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(Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj)
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(Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha)Malaysian authorities have begun exhuming the jungle graves of Christian Post Report – 139 trafficked migrant captives, who were buried in various human trafficking detention camps along a 30-mile stretch of the Malaysia-Thailand border, where it is believed they were tortured and kept in cages.
Malaysian Deputy Home Minister, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, told reporters on Thursday that Christian Post Report – 12 police officials have been arrested for alleged involvement in human trafficking, while two of the officers were directly linked to recently discovered graves.
After it was reported earlier this week that the Christian Post Report – 139 discovered graves contained multiple bodies, Jaafar asserted that the graves only contained one body per grave.
“The bodies were wrapped in white cloth,” Jaafar explained. “It is like the Muslim burial … some are shallow graves, not all.”
Both sides of the Malaysia-Thailand border are believed to be used by smugglers to bring people to Southeast Asia from Myanmar on boat. Most of the people migrating out of Myanmar to Southeast Asia are Rohingya Muslims fleeing to avoid further persecution, while people from Bangladesh use the migrant route to seek job opportunity.
Christian Today reports that thousands of Rohingya Muslims are processed through Southern Thailand every year and smugglers commonly place the migrants in remote detention camps along the Malaysian border until their ransom can be paid.
“If an individual’s family did not pay, those staying long in the camps were tortured, beaten and deprived of food,” Joe Millman, a spokesman for the International Organisation of Migration, told a news briefing in Geneva.
Malaysian authorities have discovered 28 human trafficking camps over the course of last weekend. Last month, Thai officials discovered similar graves and human trafficking camps on their side of the border.
“We don’t know if there is a link between the Thai camps and Malaysia camps,” Phuttichart Ekachan, deputy chief of Thailand’s Provincial Police Region 9, told Reuters.
“It is possible that because of the Thai crackdown some of the camps moved and some of them (migrants) then walked over or escaped to the Thai side. It is possible but it isn’t something we have been able to confirm.”
According to BBC, Malaysian authorities gave reporters a tour of some of the discovered camps in Malaysia, which reportedly contained what were believed to be “human cages.”
Government crackdowns on human trafficking have led to smugglers abandoning their human cargo on boats in the waters of Thailand, which have begun coming ashore on the coasts of Malaysia and Indonesia.
Source : Christian Post
(Photo: Sons of Liberty International)Christian Post Report – Sons of Liberty International, a group headed by Baltimore-native Matthew VanDyke, a renowned Libyan revolutionary and former prisoner of war, has been operating in northern Iraq since December 2014. The organization is training recruits in the Nineveh Plains Protection Unit, a militia made up of a couple thousand Christians.
Matthew VanDyke, the leader of the Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), a group that focuses on training and equipping Iraqi Christian militia to combat ISIS recently discussed the lack of help from outside forces in the region.
He told PRI.org that no one else is helping Christians from Iraq, including the U.S. government.
“They’ve pretty much been abandoned by the international community,” he said.
VanDyke says U.S. State Department officials have expressed approval for what the group is doing in Iraq.
A spokesman for the State Department cast doubt on VanDyke’s statements while reiterating strong warnings against any U.S. citizen traveling to Iraq during the conflict.
“As our Travel Warning for Iraq states, U.S. citizens are warned against all but essential travel to Iraq. The U.S. government does not support private U.S. citizens traveling to Iraq or Syria to fight against ISIS nor do we support any such activities. Any private U.S. citizens/civilians who may have traveled to Iraq or Syria to take part in the activities described are neither in support of nor part of U.S. efforts in the region,” said a U.S. State Dept. official who asked to be unnamed to PRI.org.
“This has been our consistent position on this matter and any suggestion to the contrary would be inaccurate. This is also the message that would been provided to Mr. VanDyke in any contact he may have had with State Department officials.”
VanDyke said the U.S. government has not interfered with his efforts to provide aid to Iraqi Christians so far.
