Turkey's Official "Cocktail Terror

• In its latest attack in Turkey, ISIS used a child suicide bomber to attack a wedding ceremony. More than 50 victims were killed, of whom 26 were less than 18 years old.
• This is premeditated, officially-tolerated murder. Evidence? Two opposition parties appealed to parliament five times asking for a parliamentary investigation into ISIS and its activities in Turkey. All five requests were rejected by the votes of the ruling AKP Party, Erdogan's powerful political machine.
• The opposition claims SADAT International Defense Consultancy, which was established by soldiers dismissed from the military due to Islamist activities, offers ISIS operatives training in "intelligence, psychological warfare, sabotage, raiding, ambushing and assassination." Erdogan this month appointed the owner of SADAT, retired Brigadier General Adnan Tanriverdi, as his chief presidential advisor.

Failing to name Islamic terror has cost Turkey hundreds of lives and will likely cost it hundreds more, as the country's leaders -- and many others, especially in the West -- are still too demure to call Islamic terror by its name. Without a realistic diagnosis, the chances of a successful treatment are always close to nil, and Turkey's leaders stubbornly remain on the wrong side of the right diagnosis.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's theory that "there is no Islamic terror," coupled with his persistent arguments that Islamist radicals hit Europe because of Islamophobia in the Western world, are not only too remote from reality but have now become a curse in his own country.
As early as 2014, cars began to be seen in the streets of Istanbul sporting the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The same year, Islamists opened a shop selling T-shirts featuring the same flag. ISIS-related magazines went ahead with open hate content even though, in March 2014, ISIS spilled its first blood in Turkey when an ISIS team ambushed a police checkpoint and killed one police officer, one soldier and one civilian.
In its first suicide attack on June 5, 2015, ISIS targeted a pro-Kurdish rally in Diyarbakir, killed four people and injured 279. It targeted, once again, a pro-Kurdish gathering in July 2015 in Suruc, a small town bordering Syria, killed more than 30 people and injured more than 100.
When, in October 2015, Islamists attacked the main train station in Ankara and killed more than 100 civilians in the worst terror attack in Turkey's history, Turkish officials were once again too demure to blame it on radical Islamists. Instead, they invented an unconvincing concept, "cocktail terror," putting the blame on a mixture of various terror groups.
In a span of just one year, starting with the Suruc suicide bomb attack in July 2015, ISIS terror attacks in Turkish soil have killed 265 people and injured 1,256.
In its latest attack in Turkey on August 21, ISIS did something it had not done before: it used a child suicide bomber with explosives detonated by a remote controller. The target was a wedding ceremony in the southern city of Gaziantep; most of the victims were children, like the suicide bomber himself. More than 50 victims were killed, of whom 26 were less than 18 years old. Two of the victims had just turned four.

On August 21, ISIS terrorists used a child suicide bomber to kill more than 50 people, mostly children, at a wedding in Gaziantep. (Image source: ABC News video screenshot)

This is premeditated, officially-tolerated murder. Evidence? Between Aug. 14, 2014 and June 29, 2016, two opposition parties, the social democrat Republican People's Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), appealed to parliament five times asking for a parliamentary investigation into ISIS and its activities in Turkey. All five requests were rejected by the votes of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Erdogan's powerful political machine. Why would a ruling party vote down an investigation request into a barbaric terror group that has killed hundreds of people in its own country? But there is more.
In July, slightly more than a month before the ISIS's child bomber was blown up along with more than 50 others in Gaziantep, a court in the same city reduced the jail sentence of an ISIS militant due to "good conduct." Good conduct?! The man did not even stand before the court, as the police were unable to apprehend him.
At the end of June, the main opposition party, CHP, made a parliamentary inquiry into the activities of an Istanbul-based defense company accused of having links to ISIS. The opposition claims the SADAT International Defense Consultancy, established in the early 2000s by soldiers dismissed from the military due to Islamist activities, offers "irregular warfare training" in various fields including "intelligence, psychological warfare, sabotage, raiding, ambushing and assassination." The inquiry said: "...that special commissioned and non-commissioned officers have begun working at this company with high salaries, and that in camps irregular warfare training has been given to ISIS and its derivatives."
SADAT's owner and chief official is retired Brigadier General Adnan Tanriverdi widely known for his close relations with Erdogan and the AKP.
Since the opposition made the parliamentary inquiry, it has not heard from the government benches about its request for an investigation into SADAT. But, after the inquiry, the government made a move. In August Erdogan appointed Tanriverdi as his chief presidential advisor.
Turkey's war with radical jihadists is a too demure and reluctant one -- if not fake altogether.

Christians as "Target Practice"

Muslim Persecution of Christians: May 2016

• "We will show the Armenians and the Christians who we are... We have been ordered not to leave any Armenians in the area." — Islamic rebels, Aleppo, Syria.
• Thousands of Christians are fleeing Eritrea due to extreme persecution. A report describes Eritrea as "one of the world's fastest emptying nations" and the "North Korea of Africa." The majority of the 40,000 who fled to Italy last year are Christians.
• "The government of Iran continues to engage in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused." — Report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
• A new study claims that as many as 40,000 Christians -- including Muslims who wish to convert to Christianity -- are being attacked and harassed by Muslims in migrant homes. According to the report, "Now in European asylum homes they are finding more and more that they are in as much danger from radical Muslims in Europe as they were in their home countries."

More reports of the brutal treatment that Christians and other minorities experienced at the hands of the Islamic State (SIS) emerged during May. One account told of a couple who, after their children were abducted by ISIS militants, answered their door one day to find a plastic bag on their doorstep. It contained the body parts of their daughters and a video of them being brutally tortured and raped.
Another Christian mother from Mosul answered the door to find ISIS jihadis demanding that she leave or pay the jizya (protection money demanded as a tribute by conquered Christians and Jews, according to the Koran 9:29). The woman asked for a few seconds, because her daughter was in the shower, but the jihadis refused to give her the time. They set a fire to the house; her daughter was burned alive. The girl died in her mother's arms; her last words were "Forgive them."
The Islamic State reportedly beheaded another Christian leader on February 18. No media reported it, except for one Italian paper in May: "There are reliable reports are that Father Yacob Boulos, was beheaded by the terror group' militants after he prayed on the altar of his church. He was punished for his faith."
According to another report,

"In yet another disturbing example of the genocide facing Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, on 12-13 May a group from Islamic State (IS) entered a town near the city of Hama in Syria, populated only by Christians and Alawites, killing an as yet unspecified number of men, women and children. Men were beheaded, whilst women were raped and then murdered. Many children were also killed. It is not yet clear exactly how many people have been killed."

A local Christian leader said,

"Where are the leaders of the West, Ban Ki-Moon (Secretary-General of the United Nations), the EU, WHO (World Health Organization), and other Christian organisations? How long will my nation tolerate and stay. We don't hold arms and weapons, but we are melting like a candle! Is it possible for our voice to reach to all others?"

Father Douglas Bazi, an Iraqi priest, who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2006 but later escaped, recounted his experiences as a captive:

"They destroyed my car, they blew up my church on [sic] front of me. I got shot by AK-47 in my leg. The bullet is still in my leg. And I [have] been kidnapped for nine days. They smash my nose and my teeth by hammer. And they broke one of my back discs."

