Christian Post report– Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian mother who was held prisoner and initially sentenced to death in Sudan for her faith, is set to receive the National Religious Broadcasters’ President’s Award later in February for showing “what it means to not be ashamed of Christ.”
“Mariam Ibraheem is a modern-day example of what it means to not be ashamed of Christ,” said NRB President and CEO Jerry A. Johnson. “We are honored to welcome her to NRB15 as we rejoice with her over God’s protective care in her life.”
The Islamic government of Sudan sentenced Ibrahim to 100 lashes and to death in 2014 for the crimes of apostasy and adultery for marrying Daniel Wani, an American Christian citizen. The mother was forced to take care of her young son while in prison, and to give birth to her second child while in chains.
Ibrahim was told that she could save her life if she renounced her faith in Christ and converted to Islam. The mother refused to do so, however, and explained that she had been raised a Christian and continues to identify as one.
Following intense international pressure, the government of Sudan agreed to clear Ibrahim of the charges and released her from prison on June 24, 2014.
Although she was once again detained for carrying a false passport, Ibrahim and her family finally left Sudan for Italy following help from the Italian government. Persecution watchdog groups celebrated the departure, and called it an “answered prayer” for the thousands who had signed petitions and offered prayers.
“The ACLJ, in conjunction with nations and organizations worldwide, fought for Meriam and her family their basic religious liberties. Because of the unwavering dedication of the American people, the four are now safe in Italy and hoping to be in the United States soon,” Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, said at the time.
Ibrahim, who is now living with her family in New Hampshire, has said that she hopes to return to Sudan one day to campaign for others who are facing religious persecution.
“It wasn’t easy, I can’t describe it,” she told BBC News of her time in prison. “But there are others who are in worse conditions in Sudan than those I was in.”
“Sadly, this was all under the guise of the law. So instead of protecting people, the law is harming them.”
NRB will present Ibrahim the award on Feb. 25 in Nashville, Tennessee, where the Christian mother will first be honored at the Hope for the Heart women’s breakfast. Ibrahim will be joined by June Hunt, CSO and founder of Hope for the Heart, as well as by syndicated talk show host Janet Parshall.
Christian Today report– A jurist who is also vice-chancellor of NALSAR University of Law in Hyderbad has called the resurgence of religion in public space represents a “serious concern” for secularism in India.
According to Indian newspaper Economic Times of India, NALSAR vice chancellor Faizan Mustafa spoke to Press Trust India (PTI) and said that a controversial government ad circulated on Republic Day and the subsequent statements issued by Shiv Sena presented an opportunity for examination of the current state of secularism in the country.
The advertisement on Republic Day featured a version of the country’s Preamble of the Constitution with the words “secular” and “socialist” removed.
Shiv Sena, a regional political party aligned with the right and its pro-Hindu nationalist stance, subsequently issued a statement supporting the removal of these words from the Preamble.
Shiv Sena subsequently moved to demand permanent removal of the two words from the Preamble.
Mustafa claimed that the statements of the extreme right might as well usher in a government that recognises Hinduism as the de facto state religion. This has been a particular concern following the ascendency of Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party is sympathetic to Hindu nationalists.
Mustafa then told PTI that “the revival of religion in public space was a matter of serious concern.”
“The failure of India’s experiment with secularism will be the greatest tragedy of the 21st century,” Mustafa said. “Secularism is the core of modernity and the narrative of secularism is the story of progress and the exercise of reason.”
The jurist added that the first mistake India made in its pursuit of secularism was its failure to clearly delineate state and religion.
Mustafa pointed to the Shiv Sena’s call for a Hindu state in Maharashtra as another indication of the failure of secularism in the country.
“[T]he highest court in the country should have taken cognisance of this alarming move, but unfortunately this was not done,” Mustafa lamented.
CNN report– Egypt’s military carried out a series of airstrikes against ISIS militants in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Christians by the jihadist group.
The bombing raids pulled Egypt deeper into the widening international fight against ISIS and highlighted the extremists’ growing presence in North Africa.
The warplanes hit 10 targets used for training and storage in ISIS’ Libyan stronghold of Derna, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN.
“Avenging Egyptian blood and punishing criminals and murderers is our right and duty,” the Egyptian military said in a statement that was broadcast on state television.
(Photo: Reuters/Social media via Reuters TV)
Islamists warn of ‘harsh and painful’ response
There were conflicting claims about what the bombs had struck.
