by Staff
October 22, 2010
(christiansunite.com) - Nearly 200 police officers demolished the prayer room of Taishan Christian Church in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, China on September 21 on the grounds of a "building code violation."
After the demolition, dozens of church members arrived on site and worshipped the Lord, reciting the Bible and singing hymns while the police officers tried to disperse them. A member of the church said a line of police prevented them from removing their belongings from the prayer room.
The attack was the second such incident in less than a month, as authorities previously destroyed prayer rooms on August 30. Commenting on the incidents, Pastor Zhu said, "The last time they came here, they tore down six of the eight rooms.... , about 200 people came again and surrounded the entire place. Then, they totally leveled the buildings, stating that the structures violated the building code."
On September 22, several believers were gathered for a Bible study and training session at Chen Pengyi Church in Wancheng District, Henan province when police raided the meeting. An American pastor, a Russian pastor and over 30 attendees, including local Christians, were detained. One believer's car was also confiscated. (Source: ChinaAid)
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion09752.shtml
Friday, October 22, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Persecution is a basic teaching in our church, says North African pastor
by Maria MackayPosted: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 10:25 (BST)
For Imad Dabour, persecution is part and parcel of being a Christian in predominantly Muslim North Africa.
It is a region that has had next to no church for eight centuries, but now the church is rising again in spite of daily challenges, the pastor told delegates at Cape Town 2010 last night.
Although there are no exact figures, the number of Christians in North Africa is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
In the likes of majority-Muslim Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria most of the Christians are converts from Islam.
In such a hostile environment, growing in their new identity as a Christian is not easy and many new converts face losing their friends and family, Dabour explained.
With persecution occurring daily across the region, becoming a Christian is a “serious decision”.
“There are two things about Christianity that we teach people. That it gives you salvation and a lot of joy with it - and persecution.
“Persecution is a basic teaching in our church, he said.
Despite the difficulties, the church continues to teach converts the truth that Jesus is the only way.
“It is a hostile environment [and] a daily challenge for Christians with a new identity from a Muslim background,” he said.
More than 4,000 Christian leaders are in Cape Town this week for the Third Lausanne Congress on world evangelisation.
Last night’s session addressed the challenges faced by believers living in regions where conflict or persecution is a part of everyday life.
Also addressing the Congress was Rajael Achi, who serves in children’s ministry in Lebanon.
He said children were exposed to violence and fear in the face of ongoing unrest in the country and entire Middle East region.
“Many people have lost hope in a good future in the country and want to leave. The children dream of leaving as they grow up.”
Although many families and children are choosing to leave Lebanon and the church, Achi is desperate to see those who remain in the country come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
The conditions for evangelism are favourable but he believes Christians must make the most of the opportunities.
He said: “The Lord has given us freedom of worship and of ministry outreach and evangelism that we need to make use of.
“If we want a better future for Lebanon, if we want better leaders for Lebanon we need to start now in reaching out to children.”
He continued: “There are no unreached children in Lebanon. Every child is reached. But if they are not reached by the Gospel something else will reach them.”
source:http://www.christiantoday.com/article/persecution.is.a.basic.teaching.in.our.church.says.north.african.pastor/26931.htm
For Imad Dabour, persecution is part and parcel of being a Christian in predominantly Muslim North Africa.
It is a region that has had next to no church for eight centuries, but now the church is rising again in spite of daily challenges, the pastor told delegates at Cape Town 2010 last night.
Although there are no exact figures, the number of Christians in North Africa is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
In the likes of majority-Muslim Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria most of the Christians are converts from Islam.
In such a hostile environment, growing in their new identity as a Christian is not easy and many new converts face losing their friends and family, Dabour explained.
With persecution occurring daily across the region, becoming a Christian is a “serious decision”.
“There are two things about Christianity that we teach people. That it gives you salvation and a lot of joy with it - and persecution.
“Persecution is a basic teaching in our church, he said.
Despite the difficulties, the church continues to teach converts the truth that Jesus is the only way.
“It is a hostile environment [and] a daily challenge for Christians with a new identity from a Muslim background,” he said.
More than 4,000 Christian leaders are in Cape Town this week for the Third Lausanne Congress on world evangelisation.
Last night’s session addressed the challenges faced by believers living in regions where conflict or persecution is a part of everyday life.
Also addressing the Congress was Rajael Achi, who serves in children’s ministry in Lebanon.
He said children were exposed to violence and fear in the face of ongoing unrest in the country and entire Middle East region.
“Many people have lost hope in a good future in the country and want to leave. The children dream of leaving as they grow up.”
Although many families and children are choosing to leave Lebanon and the church, Achi is desperate to see those who remain in the country come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
The conditions for evangelism are favourable but he believes Christians must make the most of the opportunities.
