Persecution Unveiled Cause

Persecution Unveiled Cause
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Persecution Unveiled has established this cause to educate people about the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. Mission Raising awareness to the growing tide of bigotry and hatred toward Christians around the world has become a burden on those trying to wake up those who cherish religious freedom as a God given right. Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice. Email
persecutionunveiled@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Supreme Court Rejects Pharmacists’ Religious Rights Appeal

Image source: Google Maps

By Jon Street
The Blaze


Editor’s Note: Story by the Associated Press; curated by Jon Street.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing Washington state to require pharmacies to dispense Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, rejecting an appeal from pharmacists who said they have religious objections to providing the drugs.

The justices’ order on Tuesday leaves in place rules first adopted in 2007 following reports that some women had been denied access to emergency contraceptives that are effective when taken within a few days of unprotected sex. Pharmacies must fill lawful prescriptions, but individual pharmacists with moral objections can refer patients to another pharmacist at the same store.

A Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy in Olympia, Washington, and two pharmacists sued, saying the rules required them to violate their religious beliefs.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the appeal.

Calling the court’s action an “ominous sign,” Alito wrote a stinging 15-page dissent for the three dissenting justices. “If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” he wrote.

A trial judge twice ruled for the pharmacists in the long-running lawsuit, but was twice overturned by the federal appeals court in San Francisco.

The case is Stormans Inc. v. Wiesman, 15-862.


Federal Court Orders Schools to End Anti-Christian Bias

Christian college students

By World Net Daily
Exclusive Report


It’s being hailed as good news in the unfolding battle for religious freedom: A Christian ministry has won its three-year legal struggle against an Ohio school district accused of discriminating against the faith-based group.


The Child Evangelism Fellowship of Ohio won the legal battle against the Cleveland Metropolitan School District as a federal district court approved a Consent Order finding that the school district violated CEF’s constitutional rights to equal access.

The court is requiring Cleveland Metro Schools to change its facility-use policies, and ordering it to pay $150,000 in damages and attorney’s fees.

The Child Evangelism Fellowship, or CEF, filed suit in 2013 with the backing of Liberty Counsel, seeking equal access to CMSD’s public school facilities for CEF’s after-school, Christian character education Good News Clubs.

Liberty Counsel announced the court ruling as a “major victory for equal access” on its website.

The school district was providing free after-school access to non-religious community groups, such as the Boy Scouts, but refused to treat CEF equally. Instead, the school district imposed facility fees which CEF could not pay, resulting in the shutdown of the Good News Club.

Read the entire consent order handed down by the court.


As a result of this victory, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is now required to change its policies to ensure that religious groups are not discriminated against in the future, and receive the same access and benefits to public facilities as similarly situated non-religious groups.

Child Evangelism Fellowship has been encouraging learning, spiritual growth and service to others for more than 70 years and is currently active in every state in the U.S., as well as over 183 countries. Good News Clubs worldwide are providing religious and moral education to children in 43,186 clubs.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Orthodox Leaders Make Passionate Plea for Persecuted Christians in Middle East

Divine Liturgy at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Chania, Crete
 with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presiding.  John Mindala

By Ruth Gledhill
Christian Today


World leaders of the Orthodox Church have spoken out in support of Christians and other persecuted minorities in the Middle East.

At the end of a week-long summit in Crete, Greece, the Orthodox bishops and patriarchs said: "The oil of religious experience must be used to heal wounds and not to rekindle the fire of military conflicts.


"The Orthodox Church unequivocally condemns the extension of military violence, persecutions, the expulsion and murder of members of religious minorities, forced conversions, the trafficking of refugees, the abductions, torture and abhorrent executions.

"She denounces the destruction of churches, religious symbols and cultural monuments. Very particularly, she expresses her deep concern about the situation of Christians and of all the persecuted minorities in the Middle East.

"She calls on the governments in the region to protect the indigenous Orthodox and other Christians and all the populations who have an inalienable right to remain in their countries as citizens with equal rights. 


Our Council appeals to all parties involved to make systematic efforts without delay to bring to an end the military conflicts in the Middle East and wherever armed hostilities persist and to enable all those displaced to return to their homes."

The bishops emphasised the call to convert, saying: "The re-evangelisation of God's people in modern, secularised societies and the evangelisation of those who have still not come to know Christ remain an unceasing obligation for the Church."

Article continues here



A License to Discriminate


Some in the Golden State say Christian schools have a license to discriminate.
Actually, the opposite may be true.



by Eric Metaxas
BreakPoint Daily 



Earlier this year my BreakPoint colleague, John Stonestreet, told you that the U. S. Department of Education, under pressure from LGBT groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, agreed to create a public, searchable database of Christian colleges and universities that obtained Title IX waivers based on claims of religious freedom.

John and others called it a “Christian college hit list” because it will allow LGBT activists to target Christian colleges for harassment and possible legal challenges. Sen. Ron Wyden and several other Democrats in the Senate say the waivers “allow for discrimination under the guise of religious liberty.”

Christian colleges, for their part, say the exemptions are nothing new and allow religious schools, for example, to provide male-only or female-only dorms. They fear the database will make them easy targets for those who hate them.