“These were surgical strikes based on very accurate intelligence and related to degrading the capabilities of ISIS within the city of Derna,” Shoukry told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
But an umbrella group of Islamist militias in Derna issued a statement saying that the city “woke up to a disaster today as Egyptian military jets targeted civilians in residential areas in the city.”
The statement reported that the bombings had killed women and children, and it warned the Egyptian government of a “harsh and painful” response to come.
CNN couldn’t independently verify what damage and casualties the airstrikes had caused.
Egypt’s aerial assault came after ISIS released a gruesome video Sunday that appeared to show militants beheading at least a dozen Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach.
Threats from English-speaking jihadi
The footage, bearing many of the hallmarks of previous ISIS videos of the killing of hostages, has intensified international concerns about ISIS’ deepening reach into countries far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
The slickly produced video shows the apparent mass killing, with jihadists in black standing behind each of the victims, who are all dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands cuffed behind them.
Twenty-one Egyptian Christians were kidnapped in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte in two separate incidents in December and January. They were reportedly from impoverished villages and went to Libya looking for work.
Although the ISIS video showed around a dozen men being beheaded, Egyptian officials said that all 21 Christians were believed to have been killed.
Some of the hostages cry out “Oh God” and “Oh Jesus” as they are pushed to their knees.
The five-minute video, released by ISIS’ propaganda wing al-Hayat Media, includes a masked English-speaking jihadi who says, “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood.”
The video threatens Egypt, which shares a long border with Libya, and also Europe, whose shores lie across the Mediterranean Sea.
‘The right of retaliation’
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had warned Sunday that his country “reserves the right of retaliation and with the methods and timing it sees fit for retribution for those murderers and criminals who are without the slightest humanity.”
He also declared a week of mourning in the Muslim majority nation for the slain Christians.
In a statement, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called for other nations battling ISIS to support Egypt’s efforts and to target terrorists in Libya, as well.
The U.S. government condemned the killings, saying ISIS’ “barbarity knows no bounds.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Sunday to offer condolences, the State Department said.
Egypt is already fighting against ISIS-allied militants on its own territory in the Sinai Peninsula, where dozens of people were killed in a series of attacks in January.
Growing ISIS presence in Libya
Concern has increased over ISIS’ rising influence in Libya amid the power and security vacuum prevalent in the country since the 2011 uprising that overthrew former dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
CNN reported in November that fighters loyal to ISIS had complete control of the city of Derna, which has a population of about 100,000 and is situated not far from the Egyptian border.
Jihadists with allegiance to ISIS had also expanded their presence westward along the Libyan coast, forming chapters in cities including Benghazi, Sirte and even Tripoli, the capital, according to Noman Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist now involved in counterterrorism for the Quilliam Foundation.
In an example of the group’s spreading reach, a Libyan branch of ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a luxury hotel in Tripoli that killed 10 people, including one American.
“There’s been a real radical Islamist presence in Libya for some time,” said Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer. “What’s worrying is now they are self-identifying with ISIS.”
Ties between ISIS branches
Questions remain over how much direct command and control the ISIS leadership in Syria and Iraq has over its North African affiliates.
The killings of the Egyptian Christians has filled in some of the detail. Before the grisly video was released, ISIS had released photos in its English-language magazine Dabiq, claiming they had been killed.
“There’s certainly communication between the Libyan affiliate and the affiliate in Syria about matters of importance to both of them,” said CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.
He said the ties between Libyan jihadists and ISIS’ precursor, al Qaeda in Iraq, “go back a very long time.”
The links between the different branches present “a real challenge” for Western leaders, Francona said, as U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress to formally authorize the use of military force in the war against ISIS.
“While we can come up with a military solution or a military operation in a restricted area like Syria and Iraq, what do we do when it expands to North Africa?” Francona asked.
Christian Today report– India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has asked the police to intervene in a series of attacks against Christian institutions after a burglary at a convent school in the capital.
The break-in was the sixth attack of its kind in three months. The vandalism includes an arson attack on a Delhi church last December.
Protesters have accused Hindu nationalists of being behind the attacks but the police claim there is no evidence of this.
Previously silent on the attacks, it is thought the prime minister could be trying to win back the Christian vote in India after he received a drubbing in elections in Delhi last week.
