Muslims 'sick of Islam'

A 21-year-old Iraqi woman who escaped after being tortured and kept as a sex slave by ISIS, speaking in London, appealed for the world to "come on board" in fighting the terrorist group. ISIS were  criminals, she said, and needed to be tackled by the world community.

Nadia Murad said her mother saw ISIS fighters kill six of Nadia's brothers, then they took her mother and killed her. "I was already orphaned because I didn't have a father. All I had was my mother."

Nadia was taken as a sex slave along with 5,000 other Yazidi girls and women. "When they took me to Mosul and raped me, I forgot my mother and brothers, because what they were doing to the women was more difficult than death.

"Until now girls as young as nine are being rented and sold out. A year and a half has passed and the genocide against the Yazidis is continuous. We die every day because we see the world silent in face of our plight."

A hundred women who escaped ISIS when their mountain stronghold was attacked in 2014 are now fighting alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Another 500 are waiting to be trained. "We will do whatever is asked of us," they said.

Christian Aid Mission reports that more and more Muslims in Iraq are hungry to know about Christ after witnessing the brutality of groups like ISIS. "They're just sick of Islam," said one ministry leader.
        

The Queen and the need for Christianity

The Queen's speech this year will focus on her Christian faith and her belief in the important role of Christianity in modern British life, according to the International Business Times.  It comes at the end of a year marred by terrorist attacks by ISIS extremists.

The former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said the Queen's speech would be poignant, as she reflects on the attacks on British holiday makers in Tunisia and the massacre in Paris.

"Clearly extremism is a backdrop to anything that any public figures say at this time. If people in this country gave greater heed to what the Queen says about the importance of Christianity in our personal as well as our national life," he said, "then we would be in a better place to confront it.

"The Queen will also be aware that Christians and others have faced unprecedented persecution over the last year in parts of the Middle East, and could even face extinction.

"There is pressure for the next Coronation to be multi-faith or no faith. My understanding is that it will actually be a Christian event, but obviously the Queen would want to reinforce that."

A source told the Mail on Sunday: "Over the years we've seen a greater emphasis on the Queen's faith and we're certain to see it in this year's Christmas broadcast. There's a fundamental optimism which, to an extent, is driven by her faith in contrast to the overall gloom. She is driven by a deep and spirited faith."

The content of the Queen's annual prerecorded speech, which last year attracted 7.8 million viewers in the UK alone, is such a closely guarded secret that Palace officials refer to it by the code-name "QXB," for Queen's Christmas broadcast.

The Queen's speech airs on BBC1 and ITV at 3pm on Christmas Day. It is also broadcast across the Commonwealth.
      

Where Christian lives are cheap

The militant Islamist group al Shabaab has publicly declared that it wants Somalia free of Christians. According to the nation's constitution, Islam is the state religion. Open Doors says those who attack Christians do so with impunity. Suspected Christians are frequently killed on the spot.

Said one Christian: "It appears that I live in a hell on earth. I wish I could just stand inside a  church and cry out in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Still they manage to maintain a witness. One has regular contact with camel herders. He gave them a radio tuned to a Christian radio station. The camel herders are illiterate, but they listen to the radio every night.

In Nigeria, thousands of Christians have been killed or abducted by Boko Haram, the militant Islamist group. Hundreds of churches have been destroyed.

In Sudan, blasphemy laws are frequently used tor prosecuting Christians. A significant number have been imprisoned. President Bashir's government has demolished churches, killed Christians in bombings and allowed others to kill Christians with impunity.

In Eritrea, Christians are considered a threat to the state. They have been tortured, beaten and imprisoned in horrific conditions.

Syrian Patriarch Ignace Joseph lll Younan said Eastern patriarchs had warned the West from the beginning that the situation in Syria was much more complex than in Egypt, Tunisia or Libya, and conflict would create only chaos and civil war.

"They responded: No, the Assad regime will fall in a few months..As I predicted, that hasn't happened, and five years later, innocent people, especially Christians, have no support. The West has betrayed us."

Says Generals International: "Many of us live mostly isolated from the atrocities. We're so used to hearing about unrest and turmoil in places like the Middle East and Africa that we hardly flinch at news of bombings or shootings 'over there.' The scope of this horror is hard to wrap our heads around; meanwhile, it is a daily reality faced by thousands. 

"We are calling on you, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Take a step back from politically charged rhetoric. . . Jesus Himself told us to pray 'Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven'. . . 

"We are here on earth. And terrorism is not the will of heaven. So we will pray, and we will love because the kingdom of darkness is no match for those two things when they come together. . .

"Pray for those who are choosing to destroy others and sometimes themselves. If they only knew the great love which the Father has for them, they might change their minds and choose God's plan of salvation, instead of destruction. 'For this is the way God loves the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.'

"Ask the Lord to uncover every planned attack. . . Ask God to stop those who persist right in their tracks. Proclaim that their hiding places will be uncovered."
            

