I have been AWOL for the past several months on this blog and while I was AWOL a lot of torment has been heaped on our brethren in Christ. Take a look:
1. Canadian Pastor Imprisoned-
As we all know COVID-19 has lead to social distancing. And social distancing has lead to many building closing. This includes churches. Some have insisted on continuing to open the doors of their churches so people could meet together, fellowship and hear the Word of God. Pastor James Coates was one of those people. And this lead to him being imprisoned for 35 days. During that time, James wrote an Apostle Paul-like letter to his church encouraging and admonishing them. For more on this pastor, see here: Pastor Arrested and then later released.
2. Canadian Churches burned:
For some weird reason someone decided to burn churches in Canada. Regardless of the reason, it is a sign that western churches are not immune to the sort of thing churches in places like Pakistan and the Sudan have to deal with on a daily basis. For more see here: Christian Churches set on fire.
3. Taliban cracks down on Afghanistan as troops from USA are pulled out
America has been waging a war on terror in Afghanistan almost ever since 09.11.01 when the Twin Towers came crashing down. In August, President Biden called the troops out and as a result that Taliban started cracking down on the country and as they crack down, our Afghani brethren in Christ will be inevitably targeted. This article is proof of it: Afghani Christian woman murdered for reading her Bible.
4. Christian Missionaries to Haiti kidnapped
Haiti has gone through A LOT. In June there was coup d'etat where the President was murdered. Then after that there was ANOTHER earthquake which caused many of them to seek asylum in countries like the US (and get treated like trash). To make matters worse, 17 missionaries were kidnapped and are being held for ransom by the gang leader there. See here for more on this issue: American Christian missionaries kidnapped and held for ransom.
Needless to say, there is a lot we as Christians need to be praying for as of now. And don't worry, I will make it an effort to post more regularly on this blog from now on.
Afghanistan is VERY tribalistic. So much so that turning to Christ causes the family to send said family member to the mental hospital, as they believe no sane person would convert to Christianity. They are also targeted by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban for murder. Both groups have influence in the country. One Afghan Christian said that it’s a miracle he gets through the day in Afghanistan.
Here are 5 ways to pray for Christians in Afghanistan:
1. Pray that our Afghan brethren in Christ will be courageous and not recant their Christ. Pray that God grants protection to our brethren in Christ who have to live out their faith in secret.
2. Pray that openness to religions outside of Islam will be considered.
3. Pray that stability and peace will ring throughout the land, given that the violence in Afghanistan increases the insecurity.
4. Pray that Professors and Students will use wisdom and discernment, since ISIS and similar other terrorist groups use colleges and universities to spread their beliefs and ideologies and get jihadi recruits.
5. Pray that our brethren in Christ will lean on each other. It will make enduring the persecution easier.
God empower my Afghani brethren to live for His glory and hold on to their faith in Him. May they also lean on one another. It will make it easier to endure the pain they take for their Savior. Amen.
AFGHANISTAN | Afghan terror advances ahead of President Obama’s pullout plan | Mindy Belz
Screen capture from video
Afghans are warning of dire consequences for the country’s tiny Christian population should American forces leave Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama prepares to announce his plans for a troop drawdown in a televised address to the nation scheduled for Wednesday evening.
“If U.S. troops are not in Afghanistan the Taliban will come to power,” said Obaid S. Masih, an Afghan Christian exiled to India who spoke to me Tuesday. “We will have the same situation we had in the 1990s when the Russians left Afghanistan, when we had civil war and millions killed.”
The exile, who changed his name and fled Afghanistan in 2007 after an Islamic court issued an arrest warrant following his conversion to Christianity, acknowledged that the U.S.-backed government headed by President Hamid Karzai has been no friend to Christian converts either. Earlier this year two civilian courts sentenced to death jailed Afghan Christians for changing their religion. After international pressure, including personal visits to one jail by U.S. and European diplomats, the two were released and allowed to leave the country. Both now reside in Europe.
