RLPB 317. RAMADAN: a time of jihad and of seeking

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 317 | Wed 08 Jul 2015

RAMADAN: A TIME OF JIHAD AND OF SEEKING
By Elizabeth Kendal

The last ten days of Ramadan (7-17 July this year) have special significance and are regarded as the most blessed days of the blessed month of Ramadan. They are days of particular striving and of Qur'an recitation, which fuel Islamic zeal. Unsurprisingly, the last days of Ramadan can be particularly violent as jihadists expend their pent-up frustration and whipped-up zeal in jihad for the sake of Allah. We must pray for all Christians at risk of Ramadan violence, especially those in:

* ISRAEL, where fliers purportedly from ISIS have appeared in Jerusalem, telling Christians they have until the end of Ramadan to leave, otherwise they will be slaughtered [see RLPB 316 (1 July)].
 There have already been several seemingly 'lone wolf' Ramadan terror attacks against Jewish Israelis (civilians and soldiers), mostly close to the Old City.

Furthermore, ISIS has upped-the-ante in its war against Hamas, issuing a video message from Syria entitled 'A Message to our People in Jerusalem'.  In it ISIS warns Hamas they will be overrun: 'The rule of sharia [Islamic law] will be implemented in Gaza, in spite of you. We swear that what is happening in the Levant today, and in particular the Yarmouk camp [where ISIS invaded, crushed Hamas and beheaded its leaders] will happen in Gaza.'

Last week ISIS fired three Grad rockets into Israel from Sinai (Egypt) and killed more than 60 Egyptian soldiers in co-ordinated attacks on 15 army and police posts close to the Israeli border (see map), raising fears that this could be the start of an ISIS offensive towards Gaza.

The danger facing Christians in Israel -- particularly in Jerusalem and Gaza -- cannot be underestimated.

* NIGERIA, where Boko Haram is escalating its jihad. 

St Michael's, Jos.
Full report: Morning Star News.

On Sunday 5 July a suicide bomber entered the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) building in the Jigawa district of Potiskum Local Government Area, Yobe State. He detonated his explosives at around 10 am as the congregation was gathering for worship. Five parishioners died at the scene while another died later in hospital. Amongst the dead were the pastor and a parishioner and her two children. Many more were seriously wounded. That night, two churches were also bombed in Jos, Plateau State. Over the same weekend 32 church buildings were destroyed in Borno State.

* SOMALIA & KENYA, where al-Shabaab has vowed to spend this year's 'Ramadan offensive' killing 'un-believers'.

SOMALIA: Just prior to Ramadan, al-Shabaab ambushed an Ethiopian convoy in southern Somalia's Bay Province (north-west of Mogadishu), slaughtering more than 60 Ethiopian soldiers. Ethiopia sent reinforcements which al-Shabaab attacked with a wave of suicide bombers. The al-Shabaab spokesman boasted, 'This military feat against the foot soldiers of the Western crusaders serves as another poignant reminder to the disbelieving armies that the cost of invading Muslim lands is indeed bloody.' On 26 June al-Shabaab over-ran an African Union military base in Lego, 100 km north-west of Mogadishu, slaughtering more than 60 Burundian soldiers. About 30 June an Ethiopian military commander surrendered to al-Shabaab militants in Kansahdhere, Bay Province, promising to convert to Islam. As elsewhere, competition between ISIS and al-Shabaab (an al-Qaeda affiliate) is forcing the jihadists to be constantly escalating their attacks.

KENYA: On 7 July at 1 am, al-Shabaab militants attacked a compound housing quarry workers in north-eastern Kenya's Mandera County. Despite security being on the scene in minutes, at least 14 were killed and 11 injured. According to the al-Shabaab spokesman, Tuesday's attack, which was part of al-Shabaab's 'Ramadan offensive' against Kenya, had killed more than a dozen 'Kenyan Christians'.
[UPDATE: report from Morning Star News]

* SYRIA, where jihadist offensives threaten hundreds of thousands of Christians with genocide.

ALEPPO (north): On 2 July al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front announced they had formed a new alliance -- Ansar al Sharia -- for the purpose of capturing Aleppo. Another coalition named 'Fatah Halab' (Conquest of Aleppo), cobbled together by regime-changers Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, is also fighting in Aleppo [see RLPB 315 (24 June)] while ISIS is waiting in the wings. Fierce fighting occurred on 3 July after al-Nusra sent suicide bombers into Jamiyat al Zahra, a neighbourhood that is home to some of the government's most important military assets in the area. Government and allied forces are having success repelling the jihadists.

DERA'A (south):  Launched on 24 June the 'Battle of Southern Storm' is supposed to culminate in a march on Damascus (Libya-style). The US-backed supposedly 'moderate' rebels in the south have recently been joined by fighters from al-Nusra and other hard-line jihadist brigades. As normally happens, these hard-liners will eventually absorb / devour the US-armed 'moderates'.