The Aam Aadmi Party, whose name means as “the common man”, won 67 of the 70 assembly seats in the Delhi state elections last Tuesday elevating party leader, Arvind Kejriwal, to chief minister of Delhi. Modi’s own Bharatiya Janata party was left with just three seats.
According to local reports, the election was marred by anti-Catholic violence. Churches were attacked and police were accused of being heavy-handed after they broke up a peaceful protest. One nun was shown on television lying on the ground outside the Sacred Heart cathedral as police attempted to haul her onto a bus.
After the attack on the Holy Child Auxilium convent school on Friday, Modi called in Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and ordered him to take strong action against “rising crime and vandalism in Delhi.”
Modi also ordered his home secretary LC Goyal to monitor the police action.
It is highly unusual for the prime minister to summon the head of police directly. The police and the government have been accused of doing too little to help the Christian community and the anger among voters is thought to have aided the Aam Aadmi party.
Mr Bassi said: “I was summoned by the Prime Minister, who asked me to enquire into the Vasant Vihar school incident. He felt anguished about the recent attacks on places of worship of the Christian community.”
Mr Kejriwal, who was sworn into his office last Saturday, tweeted on Friday: “I strongly condemn the attack on Holy Child Auxilium school. These kinds of acts will not be tolerated.”
His later tweet pledging to devote himself to finding “systemic” solutions to Delhi’s problems was retweeted 1,500 times.
Father Savarimuthu Shankar of Delhi’s Catholic archdiocese told Delhi television: “Our only demand is we want justice and we want protection for all our churches. We want to be safe and secure. We are not demanding as Christians, we are demanding as citizens of India.”
Referring to the government, he added: “You are not able to protect a small municipal minority, how are you going to protect the whole of India?”
Christian Post report– The Coptic patriarch of Alexandria has responded to news that terror group ISIS has beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians by calling them “martyrs for the faith.” Pope Francis added that believers everywhere must rally behind the victims, saying that denominations don’t matter and all Christian blood is the same.
Fides News Agency reported on Monday that Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, the patriarch of Alexandria of Coptic Catholics, offered “his condolence to all the families of these martyrs who gave their lives for the faith, and at the same time expresses his gratitude to President Abdel Fattah al Sisi and all the institutions of the Egyptian government for giving an immediate response to this act of terrorism.”
Sidrak refers to the air strikes Egypt carried out against ISIS targets in Libya only hours after the video showing the massacre was released. The video is titled “A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross.”
Al-Sisi’s government reportedly hit camps, training sites and weapon storage areas in Libya held by the jihadists.
Pope Francis also spoke out against the killings, and said that the believers were murdered simply because they were Christians.
“The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians! Their blood is one and the same. Their blood confesses Christ,” Francis said.
(Reuters)
“As we recall these brothers and sisters who died only because they confessed Christ, I ask that we encourage each another to go forward with this ecumenism which is giving us strength, the ecumenism of blood. The martyrs belong to all Christians.”
The victims are believed to be the 21 Coptic Christians kidnapped in raids by masked gunmen from a housing complex in Sirte, Libya, in December and January.
Persecution watchdog groups such as the International Christian Concern have said that the militants who carried out the beheadings need to be brought to justice.
“These Islamic extremists continue to claim their inspiration for their actions from their religious beliefs and have once again committed horrific violence in establishing their religious beliefs. We strongly urge the Egyptian government to act swiftly to provide protection for its citizens who remain in Libya and face continued threats if they attempt to flee the country,” said Todd Daniels, ICC regional manager for the Middle East.
Beside the air strikes, al-Sisi declared seven days of national mourning for the murdered Christians.
“Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals,” the Egyptian president said.
The Christian community in Egypt has rallied behind the murdered Coptics. Fr. Hani Bakhoum Kiroulos, the Coptic Catholic patriarchate secretary, said that both Muslims and and Christians are uniting against terrorism.
“If their aim was to divide us, they have failed,” Kiroulos said about the actions of ISIS.
“Immediate harsh condemnation came from Cairo’s Al Azhar University. And the swift retaliation on the part of the Egyptian air force on Islamic State bases in Libya also demonstrated that for the Egyptian government its citizens are all equal and that Egypt is suffering as a nation from the bloodthirsty delirium of the terrorists.”
Christian Today report– The General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK has said we must pray for and forgive Islamic State militants in the wake of a video purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians by the terrorist group.
“I think as Christians that’s our mandate, it’s what we do. I don’t see it as being difficult,” Bishop Angaelos told Christian Today.