You think those fears are overblown? Well, fast-forward to today.

The California state Senate has passed a bill that would make it harder for Christian institutions to obtain religious exemptions from anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT individuals, and make state grant money more difficult to obtain while making it easier for students and staff to sue them.

California, by the way, is the nation’s largest state and home to more than 30 higher education institutions that possess religious exemptions to federal or state anti-discrimination laws—at least for now.

The bill’s author, Sen. Ricardo Lara, claims LGBT students and staff have been expelled or fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Lara says, “These universities have a license to discriminate, and students have absolutely no recourse.” Actually, not true—there are plenty of public and private universities in California to choose from that openly accept LGBT lifestyles.

The bill, S.B. 1146, requires schools receiving the exemptions to disclose them publicly. It would also allow religious exemptions only for seminaries or religious vocational training schools, not colleges and universities—so most Christian schools would, in the end, be unable to enforce standards of conduct based on their faith.

While this challenge to religious liberty only concerns California, we all know that what goes on in California, particularly when it comes to matters of culture and law, doesn’t stay in California.

Shockingly, S.B. 1146 has received scant notice in the press, either inside or outside the state. Julia C. Duin of the excellent GetReligion blog, wonders why. “Where is the secular media on this?” Julia asks. “If the shoe [were] on the other foot and the state legislature was pondering a bill perceived as anti-gay, don’t you think the state’s largest newspapers, not to mention TV or radio, would be all over it?”

Apparently these vaunted defenders of free speech have forgotten the importance of freedom of religion—which is also part of the First Amendment!

On his Facebook page, Robert George, the Princeton law professor and past chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, notes a worrisome trend in America right now. “Many among the liberal secularist faithful,” George writes, “assume that Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others who hold to traditional principles of sexual morality hate those who think and act contrary to those principles. That’s false and dangerous. What’s even worse, though, is that many appear to think that they are justified in hating, and even seeking to impose civil disabilities upon, those who stubbornly refuse to accept liberal secularist ideology.”

You bet! You might even call it a license to discriminate.


Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication dedicated to educating people about the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in the US & worldwide.  Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest. Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.



Sunday, June 26, 2016

Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty



O God our Creator,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God,
and your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be "one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

We ask this through Christ our Lord.


Amen. 


Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication dedicated to educating people about the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. For more information, please follow us on Facebook and Pinterest. Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.


Saturday, June 25, 2016

Liberals Use Gov't Power, Intimidation to Silence Christians, Author Says

Kimberly Strassel
Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journlist and Author 
The Heritage Foundation
Washington 

Conservatives and Christians are being intimidated by the Left and an increasingly abusive government, says Kimberly Strassel, author of The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Waging War of Free Speech.

The Left, once the champion of civil liberties, is today orchestrating a coordinated campaign to bully Americans out of free speech. For nearly 40 years, Washington and much of the American public have held up disclosure and campaign finance laws as ideals, and the path to cleaner and freer elections.

Yet, as Kimberley Strassel argues and details through first-hand accounts, both campaign finance are disclosure reform have been hijacked as weapons against free speech and free association, becoming one of the most powerful tools of those intent on silencing their political opposition.

Through scare tactics and overreach, harassment of conservative politicians, targeting of groups by the IRS, state actions intimidating activists and businesses, and the politicization of a host of federal government agencies, America’s basic freedoms are increasingly besieged and under serious threat.

Kimberley Strassel is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, based in Washington. Since 2007 she has written the "Potomac Watch" column and has worked for the Wall Street Journal in Brussels, London, and New York. An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel is a graduate of Princeton University.

website: www.heritage.org



Friday, June 24, 2016

Muslim Files A False Complaint With Police About A Church, Police Come And Beat Up The Pastor During His Sermon

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By Andrew Biezad
Walid Shoebat

If there are any Christians alive today who truly know what life in the early Church was like, it is Christians in Pakistan.

These people literally live their lives day-to-day in a way that most cannot imagine. Hated by their Muslim neighbors and with no legal protections, they are harassed, beaten, attacked, and murdered each day and often times with the collusion of the police with local Muslims. Put simply, if you are a Christian in Pakistan, you believe because you know it is the truth and will stay with it, because that nation does everything it can to make Christians apostatize.


The persecution of Christians is getting worse in Pakistan, all the while the government continues to say it is working to stop it. The reality is that these people do not care about the Christians, and that being attacked even in your own church is no longer unexpected:

Muslim head constable Amir Abdullah hurried into united church in Fazalia colony, Lahore, and slapped the pastor, Riaz Rehmat, and used abusive language against worshippers during the Sunday morning service.

The policeman was supposed not to enter the church during service and should have been stopped by other policemen deployed there for the church security, but sadly nobody stopped him.

According to Amir Abdullah he received a call on the police helpline saying that church management were misusing the loud speaker. He said that a Muslim, Shabir Shah, registered a complaint on the phone. In response to that complaint he barged into the church and used derogatory remarks against worshippers, telling them to stop the service.

When Pastor Riaz asked him not to disturb the congregation, the policeman made his way up to the pulpit and manhandled the pastor. That outraged the congregation and they began protesting against his insulating behaviour.


