Jihadi Who Turned to Jesus' Testimony So Powerful, 'The New York Times' Picked It Up - JESSILYN JUSTICE CHARISMA NEWS

A radicalized Islamic man traded his pain for peace with Jesus. (Public Domain)

Jihadi Who Turned to Jesus' Testimony So Powerful, 'The New York Times' Picked It Up

 4/7/2017 JESSILYN JUSTICE   CHARISMA NEWS

Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

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Nothing is so beautiful as the moment when you turn your life over to God, when you surrender your heart's desires and ask for His will to be done.

In the Middle East, staggering numbers reveal just how many Muslims are falling in love with their savior. Among them, former jihadist Bashir Mohammad. 

His conversion is so powerful, The New York Times reported how Mohammad is a new creation in Christ.

Mohammad was a member of an al-Qaeda off-shoot on the front lines of the Syrian civil war.

NYT reports: 

Mr. Mohammad flirted with extremism in his teens. His cousin took him to hear jihadist preachers as a 15-year-old, and he adhered to some of the most extreme interpretations of Islam, "even the ones you haven't heard of." But when war broke out in Syria, after the country's 2011 uprising, Mr. Mohammad initially joined the secular Kurdish forces in their fight for autonomy.

Mr. Mohammad's subsequent ideological journey rarely made complete sense. But by his account, he became traumatized by the deaths he witnessed on the front line, which in turn reenergized his interest in the extremist versions of Islam that he had learned about as a teenager.

"When I saw all these dead bodies," he said, "it made me believe all these things they said in the lectures. It made me seek the greatness of religion." Or, at least, his violent interpretations of that religion. 

But when Mohammad saw Muslims killing Muslims, he drew the line. The cousin who first introduced Mohammad to radical Islam had found Jesus.

Mohammad picked up a Bible and was overwhelmed by the peace of God. So did his wife.

For Mr. Mohammad and Ms. Rashid (his wife), perhaps it was their dreams that sealed their conversion. As the couple began to consider leaving Islam, Ms. Rashid said she dreamed of a biblical figure who used heavenly powers to divide the waters of the sea, which Mr. Mohammad interpreted as a sign of encouragement from Jesus. Then, Mr. Mohammad himself dreamed Jesus had given him some chickpeas. The pair felt loved. 

Now, the couple leads a prayer meeting among fellow refugees. 

"There's a big gap between the god I used to worship and the one I worship now," Mohammad said. "We used to worship in fear. Now everything has changed." 

The couple is not alone in finding Christ in the midst of chaos.

Muslim refugees fleeing the increasing violence in their home countries and cities are shedding their Islamic religion for Christianity, Charisma News previously reported.

"They have to leave their context and their families. They know that whoever leaves Islam should be killed. These wonderful new believers will become preachers all over the Middle East. God is waking up a sleeping church; a new nation of new believers is being born," an unnamed pastor tells Open Doors. 

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"Why does Netanyahu want to address Congress? He told me..." - Joel Rosenberg

Why does Netanyahu want to address Congress? He told me in this interview about a threat the West “misunderstands.” by joelcrosenberg

(Washington, D.C.) -- Why does Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu want to address a Joint Session of Congress despite intense – even unprecedented -- political attacks against him from the Obama administration, the media, and the left-wing in Israel?

Because he understands something too few in the West do – that the most serious threat we face today is not simply from “Radical Islam,” but from “Apocalyptic Islam.”

“I think the West misunderstood, and still misunderstands, the threat” posed by Iran, Mr. Netanyahu told me during a 2007 interview for a documentary film I was producing. “It is a fanatic, messianic ideology that seeks to have an apocalyptic battle for world supremacy with the West. It seeks to correct what it sees as an accident of history, where the West has risen, and Islam had declined.  The correction is supposed to be done by the resurrection of an Islamic empire and the acquisition of nuclear weapons and the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary, to obliterate Islam’s enemies, and to subjugate the rest.”

“This is a pathological ideology, much like Naziism was,” Mr. Netanyahu, then out of office, continued. “It poses a threat, in my judgment, in many ways bigger than Naziism. Because Hitler embarked on a world conflict and then sought to achieve nuclear weapons, where as the leading Radical Islamic regime – Iran -- is seeking to first acquire nuclear weapons and then embark on a world conflict. And that is what is not yet understood in the West, and certainly, if it’s understood, it’s not acted upon.”

Today, for the first time in human history, the world faces not just one but two nation states whose rulers are driven by an apocalyptic, genocidal, End Times eschatology that seeks not simply to attack us but to annihilate us.

The first is the Islamic Republic of Iran. The second is Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL). The leaders of the former are Shia. The latter are Sunni. Both believe the End of Days has come. Both believe the Islamic messiah – known as the “Mahdi” — is coming at any moment. Both are trying to hasten the coming of the Mahdi so that he can conquer the earth and establish justice and peace. They speak often of such things.

That said, each has a different strategy to speed up the Mahdi’s arrival. ISIS wants to build a caliphate. Iran wants to build The Bomb. ISIS is committing genocide now. Iran is preparing to commit genocide later, openly stating it seeks to wipe Israel off the map and create a world without the United States, which they describe as the “Great Satan.”

In the immediate term, ISIS is more dangerous, as journalist Graeme Wood explains in a must-read article in The Atlantic. Why? Because ISIS is on a jihadist rampage right now – robbing, killing, destroying, enslaving, raping, torturing, beheading and burning people alive.

Longer term, Prime Minister Netanyahu argues that Iran is the most dangerous, especially if the President approves this disastrous nuclear deal. Why? Because the apocalyptic leaders of Iran are biding their time to build a nuclear arsenal capable of killing tens of millions of people in a matter of minutes. Thus, the Prime Minister will urge Congress to do everything in its Constitutional power to block ratification and implementation of treaty with Iran giving the mullahs a legal path to uranium enrichment, plutonium development, building ICBMs, and building nuclear warheads.

Far too few people in the West truly understand the nature and threat of Radical Islam. Fewer still are aware of — much less understand — the nature and threat of Apocalyptic Islam. Indeed, many dismiss these concerns all together.

However, according to a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center, “in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, more than half or more of Muslims believe they will live to see the return of the Mahdi.” In a world of 1.5 billion Muslims, that means more than 750 million Muslims believe not only that the Mahdi is coming, but that his arrival is imminent.

In Egypt, 40% of Muslims believe the return of the Mahdi is imminent. In Jordan, the number is 41%. Among Palestinians, it’s 46%. In Iraq, a stunning 72% of Muslims believe the Islamic messiah is coming soon.

What’s more, the Pew report found that an enormous number of Muslims believe that Jesus is literally coming back to earth. In Islamic eschatology, Jesus is not the Savior, nor the Son of God. Thus, Muslims do not believe Jesus will reign as the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” as prophesied in the Bible. Rather, Apocalyptic Islamic eschatology asserts that Jesus will come as a deputy, serving under the Mahdi, forcing people to convert to Islam or die.

In Jordan, 29% of Muslims believe Jesus is coming back to earth. In Egypt, the number is 39%. Among Palestinians, the number is 46%. In Iraq, a remarkable 64% of Muslims believe Jesus is coming back. Not all of these Muslims are dangerous, of course. But the leaders of Apocalyptic Islam are seeking to mobilize the masses who share their End Times theology towards violent, even genocidal, ends.

The President is ignoring such facts and their implications. The Prime Minister is not.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Mr. Netanyahu told a reporter in March of 2009, upon coming back to power after a decade in the political wilderness. Speaking of the Iranian leadership, he said, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

Mr. Netanyahu is still sounding the alarm. Mr. Obama is still refusing to listen.

God help us all.

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• THE THIRD TARGET stays on Publishers Weekly best-seller list for 5th straight week. Currently #1 in the Christian market.
• What does ISIS want? To usher in the End of Days. Here’s the short version. (Must-read article in The Atlantic)
• Jordan’s King shows real leadership on ISIS. Why will a Muslim monarch say our enemy is Radical Islam but President Obama won’t? Also: The importance of considering the apocalyptic goals of ISIS. Here’s my interview on Fox News.
• >> How serious is the threat of ISIS & Radical Islam? I’m doing a special simulcast event for churches on Sunday evening, April 19th. Please register today.

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• To order a copy of THE THIRD TARGET — a novel about the rising threat of ISIS and its apocalyptic beliefs — please click here. It is now available in book stores across the U.S. and Canada in hardcover and audio book formats . It is also available in e-book formats like Kindle, Nook & others.
• Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg
• Receive every blog post automatically via the RSS feed.
• >> To make a secure, tax-deductible, financial contribution to the work of The Joshua Fund, please click here

joelcrosenberg | March 3, 2015 at 3:36 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/piWZ7-3eA

CBN NEws: Islam Unveiled

Ibrahim: Islam Unveiled



Raymond Ibrahim

CBN News Contributor, Middle East and Islam Expert

www.raymondibrahim.com
View All CBN News Blogs
View All CBN Blogs

‘Largest Massacre of Christians in Syria’ Ignored

The worst Christian massacre—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).

The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there for sanctuary from the jihad, only to be followed by it).

In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; Sadat’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (anincreasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).

The jihadis even made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which John McCain equates to a Christian saying “thank God”). Another video, made after Sadad was liberated shows more graphic atrocities.

Here are the words of Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama (another detailed account, with pictures, appears here):


What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women…. All the houses of Sadad were robbed and property looted. The churches are damaged and desecrated, deprived of old books and precious furniture… What happened in Sadad is the largest massacre of Christians in Syria and the second in the Middle East, after the one in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Iraq, in 2010.

In the Iraqi attack of 2010, al-Qaeda linked jihadis stormed the church during service killing some 60 Christian worshippers (see here for graphic images of the aftermath).

While the archbishop is correct that this is the “largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” it is but the tip of the iceberg of the persecution the nation’s Christian minority has suffered—including beheadings, church bombings, kidnappings, rapes, and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of Christians—since the war broke out (see Syria entries in monthly persecution series).

A month before Sadad, another ancient Christian region, Ma‘loula, one of the world’s very few regions that still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, was besieged by the jihadis, its churches bombarded and plundered, its inhabitants forced to convert to Islam or die. The last words of one man who refused were: “I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for this, I do not object to it.”

The archbishop concluded his statement concerning Sadad by asking: “We have shouted aid to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us.”

Serge Trifkovic—who hails from a European region especially acquainted with Islamic jihad—responds to the archbishop as follows:


That no “human consciousness” is to be found in the White House, or in the editorial offices of the leading Western media, is now a matter of well-established record. Just try searching for “Sadad” (or alternatively “Saddad”) on the websites of the Department of State or The New York Times. Ditto the leading European dailies, the CNN/BBC/RTF, the human-rights defending “NGOs” et al.

The problem, of which Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh appears unaware, is no longer in the Western elite’s mere indifference to the impending demise of Christianity in the lands of its birth, but in its active, ongoing, and opencontribution to that demise. Cyprus (1974) and the Balkans (1991-9) provided the test, Iraq (2003-today) the conclusive proof. In Syria the Obama administration remains committed to supporting the rebels—ah, yes, only the “moderate” ones, like the Christian-murdering “Free Syrian Army”(discretion advised again), not “even though” the result will be the same, but precisely because it will be.

In one of the Arabic videos documenting the aftermath of the Sadad massacre, as the mutilated bodies of one family are drawn from a well (around :30 second mark), a middle-aged male relative, in tears, says:

The most precious in the whole universe [his family], are now gone, leaving me alone, but thank God I am still surrounded by these loving people who remain. I want to say, let people [the jihadis] return to their minds. The problems of the world can only be solved by knowledge and brains. Enough insanity, the nerves of the people are shredded. Enough, enough—return to your minds; you people, you humans—return to your humanity, enough crimes.

As a sign of the times, here is a Syrian, an “easterner,” evoking rationalism and humanity, products of Christian civilization, even as the post-Christian West is governed by anything and everything—propaganda, emotionalism, mindless indoctrination—but the twain.

Christians slaughtered in Pakistan, Kenya

Sunday, September 29, 2013 |  Raymond Ibrahim, Israel TodayShare on blogger

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The following by contributor Raymond Ibrahim is again telling of how the world has an obsession with picking out every perceived flaw with Israel, while ignoring the very real persecution of Christians and other minorities around the world.