“Of course it will sometimes go against what people want, but as Christians we must forgive. I will continue to advocate for people who are oppressed, and to stand up for those who do not have a voice of their own, but when it comes to crimes perpetrated against us, there is only one way forward, and that is to forgive. If we don’t forgive what do we have? Retaliation, resentment and anger, but no solution and no closure.”
Islamic State issued a video on Sunday claiming to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped in Libya.
The five-minute video is titled: “A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross” and the men are identified as “people of the cross, the followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.” They are shown being marched to a beach and forced to kneel on the sand.
In a message to the “crusaders”, a masked insurgent holding a knife says his fellow militants are “chopping off the heads of those that have been carrying the cross illusion.” All 21 are then murdered.
The crime has been universally condemned. David Cameron said it was an “inhumane act”, and that the UK would continue its “efforts to defeat the monstrosity of Islamist extremism”. He phoned Bishop Angaelos personally today to express his condolences; a gesture the latter described as powerful.
However, the bishop has said it is imperative that Christians respond in prayer, not aggression.
“While it may seem illogical or incomprehensible, we…pray for those who have carried out these horrific crimes, that the value of God’s creation and human life may become more evident to them, and in this realisation, that the wider effects of pain brought by this and other acts of brutality may be realised and avoided,” he said in a statement released today.
“We pray for an end to the dehumanisation of captives who become mere commodities to be bartered, traded and negotiated with.”
Speaking to Christian Today, the bishop spoke further of the brutality of the murders, and of the “dehumanisation of these men who were marched up the beach like trophies”.
The men had travelled to Libya to find work, and their families relied on them to provide financially, he said. “Not only will there be an emotional impact, but a concrete material impact” on those they leave behind.
Muslims and Christians in Egypt are equally horrified by the incident, Bishop Angaelos added, and both communities have stood together in the face of the atrocity. It’s not just Christians that are being targeted by extremists. “We need to remember that there are Muslim fishermen still held by IS,” he said.
Egypt has already begun carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya in response to the video, but the bishop suggested it unlikely that more violence will bring about a peaceful resolution.
“I think it’s going to be challenging, and we need to change our approach; the things we’ve tried in the past haven’t worked, and we need to keep trying new things,” he said.
“There is no solution but coexistence…How we arrive at that, I don’t know if I have an answer right now, but we need to keep working to find an answer.”
The bishop remains adamant that “every life is sacred and every death tragic” – including those of militants.
“The particular brutality demonstrated in this instance and others like it shows not only a disregard for life but a gross misunderstanding of its sanctity and equal value in every person,” he said.
“We cannot remember our Coptic brothers without also remembering all those who have lost their lives in equally brutal circumstances: journalists, aid workers, medical staff, religious leaders, a young pilot and communities that are considered incompatible with a fringe and intolerant element.”
He called on the international community to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. “War and violence are destructive and wasteful, particularly of human life,” he told Christian Today.
“I don’t think that there’s more sanctity in the life of a Christian and the life of a jihadist, it’s a different way of living, and a different way of directing that energy, but it’s the same sacredness in God’s creation, and so I pray for a solution that doesn’t bring more death and more pain.”
Christian Today report– The Catholic University of America and the Archdiocese of Washington are calling for two recently-passed laws in Washington DC to be overturned because they allegedly violate freedom of religion.
The laws in question are the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act and Human Rights Amendment Act.
The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act will require establishments including religious organisations to accept for employment individuals whose values conflict with their beliefs, including supporters of abortion and homosexuals.
The Human Rights Amendment Act will remove the exemption from supporting and funding homosexual advocacy groups that schools and religious organisations previously enjoyed.
“Both laws violate the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association protected by the First Amendment and other federal law,” the joint statement by the archdiocese and the university stated.
The statement warned that the laws could also violate people’s “right of expressive association for both religious and non-religious pro-life nonprofit organisations.”
The CUA and the archdiocese were part of a broader coalition that released a joint statement last week requesting that Congress overturn the two laws.
The coalition is composed of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archdiocese of Washington, the Archdiocese for the Military Services, the Catholic University of America, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the National Association of Evangelicals.
“While we will continue to serve the city and the nation,” the group’s letter stated. “[W]e cannot surrender the constitutional freedoms that the framers of the U.S. Constitution rightly reserved to all of us.”