Story continues at: shoebat.com/2016/06/20/


Thursday, June 23, 2016

Queen Elizabeth for Brexit: “EU Courts ‘Denigrate’ Britain by Protecting Terrorists”

queen
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
By Christine Williams
Jihad Watch

Even the usually neutral Queen is fed up with European courts protecting Islamic jihadist hate preachers, saying that they “denigrate Britain” and asking the question: “Give me THREE good reasons” to remain inside the European Union. 


Pity that the Obama administration and Western leftist authorities are not as wise as the Queen on this matter, as she has now signaled her position on Britain leaving the EU and the critical reason for doing so. 

The loaded challenge has been widely interpreted as an expression of Euroscepticism since the Royal biographer Robert Lacey made the revelation in a blog post in the Daily Beast.

The EU and the European Court of Human Rights are known for their history of protecting the “rights” of extremists and blocking deportations.

Last night Breitbart London revealed that Islamist hate preacher, terrorist apologist and Caliphate agitator Anjem Choudary supports Remain because “there are certain principles and caveats” in EU law that offer “recourse” to Islamist radicals.

According to Mr. Lacy: “We know from another leaked royal conversation that the European Court of Human Rights has annoyed the Queen as much as many Britons.

“She felt that the Court’s shielding of Abu Hamza, the extremist Muslim cleric whom the Home Office wished to deport in 2012, ‘denigrated’ Britain.”



Wednesday, June 22, 2016

US Vital to Stopping ISIS Genocide of Christians, Helping Refugees, Catholic Group Urges



by Fred Lucas
The Daily Signal


No one displaced from their homeland has it easy, but targeted religious minorities, such as those persecuted by the Islamic State, have faced a worse crisis, said Andrew Walther, vice president of the national Knights of Columbus.

“It’s very hard to be any refugee, but to be targeted for extermination because of your religious beliefs is a qualitatively different experience,” Walther told The Daily Signal in a phone interview on World Refugee Day.

Just two weeks ago, Walther traveled to the Middle East and saw some of the victims of Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

“I saw people who were persecuted for their faith,” Walther said. “They didn’t do anything wrong but be who they were and live in the region where their families had lived for 1,000 years, but were targeted by this extremist ideology. Some were kidnapped, murdered, and raped.”

continue reading at http://dailysignal.com


Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal.


Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication dedicated to educating people about the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. For more information, please follow us on Facebook and Pinterest.  Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.



Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Where are the Peaceful Muslims who are Supposedly in the Majority, but are Silent?




Paul Weston's  video below  should be distributed to everyone around the world.  Please take a few minutes to watch here or view it on Vimeo using this link. 

After viewing, please pass this on to all your family and friends.  Those who plan to vote for Mrs.Clinton this coming November need to see just what this democratic candidate is celebrating!



Monday, June 20, 2016

Christians Abducted by Islamists Tell Stunning Escape Story

Reading Bible

By Bob Unruh
World Net Daily

Three Christians working with Bibles4Mideast who were reported missing a week ago have been reunited with their coworkers and are telling a stunning story of abduction and threats and even a mysterious tunnel escape from a locked basement prison and two days’ walk across the desert to safety.

Pastor Paul Ciniraj, the director of Bibles4Mideast, sent WND a report on the return of Pastors Stephan and Samuel and Evangelist James on Monday evening in the Middle East.

WND reported a week ago that the three were attacked and beaten by “Muslim extremists” and then disappeared after they began to be suspicious over their safety in a hospital and asked to be discharged.

The members of the organization that delivers Bibles to underground house churches at various locations in 17 countries in the Middle East, a region entirely dominated at this point by Islam, reportedly got into a taxi en route home, then vanished.

The ministry, which for security reasons does not disclose its exact locations and operations, said on Monday the escape by the three men was miraculous.

They were tired and weak because of food and sleep deprivation and their long walk across the desert.

But they described how they had been returning from a worship service June 12 when they were accosted and attacked.  “Extremists jumped on us with iron pipes and stickers, took the Bibles from our hands by force, [tore them and threw them away].”

Then “somebody started beating us.”

The attackers were distracted when a bus of travelers stopped nearby, and those rescuers took the three to the hospital. There, however, the missionaries were suspicious of what was happening and asked to be discharged.

They then hired a taxi, a “fake,” called that because they are unlicensed.“There were two other passengers also inside the taxi. But when [the] car moved, they [pointed a] revolver toward us,” the three reported.

Exclusive Video: Veteran Forcibly Dragged from Air Force Ceremony for Mentioning God

Exclusive Video: Veteran Forcibly Dragged from Air Force Ceremony for Mentioning God

By Breitbart News 

When a veteran started offering traditional remarks at a military flag-folding ceremony, several uniformed airmen assaulted him, dragging him out of the room because his remarks mentioned God. Now First Liberty Institute lawyers representing retired Senior Master Sergeant Oscar Rodriguez are demanding that the U.S. Air Force apologize and punish those responsible or face a federal civil-rights lawsuit.

For countless years, service members have given the “flag-folding speech” at military and civic events, including retirement ceremonies. Traditionally, this speech explains the colors, symbols, and history of the flag.