Muslim slaughter of non-Muslim “infidels,” while a habitual thing, saw an especially dramatic weekend in the nations of Pakistan and Kenya. Even so, these are simply the latest in a long list of jihadi attacks on the Christians of both nations.

Last Sunday, September 22, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Islamic suicide bombers entered the All Saints Church compound right after Sunday mass and blew themselves up in the midst of some 550 congregants, killing, according to the latest count, nearly 90 worshippers, including many Sunday school children, women, and choir members, and injuring at least another 120. The now destroyed Protestant church was built in Peshawar some 130 years ago. The Taliban claimed the attacks.

According to Margrette, a parishioner who survived (though her sister’s status was unknown), “I heard two explosions. People started to run. Human remains were strewn all over the church.”

Armed attacks on churches are hardly uncommon in Pakistan, even though Christians are less than 2% of the population, while Muslims are 97%. In 2001 Islamic gunmen stormed St. Dominic’s Protestant Church, opening fire on the congregants and killing at least 16 worshippers, most women and children. Last Christmas, “when Christian worshipers were coming out of different Churches after performing Christmas prayers, more than one hundred Muslim extremists equipped with automatic rifles, pistols and sticks attacked the Christian women, children and men.” The attack came in response to fatwas condemning Christmas celebrations.

As for Muslim mob violence (as opposed to preplanned terrorist strikes) this is a common fixture that regularly flares up against Pakistan’s Christians and other minorities, most often in the context of “blasphemy,” that is, offending Islam or its prophet. A few months ago, in March, because one Christian was accused of blasphemy, some 3,000 Muslims attacked the Christian Joseph Colony of Lahore, burning two churches and 160 Christian homes.

According to one Christian eyewitness, “The police was doing what it does best—nothing! Their bias towards Christians is quite evident, because when the Muslims were raiding our church and property, they just watched, but when we confronted them, they started hitting us with batons and used live ammunition to deter us.”  

In 2009 in Gojra, eight Christians were burned alive, 100 houses looted and 50 homes set ablaze after another blasphemy accusation.

Thousands of miles away in Kenya (83% Christian and 11% Muslim), on Saturday, September 21, Islamic terrorists linked to neighboring Somalia’s Al Shabaab (“the youth”) raided the Westgate shopping mall, slaughtering at least 62 people and injuring at least 150.

Among the Islamic terrorists are several Americans.

Yet, to anyone following events in Kenya closely, this jihadi raid simply follows a long line of attacks targeting, as in Pakistan, Christians, often in their churches. For example, in just the four months between April-August 2012, at least 14 Kenyan churches were attacked by Al Shabaab-linked Islamic terrorists, with many Christians killed. Since then, even more have been attacked, often by hand-grenades, leaving many dead, again, often including women and Sunday school children.

In the mall attack, the jihadis further made it a point to try to differentiate between Muslims and non-Muslims, to slaughter only the latter. According to Elijah Kamau, “The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted.” Another Christian eyewitness who managed to escape said, “an Indian man came forward and they said, ‘What is the name of Muhammad’s mother?’ When he couldn’t answer they just shot him.”

Al Shabaab boasted of its care to distinguish between “infidels” and Muslims a barrage of Twitter messages: “Only Kuffar [“infidels”] were singled out for this attack. All Muslims inside #Westgate were escorted out by the Mujahideen (Islamic Holy Warriors) before beginning the attack.”

This is an old jihadi tactic often used when attacking places other than churches, which do not require this extra care (presumably, according to jihadi thinking, everyone inside a church deserves death, whereas a Muslim may be in an open mall). For example, in Nigeria in October 2012, Islamic militants stormed the Federal Polytechnic College, “separated the Christian students from the Muslim students, addressed each victim by name, questioned them, and then proceeded to shoot them or slit their throat,” killing up to 30 Christians.

And in September 2011, Muslim militants “went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran. If the Christian traders were unable to recite the verses [and thus proving they are not Muslim], the gunmen shot and killed them.”

While it is good that the world has been exposed to these two latest attacks on non-Muslim “infidels,” let there be no mistake:these are no “aberrations,” but rather the natural culmination of jihadi hatred for non-Muslims, chief among them Christians, which has been manifesting itself with increased frequency in both Pakistan and Kenya for years.

Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians

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