He was released after his church paid for his ransom, but eventually had to flee the region after continued persecution by ISIS. "To be Christian in Iraq, it's an impossible mission," said Father Bazi, adding, "But even so, I'm not actually surprised when they attack my people. I'm surprised how my people are still existing. Please talk about our stories. Let the world know what happens to us."
The rest of May's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:

More Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Uganda: A Christian pastor was poisoned to death by a Muslim. Micah Byamukama, 61, pastor of a Baptist Church, died on May 15, after ingesting an insecticide that a Muslim, Ahmed Mupere, had put into his food. Mupere is believed to have been upset that the pastor challenged his belief in jinn, supernatural creatures attested to in Islamic literature, including the Koran. "The true God is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered the power of Satan including the Islamic Jinn... the Islamic Jinn are acts of Satan and should be denounced," the pastor had apparently said. Soon, unidentified persons believed to have been hired by Ahmed attacked and wounded the pastor with knives.
Five days after the knife attack, Mupere, pretending not to be angry, came to visit the pastor, a widower with no children. According to the report, "Feigning reconciliation as he dined with the pastor from a shared dish, Ahmed secretly put poison on the food and stopped eating as Pastor Byamukama continued." Shortly thereafter, the Christian man began having stomach pains, was rushed to the hospital and was soon declared dead.
Earlier, the pastor had told his neighbor, "Ahmed took a little food with me and then stopped. When I asked him why not continue with the food, he said he had eaten at his home, and that he wanted [to] go back home because it was getting late." A nurse said he died from ingesting a highly toxic insecticide. Once investigations began, Mupere fled. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks, including other poisonings, by Muslims against Christians in eastern Uganda.
Separately in Uganda, a Muslim man strangled his wife to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. Awali Kakaire, 34, began to suspect that his wife Mariam Nakiriya, 30, was a Christian a month earlier, when the local imam asked him why his wife and children had not been attending the mosque or madrassa (Islamic school). According to one of Kakaire's sons: "Our father questioned us why we have stopped attending the madrassa, but we told him that we were busy with school work as our mother had instructed us This made my father to cool down his tempers." Then, on May 8, Kakaire awoke at 6 a.m., and after his Islamic cleansing ritual, woke his wife to join him in morning Islamic prayers: "Our mother refused, and our father started strangling her as she cried for help," his son said. After killing her, Kakaire left the house only to return two hours later and force his five children, ages 5 to 12, into a hole he had dug in a nearby garden.

"We resisted and began screaming, and neighbors arrived immediately, but he had already dumped us into the hole that he had dug. Seeing the neighbors, he tried to flee but he was overtaken and then began to be questioned by those who surrounded him."

Kakaire was heard shouting "My family has no respect for Islam." Thanks to some Muslim accomplices, Kakaire managed to escape the murder scene.
Syria: Up to 200 Christians were reportedly killed during sustained bombardments of the city of Aleppo. Between April 22 and April 30, approximately 1,350 rockets hit the Christian region. The attack killed 132 people, half of them women and children. Another 65 were killed on May 3, and hundreds more injured Islamic rebels had earlier, on April 22, issued a direct threat against Aleppo's large community of Armenian Christians, and warned, "We will show the Armenians and the Christians who we are... We have been ordered not to leave any Armenians in the area."
Bangladesh: "Fighters from the Islamic State assassinated a doctor who called to Christianity in Kushtia, western Bangladesh," ISIS announced in a brief statement issued in Arabic. Doctor Sanaur Rahman, 58, was riding home on his motorcycle along with his friend when they were attacked by machete-wielding terrorists. Rahman was hacked to death, while Zaman was critically wounded in the attack. The doctor was popular in his village because he used to treat and offer medicine to poor people free of charge and ran a free clinic on Fridays.
Congo: Muslim terrorists killed scores of villagers in the east of the Christian-majority nation. The attackers carried machetes and axes into a village in North Kivu province during the evening of May 3. According to the local administrator, "the enemy managed to get past army positions and kill peaceful residents in their homes, slashing their throats. The 16 bodies are in front of me, killed by machete or axe." Another source said that as many as 38 were slaughtered, including two Evangelical Christian leaders and their wives. According to the report,

The MDI [Muslim Defensive International] has repeatedly attacked the majority-Christian population in eastern DRC for years. Kidnapping and murder are common. It is alleged to have support from the Islamic government of Sudan... The MDI is known to have attracted foreign recruits and to have forced Christians to convert to Islam. The local population in the related area is overwhelmingly Christian (95.8%) and the impact on them has been immense.

In a letter released a year ago, Congolese Bishops denounced a "climate of genocide" and the passivity of the Congolese government and the international community: "Does the situation have to deteriorate even more before the international community takes measures against jihadism?" asked the Bishops in May 2015.
Philippines: Islamic jihadis attacked the "Crusaders" of the Catholic-majority nation. The recently-established ISIS branch in the Philippines claimed responsibility for a terror attack on a military position on Basilan Island. The attack killed one soldier and injured another. Basilan Island has long been a stronghold of local Muslim terror organizations that aim to topple the government and establish a Sharia-compliant government.

Muslim Rape and Humiliation of Christian Women

Bangladesh: A 26-year-old Catholic high school teacher was raped on May 12 by her Muslim principal and his friend, Shariful Islam. Afterwards, they threatened to post the video of the rape on Facebook, if she reported them. According to parish priest Fr. Domenic K. Halder, "The girl is very frightened. We pray for her, she is still in hospital." Hundreds of Christians also protested in the streets of Dhaka and demanded justice.
Egypt: On May 20, a 70-year-old Christian woman was stripped naked, savagely beaten, spat upon, and paraded in the streets of Minya to jeers, whistles, and yells of "Allahu Akbar," after a mob of some 300 Muslim men descended on her home. Her crime was that her son was accused of having a romantic relationship with a Muslim woman, an intimacy that is banned under Islamic law, Sharia. It is the same body of teachings that prescribes collective punishment to non-Muslim "infidels." Seven Christian homes were also torched during the attack. Earlier that day her husband and she had gone to local police and complained that they were being harassed and threatened by neighborhood Muslims. The police responded by also threatening and ordering them out of the station. A few hours later, the attack occurred. It took the same local police over two hours to appear, giving the mob "ample time," as one Christian clergyman put it, to riot. Minya's most senior Christian cleric, Bishop Makarios, said during a televised interview concerning 70-year-old woman's ordeal, that if a Muslim man were pursuing a Christian woman, the police response "would not have been anything like what happened.... No one did anything and the police took no preemptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks."
Uganda: After a 22-year-old Christian woman accused a mosque leader of murdering her father earlier in the year, local Muslims responded by beating and raping her. The woman, whose name was withheld, said she was beaten and raped on April 19 for telling a court what she had witnessed. She was found unconscious in a pool of blood, with cuts on her body. One of the three Muslims who assaulted her told her, "We shall kill you today because you are the one who made our sheikh to be imprisoned." According to the woman, speaking from a hospital bed,

"I was able to identify the sheikh because we are neighbors, and my father had been questioning him about the Islamic faith not leading one to salvation with God. The sheikh had said to him, 'You have no respect of our religion, and we have come for your life today.' They started strangling my father as well as hitting him on the head with a big stick. When my father fell down, I managed to escape through the window."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Tanzania: Another church was burned to the ground. The Roman Catholic church in the Kagera region is the third church in four months to be burned down in the nation. According to a local pastor, "Since 2013 we have had over 13 churches torched here in Kagera and no-one has been held accountable. This is not acceptable."
Fortunatus Bijura, a priest at the church, said: "Those who think that destroying our church means we won't pray, they are wrong ... We have a big tree near the church and will continue meeting there for prayers." Tanzania is approximately 35% Muslim.
Pakistan: The government announced its plans to demolish four historic churches in order to make way for the construction of a metro train. On May 3, Christians gathered in front of the Lahore High Court to protest the decision. "These churches were built pre-Pakistan and these all [sic] churches are located at very expensive and prime locations which politicians and Islamists are jealous of," said Nasir Saeed, director of the Center for Legal Aid. "They cannot stand that Christians have such prime property and ... so try to use any excuse to grab the land and belittle Christians." While the community is still mourning their loved ones who perished during the Easter Sunday attack on Christians that left 69 dead and more than 340 injured, Saeed said they now face a new threat to their churches: "There is no respite for them and one problem after the other seems to follow Pakistani Christians," he said.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers and Preachers

Pakistan: A fatwa, or Islamic decree, was issued against a Christian after Muslims accused him of watching an anti-Islamic video on his phone. Imran Masih was last reported on the run after a $10,000 bounty was put on his head. As a form of collective punishment, fellow Christians in his village were prevented from buying food from Muslim shopkeepers and given three options: "convert to Islam, leave the village forever, or hand over Imran so he can be burnt alive." Speaking of this incident, a Pakistani human rights activist said,

I cannot believe that such things are still happening in this world. Such treatment towards Pakistani Christians is a slap on the face of the Punjab and central government, and to all those who never tire of telling the world that minorities are protected and enjoying equal rights in the country. I don't understand how watching a video on the internet can be criminalised as an act of blasphemy.... I believe this is not an act of blasphemy and if people still think Imran has committed blasphemy then he should be punished according to the law. No one has any right to take the law into their own hands, harass local Christians, threaten them, burn Imran alive or force Christians to convert to Islam or leave the village. Such conditions from lay people make a mockery of the law. The Government of Pakistan must take this matter seriously, provide protection to the local Christians, and those who are breaking the law should be dealt according to the law.