The flag-folding speech also contains several religious references, including, “Let us pray that God will reflect with admiration the willingness of one nation in her attempts to rid the world of tyranny, oppression, and misery. It is this one nation under God that we call, with honor, the United States of America.”

The speech closes with, “God bless our flag. God bless our troops. God bless America.”

In 2005, the Pentagon changed the speech to remove all references to the divine, substituting additional historical facts such as Neil Armstrong’s planting of an American flag on the moon in 1969. But many service members prefer the traditional speech and desire that version given at their own retirement celebrations.

Rodriguez retired from the Air Force in 2013 after 33 years of service to his nation. He has a clear and distinctive voice and is frequently asked to deliver the flag-folding speech at retirement ceremonies.

Story continues of the religious persecution of retired veteran


Take Quran 'or Die': Man Makes Terror Threats in Texas

Waise\

World Net Daily


A man waving a Quran and dressed in a robe was arrested in Denton, Texas, Wednesday after allegedly making “terroristic threats” at several locations in town, including an IHOP restaurant, a hospital and the county courthouse.

Police first encountered Peshwaz Azad Waise, 28, following reports of a man making death threats and talking about “Allah and God.”

According to police, Waise caused a stir at the restaurant on Tuesday by approaching diners and trying to hand out Qurans. He was cited for trespassing and told to leave the area.

On Wednesday morning, he reportedly drove to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital and tried to give a woman in the parking lot a copy of the Quran. Police say he then entered the hospital and threatened to impose the death penalty on several people for refusing.

“He told them to give the Quran to the chaplain or chapel ‘or die,'” read a police press release.

Read more at: www.wnd.com

Pastor Speaks Out: "First Christians Knew Well the Degrading Course of Systemic Moral Corruption."



By Fr. George W. Rutler

Saint Anthony, whose feast we recently celebrated, was an Augustinian canon in Portugal who joined the new Franciscan order in 1220, having been moved by the martyrdom of five Franciscans who had been beheaded by Muslims in Morocco. 

The year before, during the Fifth Crusade, Saint Francis of Assisi narrowly escaped execution when he preached the Gospel to Egyptian Muslims who had killed about five thousand Christians a few days before in Damietta. Anthony went to Morocco but became gravely ill, worked his way home via Sicily, and spent the rest of his 36 years preaching a combination of loving patience and mercy with bold insistence on Christ’s truth and stern reproof of lax clerics.

This is to be remembered when many voices today equate doctrinal orthodoxy with “rigidity” and portray the moral demands of Christ as distant ideals, if not impractical encumbrances. Saint Anthony preached against the fanatical Albigensian heretics in southern France whose misunderstanding of creation denigrated marriage and family life while promoting abortion, sodomy and assisted suicide. They considered themselves more “spiritual” than Catholic “doctors of the law” and took Pharisaic pride in boasting that they were not Pharisees. 


Bold St. Anthony was not an “Albigensian-phobe,” and reasonable people now are not phobic when they tell the truth about mental illness dressed as “transgenderism,” borders open to illegal immigrants excused as hospitality, and denial of religious freedom adjudicated as social pragmatism.

The first Christians knew well the degrading course of systemic moral corruption (c.f.: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:8-11). They would not have been surprised at how the Canadian High Court has modified certain strictures against bestiality, the government of Massachusetts no longer identifies femaleness and maleness as biological categories, people weep when a gorilla is shot to save the life of a human child, and a student in a major university is given a light slap on the wrist for violating a young woman while being complimented for his athletic ability. 


But they would have been astonished at the politically correct reluctance to identify the religious motivation of terrorists who massacre people. In 1951, General Douglas MacArthur said, “History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”

A cartoon some years back showed a Lilliputian looking at Gulliver and saying, “Either he’s very big or we are very small.” In the instance of Christ, it is not either/or: he is very big, and we are very small. But we need not remain small if by a spiritual awakening we “attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).


The Rev. George William Rutler is pastor of St. Michael's located in New York City. Father Rutler has made documentary films in the United States and England, contributes to numerous scholarly and popular journals and has published 16 books on theology, history, cultural issues, and the lives of the saints, and also one book on sports, as a member of the U.S. Squash Racquets Association.

Use this link for more info on Father Rutler or to subscribe to his columns

19-Year Old on Being Freed from ISIS: 'I felt liberated'

Souad Hamidi poses for a photograph inside her family home,
in the outskirts of Manbij, Aleppo province, Syria
Reuters

When US-backed forces seized Souad Hamidi's village in northern Syria from Islamic State last week, the 19-year-old swiftly tore off the niqab she had been forced to wear since 2014 and smiled.

"I felt liberated," Hamidi told Reuters after swapping her black face-covering veil for a red head scarf. "They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them."


For the last two weeks, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by US-led air strikes, have waged an offensive against the Islamic State-held city of Manbij, near the Syria-Turkey border.

The SDF have been cutting off routes into Manbij, encircling the city by seizing outlying villages like Hamidi's, Am Adasa.

Hamidi said she woke up one morning to hear that the SDF, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia and Arab fighters, had arrived in her village.
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"We saw (SDF) fighters behind our house, digging to station their snipers, we thought they were Daesh (Islamic State) fighters, who were still inside the village," she said.

