Reconsidering the ‘Christian’ crusades of the Middle Ages

One of the world’s oldest Christian communities faces destruction

The UK’s relentless slide into self-destruction

What Hamas' ideology means for Palestinian Christians

The West has not discerned the spirit of Islamic Jihad

What the British media aren’t telling us

From rockets and rhetoric to revisionist history

David Longworth on the ultimate goal of Iran’s militant posturing.

We must face the truth about Islam.

How are Christians to understand the merciless slaughter of those who were celebrating the Risen Christ in churches last Sunday? Is there anything in the Bible that leads us to an understanding of what is happening in our world today? We will come to this in just a moment - but first look at how the events have been reported.

The terrible attacks on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka are still very much in our minds, but it is notable how quickly they disappeared from the Western media or were relegated to personal stories of those who lost family members. It took a long time for major news agencies to report that those who were responsible for these terrorist attacks were Islamic fanatics – NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) - and our leaders and reporters have generally been reluctant to call the attacks what they were: Muslims attacking Christians.¹

Getting the Balance Right

By contrast, the Western media maintained focus for many days upon the Christchurch mosque murders carried out by a white Australian. He was heavily denounced as a white supremacist whose views were not representative of any mainstream Western institutions.

Photo: Alan Hamilton

The Prime Minister of New Zealand went to great lengths to identify herself with Muslims, declaring how she had abandoned her Mormon religion because of their narrow views.

Churches across the Western world also went out of their way to declare their love for their Muslim friends and neighbours. Churches in Luton still have posters such as that to the right in front of their buildings.

Our leaders and reporters have generally been reluctant to call the attacks what they were: Muslims attacking Christians.

Of course, it is right that we should love our neighbours, including those who hate us. The teaching of Jesus is unequivocal – “You have heard that it was said, ‘love your neighbour and hate your enemy’. But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:43-44). But this does not mean that we should be unaware of the dangers that face us in the modern world as we try to live our lives in accordance with Kingdom values, rather than those values forced upon us by our secular humanist politicians.

The fact of the matter is this: despite the heavy focus in our media and culture on Islamophobia, Christians remain the most persecuted religious group² – and the vast majority of the persecution they face comes from the Muslim world.

Avoiding the Truth

Yet, Western political leaders will go to any lengths to avoid criticism of Islam. The British Government downplayed criticism of Saudi Arabia’s mass beheading of 37 members of the Shia minority this week, probably to protect oil interests. The Western mainstream media regularly portray Muslims as the victims rather than the aggressors.

They avoid the simple truth that suicide bombers who indiscriminately slaughter Christians and any others who may be around them are carrying out the commands of Muhammad in the Qur’an, who tells them in numerous places to kill ‘infidels’, especially Christians and Jews.

Young Muslims are brainwashed with this teaching by fanatical imams who quote passages in the Qur’an such as Surah 9:111 and tell them that they go straight to paradise if they lose their lives by killing Christians. Such a promise is attractive to young people growing up in poverty who see little prospect of improving their life chances, but the Sri Lanka bombers are reported to come from wealthy, middle-class families. Their hatred obviously goes much deeper.

Western political leaders will go to any lengths to avoid criticism of Islam.

Christians are facing danger in every part of the world, because these beliefs are fundamental to Islam. They are not just the beliefs of a small fanatical minority; they are the teaching of the founder of Islam and are inseparable from the religion and its texts.

It is, of course, a fact that most Muslims choose to ignore the jihad passages in the Qur’an and live their lives peacefully, accepting Jewish and Christian neighbours and business associates. But until the Muslim scholars and imams declare that the jihad teaching is no longer valid for today, all Muslim communities potentially present a risk.

Persecution Foretold

How should Christians understand what is happening in the world today? Regular readers of Prophecy Today UK will be familiar with the prophecy in Haggai 2 that speaks of God shaking all the nations and even the natural environment. We are certainly seeing evidence of that today.

The next book in the Bible is Zechariah, who was a contemporary of Haggai. He had a vision of four horses sent from Heaven and going throughout the earth. That vision was picked up by John in the revelation given to him when in exile on the island of Patmos.

John foresaw a time coming upon the earth when there would be great turmoil, warfare, famine, disease and death. The fourth horse of the Apocalypse was a pale horse that brought a spirit of death that would lead to a time of great persecution of Christians with an increase of martyrdom – many being killed for their faith in Jesus.

Blessed Assurance

The 20^th Century was the bloodiest in the history of humankind, with more people dying in warfare and political upheavals than at any previous time. But what we are seeing in the 21^st Century is not so much open warfare as political, economic and social upheaval bringing enormous uncertainty, instability and fear for the future.

Cyber-attacks, terrorist bombs, vast changes in technology mixed with economic volatility, political corruption and social upheavals have created a climate of chaos and confusion. Changes in the weather and reports that the future of the earth is threatened by climate change add to the general sense of unease in the world.

On the island of Patmos, John foresaw a time of great persecution of Christians with an increase in martyrdom.

But God has sent us forewarning of these times, which will intensify as we get nearer to the return of the Lord Jesus. The message in the Book of Revelation is one of woe to the great city of Babylon with its wealth, power and corruption that human beings love. But for Christians there is the firm assurance that believers in Jesus will never be separated from him in life or death and that God’s good purposes will triumph over evil in the end, when there will be great rejoicing in Heaven as the multitude of believers join in singing ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns!’

Yes, we can expect plenty of difficulties ahead for Christians: but the firm promise of God is that “nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39).

References

1 E.g. see articles from Maajid Nawaz at LBC and Rod Liddle for The Spectator (£).

2 According to figures from the Pew Research Centre. Read more here. Open Doors estimates that violent attacks on Christians doubled between 2017 and 2018.

Just how peaceful is the ‘March of Return’?

After our overview last week of the Gaza border protests, which Hamas claims will climax this coming week, David Longworth takes an in-depth look at Palestinian rhetoric, asking whether we can trust the Western media’s assertion that the protests are ‘peaceful’. N.B. Some of the information in this article might be distressing.

The American news agency Bloomberg, reporting on the ‘Great Return March’ activities promoted by Hamas on Friday 6 April, carried the following comment: “…protesters sought to thwart Israeli snipers by burning mounds of tires and using mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays into soldiers’ eyes, as some pelted soldiers with rocks and firebombs. The Israeli army said it used water cannons to put out fires, a giant fan to dispel the tire smoke and live rounds against people who tried to breach the fence.”¹

The irony of this literal illustration of the deception being largely swallowed whole by the Western media seemed lost upon the writers of the article. Smoke and mirrors indeed!

Spontaneous?

There is little in the demonstrations that is spontaneous. Hamas, the organisation that governs Gaza, organises protestors and provides transport to the fence area. Yet its website maintains the camouflage of spontaneous and peaceful protest; for example:

The Zionist entity is gearing up to confront the mass participation and expansion of the Great March of Return amidst internal Israeli conflict on techniques needed to quell this peaceful form of resistance, which is capable of gaining worldwide support…

The Zionist occupation terrorised and threatened the peaceful protesters of the Great March of Return and conveyed a message that it isn’t concerned about the popular achievements on the ground…²

Compare this with a recording made of a conversation in which the Arab owner of a Gaza transportation company is heard telling an Israeli administrator about Hamas: "They came in, arrested us and pressed charges. They told me they wanted to lock me up and brought in other drivers. They said they wanted to impound my buses. What was I supposed to do?"³

Behind the various activities is a web of Islamist incitement and deceit which is rarely, if ever, commented upon by Western media.

For Justice?

Behind the various activities is a web of Islamist incitement and deceit which is rarely, if ever, commented upon by Western media. The so-called ‘Great Return March’ began on Friday 30 March 2018. Yet as early as 27 January a Friday sermon in Gaza by Imam Musa Abu Jleidan, posted on the internet, included this:

The Great Return March, which is the national and Islamic consensus, is a form of Jihad. It does not eliminate the need for Jihad by the sword, by missiles or by rockets. They go hand in hand. It has caused harm to our enemies and today they are in a state of distress.

Allah said to us about the Jews, ‘Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. They slay the prophets and people who command justice. They are the philosophers of terrorism and crime, people of treachery and deceit, who slayed the prophets of Allah. It is an honour for us here on this blessed land to have been chosen by Allah to fight them and to strike fear in them.⁴

It seems no coincidence that on the very same Friday in Saudi Arabia, a prominent imam proclaimed in his sermon, “These are the Jews. Allah cursed them, was angry with them, and turned them into apes and pigs. He would keep sending to them until the Day of Resurrection those who would lay upon them a cruel torment. They instigate strife among Muslims, and the Muslims will continue to confront them until Judgment Day.”

The sermon ended with Islamist invocations:

Imam: Oh Allah, hasten their annihilation.

Congregation: Amen.

Imam: Oh Allah, count them one by one, and kill them down to the very last one.

Congregation: Amen.

Imam: Do not spare a single one of them.

Congregation: Amen.⁵

Such anti-Semitism is endemic to the situation in Gaza, 99% of whose population is primarily Sunni Muslim.

Peaceful Intentions?

How ‘peaceful’, then, are the intentions behind the organised protests? A leader of the Al-Sawarka Bedouin tribe preached a sermon broadcast on Gaza’s Al-Aqsa TV on 29 March, in which he asserted, forcefully:

This is a message to the whole world: The Palestinian people shall never relinquish the Right of Return. The Palestinian people shall liberate its land with blood, with martyrs, with women, and with children. We shall never relinquish our land, the land of our fathers and of our forefathers. We shall return with all our might.