Left: The house of Imran Masih in the village of Chak-44, Pakistan. Masih was last reported on the run after Muslims accused him of watching an anti-Islamic video on his phone and a $10,000 bounty was put on his head. Right: The Catholic Church in the village. (Images source: World Watch Monitor)

Separately in Pakistan, police arrested a Christian man in Punjab province for allegedly posting messages on his Facebook account that were considered blasphemous by Muslims. According to Liaquat Usman's wife, "My husband stopped some [Muslim] boys from teasing girl students. A couple of days ago the boys manhandled Usman. Instead of arresting the boys, police arrested Usman saying a complaint against him has been lodged for committing blasphemy." Initial investigations showed that the "blasphemous" messages were posted on Usman's Facebook account a year earlier, and that someone else living abroad tagged them on his account.
Germany: A new report claimed that as many as 40,000 Christians -- including Muslims who wish to convert to Christianity -- are being attacked and harassed by Muslims in migrant homes. According to the report,

Many converts [to Christianity] wished to do so in their homelands, but in places like Iran and Afghanistan the penalty for leaving the Islamic religion can be death and so they fled to Europe. Now in European asylum homes they are finding more and more that they are in as much danger from radical Muslims in Europe as they were in their home countries. The most prevalent form of abuse was verbal insults with 96 people saying that had received abuse or threats. Eighty-six said they had been physically assaulted and 73 said they had been subjected to death threats against themselves and family members. Three quarters of the migrants also said they had been victims of multiple attacks. The perpetrators of most of the attacks were fellow migrants who look down on converts and believe them to be apostates. Perhaps, more interestingly was the prevalence of Muslim security guards who participated in the attacks. Almost half of those surveyed said they had received abuse from security guards and in the German capital of Berlin the figure rose to two-thirds.

Azerbaijan: Christian activists called attention to the plight of a frail Christian evangelist from Azerbaijan who has spent a year behind bars in neighboring Georgia on what his supporters say are "trumped-up charges" for the possession of drugs. If convicted, the man could face 14 years imprisonment. The Azeri evangelist says he has been framed by people who are angry about his evangelism work among Muslims. Local sources said "His health is very bad and he needs urgent help -- medical, spiritual and materially." Fears also exist that the man will not be able to return safely to predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan after an eventual release from prison. According to a human rights organization,

Officially, the country is secular and religion is tolerated. However, the level of surveillance is so incredibly high that Christians in Azerbaijan do not know whom to trust anymore. Persecution of Christians has gone up markedly since last year due to ever-increasing government controls," added Open Doors. Another sign of the government pressure is the fact that Azeri Christians find it easier to evangelize in countries like Georgia and Iran than in their own country.

Muslim Hate for and Violence against Christians

Syria: The Islamic State released an online video on May 16, showing an ISIS fighter desecrating the graves of Christians and showing off the damage that was done to the Christian cemetery. The video was allegedly filmed in the city of Deir ez-Zor. The ISIS militant is shown touring the cemetery, showing shards of stone and wood, while in the background are destroyed headstones and corpses of Syrian soldiers -- some torn to pieces -- who apparently tried to stop the desecration.
Eritrea: Thousands of Christians are fleeing the nation due to extreme persecution, according to a report which describes Eritrea as "one of the world's fastest emptying nations" and the "North Korea of Africa." The majority of the 40,000 who fled to Italy last year are Christians. The report added that "all evangelical and independent churches have been closed." Dawit, who was among hundreds of Christians jailed and tortured for his faith, said:

"There is no law and no justice. When I was living in Eritrea I was arrested because of my Christian faith. That's why I left. In Eritrea almost every Christian faces imprisonment. That's why I was in prison."

Berhane, another Christian who managed to escape said:

"We believe there are over 300 Christian prisoners at the moment. Most of them have been in prison for over ten years and they are suffering for lack of food and proper hygiene and proper medical care and even some of them have lost their lives."

Turkey: United States ally and NATO member Turkey is aiding and abetting the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria that kill Christians, by providing them with aerial cover and "safe haven," said Mindy Belz, an activist and senior editor of WORLD magazine:

We have to have a new approach to our ally, Turkey. Turkey is a country that is in transition and is becoming more and more radicalized. There is strong evidence, as I interviewed people at the border who had escaped to Lebanon. I sat down with them in Beirut. They were up at the border when Turkey shot down the Syrian jet that crossed the border [in 2015]. ... The people who witnessed it said, "Turkey is providing air cover for these Islamic militant groups".... There has been strong evidence that they have provided air cover and provided safe haven at their borders for ISIS...They have aided and abetted extremist groups, not only ISIS but Al-Nusra Front and some of the others. These are groups that are killing Christians and America ought to not tolerate allies that support groups that kill Christians.

Iran: Despite the nuclear deal made with the Obama administration, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has found that religious minorities in Iran, including Christians, continue experiencing severe human rights abuses. The report, released only a couple of months shy of the one-year anniversary of the nuclear deal reached in July 2015, found that religious freedom conditions "continued to deteriorate" over the past year, with Christians, Baha'is, and the minority Sunni Muslims facing the most persecution at the form of harassment, arrests, and imprisonment.
Under President Hassan Rouhani's administration, the number of religious-based arrests has increased, despite Iran's continuous denial that it is violating people's human and religious freedom rights. The report states:

"The government of Iran continues to engage in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused."

The report notes that as many as 550 Christians have been arrested and detained since 2015, and at least 90 Christians remain in prison or detention as of February due to their religious beliefs and activities:

"During the reporting period, human rights groups inside Iran reported a significant increase in the number of physical assaults and beatings of Christians in prison. Some activists believe the assaults, which have been directed against converts who are leaders of underground house churches, are meant to intimidate others who may wish to convert to Christianity."

A report from May indicate that one Christian prisoner in Iran, Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran, who earlier underwent heart surgery, is suffering from illnesses, including nausea, ear pain, and chronic pain in her joints and spinal cord, which were diagnosed as caused by lumbar disk, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Regardless, prison officials have refused to transfer her to a hospital to receive proper medical care. Mrs. Zargaran was initially summoned to an Iranian intelligence office for interrogation in March of 2011. Interrogators constantly threatened her and her family, insulted her and questioned her Christian activities.
Pakistan: According to Sardar Mushtaq Gill and fellow attorneys who represent the family of the Christian couple burned alive by a mob for allegedly desecrating a Koran, "Witnesses and lawyers are [being] threatened.... There are many concerns about the possible impunity for the perpetrators." Because witness have refused to recognize those most responsible for the killing of the Christian couple, they have already been released on bail. "There are 106 detainees accused of this lynching and if the trial continues in this direction, it seems that everyone will be freed."
Nigeria: Gunmen shot at a car carrying Roman Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan in the country's southern Edo state. The attack on the cardinal comes amid increasing violence and kidnappings of Christian clergy by Muslims for ransom. Three other Christian leaders were kidnapped for ransom within the same year. The decomposing body of a cleric kidnapped in a Muslim-majority region was found last April.
A separate report tells of the day-to-day sufferings of Christians living alongside Muslims in Nigeria:

For Bishop Matthew Kukah, persecution is not just the history of the Church. It's a reality that he lives every day. In the diocese of Sokoto, located in northern Nigeria, ministry includes not only the normal sacramental and pastoral concerns of any other diocese. It also includes regularly responding to violence and attacks against the small Christian minority living in the majority-Muslim area. Christians living in northern Nigeria today wonder "why have they and their institutions become target practice," explained Bishop Kukah told CNA. Christian churches and businesses – as well as the people who frequent them – suffer both targeted violence at the hands of Islamist extremists... And after the attacks, Christian communities face a wall of bureaucratic challenges and lack of government support as they struggle to rebuild.... While some targets of violence find government and societal aid in rebuilding and accessing services such as schools and hospitals, the state in northern Nigeria merely "looks on" as Christian churches and institutions struggle to rebuild.