He has been operating Sons of Liberty International in northern Iraq since last December and the group’s main focus is training recruits in the Nineveh Plains Protection Unit (NPU), a militia made up of a couple thousand Christians to protect their land from ISIS.
SOLI is funded mostly by public donations and provides NPU with frontline consulting, advising on media relations and supplies.
“We have decided to crowdfund the war against ISIS. We give people around the world an opportunity to have a tangible impact on fighting ISIS, rather than just retweeting something or clicking ‘like’ on Facebook,” VanDyke said to The Christian Post last month. “They can make a donation to the fight and have their dollars actually contribute to bringing about the end of ISIS.”
300 Americans have attempted to join with VanDyke to help train NPU soldiers, however, only eight could be selected to join SOLI this month. Some of which include three former Army Green Berets.
“We have really high-quality candidates now but we are always on the lookout for more,” said VanDyke to CP. “Once our funding grows and we are able to expand into other countries, we will be calling on more [of the applicants].”
SOLI is currently training NPU for an offensive against ISIS to retake the once-Christian cities of Mosul and Qaraqosh. This is expected to take place months from now, according the VanDyke.
The U.S. government is also working to provide some aid to Christians in northern Iraq.
President Barack Obama said in August of last year that the U.S. government will be “working with our international partners to provide humanitarian assistance to those who are suffering in northern Iraq wherever we have capabilities,” but also said that will happen “without committing combat troops on the ground.”
In February he sent a proposal to Congress requesting the use of military force against the terrorist group. The requested force did not include the use of ground troops.
“I am convinced that the U.S. should not get back into another ground war in the Middle East — it’s not in our national security interest and not necessary for us to defeat ISIL,” said Obama during a press conference.
Source : Christian Post
Yahoo Travel reports – Contrary to popular belief, booking your hotel room further than two months in advance is actually the most expensive – so when should you book your room?
It’s not good news for those of us who like to plan ahead, as it’s been revealed that booking a hotel room 2-3 months in advance is actually the most expensive option.
If you’re looking to book a hotel room for a city break this summer, it’s best to wait – as you’ll get the best price by booking just one month in advance.
Taking into consideration hotel room prices in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, the research by hotel comparison website trivago.co.uk found that you’re most likely to bag a bargain 30 days before departure.
But contrary to popular belief, planning ahead really doesn’t pay off money-wise as the most expensive time to book is 2-3 months in advance.
The prices do increase the closer you get to your trip, but they’re no way near as expensive as they are booking months ahead.
The prices do vary slightly per country, with hotel rooms in Spain the cheapest 4-7 weeks in advance, compared to France where hotel rooms can be booked just a fortnight in advance for the best prices.
Denise Bartlett, UK Public Relations at Trivago, believes the research will result in more last-minute bookings.
“Although many people assume that hotel prices will be at their highest the day before travel, this is actually not the case,” she said.
“There is no significant difference between booking two months or one day in advance, and it is considerably more expensive to book three months in advance.
“This information really opens the door to last minute decisions and spontaneous trips.”
Source : Yahoo Travels

Christian Post Report – Bishop T.D. Jakes Calls on the Church to End Racial Divide
NEW YORK — Bishop T.D. Jakes, founder of The Potter’s House, one of the largest megachurches in the United States, recently called on the Church to become a source of unity and healing in the faith community, particularly in the wake of ongoing racial unrest.
Earlier this year, Jakes, along with Bishop Harry Jackson and James Robison, launched the Reconciled Church, an initiative designed to help heal the racial divide in America. The Destiny author recently told The Christian Post that he believes the Church is critical in the restoration of America while also acknowledging the lack of multiracial congregations across the nation.
“First, I think we have our own house to clean before we clean anybody else’s house,” Jakes told The Christian Post during an interview in New York City last week. “When we started Reconciled Church with Bishop Harry Jackson and James Robison, we came together, we started bringing thought leaders from every stream of Christian faith that we could, and we had to admit that the 11 o’clock hour is still far too segregated.”