He said: “The Lord has given us freedom of worship and of ministry outreach and evangelism that we need to make use of.
“If we want a better future for Lebanon, if we want better leaders for Lebanon we need to start now in reaching out to children.”
He continued: “There are no unreached children in Lebanon. Every child is reached. But if they are not reached by the Gospel something else will reach them.”
source:http://www.christiantoday.com/article/persecution.is.a.basic.teaching.in.our.church.says.north.african.pastor/26931.htm
We're entering very dark period for Jews in Europe
EJC president says small Jewish communities being physically, verbally and psychologically threatened by fundamentalist elements
Ynetnews
Published: 10.18.10, 07:25 / Israel Jewish Scene
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) said Thursday that certain Jewish communities in Europe are in grave danger after a recent wave of anti-Semitism, some of it officially sanctioned.
Recently, the organization said, a respected and government-funded Catholic school, the College of the Sacred Heart, in Antwerp, hosted a ‘Palestine Day’, which was replete with anti-Semitic references and activities for youngsters. One stall at the event was titled “Throw the soldiers into the sea” where children were invited to throw replicas of Jewish and Israeli soldiers into two large tanks, EJC said.
Last weekend, an event organized for Jewish children in Malmo was reportedly attacked by a gang of thugs who shouted “Heil Hitler” and “Jewish pigs”. The gang even entered the area hosting the children’s event and damaged property. This event occurred only a few weeks after Malmo mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, was reelected in the Swedish city.
Earlier in this year after a surge of anti-Semitism hit the Malmo Jewish community, Reepalu considered this an understandable consequence of the Israel-Palestine conflict and claimed “we accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism,” equating Jewish national self-determination with hate and racism.
In recent months, German former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin, Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade and Emilio Menendez del Valle, Spanish MEP, have all made anti-Semitic comments.
“These events arriving soon after the anti-Semitic comments from Sarrazin, De Gucht and Menendez del Valle demonstrate that anti-Semitism is at best actively promoted and at worst ignored by some officials in Europe,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the EJC said. “Due to this intolerable situation, small Jewish communities, like Malmo, are teetering on the brink of extinction.
“Small Jewish communities are facing a situation where they are being physically, verbally and psychologically threatened by fundamentalist elements and their extreme left-wing cohorts on one side and the far-right neo-Nazis on the other,” he continued. “If they can’t receive protection or respite from mainstream officials then we are entering a very dark period for the Jews in Europe.”
The EJC is calling on European governments and the European Union to launch a campaign against intolerance and anti-Semitism, so to remind European citizens that the new Europe was established after the Second World War on the concept of “Never Again.”
As co-Chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, Dr. Kantor will be hosting a conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on October 24-25th, titled ‘Towards Reconciliations, Experience, Techniques and Opportunities for Europe’, which will be dealing with and working towards finding solutions for issues of racism, intolerance and conflict.
source:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3969491,00.html
Ynetnews
Published: 10.18.10, 07:25 / Israel Jewish Scene
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) said Thursday that certain Jewish communities in Europe are in grave danger after a recent wave of anti-Semitism, some of it officially sanctioned.
Recently, the organization said, a respected and government-funded Catholic school, the College of the Sacred Heart, in Antwerp, hosted a ‘Palestine Day’, which was replete with anti-Semitic references and activities for youngsters. One stall at the event was titled “Throw the soldiers into the sea” where children were invited to throw replicas of Jewish and Israeli soldiers into two large tanks, EJC said.
Last weekend, an event organized for Jewish children in Malmo was reportedly attacked by a gang of thugs who shouted “Heil Hitler” and “Jewish pigs”. The gang even entered the area hosting the children’s event and damaged property. This event occurred only a few weeks after Malmo mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, was reelected in the Swedish city.
Earlier in this year after a surge of anti-Semitism hit the Malmo Jewish community, Reepalu considered this an understandable consequence of the Israel-Palestine conflict and claimed “we accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism,” equating Jewish national self-determination with hate and racism.
In recent months, German former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin, Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade and Emilio Menendez del Valle, Spanish MEP, have all made anti-Semitic comments.
“These events arriving soon after the anti-Semitic comments from Sarrazin, De Gucht and Menendez del Valle demonstrate that anti-Semitism is at best actively promoted and at worst ignored by some officials in Europe,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the EJC said. “Due to this intolerable situation, small Jewish communities, like Malmo, are teetering on the brink of extinction.
“Small Jewish communities are facing a situation where they are being physically, verbally and psychologically threatened by fundamentalist elements and their extreme left-wing cohorts on one side and the far-right neo-Nazis on the other,” he continued. “If they can’t receive protection or respite from mainstream officials then we are entering a very dark period for the Jews in Europe.”