"[Y]ou live in a state that is less than you expect as a citizen," said Bishop Kukah. "You don't know what to expect tomorrow. ... Christians suffer disproportionate violence from Muslim extremists. ... Our churches are being bombed with no compensation paid for the schools or other properties of the Church."
Bangladesh: Unidentified attackers hurled crude bombs at the home of a Christian family and left two Christians injured. The attack occurred just after midnight in a mainly Christian hamlet in the western Chuadanga area. Police suspected "attempted robbery" as the motive. But the report notes:

"the attack comes amid a string of murders of Christians, Hindus and members of other religious minorities across the country by suspected militants, as Bangladesh reels from rising Islamist violence... Suspected Islamists have murdered at least 30 members of religious minorities, secular bloggers and other liberal activists, foreigners and intellectuals in Bangladesh in the past three years."

The power of life and death is in your mouth   

Our brains are very active. Research indicates that we think 70,000 thoughts daily on the average.

Many of us know God wants to be victorious. However, that knowledge isn't always reflected in our words. The reality is that every one of us has spoken negatively about ourselves or about others. Generally before we speak negatively, we have already rehearsed the words in our minds. This is significant, because what we believe to be true and what we think about consistently we eventually speak out.

 

Negative thoughts become negative words, which become negative experiences—which results in our using more negative words. For instance, we say things such as: "We'll never be able to get financially ahead," "I want to give up" or "These negative things are just part of life—nothing can change them, including God." We think we're stating reality, but the more these words are repeated, the more we will find ourselves in the very situations, bringing us frustration.

The words that we speak, are they life or death? Do they give us hope or discouragement? Since we are held responsible for every word we speak, I think we had better listen very carefully to what we are saying, not just to our brethren, but also to ourselves. Notice what Jesus said: "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Mt.12:36-37). Let us look at the words, justified and condemned a little more closely. By being Justified -- we are being freed from all blame, we are without guilt and we are shown or proven to be right. Condemned means -- to be pronounced unfit for use, guilty. By our own words we can be free from blame and without guilt, or we can pronounce ourselves guilty and unfit for the use of God. If it is the Word of God -- it is Life, it is freedom. If it is ourselves speaking -- it is death, and words of death will destroy, kill everyone that hears us; and not only they who hear us, but ourselves as well. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."

 

People die because of something said. Tongues can be weapons of mass destruction, launching holocausts and wars. Tongues can also be the death of marriages, families, friendships, churches, careers, hopes, understanding, reputations, missionary efforts, and governments.

 

But people also live because of something said. The tongue can be “a tree of life” (Proverbs 15:4). Tongues reconcile peoples and make peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). Tongues can make marriages sweet, families strong, and churches healthy. Tongues can give hope to the despairing, advance understanding, and spread the gospel.

 

So what will come out of your mouth today, death or life? “Sword thrusts” or “healing” (Proverbs 12:18

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sisterthundershow/2016/08/15/the-power-of-life-and-death-is-in-your-mouth

 

We need A Fresh Baptism of Love

The word "baptize" can be traced to simply mean to "make whelmed" or to "overwhelm"

 

Volumes have been written about the characteristics of God, but when it is distilled to the most basic categories, He is love (1 John 4:8), life (Jeremiah 10:10; Revelation 22:1), and holiness (Psalms 99:9). And in reality, His life and holiness are based upon and are an expression of His love: love gives, so He gives life; love desires the best, so holiness proceeds from Him.

 

Love is not something he chooses to do or give. It is the very essence of who He is. He doesn't just love-He is love (1 John 4:16). It motivates His every action, directs His activities, and reflects His desires (1 John 4:10). Love is the greatest and purest essence of who a person is and its proper expression brings fulfillment.

Love Surpasses Knowledge

There is a place greater than knowledge; it is a simple, yet eternally profound place where we actually abide in Christ's love. This is, indeed, the shelter of the Most High.

 

Remember the apostle's prayer was that we each would "know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge." As important as knowledge is, love "surpasses knowledge." Doctrinal knowledge is the framework, the vehicle, that opens the door toward divine realities, but love causes us to be "filled up to all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19).

 

  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sisterthundershow/2016/08/08/we-need-a-fresh-baptism-of-love

 

 

There are various baptisms in regard to our walk with God; salvation, water, fire. But there is one baptism that is largely overlooked, and even unrecognized. This baptism brings the greatest healing and freedom to every believer that has experienced it, a Baptism of Father God’s love. There are only a few people in this world that truly understand what it means to be loved unconditionally. The rest have no idea what it is to receive and enjoy a love without strings attached, without preconditions, or without a prenuptial agreement. It is love that only our heavenly Father can give. Let the words and spirit of this book sink deep as you read it, and get to know your Father and His amazing love for you.

 

To Dwell Upon God

It is hard for us in this anxious, fearful age to quiet our souls and actually dwell upon God in our hearts. We can engage ourselves with Bible study or other acts of obedience; in varying degrees we know how to witness, exhort and bless. We know how to analyze these things, and even perfect them; but to lift our souls above the material world and consciously ponder God Himself seems beyond the reach of our Christian experience.

 

Yet, to actually grasp the substance of God is to enter a spiritual place of immunity; it is to receive into our spirits the victory Christ won for us, which is oneness with God in Christ.

 

Thus, we cannot content ourselves merely with the tasks we are called to perform. Ultimately, we will discover that study and church attendance are but forms which have little satisfaction in and of themselves. These activities must become what the Lord has ordained them to be: means through which we seek and find God. Our pleasure will be found not in the mechanics of spiritual disciplines, but that these disciplines bring us closer to God.

 

Paul's cry was, "That I may know Him!" (Phil. 3:10). It was this desire to know Jesus that produced Paul's knowledge of salvation, church order, evangelism and end-time events. Out of his heart's passion to know God came revelation, the writing of Scriptures and knowledge of the Eternal. Paul's knowledge was based upon his experience with Christ.

 

On the other hand, we have contented ourselves not with seeking the face of God, but with studying the facts of God. We are satisfied with a religion about Christ without the reality of Christ.

 

The Bible is the historical record of man's experiences with the Almighty. Out of personal encounters people had with the living God, our theological perspectives have developed. But knowledge about God is only the first step toward entering the presence of God. As much as the Bible is a book of truths, it is also a map to God. As Christians, we study and debate the map yet too often fail to make the journey.

 

Love Surpasses Knowledge

There is a place greater than knowledge; it is a simple, yet eternally profound place where we actually abide in Christ's love. This is, indeed, the shelter of the Most High.

 

Remember the apostle's prayer was that we each would "know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge." As important as knowledge is, love "surpasses knowledge." Doctrinal knowledge is the framework, the vehicle, that opens the door toward divine realities, but love causes us to be "filled up to all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19).

