‘Christmas is evil’: Muslim group launches poster campaign against festive period

A nasty campiagn against Christmas and when one gets right down to it, Christians.

I have made the image of the poster a bit larger in the post below. If muslims think this will bring converts to islam the they have another thing coming.

"Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have launched a nationwide poster campaign denouncing Christmas as evil.

Organizers plan to put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and pedophilia.

They hope the campaign will help ‘destroy Christmas’ in this country and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead."

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Trolling for converts to islam

By Daily Mail Reporter

Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have launched a nationwide poster campaign denouncing Christmas as evil.

Organisers plan to put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.

The poster that has appeared in the Tower Hamlets area hitting out at the festive period

Labour MP and anti racist campaigner Jim Fitzpatrick branded the posters ‘extremely offensive’ and demanded they were immediately ripped down.

The placards, which have already appeared in parts of London, feature an apparently festive scene with an image of the Star of Bethlehem over a Christmas tree.

But under a banner announcing ‘the evils of Christmas’ it features a message mocking the song the 12 Days of Christmas.

It reads: ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me an STD (sexually transmitted disease).

‘On the second day debt, on the third rape, the fourth teenage pregnancies and then there was abortion.’

According to the posters, Christmas is also to responsible for paganism, domestic violence, homelessness, vandalism, alcohol and drugs.

Another offence of Christmas, it proclaims, is ‘claiming God has a son’.

The bottom of the poster declares: ‘In Islam we are protected from all of these evils. We have marriage, family, honour, dignity, security, rights for man, woman and child.’

The campaign’s organiser is 27-year-old Abu Rumaysah, who once called for Sharia Law in Britain at a press conference held by hate preacher leader Anjem Choudary, the leader of militant group Islam4UK.

Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson banned Islam4UK group earlier this year, making it a criminal offence to be a member, after it threatened to protest at Wootton Bassett, the town where Britain honours its war dead.

Mr Rumaysah told the Mail that he was unconcerned about offending Christians.

He said: ‘Christmas is a lie and as Muslims it is our duty to attack it.

‘But our main attack is on the fruits of Christmas, things like alcohol abuse and promiscuity that increase during Christmas and all the other evils these lead to such as abortion, domestic violence and crime.

‘We hope that out campaign will make people realise that Islam is the only way to avoid this and convert.’

Mr Rumaysah, who said his campaign was not linked to any group, boasted that the posters would be put up in cities around the country, including London, Birmingham and Cardiff.

The campaign was highlighted by volunteers from a charity which distributes food and presents to pensioners and the lonely at Christmas.

Sister Christine Frost, founder of the East London Neighbours in Poplar charity, said: ‘The more posters I saw, the more angry I got.

‘Someone is stirring hatred which leaves the road open to revenge attacks or petrol bombs through letter-boxes.

‘I told the Mayor we are all scared.

‘If we said such things about Muslims, we’d all be hanging from lamp-posts.

‘The posters appear to be professionally printed’.

Poplar and Limehouse MP Mr Fitzpatrick said: ‘These posters are extremely offensive and have upset a lot of people – that’s why we jumped on it and asked the council to remove them.

‘Sister Christine is rooted in the community and doesn’t take offence lightly.

‘But these hate posters really upset her. Christmas is close to her belief.’

A Met Police spokesman said they had received complaints and were investigating.

Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman said the posters had ‘upset and antagonised many residents’.

He added: ‘The messages on these posters are offensive and do not reflect the views of the Council or the vast majority of residents.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340794/Muslim-group-launches-poster-hate-campaign-festive-period.html#ixzz18uWQ7Tgs
This entry was posted in England, Islam in Europe, War on Christians.

They hope the campaign will help ‘destroy Christmas’ in this country and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead.

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

Church to let muslims set up a mosque in basement.

Well, this is just completely wrong and I am thinking that someone has NOT done their home work when comes to islam and the last 1500 plus years of islamic persecution of the Jews and Christians. Does this Reverend and his fellow church leaders not listen or watch any news? The last few months alone should be enough to alert and put a stop sign in one's head about the intentions of islam and many muslims. I bet that the muslims really presented the true face of islam to the church gathering. We can be assured that there was not any taqiyya or other islamic tactics at work here. This is a perfect example of what we are doing to ourselves. A slow death by a million small cuts that has accelerated madly under this administration. I wonder how the good Reverend feels about how islam treats women and the Copts in Egypt? I doubt he is even aware of these areas of persecution and violence in islam or about sharia law. This is from Loganswarning.