The EJC is calling on European governments and the European Union to launch a campaign against intolerance and anti-Semitism, so to remind European citizens that the new Europe was established after the Second World War on the concept of “Never Again.”
As co-Chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, Dr. Kantor will be hosting a conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on October 24-25th, titled ‘Towards Reconciliations, Experience, Techniques and Opportunities for Europe’, which will be dealing with and working towards finding solutions for issues of racism, intolerance and conflict.
source:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3969491,00.html
Germany compensates forced labor victims
Holocaust survivors who were forced to work in ghettos receive monthly stipend from government
David Regev
Published: 10.20.10, 07:31 / Israel Jewish Scene
Some 8,400 Holocaust survivors who lived through forced labor in the ghettos established by the Third Reich have received compensation from the German government recently, and 22,000 will be paid similar dues, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.
The German Labor and Social Affairs Ministry will compensate the survivors or, if they have passed away, their family members, with a total sum of half a billion dollars.
Additional survivors were invited to file a claim, even if they were children while working under forced labor laws. However, the compensation applies only to those who labored in ghettos under the direct sovereignty of the Third Reich, and not its allies.
The German government approved the 'Ghetto Pension Law' in 2002, stipulating that survivors who worked in ghettos under Nazi occupation are eligible for a monthly stipend and retroactive payments from 1997.
Since then, some 60,000 claims have been filed by Holocaust survivors, half of them in Israel. Around 93% were turned down, but in June the German Supreme Court overturned the decisions, making the survivors eligible for compensation.
"They have finally paid me for what they did to me," says Eva Yakobovitch, a 90-year old Holocaust survivor who worked under forced labor laws in nothing but torn rags and wooden slippers. "With this money I'll purchase medicine."
Eva, born in Hungary, was 24 when the Nazis sent her to Kolozsvár Ghetto. "I did all of the nasty work in the mess hall," she recounts. "In exchange they gave me extra food and potatoes, which I gave to my mother." Eva was later transported to Auschwitz.
She says the monthly stipend is a lifeline. "I'm sick and I need this money for medicine. It's better late than never," says Eva.
source:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3971040,00.html
David Regev
Published: 10.20.10, 07:31 / Israel Jewish Scene
Some 8,400 Holocaust survivors who lived through forced labor in the ghettos established by the Third Reich have received compensation from the German government recently, and 22,000 will be paid similar dues, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.
The German Labor and Social Affairs Ministry will compensate the survivors or, if they have passed away, their family members, with a total sum of half a billion dollars.
Additional survivors were invited to file a claim, even if they were children while working under forced labor laws. However, the compensation applies only to those who labored in ghettos under the direct sovereignty of the Third Reich, and not its allies.
The German government approved the 'Ghetto Pension Law' in 2002, stipulating that survivors who worked in ghettos under Nazi occupation are eligible for a monthly stipend and retroactive payments from 1997.
Since then, some 60,000 claims have been filed by Holocaust survivors, half of them in Israel. Around 93% were turned down, but in June the German Supreme Court overturned the decisions, making the survivors eligible for compensation.
"They have finally paid me for what they did to me," says Eva Yakobovitch, a 90-year old Holocaust survivor who worked under forced labor laws in nothing but torn rags and wooden slippers. "With this money I'll purchase medicine."
Eva, born in Hungary, was 24 when the Nazis sent her to Kolozsvár Ghetto. "I did all of the nasty work in the mess hall," she recounts. "In exchange they gave me extra food and potatoes, which I gave to my mother." Eva was later transported to Auschwitz.
She says the monthly stipend is a lifeline. "I'm sick and I need this money for medicine. It's better late than never," says Eva.
source:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3971040,00.html
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
College Professor Calls for Israel's Destruction
By Erick Stakelbeck
CBN News Terrorism Analyst
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The flags carried the logo of the terror group Hezbollah. The rhetoric was the kind you'd normally hear in Tehran or Gaza.
Yet the scene occurred in Washington, D.C, just minutes from the White House.
"We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel--if possible by peaceful means," Kaukab Siddique said. "Perhaps, like Saladin, we will give them enough food and water to travel back to the lands from where they came to occupy other people."
Siddique is an associate professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
He used his time outside the classroom over Labor Day weekend to address radical Muslims and leftists at an anti-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. marking "Al Quds Day."
"For the Jews, I would say see what could happen to you if the Muslims wake up," Siddique warned. "And I say to the Muslims, dear brothers and sisters, unite and rise up against this hydra-headed monster which calls itself Zionism."
The Investigative Project on Terrorism captured footage of Siddique's Washington rant.
