite her insistence and the threats of her three brothers. On May 15, the young man's father found his dead body near a canal in a rural Punjab village, after he had been missing for three days.

SNIPPET: "The next day Shazia's three brothers arrived at Litto's house, where they demanded that Litto convert to Islam and marry their sister. Litto said he would marry her, but that he would not convert to Islam. This infuriated the brothers, who kidnapped him at gunpoint and threw him into their car. Ghauri immediately reported to the police what had happened. In response, the officer on duty said, "How dare you Choohra (derogatory term for Christian) cast malicious eyes on a Muslim girl." Denied help by the police, Ghauri gathered some of his relatives and searched the countryside for his...

Botros: I am a Copt. In my early 20s, I became a priest. Of course, in predominantly Muslim Egypt, Christians—priests or otherwise—do not talk about religion with Muslims. My older brother, a passionate Christian learned that lesson too late: after preaching to Muslims, he was eventually ambushed by Muslims who cut out his tongue and murdered him. Far from being deterred or hating Muslims, I eventually felt more compelled to share the Good News with them. Naturally, this created many problems: I was constantly harassed, threatened, and eventually imprisoned and tortured for one year, simply for preaching to Muslims. Egyptian...

We're increasingly uncomfortable with religion these days. As a society, we tolerate pastors, priests, rabbis and other religious folks, so long as they confine their message to a vanilla "God is love" theme and bless babies, brides and caskets. But when religious leaders speak out on the issues of the day -- especially using morally tinged language -- the elite gatekeepers of public opinion in the media, government and academia warn shrilly that a new Dark Age is upon us. More and more, we see outright hostility to religion -- particularly to Christianity. Consider the wild popularity of a recent...

This happened to the parents of another Patriot on the Alarm and Muster forum. I asked permission to post his thread in its entirety and was granted permission. Below is the entire post, email address removed to protect the privacy of the individuals invlolved:---------------------------So, ask yourself, how sincere was the DHS when they tried to smooth over the report that labels Christians as terrorists? Most of you have read the DHS report on Right Wing Extremism, and witnessed their soft peddling after they found out it ticked folks off. Well here is an very scary example of their sincerity that...

You can always tell on campus who the conservative professors are. They’re the ones not attempting to indoctrinate their students. When I had the opportunity to teach several courses at a local college a few years back, I became a conspicuous example of this phenomenon. I stuck to the facts but could not prevent students from occasionally politicizing discussions as established practices are not easily abandoned. Their interjections always unnerved me. On one occasion, a young lady replied, in response to a mundane comment from a peer, “Well, I’m not surprised. We’re all Democrats in here with the exception of...

Tax on non-Muslims is a threat that violates basic human rights. In tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan more than 700 non-Muslim families are persecuted and forced to pay. Federal Religious Minorities minister strongly condemns the tax, pledges help for the victims. Lahore (AsiaNews) – The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) has condemned the imposition of the Jizya, the poll tax for non-Muslims, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan because of its discriminatory nature and because it constitutes a direct threat to basic human rights. Mgr John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore,...

San Diego County officials agreed Wednesday to rescind a cease-and-desist order issued to a pastor holding a small Bible study in his home. In a letter to the pastor, the county’s chief administrative officer apologized for the incident involving a code enforcement officer who issued the order after reportedly asking the pastor’s wife inappropriately probing questions about the study. The letter informed Pastor David Jones and his legal counsel Dean Broyles, president of the Western Center for Law & Policy, an Alliance Defense Fund allied organization, that the order was wrongfully issued and that the county would conduct a thorough...

Attacks Against Christians Trouble Pontiff Notes Concern When Greeting India's Ambassador ROME, MAY 29, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI expressed his desire that everyone should enjoy religious freedom in a message written for the new ambassador from India, where Christians were the object of a wave of violence last year in the eastern state of Orissa. The Pope said this today in a written statement he gave to Chitra Narayanan. The Pontiff received the envoy in an audience together with seven other ambassadors representing Mongolia, Benin, New Zealand, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Namibia and Norway. He addressed the eight as...

A San Diego pastor says county officials have told him he needs a permit to host a weekly Bible study in his home. Pastor David Jones and his wife, Mary, were hosting the weekly study near their church, when they say they were visited by a county code enforcement officer. According to Dean Broyles, an attorney for the Joneses, the county official asked the pastor if they hosted a regular weekly meeting in their home, and if they prayed and said "Amen" and "Praise the Lord" at those meetings. After replying in the affirmative to those inquiries, a subsequent citation...

SINGAPORE (AFP) — A Christian Singaporean couple were found guilty of sedition on Thursday for distributing evangelical publications that cast Islam in a negative light, court officials said. Ong Kian Cheong and his wife Dorothy Chan had been charged with distributing a seditious publication to two Muslims in October and March 2007 and sending a second such booklet to another Muslim in December that same year, a district court official told AFP. The publications were found to have promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims, the Straits Times said on its website. A hearing was set for...