How to pray for ISIS

Those belonging to ISIS have sworn by Allah to rid the world of other religious groups, even at the price of their own lives, and to restore the glory of Islam as they understand it. They use rape, beheadings, shootings, crucifixions and sexual slavery as weapons against their enemies. They are prepared to fight for several generations to see their aims fulfilled.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who says Britain is in the top tier of ISIS's overseas targets, is seeking approval in Parliament for British air strikes in Syria as well as in Iraq.

Decisions are not only in the hands of politicians. If you are a Christian, there is something you can do. If we are Christians, there is something we must do. Pray. Prayer can make a difference.

Click here for an article on how to pray for ISIS, and here for a first-rate 30-day prayer programme.
       

Christianity 'Europe's only hope'

Ten days since the so-called Islamic State loosed its terror on Paris. People are still holding their own private inquests, with all their whys and wherefores.

Since 9/11, Western political leaders have been hiding their heads in the sand. They seem unable to understand Islamist jihadi ideology. Warnings from ISIS that it would flood Europe with Muslim immigrants, with ISIS operatives among them, seem to have been ignored.

After 9/11, Western leaders said "This has nothing to do with Islam." Strange, we thought, since everyone responsible for it was Muslim and did what they did precisely because they were Muslims. Then came the London bombings of 7/7. Western leaders came up with a reason that was a model of political correctness. "This has nothing to do with Islam," they said. We thought differently. After the recent Paris attacks, they said "This has nothing to do with Islam." They are wrong. This has everything to do with the violent tradition of Islam, considered every bit as valid as others consider the peaceful tradition.

Mark Durie, a Christian who is an accepted expert on Islam, says it is irresponsible and dangerous to claim that a tenacious enemy is insane and incomprehensible. To refuse to  acknowledge the ideology of ISIS and to deny its relevance is tantamount to a death wish.

"To combat this ideology," he says, "it is necessary for Europe to prove ISIS wrong on all counts. It must show strength, not weakness. It must have confidence in its cultural and spiritual identity. It must be willing to fight for its survival.

"It must show that it believes in itself enough to fight for its future. It must defend its borders. It must act like someone who intends to win in an intrinsically long war against an implacable foe."

A wave of secular humanism has swept across Europe: "I don't need God. I can manage quite well by myself." For the man in the street, when the Paris attacks came, there was surprise, for sure. There was shock, without doubt. But what seemed quite obvious was a spirit of fear: where will they strike next?  Liberal humanism - call it what you will - is a religion without a heart.
 
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, who resigned his post as an Anglican bishop in 2009 to become director of an organisation preparing Christians for ministry in areas where the church is being persecuted because of religious extremism and ideological secularism, suggests that only Christianity  can save Europe.

It is quite astounding, he says, that some, instead of seeing Christianity as part of the answer, take the opportunity to smear all religion by association. "The truth of the matter is that Europe needs to recover its grand narrative by which to live, by which to determine what is true, good and beneficial for its people. The nostrums of Marxism and Fascism have brought frightful suffering for its people. Now another totalitarian ideology threatens.

"A truly plural space can only be guaranteed by intrinsically Christian ideas of the dignity of the human person, respect for conscience, equality of persons and freedom not only to believe but to manifest our belief in the public space, without discrimination against or violence to those who do not share them. 

"Instant self-gratification and endless entertainment will no more contribute to contemporary European survival than they did to ancient Roman. What is needed is an ethic of service, selflessness and sacrifice for the sake of the common good. Many will recognise this as the teaching of the Galilean Master, not of any paganism, ancient or modern, nor of any ideology, secular or religious.
 . . 
"The extremists have decided what their values are and from whence they come. Have we anything to counter with? The institutions, culture, achievements and values of Europe can most readily be understood with reference to the Judaeo-Christian tradition. . . It is time to reappropriate it."

He's right.

Will there be enough active Christianity to meet the need?

One thing is certain. Western Christians need to waken up from their slumbers and become the people God called them to be.
     

Still no peace for Israel

There have now been something like 1,000 terrorist incidents in Israel since the beginning of October, with stabbings, shootings and vehicles used to run down Jews. There have been widespread complaints about incitement by Palestinian leaders and on social media.

This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to Washington for his first meeting with President Obama for more than a year. It was, he said, one of the best meetings he has had with President Obama.

Obama is said to have given up on the prospect of peace, even the prospect of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, before he leaves the White House in 2017. The two agreed to appoint teams to determine the size of an increase in military aid to Israel starting in 2018.

Meanwhile there were a number of stabbings in Jerusalem - one of a security guard by an attacker as young as 11 - and a 19-year-old member of the Border Police, who suffered serious head injuries when he was deliberately run down by a Palestinian driver, became the 12th Israeli to die as a result of terrorist attacks since the beginning of October.
          

