SOMALIA: Christian Aid Worker Beheaded for Converting From Islam

Monday October 27, 2009

Anti-Christian violence spills into Kenya as Somali Muslims attack in Nairobi.

NAIROBI, Kenya, October 27 (Compass Direct News) – Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness.

Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a humanitarian aid worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa.

The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.

The eyewitness, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the militants that afternoon gathered the villagers of Manyafulka, telling them that they would prepare a feast for them. The people gathered anticipating the slaughter of a sheep, goat or camel according to local custom.

Five masked men emerged carrying guns, wielding Somali swords and dragging the handcuffed Mohammed. One pulled back Mohammed’s head, exposing his face as he scraped his sword against his short hair as if to sharpen it. Another recited the Quran as he proclaimed that Mohammed was a “murtid,” an Arabic term for one who converts from Islam to Christianity.

The Muslim militant announced that Mohammed was an infidel and a spy for occupying Ethiopian soldiers.

Mohammed remained calm with an expressionless face, never uttering a word, said the eyewitness. As the chanting of “Allah Akubar [God is greater]” rose to a crescendo, one of the militiamen twisted his head, allowing the other to slit his neck. When the head was finally severed from the torso, the killers cheered as they displayed it to the petrified crowd.

The militants allowed one of their accomplices to take a video of the slaughter using a mobile phone. The video was later circulated secretly and sold in Somalia and in neighboring countries in what many see as a strategy to instill fear among those contemplating conversion from Islam to Christianity.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that a similar incident took place in Lower Juba province of Somalia in July, when Christians found with Bibles were publicly executed. Their families fled to Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and such killings are forcing other Christians to flee to neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Somalis Attacking Somalis

Somali refugees to Kenya include Nur Mohammed Hassan, in Nairobi under U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees asylum. In spite of the protection, two weeks ago five Somali Muslims broke into Mohammed Hassan’s house and beat him and his family, he told Compass.

“On Oct. 14 five Muslims entered my house around 10 o’clock in the night and forced us out after beating us indiscriminately,” Mohammed Hassan said, adding that the youngest of his eight children suffers from a liver disease. “Thank God the police arrived immediately and saved our lives. For two days now we have been sleeping outside in the cold. We have been receiving police security, but for how long will this continue?”

Mohammed Hassan now lives in Eastliegh, Nairobi with his wife and children. He had fled Mogadishu after Muslims murdered his sister, Mariam Mohammed Hassan, in April 2005, allegedly for distributing Bibles in the capital.

“We are nowadays no better than our fellow Somali Christians inside Somalia who are killed like dogs when discovered to be Christians,” Mohammed Hassan said. “We are not safe living here in Eastleigh. The Muslims killed my sister in Mogadishu, and now they are planning to kill me and my family.”

[Read the Rest]

Latest news from Compass Direct News

SOMALIA: Christian Aid Worker Beheaded for Converting From Islam

Monday October 27, 2009

Anti-Christian violence spills into Kenya as Somali Muslims attack in Nairobi.

NAIROBI, Kenya, October 27 (Compass Direct News) – Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness.

Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a humanitarian aid worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa.

The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.

The eyewitness, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the militants that afternoon gathered the villagers of Manyafulka, telling them that they would prepare a feast for them. The people gathered anticipating the slaughter of a sheep, goat or camel according to local custom.

Five masked men emerged carrying guns, wielding Somali swords and dragging the handcuffed Mohammed. One pulled back Mohammed’s head, exposing his face as he scraped his sword against his short hair as if to sharpen it. Another recited the Quran as he proclaimed that Mohammed was a “murtid,” an Arabic term for one who converts from Islam to Christianity.

The Muslim militant announced that Mohammed was an infidel and a spy for occupying Ethiopian soldiers.

Mohammed remained calm with an expressionless face, never uttering a word, said the eyewitness. As the chanting of “Allah Akubar [God is greater]” rose to a crescendo, one of the militiamen twisted his head, allowing the other to slit his neck. When the head was finally severed from the torso, the killers cheered as they displayed it to the petrified crowd.