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Connecticut: Church Allows Muslims to Set up Mosque in Basement
By Christopher Logan

Unfortunately today we see another example of Western Civilization committing its slow suicide. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church which is led by Rev. Paul Briggs has opened his Church to a religion that is out to destroy all other religions. He has temporarily rented out the Church basement, and allowed it to be turned into a makeshift Mosque which is being used by dozens of Muslims. Judging by his comments we can see that he is uniformed on Islam.


“I inquired of the leadership to see if there were any objections, and no one had any objections,” Briggs said. “We were glad to welcome them.”


Christians and Muslims have mixed a bit at the church.


“We invited leadership from the mosque to address a public gathering of our congregation during Lent to tell us a little bit about Islam,” Briggs said. “I think our people enjoy understanding another religion. It helps us to understand our own faith.”


“I think it’s a crucial period in our history in the U.S. for us to be able to understand Islam and build friendships for a peaceful future,” he said.


With all the news reports on Muslims, I would think that all Church leaders would have taken the time to educate themselves on Islam. Apparently that is not the case. Reverend, did the Muslims who spoke at your Church tell you that Islam calls for your dominance or death?


Koran verse 009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.


Did they tell you that Islam allows kidnapping, rape, and slavery?


Koran verse 033.050
YUSUFALI: O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters of thy paternal uncles and aunts, and daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts, who migrated (from Makka) with thee; and any believing woman who dedicates her soul to the Prophet if the Prophet wishes to wed her;- this only for thee, and not for the Believers (at large); We know what We have appointed for them as to their wives and the captives whom their right hands possess;- in order that there should be no difficulty for thee. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.


The Reverend speaks of peace between Christianity and Islam. But how can that be when Islam calls for perpetual war?


Volume 1, Book 8, Number 387:
Narrated Anas bin Malik:


Allah’s Apostle said, “I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.’ And if they say so, pray like our prayers, face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them except legally and their reckoning will be with Allah.” Narrated Maimun ibn Siyah that he asked Anas bin Malik, “O Abu Hamza! What makes the life and property of a person sacred?” He replied, “Whoever says, ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah’, faces our Qibla during the prayers, prays like us and eats our slaughtered animal, then he is a Muslim, and has got the same rights and obligations as other Muslims have.”


Finally Reverend, did they tell your congregation that according to the Islamic scriptures that Jesus will come back as a Muslim and destroy Christianity? How do you think that would have went over?


Book 37, Number 4310:
Narrated AbuHurayrah:


The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: There is no prophet between me and him, that is, Jesus (peace_be_upon_him). He will descent (to the earth). When you see him, recognise him: a man of medium height, reddish fair, wearing two light yellow garments, looking as if drops were falling down from his head though it will not be wet. He will fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill swine, and abolish jizyah. Allah will perish all religions except Islam. He will destroy the Antichrist and will live on the earth for forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over him.


Do you think that the Jesus of Christianity would have supported these actions Reverend? Of course he would not have, which means that Islam does not belong in your Church. This is besides the fact that the Muslims have disrespected you, by not telling you the whole story about Islam. Will you now do the right thing and ask them to leave?

Please contact St Marys! I have emailed them and really urge you to do the same.(PatriotUSA)


St. Marys can be reached HERE.

Original article is here from Loganswarning.

Bulletin of Christian Persecution

Here is the latest Bulletin of Christian Persecution from Political Islam and Bill Warner. How many attacks against other true religions go unreported or overlooked by the media? We will never know.

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Bulletin of Christian Persecution
November 19, 2010 - November 30, 2010
By Bill Warner and Edited by Asma Marwan







November 19, 2010
Egypt (Hat tip to Kitman TV via GatesofVienna)
A brilliant new documentary from Swiss television detailing the harsh persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Related update HERE on the November 15th firebombing attack over the rumors of a romance between a Christian and Muslim.