Preparing for wholesale violence

The land of Israel is engulfed in a wave of Arab terrorism.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas announced at the United Nations that he and his organisation would no longer be bound by the Oslo accords. He refuses to negotiate with Israel; his plan appears to be to force his demands to be accepted with the support of other nations. There was increasing trouble at the Temple Mount.

Last week a young Jewish couple, Rabbi Eitan and Naama Hankin, were shot dead from an overtaking Palestinian vehicle. Their four children, aged nine, seven, four and four months, who were with them in their car, were not seriously injured but witnessed their parents' murder. The alleged gunmen and the organisers of the attack were arrested on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, a 19-year-old Palestinian attacked a 24-year-old Israeli, his wife and baby with a knife in the Old City of Jerusalem. The husband was stabbed to death; his wife and child were injured. A father of seven, 41-year-old Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, who went to help, was also killed. After the stabbings, the Palestinian grabbed a gun and began firing at security forces. He was shot dead.

There have been ten random terror attacks in the past two days. A terrorist drove his car at officers at a checkpoint near Ma'ale Adumim, and there have been stabbings in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Afula and Kiryat Arba, near Hebron.

"The goal of terrorism is to sow fear," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "and the first order in defeating terrorism is to be level-headed and resilient. We have known worse times than this and we will overcome this wave of terrorism with determination, responsibility and unity."

The Jerusalem Post says Israel is on the verge of a violent Palestinian uprising, but was acting with restraint so the day-to-day routine was not disrupted.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psa 122:6).
      

The price of a soul

The refugee problem is becoming increasingly desperate. Hundreds drown in the Mediterranean. People are found dead in lorries. While governments haggle about immigration quotas, thousands, young and old, are walking across Europe.

The government of Poland has agreed to take Syrian refugees - provided they are Christians. A Polish non-government organisation has been arranging selection and transportation. All the refugees are dedicated churchgoers.

Free language courses, medical care and spending money are provided when they arrive. Charities, businesses and churches are covering the costs.

"Today Christians who are being persecuted in barbaric fashion in Syria deserve Christian countries like Poland to act fast to help them," says Poland's Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz.

Slovakia has said it will take 200 refugees from Syria, but only if they are devout churchgoers. The Czech Republic applied the same requirements for 70 families granted asylum this year.

The UN, EU and some Christian leaders say we should help all in need, not just Christians. 

But Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of the British charity Barnabas Fund, says this is contrary to Middle Eastern culture, which expects each religion to help its own followers. "When Christians fail to show practical love for each other, the astonished onlookers ask: 'What kind of religion is this that does not even look after its own?'"

Barnabas Fund has launched Operation Safe Havens to fly Middle Eastern Christians whose lives are in danger to countries who will allow them to settle, and to help them with basic needs until they settle. They will then not have to take the risk of paying people traffickers. 

The charity says £2,000 covers all the costs of rescuing one person and supporting him for a year; £40 provides a week's food for a family in Poland

Rescuing refugees whose lives are in danger costs money. But what's money compared with precious, never-dying souls?
       

The surprise attack that didn't come

Terrorists arrested and interrogated during Israel's war with Hamas revealed that Hamas, the terrorist organisation that has taken control in Gaza, had planned a surprise for Israel on Rosh Hashanah -  the Jewish New Year - which fell this year on September 25.

The plan was that on this day, when many of Israel's soldiers would be home on leave, 200 terrorists in bogus Israeli Army uniforms would emerge simultaneously from a number of underground tunnels and invade six kibbutzim and a number of towns in southern Israel to kidnap, kill and destroy. The initial force of 200 would be followed by a wave of several thousand additional terrorists. They had been working towards the attack for years.

Needless to say, the attack didn't take place  In the Yom Kippur war, Israel ceded to US pressure not to make a pre-emptive strike, and suffered considerable casualties when Egypt and Syria attacked on Yom Kippur, the most serious day in the Jewish calendar, when everything closes down for a day of worship. This time, Israel ignored US pressure not to attack and invaded Gaza.

The war with Hamas, however, is not over. When Hamas accepted a ceasefire after 50 days of fighting, they made it clear that they would redouble their efforts to rearm for the next stage of the conflict.

Israel is currently preparing for "a very violent war" with the terrorist group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has an estimated 100,000 rockets - 10 times as many as were in Hamas's arsenal. In addition, it has 5,000 long-range missiles with precision guidance systems covering all of Israel, capable of carrying warheads of one ton or more.

Israel's Iron Dome system would not be able to cope with the challenge, and Israel's forces would have to "manoeuvre fast" and act "more decisively, more dramatically," according to one Israeli commander.

As with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah is believed to have been tunnelling under Israel's northern border. Dozens of residents in the border area have reported the sounds of tunnelling underneath their homes.

