Christian bishop killed over outreach to Uganda Muslims:
‘Today Allah has judged you’
By Anugrah Kumar,
Christian Post Contributor
Sunday, June 20, 2021
A radical Muslim has confessed to police in Uganda that he killed a 70-year-old pastor earlier this month because of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims by sharing the Gospel.
The accused, identified as Imam Uthman Olingha, told police he killed Bishop Francis Obo, senior pastor of Mpingire Pentecostal Revival Church Ministries International in Odapako village Mpingire Sub-County, on June 11, Morning Star News reported.
Olingha was one of the Muslim extremists dressed in Islamic attire who stopped Pastor Obo and his wife on their way home from a market at about 8:30 p.m., his wife, Christine Obo, said.
“Olingha openly confessed (to police) that he can’t regret that he killed the bishop because he did it in the cause of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims. He added that Allah will be with him in jail, but the kafiri (infidel) deserved the killing.”
One of the attackers told the pastor, who oversaw 17 churches across the region and had been sharing Christ with Muslims, that he was an “infidel” who caused Muslims to leave Islam and “blasphemes the words of Allah,” and that, “Today Allah has judged you.”
A week before the murder, the couple had invited a former Islamic teacher to testify on how he became a Christian at their church, Christine Obo recalled. Area Muslims were also upset with the church because it offered the former Islamic teacher a pig as part of a micro-enterprise livestock project that helped raise funds for the church, she added.
Describing the incident, she said, “As I moved a few meters in a hurry trying to save my life, I heard a little noise and wailing from my husband and realized that his life was in danger.”
When she reached home, she was trembling and unable to speak, she said, and her children took her to a hospital. When she regained consciousness the following morning, she told her oldest son and his siblings to go to the site.
“Reaching there, they were shocked and fearful as they found a big number of Christians and relatives gathered around the dead body mourning their bishop after being murdered by Muslims,” Obo was quoted as saying.
According to World Watch Monitor, a homegrown Islamist rebel movement organizing in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo has emboldened Ugandan radicals to persecute Christians.
Voice of the Martyrs earlier noted that Uganda’s history has made it vulnerable to the influence of Islam as “Arab countries also continue to invest significant resources into furthering Muslim interests in the country.”
In Uganda, persecution is mainly seen in the form of local Islamists persecuting Christians, mostly in areas where “radicals have been steadily encroaching.”
“Radical Islam’s influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam,” a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet explains. “Despite the risks, evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.”
Last December, a mob of Muslim extremists in Uganda reportedly killed 41-year-old former imam Yusuf Kintu a week after he converted to Christianity.
German government to ban displaying of Hamas flag, after spike in anti-Semitic incidents during Gaza conflict – media
20 Jun, 2021 16:26
© Global Look Press / DPA / Mohammed Talatene
Germany’s coalition government has reached a consensus to impose a ban on the flag of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. The move is intended to send a “clear message to Jewish citizens” amid a spike in anti-Semitic incidents.
The ban on the Hamas flag was first reported by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. The outlet cited Thorsten Frei, the deputy parliamentary spokesperson for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
The two parties that spearheaded the move have reached a consensus with their parliamentary partner, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the official said.
“We do not want the flags of terrorist organizations to be waved on German soil,” Frei stated. “I’m very pleased that the SPD has joined our initiative. In doing so, we can send a clear signal to our Jewish citizens.”
The SPD reportedly had constitutional concerns about the move, but those differences were ultimately settled. According to a letter obtained by the newspaper that was sent by Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), the party believed the initial proposal by the CDU/CSU was “in need of revision”.
While Germany has not designated it as a terrorist group, this was the label the European Union slapped on Hamas in the early 2000s. Berlin had previously taken similar action against other pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel groups.
Back in 2019, for instance, it branded Lebanon-based Hezbollah – both its military and political wings – as a terrorist group and banned the displaying of its flag or the showing of support. Unlike Germany, the EU as a whole designated only the military wing of Hezbollah as a terror group.
The action against the Hamas follows a wave of pro-Palestinian events that swept over Germany back in May, during the two-week conflict between the armed group and Israel. Many of the pro-Palestinian rallies have been marred by assorted incidents, including attacks on synagogues, the burning of Israeli flags, and so on.