According to Pew Research, quoting data from a 2012 National Congregations Study directed by Duke University researcher Mark Chaves, eight-in-10 American congregants still attend church where a single racial or ethnic group makes up at least 80 percent of the congregation, though this appears to be slowly changing.
The same study also found that churches are becoming less segregated as one-in-five congregants now worships in churches where no single racial or ethnic group predominates in such a way, and Jakes spoke about the importance of racially integrated churches in the U.S.
“… Anytime you don’t worship with, work with, interact with diverse people, your ideas about things can become skewed,” he said. “When you read the books that you wrote, then your truth is skewed by your own opinion. And so, it is incumbent among us to fulfill the prayer of Jesus Christ that we may be one, and once we master that then to help the world to have the conversations that it needs to have.”
(Photo: The Christian Post/Scott Liu)Bishop T.D. Jakes speaks with The Christian Post in New York City on May 19, 2015.
Race in America, particularly as it relates to police brutality, remains a hot-button issue due to high profile cases involving white police officers and African-American males. Bishop Jakes, who grew up in West Virginia under Jim Crow laws, shared his own experience with profiling and racism.
“I was born and raised in this country, and as a minority in this country very few of us have lived our lives (especially as long as I’ve lived), and not been profiled in some way. But I’m unique because I grew up during the civil rights movement,” said the Megachurch pastor.
“I remember my father having to be served at the back of the restaurant and us having to eat in the car and couldn’t get out, it really wasn’t that long ago. Today, we don’t have that as overt racism much as we have covert racism. We have it in subtle ways and some of it isn’t just racism, sometimes it is antiquated systems that skew themselves unfavorably for minorities.”
“Sometimes it’s even unintentionally so, and that’s why I think it’s very important that we have these conversations amongst reasoned people. … I think that the church is a critical element in the restoration of America, not only in preaching the Gospel (which we must do), but also holding America accountable to its highest or best ideals and best practices as it relates to becoming a voice for those who are voiceless,” he continued.
On Aug. 19, Bishop Jakes kicks off MegaFest, which has grown to become one of the largest faith-based multi-day festivals in the United States since launching in 2004. The event will take place in his hometown of Dallas, Texas.
Internationally acclaimed pastor Joyce Meyer and Australian activist Christine Caine were recently added to the powerhouse lineup of speakers.
Source : Christian Post
(Photo: The Christian Post/Sonny Hong)Christian Post Report – Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, speaks at the Pastors’ Conference 2014, ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting, on Monday, June 9, 2014, in Baltimore, Md.
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is among the many mourning the sudden death of U2’s tour manager, Dennis Sheehan, whom the pastor referred to as a “kind Christian man” before offering a prayer on Wednesday.
“U2’s road manager for 33 years, the amazing Dennis Sheehan, died suddenly last night here in LA. Dennis was a calm and Christian man,” the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church wrote on Facebook in a post titled “Why I’m asking you to pray for U2 today.”
Warren noted that U2 band members Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. asked him to share quotes from Scripture, words of comfort, and pray with them before performing at their concert in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Just as the rock musicians were about to take the stage, Warren talked about his wife Kay’s book, Choose Joy, which addresses the suicide of their son in 2013. The book encourages readers to find healing in God, and the pastor advised U2 to “choose joy” despite their sadness ahead of the show.
“After sharing the #ChooseJoy story from my son’s death, I asked ‘So how do you go out and do a concert when your heart is hurting?'” Warren queried in the Facebook post. “Bono said, ‘We choose joy!’ Right. Pray for [Sheehan’s wife] Pam who lost the love of her life.”
Sheehan, 68, died after going into cardiac arrest in a hotel on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood on Wednesday, one day after U2 kicked off their five-night stint in the Los Angeles area, reported The Associated Press. Sheehan joined U2, which is comprised of Christians, in 1982 after having worked with Led Zeppelin and Patti Smith.
U2 is on their “Innocence + Experience” tour, and shortly after the sad news broke, Bono posted a message to the band’s website in Sheehan’s honor.
“We’ve lost a family member, we’re still taking it in,” Bono penned. “He wasn’t just a legend in the music business, he was a legend in our band. He is irreplaceable.”
Further, during Wednesday’s concert, U2 took a moment to remember Sheehan before performing the song “Iris.”
“U2 is a kind of family,” Bono explained onstage, according to U2.com. “U2 is a brotherhood. Although, there are a lot of sisters in it now that I think about it. The extended family are everything to us. We look after each other. Last night we lost a member of our family.”
Source : Christian Post
(Screengrab: YouTube)Christian Post Report – Lucifer Morningstar from the Fox series “Lucifer.”
The American Family Association’s One Million Moms website has launched a petition calling for Fox to halt its plans to air a new television series called “Lucifer” in 2016, saying the program “mischaracterizes” Satan and “mocks the Bible.”
“The series will focus on Lucifer portrayed as a good guy, ‘who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell,’ the petition states.
The premise of the series, which is based on the DC Comics Series of the same name, is that the protagonist, Lucifer Morningstar, decides to leave Hell and move to Los Angeles, the City of Angels, to open up an upscale nightclub called “Lux.”
“People like to tell me things, those deep, dark naughty little desires that are on their mind,” Lucifer, played by actor Tom Ellis, says in the official trailer.
But God is upset with the fact that Satan has left hell and sends an angel named Amenadiel to help convince Lucifer to return to Hell.
“What exactly do you think happens when the devil leaves hell?” asks Amenadiel, played by actor D.B. Woodside, in the trailer. “All of those demons, all of those tormented and tortured souls, where do you think they go?”
One Million Moms posted the petition on Thursday and thus far, 9,344 “concerned mothers” have have asked Fox to cancel the program by signing the petition. The petition on the AFA website, which was also posted Thursday, has garnered the support of over 51,000 “concerned viewers.”
“The program previews mischaracterize Satan, departs from true biblical teachings about him, and inaccurately portrays the beliefs of the Christian faith,” the petition argues. “By choosing to air this show, Fox is disrespecting Christianity and mocking the Bible.”
Additionally, the organization has taken issue with some of the non-age-appropriate scenes shown in the official trailer, such as shooting scenes and underdressed women.
“Previews of the pilot episode depict graphic acts of violence, a nightclub featuring scantily-clad women and a demon,” the petition continues.
A Fox description of the program reads: “Charming, charismatic and devilishly handsome, Lucifer is enjoying his retirement, indulging in a few of his favorite things — wine, women and song — when a beautiful pop star is brutally murdered outside of Lux. For the first time in roughly 10 billion years, he feels something awaken deep within him as a result of this murder. Compassion? Sympathy?”
After the pop star’s murder, Lucifer helps the Los Angeles Police Department try to solve the murder by using his uncanny ability of “drawing out people’s secrets.”
While working with the police, Lucifer becomes infatuated with a female detective’s kindness and purity, which causes him to question his own devilish immorality.
“Can the devil incarnate be tempted toward the side of Good, or will his original calling put him back toward evil?” the Fox description asks.
Source : Christian Post
(Photo: Reuters/Khuram Parvez)Christian Post Report – People from the Christian community hold candles while taking part in a protest rally to condemn the suicide bombings which took place outside two churches in Lahore, in Peshawar, March 18, 2015. Suicide bombings outside two churches in Lahore at least killed 16 people and wounded nearly 80 others during services on Sunday in attacks claimed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban.
Human rights activist Pervez Rafique, who’s also a former minority member of parliament representing the Pakistan People’s Party in Punjab, said it will be hard to change Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which he said are upheld by an Islamic government that has “strong relations” with Muslim extremists.
Such blasphemy laws are often used to persecute minorities, and Christians in the country have been facing a growing wave of violence, with a Protestant church destroyed and six Christians beaten by armed men in Chakwal in Punjab in an incident on Thursday.