But a more recent, gruesome incident makes clear that the danger for anyone turning from Islam in Afghanistan is not over. A video released in recent weeks, and made available to WORLD this week by two separate Afghan sources, shows four Afghan militants beheading a man believed to be a Christian in Herat Province. The militants, who claim to be Taliban, captured the victim, a man in his 40s named Abdul Latif (according to Obaid Masih, who provided translation of the video), earlier this year from his village outside Enjeel, a town south of Herat.
In the two-minute video, the men, wearing explosive belts (or suicide vests) and kaffiya head scarves to cover their faces, recite verses from the Quran while forcing Latif to the ground and pinning him with their feet. “You who are joined with pagans . . . your sentence [is] to be beheaded,” read one of the militants in Farsi from what looked like a paper decree. “Whoever changes his religion should be executed.” The passages refer to Sura 8:12 (“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks . . .”) and the hadiths, or sayings of Mohammed.
As Latif fought his captors from the ground, one of the militants thrust a medium-sized blade into the side of his neck. With blood flowing onto the ground the militants shouted “Allahu Akhbar” or “God is great” over and over until Latif was fully beheaded and his head was placed on top of his chest.
The brutal killing followed a now-too-familiar pattern used in other beheadings captured on video, notably the killings of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002 and U.S. defense contractor Nick Berg in Iraq in 2004. It also likely coincided with a Taliban-incited mob attack on the UN compound in Mazar-e-Sharif in April that followed the March burning of Qurans in the United States by pastor Terry Jones’ church in Florida. After that incident an estimated 4,000 Afghans poured into the streets of Mazar and marched on the compound, killing 10 UN officials—and reportedly beheading two of them. That was followed by a May attack by the Taliban on the Provincial Reconstruction Team headquarters in Herat (at the time under Italian control), where they killed four and injured more than 38. Both cities until then were considered among Afghanistan’s safest, and slated to be the first areas turned over to all-Afghan control.
Despite the obvious uptick in violence in Afghanistan, President Obama is likely to tell the American people on Wednesday night that he will begin a drawdown of troops starting next month, with the final pullout possible next year or in 2013—earlier than a 2014 deadline agreement previously reached with Karzai.
Relations between the Obama team and the U.S.-backed Afghan government are plainly fraying in the lead-up to a drawdown. On Saturday Karzai made public that the United States had been negotiating with the Taliban. The next day, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the first time acknowledged “preliminary” U.S. talks with the militant movement that carried out a five-year reign of terror from 1996 until the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
Karzai also accused NATO forces of being in Afghanistan “for their own purposes, for their own goals, and they’re using our soil for that.” In an unusual retort, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry responded, “When Americans, who are serving in your country at great cost—in terms of life and treasure—hear themselves compared with occupiers, told that they are only here to advance their own interest and likened to the brutal enemies of the Afghan people . . . my people, in turn, are filled with confusion and grow weary of our effort here.”
Many Afghans, like Obaid Masih, criticize the Karzai regime, but more fear the return of Taliban influence and renewed fighting among tribal groups. “At least you cannot fight with each other now,” said Masih. “Now you have people from different tribes in the government, but we don’t know what will come after.” (Source)
For those who still are still unconvinced about the Death penalty for apotasy in Islam, watch this video by my brother in Christ, David Wood:
Washington, D.C. May 24 (ICC) – In May 2010, an Afghan television network broadcast footage of baptisms involving Afghan Muslim converts to Christianity. When a member of parliament called for the execution of the apostates, President Hamid Karzai should have supported the right of Christians to choose their own religion. Instead, the Karzai administration called for an investigation into how aid organizations were promoting Christianity in the region. The investigation resulted in the arrest of an Afghan Christian named Said Musa, who was charged with apostasy and issued the death sentence in court.
After an exhaustive nine month effort by the international community to engage Afghanistan’s government, Musa was finally released from prison and able to leave the country. Although Said Musa’s ordeal is now over, a decision made by the United Nations in New Delhi to deport a number of Afghan converts may drive that small Christian community to a similar fate. After Musa’s arrest, many Afghan Christians fled Kabul for safety – some went into hiding, isolating themselves in obscure villages until the situation calmed, while others went to India or Pakistan.