The most dangerous threat to Israel's security comes from Iran, which is believed to be preparing to have a nuclear arsenal. Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a speech at the United Nations last week: 

"Don't be fooled by Iran's manipulative charm offensive. It's designed for one purpose, and for one purpose only: to lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran's path to the bomb. The Islamic Republic is now trying to bamboozle its way to an agreement that will remove the sanctions it still faces, and leave it with the capacity of thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. This would effectively cement Iran's place as a threshold military nuclear power.

"In the future, at a time of its choosing, Iran, the world's most dangerous state in the world's most dangerous region, would obtain the world's most dangerous weapons. Allowing that to happen would pose the gravest threat to us all. It's one thing to confront militant Islamists on pick-up trucks, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, It's another thing to confront militant Islamists armed with weapons of mass destruction."

Meanwhile, God is preparing for the day when His Son will reign in Jerusalem. Christians have a responsibility to pray for that nation.

 For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace,
   And for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, 
Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
  And her salvation as a lamp that burns.

I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, 
  Who shall never hold their peace day or night. 
You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,

And give him no rest till he establishes 
  And till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth   
                                                                  Isa 62:1, 6, 7.
     

Israel: More trouble ahead

The war between Israel and Hamas is not over. It cannot be over. Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel.

Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor at the Jerusalem Post, says: "Hamas exists to obliterate Israel. The goal of each round of fighting is to soften Israel up for the next round. Hamas will only stop fighting when it is defeated. And Israel did not defeat Hamas."

She says that according to Amos Harel, Ha'aretz' defence analyst, senior Israeli military commanders want Israel to bow to Hamas’s demands for open borders with Israel and for the steady transfer of funds to Hamas’s treasury. If Israel doesn’t give in to Hamas’s demands for open borders, Hamas will renew its attacks at the end of September.

"Hamas went to war with Israel because its back was up against the wall. Due to Egypt’s decision a year ago to seal its borders with Gaza, Hamas lost the ability to expand its arsenal, fuel Gaza’s smuggling-based economy and pay its terrorists their salaries.
 
"US President Barack Obama adopted Hamas’s demand for open borders as the official position of the US government almost at the outset of the conflict. . . Under Obama the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a discriminatory and unwarranted flight ban on Israel. The repercussions of that move continue to harm Israel’s economy. . .

"Today, the US and the EU are working together at the UN Security Council to draft a resolution that would see the deployment of international military forces to Gaza. The defined role of the force would be to oversee Gaza’s demilitarization, seemingly in line with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand.

"But the notion that UN forces would take any steps to disarm Hamas is absurd. The minute such forces arrive in Gaza they will become human shields preventing Israel from defending itself against Hamas aggression. If they are deployed to Gaza, then in the next round of Hamas’s war against the Jews, IDF troops will have to constrain their offensive operations still further to avoid killing Western forces.

"In other words, the deployment of such a force in Gaza will make it all but impossible for Israel to fight Hamas in the future. . . Hamas now knows that all they have to do to survive, thrive and expand their war on Israel, is shake the tree. Something will fall out that will reward their aggression.

"If they pay any price at all, it will involve nothing more than the death of the civilians of Gaza. And Hamas leaders couldn’t care less. For them, the death of civilians is yet another means of attacking Israel. . .

"Residents of the south are livid at the government for opting for a ceasefire rather than mounting a full invasion of Gaza and dismantling Hamas piece by piece, terrorist by terrorist. As they see it, Operation Protective Edge failed to bring them the security they deserve and require to lead normal lives."

A man living in Israel writes in a letter: "This is a spiritual war. This is a real battle of right versus wrong; light versus darkness; truth versus lies; life versus death; the truth of the Bible versus the lies of the Koran."

Western television media have not filmed Hamas rockets falling on Israel, but they have filmed Israel air strikes on Gaza. There is no doubt that people have been influenced by the unbalanced propaganda war. In the interests of balance, they should watch this video here.
   

Plenty of blame, but who has the answer?

A representative of the Islamic State has warned that the organisation will soon use unmanned drones to attack targets in Baghdad, Kurdistan, Syria, Israel and the United States. Drones for the attacks on the United States would be launched from Mexico.
 

Perhaps even more worrying: a poll carried out by ICM for the Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya revealed this week that 16 per cent of French citizens have a positive opinion of the Islamic State. France has an estimated five million Muslims. The same poll found seven per cent of British citizens responded favourably to the Islamic State.

Marc Thiessen, author, columnist and political commentator - named by the Telegraph as one of the 100 most influential conservatives in America - blames President Obama for the rise of the Islamic State.

Writing in the Washington Post, he says the reason the world's democracies have done almost nothing to stop its rise is the same reason the world's democracies did nothing to stop the rise of the Nazis.

So proud are the Islamic State’s leaders of their acts of barbarism that they broadcast them for the world to see on Twitter and YouTube. "In one propaganda video, they show hundreds of victims being trucked to an execution site, where they are filmed pleading for their lives before being marched toward open pits and shot one by one. Islamic State militants recently tweeted a photo of a decapitated head with this message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin #WorldCup.'"