Indonesia
More than 50 people from Islamic groups demonstrated against a church, chanting for it to stop worshipping during its Sunday service


November 22, 2010
Iraq (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Iraq's Christian community comes under attack, again. Gunmen shoot and kill two shop owners in cold blood.


Iraq (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Terrorist attacks against Christians have caused those living in Mosul to consider leaving the city according to Emil Shamoun Noona, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul.


Russia (Hat tip to Weasel Zippers via JihadWatch)
The Moscow Patriarchate has condemned the attack on an Orthodox church in Ingushetia. He said that the church bombing was an attempt to spark an interreligious feud between Christians and Muslims.


November 23, 2010
Pakistan
Around 250 hard-line Muslims staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, warning the president not to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting Islam. More HERE.


Afghanistan
The the trial of a disabled man who faces the death penalty for allegedly converting from Islam to Christianity has been postoned. Said Musa, 45, was to appear without a lawyer in front of a court where a judge was expected to use 'sharia', the word for Islamic law, to reach a verdict.


November 24, 2010
Bangladesh
Selim Panni refers to Jews and Christians as true evils and preaches killing them or raping female members of Jewish and Christian societies as "divine task".


Egypt (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Muslims burn crosses and throw stones at Coptic Christians. Update HERE.


November 25, 2010
Egypt
One person died and 68 others were injured when Egyptian security forces halted construction on a Coptic church which according to the Sharia is against Islamic law. Update HERE.


Tanzania
Radical Islamists are suspected in the demolition of two church buildings on the island of Zanzibar as members of the congregations have since received death threats from Muslims.


November 26, 2010
Iran
A detained pastor of a major network of Christian house churches in Iran will be executed by hanging for "apostasy", or abandoning Islam.


Pakistan
Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari will not immediately pardon a Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam.
More HERE.


Egypt (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Al-Azhar attempted to persuade Egypt's Coptic Church to rebuff a US report claiming that Christians in Egypt were discriminated against. The Coptic Church had for the first time welcomed an annual US report on religious freedoms, saying there was indeed discrimination against Christians in Egypt.


Iraq
New death threats against Christians are terrorizing families and causing them to flee. Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for seven hand written messages found in various locations throughout Baghad.


November 27, 2010
Iraq
Iraqi security forces have detained a dozen militants suspected of helping take Christians hostage in a church siege that killed scores of worshipers and two priests last month.


Pakistan
A court in Pakistan has freed a Christian man who was wrongly jailed for 25 years for blasphemy after he allegedly defiled the Koran, the Muslim holy book, by touching it with unwashed hands.


Algiers (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Algeria will put on trial four converts to Christianity from Sunday for "illegally opening a place of worship." Under a 2006 Algerian law Muslims or non-Muslims can only practise their religion after authorities agree to a place of worship.


November 28, 2010
Pakistan
A Christian teenager "wrongly" convicted of "blasphemy" against Islam was still recovering Sunday, November 28, after Muslim inmates nearly stoned him to death in a prison in Pakistan's northwest Punjab province.


Pakistan
The father of a Christian executive kidnapped in Pakistan's Punjab province said he fears his son will be killed on orders of senior Muslim managers.


November 29, 2010
Ethopia
A Christian in Ethiopia's southern town of Moyale who languished in jail for more than three months after he was accused of desecrating the Quran has been sentenced to three years of prison.


November 30, 2010
Egypt
Christian Copts worldwide were shocked and enraged at the use of live ammunition by Egyptian state security forces against unarmed Coptic protesters, causing the death of three Coptic young men while a four-year old child suffocated from tear gas thrown inside the chapel.


Produced by Political Islam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner; Edited by Asma Marwan
Permalink

Christian persecution from too many countries

Bulletin of Christian Persecution

By Bill Warner; edited byAsma Marwan
Political Islam
July 29, 2010-August 19, 2010

July 29, 2010
Pakistan - A dozen masked men shot five Christians to death as they came out of their church building.

Morocco (Hat tip to JihadWatch) - The Morocco king says that Evangelical Christians must stop preaching or get out of the country.

August 2, 2010
Bangladesh - Two Christian families suffer extortion and beatings.

August 6, 2010
Zanzibar - Officials stop a church from being built and build a mosque instead.