Rafique told The Christian Post in an email interview on Thursday that those presently in power in Pakistan are known for having a “pro Taliban, pro Islamic ideology” and said that they have “strong relations with Muslim extremist organizations.”
He pointed out that 80 percent of blasphemy accusations against Christians have occurred in Punjab, where Christians have been violently attacked on a number of occasions.
Fides News Agency reported that the latest attack occurred in Chakwal, when pastor Suhail Masih and five other members of the Protestant church were beaten by armed men who stormed the house of worship. Reports have said that Masih and the other church members were being accused of “proselytism and conversions of Muslims,” while the attack is believed to have been instigated by a local imam.
While Christians in the community protested and called for police to take actions against the attackers, so far only two men were arrested but later released by authorities.
Some Christians in Pakistan, such as human rights lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill, have said that blasphemy laws, which Muslim mobs sometimes take in their own hands, need to be abolished.
Nasir Saeed, director of the NGO Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, told Fides: “No one should be allowed to take the law into their own hands. Mass attacks against entire communities show that hate against Christians is growing. The blasphemy law is widely used for revenge, but the government has not yet managed to take steps to stop the misuse of the law and ensure security for Christians. If those responsible are not punished, those who attack with impunity Christian neighborhoods and churches are encouraged.”
Rafique revealed in his interview with CP that back in December 2010 he was the only parliamentarian who submitted a bill at the Punjab assembly aimed at stopping the misuse of blasphemy laws. The bill was never taken up, however, and instead he received threats and warnings from the law minister at the time.
“It’s hard to change or relax the laws,” he said, “especially the Blasphemy law 295-A-B-C of Pakistan’s penal code.” He noted that although to change or abolish laws the parliament needs only simple majority, but to amend the constitution or any article of the constitution it needs two third majority. The present government that supports these blasphemy laws has enough support to continue upholding them.
The former minority parliament member identified several reasons for why he doesn’t believe the blasphemy laws will be relaxed soon, and said that there is a “lack of political will and religious fear and mindset,” alongside the “presence of an Islamic ideology council,” which “will never ever allow changes in the blasphemy laws.”
He said the problem is also in civil society, where media and progressive-thinking people are afraid “to take bold stands against the blasphemy laws,” which he called a “naked sword on Christians and other communities.”
As an example Rafique gave former Pakistan Minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who he said were “close friends” of his who spoke out against the blasphemy laws, but were both assassinated for their opposition in separate incidents in 2011.
He said that in the present situation and circumstances, “there is no way” that Christians and human rights defenders will be able to “bend the government to abolish or amend the blasphemy laws.”
Rafique said, however, that the international community has an important part to play in influencing the government, and said that it might even be the “only hope for persecuted communities in this bleak situation.”
The human rights activist offered that the United Nations needs to remind Pakistan that it is a signatory of the universal declaration of human rights, and therefore “is bound to grant and protect the fundamental rights of its religious minority citizens,” as stated in the declaration.
He said that sanctions need to be imposed on Pakistan if it fails to remove clauses and laws that do not conform with the U.N. charter of human rights and the rule of a truly democratic society.
Rafique added that the United States and the European Union especially should reconsider how they provide financial aid to Pakistan’s government, and ask it to “protect the lives of innocent Christians and other religious minorities.”
He suggested that the international community will furthermore need to demand that Pakistan’s government takes strong actions to “curb the religious terrorism” and “ban extremist Muslim organizations from the country.”
Rafique said that the international community needs to “support and encourage Christian and progressive leadership in Pakistan” in the mission to to build a “progressive and liberal country” that is free from the theocratic state.
He also called for a special refugee quota for Pakistani Christians and other religious minorities who have suffered religious persecution, he asked other governments to pile diplomatic and political pressure on Pakistan, and said that people should offer prayer for the troubled country.