The militants allowed one of their accomplices to take a video of the slaughter using a mobile phone. The video was later circulated secretly and sold in Somalia and in neighboring countries in what many see as a strategy to instill fear among those contemplating conversion from Islam to Christianity.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that a similar incident took place in Lower Juba province of Somalia in July, when Christians found with Bibles were publicly executed. Their families fled to Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and such killings are forcing other Christians to flee to neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Somalis Attacking Somalis

Somali refugees to Kenya include Nur Mohammed Hassan, in Nairobi under U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees asylum. In spite of the protection, two weeks ago five Somali Muslims broke into Mohammed Hassan’s house and beat him and his family, he told Compass.

“On Oct. 14 five Muslims entered my house around 10 o’clock in the night and forced us out after beating us indiscriminately,” Mohammed Hassan said, adding that the youngest of his eight children suffers from a liver disease. “Thank God the police arrived immediately and saved our lives. For two days now we have been sleeping outside in the cold. We have been receiving police security, but for how long will this continue?”

Mohammed Hassan now lives in Eastliegh, Nairobi with his wife and children. He had fled Mogadishu after Muslims murdered his sister, Mariam Mohammed Hassan, in April 2005, allegedly for distributing Bibles in the capital.

“We are nowadays no better than our fellow Somali Christians inside Somalia who are killed like dogs when discovered to be Christians,” Mohammed Hassan said. “We are not safe living here in Eastleigh. The Muslims killed my sister in Mogadishu, and now they are planning to kill me and my family.”

[Read the Rest]

Latest news from Compass Direct News

Here He Comes, the One.

from Telegraph.uk

Never fear, a bright star will herald a new saviour

This week has come encouraging news for anyone with an interest in signs and wonders, or desperate for a chink of light in the prevailing gloom, which probably means most of us: a saviour is at hand.

By Mick Brown : 8:18PM GMT 19 Dec 2008

According to the Share International News Service, in a press release captioned Christmas Miracle, a "large bright star" will be appearing in the sky sometime over the next few days, or weeks, heralding the appearance on "a major US television programme" of the new World Teacher, Maitreya, who will be ushering in a new age of peace, wisdom and understanding. And not before time, I hear you say.

Share International is the organisation founded by Benjamin Creme, the Scottish painter and clairvoyant, and Britain's most redoubtable millenarian, who has been prophesying the coming of Maitreya for the past 26 years. He is an erstwhile Theosophist and student of Alice Bailey, whose writings in the 1920s talked of the coming of "the Cosmic Christ". In 1982, Mr. Creme took out full page advertisements in newspapers around the world to announce that Maitreya had arrived in London on a flight from Pakistan, having descended from the Himalayan redoubt where he had been living with a community of ascended Masters, who are watching over Mankind with a concerned eye, and was living among the Asian community.

Mr Creme was told this by one of the Masters, with whom he has been in telepathic communication since 1959 when the Master contacted Mr Creme while he was sitting in the bath.
[MORE]

Think the above is just stupid? Vast numbers of people are looking to the emergence of this Maitraya. Government elites have kowtowed to this messiah figure and consulted with him for years. The "world teacher" actually claims to be every messiah figure from every religion, including the last Imam or Mahdi of Shia Islam. And recall this story:

Obama and Ahmadinejad

Amir Taheri 10.26.08 - Forbes

Is Barack Obama the “promised warrior” coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world?

The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a
pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite
text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar
(meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132
volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam.

According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the Mahdi, the Ultimate Saviour, a “tall black man will assume the reins of government in the West.”
Commanding “the strongest army on earth,” the new ruler in the West
will carry “a clear sign” from the third imam, whose name was Hussein
Ibn Ali. The tradition concludes: “Shiites should have no doubt that he
is with us.”

In a curious coincidence Obama’s first and second names–Barack
Hussein–mean “the blessing of Hussein” in Arabic and Persian. His
family name, Obama, written in the Persian alphabet, reads O Ba Ma,
which means “he is with us,” the magic formula in Majlisi’s tradition.