Many Germans still remember the massacre at the Munich Olympics orchestrated by Palestinian terrrorists. Nine Israeli athletes were killed and a German policeman. 5 Black September terrorists were killed in the rescue operation that went very badly. The 3 surviving members of Black September were put on a blacklist with several others, where Mossad was authorized to hunt them down and neutralize them. They did!
'Fresh wave of violence' in Mozambique driven by radical jihadist extremists;
children beheaded
"This is probably the greatest wave of Islamic violence
that the modern era has seen.”
By Emily Wood,
Christian Post Reporter
| Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Conditions in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, have “seriously deteriorated” over the past year, affecting children “disproportionately” as nearly 3,000 people have been killed and over 800,000 displaced since the violent insurgency that began in October 2017, according to a report.
Violent attacks by Islamic rebels in the Cabo Delgado province have led to the deaths of more than 2,838 people, including over 1,400 civilians, though the actual number is expected to be higher.
A report released this month by Save the Children, Plan International and World Vision showed how the extent of the conflict in Cabo Delgado has worsened in the last 12 months and how children are suffering disproportionately.
The last 12 months of Mozambique’s Islamic insurgency has escalated due to increased armed conflict on villages and district capital towns, leading to casualties and “grave violations” against children.
Amy Lamb, director of communications for Open Doors, told The Christian Post that the “fresh wave of violence” in Mozambique has had a “devastating” toll.
Lamb said that for the first time, Mozambique was added to the World Watch List for the first time as being among the most persecuted countries “because of the fresh wave of violence coming into Mozambique primarily driven by radical jihadist extremists.”
A March attack on Palma, a town in the northeast of Mozambique, led to an estimated 67,848 displaced people as of June 4.
Many children affected by this attack were orphaned or were separated from their parents as they fled.
The southeastern African country is home to about 17 million Christians, which is over 50% of the population. Lamb said it's also home to one of the fastest-growing evangelical populations in the world.
“Because of [the rise in Christianity], we’re seeing jihadist groups including those who are affiliated with the Islamic state, with al Shabab, with Boko Haram, al Qaeda,” Lamb explained.
“It’s just organizing together in order to expand their territories throughout the African continent, and their goal is really to eradicate Christianity from this territory and, unfortunately, in some ways, it’s working,” she continued. “Even specifically from this northern part of Mozambique, an estimated 800,000 people have fled the region, and those who remain, including women, children, families, are facing starvation even if they’re spared from … violence.”
Lamb said Christians in Mozambique are especially targeted with violence and believes the government contributes to this.
“There is a great deal of instability, and there can even be some anti-Christian antipathy at the government level,” Lamb said. “So as far as the government of Mozambique, in some ways, it’s not helping because there are some of those antipathies even at the highest level, so when it’s pervasive at the lower level, it’s combining into a perfect storm.”
The report also offers recommendations and said the U.N. and international community “must, without delay,” support the establishment of peace and address underlying causes of the conflict.
In March, the U.S. Army Green Berets were deployed to Mozambique to train Mozambican marines to counter the violent insurgency that has led to children as young as 12 years old being beheaded.
Lamb agrees that the situation requires the international community’s attention and said the Islamic State is struggling to gain a hold of the entire region in what she believes is “the greatest wave of Islamic violence” in the modern era.
“It should be a matter of grave concern for the international community because it is an indication that there is an emerging caliphate throughout the sub-Saharan African region,” she said. “So what we saw in the devastation … that’s all caliphate activity.”
“And what’s so concerning is these groups are organizing together to create what’s essentially a new Islamic State throughout the entire region,” Lamb continued. “So that is deeply concerning, not just from a religious freedom standpoint, but also from a democracy standpoint. Also from just the overall human rights condition of we have this one group of incredibly violent extremists who are saying … ‘we’re going to take over.” It should be a matter of concern for the international community because this is probably the greatest wave of Islamic violence that the modern era has seen.”
Lamb called on the American Church to pray for Christians in Mozambique and for those who have been displaced.
“Pray for God’s intervention in the violent attacks, and as rapidly as we have seen this wave of violence rise, that we would see it decline just as fast,” Lamb added.
Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment