Muslim | Ain't Complicated

Persecution Updates

Here are four recent pieces from Mission Network News, the first being from Somalia:

Somalia’s Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity. According to Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Al-Shabaab members have murdered 14 believers since July 15.

Compass Direct News reports the September 15 shooting death of 69-year-old Omar Khalafe, an underground Christian who had Bibles in his possession.

On the day of his death, Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia.

Full article: Islamic extremists in Somalia hunting Christians

Next we go to India:

Since his conversion from Hinduism six years ago, Indian pastor Vanamali Parishudham has suffered opposition for his faith in Christ from other Hindus and even his parents. Most recently, Pastor Parishudham was physically attacked on his way to his home in Narketpalli, Andhra Pradesh.

On his five-kilometer walk home from a Sunday service, three Hindu extremists came up behind Parishudham and struck him hard on the head with what are being called sharp-edged metal rods. According to International Christian Concern, Parishudham was knocked unconscious almost immediately and left for dead by his attackers. He was bleeding severely from the head.

Full article: Pastor attacked by extremists

Now on to China:

An official notice was sent to government agencies last weekend telling them to “be prepared to use military force to crackdown on the churches throughout China,” according to ChinaAid. Dubbed the “Xinjiang Model,” this method was named after a violent incident that resulted in several hundred deaths in August. ChinaAid’s president says this preparation is unnecessary.

Full article: Officials prepare for violent crackdown

And finally back to India:

After being attacked by an ax-wielding young man, death was anticipated for Gospel for Asia missionary Titus Aamer.

Aamer met with this young man because he expressed an interest in Christianity: his parents had recently given their hearts to Christ. Later, however, the man attacked Aamer after being influenced by anti-Christian extremists.

Aamer suffered severe blows to the head and wasn’t expected to live; he remained in a coma until doctors were able to treat his wounds.

Full article: Militants in India launch brutal attack against missionary

Now you know.

Here’s Some Dough and Bread

OK, here’s the headline: NY store owner gives would-be thief $40 and bread.

I read that and thought that sounded so Christian. And uplifting.

So I clicked to read the story, which I excerpt below.

A rifle-toting convenience store owner said he decided to show mercy on a would-be robber after seeing the man collapse into tears and claim he was only committing the crime to support his starving family.

The Long Island store owner provided the bat-wielding man with $40 and a loaf of bread and made him promise never to rob again.

Wow! Isn’t that great! (I really do need to install a thumbs-up emoticon on this blog.)

That sure beats a story I read (yesterday, I think) of a shop owner on trial for murder for repeatedly shooting an unarmed teenage wannabe robber. Anyway, I kept on reading.

“This was a grown man, crying like a baby,” Mohammad Sohail, owner of the Shirley Express convenience store….

Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrch! went my thought wheels. That sounds like a Muslim’s name!

Sohail, who moved to the United States from Pakistan about 20 years ago, said he was getting ready to close his store shortly after midnight on May 21 when the man in his 40s entered with a bat in his hand. Sohail said he tried to stall for a moment and then grabbed a rifle he keeps behind the counter and ordered the assailant to drop the bat.

The would-be thief dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness, Sohail said.

“He started crying that he was out of work and was trying to feed his hungry family,” he said. “I felt bad for him. I mean, this wasn’t some kid.”

He said he tossed $40 to the man, who then stood up and told Sohail he was inspired by the act of mercy and wanted to become a fellow Muslim. Sohail said he led the man in a profession of Muslim faith and the two ended up shaking hands.

Hmmmmm. So what do you make of that, huh?

It’s a great, heart-warming story.

Now I hope the two men eventually choose to follow Jesus instead.

And I hope it doesn’t turn out to be an embellished tale or even a made-up one.

Olympics: Something Big Coming Down?

I thought of that earlier this morning when I first saw this story.

Item Number One:

Attackers with home-made bombs and knives killed 16 police in a restive western region of China on Monday, state media said, in just the sort of violence Beijing had hoped to avoid four days before the Olympics.

The attack, which occurred about 4,000 km 2,500 miles from the capital in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, was a reminder of internal tensions in China, especially in its ethnically mixed and largely Muslim west.

Police said they had information separatists from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement had been planning attacks in the run-up to the Games.

I wonder if this is the forerunner to a Big Event masterminded by Big Terror.

Item Number Two is more benign in nature:

American swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps slipped into town to begin an Olympic adventure that could end with him breaking Mark Spitzs record of seven golds in a single Olympics.

[…]

Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics and will get a $1 million bonus from sponsor Speedo if he can equal compatriot Spitzs haul from the 1972 Munich Games.

I remember Spitz.

Note to Phelps: Stay off the dope.