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a bible study....

Persecution – bring it on! Exclusive: Dave Welch asserts Christians will rise up only when true affliction begins Back in the early 1980s as I was just beginning to get involved in the pro-life, pro-family grass-roots movement, I had the opportunity to work with a man who had taken the mantle of an organization that was defending religious liberty. He had been working to get the church more engaged in the battle for several years and had just simply burned out. As he left the organization and the arena entirely, he made a comment that I have never forgotten. "Dave,...

JERUSALEM – Christians in the Palestinian territories are being "watched," a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority admitted to WND. "We have been watching this Christian organization and for the moment there is nothing special in their activity," said Adnan Dmeire, spokesman for the PA's security organizations in West Bank. Dmeire was referring to the Association of the Holy Book, one of the main groups that attends to the needs of Christians in the Palestinian territories. The group has been accused by both the PA and Hamas of carrying out missionary activities. A Bible store the association sponsored in the Gaza...

A Democratic Strategist memo, written by James Vega, entitled, What is ‘Right Wing Extremism?’ is another example of the lies and distortions aimed at defaming Christian conservatives. In the fallout of the discredited department of Homeland Security report on “Right Wing Extremism,” that labeled virtually anyone with an opposing view to the Obama administration as a potential domestic terrorist, this “strategy paper” is supposed to be a thoughtful response. But it only shows the left’s hypocrisy and paranoia. Vega makes slanderous generalizations in an attempt to demonize Christians and conservatives all the while proclaiming that liberals are the potential victims...

Note: Photo included. Note: The following text is a quote: Monday, May 18, 2009 Video Launched to Expose Torture of Christian Attorney Gao Zhisheng US Senators Call on Chinese President to Release Gao from Prison By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service BEIJING, CHINA / WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) -- It has been more than 100 days since Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng has been seen in public. Gao Zhisheng Now two Christian groups, who work for the rights of believers in countries where they face persecution or discrimination, are working together for his release. And a group of...

The idea was simple, but in Pakistan, a country full of talk and short on action, it smacked of rebellion. ==snip== A group of young Pakistani friends, sick of hearing their families complain about the government, decided to spite them by taking matters into their own hands: every Sunday they would grab shovels, go out into their city, and pick up garbage. ==snip== The men in the mosque, on the other hand, were picky, wanting the young people to clean the mosque but not the surrounding area. “They said, ‘We already have Christians doing that for us in the morning,’...

Why the closing of car dealers matters to Christians! I am sure most people don't fully appreciate what is really happening with the closing of nearly 2,000 auto dealerships around the country. THIS IS A HUGE DEAL AND PEOPLE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION!!! The reason this is a big deal is because these are vibrant, active, PROFITABLE businesses that are only being closed because King Obama is forcing the auto makers to close them!!! At first glance, this may seem impossible. After all, the goal of the government is to stimulate business, not shut it down. However, now that the...

TIME OF DARKNESS IS REFLECTED IN REAL EVENTS AS WELL AS CLAIMS OF 'MESSAGES'There is a spirit of persecution moving, and this should not surprise us. Christ always told us that if we truly followed Him, we would see some form of rejection -- and even hostility -- from the "world." But it seems to be rising. We can see it when we observe the constant negative "spin" on the Pope (no matter where he goes or what he says), the similarly constant stream of anti-Catholic movies, the reported purging by PBS of stations that air the Mass (or...

What would America look like after four years of a Barack Obama administration? "Hardship," "persecution" and "suffering" are among the prospects in a hypothetical letter from a "Christian from 2012" released today by evangelical leader James Dobson's political activist group Focus on the Family Action. Titled "Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America," the piece clearly targets the many evangelical Christians seeking "change," particularly the young, who could tip the election in favor of the Illinois Democrat. At the end of the letter, the fictional Christian laments that these people "simply did not realize Obama's far-left agenda would take away many...

Filipino Militants Behead Kidnapped Farmer: Police By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: May 17, 2009 ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine police recovered the severed head of a farm owner kidnapped by Muslim militants and authorities said Monday he was likely beheaded because his family failed to pay ransom. Doroteo Gonzales, 61, was snatched by gunmen April 25 from his house in southern Zamboanga city and brought to nearby Basilan Island, where al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding at least five other people in a surge of ransom kidnappings. The gunmen were believed to have links to the Abu Sayyaf, and Gonzales...