Obviously, Said Musa isn't the first person to go through huge trials to prevent his death for leaving Islam and turning to Christ. For those who don't know, Islam teaches that whoever ceases to be a Muslim (apostatizes) is to be killed:
Sahih al-Bukhari 6922—Allah’s Messenger said, “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.”
Among them was Aman Ali with his wife and their four children, who arrived in India in June 2010. Aman had converted to Christianity from Islam in 1999 and worked for a foreign aid organization in Kabul. Eventually, Aman’s conversion was exposed, making it no longer safe for him and his family to stay in Afghanistan. “In March 2010, someone had reported my activities to the secret police of Afghanistan and they were looking for evidence to arrest me, but I was so careful and had to stop my work,” Aman told ICC. “After the television showed pictures from a baptism ceremony, the Afghan government started arresting believers from different parts of Kabul.
[President] Karzai ordered the chief of intelligence to follow up the process of conversion from Islam into Christianity. Most Afghan believers were scared by this declaration and left the country. So did me and my family.” On April 12, Aman attended a meeting with the Deputy Chief of Mission at the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) office in New Delhi and was told that he would be granted refugee status; however, a letter issued on May 6 stated otherwise.
Aman had been denied status based on his failure to meet the criteria set forth in Article 6B of the UNHCR Statute which states that to receive refugee status, one must have a “well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion and is unable or, because of such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of the government of the country of his nationality.” It was clear to Aman that the UN did not take the threats on his life seriously.
Nonetheless, Aman was not alone. Ratimullah, another Afghan convert from Mazar-i-Sharif, fled at the same time as Aman and for the same reasons. Like Aman, Ratimullah’s application for refugee status was also rejected along with seven other applicants and their families. The applicants are now in hiding, fearful that if they are caught by the Indian police they will be deported back to Afghanistan. “I cannot return to my country because I will be arrested and executed by the Afghan Government,” Ratimullah wrote in an appeal to the UNHCR. “A definite death is waiting for me in my homeland; there is no chance of returning for me. There is no identity for me in Afghanistan to live as an Afghan Christian. An Afghan national has to be a Muslim. Conversion is illegal and is considered as a crime according to the law of the country.”
An Afghan Christian leader in New Delhi who goes by the name Obaid S. Christ reiterated Ratimullah’s fears. “The UNHCR office brutally closed and rejected some refugee applications of our community. This is happening after all our efforts to inform and convince the UNHCR office that it is impossible to live as an Afghan Christian in Afghanistan if your Christian identity is revealed to the public and to the Afghan Islamic Republic. Apostasy is considered as a crime, an illegal action and a sin which is punishable by death by the Islamic Sharia Law that is the base of the Afghan Constitution.” While Afghanistan’s Constitution addresses religious freedom, it does not mention converting from one religion to another.
In Said Musa’s case, the judge did not base his decision on the penal codes of Afghanistan’s constitution, but on Islamic law. “According to Afghanistan’s constitution, if there is no clear verdict as to whether an act is criminal or not in the penal code of the Afghan Constitution, then it would be referred to Sharia law where the judge has an open hand in reaching a verdict,” Qamaruddin Shenwari, director of the Kabul courts’ north zone, told CNN. Despite the UN’s apparent trust in Afghan court officials to follow constitutional procedures and protect the freedoms listed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Afghanistan is a signatory to, recent occurrences indicate the opposite – that Christians will be arrested and possibly executed for apostasy.
If the UN refuses to reconsider their decision to deport eight Afghan Christian refugees and their families, the international community may need to start preparing for another long and arduous ordeal that could be necessary to free more imprisoned apostates from Afghanistan’s iron grip. (Source)
For those who want a full treatment on the topic of apostasy, here's a video from my brother-in-Christ, David Wood concerning apostasy in Islam. This was done when a sister-in-Christ named Rifqa Bary, was being held in custody and people were wondering whether to send her back home to her parents (so they can kill her) or back to her home country Sri Lanka (where she and her family are from) or keep her in custody till her eighteenth birthday (which was last year on August 18, 2010): I should let you know that they did let her stay in custody till her eighteenth birthday, and right now in the year 2011, I have no clue where she is. I know she is at a place under a different name (so that Muslims don't catch her). The words in italics are mine