 

There is a dwelling place of love that God desires us to enter. It is a place where our knowledge of God is fulfilled by the substance of God. Listen to the Amplified Bible's rendering of this verse: "May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [that you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!" (Eph. 3:17-19).

 

Is this not our goal, to be rooted deeply in love, to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of God's love and to know for ourselves the deep, personal love of Christ? Can any goal be more wonderful? Indeed, to be filled and flooded with God Himself is the very hope of the gospel!

 

You see, God cannot truly be known without, in some way, also being experienced. If we had never seen a sunrise or a starry night sky, could any description substitute for our own eyes beholding the expansive beauty? Awe comes from seeing and encountering, not merely from knowing that somewhere a beautiful sky exists.

 

Likewise, to truly know God we must seek Him until we pass through the outer, informational realm about God and actually find for ourselves the living presence of the Lord Himself. This is the "upward call" of God in Christ Jesus. It draws us through our doctrines into the immediacy of the divine presence. The journey leaves us in the place of transcendent surrender, where we listen to His voice and, from listening, ascend into His love.

 

The earth's last great move of God shall be distinguished by an outpouring from Christ of irresistible desire for His people. To those who truly yearn for His appearing there shall come, in ever-increasing waves, seasons of renewal from the presence of the Lord (see Acts 3:19-21). Intimacy with Christ shall be restored to its highest level since the first century.

 

Many on the outside of this move of God, as well as those touched and healed by it, will look and marvel: How did these common people obtain such power? For they shall see miracles similar to when Jesus Christ walked the earth. Multitudes will be drawn into the valley of decision. For them, truly, the kingdom of God will be at hand. But for those whom the Lord has drawn to Himself, there will be no mystery as to how He empowered them. Having returned to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, they will have received the baptism of love

 

  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sisterthundershow/2016/08/08/we-need-a-fresh-baptism-of-love

 

1)      Liberals are relativists and hate Christians because Christians believe in absolute truth.

 

 

2)      Liberals do not want anyone to say that immorality is immoral.

 

 

3)      Liberals are selfish and are more interested in their "feelings" then they are with what is right for others.

 

 

4)      Liberals misunderstand what Christians really believe.

 

 

5)      Since liberals see themselves as the superior enlighten ones they do not recognize that taking a position against their position is not automatically hate.

 

 

6)      Liberals do not want to listen to what makes sense, they would rather listen to their senses.

 

 

7)      Liberals ignore the clear evidence of the result of their philosophical positions influence on the last 40 years. It had been a social disaster and they do not want to hear it.

 

 

8)      They see Christians as intellectually inferior.

 

 

9)      Liberals see Christians as wanting to impose their religion on them when in truth it is the liberals who have used the courts system to impose their secular humanism religion on all of us.

 

 

10)  Liberals are spiritually lost and blind to the truth of the gospel. Consider the following bible verses:

Stop the persecution and liquidation of Christians Join us September 29th, 2016 at 6:00pm

 

WHY is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? Islamic State terrorists have begun their promised killing of Christians in Mosul, and they have started with the children.

Islamic State terrorists have begun their promised killing of Christians in Mosul, and they have started with the children

 

For the first time in 2,000 years, there are no Christians in Mosul. What will become of other Iraqi Christians? A Christian Holocaust is in our mist. We are actually calling this a Christian genocide… Day by day, it is getting worse and worse. More children are being beheaded. Mothers are being raped and killed. Fathers are being hung. Right now, 300,000 Christians are fleeing Iraq and living in neighboring cities.”

There remains a vulnerable Assyrian population in Iraq. As of the invasion of Iraq in spring 2003, there still remained a substantial minority of nearly 1.5 million Assyrians, roughly 8 percent of the total Iraqi population. However, the recent Iraq War has been devastating for the Assyrians, as they have been caught in the midst of vicious sectarian violence. Presently, the Assyrian diaspora stretches across the world, from the Middle East to Central Asia, as well as Western Europe, North America, and Australia. While they continue to celebrate their rich cultural heritage, their modern legacy as victims of genocide has yet to be fully recognized

 

https://youtu.be/I1IcxRAOpds

 

 

Turkey, Europe's Little Problem

• Europe is giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the "Turkey-the-bridge" dream. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country's relations with Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no basis" for talks.
• "Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Typically, he does not understand the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop charges on orders from the prime minister.
• "We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey's] accession [to the European Union]." — Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern.

Nations do not have the luxury, as people often do, of choosing their neighbors. Turkey, under the 14-year rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist governments, and neighboring both Europe and the Middle East, was once praised as a "bridge" between Western and Islamic civilizations. Its accession into the European Union (EU) was encouraged by most EU and American leaders. Nearly three decades after its official bid to join the European club, Turkey is not yet European but has become one of Europe's problems.
Europe's "Turkish problem" is not only about the fact that in a fortnight a bomb attack wrecked a terminal of the country's biggest airport and a coup attempt killed nearly 250 people; nor is it about who rules the country. It is about the undeniable democratic deficit both in governance and popular culture.
In only the past couple of weeks, Turkey was in the headlines with jaw-dropping news. In Istanbul, a secretary at a daily newspaper was attacked by a group of people who accused her of "wearing revealing clothes and supporting the July 15 failed coup." She was six months pregnant.
Also in Istanbul, a Syrian gay refugee was murdered: he had been beheaded and mutilated. One social worker helping LGBT groups said: "Police are doing nothing because he is Syrian and because he is gay."
Turkey is dangerous not only for gays and refugees. A French tourist was left bloodied and beaten by Turkish nationalists after he refused to hold a Turkish flag. Grisly footage shows the gang, encouraged by Erdogan to patrol the streets on "democracy watch," telling the man "You will be punched if you don't hold the flag." The tourist is alone and does not appear to speak Turkish.
Meanwhile Europe is giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the "Turkey-the-bridge" dream. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country's relations with Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no basis" for talks. He said that Germany has serious concerns about mass arrests carried out by Turkish officials. According to Steinmaier, Turkey and Germany are like "emissaries from two different planets." Steinmaier is right. He is also not the only European statesman who sees Turkey as alien.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier (right) said that his country's relations with Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no basis" for talks.

Erdogan recently threatened Italy that its bilateral relations with Turkey could deteriorate if Italian prosecutors investigating Erdogan's son, Bilal, for money laundering, proceeded with their probe. "Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son," Erdogan said. Typically, he does not understand the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop charges on orders from the prime minister.
Italy's prime minister, Matteo Renzi, answered Erdogan in language Erdogan will probably will not understand: "Italy has an independent legal system and judges answer to the Italian constitution and not the Turkish president."
In unusual European realism, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that he would start a discussion among European heads of government to end EU membership talks with Turkey. He rightly called the accession talks "diplomatic fiction." Kern said: "We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey's] accession."
Even Turkish Cypriots on the divided island fear that Erdogan's Islamization campaign may target their tiny statelet. On August 3, about 1,500 people from 80 groups spanning the political spectrum took to the streets in Nicosia to protest against "Turkey's attempt to mold their secular culture into one that's more in tune with Islamic norms."
All of that inevitably makes Turkey an alien candidate waiting at Europe's gates to join the club. According to a European survey, Turkey is the least-wanted potential EU member -- even less wanted than Russia. Opposition to Turkish membership ranges from 54% (Norway) to 81% (Germany).
Celal Yaliniz, a little-known Turkish philosopher, likened Turks in the 1950s to "members of a ship's crew who are running toward the west as their ship travelled east." The Turks were not alone. Erdogan's "liberal" Western supporters have been no different

Sweden: Summer Inferno of Sexual Assaults

• Almost all the perpetrators of sexual assaults who attacked in groups and who have been apprehended, are citizens of Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia -- three of the four largest immigrant groups in Sweden who fall into the category of "unaccompanied refugee children."
• A few days later, it turned out that many of the perpetrators who sexually assaulted women at the "Putte i parken" music festival in Karlstad wore the "Don't grope" bracelet.
• Many people were therefore aghast to learn that the organizers of the Trästocksfestivalen music festival in Skellefteå had decided to arrange free bus rides to the festival for the local "unaccompanied refugee children." They claimed they were "proud to be the first music festival in Sweden that encourages a significant increase of newly arrived migrants in the audience." By the time the Trästocksfestivalen ended, the police counted twelve reported sexual assaults.
• Apparently, Swedish girls and women should learn to live with being groped and raped -- or leave the public space altogether. The latter seems quite in line with what Islamic sharia law prescribes.