A YouTube video clip showing pigs being culled in Egypt as part of swine flu measures has caused outrage at the apparent barbarity of the method of slaughtering the animals. The clip posted by independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom includes gory images of pigs being beaten with iron bars, piglets being stabbed and animals being kicked alive into bulldozer buckets. Since going on line on YouTube this weekend, the clip has sparked horrified reactions from Muslims and from the Christian Copt community, who are the main rearers of pigs in Egypt as Muslims do not eat pork. Although no case of...

A Law suit was filed in federal court May 13, 2009 against a radical anarchist group that openly advocates the use of riots and crime to further its views in favor of homosexual behavior. The complaint was filed on behalf of Delta Township’s Mount Hope Church in Michigan against the group “Bash Back!,” which invaded the church’s building during a worship service on Nov. 9 of last year. “The use of violent threats and criminal behavior to make a political point should never be acceptable in America,” said ADF attorney Gary McCaleb. “Bash Back! revealed how dangerous the homosexual agenda...

Robert Marcarelli witnessed 10-year-old girls sold as prostitutes in Cambodia. He delivered medicine to people forced from their homes in Darfur and saw parts of Sri Lanka turned into graveyards by a tsunami. But the Thousand Oaks filmmaker said the most shameful thing he has documented came in isolated, violent corners of northern Iraq. There, displaced people living in squalor told stories: of loved ones kidnapped and killed even after huge ransoms were paid, of men shot in the heads; and of families chased from their homes in Baghdad and elsewhere — all because they’re Christians. “Whether you like the...

Link to this video courtesy of David Horowitz at FrontPageMagazine.com

Regular readers of this column know that, at times, we look at the ways Muslim countries, those nations where Islam is the national religion and the foundation for their laws, are not like us (if you’ll excuse the grammar). Egypt and Turkey are two examples. Both have been in the news recently for their unabashed persecution of their Christian populations. An official policy of the Obama administration is to keep happy our pigs and those who raise them by avoiding the term “swine flu” when describing the influenza virus that jumped from pigs to people. It is not the swine...

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm...

A congressionally mandated commission has blacklisted Nigeria as one of the world's worst abusers of religious freedom, in a controversial decision made with dissent from at least one of the panel's members. The ranking is linked to the government's role in religious discrimination and retribution in the large West African country. Although official policies do not encourage or promote such actions, the commission faults the authorities for failing to prevent violence along religious lines. "The toleration by Nigeria's federal, state and local governments of systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom has created a climate of impunity, resulting in...

On April 26, three Christians were killed and two others wounded in Kirkuk, Iraq, according to CNN.com. Local police in southern Kirkuk told CNN attackers slit the throats of a Christian woman and her daughter-in-law, killing them both. Meanwhile in a nearby neighborhood gunmen attacked another Christian family shooting the father and his three sons. One of the sons died instantly and the others were wounded. This incident is the latest in a series of attacks on Christians that have occurred in Iraq in recent years. In October 2008, more than seven Christians were killed and more than 200 families...

Note: The following text is a quote: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Iran: Imprisoned Christian women in peril - a call to pray for Iran By Elizabeth Kendal Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 001 Special to ASSIST News Service AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Maryam Rostampour (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad (30) share an apartment and are active members of Iran's Christian community. On 5 March one of the women attended a summons at the Ministry of Intelligence. Officers then took her back to her apartment, arrested both women and confiscated their computers, books, Bibles and other personal items. According to International Christian...

Taliban Islamic radicals have attacked a community of Christians, executing two of them following a rally that protested Muslim graffiti in their neighborhood that ordered them to accept Islam or die, according to an international Christian organization. The attack in Pakistan follows only by days an expansion of the territory occupied by the Islamic Taliban members. The report from International Christian Concern said it happened in Taseer Town in Karachi. The organization, which reaches out to persecuted Christians around the world, said it was told by Asif Stephen, a Christian politician, that the Christians protesting the Islamic slogans say: "We...

Taliban Islamic radicals have attacked a community of Christians, executing two of them following a rally that protested Muslim graffiti in their neighborhood that ordered them to accept Islam or die, according to an international Christian organization. The attack in Pakistan follows only by days an expansion of the territory occupied by the Islamic Taliban members. The report from International Christian Concern said it happened in Taseer Town in Karachi. The organization, which reaches out to persecuted Christians around the world, said it was told by Asif Stephen, a Christian politician, that the Christians protesting the Islamic slogans say: "We...

VOM-USA Prayer Update for April 21, 2009 INDIA - Pastor Arrested in Andra Pradesh – VOM Sources The Voice of the Martyrs contacts report that Pastor Prabhu Dass was arrested April 6th by police while attending a prayer meeting in a local Christian's home in the village of Dharmapuri, Karimnagar district, Andhra Pradesh. During the prayer meeting, a man asked Pastor Dass for some Christian literature. When Pastor Dass gave it to him, the man left. He later returned with a group of villagers and they threatened the pastor and accused him of forcibly converting people. Pastor Dass was taken...