The two laws are still open for review and evaluation in Congress. If there are objections, both the US Senate and House of Representatives must sign a joint resolution in order to disapprove the two laws.
Catholic Herald report– Couples who choose not to have children are making “a selfish choice”, Pope Francis has said.
“If a family that has been generous in having children is looked upon as a burden, something’s wrong,” he said during his weekly general audience yesterday.
“The generation of children must be responsible, as Blessed Paul VI wrote in his encyclical Humanae Vitae. But having more children cannot be looked upon automatically as an irresponsible choice. What is more, not having children is a selfish choice.”
Continuing a series of talks about the family, Pope Francis said birthrates are a clear indication of the optimism and hope of a couple and of the society in which they live.
A society that pressures people not to have children, “that considers them a concern, a burden, a risk, is a society that is depressed,” he said, pointing particularly to European countries with declining populations because of their low birthrates.
“Life is rejuvenated and energies are increased when life multiplies,” he said. “It is enriched, not impoverished!”
He continued: “Think about this, children are the joy of the family and of society. They aren’t a problem of reproductive biology or another way of self-realisation. Even less are they a possession of their parents. No! Children are a gift. Understand?”
“Children are a gift,” he added. “Each one is unique and unrepeatable.”
Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis told the estimated 11,000 people in St Peter’s Square that he was one of five children. “I remember my mom would say, ‘I have five children. Who’s my favorite? I have five children like I have five fingers. If you slam this one, it hurts. If you slam that one, it hurts. All five would hurt. All are mine, but they are all different like the fingers on my hand.’”
“A child is loved not because he or she is beautiful or has this quality or that one. No,” he said, parents love their children because they are their children.
Being a son or daughter is an experience of unconditional love, he said, because “children are loved even before they are born.” Pope Francis said he is always moved when a pregnant woman “shows me her belly and asks for my blessing. These babies are loved even before they come into the world. This is love.”
People love their sons and daughters “before they have done anything to deserve it, before they can speak or think, even before they are born,” he said. “Being sons and daughters is a fundamental condition for knowing the love of God, who is the ultimate source of this authentic miracle” that is new life.
Children, who rightly hope to make the world a better place, must do so without “arrogance” and always with respect for their parents, he said.
The fourth commandment asks children to “honour thy father and mother,” he said. “A society of children who do not honor their parents is a society without honour.”
Pope Francis ended his talk asking parents to pause in silence to think about their children and asking everyone to think about their parents “to thank God for the gift of life”.
Christian Today report– A gay pastor and his husband have been told their children will not be admitted to a Christian school in Nashville because of the family’s “unacceptable” lifestyle.
Pastor Greg Bullard of the Covenant of the Cross Church in Madison has two young children – Micah and Esther – with his husband, Brian Copeland, whom he wed in 2013.
Copeland was scheduled to go on a tour of the Davidson Academy, a non-denominational Christian private school, but the visit was cancelled after officials discovered that the children are being raised by two fathers. The family had not yet applied for admission.
A letter to Copeland from the school said that though the academy is not sponsored by or affiliated with any specific church or denomination, it was “founded by Christians and operates in the Christian tradition based upon clear tenets of faith and practice”.
Families are required to subscribe to the school’s Handbook for Students and Parents, the letter continues, in which there is a Statement of Faith.
“The first point of the Statement is as follows: We believe God has revealed himself, His purposes, and His ways in the Bible, which is therefore absolute in its truth and authority over daily living.
“The practical application of this principle extends to the lifestyle conduct of those who are part of the school.”
The letter also points to a section on Admission Policy in the Handbook, which says homosexuality is “in opposition to the mission” of the school.
According to the Handbook, “any lifestyle conduct…which impedes the school’s credibility with its constituency or the general public is unacceptable. One example of such lifestyle is homosexuality.”
“Just as your believe strongly in affirming all persons who worship at your church, we believe strongly in a strict interpretation of the Scriptures regarding the institution of marriage. I believe another education provider would be a better fit for your children,” the letter concludes.
Copeland shared the letter on Facebook, writing that he did so to “let my friends know that discrimination affects people you know and love and still hurts no matter how many times you go through it.”
He told The Tennessean that he and Bullard do not want to “harm the school” but want to show highlight inequality. The couple are not victims, he added, and do not wish to restrict anyone’s religious beliefs.
“I want to make that very clear,” Copeland said. “We want our children to have a Christian education, and we’re finding that very, very hard.”
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