In the wake of the New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne, Germany, news broke in Sweden that a large number of sexual assaults against girls and women had occurred at the music festival "We Are Sthlm" [short for Stockholm] in both 2014 and 2015, but had been covered up by both the police and the media. The National Police Commissioner, Dan Eliasson, immediately launched an investigation to find out the scope of the problem.
The results were presented in May, in a report, "The current situation regarding sexual assault and proposals for action" -- and the conclusions are frightening. Almost all the perpetrators who attacked in groups and who have been apprehended, are citizens of Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia -- three of the four largest immigrant groups in Sweden who fall into the category of "unaccompanied refugee children."

Scenes from a Malmö music festival in summer of 2015... Left: Four young men surround and sexually assault a young woman. Right: Police arrest a suspect, as sexual assault victims cry in the background. The photographer reported that Swedish girls were sexually assaulted by groups of young men "of foreign background."

The Police's Department of National Operations (NOA) began their report by going through all the sexual assaults at music festivals, street carnivals or New Year's Eve celebrations that have been reported to the police:

"The complaints filed in 2015 and 2016 showed that girls aged 14-15 were the most vulnerable. The attacks have been perceived differently, depending on the [offender's] modus operandi, but information given in the complaints clearly shows that several of the girls attacked have understandably been devastated and very 'shaky after the incident took place.' Especially shocking and frightening were those attacks carried out by a group, where the victim was not just held down and 'groped', but where the attackers also tried to rip the girl's clothes off.
"Most of the attacks were carried out by single perpetrators. In most cases, the attack was carried out in crowded places, from behind, and the perpetrator put his hands under the victim's trousers or under her blouse/sweatshirt and tried to kiss her and hold her down. Due to the struggle to get loose or because the attack happened from behind, it has often been difficult to get a good enough physical description of the suspect to get a positive identification later. In many cases, the victims were standing in an audience in front of a stage, making their way to their friends through a crowd, or standing around with one or more friends when they were attacked."

At least ten cases pertain to so-called taharrush gamea [Arabic for "collective harassment"] -- where men in groups choose a victim and attack her together. The report quotes Senni Jyrkiäinen, a scholar at the University of Helsinki, who studies gender relations in Egypt: "Taharrush is Arabic for harassment. If you add 'el-ginsy' (or just ginsy) that means sexual harassment and the word 'gamea' means 'group'."
The police report describes the phenomenon like this:

"In at least ten cases, a lone girl, sometimes around 14-16 years old, sometimes 25-30, was surrounded by several men (from 5-6 up to a large number). In these cases, some of the men held the girl down, while others groped her breasts and body, and in one case some of the men photographed the attack. In some cases, the perpetrators unbuttoned the girl's pants and tried -- in some cases succeeded -- to pull them down before help arrived. There were also cases where several girls who were part of a group were attacked at the same time by a large gang.
"A few suspects have been identified. Those identified are citizens of Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia. All investigations into cases in Stockholm and Kalmar from 2014 and 2015 were dropped due to lack of evidence or problems with identifying suspects."

The police quote from several of the complaints filed:

• A 16-year-old girl was attacked by a large number of males described as "foreign and speaking bad Swedish", who tried to rip her clothes off. Some of the attackers photographed the incident. The girl was on her way home from a party together with her boyfriend when she was attacked. The boyfriend witnessed the incident.
• Two girls were attacked by a gang of 10-20 men of "African descent", aged 15-20.
• An attack against a girl in a park went from sexual harassment to a full-fledged rape, committed by a group of men. The men and the girl had attended the same party, and the perpetrators followed her when she left.
• A 12-year-old girl was attacked, and the following description of the attackers was given: "Four men aged 20-25, who looked Arabic and spoke a foreign language, possibly Arabic, between themselves." A young man passing by intervened and was beaten up.
• A girl stated that she went into the bushes to urinate, and was sexually attacked by 12 perpetrators. The suspects also stole the victim's wallet. "The sexual assault consisted of an unknown assailant grabbing the victim's buttocks, among other things."
• A 17-year-old girl left a mall, and was stalked and stopped by three "African guys" who attacked her by squeezing her buttocks so hard her pants ripped.
• A 13-year-old girl who is in a special education class was approached by "4-5 foreign guys" who spoke Swedish with an accent. The grabbed her one at a time "in places she did not like, such as her buttocks and her breasts."
• When a girl was waiting for a train, she was surrounded by six youths aged about 15-17, of "foreign descent." They poked her and spoke obscenely and threatened her in Swedish. When the train came, they discontinued the attack.
• A girl encountered a group of about 10 men aged around 18-20. Four of the men grabbed her sweater and held her by the arm, while three others touched her body and breasts. She screamed for help and tried to resist them, begging them to stop, to no avail. She finally managed to break free.
• A girl was harassed with foul language on a train, by a group of nine men, around 25 years old, who tried to block her way when she got off the train. None of the men spoke Swedish, the victim said in her complaint, "They may have been from Afghanistan."
• A girl was surrounded on a train by eight men who had gotten on at the same time. Two of the men started touching her thighs and groping her private parts. She finally took out a can of pepper spray, and the attackers moved away. All the attackers were over 25 years old and of foreign descent.

When it comes to sexual assaults at public swimming pools, the report states that there were 123 reports of such incidents in 2015. 86% of the suspects were younger than 20 years old; most were around 15-16:

"In 80% of the reported cases from public pools, the perpetrators claimed to be or were found to be of foreign descent. Most had no Swedish social security number and the complaints stated that they belonged to groups of boys seeking asylum."

The clear and frightening facts stated by the police report, however, have not left even the tiniest impression on Swedish public debate. Feminists still talk about "men" committing sexual assaults. In January, for example, Karen Austin, former head of a government work group on young men and violence, wrote an article on Swedish public television's debate website on why culture and religion have (almost) no significance when it comes to sexual assaults.
"Do Swedish men have a better set of chromosomes than the rest of the world's men?", she asked rhetorically.
Barbro Sörman, chairperson for the Left Party in Stockholm, wrote on Twitter in early July that it is actually worse when Swedish men rape than when foreign men do:

"The Swedish men who rape do it despite having grown up with gender equality. They make an active choice. That is worse IMO [in my opinion]."

Sörman later regretted her tweet, but maintained that Swedish men must be scrutinized equally:

"You need to look at what makes you choose not to be equal and commit abuse in our society, despite us being equal."

After National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson read the report he had ordered, , on June 28 he came up with a "solution" that made Swedes gasp: a bracelet with the words "Don't grope" printed on it. Eliasson explained the initiative, saying:

"The police take sexual assaults very seriously, especially when young people are involved. This crime is of course extremely offensive, and all of society needs to work against it. [With the bracelets] we can turn a spotlight on this issue and encourage those affected to report the crime."

A few days later, it turned out that many of the perpetrators who sexually assaulted women at the "Putte i parken" music festival in Karlstad wore the "Don't grope" bracelet. It was the same story at the Bråvalla festival. Lisen Andréasson Florman, operations manager for the non-profit organization, Night Shift (Nattskiftet), had 50 volunteers patrolling the grounds of the Bråvalla festival every night. Despite this, Florman herself was attacked. She told the Swedish news agency, TT, that she was surrounded by three men who acted "totally disgusting."

"And these three men had those 'don't grope' bracelets on. It was completely surreal."