 
The Islamic State "runs camps where it indoctrinates children to believe that all non-Muslims are sub-human, 'apostates' and 'infidels' who should be exterminated. Vice News recently interviewed children undergoing such indoctrination by the Islamic State. One young boy looks into the camera and says 'In the name of God my name is Daoud and I am 14 years old. I’d like to join the Islamic State and to kill with them, because they fight infidels and apostates.' Another declares: 'We promise you car bombs and explosives. . . I swear to God, we will divide America in two.'
    
 "Some would like to believe that the Islamic State’s offensive in Syria and Iraq is nothing more than 'a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing,' in the words of Neville Chamberlain. In fact, the Islamic State’s leaders have a messianic vision of building a totalitarian Islamic empire encompassing all current and former Muslim lands, stretching from Europe to North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. They may never see that vision realized, but they can wreak an awful lot of death and destruction trying.

 "Their 'caliph,' Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, recently warned: 'Our last message is to the Americans: Soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have prepared for such a day. So watch, for we are with you, watching.' They are rapidly accumulating the recruits and resources to follow through on this threat. The Islamic State is actively establishing cells outside Iraq and Syria, including in Europe. And according to scholars at the Rand Corporation, it 'currently brings in more than $1 million a day in revenue and is now the richest terrorist group on the planet. . . A conservative calculation suggests that [the Islamic State] may generate a surplus of $100 million to $200 million this year.'

"To put this in perspective, al-Qaeda spent about $500,000 to carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"The worst part is that all of this could have been prevented. Just a few years ago, the Islamic State (then al-Qaeda in Iraq) was a spent force, defeated both militarily and ideologically thanks to the 2007 US surge, and the Sunni masses who rose up to join the United States in driving them out. Then President Obama’s complete withdrawal of US forces in 2011 took the boot off of the terrorists’ necks. And, as Hillary Clinton recently pointed out, Obama’s 'failure' to act in Syria 'left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled.'

"Now, after standing by and allowing the Islamic State to establish control in an area the size of Belgium, Obama has finally launched limited strikes - but only to prevent the Islamic State from overrunning US diplomatic facilities in northern Iraq (for fear of another Benghazi), massacring Yazidis and controlling the Mosul Dam. Obama insists that 'there’s no American military solution' to the rise of the Islamic State and that 'it’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.'

 "Obama may be tired of war, as were Hitler’s enemies. But the Islamic State is not tired of war. It has been explicit about its intentions. The lessons of history are clear. The free world ignores such barbarity at its peril."

Thiessen doesn't offer a solution. Obama's air strikes are limited. David Cameron doesn't appear to have a coherent strategy.

So what is to be done with militant Islam?
   

Religious freedom and a secular Britain

The picture is of the flag of the new Islamist State. I don't know what its designers had in mind, but it's not black by accident. There are reports coming out of Iraq of rapes, beheadings and crucifixions. There are reports of joint suicides after women being raped. There are reports of women and children being buried alive.

Both Barack Obama and David Cameron did little when 200,000 Christians were displaced by IS (Islamist State, formerly ISIS) fighters. It was as though Christians didn't really matter. It was only when some 40,000 Yezidis were trapped on a mountain that they began to take action.

David Cameron said the Government will redouble its efforts to prevent Britons from travelling to join the 500 Britons said to be already with the world's best armed and fastest growing terrorist group. He said Islamist militants could bring terror to the streets of Britain unless urgent action were taken.

He said the terrorists have "murderous intent" and Britain must use its "military prowess" to stop them coming here. Britain had "no choice but to rise to the challenge," but he ruled out a war in Iraq. Britain is not going to get involved in another Iraq war.

Tim Montgomerie highlighted the problem in the Times yesterday.

"June’s mass persecution of Iraqi Christians in Mosul hardly moved any head of government. Barack Obama only acted when the ancient Yazidi sect was threatened with extinction. That, however, may have been only a pretext. The real trigger for action may have been US strategic interests in Arbil. Yet at least America acted. At least Germany and France are offering asylum to Iraqi Christians. Britain, with its proud heritage of providing refuge for those fleeing for their lives, has been almost comatose. . . 

"We’ve learnt in recent days that government inaction has brought some of the Church of England’s most senior clerics to the edge of despair. . . 

"I sent a round of texts to government contacts yesterday, asking whether the intervention of church leaders would spur action. Some replies left me profoundly depressed: “We can’t get bogged down in a another conflict in Iraq so close to an election.” “The public oppose granting large numbers of Iraqis asylum.” “Intervention could be a huge distraction from domestic concerns.” I did get one or two replies of high principle but most were soaked in the language of electoral calculation. I hope the Church of England has begun to realise that religious freedom is not a priority for this government or, for that matter, the opposition. . .

"Britain is becoming one of the most secular countries on earth. Growing hostility to faith schools is of a different order to what we see in the Middle East, but common to the secular mindset is a blindness to the importance of religious faith to people. It begins by wanting to push religion to the corners of the public square and then beyond it. . . 

"I hope the Baines letter [a letter to the Government from the Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds] might be the moment when Church realises that, for all their worthy rhetoric at Christmas and Easter, British politicians will not fight for religious freedom. I hope its underlying mood was not, as one newspaper suggested, bitterness but resolve. Resolve to ensure the Christian voice is heard again in politics. Because religious freedom is a foundational freedom of conscience. If the political class isn’t willing to defend it, other freedoms are at risk in the years ahead."

What should we do in light of what's happening in Syria and Iraq? Pray, act and give, to help people in desperate need. Excuses might be found for election-minded politicians not to be interested, but there is no excuse for Christians to be unconcerned.
    

Journalists intimidated by Hamas

People have asked me "What's happening with Israel?" I have replied that no one has greater respect for human life than Israel. Hamas are terrorists, and have no respect for human life.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a founding member of Hamas, who converted to Christ and now lives in the United States, put it well. "Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians," he said. "It does not care about the lives of Israelis, or Americans. They do not care about their own lives. They consider dying for their ideology a way of worship."

I was ashamed when I saw an ITV newscaster shout at an Israeli spokesman. "You were told 17 times that that was a UN school," he said. "Why did you fire at it?" The man could only say they had not yet had time to complete an investigation, but that the Israel Defence Forces did not target civilians. It later turned out that the carnage at the Shati refugee camp was caused by a Hamas rocket which had gone adrift. Hamas rushed in, removed the debris, and blamed Israel.

Hamas have placed rocket launchers in the heart of populated areas. They have fired rockets from hospitals and schools. Foreign journalists in Gaza have been closely monitored by Hamas. I thought this was common knowledge. Apparently not. But the news is beginning to leak out.

 Alan Johnson,a professor of democratic theory and practice, senior research fellow at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre and senior research associate at the Foreign Policy Centre, writes in the Telegraph. He says a long Hamas record of shutting down news bureaux, arresting reporters and cameramen, confiscating equipment and beating journalists has already been documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Foreign Press Association, he says, has now issued a protest about "blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox" intimidation of journalists in the Gaza Strip by Hamas. "In several cases," it says, "foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories." Hamas was "trying to put in place a vetting procedure."

I would invite you to read the article for yourself. You can see it here.

A Hamas Ministry of Interior video directed: "Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. . . always add 'innocent civilian' or 'innocent citizen' in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza."

Indian television broadcaster Sreenivasan Jain wrote - after leaving Gaza - how Hamas placed civilians at risk by firing rockets "deep from the heart of civilian zones." How often, he asked, did they not report such things for fear of reprisals against them?

A Spanish journalist asked how television reporting never showed Hamas people, only civilians, mainly women and children, said "It's very simple. We did see Hamas people there launching rockets. . . but if we ever dare pointing our camera on them they would simply shoot at us and kill us."

French-Palestinian journalist Rudjaa Abou Dugga was forced to leave Gaza immediately, without his papers. RT correspondent Harry Fear was told to leave Gaza after tweeting that Hamas fired rockets into Israel from near his hotel.

In his article, Johnson quotes section 11.4.1 of the BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality: "We should normally say if our reports are censored or monitored or if we withhold information, and explain, wherever possible, the rules under which we are operating."

"Journalists from India, America, Norway, Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada and elsewhere," he says, "are complaining. Will we now hear from the Brits?"

I am waiting to see. But I'm not holding my breath.
   

A war with no winners

With more than 60 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza - nobody places higher value on the lives of its citizens than Israel - it is significant that a majority of the Israeli public wants the war in Gaza to continue. The prospect of rockets continuing to fall and armed terrorists appearing from hidden tunnels to kidnap women and children is apparently not an acceptable alternative.

With its pictures of broken, bleeding children, Hamas is beginning to win the propaganda war. There is no question that Hamas is using women and children as human shields. "Palestinian blood that is spilled is precious," said one Palestinian official, "but the goals for which this blood is spilled are even more precious."

It has now been proven that a number of tragedies - like that in a school playground in Shati refugee camp, where a number of children died - were caused by Hamas rockets fired at Israel which went adrift. Hamas rushed in, cleared the debris, and blamed Israel, leaving Israeli spokesmen to be shouted down by Western newscasters.

Hamas rockets have now been found hidden in three UN schools, as well as houses and mosques. Pictures of Israel shelling schools and mosques do not endear Israel to the public. Few people realise that the walls of fire rising from them come not from Israeli missiles, but from exploding rockets in the buildings.

This is a war in which there will be no winners. Israel may quieten Hamas for a while, but they will have worse to contend with in the future.
   

'A day of national mourning'

The Israeli cabinet appears to be finding it difficult to decide how to respond to the murder of the three Israeli teens kidnapped as they hitchhiked home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas is responsible. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said "Netanyahu should know that threats don't scare Hamas, and if he wages a war on Gaza, the gates of hell will open on him." But Israel knows that if Israel does not retaliate, it will be open day for terrorists to kill Israeli civilians.

An emergency meeting of the cabinet on Monday, shortly after the bodies were discovered, ended without a firm decision. A second meeting was convened last night.

Israel named two Palestinians alleged to have been involved. Both have been missing from their homes since the night of the kidnap. Both have previously been imprisoned for terrorist offences. Others are believed to have been involved with them.

Some 16,000 Israeli soldiers were employed to search for the teens, Gilad Shaar (16), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gaal Yifrach (19). Early on Monday evening, 18 days after they disappeared, soldiers and some civilians were searching on land near Hebron when one of them noticed a bush. half green and half brown, which appeared to have been uprooted. Underneath was a pile of rocks. He moved the rocks and discovered the bodies. They had apparently been shot in the car shortly after being abducted.

More than 50,000 people, including the president of Israel, Shimon Peres, and the Israeli Prime Minister, attended the funeral of the three youths in Modi'in yesterday.

"Today became a day of national mourning," said Mr Netanyahu. Of the kidnappers, he promised: "We won't stop until we reach every last one of them. We will reach everyone, even if it takes time."
 

Where murder stalks the streets

Over the past century, Christians have gone from 20 per cent of the population of the Middle East to less than four per cent today.

Syria used to be one of the easiest places in the Arab world to be a Christian, with Christians respected by the Muslim majority. That changed with the outbreak of hostilities in 2011. Tens of thousands of Christians have been displaced from their homes by threats and violence.

Some 450,000 Christians have fled the country. The city of Homs was almost completely cleared of its 50,000 to 60,000 Christians. Houses have been ransacked, and believers kidnapped for ransom or murdered.

The United Nations says at least 126,000 Syrians have been killed since March, 2011.  One commentator says the true figure may be nearer 200,000. According to the BBC, there are believed to be as many as 1,000 armed opposition groups in Syria, commanding an estimated 100,000 fighters.

Christians throughout Syria are suffering a harsh winter. Many Christians are trapped in Aleppo, where they have been suffering heavy snow and temperatures from minus seven to minus 10 degrees without fuel for heating.

Thirteen nuns seized in Maaloula, as well as two kidnapped archbishops, Yohanna Ibrahim and Boutros Yazigi, are still held.

In Iraq, before 2003 there were around 1.2 million Christians. Today there are as few as 200,000. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, mostly to other countries. Christians have been robbed, kidnapped and murdered. Migration is constant.

Sunni militants have stepped up attacks across Iraq, while Shia groups began deadly reprisals, raising fears of a return to full-scale sectarian conflict. In 2013, at least 2,818 civilians and 1,050 members of the security forces were killed.

At least 37 people were killed in two separate bomb attacks on Christmas Day. One bomb exploded outside St John's Catholic Church as worshippers were leaving, killing at least 26. Another bomb went off in an outside market in a Christian neighbourhood, killing at least 11. Around 60 people were injured.

In Egypt, 207 churches were said to have been attacked during 2013. In August, 80 churches were destroyed in two days.

Gunmen fired on people leaving a church wedding in Cairo, killing two adults and two children. Christian girls continue to be kidnapped for forced conversion to Islam and marriage to Muslim husbands. Many Christians live in poverty.

With the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi and the outlawing of the Muslim Brotherhood, a new draft constitution written in December offers some hope for Christians. It promises freedom of belief for Muslims, Christians and Jews, and lifts restrictions on the construction and renovation of church buildings. It is not clear whether Christians will be able to share their faith and whether people will be able to change their religion without consequences.

Pray for these nations.

Shot in the head, and lived

Nigeria is suffering. A terrorist organisation named Boko Haram - its aim is to see the north of Nigeria placed under strict sharia law - is killing Christians. Two years ago it gave Christians three days to leave or be killed. More than 3,000 are said to have died since 2010.

Out of the killing comes this remarkable story from a Christian named Habila Adamu. He was shot in the head and lived - to tell the world, he says, that to live in this world is to live for Christ, and to die is gain.

And to plead for an end to the ruthless religious persecution in northern Nigeria.

Habila was at home with his wife and children when visitors called. He opened the door and was shocked to find men wearing masks, armed with AK47s.

They demanded he step outside. What was his name? Habila Adamu. Was he a member of the Nigerian police? No. Was he a soldier? No. Was he a member of the state security services? No. He told them he was a businessman.

"OK, are you a Christian?" they asked. "I am a Christian," he said. Initially afraid, he realised they were going to kill him. He began to pray for strength and forgiveness.

The gunmen twice told him they were willing to spare his life if he renounced his faith. He told them he would rather die as a Christian.

They shot him in the face. The bullet went through his nose and came out at the back of his head. They began shouting "Allah Akbar." His wife was sobbing. Habila waited for an angel to come and take him to heaven.