Source : Christian Post

Christian Post Report – “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
— Hebrews 12:6
Lot’s point of reference was Egypt. Genesis 13:10 tells us, “Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)”
Instead of lifting his eyes up to Heaven, Lot lifted his eyes up to the plain of Jordan and saw a place called Sodom. The eyes will always see what the heart loves.
Next, Lot separated himself from godly influence. In Abraham’s defense, he was supposed to separate from Lot. But Lot should have stayed close to Abraham. And a sure sign of spiritual decline is when we find ourselves wanting to get away from godly people.
Then Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. He wasn’t quite in Sodom, but he was very close. He could overhear the parties. He could kind of see what was going on. Call it research if you want, but Lot was just a few feet away from full participation.
If you have sensed that God is warning you to walk away from certain things you are doing, then rejoice. That means you’re a child of His. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
The fact that the Lord brings about a conviction of sin in your heart, puts a roadblock in your path, or allows your secret sin to come into the open is a good thing. God loves you so much that He will try to stop you from going any further. So you have a choice. You can persist in your course. Or, you can listen to what God is saying to you.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000
Used with Permission
Source : Christian Post
(Photo: Reuters/FBI/Handout)Christian Post Report – A masked man speaking in what is believed to be a North American accent in a video that Islamic State militants released in September 2014 is pictured in this still frame from video obtained by Reuters, October 7, 2014. The FBI said it was seeking information on the man’s identity, and issued an appeal for help in identifying individuals heading overseas to join militants in combat.
A Kurdish official has claimed that Islamic State militants have burned an 80-year-old Christian woman alive because she refused to cooperate with the caliphate’s strict brand of Shariah law.
Sa’ed Mamuzini, a representative of the Kurdish Democratic Party’s office in Mosul, told the Kurdish news organization BasNews on Tuesday that ISIS militants set the unnamed woman on fire in an Assyrian village about 12 miles southeast of Mosul.
Mamuzini explained that he was told of the incident by villagers who witnessed the torturous act. The villagers told Mamuzini that “the woman was killed for failing to comply with the strict laws of the Islamic State.”
The woman was from the Assyrian village of Karamlis, which is one of about a dozen Christian villages in the Nineveh Plains that ISIS conquered during the group’s Iraqi takeover last summer.
As ISIS conquered villages, they gave religious minority inhabitants four choices — convert to Islam, pay a heavy tax, leave the land, or be killed.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency, over 200,000 people fled from their Assyrian villages as ISIS arrived and are now living as refugees in the Kurdish north. However, most of those who remained in the villages were elderly or other individuals who were physically incapable of fleeing.
Although the claim of the 80-year-old’s burning could not be confirmed by International Christian Concern, a leading watchdog group monitoring the persecution of Christians all over the world, the agency stated in a post that the incident that Mamuzini described is consistent “in keeping with ISIS’ pattern of brutally punishing those who fail to follow their extremist interpretations of Islam.”
Although ISIS doesn’t frequently execute those who defy Shariah law by burning them to death, the woman’s alleged burning marks the second time in two weeks that ISIS militants have been accused of burning a woman to death for refusing to comply to its rules.
Last Monday, Zainab Bangura, the United Nations special representative on sexual crimes in war, stated that through her interviews with ISIS victims in five countries, she heard of one case where ISIS militants burned a 20-year-old woman to death because she refused to take part in what she deemed was an “extreme sex act.”
“They commit rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and other acts of extreme brutality,” Bangura asserted. “We heard one case of a 20-year-old girl who was burned alive because she refused to perform an extreme sex act. We learned of many other sadistic sexual acts. We struggled to understand the mentality of people who commit such crimes.”
In another instance where a female was burned for refusing a militant’s demands, Kurdish activist, Delal Sindy, recently shared the story of one 17-year-old Yazidi girl who said ISIS militants forced her to read the Quran while she was being raped. When she refused, the militants dumped boiling water on her.
Source : Christian Post