And so it goes. The sexual assaults at this summer's music festivals have come one after another. Many people were therefore aghast to learn that the organizers of the Trästocksfestivalen music festival in Skellefteå had decided to arrange free bus rides to the festival for the local "unaccompanied refugee children."
However, festival chief Nils Andrén could not understand the criticism against the free buses at all, and stated that the festival's motto is "accessibility", and that it might seem expensive to new arrivals to pay for a bus ride to the festival themselves. Apart from offering free bus rides, the organizers also printed up posters advertising the festival in Persian, Arabic and Tigrinya. They claimed they were "proud to be the first music festival in Sweden that encourages a significant increase of newly arrived migrants in the audience."
By the time the Trästocksfestivalen ended, the police counted twelve reported sexual assaults.
The police concluded the report by suggesting various measures to prevent and investigate sexual assaults involving young people at public gatherings. The suggestions are painted in broad strokes:

• Preventive work through situational crime prevention.

• Build a strong foundation for cooperation between municipalities/organizers. 

• Implement a recurring model for cooperation regarding the delegation of actions and responsibility. 

• Direct measures according to cause-analysis. 

• Establishing "joint contact centers" during public events.
• Make a correct analysis of the situation in time.
• Take the first steps towards bringing responsible parties to justice by having investigators on the scene.
• Legal investigation to establish if new criminal modes of operation constitute aggravating circumstances.

Nowhere in the report do the investigators suggest that politicians should take steps to ensure that Sweden accepts fewer asylum seekers from the countries where taharrush gamea is commonplace. Apparently, Swedish girls and women should learn to live with being groped and raped -- or leave the public space altogether. The latter seems quite in line with what Islamic sharia law prescribes.

Gangs In Chicago Reportedly Agree To Use Snipers And Automatic Weapons Against The Police


Is the city of Chicago about to see a wave of unprecedented chaos and violence? The facts that I am about to share with you may seem fantastical at first glance, but they come from the Chicago police and they are being reported by the mainstream media. According to authorities, at a recent gathering of major gangs in the city it was agreed that they would use automatic weapons against the police, and at least one of the gangs already has “a sniper in place” but officials do not know where that sniper is located. As I have warned before, a spirit of violence and civil unrest is rising in America, and the number of police officers that were shot and killed during the first half of 2016 was 78 percent higher than during the first half of 2015. Anyone that does not understand that we have a major problem on our hands has simply not been paying attention.
This meeting of major gangs in Chicago was described as a “summit” by ABC Chicago, and an alert about the security threat that this poses was sent out to every police officer in the city on Friday…

Chicago police officers are being warned about a security threat involving possible attacks by gangs on the city’s West Side.
ABC7 has obtained a warning that the department sent out to every police officer on Friday.
The warning described a summit between senior West Side gang members in which they “agreed to use automatic weapons against Chicago police officers.” The alert also said one gang provided guns and placed a sniper at an unknown location.

An article published by the Chicago Sun-Times went into even greater detail about this story. Apparently the three gangs involved in the summit were the Vice Lords, the Black Disciples and the Four Corner Hustlers, and reportedly it is the Four Corner Hustlers that will be providing automatic weapons to members of the other two gangs…

The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting.
The Four Corner Hustlers “provided guns” and have “a sniper in place” though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all three factions also have agreed to use against police, the alert states.

It appears that what precipitated this “summit” of major gangs was the shooting death of 18-year-old Paul O’Neal. That incident made headlines all over the nation and resulted in very large protests in downtown Chicago…

Tensions remain high in America’s third-largest city just days after video footage emerged of the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of Paul O’Neal, an 18-year-old African-American teen.
O’Neal was gunned down by officers back in July after he stole a car and got into a chase with cops which ended in the city’s South Shore neighborhood.
Last week, demonstrators in downtown Chicago blocked streets and traffic while protesting the shooting.

If you don’t live in the Chicago area, you may not be aware of the massive gang problem in the city.
Four years ago, the Chicago Crime Commission estimated that there were 150,000 gang members currently living in the city. That was the highest number in the entire nation, and since then that number has certainly only gone up.
Meanwhile, there are just 13,318 law enforcement officers of all descriptions in the city of Chicago.
So essentially the police are outnumbered by a more than 10 to 1 margin, and now the gangs are planning to use automatic weapons?
These are ominous times for the Windy City.
Meanwhile, the threat of violence from Islamic terrorists continues to grow. We all saw what happened not too long ago at a small church in France, and there are a lot of people that are concerned that we could soon see similar scenarios play out all over this country.
For a moment, I would like for you to consider one incident that happened earlier this year at a church in Riverside, California…

As Father Josiah Trenham prepared to read the Gospel, several parishioners discreetly scooped up their babies, retreated up the aisles of St. Andrew Orthodox Church and out into the spring air, so as not to allow the crying of little ones to disturb the divine liturgy.
The time-honored tradition was shattered when a car passed by the Riverside, Calif., church, slowing down as the front passenger leaned out of his window and bellowed menacingly through a bullhorn, according to witnesses.
“Allahu Akbar!” the unidentified man repeated several times as the unnerved parents drew their infants close and exchanged worried glances.

Fortunately that unidentified man only had a bullhorn.
But what if he had been holding a gun or had thrown a grenade?
We do know that ISIS has been warning that there will be more attacks on churches, and in one recent article I described how an entire church in this country ended up on an ISIS kill list.
20 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined writing articles about gangs using automatic weapons in Chicago or about Islamic terrorists potentially attacking churches in America.
But times have changed, and we need to deal with the new realities that are confronting us. In my new book I warn about the chaos and the violence that are coming to America, and what we have seen so far is just the very small tip of a very large iceberg.
Just remember what happened in Orlando. It was the largest mass shooting in American history, but moments before it happened most of the people in that club would have never even imagined that an Islamic terrorist was about to start shooting at them.
On Monday night, that terrorist’s father made a very surprising appearance at a very unexpected location…

As they were covering Hillary Clinton’s campaign rally in Kissimmee, Florida on Monday, a crew from Florida television station WPTV noticed the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter sitting in the audience, directly behind Hillary Clinton.

Apparently Seddique Mateen actually is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton, which somehow seems oddly appropriate.
But could you ever imagine Osama Bin Laden’s father sitting behind George W. Bush at a campaign rally?
I couldn’t either.
These are very, very strange times that we are living in, and they are about to get a whole lot stranger.
So hold on tight and buckle your seat belts, because it is going to be a very bumpy ride.

To The “Never Trumper”- A Biblical Case For Trump

 

 It is my estimation that 90% of the people who clicked on this link did so to openly mock and ridicule the redneck, Biblically illiterate, idiot who would dare to put the words, “Bible” and “Trump” in the same sentence. If this is you, congratulations to me for getting you to read this article, and congratulations to you because I am neither an idiot nor a heretic. The following is not some poorly-patched together, theological treatise that attempts to warp the Word of God in order to justify my political sacrilege.

 

 But since I’ve got you reading, let’s make a wager shall we? You read this article all the way through and as Cruz said, allow your “conscience” to be swayed, or not swayed, by what I believe to be Biblical wisdom. You have the right to judge for yourself.

 

 I fit the classic profile of a “Never Trumper.” I am a highly educated, staunchly theologically and politically conservative pastor’s wife, who plans to one day homeschool her children. I even want to be a “Never Trumper.” I really do. It sounds so principled, so brave, to be a political nonconformist who refuses to buckle under the weight of societal temptation, or fall under the spell of the big mouthed billionaire with his lofty promises for a better future. I CANNOT, however, allow myself ignore the principles laid out in the Word of God for situations such as the political debacle Americans have unfortunately found themselves in.

 

 In Luke 9, we find the disciples recovering from a serious blow to their pride. Despite their best combined efforts, they had been unable to drive a demon out of a troubled young man, and had been reprimanded by Christ for their lack of faith. Just a few verses later, we find the dejected 12 incensed that another man, an outsider, was able to do what they had not. I believe Jesus’ surprising answer to their protests has great ramifications for today’s political conundrum.

