Christian Today report- Police in Northern Ireland believe that the theft of a fibreglass-and-steel statue of Celtic god of the sea Manannan Mac Lir in County Derry, Ireland, may have involved religious motivations.

According to the New York Times police believe the statue was removed from the remote Gortmore viewing point on Binevenagh Mountain around January 21, allegedly by religious extremists “offended by idolatry.”

A five-foot wooden cross with the inscription “Thou Shalt Not Have False Gods Before Me” replaced the statue.

The cross is now in police custody as evidence.

The statue of Manannan Mac Lir is one of the many sculptures in the walking trail in Binevenagh Mountain and overlooked the Lough Foyle. It was only installed last year but had quickly become popular, the Times reported.

In the meantime, the Irish police filed a humourous Missing Persons report to seek the assistance of the public in locating the Celtic god’s statue. In the report, Manannan Mac Lir is described as a “well-known, six-foot-tall striking local male with an athletic build.”

“He has shoulder-length hair held back with a headband and has a beard … We have concerns for his health in this weather, as he is bare-chested with only a thin shawl held at the neck with a decorative clasp to keep his top half warm. Evidence at the scene suggests he has injuries to his feet,” the report said.

“He is a very striking (fellow) so if you have seen him please let us know,” the report concluded.

The statue was sculpted by John Darren Sutton, who told the BBC that the statue was a “labour of love” and the materials used in making it held no profit for the thieves.

“I don’t think whoever did this is interested in selling it on, because you can’t melt it down,” Mr. Sutton told the Derry Journal in a separate interview. “I hope it can be found and it’s not too badly damaged,” the sculptor said.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Post report- A legal battle is underway in Pakistan for the three young children of Shama and Shahzad Masih, the Christian couple who were burned alive by Muslim radicals in November.

Fides News Agency identified the children as 6–year-old Saman, 4-year-old Sania, and 18-month-old Poonam. While the children are living with their maternal grandfather, there are five different applications that have been lodged at the Court of Lahore demanding custody.

Those applying to take the children are Mukhtar Masih, the grandfather; maternal uncle Yasin Masih; paternal uncle Iqbal Masih; the Legal Evangelical Association Development organization led by Christian lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill; as well as the nonprofit Child Protection and Welfare Bureau.

The children’s parents were attacked by a violent mob in November allegedly for burning a copy of the Islamic holy book and throwing it away. Accused of committing blasphemy, Shama and Shahzad Masih were murdered, and their bodies were cremated.

Although the Muslim Pakistan government punishes people for blasphemy offenses, it has spoken out against mob attacks, and condemned citizens taking justice into their own hands. At least 44 people were arrested in the aftermath of the murder, though the police chief from Kot Radha Koshan in Punjab province argued that no sectarian group or religious outfit in particular was responsible for the attack.

Several persecution watchdog groups spoke out against the attack, with International Christian Concern Regional Manager Todd Daniels stating at the time: “The brutal killing of Shahzad and Shama once again highlights the extreme danger of religious fanaticism that Christians in Pakistan face on a regular basis. The accusation of blasphemy can be used for any dispute and can often prove deadly as it did today, inciting a mob to brutally murder this young couple.”

Christians experienced several attacks over blasphemy charges in Pakistan in 2014. Another famous case concerns Christian mother-of-five Asia Bibi, whose death sentence for blasphemy was upheld by the senior court in October.

The Prime Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, has promised to take care of the orphaned children, providing them with free healthcare and education. The family has also received compensation of 10 acres of land and 5 million rupees, or close to $50,000.

Gill has argued that the children need to be raised in a Christian home.

“If the three were assigned to LEAD the children would be brought up in a Christian environment, as is their right,” the lawyer said.

The hearing in the custody case is scheduled for Feb. 6.

Source: Christian Post

Christian Post report- In a new propaganda video released earlier this week, the Islamic State terrorist organization has threatened to behead President Barack Obama and spread Shariah law by converting the United States into one of ISIS’ Muslim provinces.

The video, titled “Bombardment of Peaceful Muslims in the City of Mosul,” which was released on Monday and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, is thought to be a retaliation after Kurdish forces fully seized control of the strategic Syrian border town of Kobane on the same day.

The first part of the video shows the destruction caused in Mosul due to mortar shelling from Kurdish forces. The second part of the video goes on to show an ISIS fighter beheading a captured Kurdish soldier.

But before the ISIS militant executes the Kurdish soldier, he makes direct threats to western countries like the U.S., France and Belgium.

The militant explained how he and his comrades will one day reach the U.S., and when they do, they’ll decapitate Obama inside the White House. The fighter also threatened to behead the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani. He also issued threats to the people in France and Belgium.

“This is the fate of anyone who opposes Islam,” the militant said. “Know, oh Obama, that we will reach America. Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province.”

“Know that we are men who fear no one,” the militant added. “We will institute the laws of Allah; may he be exalted and praised.”

The fighter didn’t have kind words for Barzani, either.

“But as for your, oh Masoud, you dog, we are going to behead you and throw you into the trash bin of history,” the fighter explained.

As for the people of France and Belgium: “We advise you that we will come to you with car bombs and explosive charges and we will cut off your heads.”