We shall return as liberators, with our heads held high, and carrying the banner of 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger…This siege must be shattered with all our might – with our bodies, our lives, our hands, and our bare chests. We shall come and take down that fence with the fingernails of our children, Allah willing.⁶

The irony of the use of smoke and mirrors is largely lost on the Western media.

If that might be dismissed as mere religious rhetoric, here’s what Yahya Sinwar, the Prime Minister of Gaza said on Al-Jazeera TV, on Friday 30 March: “Let them wait for our big push. We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”⁷

He was also reported by Britain’s Labour Friends of Israel as adopting a particularly blood-curdling tone. They quoted him as saying “The March of Return will continue…until we remove this transient border” and vowing that the people of Gaza will “eat the livers of those besieging” them.⁸

On 5 April Iyad Abu Funun, a Hamas cleric and TV host, said on Al-Aqsa TV, “If our generation today makes a decision – and indeed, we are making this decision, and all our people’s generations need to make this decision…Our hijra [emigration/flight] must come to an end. We have a right to our land, and we must return to it. We must return to it – above ground, underground, by means of demonstrations, bombs, weapons, explosives, explosive belts…We must return to our land…”.⁹

Mohammed Talatene/DPA/PA ImagesAnimated footage followed these words, showing Palestinian men attacking Israeli towns in the West Bank with rifles, missiles, and hand-grenades, torching homes and leaving the land barren and in flames.

Non-Violent Behaviour?

One may then ask, what about peaceful behaviour? On 28 April members of a ‘Tyre-Burning Unit’ proclaimed:

Martyrs in the millions are marching to Jerusalem! Martyrs in the millions are marching to Jerusalem! Martyrs in the millions are marching to Jerusalem! Allah Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!...We, in the tire-burning unit – this important unit in Gaza – say to all those who conspire against the Palestinian people: we are steadfast, we persevere, and we are ready to sacrifice our lives…Let despicable Trump hear the voice of the mujahideen: What is our loftiest aspiration? To die for the sake of Allah!¹⁰

Gazans readying a weaponised balloon. NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images.Photos taken of Palestinians within the Gaza boundary clearly show determined efforts to cause injury and damage. Very large catapults have been used to propel rocks and improvised explosive devices against the IDF.

Large kites have been used with devastating effect to carry flaming fuel-soaked material into Israel’s nature reserves and cereal fields. YNet News reported on 24 April that “Four kites affixed with burning objects were flown from Gaza at a wheat field in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council on Monday. While there were no casualties, the consequent fire caused immense damage, torching an estimated 100 dunam (equal to 1,000 square meters) of wheat…Other Gaza perimeter farmers echoed his opinion, estimating the damage caused by the incendiary kites to reach the thousands of shekels, with torched chickpea and wheat fields in their wake."¹¹

Then on 2 May hundreds of dunams of lovely grasslands and woodlands of the Be’eri Forest were left badly charred. Ten firefighter teams were battling the weather conditions for hours as well as the blaze, due to a sharav currently gripping the country – a hot, dry desert wind that combines super-high temperatures with low humidity and strong easterly winds, all of which is a recipe for increasing any kind of wildfire.¹²

Photos taken of Palestinians within the Gaza boundary clearly show determined efforts to cause injury and damage.

And an IDF video shows masked Gazans chanting, “Allah willing, the Jews’ hearts will burn. We will not stop until the Jews leave our land and, Allah willing, we return to it.”¹³

There can be no doubt that Islam and its inherent deception lie at the heart of Palestinian political and military action, especially in Gaza. We must not be fooled. If recent events are anything to go by, it seems that the need for watchful prayer has never been greater.

References

1 Palestinians clash with Israeli troops along Gaza border. Bloomberg, 6 April 2018.

2 Great March of Return...An option feared by the occupation. Hamas, 5 May 2018.

3 COGAT reveals Hamas threats against bus company owners. YNet News, 5 April 2018.

4 Translations from Arabic by the Middle Eastern Monitoring and Research Institute (MEMRI). Taken from here.

5 MEMRI TV, 28 January 2018.

6 MEMRI TV, 29 March 2018.

7 Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - We Will Tear Out Their Hearts - April 6, 2018. Youtube.

8 Clashes at the Gaza border leave sixteen Palestinians dead. Labour Friends of Israel, 4 April 2018.

9 MEMRI TV, 5 April 2018.

10 MEMRI, 28 April 2018.

11 Continuing kite threat puts Israeli farmers on edge. YNet News, 24 April 2018.

12 WATCH: Be’eri Forest Fire Started by Gaza Terror Kites. Jewish Press, 2 May 2018.

13 PEACEFUL PROTEST? ‘The Jews’ Hearts Will Burn,’ Threaten Gaza Rioters. United With Israel, 7 May 2018.