[If this last doesn't give you the willies, you are already dead.]

JRI Flyer - Print and Distribute

Right click and save this image. It will print an 8.5x11" flyer.

Jewish Roots Institute New Semester

The next semester of the Jewish Roots Institute starts in three weeks on February 2 & 3, 2009 (Monday & Tuesday).

Class Schedule for the 2009 Spring Semester

Monday Evenings - February 2
Visitors Welcomed
6:30pm - Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith
Explore the earliest interconnection between Christianity and Judaism, the departure of Christianity from its Jewish foundation, and the resultant misunderstanding, intolerance, and hostility between the two groups.

6:30pm - The 613 Law of Moses (TORAH)
An in-depth analysis of each of the 613 Laws of God as enumerated in the Torah. Deals with such questions as: Is God's Law relevant to Christians? Which laws are applicable to Jews today? Which laws are applicable to non-Jews? What is the purpose behind dietary laws? Which laws were culturally, rather than spiritually, relevant? What about God's grace?

6:30pm - Dead Sea Scrolls
A brief overview of the history of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community from which they may have originated.

7:30pm - The Rest of the Bible
Waiting on Description. 8:30pm - Israel Today
An overview of the history of the modern state of Israel, as well as various identifying characteristics which make it a unique presence on the global scene.

8:30pm - Paul the Jewish Theologian

Tuesday Evenings - February 3
Visitors Welcomed
6:30pm - Church History and the Jews
Traces the origins and development of the Christian Church, from the time of Jesus through the Reformation.

6:30pm - Archaeological Tour of 12 Biblical Cities
An illustrated guide to the historical, cultural, archaeological and scriptural significance of such cities as Tiberius, Pella, Hebron and Gamla.

7:30pm - Idioms of the Bible
A thorough investigation of idioms throughout scripture, focusing on those which are difficult to understand due to Semitic and cultural concepts not commonly taught today.

7:30pm - Understanding Hebrew Thought
This course compares the basic Hebraic thought to Greek or Western thinking. Topics include: The Jewishness of the biblical times; Gentiles, Jews and the special emphasis of Jewish heritage; Judaism and the earliest church; Heretics and the Jewish revolts; Anti-Semitism and the church; The Old Testament Hebraic foundation of the church; The ideas involved in Hebraic thought; The church and error; Marriage and family through Jewish eyes; Passover and the Last Supper; Jews, Christians and the land of Israel; and Jewish methods of teaching and Hebraic education.

8:30pm - Dead Sea Scrolls
A brief overview of the history of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community from which they may have originated.

8:30pm - The Presence of the Lord
Instructions on how to walk and live "face to face" with God.

For more information, visit www.jewishrootsinstitute.org

Florida QB makes 'John 3:16' hottest Google search

Tebow inscribed Bible reference on eye black for championship game:

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow blazes New Testament verse of John 3:16 on his face last night after he led the Gators to the BCS National Championship.

Posted: January 09, 2009 11:35 am Eastern
from WorldNetDaily

"John 3:16" has appeared in various forms at nationally televised sporting events over the years, but after University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow inscribed it on his eye black for last night's BCS National Championship game, the biblical reference became the most popular search item on Google.com.

Google Trends this morning had "John 3:16" ahead of searches for actress Mary Lynn Rajskub and the Windows 7 beta download. Searches for the Bible verse reached a peak during last night's game.

[MORE]

Tebow, the son of missionaries to the Philippines, has lived in a leper colony, an orphanage and been on numerous other mission trips. Apparently the BCS championship can now be added to the list. -- Ed.

Probably

Probably the best advert for God in the world...

by George Pitcher

"Carlsberg doesn't know whether there's a God ...but if there is, He's probably the best God in the world."

Or the universe? Or anywhere else? Not since the lager-brewer Carlsberg deployed that word "probably" so effectively for so many years has it demanded so much attention from the advertising industry. As my colleague Martin Beckford reports, the Advertising Standards Authority has been called in to rule whether God "probably" exists or not.