"This is not a one off deal, this event Labor Day weekend," IPT Executive Director Ray Locker told CBN News. "This is something he has said at similar events over a period of at least a dozen years, as far as we can tell."
CBN News found e-mail exchanges posted online in which Siddique called the Holocaust "a hoax" that was "invented," saying there is "not even one document" to prove it happened.
He's also written that Jews have "taken over America" by "devious and immoral means."
Despite a history of anti-Semitic statements, Siddique maintains a job teaching literature at Lincoln University and sits on at least two school committees.
Lincoln is the nation's oldest historically African-American college. Since 2003, it's received almost $200 million in Pennsylvania state money towards various projects.
Lincoln University administrators declined to appear on camera with CBN News. But the school's executive vice president, Michael Hill, told us they in no way agree with or support Siddique's comments on Israel. However, Hill added that Siddique is tenured and has freedom of speech, and the school cannot control what he does or says on his time as a private citizen.
Siddique has also advocated for two convicted terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda -- including the cleric behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
"It's one thing to have strong beliefs," Locker said. "It's another to advocate violence and go to bat for people who are established terrorists."
Hill told CBN News the school will make sure that Siddique's political comments are not part of his classroom curriculum.
Siddique declined a CBN News request for an on-camera interview. But in an e-mail response to our questions, he denied that he was anti-Semitic and said his "speaking out" about Israel, "conform(s) to the ideals and principles that founded Lincoln University."
He added, "When I refer critically to the 'Jews' I am referring to the current leadership of the 'State of Israel' and to their major supporters, not to the Jewish race as a whole."
Siddique's recent statements in Washington, however, appear to suggest otherwise.
"The Koran says drive them out from where they drove you out," he declared. "There's no question of just dismantling the settlements. These settlements are only the tentacles of the devil that resides in Tel Aviv."
source:http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2010/October/College-Professor-Calls-for-Israels-Destruction/?cpid=EU_CBNNEWSPM_2010_291
CBN News Terrorism Analyst
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The flags carried the logo of the terror group Hezbollah. The rhetoric was the kind you'd normally hear in Tehran or Gaza.
Yet the scene occurred in Washington, D.C, just minutes from the White House.
"We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel--if possible by peaceful means," Kaukab Siddique said. "Perhaps, like Saladin, we will give them enough food and water to travel back to the lands from where they came to occupy other people."
Siddique is an associate professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
He used his time outside the classroom over Labor Day weekend to address radical Muslims and leftists at an anti-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. marking "Al Quds Day."
"For the Jews, I would say see what could happen to you if the Muslims wake up," Siddique warned. "And I say to the Muslims, dear brothers and sisters, unite and rise up against this hydra-headed monster which calls itself Zionism."
The Investigative Project on Terrorism captured footage of Siddique's Washington rant.
"This is not a one off deal, this event Labor Day weekend," IPT Executive Director Ray Locker told CBN News. "This is something he has said at similar events over a period of at least a dozen years, as far as we can tell."
CBN News found e-mail exchanges posted online in which Siddique called the Holocaust "a hoax" that was "invented," saying there is "not even one document" to prove it happened.
He's also written that Jews have "taken over America" by "devious and immoral means."
Despite a history of anti-Semitic statements, Siddique maintains a job teaching literature at Lincoln University and sits on at least two school committees.
Lincoln is the nation's oldest historically African-American college. Since 2003, it's received almost $200 million in Pennsylvania state money towards various projects.
Lincoln University administrators declined to appear on camera with CBN News. But the school's executive vice president, Michael Hill, told us they in no way agree with or support Siddique's comments on Israel. However, Hill added that Siddique is tenured and has freedom of speech, and the school cannot control what he does or says on his time as a private citizen.
Siddique has also advocated for two convicted terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda -- including the cleric behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
"It's one thing to have strong beliefs," Locker said. "It's another to advocate violence and go to bat for people who are established terrorists."
Hill told CBN News the school will make sure that Siddique's political comments are not part of his classroom curriculum.
Siddique declined a CBN News request for an on-camera interview. But in an e-mail response to our questions, he denied that he was anti-Semitic and said his "speaking out" about Israel, "conform(s) to the ideals and principles that founded Lincoln University."
He added, "When I refer critically to the 'Jews' I am referring to the current leadership of the 'State of Israel' and to their major supporters, not to the Jewish race as a whole."
Siddique's recent statements in Washington, however, appear to suggest otherwise.
"The Koran says drive them out from where they drove you out," he declared. "There's no question of just dismantling the settlements. These settlements are only the tentacles of the devil that resides in Tel Aviv."
source:http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2010/October/College-Professor-Calls-for-Israels-Destruction/?cpid=EU_CBNNEWSPM_2010_291
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