"We left, fearing we would be used as human shields during air strikes," she said. The family later returned once SDF fighters had pushed out remaining Islamic State forces.

Am Adasa had been under the militants' control since 2014, when Islamic State proclaimed its caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq. The governments of Syria and Iraq have launched offensives on other fronts against the group.

Under Islamic State, life was strictly regulated, Hamidi said, including dress codes.

"They would punish people who did not follow their rules, sometimes forcing them to stay in dug-out graves for days," she said. "Since they (SDF) took control, we are living a new life."

Sitting in her family home, Hamidi said she still fears Islamic State may return one day.

"I want to erase Daesh from my memory," she said. "I hope every area controlled by Daesh is liberated, that people are free of them and can live like we do now."




Thursday, June 16, 2016

China: Crackdown on Christians Continues as Church Members Threatened



By Carey Lodge
Christian Today

A church in China was stopped from holding services last Sunday, and members forced to register their identification cards with authorities.

The Communist Party is believed to be becoming progressively more suspicious of the influence of Christianity, which is experiencing significant growth in China.

According to Texas-based Christian charity China Aid, local officials raided Huoshi Fellowship church in Gansu, north-western China, on May 29.

The details of each church member were logged, and the church was warned not to continue holding meetings.

The Communist party is believed to be becoming progressively more suspicious of the influence of Christianity, which is experiencing significant growth in China. Up to 1,700 churches have been demolished or had their crosses torn down over the past two years.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Chinese government last year "stepped up its persecution of religious groups deemed a threat to the state's supremacy and maintenance of a 'socialist society'".

On Tuesday, four civil rights activists were detained by authorities after holding a prayer meeting for those who died in the 1989 military crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

June 4 marks the 27th anniversary of the massacre, during which hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were killed. The Chinese government considers the protests a 'counter-revolutionary riot', and commemorating the anniversary is forbidden.

A report published by China Aid last month found that persecution against Christians in China has increased sevenfold since 2008.


The Chinese government wants to replace "Christ as the head of the church with submission to the Communist Party", the report read, alleging that more Christians are harassed, beaten and tortured than ever before.


Website: christiantoday.com

Monday, June 13, 2016

“Radical” vs. “Moderate” Islam: A Muslim View



By Raymond Ibrahim
Originally Published by the Gatestone Institute

According to Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim Khadr, the first loyalty of radicals is to Islam while the first loyalty for moderates, regardless of their religion, is to the state. Radicals reject the idea of religious equality because Allah's true religion is Islam; moderates accept it.

Radicals, Khadr charges, also marvel that the moderate "finds hatred for non-Muslims unacceptable."

If true -- and disturbing polls certainly indicate that Khadr's findings are prevalent -- the West may need to rethink one of its main means of countering radical Islam: moderate Muslims and moderate Islam.  


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Sadiq Khan, London's First Muslim Mayor

After his recent electoral victory, it emerged that Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, had described moderate Muslim groups as “Uncle Toms”—a notorious racial slur used against blacks perceived to be subservient to whites, or, in this context, Muslims who embrace “moderate Islam” as a way of being subservient to the West.

One of Iran’s highest clerics apparently shares the same convictions. After asserting that “revolutionary Islam is the same as pure Muhammadan Islam,” Ayatollah Tabatabaeinejad recently declared:

Some say our Islam is not revolutionary Islam, but we must say to them that non-revolutionary Islam is the same as American Islam. Islam commands us to be firm against the enemies and be kind and compassionate toward each other and not be afraid of anything….

According to AB News Agency, “Ayatollah Tabatabaeinejad stated that revolutionary Islam is this same Islam. It is the Islam that is within us that can create changes. The warriors realized that Islam is not just prayers and fasting, but rather they stood against the enemies in support of Islam.”

How many Muslims share these convictions, one from a Sunni living (and now governing) in London, the other from a Shia living and governing in the Middle East?

An Arabic language article offers perspective. Titled (in translation) “The Truth about the Moderate Muslim as Seen by the West and its Muslim Followers,” it is authored by Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim Khadr in 2011.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Christian Converts Pretend to Fast During Ramadan to Avoid Persecution


By Carey Lodge
Christian Today


Living in constant fear of persecution for their faith, Christians in Southeast Asia will pretend to observe Ramadan this month.

One Christian who is forced to hide his faith told persecution charity Open Doors that he pretends to fast in front of his Muslim colleagues so they don't suspect his conversion. "To do otherwise would result in suspicions and questionings. It is only when I'm alone or with other secret believers that I can be myself. It is not easy to live such a double life," he said.


The holy month of Ramadan is observed by Muslims around the world to mark the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Mohammed. Followers of Islam abstain from eating and drinking in daylight hours during Ramadan, choosing instead to eat before sunrise and after sunset."Many secret believers like me dare not reveal our faith because if we are caught we will be sent to Islamic rehabilitation centres. I've heard stories of brainwashing, torture, and mental abuse to make believers from Muslim backgrounds recant their faith in Christ."

The calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so the date of Ramadan changes every year. This year, it begins today, June 6, with the sighting of the crescent moon this evening, and the first day of fasting will commence tomorrow at sunrise. Ramadan will then continue for 30 days until July 5.