Fr Dhiya Aziz

IDLIB (north): On Saturday 4 July jihadists, presumed to be from al-Nusra Front, kidnapped Franciscan priest Father Dhiya Aziz, the parish priest in the mostly Christian village of Yacoubiyeh in Idlib. His whereabouts are unknown.

UPDATE: Middle East Concern reports that Fr Dhiya was released unharmed on 9 July. [ The MEC report includes the news that four Christians have been abducted in Baghdad, Iraq.]

HASAKAH (north-east): Lest we forget, 207 Assyrian Christians (including 87 women and 37 children) remain in ISIS captivity at this highly volatile time.

SEEKING AFTER GOD

On Monday 13 July Muslims around the world will participate in a night of prayer and seeking after God. Tradition has it that on the night of the 26th day of Ramadan in AD 610, Muhammad, whilst in seclusion, reputedly received his first divine revelation.

According to the Qur'an, the night of the 26th of Ramadan -- known as the 'Night of Power' (or Night of Decree) -- is 'better than a thousand months' (Sura 97:1-5), for it is believed to be a night of special power and favour when prayers are especially effectual. Concerning the Night of Power, Muhammad is recorded as having said, 'Whoever established prayers on the night of Qadr (Night of Power) out of sincere faith and hoping for a reward from Allah, then all his previous sins will be forgiven' (Bukhari vol 3, book 31, no. 125).  Consequently, many Muslims will spend the night of the 26th of Ramadan in fervent prayer, seeking after God, hoping for forgiveness of sins and anticipating divine revelation. Pray for Muslims this week, this Sunday and especially on Monday night 13 July, that those who seek God might find him. 'Seek and you will find'. (Matthew 7:7 ESV).


PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT JESUS CHRIST,

* our Lord and Saviour, will protect and provide for persecuted and vulnerable Christians at risk of Ramadan violence and Islamic jihad.

'Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Saviour of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.' (Psalm 17:7-9 ESV)

* who is King of kings and Lord of lords, 'will come with vengeance and with the recompense of God' to deliver and vindicate his people (Isaiah 35:4 ESV); may Muslims come to fear the Lord.

'So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives.' (Isaiah 59:19 ESV)

* the 'light of the world' will shine his light into the hearts and minds of Muslims as they seek God's favour, forgiveness and revelation on the Night of Power (13 July); may they receive the 'light of life' and walk in darkness no longer (John 8:12).


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN WHOLE ARTICLE
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RAMADAN -- A TIME OF JIHAD AND OF SEEKING

The last ten days of Ramadan (7-17 July) are days of particular striving, Qur'an recitation and soaring Islamic zeal. Jihadists will expend their pent-up frustration and zeal in jihad for the sake of Allah. Christians are at risk of Ramadan violence and jihad. Pray particularly for Christians in Israel, where ISIS has threatened to kill Christians who have not fled by the end of Ramadan; in Nigeria, where Boko Haram is escalating attacks; in Somalia and Kenya, where al-Shabaab has vowed to kill 'disbelievers' during Ramadan; and in Syria, where jihadist offensives on multiple fronts put Christians at risk of genocide. Monday 13 July is the 26th of Ramadan. On that 'Night of Power' Muslims will seek divine favour and revelation. Please pray that Muslims seeking God will find him.
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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012).

RLPB 316. ISRAEL: ISIS threatens Christians in Jerusalem

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 316 | Wed 01 Jul 2015

ISRAEL: ISIS THREATENS CHRISTIANS IN JERUSALEM

By Elizabeth Kendal

THREAT: In the last week of June Arabic fliers appeared in Jerusalem, purportedly issued by the ISIS-aligned Egyptian (Sinai-based) group Ansar al-Bayt al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem/Al-Aqsa). The fliers, which accuse Christians of 'collaborating with Zionists' and 'encouraging Muslims to leave their religion', give Christians until the end of Ramadan to flee the city -- otherwise they will be killed. 'ISIS soldiers will work to kill these people so this country is clean of them and ... will clean [purify] this country and the Muslim Quarter from these Christians during this holy Ramadan. ... So we tell our Christians and the non-believers: Go away now or you will be killed when the Eid [al Fitr festival ending Ramadan on Saturday 18 July] is near. And you will be slaughtered like the sheep. One month is enough for them to go away.' The fliers also ask that like-minded Muslims provide the group with the addresses of Christians.

CONTEXT: A serious ideological and power struggle is currently under way between ISIS (which is vehemently anti-Shi'ite) and Hamas which, like al-Qaeda and numerous other Sunni 'resistance' groups, is prepared to co-operate with Iran (leader of the Shi'ite dominated Axis of Resistance). On 1 April ISIS seized control of Yarmouk (a Palestinian area of Damascus, Syria), beheaded Hamas leaders and crushed the Hamas leadership. Hamas threatened revenge and on 6 April arrested a Salafist cleric in Gaza believed to have ties with ISIS. Then on 3 May, as tensions escalated, Hamas forces bulldozed Gaza's 'Mosque Almtahabin', which is controlled by the ISIS-aligned Ansar al-Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), arresting seven of its leaders. ISIS/ABM responded by bombing Hamas' headquarters in Gaza and accusing Hamas of working for the Israelis.