He lay bleeding from 11pm until 7am before he was taken to hospital. Doctors asked him how he came to survive. What power was behind his survival? He told them "The power behind my survival is Jesus Christ."

"What can separate us from the love of Christ?" says Habila. "Is it hardship? Is it persecution? Is it sword? No. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

"We are sinners. We are condemned criminals. We are supposed to die. He took all those burdens. He paid for our debts. He died for us.

"Why can I not submit to Jesus? That is what I did. I stood for Him."

The BBC and the Middle East

During Tuesday night more than 70 rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza. (They have continued to be fired since.)

On Wednesday The Commentator published the following:

Over sixty rockets were fired into Israel overnight last night. And how exactly did the BBC choose to report it?

That's right. "Lead with the Israeli response, and wait until halfway through to bury the fact that dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel." Or at least that's what I imagine the editor would have said. It certainly looks that way if you read their article.

Also, calling terrorists  firing rockets into civilian areas 'militants'? Were the 7/7 bombers 'militants'? Were the 9/11 perpetrators 'militants'? No - they're terrorists.

But when it comes down to the Israel-Palestine conflict, equivocation and moral relativism seems to be in the BBC's guidelines. . . 

You can read the BBC story here.

You  may feel that "wait until halfway through to bury the fact that dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel" is unfair. But the BBC did lead with the Israeli strikes on Gaza, not the terrorist attacks on Israel. And remarks about calling terrorists "militants" are fair comment.

I have no intention of commenting at this time on the Jimmy Savile scandal currently engulfing the BBC. (Plenty of others will be doing that.) But can it be hoped that while the BBC is seeking for the truth in that crisis, it might review its awful liberal mindset and its appalling anti-Israel bias?

Time to say happy birthday

Today is Independence Day in Israel - Israel's 64th birthday.

There has always been a Jewish presence in the land. In the late 19th century, Jews began to return to the Promised Land in line with prophecies made thousands of years before. When independence was declared in 1948 Israel had a population of 806,000. Today, there are 7,881,000 Israelis - 75.3% of them Jewish and 20.6% Arab (the remaining 4.1% immigrants and children of immigrants who are not listed as Jewish by the Interior Ministry).

Israel has come through seven wars, two intifadas and more terrorist incidents than it's possible to count. Jew-hatred among Israel's neighbours is as fierce as ever and peace between Israel and the Palestinians as far away as ever it was. Threats abound. Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warned the other day that Egypt is becoming a bigger threat even than Iran. It is suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood is currently engaged in an international charm offensive, but once the Brotherhood consolidates power in Egypt, Egypt's peace treaty with Israel will be scrapped and the way will be open for war with Israel once more.

Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? Yes, there will. One day the Prince of Peace will return. He will appear in power and great glory to destroy His enemies and set up His millennial kingdom. Nothing is more certain. His first appearance was prophesied, and the prophecies were fulfilled in exact detail. His Second Coming is equally sure.

He will return when His Jewish people are ready to welcome Him. He will reign from Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israel has completed another difficult year. Birthday celebrations are in order.

Dangerous days

It's been an open secret that Iran has been working to obtain nuclear weapons for long enough - but the International Atomic Energy Authority's report last month about its "serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme" had added to the pressure.

The problem is that Iran's leadership is driven not just by political ambition but by Shia Islamic "end times" theology. Iran's Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are followers of the Mahdi, or Twelfth Imam. Khamenei claims to have had a personal meeting with the Mahdi and to be his personal representative on earth.

Muhammed ibn Hasan ibn Ali, the Twelfth Imam, disappeared while a young boy hundreds of years ago. Shia Muslims like Khamenei and Ahmadinejad believe he will reappear in the last days, and all the world will then become Muslims. A way to hasten his return will be to destroy Israel and the United States.

Iran was expected to have nuclear weapons before now. Complex viruses planted on their computers, the assassination of nuclear scientists and sabotage at nuclear installations in Iran have delayed, but not ended their efforts. A recent forecast is that Iran could have five nuclear bombs by April, 2012 - four months away.

Respected commentator Joel C. Rosenberg points out that Iran calls Israel "the Little Satan" and the United States "the Great Satan." As long ago as 2005 Ahmadinejad forecast that there would soon be a world without the United States and Zionism.

Israel takes the threat to its security seriously. In recent days the Israelis have been moving weaponry around Israel - presumably in preparation for either a pre-emptive strike against Iran or for defence against a strike by Iran or its proxies. Israeli newspapers have been full of headlines about the threat of war.

The United States is taking the threat to its security not so seriously.

Scientists say the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear device exploded 100 miles above the United States could disable the US infrastructure, leaving the whole of the US without power, transport, computers, heating, water supply or sanitation. A nuclear missile fired from a ship up to 200 miles off its coastline could affect 70 per cent of the US population.

The Christian will rejoice because he believes he knows who holds the world in His hand. We live, nevertheless, in dangerous days.