Open Doors' source explained that he used to take part in Ramadan every year until he became a Christian. Muslims believe that they gain 'pahala' – spiritual merits – for fasting, and if their merits outweigh their sins on judgement day, they are allowed into paradise.

"But praise God I am now a Christian, and I have Christ's assurance that my sins are washed away by his blood. I don't have this nagging fear any more. Now I fast to deepen my relationship with God and to know Christ more," he said.


He added he is worried about being found out, and demanded to recant his faith. "I'm terrified of denying Jesus. Therefore, please pray for me and my fellow believers from Muslim backgrounds, that he will give us the strength not to deny him."


website:www.christiantoday.com

Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication.  This blog has been  established  to educate people about the persecution of Christians, Jews and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the conscience of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice. 

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Chaplain Booted Over Praying 'In Jesus' Name' Goes to Supremes

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By Bob Unruh
World Net Daily

The U.S. Navy chaplain who was removed from the military for disobeying a “lawful” order banning prayer “in Jesus’ name” has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and overturn a decade of rulings in his case.

The petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed by attorney John B. Wells on behalf of Gordon J. Klingenschmitt.

His case was filed back in 2011, after his removal from the military over the issue of praying “in Jesus’ name” sparked years of battles.

Since his removal, Klingenschmitt has been leading the PrayInJesusName.org ministry, and he also has been serving as a representative of the people of Colorado in the state legislature.

“It’s been 10 years since the Navy punished me as a chaplain, for quoting ‘exclusive’ Bible verses in chapel during optional Christian worship, for praying ‘in Jesus’ name’ in uniform outside of chapel, for ‘worshiping in public’ which a Navy judge ruled illegal, and for blowing the whistle by writing to my congressman and the president,” Klingenschmitt told WND.

“No judge in my case, civilian or military, has ever once defended the Constitution as they and I swore an oath to do. I pray the Supreme Court of the United States will be the first to hear my case, and grant or petition for writ of certiorari, and finally rule the First Amendment protects military chaplains’ rights to pray and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“If they let such egregious violations stand, then Christ’s gospel is no longer free to be preached without government punishments in America.”




Sunni Cleric Defends Tel Aviv Terrorists

shooting attack in Tel Aviv
Scene of shooting attack in Tel Aviv.
(photo credit:FACEBOOK,DANNY MECHLIS/BGU,Courtesy)
By JTA
The Jerusalem Post


Israel imposed a blanket closure on Palestinians in the West Bank following the killing of four Israelis in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, which drew condemnations internationally, but also praise by the well-known Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qardawi.

The closure means no entry by Palestinians into Israel will be permitted until Sunday, during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Only urgent medical cases will be allowed through and passages between Israel and the Gaza Strip will also remain closed, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Friday.

The steps follow the slaying of Michael Feige, Ilana Naveh, Ido Ben Ari, Mila Mishayev at a café in Tel Aviv’s Sarona compound during a shooting attack by two Palestinian cousins from the Hebron area, Mohammad Ahmad Mahamra and Khaled Mahamra.

On Thursday, the attack prompted the United Nations Security Council to issue its strongest condemnation of Palestinian terror since September’s uptick in attacks.

The council condemned “in the strongest terms” the attack and expressed its “deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Israel.” The text of the council’s statement added that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.”

But Yusuf al-Qardawi, a Qatar-based religious authority and Muslim Brotherhood leader who is one of Sunni Islam’s most highly-regarded personalities, wrote on Twitter following the attacks that “Israel was always the first to do evil and mischief, and the resistance is trying to respond to defend itself. This is crystal clear and undeniable.”


Article continues: http://www.jpost.com


Your Daily Bread for Life...6/11/16:America’s Christian Heritage




Friday, June 10, 2016

Two Christian Artists Who Refuse to Serve Gay Weddings Are Likely Heading to Court to Battle the Government — but There’s a Twist

By Billy Hallowell
The Blaze


Unlike some of the other Christian business owners who have made headlines of late, two Phoenix-area artists haven’t been sued or fined for refusing to offer services for a same-sex wedding, yet the two women are still very likely headed to court.

Why, you ask? Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of art company Brush & Nib, have filed a lawsuit against the city of Phoenix, Arizona, over a non-discrimination law that they claim violates their religious rights.

Duka and Koski, who met at a Bible study and later launched Brush & Nib, which creates art and calligraphy projects for a variety of purposes, including weddings, believe in ”only creating art consistent with their Christian beliefs,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jonathan Scruggs.

Alliance Defending Freedom

“The pair willingly serve and will create art for anyone, but they cannot create art promoting certain messages and ideas. For example, Brush & Nib doesn’t create art that demeans others, promotes racism or objectifies the female body,” Scruggs wrote in an op-ed for the Arizona Republic. “They also do not create art that violates their Christian beliefs about marriage.”

At the center of the dispute is Phoenix City Code 18.4(B), which the lawyer said leaves the women with three options if they refuse to create art that violates their religious conscience: “go to jail, forsake their beliefs or shut down their business.” The code reads, in part:

No person shall, directly or indirectly, refuse, withhold from, or deny to any person, or aid in or incite such refusal, denial or withholding of, accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges thereof because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or disability nor shall distinction be made with respect to any person based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or disability in connection with the price or quality of any item, goods or services offered by or at any place of public accommodation.