August 7, 2010
Afghanistan - Eight foreigners and two Afghans of the International Assistance Mission (IAM), a Christian charitable organization providing aid and medical assistance to the Afghan people were killed by the Taliban. Details HERE.

August 8, 2010
Indonesia - In the latest jihad attacks on religious minorities in West Java, 300 Islamic hard-liners intimidated, bullied and assaulted a priest and 20 Christian churchgoers praying in a field on Sunday morning.

August 9, 2010
Somalia (hat tip to JihadWatch) - A Somali militant group with links to al-Qaida on Monday announced it had banned three Christian aid agencies.

August 10, 2010
Maldives - Christians can't have Bibles or religious literature in this Muslim country.

August 11, 2010
Saudi Arabia - Al Qaeda says kill the Christians and Jews.

Malaysia - More closures of non-Muslim religious clubs in Malaysian schools, including Christian fellowships, have surfaced.

August 12 2010
Pakistan - Christians observed a 'Black Day' of protest yesterday to mark the many discriminations they endure, above all the blasphemy law, which continues to inflict suffering on its victims.

August 13, 2010
Indonesia (Hat tip to JihadWatch) - Mob threats lead to church closure. Update HERE.

Algeria (Hat tip to JihadWatch) - A group of Christian and Muslims from Algeria, Morocco and Italy are planning a pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Augustine. One of their intentions is that "Muslims who have heard the call of the Lord Jesus should not be prohibited from entering the Church." This refers to some episodes in France and Algeria, where many Muslims who wanted to be baptized, have been impeded by priests and bishops, fearful of the consequences and overly precautious.

Malaysia - Two Muslim youths are sentenced to five years in prison for an arson attack on a Christian church.

August 14, 2010
Egypt - An imam called for jihad against the Copts, and over the next two days, many Copts were assaulted.

August 16, 2010
Pakistan - Rapes of Christian girls reflect a hidden trend as they are commonplace but rarely reported.

Lebanon - Shia-controlled Al-Manar and NBN networks pull Iranian series based on an apocryphal story about Jesus in which Judas dies in his place.

Nigeria (Hat tip to Jihad Watch) - Muslim students of the University of Ibadan this morning paralysed activities during a protest against the institution's refusal to expel a part four law student who preached gospel in the school mosque.

August 17, 2010
Somalia - The tiny Christian population is regularly persecuted by Islamic extremists so they are asking Christians worldwide to pray for their safety during Islam's holy month of Ramadan.

Indonesia - The country that is home to the world's largest Muslim population celebrated its 65th Independence Day today amid a widespread sense of distrust in the government's ability to check attacks on churches by Islamist groups.

August 19, 2010
Egypt - The head of the Coptic Church in Egypt has warned followers that the police in the country are wiretapping their calls and said they should not confess sins over the phone.

Zanzibar - Christian university students have been denied the right to worship, while on another part of the island, a Christian leader has been jailed.
Link to original article can be found here.

Five Christians shot to death by muslims in Pakistan

As the global community just waits for Israel to defend itself, and then attacks Israel as a rabid mob, the global violence of islam and muslims, brainwashed by 1400 years of being raised under an ideology that embraces violence, persecution and death to any and all who oppose islam, comes this 'loving' story about the religion of peace. Remember this; islamists and islamist apologists will lie to you how tolerant islam is to other religions. Here is more proof of that.

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Suspected Islamists Shoot Five Christians to Death in Pakistan
Muslim extremist groups had threatened church for two years.

SUKKUR, Pakistan, July 29 (CDN) — A dozen masked men shot five Christians to death as they came out of their church building here on July 15, two months after a banned Islamic extremist group sent church leaders a threatening letter, relatives said.

Pastor Aaron John and church members Rohail Bhatti, Salman John, Abid Gill and Shamin Mall of Full Gospel Church were leaving the church building after meeting to discuss security in light of the threats they had received, said the pastor’s son, Shahid John.

“As we came out of the church, a group of a dozen armed gunmen came and opened fire at us,” said Shahid John, who survived a bullet in his arm. “Fear struck the area. The police arrived 45 minutes after the incident, and we waited for over 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.”