 

 Verses 49-50 read, “ ‘Master,‘ said John, ‘we saw a man driving out demons in Your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.’ ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said, ‘for whoever is not against you is for you.’” (1)

 

 I can sense your hackles immediately rising from across the screen. “But Trump is NOT for us!” you object, “his essence oozes the opposite of Christian values!” I would first ask you to remember that we are NOT electing Trump to a sacred or ecclesiastical office. We are electing him to a political office. If this was a question of placing Trump in charge of my church or Christian organization, you would have to hogtie and hold me down in order to get me to vote for him. I am not arguing for Trump’s morality here.

 

 I am simply stating that in this specific office, as President, he has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that he will protect and champion the rights of the American evangelical if he were to be elected, even if he does not personally embrace those values. I would think that his promise to appoint a conservative Supreme Court Justice should “Trump” (excuse the pun), our other hesitations. He has even organized a “faith advisory committee” comprised of some of the most respected Christian leaders in America. As a side note, I am appalled at the way the Body has treated the members of this committee and other evangelical heavy hitters who have endorsed Trump. We are willing to let Dr. Dobson dictate the way we raise our children, yet the instant he speaks out on a political issue, we mock him and call him a coward? We make Kirk Cameron our Hollywood hero, pay big bucks to go see his films, and then call him a sell out when he makes a comment about where we should place our vote? Maybe we should let our ruffled egos settle down for a moment and consider that we would willingly adhere to the wisdom of these men on any other issue. Even if you disagree with their political choice, please have the decency to treat them with the respect that their years of faithful service to the Kingdom have warranted.

 

 Speaking of wisdom, would you PLEASE stop saying that failing to vote for Trump is not a vote for Hillary…it is. No matter how much you attempt to pad your argument with mathematical or philosophical meanderings, the simple truth is that a third party NEVER has and NEVER will win the presidency. (Go ahead, quote your Abraham Lincoln story at me, but please don’t forget to add that he did not face 2 dominant parties in his election. He faced four weak and divided ones.) Some of you have offered a far fetched equation that would enable a third party to steal enough votes to give the House the right to choose the president from among the top contenders. I would think that this option would be repulsive to you since most Never Trumpers claim to be proponents of “small government,” and this outcome would completely subvert the will of the people. Never Trumpers also tend to be very intelligent former debaters. This means you love logic. Logically speaking, if only two people are in a contest, your failure to endorse one candidate is implicit endorsement of the other…and you know it. 

 

 Some of you have answered this argument by claiming that, “A vote for no one is a vote for no one,” and thus, will choose to forgo the vote entirely. I would answer this contention by pointing out that a failure to proactively cast your vote against Hillary means that she is one vote closer to winning the election. Your vote does matter. You are either helping to push her one step forward, or one step backwards by your failure to act. You choose.

 

 For those of you who argue that, “A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil,” I urge you to STOP and think about the fallacious foundation of that statement as it applies to this circumstance. If abstaining from the vote entirely were a viable option in this election, then perhaps your pious sounding claim would hold its ground. As I have already demonstrated above, by not voting for one “evil” you ARE, like it or not, casting your VOTE for the other. Even if I accept your terms and define Hillary as the “big” evil and Trump as the “little” evil, you are going to be endorsing an “evil” no matter WHAT you do on Election Day. The difference is that one “evil” has promised to do his best to protect your right to worship freely, and one has promised to do everything within her power to suppress them. You may argue that Trump will turn tail and act against Christians once elected. You are absolutely right. He could. We can be CERTAIN, however, that Hillary will do her best to destroy what little sense of decency we have left.

 

“But, but..” I can hear your continued protests and growing disgust, “Trump is so, so…pompous, so brash, so unfit for office.” The disciples didn’t approve of the outsider who was doing their job either. Jesus helped to correct their perspective. This wasn’t about them. This was about the future of the Kingdom. (I can still feel your eyes rolling at me but please listen…)

 

I believe that a lot of the discontent over Trump is due to his brash nature, yes, but also because of the blow that was dealt to your pride when an outsider was able to come in and usurp the leadership of your party. This may not be true of you at all, but I am certain that it is a large part of the driving force behind the Never Trump movement. I am simply asking that you examine your motives. If you detect pride as a motivator factor, please pray to be released from it and follow the example of Ben Carson. If anyone had a bone to pick with Trump, it was Dr. Carson, but as he so wisely stated in a Fox interview when asked how he was able to get over the personal insults dealt him by Trump, “If this was about me, I could never get over it. This is about the future of our country.”

 

Never Trumper…get over yourself. This isn’t about your personal likes or dislikes. This is about the future of your children. If you aren’t willing to overcome your personal chagrin that an outsider could come in and do your job for you, then you have no one to blame but yourself when Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected.

 

 You will have lost the right to act as a martyr when she comes after your right to speak freely about issues such as homosexuality and the exclusivity of the Gospel because you had your chance to do something about it and you did NOTHING.

 

 Some of you have chosen to avoid the conflict entirely, and have decided to abstain from voting because no matter the outcome, “God is in control.” I agree 100% that God is in control and that no matter who is president, Jesus Christ is King. This overarching fact that God reigns has NEVER been an excuse for inaction. In 1 Timothy 2:2 we are commanded to pray, “For kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (2) If we are to pray for a political environment that fosters peaceful Gospel conversations, does it not logically follow that if given the opportunity to help make this a reality, we should act?

 

 This situation reminds of the parable of the drowning man who turned down three rescue attempts with the rationale that, “God would come and save him.” When he drowned, he questioned God about why He would allow him to die. God responded with, “I sent you three boats!”

 

Whether you like it or not, America is drowning and the Trump boat, though less than desirable, is the only viable option for rescue we have to keep us afloat for the time being.

 

 In Cruz’s address to the Republican convention, he repeatedly acknowledged the fact that this may be America’s last chance to save herself. I beg you to consider the words of your own hero and make the only sensible choice.

 

 If you do not vote for Trump and therefore vote for Hillary, I do not want to hear you complain about the escalating murders of third trimester, unborn lives in America and the increasing span of The Parental Rights Organization, because you had your chance to do something and you did nothing.

 

 If you do not vote for Trump and therefore vote for Hillary, I do not want to hear you complain about future, liberal Supreme Court Rulings, because you had your chance to do something and you did nothing.

 

 If you do not vote for Trump and therefore vote for Hillary, then I don’t want to hear you complain when your pastor is imprisoned for hate speech crimes, because you had your chance to do something and you did nothing.

 

 If you do not vote for Trump and therefore vote for Hillary, then I don’t want to hear you complain when you lose your right to bear arms and fret over the safety of your family, because you had the chance to do something and you did nothing.

 

 If you do not vote for Trump and therefore vote for Hillary, don’t tell me you were being self sacrificial and that you did it “for your country.” Because you didn’t. You did it for yourself.

 

 I am not arguing that Trump is a great man.

 

 I am not even arguing that Trump is a good man.

 

 I am arguing that in the words of Christ Himself, God can use an individual that is “not one of us” to further His purposes and protect His people.

 

 I am arguing that in this time, and in this particular circumstance as the only nominee for Republican Party, Trump is the RIGHT man to serve as President of the United States.

 

 Unless something cataclysmic occurs between then and now, he will be receiving my vote in November.

 

 Ironically, though many Never Trumpers have claimed that they will not be “bullied” or “harassed” into voting for Trump, I have been forced to publish this note anonymously to avoid the violent backlash that is certain to ensue. So go ahead, insult me, call me a heretic, say whatever you want. My conscience is clear before God because I have done all that I believe He has called me to. Can you say the same?

 

 (1) Luke 9:49-50, NIV

 

 (2) 1 Timothy 2:1-4, NIV