Rather than comply, Duka and Koski have decided to take action, and are asking a court to allow them to be exempt from having to create art for gay weddings and the like, with Scruggs explaining why they are so fervently opposed to the city’s non-discrimination measure.

Joanna's and Breanna's story continues here


Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication.  This blog has been  established  to educate people about the persecution of Christians, Jews and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the conscience of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice. 

Email:  persecutionunveiled@gmail.com  

Orthodox Jew Loses Job Over 'Observing Passover'

Passover

By Bob Unruh
World Net Daily


Religious rights – under fire nationwide, from demands that Christian colleges promote homosexuality to forcing nuns to pay for abortion drugs – are the focal point of a new case in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

There, an Orthodox Jew is alleging she was dismissed from her job at a quasi-governmental authority, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, because she observed Passover.

That, according to friend-of-the-court brief filed by The Becket Fund, is outrageous. And a spokesman says the same attitude “didn’t work out so well for Pharoah.”

“It takes some chutzpah for the government to punish a Jewish woman for celebrating Passover,” said Eric Rassbach, the organization’s deputy general counsel.

The Old Testament records how Pharoah’s army of workers, the Jewish people, were freed from his grasp by God’s power through a series of plagues when he refused to allow them time for their religious observances.


The airport authority dispatched an email statement to WND that said the district court judge “determined that the claims of religious discrimination lacked merit.”

“We have no additional comments beyond the filings in the case.”

Susan Abeles, who worked for the airport authority 26 years, had been allowed time each year to observe Passover in accordance with her religious faith.

In 2013, she followed the same procedure she had in previous years, giving her supervisors notice of her plans and several reminders.


Read the rest of Susan's religious discrimination story

Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication.  This blog has been  established  to educate people about the persecution of Christians, Jews and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the conscience of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice. 

Email:  persecutionunveiled@gmail.com  

Family of Christian Convert Seriously Ill in Prison Repeat Plea for Release

Nasim Naghash Zargaran lies on a bed in an undisclosed
location while on hunger strike
By Ruth Gledhill
Christian Today


The family of a Christian prisoner in Iran are appealing for her to be released permanently after she was allowed home on temporary leave when she became seriously ill due to her hunger strike and other illnesses.

Maryam Naghash Zargaran, a Christian convert who has been imprisoned since 2013, was given five-day leave earlier this week from Tehran's notoriously-harsh Evin Prison, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

"We are happy they gave her furlough, but that's not why my daughter went on a hunger strike. We want her to be free," said Zargaran's mother, Zahra Pour-Nouhi Langroudi. "Maryam has served a third of her sentence and by law she qualifies for conditional release. We don't know why she was sentenced to four years in prison in the first place."

She started her latest recent hunger at the end of May.

Her mother added: "Maryam was sentenced to four years in prison on two charges, but they had no evidence to support either one. They accused her of preaching Christianity in Babolsar with 20 other women, but no one was in court to prove that he or she had been converted to Christianity by Maryam.


Saeed Abedini/Facebook

Iranian Christian Convert Maryam Naghash Zargaran, or Nasim, in prison for practising her Christian faith in Iran.

She described how during the trial the judge joked with his staff and said: "What should I do, Haji? How many years do you think I should give her? Is five years good?"

Haji said she was too young and the judge decided on four years.

Her mother said she will be getting medical treatment for several health problems.

"Maryam is suffering from heart, ear, and spinal disc ailments, and neck and hand arthritis. She had heart disease before she was sent to prison and underwent an operation for it last year. The doctors had told her that she must absolutely avoid stressful situations, but the other problems with her ear, back and arthritis are the result of her imprisonment."

Zargaran, a children's music teacher, was regularly questioned about her Christian missionary activities before her arrest in November 2012 and, along with Pastor Saeed Abedini, accused of seeking property in northern Iran for an orphanage. He was also imprisoned but released last January after a prisoner swap with the US.

According to a recent Facebook post by Pastor Saeed Abedini, Zargaran's sister Naeemeh met with Nasim in prison just before she was given temporary leave, and hardly recognised her because she had lost so much weight and much of her hair.

Continue reading Maryam's story

Persecution Unveiled is an e-publication.  This blog has been  established  to educate people about the persecution of Christians, Jews and religious minorities in the US & worldwide. Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the conscience of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice. 

Email:  persecutionunveiled@gmail.com  


Thursday, June 9, 2016

Hindu Radicals Douse Christian Pastor and Wife with Gasoline to Force Them to Convert in India

Demonstrators shout slogans as they hold placards during a protest
 outside a church in New Delhi, February 5, 2015.
(Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee)
By Lorraine Caballero
Christian Daily


On April 17, two men pretending to be Christians requesting prayer sought out Pastor Deenbandhu Sameli at the Berseba Church in Karanji Village. However, when they entered the Church, they forced him and his wife to chant "jai sri ram" ("hail Lord Rama") and doused the two with gasoline, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

The pastor filed a First Information Report with the police against the unknown suspects, who are believed to be members of a Hindu fundamentalist group.The attack on the pastor and his wife was done to force them to convert to Hinduism. Aside from dousing the Christian couple with gasoline, the attackers also vandalized the Church and damaged the Bibles, furniture pulpit, and even the offerings given by Church members.

