A video leaked online from the Chicago Islamic Center shows a local imam telling those in attendance to “wage jihad” against Israel “for the sake of Allah.”
The clips of the video were released by the Middle East Media Research Institute showing the rant from Sheikh Mohamed Elimam in July.
“Oh, those of you who want to wage jihad for the sake of Allah, Palestine is calling you and Gaza is crying out for your help,” he declares. “If you are true believers, real mujahideen, hasten to Palestine. The enemy was planted in the midst of the Arab nation and they chose Jerusalem, Palestine—the most important area—in order to be a thorn in the side of the Arab and Islamic nations. May Allah pull this thorn out and stick it down their throats. May they be sent back to their countries in shame and disgrace, Allah willing.”
The video shows those in attendance chanting for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.
The similar message was delivered to the crowd at a pro-Hamas rally in Miami that led to a Jewish photographer having to flee because of the threat of violence.
A Christian in Iran was ordered by a judge to have his lips burned with a cigarette after he did not fast during the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
Ramadan requires all Muslims to fast from food and drink from sunrise to sundown. The Islamic government of Iran is imposing those requirements on all citizens even if they are not Muslims according to sources within Tehran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran released a statement condemning the actions saying it shows the way Iran targets Christians.
“The silence of the world community, especially of western countries, vis-à-vis these medieval punishments under the excuse of having nuclear talks with Iran has intensified the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran. This will ultimately embolden the Iranian regime to continue its nuclear projects more than before,” read the statement from the France-based group.
Some Muslims within the city are welcoming the strict actions. One Tehran resident lamented the way many residents of the city are not being as strict on the rules.
“In 1995, if someone had even a drop of water, everyone went and reported it and that person would get fired, or just scolded if they were lucky. Not any more, though. People are looking out for each other. I almost miss those days, though. It’s like people’s hearts just aren’t in religion anymore,” a man named Hamid told The Guardian newspaper.
The family of Meriam Ibrahim, who had brought a lawsuit in an attempt to have her declared a Muslim by Sudanese courts, announced they have dropped their lawsuit.
The development could allow the persecuted Christian woman to finally leave the country with her husband and two children for the United States.
Attorney Abdel Rahman Malek would not give a reason that the family was dropping the suit.
The Sudanese government is still holding charges over Ibrahim’s head that she tried to leave the country on false travel documents; however, the family’s attorney says he has evidence to show that the papers are legal under international law.
A New York City area church said this week they would be willing to provide housing, food and other necessities to Ibrahim and her family so they could begin a new life in the United States.
The Sudanese government has not responded to multiple requests from American groups and political leaders to release the family.
The Islamists family members of persecuted Christian Meriam Ibrahim are attempting to get the death sentence against her reinstated by trying to prove she was “born a Muslim.”
The family contends that because she’s a Muslim, her marriage to a Christian man is illegal under Sudan’s Sharia Law.
The lawyer hired by the family says they are going to ask Khartoum Religious Court to review the case and declare Meriam Ibrahim “belongs” to the men in her family.
Ibrahim is in hiding at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum with her American husband and two children. She has been unable to leave the country because of the government’s special police charging her with using illegal documents to leave the country.
Ibrahim’s lawyer Mohanem Mostafa said that the court has not officially notified her of the lawsuit but that he believes the court will dismiss the case.
A Christian occupational therapist has been disciplined after she prayed for Muslim co-worker who had encouraged her to speak about her faith only to use that to attack.
Victoria Wasteney, who was the Head of Occupational Therapy at the East London NHS trust, prayed for a Muslim colleague who had been going through health issues. Wasteney asked if she could pray and the co-worker willingly agreed to it.
She also gave the woman a book about a Muslim girl who converted to Christianity that the co-worker gladly accepted before going into a hospital for treatment.
The co-worker then came through treatment and filed a complaint against Wasteney. She was immediately suspended for nine months pending an investigation into the incident. The co-worker who filed the complaint had never told Wasteney she was distressed by the prayer or the book.
However, despite the co-worker not showing up to any disciplinary hearing and a witness saying she was pressured into testifying falsely against Wasteney, the Christian woman was found guilty of three offenses: praying for her colleague, inviting her to a church charity event and giving her the book before her hospital treatment.
Wasteney is appealing the decision. She and her counsel are pointing out that the NHS is openly accommodating to Muslims but actively discriminating against Christians. An example is allowing Muslims to take breaks five times a day for prayer but refusing to allow Christians to be off on Sundays to attend worship. Christians are not even permitted to take time off during lunch breaks for prayer or worship.
A group of Muslims in Virginia are outraged that a Christian church is handing out a tract that shows a man throwing his grandmother out of his house because she witnesses Christ to him.