To recap: Those rascals at the British Humanist Association have teamed up with my old chum Richard Dawkins's money to run an ad campaign on public transport with the catchline: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
...

Meanwhile, the declared intent of the campaign – to get people thinking about belief – is succeeding, though the organisers may not have realised what they were taking on. Atheist philosopher AC Grayling has chimed in (rather weakly, I think, by his standards) to defend that "probably". And Telegraph alumnus and Tablet columnist Clifford Longley has made his own submission to the ASA, which is so comprehensive and well-argued I reproduce it here in full:

Clifford Longley writes:  The statement "There's probably no God", as currently seen on the side of London buses, is untrue and dishonest, in so far as the word "probably" completely fails to reflect the true state of the scientific argument. In fact it would be honest and true to say the opposite  - "There probably is a God." A fair reading of the material below could lead to no other conclusion. I therefore call on the ASA to order the withdrawal of this advertising, as incompatible with its code of practice.

According to growing numbers of scientists, the laws and constants of nature are so "finely-tuned," and so many "coincidences" have occurred to allow for the possibility of life, the universe must have come into existence through intentional planning and intelligence. In fact, this "fine-tuning" is so pronounced, and the "coincidences" are so numerous, many scientists have come to espouse "The Anthropic Principle," which contends that the universe was brought into existence intentionally for the sake of producing mankind. Even those who do not accept The Anthropic Principle admit to the "fine-tuning" and conclude that the universe is "too contrived" to be a chance event.

Dr. Dennis Scania, head of Cambridge University Observatories, said in a BBC science documentary, "The Anthropic Principle: "If you change a little bit the laws of nature, or you change a little bit the constants of nature - like the charge on the electron - then the way the universe develops is so changed, it is very likely that intelligent life would not have been able to develop."

Dr. David D. Deutsch, Institute of Mathematics, Oxford University: observed: "If we nudge one of these constants just a few percent in one direction, stars burn out within a million years of their formation, and there is no time for evolution. If we nudge it a few percent in the other direction, then no elements heavier than helium form. No carbon, no life. Not even any chemistry. No complexity at all."

Dr. Paul Davies, noted author and professor of theoretical physics at Adelaide University, said: "The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural 'constants' were off even slightly."

When the late Sir Fred Hoyle was researching how carbon came to be created in the "blast-furnaces" of the stars, his calculations indicated that it is very difficult to explain how the stars generated the necessary quantity of carbon upon which life on earth depends. Hoyle found that there were numerous "fortunate" one-time occurrences which seemed to indicate that purposeful "adjustments" had been made in the laws of physics and chemistry in order to produce the necessary carbon.

Hoyle summed up his findings as follows: "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintendent has monkeyed with the physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. I do not believe that any physicist who examined the evidence could fail to draw the inference that the laws of nuclear physics have been deliberately designed with regard to the consequences they produce within stars."

Dr. David D. Deutch remarked: "If anyone claims not to be surprised by the special features that the universe has, he is hiding his head in the sand. These special features are surprising and unlikely."

The August '97 issue of "Science" featured an article entitled "Science and God: A Warming Trend?" in which it stated: "The fact that the universe exhibits many features that foster organic life - such as precisely those physical constants that result in planets and long-lived stars - also has led some scientists to speculate that some divine influence may be present."

In his best-selling book, A Brief History of Time, Sir Stephen Hawking (perhaps the world's most famous cosmologist) stated: "The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers (i.e. the constants of physics) seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life" (p. 125).

"For example," Hawking wrote, "if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded... It seems clear that there are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers (for the constants) that would allow for development of any form of intelligent life. Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty." Hawking said this was evidence of "a divine purpose in Creation and the choice of the laws of science (by God)" (ibid. p. 125).

If you would like further information regarding the science I would refer you to the Fraday Institute at St Edmund's College Cambridge (with which I have no connection.)