In light of the incident and other attacks against Christians in India, CSW chief executive Mervyn Thomas issued a statement condemning the persecution of religious minorities in the country. He also called on the government to take concrete steps to prevent the religious minorities from being harassed.

"CSW condemns this and all other incidences of targeted violence against religious minorities, which have outraged civil society in India," said Thomas in a statement. "The Indian government must follow through on its promises with concrete actions to stem these attacks," Thomas continued.

In Bangladesh, authorities are investigating the brutal killing of a Hindu man on Saturday. Police said two radical Islamists wielding sharp weapons and riding a motorcycle hacked Nikhil Joarder to death while he was in his tailor shop in the district of Tangail, Business Insider reports.

Authorities are now trying to determine if the attack is connected to a 2012 complaint against Joarder, which accused him of insulting the Prophet
Muhammad.

website:www.christiandaily.com

View video below on persecution of Christians in India

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Write A Note Of Encouragement To Christians In Central Asia




Open Doors


Christians in Central Asia need your encouragement, as they are facing persecution in multiple forms. In some countries, Christian services are monitored or denied access to meet. Unregistered house churches can be raided and congregants can be fined up to the equivalent of 2 years’ salary. New converts can face beatings and death threats from family members. Christians can be discriminated against in school, work and other areas of society.

Many of these former Soviet Union states have seen a drastic increase in persecution. Join with us in offering a note of encouragement to these believers who endure so much.

Send a note of endouragement: live.opendoorsusa.org/letter/

Note to readers: 

For over 60 years, Open Doors has worked in the world's most oppressive countries, empowering Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. Open Doors equips persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries through programs like Bible & Gospel Development, Women & Children Advancement and Christian Community Restoration.

Swedish Nun Who Saved Jews From Nazis Made a Saint

Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad
Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad. (photo credit:Wikimedia Commons)
Christian News
The Jerusalem Post


A Swedish nun who saved Jewish families from the Nazis during the Holocaust was made a saint.

Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad was canonized on Sunday by Pope Francis during a ceremony at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican. She becomes the first Swedish saint in more than 600 years.

Hesselblad converted to Catholicism after being born a Lutheran. She saved at least 12 Jews during the Holocaust, hiding them in the convent in Rome where she served as mother superior. The Jews remained hidden for about six months, until the end of the war.

She was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem in 2004.

Hesselblad died in Rome in 1957 at 87.

website: http://www.jpost.com/Christian-News



Tuesday, June 7, 2016

ISIS Extremists Burn 19 Yezidi Girls to Death in Mosul

ISIS extremists burn 19 Yezidi girls to death in Mosul
Yazidi refugees stand behind fences as they wait for the arrival of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie at a Syrian and Iraqi refugee camp in the southern Turkish town of Midyat in Mardin province, Turkey, June 20, 2015.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/isis-horror-19-girls-burned-alive-iron-cage-refusing-sex-terror-group-164913/#F73mKEwDMD3PJikz.99

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/isis-horror-19-girls-burned-alive-iron-cage-refusing-sex-terror-group-164913/#ZkcSwMJTdJdKbx4E.99

Yezidi Kurds in diaspora show support to their peers abducted by ISIS in northern Iraq. 

ARA News

DUHOK – Extremist jihadis of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday executed 19 Yezidi girls by burning them to death, activists and eyewitnesses reported.

The victims, who had been taken by ISIS jihadis as sex slaves, were placed in iron cages in central Mosul and burned to death in front of hundreds of people.

“They were punished for refusing to have sex with ISIS militants,” local media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News.

“The 19 girls were burned to death, while hundreds of people were watching. Nobody could do anything to save them from the brutal punishment,” an eyewitness told ARA News in Mosul.


In August 2014, ISIS radicals took over the Yezidi region of Shingle in northern Iraq, causing a mass displacement of nearly 400,000 people to Duhok and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tens of thousands of Yezidis remained trapped in Mount Sinjar, suffering mass killings, kidnappings and rape cases, according to local and military sources. Also, more than 3000 Yezidi girls have been taken by the radical group as sex slaves.

On November 13, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, backed by an air cover from the US-led coalition forces, announced the liberation of the entire Yezidi district of Shingal in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh after fierce battles with ISIS extremists. 

Refugees
Yazidi refugees stand behind fences as they wait for the arrival of United Nations 
High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie at a Syrian and Iraqi refugee camp 

The Kurdish forces have recently discovered more than five mass graves in the Yezidi region, where hundreds of Yezidi civilians have been summarily executed and buried by ISIS jihadis. Yet, thousands of Yezidi women remain in ISIS captivity after being sold as sex slaves across the group’s territory in Iraq and Syria. 

Human Rights Watch called on ISIS to urgently release Yezidi women and girls abducted since 2014. “The longer they are held by ISIS, the more horrific life becomes for Yezidi women, bought and sold, brutally raped, their children torn from them,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. 


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