Bible Baptist Church of Roanoke has been distributing a tract called “Unforgiven” which is aimed to reach Muslims with the truth of the Gospel.
The tract tells the story of a man named Lamont who converts to Islam while he is imprisoned. The man changes his name to Mohammed and after his grandmother tries to tell him the truth of Christ, he asks a Muslim leader who tells him the Koran says she is the enemy for being a Christian and should not be let in his house.
The man then kicks his grandmother of the house when she urges him to convert to Christ. The man then agrees he’s declared jihad on Christ. The man dies and is placed in eternal torment for rejecting Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
Muslims say the tract doesn’t fairly represent them.
“It basically indicated that the people are violent, the religion itself is violent, and the facts in here are not true,” Hussain Al-Shiblawi told WDBJ-TV.
However, several area Christians have stood up for the church and their right to present the tract, saying that the paper only presents the hard truth.
“I’m sorry; I’m offended by the Muslim community being offended by the Christian community,” said Teresa Hiner. “The difference is the people don’t care if Christians are offended and make a great big deal when Muslims and atheists are offended.”
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has made another daring daylight kidnapping of young women from northern Nigeria.
The Islamist gunmen descended on a nomadic village just outside of Chibok, the town where the terrorists kidnapped 300 schoolgirls and young women on April 15th. The gunmen pulled a truck into the center of the village, forced women to enter the truck at gunpoint and then fled before local militia could respond to the incident.
“We tried to go after them when the news got to us about three hours later,” Alhaji Tar, leader of one of the vigilante groups, told Fox News. “The vehicles we have could not go far and the report came to us a little late.”
The attack was the only successful one by Boko Haram as Nigerian defense forces stopped raids on villages in Borno and Adamawa states. More than 50 terrorists were reported killed by the military during the raids.
The military also announced the terrorists are trapped in the area around a lake with the 272 girls kidnapped in April but there is no way to attack them without the terrorists being able to see the attack coming form a distance.
Meriam Ibrahim, the 26-year-old Christian woman sentenced to death for converting from Islam when she had never been a Muslim, is reportedly being mistreated by her captors in a Sudanese jail.
Ibrahim’s husband, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, was able to see his wife for the first time since her capture and trial on Monday.
“She was shackled and her legs were very swollen,” Wani told members of a U.S. based advocacy group that is fighting for his wife’s release. Wani said that the prison is keeping her shackled at all times and making no accommodations for her advanced pregnancy.
The courts are allowing the couple’s 18-month-old son to stay in the jail cell with his mother because they do not recognize Wani’s rights as the boy’s father. The government says the boy is automatically Muslim and because Wani is a Christian he cannot have custody or parent the child.
Witnesses say that her brother who recently converted to Islam brought Ibrahim to the attention of the authorities. The brother created a fake birth certificate for his sister that he used to claim she was born a Muslim.
A Sudanese judge has officially sentenced a Christian woman to death for not converting to Islam.
Meriam Ibrahim, a 26-year-old mother and currently pregnant with her second child, was convicted of adultery and apostasy for her marriage to an American Christian man. Ibrahim, a physician, was brought up in a Christian home and has never been a part of the Islamic faith.
The judge said Ibrahim will receive 100 lashes immediately following the birth of her child for the adultery. She will be hung to death for not accepting Islam once the child is nursed and weaned.
Because Ibrahim was born in Sudan, the government says she’s Muslim even if she never worships Allah. Thus, they say she illegally converted to Christianity.
Amnesty International called the action a “flagrant breach of international human rights law.” Several U.S. State Department and Congressional officials expressed their outrage at the actions.
“The refusal of the government of Sudan to allow religious freedom was one of the reasons for Sudan’s long civil war,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees U.S. policy in Africa, said in a statement. “The U.S. and the rest of the international community must demand Sudan reverse this sentence immediately.”
The partial results in India’s national election shows a major landslide victory for opposition leader Narendra Modi, making him the country’s next prime minister.
The election results are causing international observers to be concerned about the future security of the nation as the country’s 138 million Muslims see Modi as an enemy.
Modi, a Hindu nationalist, reportedly was a leader in a region of the country where a 2005 riot led to the deaths of many Muslims. Islamic leaders in the country say that Modi did not do enough to stop the violence and have sworn to do all they can to undermine Modi.
The results seem to show that the BJP party will have total control of the parliament, the first time one party will have complete control without building a coalition since 1984 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
India is on the verge of becoming a major world power as many young India residents are taking their experience with technology and beginning their own tech corporations. The younger residents are also more westernized and then to look at Europe and the U.S. for their inspirations, which will cause disruptions in India’s traditional culture.