Besides Shahid John, five others were wounded in the attack.

In May church leaders received a letter from Islamic extremist group Sip-e-Sahaba (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba until it was banned) warning the Christians to leave the area, said Kiran Rohail, wife of the slain Rohail Bhatti.


“It said to vacate the land, Christians are not welcomed here, they are polluting our land,” Kiran Rohail said.

The Sip-e-Sahaba and Sunni Tehrik extremist groups are both linked with an area madrassa (Islamic school) whose students had been threatening the church since 2008, Christian sources said.


“In 2008 a group of Muslim students started making threats for the church to vacate the land, as there are only 55 Christian families living in the area,” said the pastor’s widow, Naila John, who also lost her son Salman John in the attack.


The masked gunmen of July 15 had young physiques like those of students, Christian sources said, and their manner of attack indicated they were trained extremists.

The madrassa students that have threatened the church since 2008 belong to the Sunni Tehrik extremist group, the sources said.

Pastor John and Bhatti had reported the threats of the past two years to police, but officers at the local station did not take them seriously, said Naila John.

When they received the threatening letter in May, Pastor John, his son Salman, Bhatti, Gill, Mall and another member of the church, Arif Gill, went to the police station to register a First Information Report (FIR), according to Shahid John.

“Police just took the application but didn’t register the FIR,” he said. “The station house officer just provided two police constables for security.”

On the evening of July 15, the pastor called a meeting to discuss needed security measures, his widow Naila John said. The meeting ended around 7:30 p.m., when they left the building and were sprayed with gunfire.

“No FIR has been registered due to the pressure from the local Islamic groups,” said Kiran Rohail, referring to Sunni Tehrik, Sip-e-Sahaba and the local mosque. “The police came and took our statements, but they didn’t show up again.”

An independent government source confirmed the shooting deaths of the Christians, adding that local Islamist pressure had prevented media from reporting on it.

The church began in 1988, and Pastor John had been leading it since 2001.

Sukkur, in southwest Pakistan’s Sindh Province, has been the site of previous violence against Christians. Last June or July, area Christians said, students from the local madrassa beat Pastor Adnan John of Multan, severely injuring him, after they saw him walking in front of the mosque wearing a cross and holding a Bible. In another instance, the Muslim students prevented Christian students from holding a Christmas program at a park.

In 2006, some 500 Muslims burned down two churches in Sukkur and a convent school on Feb. 19, reportedly over rumors that a Christian threw a copy of the Quran into a trash can. A crowd wielding gasoline bombs torched St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Savior’s Church of Pakistan after media and government sources floated the rumor, but local sources said the violence occurred after a Muslim was arrested for burning pages of the Quran and trying to frame his Christian father-in-law, Saleem Gill, with the deed.

After torching the inside of St. Savior’s, the mob turned on Pastor Ilyas Saeed Masih’s home, then went five minutes away to destroy the 120-year-old St. Mary’s edifice.

Link to original article can be found here
Compass Direct News

Christians pray under gunfire while worshipping in Somalia

Here we go again as more people have been killed in Somalia as Christians were celebrating Pentacost. The battle for Somalia between the government, insurgent group al-Shabab, advanced on the presidential palace overnight, but were stopped by government troops and African Union peacekeepers, according to BosNewsLife. How much longer will the fragile, barely functiong government hold out against repeated attacks from Islamic terror groups like al-shabab? Will it really matter as both sides are intolerant of Christians. The current president of Soamlia, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is not fond of Christians and favors the extremely oppressive shariah law. Anything but Islam and shariah law are considered barbaric and unacceptable to all islamic groups in Somlia. I look for much more bloodshed and more deaths of Christians living in hell, I mean Soamlia.

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Somalia Christians observe Pentecost amid gunfire, 14 deaths

Undergroundsite.com: Somalia’s minority Christians still observed Pentecost, despite a spray of gunfire between pro-government troops and Muslim militants causing 14 deaths.

The engagement occurred as the insurgent group al-Shabab advanced on the presidential palace overnight, but were stopped by government troops and African Union peacekeepers, according to BosNewsLife.

Somalia’s frail government faces unrest from two insurgent groups, al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam. Although the two latter groups agree that they want a more strict Islamic state, they are also fighting each other, aside from both groups fighting the government.