The fighter continued by labeling western nations as hypocrites for their involvement in U.S.-led international coalition airstrikes, which the Obama administration said has killed over 6,000 ISIS fighters and helped opposition forces seize strategic areas, like Kobane, from ISIS militants.

“This is one of your soldier’s fate,” the militant said in reference to the Kurdish soldier he was about to execute. “[E]very time you launch a missile, we will send you back the head of one of your soldiers. You are killing children and bombing civilians, while claiming that this is forbidden in your constitution.”

The video also showed a resident giving testimony about how one of the coalition’s airstrike missiles landed on his home and killed infants and children. The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that 50 civilians were killed in a single airstrike in the Syrian town of Al Bab in December 2014, which would make it the worst case of civilian casualties caused by one airstrike since the airstrikes began in Syria in September.

The video ends after the shouting militant killed the Kurdish soldier with his knife, while others watched and praised the brutal killing.

Source: Christian Post

Christian Today report- Islamic State’s Egypt wing claimed a series of attacks that killed at least 27 security personnel on Thursday in some of the worst anti-government violence in months, after commemorations around the anniversary of the 2011 uprising turned deadly in the past week.

Egypt’s government faces an Islamist insurgency based in Sinai and growing discontent with what critics perceive as heavy-handed security tactics.

A series of tweets from the Sinai Province’s Twitter account claimed responsibility for each of the four attacks that took place in North Sinai and Suez provinces within hours of one another on Thursday night.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Egypt’s most active militant group, changed its name to Sinai Province last year after swearing allegiance to Islamic State, the hardline Sunni militant group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, drawing US-led airstrikes.

Thursday’s first attack was a bombing targeting a military headquarters, base and hotel in the capital of North Sinai province that killed 25 and wounded at least 58, including nine civilians, security and medical sources said.

The flagship government newspaper, al-Ahram, said its office in the city of Al-Arish, which is situated opposite the military buildings, had been “completely destroyed”, although it was not clear if it had been a target.

Later, suspected militants killed an army major and wounded six others at a checkpoint in Rafah, followed by a roadside bomb in Suez city that killed a police officer, and an assault on a checkpoint south of Al-Arish that wounded four soldiers, security sources said.

After Sinai Province’s claim of responsibility, security sources said a suspected militant had been killed while attempting to plant a bomb at a power transformer in Port Said.

Sinai-based militants have killed hundreds of security officers since President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power following mass protests against his rule.

The military said in a statement on its Facebook page that the attacks were the result of a successful campaign to pressure the militants.

The US State Department condemned the attack, saying in a statement: “The United States remains steadfast in its support of the Egyptian government’s efforts to combat the threat of terrorism in Egypt as part of our continuing commitment to the strategic partnership between our two countries.”

FRAGILE RECOVERY

The violence and civil unrest comes as Egypt is trying to burnish its image in the run-up to an investor’s summit in mid-March, to be followed by parliamentary elections.

The attacks in Al-Arish and Rafah continue a pattern of unrest in the remote but strategic Sinai Peninsula, which borders the Gaza Strip, Israel and Egypt’s Suez Canal.

But the less common attempts in Port Said and Suez, at opposite ends of the Canal, bring the insurgency nearer to a key source of hard currency for the cash-strapped state.

Income from the canal has not been hurt by the turmoil following the 2011 uprising to the same extent as foreign investment and tourism, and a planned second canal is meant to boost the waterway’s value to Egypt.

However, Egypt’s attempts to attract investors for mega-projects, such as the second canal, that the government says are key to securing a nascent recovery could stall if instability increases.

The last major attacks in Egypt were on October 24, when militants killed at least 33 members of the security forces. That operation was also claimed by Sinai Province.

That prompted the government to declare a state of emergency in parts of Sinai, allow civilians to be tried in military courts, close the border with Gaza, and begin building a kilometre-wide buffer zone abutting the Palestinian enclave.

PROTEST DEATHS

Tensions have risen across Egypt in the past week with protests, some of them violent, marking four years since the uprising that ousted veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power.

Earlier on Thursday, a group of women protested in Cairo over the death of activist Shaimaa Sabbagh and around 25 others said to have been killed by security forces at rallies commemorating the 2011 uprising.

Sabbagh, 32, died on Saturday as riot police were breaking up a small, peaceful demonstration. Friends said she had been shot, and images of her bleeding body rippled out across social media, sparking outrage and condemnation.

“The Interior Ministry are thugs!” chanted about 100 female protesters at the site of Sabbagh’s death. Some held up signs with the word “murderer” scrawled over the face of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

The protesters were defying a law that severely restricts protests. “People are here at incredible risk to themselves. But it’s a way of standing against the fear they have instilled,” said activist Yasmin el-Rifae.

Ibrahim has said an investigation into Sabbagh’s death will lead to prosecution if any member of the security forces is found responsible.

One of the organizers of Thursday’s demonstration said they had asked only women to attend because they feared infiltration by plainclothes male agents.

Across the street from the protesters, beside police officers, men stood making lewd gestures and yelling profanities. Others chanted in favor of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Criticism is growing of the security tactics Sisi has used since Mursi was ousted.

A crackdown that began with the deaths of hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and the imprisonment of thousands more has expanded to include liberals and other activists.

Some of those now opposed to the government initially supported the protests that led to Mursi’s removal and Sisi’s rise to power, as people who knew Sabbagh said she had.

Source: Christian Today