Some observers are dismissing the ISIS/ABM leaflets as a prank aimed at intimidation, noting that Ansar al-Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) is small and ISIS has minimal presence in Israel. Making no reference to ISIS/ABM or Christians, Palestinian authorities merely denounced any effort to hurt 'the unity of the Palestinian people'. While commentators debate the significance of the threat, ISIS/ABM has nearly three weeks to incite and organise the already radicalised Muslim youths. Set as it is in the context of the Hamas v ISIS struggle for the affection of Palestinian Arab Muslims, the threat must be taken seriously. Since ISIS has killed Coptic Christians to attract militant Egyptian Muslims and killed Ethiopian Christians to attract militant Somali Muslims, then ISIS may well facilitate the killing of Arab Christians to attract militant Palestinian Arab Muslims. This Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin ministry is taking this threat very seriously indeed.

Before the ISIS/ABM threat even emerged, Rami Fellemon, a Palestinian Christian and director of Jerusalem Evangelistic Outreach headquartered in East Jerusalem, had told Morning Star News (MSN) that Muslim-Christian relations were breaking down and being replaced with 'a definite us versus them mentality from Islamic extremists'. This trend is being observed not only in the Palestinian-administered Territories, but in Israeli towns such as the mostly Muslim town of Nazareth where a billboard right outside the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation quotes Surah 4:171  threateningly warning Christians against saying God has a son.

On 1 May 2015 an imam at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, Sheikh Issam Ameera, posted a video sermon on-line entitled 'The Islamic State is the keeper of religion and state', in which he incites Muslims to fight Jews and Christians. After a minor disagreement three days later, up to 80 Muslim youths rioted against Christians in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, pelting rocks at Christians' homes and attacking an Ethiopian monastery. According to MSN, whilst Muslim elders are trying to keep the peace, the youths grow more radical by the day.

With Hamas firing rockets from the south and Hezbollah building up its arsenal (estimated at over 100,000 rockets) to the north, religious tensions and anxieties are rising across Israel. Consequently, Christians are suffering attacks not only from radicalised Muslims and ISIS-sympathisers, but from Jewish ultra-nationalists as well.
MSN reports: 'Before dawn on Thursday (June 18) someone set fire to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, a Roman Catholic church run by Benedictine monks on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tabgha village.' The property was extensively damaged and many books lost in what police have labelled a 'religiously motivated arson attack'. Hebrew graffiti on a nearby wall read: 'Idol worshippers will be eliminated.' Sixteen Jewish youths were taken in for questioning over the incident which left an 80-year-old monk and a young German volunteer worker with injuries requiring hospitalisation. Local Christians are feeling apprehensive and insecure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a swift investigation into what he called an 'outrageous arson attack' that amounted to 'an attack on us all'. He affirmed, 'Freedom of worship in Israel is one of our core values and is guaranteed under the law. We will bring to justice those responsible for this crime. Hate and intolerance have no place in our society.' Dealing with the ISIS threat to Jerusalem's Christians could prove challenging. Any threat to Christians in Gaza, where there is no Israeli security presence, would be even more so.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL

* guide and assist the Israeli government and security forces, that they will protect Christians from Jewish ultra-nationalists and the far more dangerous ISIS-incited and organised militant Muslims.

* guide, assist, deliver and protect Christians in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter, as well as in East Jerusalem and across the whole city, throughout the Palestinian-administered Territories and other Muslim-dominated regions, and in volatile towns such as Nazareth and Bethlehem.

* insert himself deep into Gaza, where there is no Israeli security presence; may Christians not be left at the mercy of Hamas, but may the Spirit of God guide and assist Christians who, in the event of an eruption of anti-Christian violence, will require hiding places and escape routes.

'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way. ... There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved ...' (excerpts from Psalm 46 ESV)

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN WHOLE ARTICLE
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ISIS THREATENS CHRISTIANS IN JERUSALEM

Arabic leaflets have appeared in Jerusalem, purportedly issued by an ISIS-aligned group, telling Christians they must flee Jerusalem by the end of Ramadan [18 July] -- otherwise they will be slaughtered. The threat comes as ISIS and Hamas engage in a struggle for the allegiance of Palestinian Muslims. Religious tensions are rising across Israel and Christians are being attacked by Jewish ultra-nationalists and radicalised Muslims, leaving some wondering if Christians have a future in Israel. The Israeli government has condemned the violence against Christians as 'an attack on us all' and affirmed Israel's commitment to religious liberty and rule of law. The ISIS threat against Christians could prove a serious challenge, especially if it extends to Gaza, with no Israeli security presence. Please pray for Israel and its Christians.

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012).