As of now, much of central and southern Somalia and large parts of Mogadishu are under the control of insurgents. The Sharif government controls small areas around the airport, seaport and presidential palace, with the help of African Union troops, BosNewsLife reported.

The Sharif government also struggles with internal conflict. Last week President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed tried to fire the prime minister, but backed down this week, stating that he recognized the method of the firing was unconstitutional, according to BosNewsLife.

Both the Sharif government and the two warring insurgent factions would like to obliterate the Christians. While the president proclaims himself a moderate, he embraces a sharia, or Islamic law, that mandates the death penalty for those who leave Islam, BosNewsLife reported.

On the other hand, both Al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam would like to rid Somalia of Christianity, and all non-Islamic culture, which they describe as barbaric. It is believed that there are 1,000 Christians in Somalia, BosNewsLife said.

Al-Shabab recently shot and killed Christian leader Yusuf Ali Nur, 57 whom they suspected of being a Christian. Nur was killed in Xarardheere, a small town 37 miles from the regional capital Jowhar. Nur left behind a wife and three children, aged 11, 9 and 7, according to BosNewsLife.

Al-Shabab had also, before then, shot and killed Christian Mu’awiye Hilowle Ali in front of his house in the town of Afgoye, some 15 miles west of the capital Mogadishu. Ali is survived by a wife and ten children, BosNewsLife said.

Over a dozen Christians are known to have been killed by militants within a year, according to Christian advocacy groups. This troubled country has also seen tens of thousands of people killed in war, and over a million displaced in what aid groups call the most dire humanitarian situation in the world, BosNewsLife reported.

The president has met with the international community at a United Nations backed conference in Istanbul, Turkey, to shore up worldwide support for his fragile government, according to BosNewsLife.

On Saturday, May 22, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reportedly said that international support for the government is “the only way” to stabilize Somalia, which has not had a stable central government in nearly 20 years, BosNewsLife reported.

Somali pirates have earned well deserved notoriety for regularly attacking international ships, kidnapping their seamen and demanding ransom.

Link to original article

Christians warned to leave Iraq.

Last post for the A.M. and this is no surprise. Isn't Islam a wonderful, tolerant, peaceful ideology? Not even close, is it?

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Iraqi believers warned to leave

Iraq (MNN) ― Muslim extremists are warning Christians in Iraq to leave the country immediately or risk violent death. The threat mentions believers in Baghdad and Mosul--already troubled areas.

Voice of the Martyrs reports that an Iraqi bishop received a letter from the General Secretariat of the Islam Supporters warning Christians in Baghdad and other areas to "leave the country of Muslims (Iraq) for good and immediately in the form of mass transmigration." It continues: "You can follow Pope Benedict XVI and his followers who have disfigured humanity and Islam," the letter said. "There's no more room for you, infidels, among the Iraqi Muslims. Our swords shall be placed upon your necks and the necks of your followers and other Christians residing in Mosul."

Jerry Dykstra of Open Doors USA confirms the hostility against followers of Christ. "Christians are just being further marginalized, as we've heard the reports of random violence. It comes down to this: Christians there are being targeted because of their faith in Jesus Christ."

Sunni Muslim insurgents have frequently targeted members of Iraq's Christian minority. Iraq's current government is Shiite-led. As a result, Christians have found that they are in the crossfire. Many thousands have already fled to neighboring countries.

Christians make up roughly 3.3 percent of Iraq's people. It's estimated that the remnant church is well below the 500,000 believers who were in Iraq before the Iraq war.

Still, Christians in Iraq remain strong in their faith. Dykstra says "the Gospel is going forward, and people are coming to Christ. People have to meet more in secret, but the good thing is that when they meet in secret, they're praising the Lord and lifting up their needs."

Pray for ministry opportunities for churches and Christian relief organizations working in Iraq.

Teams have to work carefully. Dykstra says even though the church is isolated, "Fortunately, Open Doors has put programs in place in literacy training and praying with them that will help Christians."

Iraq is 17th on the Open Doors World Watch List of top 50 countries known for their persecution of Christians.

Thanks to Traveler for this one

Link to original article at Mission Network News